The Missionary Review of the World — February 1891
THE REGIONS BEYOND
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
YOLo XIV. No. 2.-0Id Series. –FEBRUARY.–YOL. IV. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE REGIONS BEYOND. * [EDITORIAL. ] The old Greeks were a worldly-wise people. In the Olympio games they showed their sagacity. Three pillars stood in the ancient stadium, respectively at the starting point, midway, and at the goal or turning point. On the first was inscribed a Greek word, whose force was, "Show yourself a man !" "Do your best!" On the last was a word which migh~ be rendered, "Stop here !" "Arrest your steps!" But on that midway pillar was the imperative ::i;'7rEVOE, " Speed you !" "Make haste !"
How much philosophy there was in that! No risk was greater than the· risk of overconfidence when success was but half attained. A racer, who at first outran the others, and at the middle of the course found himself ahead, would be tempted to 'relax his efforts; and so some athlete, who had reserved his strength for the supreme effort at the end of the race, would pass him by and get first to the goal.
Paul was a trained athlete in the spiritual sphere; and the law of his life was, "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Spinoza wisely said that there is no more fatal foe to all progress than selfconceit and the laziness which self-conceit begets. To think and feel that we have already attained or are already perfect, is the narcotio that brings on the sleep of the sluggard and the slothful.
The motto of the great apostle of the Gentiles was, THE REGIONS BEYOND. He would be satisfied with no other man's method of measurement, with no narrow circumference of present attainment. He yearned to evangelize-to preach the Gospel in the Regions Beyond, and not to boast in another man's canon or measure as to territory already embraced in the scheme of labor.
That motto of Paul is the trne watchword of the Church in this new age of missions. After all the work of a century, we have only * The substance of an address at anniversary of China Inland Mission, Mildmay Hall, London, England, May 21,1890, and stenographically reported.- A.T.P. just begun. We are not even at the midway pillar; and God says, " Speed ye! Make haste! Forget the things behind and push for the Regions Beyond." And this will we do, by the grace of God!
This grand motto suggests various important applications: 1. The Regions Beyond, in the literal sense,of territory thus/ar unclaimed and unoccupied for Ghrist. If this great work of evangelizing the world is ever to be done, we must penetrate the deceptive halo of mere enthusiasm and come to the bare, hard facts of a world's destitution and degradation. Zeal is good, but zeal according to knowledge is better. To know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, for souls. To judge from what is sometimes said or written on missions, one wonld suppose that the work, not only of evangelization but of conversion, is going on so rapidly that we might wake any morning and find the whole world brought to Christ. Let us get past and behind this rose-colored cloud, and look at those great bald facts that, like those stopy shafts of eternity, the crags of the mountains, lift their awful forms before us-I,500,000,000 of human beings-enough, if they were moving, single file, past a given point, one every second, to consume fifty years, day and night, in passing, yet going down to the grave at the rate of more than one every second! Death, three times every century, sweeping the entire population 'of the globe into eternity, like chaff from a threshing-floor, to make room for a new generation! And this process going on for nineteen centuries, uninterruptedly, so that, since Cllt'ist was born, nearly sixty generations have lived and died, most of whom never heard of Him! What if all that host might be supposed to move in procession at the same rate we have already imagined! It would take over a thousand years! And, while we are talking about evangelizing the world, and some enthusiasts are prophesying its speedy conversion, is it not true that there are to.day more unsaved souls in the human family than there were last elmtury, or even last year? With all our missionary effort is not t 11e world';; population advancing faster than the churches of Christ are gathering converts? Surely it is time the church should fully awake to her responsibility. We act as though we had ages before us in which to preach, and the unsaved had ages before them in which to be reached, whereas our term of service and their term of life must very soon expire. The China Inland Mission found the germ of its being in the fact that, in Inland China alone, were eleven great populous provinces where as yet no missionary had gone to reside; and, in ten of the eleven, missionaries are now permanently working. Let the church not shrink from facing the facts: the destitution still unreached is appalling. What are 700 missionaries in China among 350,000,000 of souls? One missionary to half a million! About the same proportion of missionaries amc,ng the 250,000,000 or 300,000,000· of India, one to about 400,000! In Siam, with from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000, about a score of men and women, laboring among the native Siamese and Laos people, every male missionary having an average parish of a million souls, and cities with a population of 200,000 having not even a Bible-reader or native teacher!
Consider Africa's need! How little is it understood. Even a missionary journal gave currency to the misleading statement that the Dark Continent is " tolerably well supplied wi.th missionaries, as thirty-five missionary societies are now at work there." If you go across Siberia and down the eastern slope of the Kong Mountains, through the three Soudans, of the Niger, Lake Tchad and the Nile, 3,000 miles to the Red Sea, and if 400 miles north and south of your line of travel you could survey the land, you would find 90,000,000 of people with scarce one missionary! And farther south, in the Congo Free State, you might travel from Equatorville east to the Great Lake stations, and there is another territory 1,000 miles long by half as many broad, whose 40,000;000 of people when Stanley passed through Uganda had not yet seen a missionary! Doubtless Africa has to-day at least 200,000,000 of people who never saw a Bible or heard the first proclamation of the good news. And yet Africa is " tolerably well supplied with missionaries! "
Am I not justified in saying that we must get beyond and behind all this illusive glamour of ignorance and imagination? Yes, beyond evanescent touches of sympathy and passage of resolutions, and do something for souls that are dying without Christ.
In all the world we have six: thousand 01' seven thousand missionaries, representing 30,000,000 of church members-one for every five thousand! Whereas, if Protestant churches gave out of their membership one in three hundred, it would Imt 100,000 missionaries in the field, exclusive of the native helpers, who have for the last half century outnumbered four or fivefold the missionaries from Christian lands. These are, doubtless, familiar facts; but Sydney Smith said that for purposes of impression repetition is the only figure of speech worth a farthing. These facts must be beaten in by repeated blows. We must not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. Never will the people of God take up the work of missions as they ought until they both understand and feel the emergency and extremity of a dying world and their own opportunity and {)bligation with reference to it.
As to opportunity, there was never any such before. We live in ~ays more augustly awful than any in previous history. I would rather live in this year 1891 than to have lived when Christ walked the earth. Grand as would have been the privilege of seeing the Lord in the flesh and being closely associated with Him then, this day of grace offers us opportunities of service and privileges of fellowship which, in their way, are even more transcendent.
The regions beyond, of the whole world, now lie open before the children of God. Fifty years ago the burden of public and united prayer for missions was that God would open the doors of the nations to the preaching of the Gospel. In those days Japan was like a vessel hermetically sealed; China was the walled kingdom, fifteen hundred miles of solid barrier shutting out "the foreign devils;" India was 'in the selfish clutch of the East India Company; the islands of the sea were held by cannibal savages, and Africa was not even explored. A hun- dred years ago it seemed as though there was no chance of reaching the vast bulk of the race with the Gospel. A great wall of idolatry, superstition, prejudice, surrounded the nations, with here and there a solitary breach; now, that whole wall is down, wit.h here and there a. fragment remaining to oppose our advance. Let those who see no God in history tell us how changes so stupendous have been brought about inside one century. No human being, no combination of human elements could ever have done this. But" one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," and there have been single historic" days" in this period, in which He has wrought the work that ordinarily would have taken a millenium.
That one year 1858 may be selected as the annus mirabilis of modern missions. During that one year doors were opened giving access to one thousand millions of the human race. In that year, 1858, Great Britain, after two hundred years of exclusion, made her treaty with Japan. In that same year China, by the treaty of Tientsin, threw open not only her p.orts, but her interior, and provided that any Chinese subject might embrace the Christian faith without molestation or persecution. In that same year India was transferred from the sordid East India Company to the British crown, and Victoria became Empress of the Indies. In that same year the revolutionary changes in Papal Europe laid the basis of Free Italy. In that same year David Livingstone sailed a second time for South Africa to complete his pioneer path for missionaries. In that same year Benito Juarez, in Mexico, overthrew the monastic system, confiscated the estates and revenues of the Papal Church, and opened the way for Protestant missionaries to enter Central America. And in that same year Elizabeth Sale, of Helensburgh, Scotland, successfully penetrated the zenanas of Hindustarr, and led the way in woman's work for woman!
Was there ever such a year as 1858? Within less than a twelvemonth doors of approach were opened to from thirty to forty millions in Japan, three hundred to four hundred millions in China, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in India, including all her millions of women and girls, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in Africa, besides the hosts in Papal Italy and Mexico! When Paul and Barnabas came back to Antioch from their first mission tour, "they gathered the Church together and rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles." But did God ever open doors of access in Apostolic times with such rapidity and on such a scale of grandeur as in your day and mine? Who shall dare say that the days of supernatural working are past, ",hen such miracles qf Providence are performed before our ~ery eyes?
The apathy and lethargy of the Church of Jesus Christ are alarming, for they suggest a deadening of sensibility. We are like those that walk amid a blare and glare and flare, and whose eyes and ears are dazed and dulled by the glory of the scenes in t.he midst of which they are moving.• This year 1858 was not the only wonderful year in modern missionary history. In 1878 there was such a mighty movement of God's grace in India that sixty thousand people turned from idols in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country within six months! And it was in that same year that some twenty persons gave upwards of $4,000,000 to missions, as though God would show what on the one hand His grace could do among the heathen, and, on the other hand, in prompting a higher Christian liberality.
The Regions Beyond, thus marvelously opened to the Church, are a perpetual challenge to us to occupy till He comes. We need to get down on our faces before God for a greater Pentecostal baptism than the Church has ever yet known. All our efforts lack unity and harmony and business methods. On some mission fields a score of different denominations will sometimes be found, working side by side, in a comparatively small district, while in the Regions Beyond millions are without a single missionary. And our home fields are often overstocked in comparison. When in Scotland, on my mission tour, I found in one village, of perhaps 1,200 people, five fine church buildings with as many educated pastors; the entire church-going population could have been accommodated in one of those buildings, and cared for by one of those ministers, while the other four, with the money that their buildings cost, might have been evangelizing the interior of Chin.a, India or Africa, where each man might have a parish of from one million to ten million souls! There is something wrong in the Christian Church when denominational zeal outstrips that nobler zeal for the evangelization of the vast multitudes that are absolutely uncared for. It would seem that something is wrong, even in the basis of our missionary work, when the Church of God can calmly look on eight hundred million of human beings that, eve~ yet, after nineteen centuries, have not so much as heard whether there be a Christ or no ! When Rev: Geo. W. Chamberlain first went to Brazil, he found 10,000,000 of people in a nominally Papal land, who scarcely knew what a Bible was. One old patriarch of four score years, to whom he gave a Portuguese New Testament, and explained salvation by faith, said to him: "Young man, this is what I have long been waiting to hear. But where was your father when my father was alive that he never came to tell my father how to be saved?" Some such question as that we must all answer, if not before we die, at the judgment seat of Christ.
These Regions Beyond-this te;ritory unclaimed and unoccupied for Christ-should at once be possessed. Christ distinctly outlined for His Church her missionary policy: it is not concentration but diffusion. We cannot too often ring out this truth. Some have urged the American Board to concentrate its forces largely upon Turkey, and then, when Turkey is thoroughly evangelizeQ, it will, they say, furnish evangelists for the Regions Beyond. A similar policy has been urged upon the Presbyterian Board in New York as. to Japan, and the Church Missionary Society as to India. The argument is that we should unite our forces upon a limited field till it is thoroughly Christianized, and then make the newly converted people an evangelizing force to push on to the furtJlermost limits of the earth.
This looks well and sounds well at first suggestion; but is it scriptural? Our Master made no such discrimination. " Go ye into all the world," " unto the uttermost parts of the earth," and "'preach the GORpel to every creature." Those are onr marching orders. The policy of concentration more or less limits the area of the work of the Church. To follow such a policy is not to go into the Regions Beyond. We are tempted to choose fields comparatively neal', attractive, promising; fields offering prospect of large and quick harvests; and leave the more distant, destitute, degraded races of mankind to utter neglect. vVhile we are concentrating on Turkey, Japan or India, what is to become of the other millions of mankind that have only one lifetime in which to hear the Gospel?
Again we would peal out in the dull ears of a sluggish Church the signal of opportunity and obligation ! We are to take whatever men and women we can get and whatever money and other means we can gather and do just as OUI' Master bade us-go everywhere and to every creature with the Gospel, and do it at once. And when the Church of God will do her simple duty with faith in her Lord, the miracle of the loaves and fishes will be repeated on a larger scale in human history. 'fhe small provision, which seems nothing amil1 snch a vast multitude of hungry souls, will, when brought to the :Master and used along the lines of His command, again illustrate the miraculous mathematics of God. As we subtract from our supply, He will add to our resources. As we will divide, He will multiply; and He will increase for distribution what we decrease by distribution.
We write it solemnly and with profound conviction and deep emotion: Christ waits to see the travail of faith in the souls of His people before He can see the travail of His own soul in the redemption of the race! Never will that largest and last blessing come to our mission work until we emphasize evangelization. for which we are responsible rather than conversion for which we are not responsible; until we abandon our worldly-wise centralization and concentration and adopt the divine policy of universal extension and diffusion, going with all speed even to the uttermost parts of the earth and bearing among all nations our witness to our I.ord and His cross. From His cradle to His tomb, and from His sermon on the Galilean Mount, to His last commission, perhaps upon the same Mount, we seem to see but one commanding signal: it is a Hand pointing ~ TO THE REGIONS BEYOND. [To be continued. ] EACH religion has an appropriate symbol. The cross has come to represent Evangelical Christianity, as the crucifix does the Papacy, and the Greek cross the Greek Church. The wheel of endless transmigration may well stand for Buddhism, the iron ring of caste for Brahmanism, the crescent for Mohammedanism, the sun-disk for Parseeism, the tablet for Confucianism, the dragon for demon worship, the stone for fetichism, and the axe for a destructive atheism.
" BECAUSE iniquity abounds the love of many shall wax cold." No believer can afford simply to breathe a polluted atmosphere, and if his work for God compels such associations he must frequently go, as Christ did, apart with God, and on the lofty mountain tops breathe a pure air, taking long and deep inspirations of that purifying and strengthening oxygen and ozone. Prof. Bernard used to illustrate our unconscious accommodation to a vicious atmosphere by placing a sparrow under a bell glass receiver, with ail' enough for three hours respiration. Then, at the end of two hours, he put a sccond sparrow under the receivel', and it fell over dead, while the formcr bird was able to sustain the process of respiration for the remainillg hour. So there is a law not only of physical but of spiritual toleration. We learn to live in a polluted atmosphere, to accommodate ourselves to a low level of spiritual life. Could we come suddenly from a pure society into the carnal and worldly and selfish atmosphere often found even in Christian churches, we should be stifled. Let us live much with God, in the closet, and so learn to detect and flee from a contaminated atmosphere. May this law not explain in part the high consecration of true missionaries? They can maintain spiritual life amid snch surronndings only by mueh COil verse with God.
THE MISSION OUTLOOK
THE MISSION OU'l'LOOK.-II.
BY J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.
We proceed to speak of the foreign field. And first we ask what progress has been made in the evangelizing of the nations generally?
We sometimes hear even the friends of missions assert that the progress is deplorably small. 1Ve ask-small in comparison with what? If the answer be-small in proportion to the effort made, the answer runs clean counter to our deepest convictions. Considering how little man has done or tried to do, the blessing from on high ap- pears to us most graciously, most marvelously large. The seed we sow never perishes; it brings forth fifty, sixty and a hundred fold. Just compare the progress made in modern times with what was witnessed when the Gospel was preached even by apostolic lips. Some thoughtlessly speak as if the miracle of Pentecost had been frequently repeated through the early centuries. It was not so, even during the first. The highest estimate which we can possibly form of the number of professing Christians in the year 100 is not half a million, including childre'n, and some authorities make it considerably less. But, during the last century, more than 3,000,000 have been rescued from heathenism by Protestant missions alone. The Lord is pleaaed to bless our poor, initial efforts far beyond what we had reason to expect-for very feeble and faltering have these efforts been; and His marvelous goodness ought to impel us to run henceforth the way of His commandments.
1Ve are fully aware of the retort which is frequently made: "Yes, you have gained perhaps 3,000,000 from heathenism during the last century; but the heathen population of the world has been increased by a vastly greater number; and there are far more heathen now than there were a hundred years ago." True, but the Christian population of the world has been increasing too. Proportionally it seems to increase twice as fast as the heathen population; and by the end of the present century-that is, ten years hence-the Christian inhabitants will actually increase more rapidly than the heathen inhabitants. Of course, we may be told that merely nominal Christianity is of no value. But that is not true. Just compare the state of Europe with that of the heart of Africa! The last accounts, supplied by Stanley and Mackay, regarding interior Africa, are as horrible as the descriptions which Dante gives of hell. Europe is no paradise; but neither is it a pandemonium.
1Ve are amazed at the erroneous conceptions as to the progress of missions existing in quarters that ought to be well informed. A few years ago a journal of high name asserted that the conversions to Mohammedanism in British India were about a hundred thousand annually. More recently an anonymous writer in one of our most inflnential magazines maintained that the conversions to Islam were every year about 50,000, and that India was steadily becoming Mo- hammedan. It was of no use for missionaries to protest against these assertions; on such subjects they, good men, are supposed to be hopelessly prejudiced, and it is for able editors to put them right. But next comes Sir W. W. Hunter, whose knowledge of Indian sta- tistics is unquestioned, and he informs us that, so far as statistics are available, the general population of India, in nine years, has increased 8 per cent., but the Christian population 30 per cent.; and that, tak- ing Bengal as a sample, while the Mohammedans have increased 11 per cent. the Christians have increased 64 per cent. That particular error, then, is finally disposed of. So much as regards numbers; but what about character? No doubt there are black sheep in the flock. Missionaries are sometimes detleived by inquirers, and the children of {)onverts in heathendom are very like young people in Christendom. Still, there has been generally-we suppose universally-a remark- able elevation of the Christian community in intelligence and cllarac- tel', and, as a consequence, it has risen and is rising in position. In ~ndia, government returns show that crime' exists among native Chris- tians only to one-fifth the degree which obtains among the Hindus. We believe the same thing is tl'Ue of converts in China, Japan and Siam. It is remarkably true throughout the Dutch dominions in the islands of Eastern Asia, as we may have occasion to show a little farther on.
Letus now glance at the chief mission fields separately, beginning at the East: JAPAN.-The progress in this empire during the last twenty years ()r so in which it has been possible to preach the Gospel in public, has " been steady, and, as compared with that in other countries, even Tapid. Recently, among the educated or half e,ducated young men there have been manifestations of a feeling of dislike to foreigners; and probably the cry of " Japan for the Japanese" will wax louder and louder. The strong feeling of nationality will affect the missions and their ecclesiastical arrangements. Quite possibly foreign mis- sionaries will be told, before ten years are come and gone, that their presence is no longer needed; and this not scornfully or bitterly, but from a conviction that Japanese Christians can manage their own affairs and evangelize their countrymen better than foreigners can. For our part, we respect their feeling; and though we desire no abrupt severance of existing ties, we trust to see, ere long, the great spectacle of a national church in Japan-self-supporting, Eelf-gov- erned and self-extending. We say a national chttrch. The mission· aries are laudalby exerting themselves to reduce the number of eccle· siastical divisions among Christians. The Presbyterians have all united; they had almost coalesced with the Congregationalists, when a bar was unhappily interposed-from, America, if we mistake not. The Methodists wish to unite; and so do the Episcopalians and others.
Excellent, so far; but the Japanese Christians long for one grand, national church; and they will have it if foreigners do not interfere.
Em Oriente lux. Very probably the problem of union, at which the chutches of Europe and America are toiling, will receive its solution from the minds and hearts of more far-off Eastern Christians. That ought to humble the haughty West; but all of us, we trust, would heartily rejoice in the result. When we speak thus, we dream that there will be one grand united church holding the principles of the Reformation. The Roman and Greek churches will doubtless remain apart from this, and from each other, in Japan as in other places.
The new constitution of Japan gives full tolerance to Christianity, and the Gospel may now be preached over the length and breadth of the empire. Are the two old religions-Shintoism and Buddhism- likely soon to pass away? Some have answered yes; but we fear not. Shintoism is a vague, colorless creed, and one naturally leaps to the conclusion that it cannot long contend against the Gospel. But it is the old, ancestral faith; nearly all the vaunted glories of Japan are connected with it; and, probably, it will die slowly, as did the religion of Rome, even after Constantine's profession of Christianity.
How difficult to forget the national traditions handed down for more than two thousand years; how difficult to throw off the religious ideas they embody! Buddhism is an alien faith, though in itself more definite than Shintoism; but it may not perhaps survive its rival.
Confucianism has been the creed of many of the higher classes, and its worldly, cold philosophy may content them for a good while longer-all the more readily, because it can easily combine with the ancestral Shinto worship. • KOREA comes next-the'" hermit nation," as it used to be called; "the land of the morning calm," as it calls itself. Korea had very little distinctive religion. Shintoism was little known; Buddhism was proscribed; Confucianism influenced only a few among the higheF classes. Vague, confused superstition was all in all. But Korea happily has an easy alphabet, and multitudes, even of women, are able to read.
The beginnings of Protestant work in Korea are due to the Rcv. John Ros~, missionary of the (Scottish) United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria. He tra~slated various portions of the Scriptures illto Korean, from the year 1873 onwards. These were circulated in Northern Korea, and the result was truly remarkable-indeed, few things in mission history have been more so.* Then came the Ameri- can Mission, in 1884, being begun by Dr. Allen, a medical missionary, • See Report of Foreign Missions of (American) Presbyterian Church for 1890. In a spirit which does them much honor the Americans speak most war..lIy of the labors of the Scottish Mission, which preceded their own. whose professional skill was greatly valued in the highest quarters. An Episcopal Methodist Mission has followed, and recently an Angli- can one. Two laborers from the General Assembly of Victoria, in Australia, co-operate with the Presbyterian Mission. So far a mar- velous blessing has rested on the work. The opening of Korea has . been more sudden, and more complete, even than the opening of Japan.
CHINA.-In connection with China the eye first naturally fixes on the late Missionary Conference held at Shanghai. It was very large, very harmonious, very earnest and very hopeful. Of the arousing call to the Church of Christ to send China a thousand missionaries within the next five years we have already spoken. Especial stress was laid on the work of women. Dr. Williamson, since then, to the great loss of China, deceased, said that the permanent Christianization of China depends on the women, and that the women can be reached only by women. The conference did not take any narrow view of Christian work, and one of its solemn declarations was: "We hear a loud call to the Christian Church to supply Christian educationists for China." Lastly, it came to a most important resolution regarding the translation of the Scriptures into Chinese. Hitherto there have been rival versions, and interminable disputes aA to the rendering of im- pOl·tant words (even the name of God among them), and when the conference met, agreement on long-contested points seemed utterly hopeless. But the" great mountain" became" a plain," and satis- factory means were proposed for the preparation of versions in the high classical language, the colloquial :Mandarin, and an intermediate dialect. In addition to these there is a considerable number of local '. dialects, and arrangements were entered into by which versions into these will be made, or, if already made, harmonized. Had the Shanghai Conference achieved nothing more than this, all the labor and expense connected with long journeyings and a session of more than a fort- night would have been richly repaid.
SIAM.-Buddhism is the established religion in Siam; but here, as elsewhere, the name veils a mass of childish superstitions. The chief mission here has been the American Presbyterian, which began its work in 1840. Its operations are carried on mainly in the northern part-Laos. Some twenty years ago there was a severe persecution of the Christians; but, for some years past, opposition on the part of the government has completely died away. Education and medical work receive decided encouragement from the king and the high officials. All the missionaries seem to be full of hope.
NETHERLANDS, INDIA.-The Dutch possessions in Eastern Asia are so called by the Hollanders, though they have no connection with IIindustan. (They are part of Indict extra Gangem.) Until of late the Dutch authorities discountenanced missions, if they did not actively oppose them. '1'0 this day religion is at a low ebb among the Dutch inhabitants of Eastern Asia, and the clergy are often ,avowedly rationalistic. But the missions have done much faithful work, and the blessing from on high has rested on them. We give some remarkable figures in a note. * We understand that the oppo- sition of the authorities to missions has entirely ceased. They admit that the native Christians are visibly superior to the heathen (incluiing Mohammedans) in industry, cleanliness and morality. The owners of plantations in Java prefer native Christian laborers to all others. Let it be observed that, though the Mohammedans are zealous in proselytizing, yet the conversions from Islam to Christianity have been very numerous, especially of late.
INDIA. t-In this great field the battle between the Gospel and heathenism becomes hotter every day: "All reports of religious affairs are growing in urgency and interest."! 'l'he next Decennial Missionary Conference takes place two years hence, and the proceedings may be expected to be of absorbing interest.
There are vast diversities between different parts of India. Even the languages spoken amount, according to the census report, to 106, and some have reckoned as many as 132. The diversities among the inhabitants are astonishingly great. To use Lord Dufl'erin's words: "At one extremity you have the naked, savage hill-man, with his stone weapons, his head-hunting, his polyandrous habits, and his childish superstitions; and at the other extremity you have the Europeanized native gentleman, with his refinement and polish, his literary culture, his Western philosophy, and his advanced political ideas."
Even a lifetime barely suffices to supply a full, comprehensive idea of India. We are, therefore, continually in danger of drawing too general conclusions from particular facts. And hence come such ,conflicts of opinion as to the state of things in India. Some already tell us they can hear the wailing cry that" great Pan is dead"; § while others declare that, as yet, he has received no serious wound. We, therefore, entreat the friends who pay a cold-weather visit to India, and then rush home to proclaim the conclusions they have reached, to specify the part of the Indian Continent which they have studied and think they understand. On the other hand, we must request the men who knew India ten or fifteen years ago to remem- *Christians in Java (1873)….. …..•….• 5,673 " (1889) …………….. 11,229 in Snmatra (1873). .. .. .. . ….. 2,500 (1889) . .. .. .. .. …. 12,000 in all Dntch India (1873) …… 168,672 (1889) .•.••.250,000 ~ an increase of 66 per cent. nearly.
These figures are given by Inspektor Schreiber, of Barmen.
t Many of the principles we state regarding missions in India will apply to missions ,generally. :j: Last report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 184. § Ibid, p. 185. bel' that change now proceeds rapidly, even in what used to be called the" unchanging East."
The accessions to the Church of Christ in India continue to be chiefly drawn, as heretofore, from the races generally called abori-.
ginal-such as the Kols, Santals, Garos, Khasias, etc. (as in Burma from among the Karens). It was high time that missions should exert . themselves in behalf of these tribes; for, ere long, they would cer- tainly have been merged in the general Hindu population; the ab-.
sorption was steadily going on. We lately noticed an assertion by a high Indian official to the effect that Hinduism is gaining rather than losing ground. Quite true, in a sense. Uncivilized races are influenced by the civilized races near them; their vague demon wor- ship gives way before the more definite Hindu mythology, and their marriage and funeral rites fall gradually under the control of the Brahmans. Races that live apart eSyape this influence in a great degree; but those that have intercourse with the Hindus become more or less Hinduized. True, they are not received into the Hindu com- munity-they are not taken into caste; they are, so to speak, tied on to the great mass, not ingrafted into it. Other races, such as the Dhers, of Gujarat, or the Mhars and Mangs, of Maharashtra, no longer live apart from the Hindus; they are attached to the villages-permitted, not indeed to live in them, but around or near them. Among such races the progress of the Gospel is not much slower than among the more sequestered aborigines.
It is cheering to watch the steady elevation of these hitherto down-trodden races. The Brahmans, of course, sneer. Often have we heard them say, "We are too wary to swallow your bait, and so you go to those wretched outcasts." In truth, the missionary goes to all; but the proud Brahmans, as a rule, despise the message; while, in many cases, the poor and despised do not. And the reception of the truth raises and refines; the very expression of the countenance is changed. Then, when the children of converts are carefully taught and trained-and that this should be done is a most pressing, sacred duty-they compete, on no unequal terms, even with the intellectual Brahmans.
Thus the wrongs of ages are gradually becoming redressed; a social fabric, based on a new foundation, is slowly rising; and, by and by, the Christians will be not only the men of light, but the men of leading, too. .
Among the middle and higher classes the visible progress of the Gospel, as shown in the number of baptisms, is much slower than among the races we have just referred to. Hitherto it has been very difficult to reach these classes except through schools and colleges.
This is still true of India generally; but there are already exceptions to the rule, e~pecially in the largest cities. If evangelistic addresses were attentively listened to only when delivered in English, one might fear that the language, more than the meaning, formed the attraction; but earnest appeals in the vernacular, when the speaker wields it with any power, are also becoming acceptable. The change is immensely important. Educational missionaries ascribe it to the influence of Christian education, and we think they are right in doing so.
Attacks on educational missions continue to be made, as they have been for fifty years; but we see no new argument advanced. ""Ve suppose they will be repeated; but the missionaries will patiently toil on-aye, no kind of mission work is so toilsome as theirs, and assuredly it is not from a love of ease they take to it-and while they heartily rejoice in the extension of all kinds of missionary effort, they cannot, in faithfulness, give up their own. Education, both lower and higher, has become a necessity in India. Who is to give it? Government is disposed to withdraw more and more from its higher institutions, and (in a spirit which does it much honor) is expressing its belief that only those in which religious instruction is given can meet the necessities of India. Are Protestant missionaries to abandon the work?
Hoc Ithac1l8 velit, et magna mercentur AtridaJ. Nothing would delight the natives more; nothing would delight the Romanists more. The moulding of the higher thought of India would then be in the hands of these two classes. We hold that too much has been conceded already to the cry of " preaching, not teaching." The Cathedral Mission College, in Calcutta, in connection with the Church Missionary Society, founded by Bishop Cotton, was given up in 1880, under the impression that there were needlessly many colleges in Calcutta; but the demand for higher education has greatly increased since then, and the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society regret the closing, and for this reason, among others, that they now cannot get into touch with the influential student class as they used to do when their college was in existence.
Some people talk of educational missions as if they were merely educational. Is there one such mission in all India? We believe not. People who criticise what they call" Dr. Duff's system" should try to understand what that system was.
The fullest examination of this question with which we are acquainted is contained in the" Revised Special Report of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Church of Scotland on Educational Missions in India." The document comprises 213 pages, and embodies the opinion of eighty-four persons, connected with various churches, who were deemed well qualified to pronounce an opinIon on the important question proposed; and it shows that, after most patient and prolonged inquiry, the General Assembly of the Church resolved to maintain its educational efforts. The report deserves to be studied as a valuahle rer,ertory, not only of opinions, but of facts. We read that wheu the apostle and his companions were tossed up and down ill Adria, they "cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day." When some one rejoicingly pointed to the first streaks of dawn on the Eastern horizon, we wonder whether he re- ceived the chilling rebuke: "The dawn is nothing; we are waiting for the sunrise." But so speak many now. They do not believe in pro- cesses and preparations. They expect the sunrise immediately to follow midnight. Each of the higher religions of India covers as large an area as it did before; and many sorrowfully ask what im- pression, then, the Gospel is making on them. 'Ve reply that the Gospel never comes into real contact with heathenism without affect- ing it, and the influence exerted is in direct proportion to the com- pleteness of the cOlltact. The moral teachings of Christianityap- peal to natural reason and conscience; they carry with them their own bright evidence, and are acce})ted without much delay. The deeper mysteries, such as the divinity and atoning sacrifice of Christ, are, it may be for a long time, vehemently opposed by many; nor need we wonder at this, seeing that ., no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost." But when the Gospel is fully and faithfully proclaimed, it is never long proclaimed in vain. The truth is revealed to some; and these profess their faith, and, if need be, are prepared to suffer for it.
Now, in India, the higher religions are being shot through by the arrows of light; that is to say, the moral teachings-and much of the teaching regarding God contained in the Gospel is st.eadily penetrat- 'ing the mind of heathenism. The professors of heathen religions may deny that they borrow from Christianity; they may not be aware that they do borrow, but that does not alter the fact. One of the most noteworthy proofs of what we now affirm is supplied by a statement lately made by the high priest of the chief division of the Bombay Zorastrians, to the effect that the attributes ascribed in the Avesta to Ahuramazda are the same as the Old Testament ascribes to Jehovah. The statement is far from correct; but the high priest honestly believed what he so strongly affirmed. The wish was father to the thought.
We need hardly dwell longer on this. Every student of church history will see in it only a repetition of what occurred during the first three centuries. Heathenism was then compelled by the presence of the Gospel to remodel itself. "Reformed heathenism adopted features borrowed from Christianity, and even grew to be an imitation of it."* It thought to save itself by so doing. But by and by, as the lamented Liddon expressed it: "Conversions came with a rush."
Our readers must have been surprised to hear of the late sugges- * Uhlhorn "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," Bk. II., ch.3. tion, made by at least one man of influence, that the Bible be added to the Hindu sacred books. A very natural proposal, in the mouth of one who recognizes the steady onward march of Christianity, and would fain come to terms with it before it is too late. But the pro- gress of the truth is still more fully proved by the alarm that is so widely professed and the vehement efforts to oppose it-Hindu tracts,.
Hindu preachers-these are now sent forth in great numbers; and the Gospel is mercilessly attacked. The large society called the "Arya Samaj," gives in to Christianity so far that it surrenders po- lytheism, idol-worship, caste, and child-marriage, and permits the re-marriage of widows. It falls back on the Vedas as the sole author- itative scriptures, and, by torturing Sanskrit terms, it finds Christian and modern ideas in them. It is ienscpreecaisailnlgy.a f"rIafi d•woef cCohnrt iins tuiea nt oscshl eoeopls, ". Its propagandism is zealous and it cries, " our temples will soon be Christian churches."
But it is in vain that the Arya Samaj has abandoned three-fourths of Hinduism in order to save the remainder. Christianity is, so to speak, in the air.* It affects all the religious thinking of India; and its influence is seen in the remarkable attempts at reform which are happily becOI~ing so frequent. People may call these only social re- forms; but in India what is social is also religious. The Rajputana chiefs, bolder than the British Government, have limited marriage ex- penses and fixed the minimum marriage age for men at 18, and for women at 14. This is a stupendous change; and it involves stupen- dous consequences. The persistent efforts to encourage the re-mar- riage of widows; the refusal of the barbers of Bombay to shave the heads 'of widows; the formation of a social reform association, which held its third annual meeting in December, 1889, where it was noted with interest that several Hindu ladies were present; these and similar movements are, to anyone that knows the people of India, full of interest and promise; and, we repeat, that they are traceable, directly or indirectly, to the influence of Christianity. We spoke above of ideas changing; but there is also, though to a less extent, a change of institutions.
We have been Ilpeaking of Hindus. But the Mohammedans in India are also moving. Their antipathy to vVestern education is con- siderably mitigated. That enlightened man, Sir Synd Ahmad, tells us that his college at Alighar is flonrishing. If so, Moslem bigotry is proportionally declining.t Meantime, the uneducated Mohammed- ans-note especially what has happened in the north at Peshawur- * Since this was written, we find the same expression quoted in the Church Missionary Society Report. p. 172.
t A high Indian official, Sir Auckland Colvin, has said: "An Alighar col- lege man has become synonymous with a man of liberal ideas, advanced edu- cation and independent character." We have seen this college. We have ob-· served that its alumni are Mohammedan in little more than name. are as greatly terrified at the progress of Christianity as is the Arya Samaj among the Hindus. Zenana mission teachers are objects of especial dread to Mohammedans, as well as to Hindus. Let our sisters thankfully and strenuously persevere; their work is telling greatly.
[To be continued.] THE Church of God cripples all her mission boards and mission work by a selfish withholding of money for the Lord's cause, and then wonders at the slow progress of missions in fields where retrenchment makes all advance impossible. This absurd contradiction reminds us of the wars of Arminius (Hermann), Prince of Cherusci (16 B. C.- '16 A. D.) The Germans bored holes in the tongues of the Roman lawyers and judges, and then said, " Now, rattle away /"
ONE of the McAll workers in Paris was very much affected at finding a poor working woman, already in a dying condition, who bad strayed into one of the salles and there for the first time heard of Christ as the Good Shepherd of souls. She was trying to recall and put together in an intelligible shape the few hints she had picked up at that meeting, mere fragments of gospel truth, and when she found one at her bedside who could give her the whole truth about this great Saviour her joy was so great that she forgot even the agonies of dying! And yet there are literally millions of souls in France hungering for just such a Gospel.
MATERIALISU, like other forms of infidelity, has a basis of insincerity. At a meeting in Liverpool an evangelist publicly said: " I do not believe there is an honest man ill the world who really believes that we are all simply matter and go out of existence at death. If there is a real materialist in this audience I would like to see him." A man rose up and shouted: "Well, here is one." "Come up here," .said the evangelist, " I want all these people to see a man whose mother died like a dog, and that was the end of her." "You are a liar," shouted the man, " she was one of the best women that ever lived, and she's in h.eaven to-day /" The fellow was fairly. caught in his' own trap. He quite forgot for the moment his own creed!
THE efforts of churches which are not evangelical and which lack all true missionary spirit to found mission enterprises, simply to appear aggressive and seem abreast of other professed believers-in other words, to save themselves the humiliatio.n of a significant contrast-have always ended in disastrous failure. Often, instead of Christianizing the helthen, they themselves become heathenized. Those impulsive spurts in the direction of missions remind us of a significant phrase in the psalms, in which, referring to the triumphant passage of Israel over the Red Sea, the sacred writer adds, "which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned /"
MISSION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD IN NORTH CHINA
A CONDENSED SKETCH OF THE MISSION OF THE AMER- ICAN BOARD IN NORTH CnINA.
HEXRY BLODGETT, D.D.
The history of the North China Mission is closely connected with that of the Shanghai Mission, and through that with the history of the Canton Mission, the first of the American Board, and of the American churches in China.
Mr. Bridgman, the first American missionary to China, arrived in Canton in the year 1830, twenty-three years after Dr. Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to this empire. In 1847 Mr. Bridgman , went to Shanghai as a delegate of his missionary brethcrn to assist in the translation of the Bible. This resulted in his permanent residence in that city, where he died in the year 1861. The translation made by Messrs. Bridgman and Culbertson into the written language of China is still in use, while the twenty volumes of the Chinese Re- pository, edited by Dr. Bridgm;tn, remain as an invaluable thesaurus of matters relating to China and the far East. .
In the year 1854 Messrs. Aitchison al,ld Blodget were sent out by the Board to join Dr. Bridgman at Shanghai, thus forming the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy joined the mission in 1858, making the fourth ordained missionary.
During the years in which the mission was continued at Shanghai, Dr. Bridgman was engaged in translating, also taking the pastoral care of the church connected with the boarding-school of girls, under the charge of Mrs. Bridgman. The three younger members of the mission were engaged in the usual work of teaching and preaching, as they were able, both in the city and the outlying country. 'rhe rule established soon after the opening of the" Five Ports,"
of twenty-fonr hours absence only, from one of the ports, was soon broken at Shanghai, and before long became a dead letter, Mission- aries made frequent tours into the interior. In the autumn of 1858 MassI'S. Aitchison and Burdon (now Bishop Burdon of Hong-Kong), after many journeys in the country together, took up their residence at Ping Hoo, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, seventy miles southwest of Shanghai. Here Mr. Aitchison remained for the winter, but re- turned at length to Shanghai in hope of commencing a mission in the llorth of China.
Such a movement seemed very desirable both to the Board, and to the memhers of the miRsion. Shanghai being the northernmost of the fi ve ports then opened, various European and American Societies had designated their missionaries to this city, so that, before the open- ing of China in 1860, more than thirty lahorers, representing as many as ten or eleven bodies of Christians in different countries were con- gregated there waiting for restrictions to be removed as a signal for advance to all parts of China. The year 1859 was one of sore trial to the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy died in April; Mr. Aitchison accepted in June a place offered him in the American Embassy, then about to proceed to Peking, in the hope that it might result in fixing his residence in the Northern Capital. He had only been eight days in Peking when he was taken ill, and after eleven days of suffering, died August 15th en rm£te to the .seaboard. He was buried in the Gulf of Chihli. In the autumn of the same year Mrs. Blodget was compelled by failure of health to re- turn to the United States.
In the following spring, 1860, Mr. Blodget for a like reason was forced to quit Shanghai. He went first to Japan, and, after two months at Kanagawa, embarked on a British transport, bound, for Taku to join the fleet about to rendezvous at that place. The ship ar- rived at her destination August 19th, just one year from the time, when, near the same spot, Mr. Aitchison was lowered to his watery grave.
A few days after her arrival the Taku Forts were taken, and in a short time all North China was open to the missionary and the mer- <lhant. Tientsin became an entrepot of foreign trade, and Peking the place of residence of the ministers of the various treaty powers of the West.
Early in September, of this year, Mr. Blodget landed in Taku, and on the 8th of November took up his residence in the city of Tientsin, being at that time and during the following winter the only Protestant missionary in this newly opened province.
The city was then garrisoned by the allied English and French forces. A lodgment was readily obtained in the barracks of the British soldiers, ana Christian work was commenced at once, both among the soldiers and the thronging multitudes of Chinese, who received with great friendliness the newly arrived missionary.
In April of the following year, 1861, Mr. Blodget had the happiness of welcoming to this field the Rev. J. Innocent, of the English Methodist Mission, and in May the Rev. J. Edkins (now Dr. Edkins), of the London Mission.
A journey to Peking in the month of May showed how entirely the country was open to travel, and to Christian effort; nor was any objection offered to passing about freely within the walls of the capital, even to those in no way connected with the legations.
During this month a chapel and houses for residence were rented within the city of Tientsin, and the Sabbath services were removed from the temple court, in which they had been held, to this place. Blind Chang, the first convert, was baptized in June, 1861. He was a 'veale man in humble life, but there is hope that he died a Christian.
Several journeys were undertaken, in this and the following year, for the exploration of this new field, as also for direct missionary ef- 'ort. These journeys extended to Teh-chen, in Shantung, on the South; to Pao Ting-fu, the capital of Chihli; to Tai Yuan-fn, Ta T'ung- fu, in Shansi; to Chang Chia K'eu (or Kalgan), on the Northwest;. also to T'ung Cheu and other cities east of Peking.
The Rev. J. Doolittle, of Fuhchau, spent the winter of 1862 and 1863 in Tientsin assisting in the work of the mission. Mr. Blodget spent the greater part of the winter in Peking, but returned to Tient- sin in view of the departure of Mr. Doolittle for Fuhchau. The mission was reinforced in 1863 by the arrival of the Rev. C. A. Stanley in March, and the Rev. L. D. Chapin in May. They took up their residence within the city walls, in houses which had been pur- chased the previous autumn through the aid of the late Dr. S.. W. Williams. Subsequently, on the ground of health, the residence of the missionaries was changed to the settlement, southeast of the city.
The principal labors of the missionaries have been in preaching the Gospel, and in the distribution of Christian books, both in the city and in the country. A day-school of boys has generally been maintained, and at times a few boarders have been taken in and cared for. The project of a higher institution of learning at Tientsin, in which the English language should be taught, has often been before the mis8ion, and has met with much favor.
The work of this station received a great impulse in the years foll0'Ying the famine of 1877. At that time the missionaries, furnished with funds to the amount of $10,000, more or less, by the liberality of Christian nations, threw themselves unreservedly into the work of famine relief, in which they were assisted also by members of the station at 'l"ungcheu. Their principal labors were in the region of P'ang Chuang, the central place of their work in Shantung. ~Iultitudes of the starving people were relieved in their distress. In this and the following years the missionaries found open doors and open hearts to the preaching of the Gospel. Several hundreds turned to the Saviour. The church was greatly enlarged, and a new station at P'ang Chuang was the result. The life of MI'. Smith, at one time greatly endangered by famine fever, was spared, and his labors are continued at this new station.
The importarice of Tientsin as the port of entrance, not only for Northern and Western Shantung, but also for Northern Ho Nan, for Shansi, Chihli, and inner Mongolia cannot be overestimated.
The station at Peking was formed in 1864. Though frequent visits had been made to this city by Mr. Blodget since May, 1861, it was not until February, 1864, that he took np his permanent residence here. Through the timely assistance of Dr. Williams, the present mission premises were purchased in March, and a chapel was opened in one of the rear buildings almost immediately for public preaching. This was a new departure for Peking, and one which attracted crowds of curious listeners. The pr~mises had been purchased from the Chinese for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; but that Society, being cramped by its own laws, was unable to take them over, and allowed this advantageous location to pass into the hands of the American Board.
On July 1st, Mrs. Bridgman arrived in Peking, having left New York when only partially recovered from a dangerous accident, and narrowly escaped the Alabama on the way. Mrs. Bridgman at once set herself to establish a girls' boarding-school, which has been continued ever since that time, and is now known as the" Bridgman School." She also gave to the Board the entire sum which had been expended for houses, lands and school buildings, amounting to not less than $5,000. In 1868 she left Peking, broken down in health, and spent the remainder of her days in Shanghai, where she died, in 1871. While in Shanghai, though in feeble health, she laid the foundations of a boarding-school for girls, and a dispensary, which, by her will, have passed into the hands of the Woman's Union Mission of New York.
The mission force in Peking was increased in November, 1864, by the arrival of the Rev. J. T. Gulick and Mrs. Gulick; and again, in August, 1865, by the arrival of the Rev. C. Goodrich and Mrs. Goodrich. A month before their arrival, in the early part of July, Mr. and Mrs. Gulick left Peking for Kalgan, to open a mission station in that city. The next reinforcement was by the coming of Mr. and Mrs. ·P. R. Hunt and Miss M. H. Porter, in 1868.
Miss Porter very soon took charge of the Bridgman School; Miss Chapin joined her in 1872. Under the efficient management of these ladies, and of Miss Haven, who arrived in 1879, t}Jis school has maintained a high character, and has been of the greatest service in training up young women suitable for wives for the native helpers, able also to take some part in Christian work. This school has formed the nucleus for efforts for women, botb in the city and in the country.
Mr. Hunt after twenty-seven years of service in India, came to Peking with the enthusiasm of youth to establish a mission press, and also to take charge of the financial affairs of the Mission. The press he established in 1869. It was at the time, and still remains, the only press of Protestant missions in North China. The money used for this purpose was supplied by the indemnity fund received from the Chinese Government after the burning of the mission press in Canton in 1858, and was originally given to the Board by the Bleecker Street Church, in New York, for the establishment of that press. Mr. Hunt was a skillful printer. vVork done by him was well done, whether in the establishment of the press, or in printing the books which issued from it.
During the nineteen years in which Mr. Hunt and Mr. Noble, who succeeded him, had charge of the press, there were printed on it, for the American Bible Society, the version of the New Testament, in Mandarin, prepared by the Peking Committee, that of the Old Testa- ment, also in the Mandarin, prepared by Bishop Schereschewsky, the Psalms and various portions of the New Testament; for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, the four Gospels, with notes on the same; for the Church Mission Society, the book of Common Prayer; a series of Sabbath-school lesson papers and other works, for the North China Tract Society; a treatise on theology by Mr. Sheffield; several editions of a hymn book by Messrs. Blodget and Goodrich; a geography by Rev. L. D. Chapin; a smaller work on geography by Rev. L. W. Pilcher; a treatise on physiology by Dr. Porter; tracts and books by Miss M. H. Porter and l-Iiss M. E. Andrews, and, in addition, a con- siderable list of tracts and books not here enumerated. From the first this press has done a select work for local convenience-rather a large work for distant parts of China.
In commencing chapel preaching in Peking Mr. Blodget was assisted by the late Rev. VV. C. Burns, whose memory is still fragrant in the minds of some who heard the Gospel at that time. Subsequently Messrs. Goodrich, Holcombe and Roberts, each during the time of his connection with this station, labored in evangelist.ic work, both in the city and in the country. These are now succeeded by Messrs. Ament and Aiken. A good degree of success has attended these efforts, and frequent accessions in the city and at the country stations indicate a, constant growth in the membership of the church.
The boys' boarding-school in this station was discontinued in 1869. Two day-schools for boys have usually been maintained in the city, and at present there is one day-school in the country. There is also a day-school f~r girls in the city.
Perhaps there is no large city in Europe, or even in the whole world, more open to every sort. of evangelistic and educational labor, and to all the eleemosynary institutions of the Christian church than is Peking at the present time..
'rhe Kalgan station was opened by Rev. and Mrs. J. T. Gulick in the summer of 1865. Great difficulties were encountered in the early days of this station in renting houses and procuring suitable places for mission work. In the end unwearied patience, combined with great skill and prudence and unbounded charity in caring for the sick and needy, secured the desired result.
This station was reinforced in 1867 by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, in 1868 of lIr. Thompson, in 1870 of Miss Diament, and subsequently, after Mr. and Mrs. Gulick had left for Japan, by .iYlt-. and Mrs. Sprague, and Mr. and l-Irs. Roberts and Miss Dr. Murdock.
Healing the sick and a boys' day-school were from the first carried on jointly with evangelistic work at this station. After the coming of Dr. Murdock, a hospital and a diRpensary, including an opium refuge, were opened. A girls' boarding-school was established by Mrs. "Villiams, which is now under the charge of Miss Diament. The buildings for the school were erected largely by funds contributed by one of the mission families.
The Yu Cheu Valley, seventy miles southwest of Kalgan, has hitherto been the most fruitful part of this field, and in the city of Yu Cheu it is now proposed to estahlish a new station. Kalgan and Yu Cheu are solely in the charge of missionaries of the American Board. Other societies are not likely to enter this field.
Kalgan is located at a pass in the great wall. It has an outlook upon the rolling pasture lands of Mongolia. The roving Mongols are often seen in the streets of the city, and pass through in numbers on their way to Peking, or in their pilgrimages to Wu'l"ai in Shansi. The missionaries have often proposed labor for these sons of the desert, and something has been done among them. One convert to the Christian faith has been baptized in Kalgan. It has been suggested that one missionary should devote himself to this work.
The station at T'ungcho was opened by the Rev. L. D. Chapin in 1867. No serious difficulty was experienced in securing' residences. The people in 'l"ungcho have from the first been friendly to the missionaries. The station was reinforced in 1868 by the arrival of Miss Andrews, and in 1869 of Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield; Miss Evans reached T'ungcho in 1872; Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich, after their return from the United States in 1872 spent a year at Yu Cheu, and thence removed the following year to 'l"nngcho. Dr. Holhrook arrived in 1881, Mr. 1nd ]frs. Beach in 1883, Dr. and lVirs. Ingram in 1887, and Miss Miner in 1888.
The boarding-school for hoys, early established by Mr. Chapin, has been enlarged, and expanded by the efforts of Mr. Sheffield and others, so that it has now become the Mission High School. To this pupils are sent from all the stations of the mission to go through with a thorough course of study, in the hope that many of them will enter the Christian miuistry, and that all will hecome helpful in one way or another to the cause of Christ.
The course of study embraces a thorough knowledge of the Chinese classics, learning to compose in the written language, a familiar acquaintance with the Bible, including the study of Bible history and geography, and the committing to memory of quite a number of the books of the New Testament, also some of the more impo]·tant branches of gClleral knowledge and Western science, such as geography, mental and written arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, mechanics, phy~iology, geology and astronomy. It is de8iglled to extend the course and introduce higher branches as fast as the needs of the sehool and the circumstances of the mission make it expedient. The high school is to become the college. Connected with this high school is the theological seminary of the mission, designed for those who are prepal'ing to enter the ministry. Here the various departments of exegesis, systematic theology, church history, sacred rhetoric and the pastoral charge are attended to, so far as the attainments of the students and the circumstances of the case will allow. A great and an increasing amount of medical work has been done at this station from the first.
Through the energetic labors of Dr. Holbrook a hospital and dis- pensary were opened, the work in which is now vigorously carried forward by Dr. Ingram. Dispensaries are also opened at two country stations not remote from T'tmgcho. It is proposed that medical instruction shall be given to some of the students at this station.
General evangelization, both in the city and, to some extent, in the country, has been carried forward at thif station, in connection with the work of teaching, with hopeful results.
T'ungcho is the port of Peking, twelve miles distant from that city, with which it is soon to be connected by rail. Its accessibility by water and its abundant accommodations have made it to be chosen as the place for the annual gatherings of the mission.
The station. at Pao Ting fu was opened by Mr. Pierson in 1873. At no other place has so great difficulty been experienced in obtaining suitable residences for mission familieR. For more than a year Mr. Pierson lived in a Chinese inn, and until the present time he has occupied rented houses in a crowded ,part of the city. It is only within two years that the desired plot of ground has been purchased, in the southern suburb, upon which buildings have been erected to accommodate one or two families. Happily there has been no collision with the authorities or with the people. By uniform kindnessand prudent management all causes of offense have been avoided.
Here, as in Kalgan and T'ungcho, medical aid, though administered by unprofessional hands, has from the fhst been a most potent agency in removing prejudice and opening the hearts of the Chinese. After the arrival of Dr. Peck, in 1880, this branch of the work fell to llis care. Large numbers of patients flocked to his hospital and dispensary from the city and the surrounding region of country. Under the care of Dr. Merritt, who arrived in 1886, this useful work is still continued.
A school for boys, and one al.so for girls, in each of which there have been some boarding pupils, have been maintained at this station. "Vork for women has been carried forward b~r Mrs. Pierson and Miss Pierson. Colporteurs under the direction of 111'. Pierson have labored extensively in all that part of the province.
Pao Ting fu, as being the provincial capital, is a place of much political importance. Its situation at the head of river llavigation renders it a commercial emporium for grain, salt and various kinds of merchandise. All missionaries for Shansi pass through Pao Ting fu. This is the highway for officials passing from the capital to the south- western provinces of the empire. The place is well chosen as an im- portant and convenient centre for missionary labor.
The station at P'ang Chuang was the outgrowth of the work ~t Tientsin. Mr. Hou, a man whose name is held in loving remem- brance by the Christians of that region, heard the Gospel in P'ang Chuang from a native helper, and went himself to Tientsin to learn more of this new way. In the Gospel he found the truth for which he had elsewhere sought in vain, and was baptized in 1872.* "Within a few years he became himself a helper, his house the headquarters of the missionaries at every visit, as well as the centre of the famine re- lief work, and his village was afterwards chosen as the residence of missionaries designated to the Shantung station of the American Board. From the year 1872 the work in this region graduallyex- panded until, at the end of 1877, the annual additions brought the membership up to forty-three, representing twelve different villages." 'rhen followed the long to be remembered famine of 1877, and the famine relief, and the subsequent enlargement of the church, in view {)f which the mission resolved, in 1880, to open a new station at P'ang Chuang.
It has been usual in China, in all the missions, to locate mission- aries in large and important towns and cities. P'ang Chuang is al- m08t, if not quite, the only case of a mission station established in a rural district quite away from any city 01' great mart of trade. Yet the missionaries here have a great work on their hands. They are in the midst of a very populous region of country, so that within a radius of six miles there are approximately 150 villages and hamlets, {lontaining 60,000 inhabitants. In more than sixty of these villages they already have church members, and the lines or" their efforts are constantly reaching out into the outlying villages, towns and cities which are not distant from their central station.
The fact is, moreover, to, be remembered, in considering the location of this station, that in China the reverse is true of that which took place in the Roman Empire. There the villagers, or pagani, were the last to embrace the Christian faith. In China they are the first.
The greatest success of Christian missions in China have been thus far among the country people. Not only are they more simpleminded, but they have also less to fear in becoming Christians from loss of wealth or position, 01' of the means of earning their daily bread. The most independent man in China is the small farmer, who owns a few acres of land, and by daily toil earns his daily bread.
After some delay in the purchase of land and erecting houses, and * "Skellches of a CountryPal'ish," by Rev. A. H. Smith. further delay, occasioned by the opposition of a recusant magistrate, happily overcome by the friendly aid of the United States officials, the missionaries took up their abode in P'ang Chuang, in 1882, with a most cordial reception, and lively demonstrations of affection and gratitude on the part of the people. These kindly feelings have con- tinued, for the most part until the present time.
The labors of this station at the present time are the oversight and instruction of the native helpers, the care of the churches and dayschools, teaching the scriptures to men and women, and the wider range of evangelistic work. There is daily preaching to the dispensary patients, and regular preaching both at the central station and at the six outstations.
The medical work begun by Dr. Porter, and now carried forward by Dr. Peck, has been as in other parts of Ch,ina, of the greatest value to the. Christian name. The hospital, established largely through a gift of the late Dr. Williams, bears the name of this early mis8ionary of the Board, and devoted friend of the Chinese. Its fame has extended to regions far and near, and brings to the village of P'ang Chnang patients from all grades of society, some of whom have come hundreds of miles, and even from other provinces, to be healed of their diseases.
A commodious and tasteful chapel has been erected at this central station wholly by the offerings of members of the church, and of other churches in the mission without any assistance from the funds of the Board. Some of the outstations, stimulated by this example, are now moving in the same direction.
The field of labor set before the missionaries at P'ang Chuang is immense. Fifteen miles north is the city of Teh Cheu, with its surrounding towns and villages. The southern part of the province of Chihli, the northwestern part of Shantung, and the northern part of Ho-nan, all densely populated and covered with walled cities, tOWIl8, villages and hamlets, are easily accessihlo from this central station, and all invite the labors of Christian missions.
One step forward into this unoccupied region was taken in 1886, by the occupation of Lin Ching, a Department city forty miles southwest of P'ang Chuang, by the Rev. F. ~I. Chapin. The following' year premises were purchased for mission residences, and, ill 1888, Messrs. Chapin and Perkins removed their families to this new station. A kindly reception to the missionaries has been given by the people. The medical work of MI', Atwoo(l, who labored at this station for a time, and later by ~lr, and :;HI',", Perkin~, has heen, as ellSewhere, rno~t helpful' to the evangelistic work. Should the day evo!' come when the Chinese are as eager for the Gospel as they now are for the medicines of the foreign physician, the conversion of the Chinese will be at hand. The mission in North China is of recent origin, but it has been abundantly blessed of God. After more than thirty years of labor in Canton the American Board had but one station and several tens of converts. This was in the early stages of the China missions. In North China the Lord has given us in twenty-eight years five stations in the most important cities of Chihli, two stations in the western part of Shantung, and in these seven stations more than 1,000 converts. '1'he work laid upon the mission is great. The encouragements- to its performance are also gl·eat. The outlook for the future is full of promise. If the mission and its supporters go forward in humble trust in the ever present Saviour and in patient endurance of labor and trial, they will have the honor of being used by God, with other branches of His Church, to establish the Kingdom of Christ in these populous and powerful regions of China, into which ill His providence they were the first among Protestant missions to enter.
A PRIEST, finding a young Irish lad in his parish in possession of a Bible, att~mpted to take it from him on the plea that it was the prerogative of the spiritual father to feed his spiritual babes with " the sincere milk of the Word." " Your ri verence," replied the lad~ "I would rather kape the cow mYAelf."
A CLERICAL wag says that where denominational and sectarian feeling gets the upper hand in a community, even the church bells become intolerant and get a sectarian twang in the ears of the people. The Presbyterian bell seems to peal out, " Or-tho-doxy-orthodoxyl" the Episcopalian, "Con-fir-ma-tion-confirmation I" the :Methodist, "Come to the al-tar-come to the altar!" the Congregationalist, "Inde-pend-ence-independence I" and the Bapt5st, " '1Vant to be dipped-want to be dipped 1"
THE Island of Sumbawa (Sunda series) has the Tomhoro volcano on the north side. In 1815 was a terrific convulsion lasting over three months. '1'he sound was heard 1,000 miles off at Snmatra; the sky was dark with ashes at Java, and the sea covered with them to a depth of two feet for many miles. Awful whirlwinds swept over the land and sea, and out of 12,000 persons only 26 survived.
And yet, even such distress and desolation imperfectly represents, as in a figure, the awful destruction carried to body and soul by the prevalence of heathenism and paganism. Vice is deified and cruelty enthroned. Read Alexander Mackay's just-published memoirs, and get a glimpse of the atrocious cruelties of heathenism. It reminds us. of Java's Valley of Death, half a mile in circuit, where the prevalence of carbonic acid gas makes impossihle the survival of either animal or plant life. The JlIuseo Borbonico, at N aples, ~uggests that Pompeii lay in such a valley.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
BUDDHISl{ AND CHRISl'IANIl'Y-A CRUSADE WHICH MUST BE MET.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
On the 9th of November The New York Herald published an article of four columns and a half, over the signature of Baron Har- don Hickey, a professed Buddhist and missionary chosen to promul- gate Buddhist doctrines in the United States. To an interviewer of another paper Baron Hickey has expressed the belief that America is a peculiarly favorable field for the spread of Oriental doctrines.
The design of the article referred to, which was plausible and rather ably written, was to prove that the history and doctrines of the early Christianity were largely borrowed from Buddhist sources. A reply which was sent to '['lte Herald was refused admission to its columns, but inasmuch as this crusade is being waged in all parts of the United States where it ought to be met by the defenders of the Christian faith, that reply is herewith given in the columns of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. "While well-established Christians and friends of miRsions are not to be disturbed by slich assailment~ as those of Baron Hickey, it is to be remembered that there is a vast border- land lying between the Christian church and the infidel associations of the country, and that it embraces millions of people, especially of the young, and' so long as our weapons of defense are so numerous snd so potential, it is not wise to leave this broad, neutral territory to the mercy of the enemy. The fact that many of the most influential and extensively circulated of our secular papers discriminate in favor of skepticism and irreligion, as being more sensational, renders it all the more necessary that the Christian church should be alert, and that through every legitimate avenue, the clear and convincing truth of Christianity should be as widely circulated as are the manifold errors of our time.
The assumption that Christ became a follower of Buddha is not new. There lies before me, a Buddhist Catechism, by Subhadra. which makes the same allegation. It declares that" the fundamental tenets and the personal character of the founder of Christianity are of Buddhist origin"; that "Jesus was an Arahat and attained Nirvana." Hardon Hickey goes farther and calls him the Maitreyeh whom Buddha predicted. There are a few truths mingled with Baron .Hickey's statements which should be distinguished from his erroneous conclusions. It is true that a limited intercourse was established between India and Greece by the conquests of Alexander, 327 B.C. A few references to Indian customs are found in Strabo, Arrian and Pliny, but it is the wildest assumption to claim that an influence which was so faint even in the great commercial marts, reached and moulded the peasant population of a J udean village, or that the influence was distinctively Buddhistic. Again it is true that asceticism prevailed throughout the East; but that th~ fasting of Christ was borrowed from Buddhism is absurd. ·Moses bsted forty days in Sinai centuries before Buddha was born. Besides, Indian asceticism belonged to Brahmanism and not to the Buddha. It was, indeed, practised by the Essenes, as it was also by the ancient Druids, the Peruvians, the },Iexicans, and even the Hottentots. Among the Jews there was an ascetic school of prophets at Gilgal centuries before Buddha's time.
The field of controversy on which Baron Hickey draws his sword has beeu fought over for the last hundred years, and the parallels which he presents have been exploded over and over again. A century ago Lieutenant Wilford espoused the theory that the entire civilization of Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Rome, including Christianity, had come from India. He importuned the pundits to search for manuscripts, and for a consideration they met the demand. He filled the magazines of Europe with his discoveries. But at last he was constrained to confess publicly that he had been the dupe of Brahman fraud.
A Frenchinan by the name of J acolliot has made a similar attempt in our own time, aiming to show that the life of Christ was a plagiarism upon the story of the Hindu Krishna. He, too, collected manuscripts and translated them; but Professor Max Muller has honeycombed his pompous displays of Oriental learning, and remanded him ~o the same category of dupes with Lieutenant Wilford. In volume V. of "Chips from a German Workshop," he says: "Much of the socalled Sanskrit is not Sanskrit at all, and J acolliot's ancient Vedic quotations are not Vedic and not ancient; they simply belong to the last half of the nineteenth century."
Ages ago Porphry adopted the same tactics, alleging that many things in the life of Christ had been anticipated by Pythagoras; and Julia Domna, wife of Severus, prompted Philostratus to work up a life of Apollonius of Tyana, which should match the history of Christ. (Uhlhorn's" Conflict," etc.) The very latest charge of plagiarism against Christianity has recently been made by the Aryas of India, who allege that the Westminster catechism has stolen its doctrinal statements from them.
Baron Hickey leaves us a little in doubt as to whether the copying from 13uddha is charged upon Christ and his immediate disciples or upon the "creed-mongers of Alexandria" at a later day, or whether all were concerned in the fraud. He thinks that there is no doubt that Christ studied Buddhism and became a disciple, and that Buddhist influence widely prevailed in Palestine. This implies that the Gospel history was in the outset strongly colored by the Buddhist narrative, and that Christ Himself adapted the events of His life to the Buddhist story. The emphasis, however, is put upon the plagiarism of the Alexandrine "creed-mongers." In replying as briefly as possible to Baron Hickey, I "hall endeavor to cover all these im- plications : In strong contrast with these cheap assertions of Alexandrine {lorruption and plagia)'ism is the frank admission of such keen critics as Renan, Yeiss, Volkmar, Schenkeland Hitzig, that the Gospel story as we have it was written during a generation in which some of the companions of Jesus still lived. Renan says of Mark's GORpel that "it is full of minute observations, coming, doubtless, from an eye-witness," and he asserts that :Matthew, Mark and I"uke were written "in substantially their present form by the men whose names they bear." These Gospels were the work of men who knew J eSUSj Matthew was one of the twelve; John, in his Epistle, speaks of him- self as an eye-witness. They were written in a historic age and were open to challenge. Thcy were nowhere contradicted in con- temporary history; they tit their environment and their age.
How is it with the authenticity of Buddhist literature? Oldenberg says: "For the when of things men of India have never had a propel' organ;" and Max Muller declares to the same effect that" the idea of a faithful, literal translation seems altogether foreign to Ori- ental minds." He also informs us that there is not a single manuscript relating to Buddhism ~'hich is a thousand years old, and scarcely one that can claim five hundred years. For centuries after Gautama's time nothing was written; all was transmitted by word of mouth. Buddhists themselves say that Pali canonical texts were written about 88 B.C.
Any fair comparison of the two histories should confine itself to the writings which are regarded as canonical and whose dates can be fixed. No more importance should be attached to the later Buddhist legends than to the "Apochryphal Gospels," or to the absurd "Ohristian I"egends," which appeared in the middle ages. The Buddhtst canon was adopted by the council of Patna, 242 B.C. The legends which Baron Hickey compares with the canonical story of Ohrist are not included in that canon, or, at most, very few of them. 'rhoy are drawn from certain poetical books written much later, and holding about the same relation to the Buddhist canon that the" Paradise Lost" and" Paradise Hegained," of Milton, bear to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Who would think of quoting "Paradise Lost" in any sober comparison of Biblical truth with the teachings of other religions?
Even the canonical literature, that which is supposed to contain tlIe true history and teachings of Buddha, is far from authoritative, owing to the acknowledged habit-acknowledged even by the author of the Dhammapada-of adding commentaries, notes, etc., to original teaclIings. Not only was thi8 common among Buddhist writers, but (lven more surprising liberties were taken with the narrative. For example, the legend describing Buddha's leave-taking of his harem is clearly borrowed from an earlier story of Yasa, a wealthy young householder of Benares, who, becoming disgusted with his harem, left his sleeping dancing girls, and fled to the Buddha for instruction. Davids and Oldenberg, in translating this legend from the" 11aha- vagga," say, in a note: "A well-known incident in the life of Buddha has evidently been shaped after the model of this story," and they declare that" nowhere in the Pall Pitakas is this scene of Buddha's leave-taking mentioned."
As another evidence of the way in which fact and fiction have been mixed and manipulated for a purpose, one of the legends, which has of-ten been presented as a parallel to the story of Christ, repre- sents the Buddha as repelling the temptation of :Mara by quoting texts of "scripture," and the scripture referred to was the Dhamma- pada. The blunder here is amusing; first, because the Dhammapada was compiled hundreds of years after Buddha's time, and second, there were no "scriptures" in Buddha's time, for nothing was written till two or three centuries later; and third, Buddha is made to quote his own subsequent teachings, for the Dhammapada clai.ms to consist of the sacred words of the" enlightened one." l10st of the legends of Buddhism were wholly written after the beginning of the Christian era, and it cannot be shown that any were written ill their present form until two or three centuries of that era had elapsed. T. Rhys Davids says of the" Lalita Yistara," which contains a very large proportion ofthem, that" there is no real proof that it existed in its present form before the year 600 A.D." The" Romantic Legend" cannot be traced farther back than the third century A.D. Oldenberg says, "No biography of Buddha has come down to us from ancient times, from the age of the Pali texts, and we can safely say that no such biography was in existence then." Beal declares that the Buddhist legend as found in the various epics of N cpaul, Thibet and China, "is not framed after any Indian model (of any date), but is to be found worked out, so to speak, among Northern peoples, who were ignorant of, or indifferent to, the pedantic stories of the Brahmans. In the Southern and primitive records the terms of the legend are wanting. Buddha is not born of a royal family/ he is not tempted befo1·e his enlightenment/ he works no miracles, and he is not a Universal Saviour."
The chances are decidedly that if any borrowing has been done it was on the side of Buddhism. :Mr. Hickey's assertion that 30,000 Buddhist monks from Alexandria once visited Ceylon (and he giyes this not as a legend but as a historic fact) is absurd on the face of it; hut that a Christian colony settled in 11alabar at a very early day is at tested by the presence of thousands of their followers even to this day. Christianity has always been restrictive and opposed to admixtures with other systems. It repelled the Neo-Platonism of the "creed-mongers" of Alexandria (they borrowed from Plato, not from Buddha), and it fought for two or three centuries against Gnosticism, Manichaeism and similar heresies; and the assumption, in the face of all this, that the Christian Church went out of its way to copy Indian Buddhism, must be due either to gross ignorance or to reckless misrepresentation.
On the other hand, it is in accordance with the very genius of Buddhism to borrow. It has absorbed every indigenous superstition, and entered into partnership with every local religious system from the Devil worship of Burmah and Ceylon to the'raouism of China and the Shintoo of Japan.
In its long-continued contact with Christianity it has changed from the original atheism of Gautama to various forms of theism, and in some of its sects, at least, from a staunch insistence on selfhelp alone to an out-and-out doctrine of salvation by faith. This is true of the Shin and Yodo sects of Japan. :From recognizing no God at all at first, Buddhism had, by the seventh century A.D., a veritable trinity with attributes resembling those of the Triune God of the Christians, and by the tenth century it had five trinities with one Supreme Adi-Buddha over them all. Each reader must judge whether these late interpolations of the system were borrowed from the New Testament Trinity which had been proclaimed through all the East many centuries before.
Buddhism is still absorbing various elements through the aid of its various apologists. Sir Edwin Arnold has greatly added to the force of its legends by the Christian phrases and Christian conceptions which he has read into them. Toward the close of the "I"ight of Asia" he also introduces into the Buddha's sermon at Kapilavostu the teachings of Herbert Spencer and others of our own time.
Even the" analogies" of the Buddhist legends, as a late apologist calls them, are undergoing a rapid development. Professor Seydel was ingenious enough, with the help of fact and fancy, to make out fifty-one" parallels" to the Gospel history; Baron Hickey has up to date" one hundred." Doubtless still more are to follow.
In discussing the specific charge of copying Buddhist legends in ~he Gospel narratives, we are met at the threshold by insurmountable improbabilities. To anyone who nnderstands the spirit of Judaism and its attitude toward heathenism of all kinds, it is simply inconceivable that the Christian disciples, whose aim it was to propagate the faith of their Master in a Jewish community, should have borrowed old Indian legends, which, by the very terms of Baron Hickey's supyosition, must have been widely known as such. And our Buddhist friends must admit that it is a little strange that the Scribes and Pharisees who were intelligent, and 3S alert as they were bitter, should never have exposed this transparent plagiarism. The great concern of the Apostles was to prove to Jews and Gentiles that Jesus was the Christ of Old Testament prophecy. The whole drift of their preaching and their epistles went to show that the Gospel history rested squarely and uncompromisingly on a Jewish basis. Peter and John, Stephen and Paul constantly" reasoned with the Jews out of their own Scriptures." How unspeakably absurd is the notion that they were trying to palm off on those keen Pharisees a Messiah who, though in the outset at Nazareth he publicly traced his commission to Old Testament prophecy, was all the while copying an atheistic philosopher of India.
It is equally inconceivable that the Christian fathers should have copied Buddhism. They resisted Persian mysticism as the work of the devil, and it was in that mysticism, if anywhere, that Buddhist influence existed in the Levant. Whoever has read 'l'ertullian's withering condemnation of Marcion may judge how far the fathers of the Church favored the heresies of the East. Augustine had himself been a Manichean mystic, and when after his conversion he became the great theologian of the Church, he must have known whether the teachings of the Buddha were being palmed off on the Christian world. The great leaders of that age were men of thorough scholarship and of the deepest moral earnestness. Many of them gave up their po!'sessions and devoted their lives to the promotion of the truths which they professed. Scores of them sealed their faith by martyr deaths.
But even if we were to accept the flippant allegation that they were all imposters, yet we should be met by an equally insurmountable difficulty in the utter silence of the able and bitter assailants of Christianity in the first two or three centuries. Celsus prepared himself for his well-known attack on Christianity with the utmost care, searching history, philosophy and every known religion from which he could derive an argument against the Christian faith. Why did he not strike at the very root of the matter by exposing those stupid" creed-mongers" who were attempting to playoff upon the intelligence of the Roman world a clumsy imitation of the far-famed Buddha? It was the very kind of thing that the enemies of Ch:'istianity wanted. vVhy should the adroit Porphyry attempt to wor~.;: up a few mere scraps of resemblance from the life of Pythagoras and why should the wife of a Roman emperor employ a man to trump up precisely such a story as our baronial friend now asks us to believe, when all they had to do was to lay their hands upon familiar legends which afforded an abundance of the very articles in demand?
But altogether the most stupendous improbability lies against the whole assumption that Christ and His followers based their" essential doctrines" on the teachings of the Buddha. The early Buddhism was atheistic. This is the common verdict of Davids, Childers, Sir Monier Williams, Kellogg and many others. The Buddha declared that "without cause and unknown is the life of man in this world," and he recognized no higher being to whom he owed reverence. The "Buddhist Catechism," to which I have already referred, shows that modern Buddhism has no recognition of God.
It says (page 58): "Buddhism teaches the reign of perfect goodness and wisdom without a personal God, continuance of individuality without an immortal soul, eternal happiness without a local heaven, the way of salvation without a vicarious Saviour, redemption worked out by each one himself without any prayers, sacrifices and penances, without the ministry of ordained priests, without the intercession of saints, without divine mercy." And then, by way of authentication, it adds: "These and many othel's which have become the fundamental doctrines of the Buddhist religion were recognized by the Buddha in the night of his enlightenment under the bodhi tree."
And yet we are told that this is the system which Christ and His followers copied! Compare this passage with the Lord's Prayer or with the discourse upon the lilies and its lesson of trusts-I appeal not merely to Christian men, but to any man who has brains and common-sense-was there ever so preposterous an attempt to establish an identity of doctrines? But what is the evidence found in the legends themselves? Several leading Oriental scholars, and men not at all biased in favor of Christianity, have carefully examined the subject, and have decided that there is no connection whatever. Professor Seydel, of Leipsic, who has given the most scientific plea for the so-called coincidences, of which he claims there are fifty-one, has classified them as: (1) Those which have been merely accidental, having arisen from similar causes and not necessarily implying any borrowing on either side. (2) Those which seem to have been borrowed f~om the one narrative or the other, and (3) those which he thinks were clearly copied by the Christian writers. In this last class he names but five out of the fifty-one.
Kuenen, who has little bias in favor of Christianity, and who has made a very thorough examination of Seydel's parallels, has completely refuted these five. (See" National Religion and Universal Religion," page 362.) And, speaking of the whole question, he says: "I think we may safely affirm that we must abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest direct influence on the origin of Christianity." He also says of similar theories of De Bunsen, "A single instance is enough to teach ns that inventive fancy plays the chief part in them." (" Hibbert Lectures," 1882.) Rhys Davids, whom Subhadra's "Buddhist Catechism" approves as the chief exponent of Buddhism, says on the same subject: "I {lan find no evidence of any actual or direct communication of those ideas common to Buddhism and Christianity from the East to the West. " Oldenberg denies their early date, and Beal denies them an Indian origin of any date.
Let us now ctmsider Baron Hickey's analogies seriatim: 1. "The genedogies of both Buddha and the Christ are traced from their fathers, not their mothers." This parallel would fit }Iohammed as well as Buddha. The whole argument rests upon the assumption that the mother of Buddha was a virgin, which is con- trary to canonical Buddhist history. The Sacred and Historic Book of Ceylon translated by Edward Upham, tell us that Buddha was born in wedlock. The late King of Siam, in a sketch of the Buddha, says that "he was born of natural generation." Subhadra in his Catechism says that "his parents were King Suddhodana and Queen Maya." Even the wild J ataka legends of Ceylon declare the same. 2. Baron Hickey declares that the conception by the Holy Ghost, announced by Gabriel, corresponds with Maya's dream of the white elephant. But his story of the white dove is manufactured for the purpose; no such myth was ever held by any Christian sect. 3. He compares the coming of the wise men with frankincense with the Brahmans who hastened with congratulations to the palace of Suddhodana. There is no canonical authority for the latter, though it was a common custom, and would have no significance. 4. "As Herod was afraid of the child, so King Bimbasara told his ministers to search the land to find whether any famous child had been born." Herod meant murder; Bimbasara, according to the Jataka legends, merely sent to inquire about the great teacher and his doctrines. 5. "The Simeon of the Bible corresponds with the Brahman Asita, an aged man who came to see the thirty-two marks and the eighty signs of the Buddha." This is a clumsy after-thought. How should anybody be looking for marks of a Buddha on a Hindu baby thirty years before Buddhism had been thought of? 6. "The presentation of Jesus in the temple is similar to a corresponding one in the childhood of the Buddha." This is one of Professor Seydel's" evident cases of borrowing." But such presentations of children were required under both the Jewish and the Hindu systems, and the claim of any particular parallel is weak. 7. "In his twelfth year Jesus was found in the temple, discoursing with the doctors, so, also, the father of Buddha found his son in the wood, surrounded by sages, etc." This does not agree with the Sinhalese legends, which say that the Buddha's youth was given to pleasure, and that his zenana contained 40,000 dancing girls. 8. "The Buddha bathed in the stream N aranjana, and J esu~ was baptized." This bath occurred when Buddha resolved to abandon his Brahmanical asceticism; he no longer regarded dirt as a means of grace. Whoever has seen a Hindu fakir besmeared with wet ashes will realize the significance of Buddha's "j:>ath, and, there- fore, of Baron Hickey's parallel.
9. "The forty days' fast in the wilderness is· common to both teachers." If any borrowing were required it would have been done from the life of Moses, who fasted forty days in Sinai. Buddha. never fasted forty days. The" Mahavagga" tells us that after his "enlightenment" he passed twenty-eight days i'njoyou8 meditation. His "Middle Path" shunned fasting as one extreme. He had begun to eat. He received his enlightenment on a full stomach-the first in six years.
10. There is no real parallel in the temptations of the two, though both are said to have been tempted. Buddha was tempted, according to Southern legends, several times and in respect to differ- ent things, but not at the beginning of his ministry.
11. "The heavens opening and the voice from heaven proclaiming the teacher are to be found in the Buddhist scriptures." Where?'
12. As to Buddha's Sermon on the Mount, high and breezy summits were often resorted to, especially the Vulture's Peak. It· was an incident of a hot climate in both caseS.
13. "The first disciples of Jesus, and even Jesus Himself, were at first followers of John the Baptist. The number of disciples in both accounts was at first five, afterwards sixty. "(?) As a matter of fact, Christ's disciples were not graduates from the school of John, but were called from their fishermen's boats. Instead of being a teacher of Jesus, John felt unworthy to unloose His shoe latchet.
14. "Both performed wonders." Buddha particularly disclaimed miraculous powers: the miracles were subsequent embellishments.
1.5. The incident of Buddha's walking on water needs a more particular statement with time and place and authority.
16. That both he and the Christ had a presentiment of death is very probable.
1 7. It is quite possible, also, that, among the thousands of Buddha's converts, were courtesans; but that the rich and brazen Ambapali who invited the Buddha and his disciples to dine, was the model after whom the Gospel narrative 'formed the picture of the crushed and penitent Magdalene, is far-fetched.
18. As for triumphal entries into cities-if a crowd of followers is meant, both, probably, had many-Christ at Jericho as well as at Jerusalem. Buddha is said to have been followed on one occasion by twelve hundred people, and King Bimbasara is said to have interviewed him with 80,000 of his overseers! 19. (( Both systems were missionary religions from the start." This is true; but how paltry is the notion that a mere motive of imi- tation prompted the wide-spread evangel of Christianity!
20. Weare told that (( Buddha fed the hungry," instead of which he was a mendicant and carried a beggar's bowl, and never performed a miracle.
. 21. As to the question asked of Jesus by the by-standers: (( Did this man sin or Bis parents that he was born blind?" If metempsychosis was in their minds, they could have borrowed it from the Greeks who had held it from the days of Pythagoras.
As to the general question, there seems to be little need of assuming that these shadowy coincidences denote borrowing on either side. Many of them are merely fanciful and are the work of modern apologists. Many others are such natural correspondences as might spring from similar causes. If incidents have in any case been borrowed, the chances are much greater that all-absorbing ever-changing Buddhism has been the copyist.
New York, November 25, 1890.
[The editor is constrained to add that the article which is printed above is, as he thinks, the most painstaking production that Dr. Ellinwood has, perhaps, ever written. It is felt by many who have seen it before it appeared in these pages that it ought to be put in some permanent form. Rev. Dr. Paxton, of Princeton Seminary, has pronounced it "a perfect rejoinder." vVe make a great mistake if we assume that merely ignoring and" pooh-poohing" at the active and aggressive movements of error are going to meet the case. The war is upon us. The old fathers of the early churcn did not confine themselves to pious denunciation. Think of Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Origen, how they fought with the beasts of Ephesus, and how magnificently they conquered the haughty heathenism of Greece and Rome. This paper will undoubtedly be reprinted in tract form.] WE often speak of ourselves as only" instruments in God's hands." It is our privilege to think of ourselves, if we are truly His servants, as agents. An instrument is a dumb, senseless, lifeless thing, which has no active, intelligent power even to co-operate with him who handles and uses it; but an agent (ago) is one who acts)· however, in behalf of, and under control of, another, yet acting intelligently and individually, as Aaron spoke under Moses' dictation. Even the ox and ass yield a voluntary, intelligent obedience, and are far above the plo}V they drag or the goad by which they are urged on. Weare God's agents, and He worketh not only by us, but in us, both to will and to work. (See Greek of Philippians, ii., 13.)
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF'THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
II. THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH.* BY PROFESSOR HENRY WOODWARD HULBERT.
It would be difficult to point out a scene of more dramatic historic interest than that laid in the upper room of prayer at Jerusalem in the year 30 A.D., between Thursday, May 18th, and Sunday, May 28th. The Master had gone, never to return to quiet again the doubt of a Thomas with a material argument. He had left them unexpectedly, but His parting words contained a promise and a command. The little, trembling church, ~he muscles of whose lips had hardly ceased articulating the question: "Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" was waiting with breathless expectation to be clothed upon with power. There sat restless Peter, the echoes of whose blasphemies had hardly died away. There were John and J ames and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of J ames. There were the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his. brethren and others, swelling the number of names to one hundred and twenty-one hundred and twenty poor, weak men and women in the midst of a rich and powerful civilization with as many millions. The minute hand in the great clock of destiny was rapidly nearingthe critical point. The child of many promises, the dream of patriarchs and kings and prophets, the only tangible outcome of the life and death of Jesus the Messiah-the fate of all seemed to hang in the balance. The whole future of the world-its wide-spread lands, its. unnumbered billions (present and to come)-lay in the prayers of a few broken-hearted, yet believing souls. 'Vho could have predicted the result?
Let us notice, in a cursory way, the geographical conditions. which surrounded this little church of six score members on May 28th,. 30 A.D. Putting aside very largely the profounder conditions, moral and intellectual, we ask: What were the natural, political, commercial, linguistic and racial features of the known world which were to compose the environment of the primitive church as it commenced its conquest of the globe? An answer to this question will involve a study of (1) the extent of the known world at that era, (2) the character and extent of the Roman civilization, (3) the commercial and' military relations of this civilization to outlying barbarism, (4) the spread of the Latin and especially the Greek languages, and lastly (5) the wide dispersion of the Jewish race throughout the world.
Take an ordinary school globe and cover up on it all that portion unknown to the geographers, 30 A.D., and we are at once impressed with * For article I. of this series see MISSIONAl!.Y REVIEW OF THE WORLD, Jan- uary, 1890, pp. 26-32. the small extent of the known world. It seems like a mere toy as contrasted with the great bustling earth of to-day. As far as civilization was concerned that was nothing more than a Mediterranean world. A stretch of three thousand miles east and west, and of fifteen hundred miles north and south contained it all. Britain was still unconquered. The fierce Parthian, hardly weaned from his pastoral life in Central Asia, was the greatest organized enemy of Rome. He had learned a little bit of the lesson of civilization from the conquered Persian, but he was still essentially barbaric. India was superficially known by navigators, and far-away China was reached by caravan routes. Travelers occasionally brought in reports of strange lands an.d peoples; captives struggled back to the confines of civilization with marvelous tales of Hyperborean paradises, and one-eyed monsters; but all about this confined areaof terra cognita lay the great, impenetrable cloud-land of terra incognita. The Pentecostal church prayerfully faced the Roman civilization, but what of the vast stretches of sea and land still veiled from their eyes, but included in their }faster's last command? In spite of ignorance, which they shared with the wisest of antiquity, the apostolic leaders were able to grasp the thought" every knee shall bow and every' tongue confess to God." Their faith was wider than the known world. They were assured that there could not be " Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all." Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa, teaching the impartial love of God to every human soul on earth, was the most comprehensive social lesson the world ever received. The apostles and the earliest evangelists are supposed to have done missionary work far outside the limits of the empire, going as far as India and Sonthern Russia.
But the immediate task before Christianity was the conquest of the centres of civilization-the Roman Empire. Let us notice the geographical characteristics of this Mediterranean world as related to the company of Christian believers in J ernsalem. (1) It was an empire of cities. Rome began with a city, she conquered cities, and from beginning to end her genius was municipal. In the East this was not so strictly true as in the West. The nomad life of the Orient could not be so easily brought and held together; but Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt were honeycombed with thrifty cities. Christianity must needs then handle cities and their thronging population. As the apostles looked out upon the Roman empire they found from four to five thousand cities to be reached. For three or four centuries Christianity was destined to be municipal in its methods, and this gave a determining bent to the whole future of the Church. (2) The tideless }:Iediterranean furnished easy access by water from city to city. It was covered with sails employed ill a thrifty commerce. The Roman fleet swept the pirates from the seas and gave security to the humblest craft. A great number of the cities were situated on or near the sea, and a map of the coast looks like a string of pearls broken only at the Bosphorus and at Gibraltar. (3) Splendid Ro- man roads connected all parts of the empire so that news was carried rapidly and power was quickly concentrated and distributed. From Jerusalem one could walk over these superb roads, a few years later, all the way to Scotland, with only the narrow bodies of water to cross, a distance of 4,080 Roman miles (3,740 English). Along these highways trudged the messenger of the Gospel, from city to city, counting the mile·stones as he went, and wondermg, perhaps, whether the words of the prophet were not fulfilled: "Cast ye up, cast ye up: prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people." (Isaiah Ivii~14.) (4) Over one hundred million people were thus by land and water ways compactly drawn together in a territory containing less than two million square miles. Geographically considered, no portion of the globe furnishe.s so interesting a bat~le·field for religious conquest as the territory of the old Roman empire.
Roman civilization spread itself outside its own regions by two methods-commercial and military-and Christianity must needs follow in the track of merchants and armies. Caravan rontes came streaming in like rivers into the common basin of the Mediterranean, through the trackless Sahara from Central Africa, down the Nile from the Great Lakes, from Yemen along the Red Sea, from the Persian Gulf through the Syrian desert, and from Mesapotamia, where was centred the trade of Central Asia. To this husy mart on the eastern border of the empire, came pouring in the treasures from the Persian Susa, from Hyrcania and from Bactria, which in turn drew npon China through Statio Mercatorum and upon Hindustan and Farther India through Clisobra.
Turning from the land trade to, the sea, the routes are no less numerous or patronized. The whole coast of Southern Asia was familiar to the merchants and regular routes by sea were open, find· ing their natural termini in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Along this extensive seaboard on the Indian Ocean the rude craft crept timi,lly without the compass, but the markets of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome were well stocked with the dainties of the far East. Another thrifty line of commerce found its way from the great river systems of what is to.day Russia, down through the Bosphorus. Still 3nother line came pouring into the outlet of the Mediterranean from distant Britain, and daring navigators pushed along the coast of the North Sea, and even penetrated the Baltic lands in search of trade. If a little later we find Christianity firmly planted in far-away places let us not be astonished. The door was providentially open and the missionaries of the early church could easily enter. A very large portion of the earliest evangelists were merchants, and the laity from the first have furnished the main agencies for the spread of the Gospel.
Garrisons of Roman soldiers were stationed all along the borders of the empire. These military barracks soon became centres from which Christianity could spread outside the civilized world. The new religion took easily to the Roman camp and these isolated spots along the Rhine, the Danube, the Euxine and the Euphrates became points of light. Tracing the legend of St. George back to the facts of which it is a distortion, we find that he was one of these Roman soldiers. When the armies pushed beyond the boundaries of the empire Christianity was sure to go with them. Christian soldiers captured and enslaved by barbarians were the means of converting whole nations.
Another geographical condition of the greatest importance to Christianity was the wide extent of the territory over which the Greek and the Latin languages were spoken. The administration of civil and military government was through the Latin. The language of business, science and literature was the Greek. At the opening of the Christian era Hellenistic Greek was the lingua Franca of the Roman world. Greek colonies had been established all around the :Mediterranean, and these had determined the language of commerce-there has never been an instance in history where the language of commerce has failed finally to win its way to every station of life. It is a truism that Greek letters and arts conquered Rome more effectually than the legions of the Republic had overcome the Peninsula of Hellas. The New Testament was composed in this universal language, and all through the early centuries Christian churches were Hellenistic. Later on the Latin tongue took the supremacy in the 'Vestern world and still remains the liturgical language of the majority of Christians.
But more important to the Christian Church than any of the conditions mentioned was the geographical distribution of the Hebrew race. Everywhere synagogues were the early preaching-places of the apostles, and the majority of the Christians of the first century were of Jewish extraction. Christianity, as the fulfillment of the Old Testament religion, naturally turned to the be,lievers in that Revelation. Providentially, it seems, these seven millions of people, with their monotheism, their nobler conceptions of God and their purer ethics and life had been scattered broadcast over the Roman world and even beyond its boundaries. The Sibylline oracle says that "every land and every sea" was filled with them. Strabo, writing of the century before Christ, says that the Jewish people had already come into every city and that it was not easy to find a place in the world which had not received this race and was not occupied by them. Josephus, Philo, imperial epistles, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, tell the same story. Forcibly torn from their country, frightened away from Palestine, the battle-ground of the Asiatic world, enticed away by flattering offers from Ptolemy, Seleucidae and Roman governors, lured to the most distant climes by the hope of gain-this race started out on the most singular career history can show us of a nation keeping its nationality without a national terri- tory.
Let" us notice more particularly their whereabouts in the year 30 A.D. There were three centres about which the Jews were gathered in masses-Syria, Egypt and Mesopotamia-although some parts of Asia Minor and Cyrene in Africa might almost be ranked with the three·mentioned. At the time of which we are dealing there were, according to the latest and best authorities, four million Jews in Syria from the Taurus range to the Sinaitic peninsula-a population twice as large as that occupying that same region to-day. Jerusalem, Damascus and Antioch were the centres; but we may suppose that every city and village in Syria had representatives, and that houses of prayer were found everywhere.
In Egypt Philo (an Alexandrian Jew born about 20 B. c.) estimated that there were one million Jews out of a total of nine million inhabitants. The city of Alexandria had several quarters occupied exclusively by this race. Prayer-houses were found all over the city. Jews were scattered overthe Delta and up the Nile we know not how far. The Falashas of Abyssinia to-day indicate a powerful Jewish influence on the upper Nile at an early period. The Jewish sect of the Therapeutre had their chief seat on Lake Maroetis. The influence of the Alexandrian Jews was all out of proportion even to their great numbers.
There were one million Jews in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, on the very b,:mier of the empire. These were the descendants of those members of the ten tribas and of the Kingdom oi Judah, who had been carried away in captivity and had not returned. In fact, after the so-called return from captivity these eastern communities seem continually to have grown by accessivns from all parts. J osephud count:'! these colonies of his people not by thousands but by millions. The Talmudic schools of Babylon were equally influential with the western schools. Elsewhere it is estimated that there were scattered one million Jews, making seven millions in all. They seem to be living everywhere in Asia Minor. Strabo divides the inhabitants of Cyrene into four classes-citizens, agriculturists, metoikoi andJewsshowing that this race, so troublesome to the Roman authorities, was numerous there. We find traces of Jews all along the north coast of Africa. In Thrace, Macedonia and Greece we know from the Book of the Acts that they were plentiful. Agrippa's epistle to Caligula. also gives ample evidence. At Rome and Puteoli there were large colonies of Jews-Cicero, Suetonius, Philo and Josephus are our witnesses for Italy. They were found in Spain and Gaul in all the cities. 'Herod Archilaus was banished to Vienne and Herod Antipas to Lugdunum (I,yons) both in the Rhone Valley. Outside the Roman empire we know there were Jews in Ethiopia, Southern Arabia, Ar-' menia, Iberia, Chalchis, Crimea, II.):rcania, and even in distant China.. In fact, it is difficult to mention a district of the known world at the date 30 A.D., which did not have representatives of the Jewish race.
These, then, were the more important geographical conditions that faced the Pentecostal church of six score members. There was the Roman empire with its roads and harbors and languages. All about this lay unknown lands and tribes with theil' unnumbered millions. Scattered all over the known world were the Jewswho furnished just so many open doors to the religion ,of the Messiah. It will be the object of succeeding papers to show how the little church threw 'itself fearlessly into the conflict, and won province after province for the kingdom of its. Master, and to show how we have entered into their labors.
THE RAPID GROWTH OF ASIATIC POPULATIONS.
. This is written you from one of our inland stations, one of ~ group of a dozen villages right round about. The one thing that always strikes me in a Chinese town or village is the number of small children that are running loose all around. One thing is certain, the population of this already overgrown empire is certain to be kept ur.
More than that, it is growing within the past twenty-five years with increased rapidity. One estimate puts it now at a yearly advance of four millions. We dwell on the growth of our own population at home, but China is advancing nearly three times as fast. Forty millions in ten years is enough to start and stock a new nation.
Japan, too, is growing rapidly in numbers. A few years ago the people were estimated at thirty-seven or thirty-eight millions. Now the government puts them at forty millions. India, too, shows remarkable results. The census is taken there with great care by the British government. The last census was taken in 1881. Since the previous one taken along from 1867 to 1872 in the different provinces, the gain had been 15,010,304. In all these cases the population is by natural increa~e, and not, as in the United States, by immigration.
These are solemn and impressive figures taken in their 'bearing 011 Christian r'nissions. It will not do to wait till the Jerusalem folks are all converted. ""V. ASHMORE. Swatow, Ohina.
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
[FOR THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.] " 'Vhosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."-Luke xiv: 33.
"One thing thou Iackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me."-Mark x: 21.
" But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet."-Acts v: 1,2.
Examining ourselves, as individuals and as churches, how many disciples of Christ can we find, according to the criterion He has es- tablished in the explicit rule and the explicit injunction above quoted?
No dodging! Let us not get behind the pretense of a heart forsaking, while our hands tenaciously grasp the bulk of our possessions. Let us at least not mock God and" lie unto the Holy Ghost," by saying, "Yes, Lord, I give all to 'fhee," while we actually give nothing, or a dole, or a tithe; lest we join ourselves with Ananias and Sapphira.
in infamy as well as perdition. " Itwere better not to vow."
But all of us members of evangelical churches have thus vowed.
We have all made the profession, or pretense, of Ananias and Sap- phira. 'Ve have consecrated ourselves and all that we have-our persons, our possessions and our children to the Lord. WHERE then are the proceeds? Are they fully laid at His feet, according to the profession? Or is a " part" of them" kept back"? Is it an honest profession, or a lying pretense like that of those two dreadful monu- ments of the Lord's indignation at hypocrisy in the Church? 'Ve do not know how large a part Ananias and Sapphira kept back. Proba- bly it was a small proportion, such as they thought would not be noticed. How many modern Ananiases and Sapphiras are agreeing together to tempt the Spirit of ~he Lord, while joining in the com- muniun of His supreme self-sacrifice, by keeping back, not a minor proportion, but NEARLY ALL, of that which they have solemnly and Imblicly dedicated.
Far be it from us to judge one another. But let us remember that there is a Judge, and that if we would judge ourselves we shoald not be judged. Let us not flatter ourselves, or each other, with vain hopes in Christ that are explicitly excluded by His own reiterated warnings. Can sinners hope for heaven Who love this world so well ?
And are not the ministers of Christ themselves derelict if they €ncourage, even tacitly, the assumption of discipleship on the part of those who give no evidence of a bonafide assignment of so much as thcir pr-operty to the Lord that bought them?
W. C.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 12::>
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK.
-De Macedonier gives the following statistics for Java: 'Vest Java, 11 missionaries, 21 congregations, 20 helpers, 1,963 souls; Bagalen, 4 missic;maries, 60 congregations, 2helpers, 5,937 souls; Salatega Mission, 5 missionaries, 18 congregations, 6 helpers, 534 souls; East Java, 9 missionaries, 27 congregations, 54 helpers, 6,276 souls. Whole number of souls, 14,710. In 1886, 10,979. Increase, 3,731; yearly rate, 11i per cent.
-De Heidenbode, the organ of the Nederlandsche Gereformeerde Zendingsvereeniging (Netherlands Reformed Missionary Association) says very pertinently: "When the sigh ascends from the churches to heaven: 'Lord, the 1,000,000,000 souls of the unchristian world have no bread,' whatis his answer? The same as in the wilderness to his disciples: 'Give ye them to eat.' He was compassionately willing to feed the hungering multitudes, yet he sent down no bread from heaven, and brought up no fish from the sea. The disciples were to give them what they had, and this He blesses, so that there is enough and to spare. Even so, He does not preach the Gospel to the nations through angels, or send down Bibles from heaven in all the varying tongues of earth. We are to give them what we have, and He will add the blessing. "
-The Journal des Missions for September, 1890, gives account of the baptism at Thaba-Bossiou, in Lessuto, of 90 adults.
-The following letter of welcome from King Lewanika, on the Zambesi, to M. Adolph Jalla, is not a bad letter from a heathen king: "To the new missionary, health! Come soon with the peace of thy God. I thank thee for thy letter. I too would fain see thee and salute thee soon, new missionary! I shall soon rejoice to see thee with my eyes. Health, health, it is I who love thee.-LEwANIKA."
-The Journal des Missions, .speaking of the efforts making by some governments to decoy the missionaries into the service of their particular interests, says: "Woe to the herald of the good news of Christ's free salvation who lets himself be enticed by a worldly master, under the cover of promoting civilization, into the service of colonial interests! Here, as elsewhere, everything goes to show that no man can serve two masters, that the church and the world are two distinct domains, that the salvation of souls and the supposed interests of colonists are the most often mutually incompatible."
-The definitive recognition, by England, of Madagascar as under the protectorate (a polite way of saying under the dominion) of France, has led to well-founded apprehensions concerning the London Society's missions there, which have Christianized the ruling tribe of the Hovas. We remember only too well the declaration of the Protestant Guizot: "France abroad means Catholicism." To be sure, the treaty expressly provides that" in the island of Madagascar the missionaries of the two countries shall enjoy a complete protection, religious tolerance, liberty for all forms of worship and for religious instruction are guaranteed." But who believes that if the Jesuits once more came to govern France they would allow it to keep this treaty except evasively? And England is not now the England of Cromwell, or even of Chatham. However, the Protestant steadfastness of Queen Pomare and the Tahitians will doubtless be emulated by Queen Ranavalona and the Hova churches. It is a matter of great thankfulness that the Protestant mission of our French brethren on the Zambesi is likely to be rescued from the ignoble clutch of Portugal and assigned to the benign guardianship of England. The inroads of the children of Mammon, unhappily, cannot be restrained by any power. " Never," says the Journal, "has the world witnessed a partition so gigantic. Whatever may come of it, He that sitteth in the heavens (says yet) I have set my Ki.ng upon my holy hill of Zion."
It is not to be understood, of course, that all the French colonial officers are hostile to Protestant missions. Some are themselves Protestants, and others are friendly to every elevating influence abroad, Protestant or Catholic. M. de Brazza, the great agent of extending the French authority along the right bank {)f the lower Congo, has himself urged the Societe des Missions to establish its mission on the Congo, and promised it his best support. And, although since the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, the French Protestants are only some 600,000 out of 38,000,000, yet their greater mental freedom, more earnest religion, and higher moral standard, make them an antagonizing power manifold greater than their numbers against both atheism and ultramontanism.
-Dr. Warneck, in the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, in answer to a deprecatory remark of Major Wissmann, that Protestant missions ought not to shrink from criticism, observes very pertinently that Protestants criticise their own missions rather too much than too little. Roman Catholics, possessed as they are with the instinct of infallibility, do not criticise theirs at all.
Major Wissmann puts the Roman Catholic missions in Africa above the Protestant, as putting the labora before the ora (which they would hardlyacknowledge), declaring that the Protestants reverse the order. Dr. Warneck replies that they do neither the one nor the other, but, as commanded by Jesus Christ, teach faith in Him, which then becomes the inner principle of both prayer and labor. Dr. Wissmann, like most of such men, seems to regard the Africans only in one light-their relation to the labor market. But, as Dr. Warneck remarks, the Catholic missionaries have bought children (doubtless with the most benevolent intentions) over whom they have power. The Protestants exhort to industry free people, over whom they have only influence. The immediate industrial results, therefore, are more noticeable on the side of the former. The lasting results will turn more largely to the credit of the latter. Even now Major Wissmann acknowledges that, industrially, the Livingstonia Mission equals the best Catholic misl!ions. The trouble with the Catholic missions is, that however benevolently they treat their converts, in so many cases they do not teach them how to go alone.
Dr. Warneck remarks that, although where the Roman Catholics, as in China, have been laboring for three centuries, they have naturally an absolutely greater number of converts, yet they seldom have relatively so large a number if we compare time, outlay, and number of laborers, and that in fields where they and the Protestants have both labored for nearly the same time, the absolutely greater number of converts is almost everywhere on the Protestant side, excluding the European immigrants whom the Catholic reports count in, and whom the Protestant reports count out. Even in East Africa, to which Major 'Wissmann principally refers,the Catholics (not including Uganda.the statistics of which are undetermined) only claim some 2,000 converts, over against some 4,500 of the Protestant missions.
"The present Protestant missions proceed simply in theway of the apostolic missions, when they put their confidence, not in the forms of outward worship, but in the power of evangelical truth. And to-day, also, we do not find that this confidence puts us to shame, as is shown by the results of our missions, e.g., in the South Sea Islands, as well as in West and East Africa, where we have gathered fully a million of free Christians from among the heathen into well organized, and in part already independent, churches. We may well allow that the outward worship of the Roman Church has a certain share in the results of her mission; but much more are these owing to other outward means, e.g., purchase of children, concession of temporal advantages, employment of the civil power, connivance with heathen irregularities, etc."
-In' view of the sharp national animosities, which have attached them- selves to the relations between the Anglo-American Stanley and the German Emin Pasha, the following judgment of Stanley, founded on his latest book, from the great German missionary magazine, is of much value. The Zeit- schrift, has throughout, while genuinely German, held itself clear of all exag- gerated nationalism, in matters which concern universal.humanity and the kingdom of God: "This book leaves no doubt that in Stanley we have to do not only with one of the most heroic, circumspect, enduring of travelers, but also with a warm friend of mankind, a great student of human nature, a wise dealer with men, and a conscientious performer of the commissions assigned to him. He is not lacking in self-consciousness, and the energy with which he is wont to act sometimes verges on recklessness; but without the inflexible firm- ness, which ever and anon degenerates into harshness, he would never have overcome the absolutely gigantic difficulties which lay in his way, and never have attained his end. But Stanley is by no means merely a valiant man of iron will, he has also a warm heart, is full of motherly carefulness, fidelity and devotion to his friends, white and black, nor is he wanting in humility and a sound feeling of piety." He would hardly be a Welshman if his sense of religion were not strong.
-The Societe Centrale Protestante d'Evangelisation, in its forty-third an- nual report, that of 1889, says: "It has a faith, and it confesses it. In this re- gard it has gone beyond the Synod of 1872. It used to be said, as it still is: Why these doctrines? Is not life enough? Bring near the prophets, remove the doctors; inflame the heart and take no care about the head. Inflame the heart with what? The heart, too, has need of reasons, and the reasons of the heart are the very doctrines which you reject. According as these doctrines are pre$ent or absent, religious fervor increases or declines. History teaches us that in all times moral is closely connected with doctrinal relaxation. Why, then, should we separate the prophets and the doctors, as if they did not belong together? They imply each other, they do not exclude each other. Let me only cite three names: St. Paul, St. Augustine, Luther-three glorious prophets and three illustrious doctors. But for the doctrines which it has adopted and propagated, the Central Society would not have done what it has done, for it would neither have felt nor kindled the same confidence."
-" France is divided into two camps, of equal passion, if not of equal strength. The religious society anathematizes the civil society; the civil society anathematizes the religious society, and ever and anon the one point on which they seem to agree is that it is the duty of each to murder the other. Lost in this tumult of battle, what are we doing, we, French Protestants of every denomination? We maintain religious faith and bless social progress. We show France how she may be at one with herself, and be at the same time Christian and liberal. If, weaned of their bitter and resultless struggles, civil and religious society are minded some. day to make peace, they will make it, not under our name, indeed, but on our territory. The triumph of Protestant principles, whether under Protestant forms or not, is the religious future of our country, and of every country." Free religion, not in the infidel but in the Christian sense, as against the compelled religion of the middle ages.
-The Danish churches raised for missionary purposes in 1888, about $24,000. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EXTRACTS.
-The Church Missionary Gleaner for October reports as ready to go out six university men, six clergymen from the Islington school, nineteen single ladies and four others. Adding the wives-" whom we must never leave out of account "-and there is a total of ninety-one new missionaries. "But the day is rapidly coming when that will seem quite small."
-It seems that, as with the ark of old, each African tribe has been afraid to keep the bones of Bishop Hannington, being persuaded that the wrath of heaven has attended each attempt to detain them, until at last they are given to an Englishman who comes from the coast "by the route which Hannington" in his last moments, declared that he died to secure!"
-Miss Ridley, lately gone to China, says in the Gleaner: "I do not do much else but study. I am standing, as it were, on the brink of a wonderful ocean –this difficult, interesting and fascinating language-just playing with a few of the drops."
-It is known that the aborigines of Japan are the Ainos, or Ainus, now mostly found in the northern island, Yezo. They are very degraded, but are said to be rather of our type of race than of the Mongolian. It has been questioned whether they have retained any religion. But the Church Missionary Society missionary to them, Rev. J. Batchelor, writes in the Gleaner, that " they firmly believe in a God who is the life giver and benevolent sustainer of all, and they thankfully and dutifully acknowledge His gifts and mercies."
-It is known how highly the Church of Scotland, both Established and Free, values education in India. It is now, in the Established branch, engaged in reviewing this whole question, and corresponding widely with authorities in Indian affairs. Some of the answers deserve reporting: Sir Charles U. Aitchison, late lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, is very sure that if the chasm now yearning in Hindu belief is filled up by an unchristian theism, the church will have all the sapping and mining to do over again. He mentions the American College at Lahore, as one of the types of schools that ought to be multiplied through India, giving university training, together with the steady personal application of Christian truth by cultivated men. "God forbid," he says, "that I should undervalue preaching and evangelizing. I believe India is only waiting for some native St. Paul to turn by thousands to the Lord. But the more active you are in your schools the better you will be prepared for that day when it comes." Even now, he says, the most and the best converts are from the schools. f Sir William Wilson Hunter says that a Christian government cannot give anti-christian, and, in India, cannot give Christian teaching. The result is deplored, deservedly, by the natives of India. Missionary schools alone can make good the lack. Such schools the government feels free to aid. " It would not do," he says, "that just as Hinduism and Mohammedanism are entering the field of education more largely, Scotland should withdraw from it. Alexander Duff and John Lawrence," he remarks, " went to India in one fear. One saved India for England; the other rescued Christianity from sinking again into such a degradation as that into which the uneducated' Portuguese Christians' had brought it."
Sir William Muir, Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir Richard Temple give similar testimony.
The Rev. Robert Clark, of the Church Missionary Society, thinks that there are friendly Hindu and Moslem teachers whose influence is positively better than that of some nominally Christian teachers. He calls them "Hiram's Carpenters. " It is an error to suppose that the Scottish Establishment in India spendo chiefly for schools. £2,492 is spent for them; £5,488 on evangelistic work.
The Rev. D. Mackicham, D.D., of the Free Church, remarks that there are fewer conversions now at such schools than at first. This he attributes (1) to the great modifications of Hinduism, giving a temporary resting-place to many; (2) to the religious indifference of the age; (3) to the stronger political life awakening in India, carrying off much moral force–all temporary causes, but operative at present.
The Rev. A. Clifford, of the Church Missionary Society, says that "Dr. Duff's converts are the backbone of the native church in Bengal." Few, but mighty.
Bishop Caldwell and Mr. Sharrock declare that these higher schools are the unly way of reaching the higher castes. The Roman Catholics, moreover, are waking up to the importance of education, and the question is, into which scale enlightened India shall be thrown.
James Wilson, Esq., twenty-five years missionary in India, says that the condition of India, that is, especially of Hinduism, with iis compact society and overmastering religion, is unique. Individual conversions cannot be there, at present, the main end. India is a mighty rock to be tunneled, and educa- tion is the process of tunneling. The rate of conversion among the aborig- ines, who may be called the soft rock, does not at all give the rate among the Hindus, who are emphatically the hard rock. As yet, no method of labor has gained many conversions from Hinduism proper. That mission schools have not, therefore, is not against them, while for ultimate results we may well re- gard them as an indispensable agency.
The Hindus are beginning to be alarmed at the absence of ethicai teaching from the government schools. One Hindu journal, quite independent of direct missionary influence, calls for the introduction of a little book, called" The Precepts of Jesus," compiled by Rajah Ramahun Roy, the original leader, I believe, of the Brahmo Somaj. Says Mr. Wilson: "I have nothing to say against other methods of spreading the truth; but I, for one, have no regrets that so many years of my life were spent in India in diffusing among the young people of that country knowledge of any and every kind, including that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation."
Judge Roberts, of the Punjab, brings like testimony to the grievous decline of morality and integrity which has followed the divorce of religion and education. The Rev. S. S. Allnutt, M.A., late of Cambridge, nowof Delhi, says that this system starves the HiNdu conscience, already weak, and leaves the intellectual to struggle with. the animal nature, aggravated by an English propaganda of atheism, "rampant, vaunting, undisguised." The vile Bradlaugh has recently, we remember, visited India, partly to prosecute this apostolate of hell. Even the Mohammedans, it appears (except the heretical Shiites) disdain to acknowledge sin before God, or profess repentance of it. Mr. Allnutt wholly condemns the too usual practice of allowing heathen teachers to give formal instruction in Christain doctrine. _ The Rev. John Paton, formerly chaFllain in Bombay says: "Convert all the aboriginal types and leave the Brahmanical castes untouched, and you have only touched Hindu religion by the fringe. Neglect neither Aryans nor non- Aryans, nor the methods best suited to the genius of either. A mighty citadel (and no citadel of heathenism compares with Hinduism) must be besieged with infinite patience and manful use of every form of appliance." Principal Miller, of Madras, says that the Jesuits have a broad outlook, and the Protestant missions, as yet, a narrow one. Shall educated India, he asks, be Jesuit or Protestant? He strongly condemns the helter-skelter mutual emu- lation of Protestant schools. One-fourth of their revenues, he says, have been spent in paralyzing another fourth.
Mr. Mozumdar, the Brahmo Somaj leader, says that he knows mission school graduates above others by their superior moral principle and greater firmness of character.
A Hindu jurist, callmg for religious education in government schools, de- clares it better that a few should embrace the faith of Christ than that all should become practical atheists.
The Rev. John Monson, B.D., of Calcutta, says that if Protestants do not want Protestant Christianity in India to be absorbed by Roman Catholicism, they must not relax, but intensify, their efforts for the higher education.
The Rev. Johr. Crawford, B.D., says: "Christ has gained, because natives have seen men of all Christian creeds in Britain establishing Christian colleges."
The Rev. Herbert J. Thomas remarks: "The best that the natives of India can say of the English Government is that it is without religion; and they think no better of the English on that account, as their newspapers abundantly show."
On the other hand, various eminent authorities, among them Sir Monier Williams, speak doubtfully as to the results of these schools.
In 1863 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland decided that its higher schools in India should be deeply modified, in the direction of much fuller instruction in religion. Thus modified, it appears to be the mind of the present Missionary Committee, that they ought decidedly to be maintained, as being a needed counteractive to the irreligion of the government schools, and as peculiarly agreeable to the Scottish genius. The General Assembly is yet to take action on the report of the committee.
The Colonial and Continental Church Society, an Anglican institution, formed "to send clergymen, cathechists and schoolma:sters to the colonies of Great Britain and to British residents in other parts of the world," is important among those many semi-missionary societies called into being by the peculiar nature and relations of that dominion" on which the sun never sets." Its total income for 1889-90 was £35,668, of which £17,600 was raised at home, the remainder in the colonies and on the continent. The society takes a part in the Indian missions of British America. It also aims at commending to the French-Canadians a purer form of the Gospel. It appears to represent principally the evangelical school of the Church of England. We observe that the Marquis of Salisbury is one of its subscribers, and that his eminent competitor is not. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel seems to do the same work for the High Church party, although it is an extensive, and in various places rather an interfering, foreign missionary society.
-The Church Missionary Intelligencer for October, 1890, remarks: "The British Empire at the present time is five times larger than that of ancient Persia under Darius; it is four times larger than that of Rome under Augustus; and it is one-eighth larger than all the Russias put together; it is three times the size of the United States, sixteen times that of France, and forty times that of Germany, if we leave out of account her recently acquired territory in Africa. Now, if we admit that God guides the affairs of men, surely there must be some sufficient reason fot placing such. vast popUlations under our control, and when we remember that all these pos~essions have come to us since. the Reformation, it seems as if we had in this fact a hint as to what the reason is!"
-The same number of the Intelligencer, warning against expectations of what may be called a tumultuary movement of conversion in India, says: "In very truth there is no possibility in India of such a thing as a popular movement. There is no public opinion-how could there be in a body of 250,000,000 of people, of divers races, speaking a great number of different languages, and disintegrated by the cleavage of caste, by no means conformable to the strata of society? The conversion of a whole caste would render that of the next above it none the easier, rather all the more difficult. The ocean of Indian thought has been for ages stagnant; there are in it neither tides nor prevailing currents. But the w~ter of life is pouring into it, and creating, at all events, local eddies, which go swirling onwards steadily, spite of their back-waters, towards the throne of Christ."
-The Intelligencer quotes from two organs of·two branches of the Brahmo Somaj the two following declarations: "Christ Jesus. . is as much necessary in this age and in India as He was 1,800 years ago in Judea. As sinful children of men, we, the people of India, are as much in need of the Living Son of the Living God as the people of Judea were in days gone by." "In Christ, humanity, possessing nothing, not even a stone to lay its head upon, declared nothing good but its Father in heaven, surrendered itself wholly to His will, was tortured and killed, and finally was raised to eternal glory and everlasting blessedness. Humanity was reconciled to divinity, and the earth witnessed the rare spectacle of a divine humanity reigning over her." The editor remarks: ,. There is something of a perverse current there, a tendency to philosophize away the realism of Christ's redemption, which is characteristically Indian. But let the Indian mind take its own course-it will be guided at last to the personal acceptance of Christ."
The Rev. Worthington Jukes, of the Afghan Mission of the C. M. S., speaks of a baptized convert of ten years' standing, Hazrat Ali Shah, as being a lineal descendant of Mohammed. He has given up his government appointment to devote himself to mission work.
-The Intelligencer, complaining of the abundance of orthodoxy and the lack of moral feeling in the negro Christianity of West Africa, remarks: "It is not a Luther that is wanted; it is a John the Baptist." Yet it remarks that there is enough of the right spirit to be making a visible impression on the Mohammedans.
-It is known that there is a difference of opinion among missionaries, here and there, as to the use of the native instead of the European dress. There can be no doubt, however, as to the wisdom of Dr. Harford-Battersby's course on the Upper Niger. He says, in the Intelligencer: "For the first time adopted the native dress. Found it very comfortable, and well adapted to the climate. The turban, I believe, is far the best protection from the sun; the tabe, or gown, which is very loose, admits of free ventilation, and at the same time can be modified to suit almost any change of the weather except rain. Below we have the loose trousers and sandals for the feet-very comfortable. It is delightful altogether to have discarded boots and socks." Elsewhere it is remarked how pleased the people are to have the white men condescend to dress like themselves!
-The Intelligencer for October gives from the Matin the following statistics of Roman Catholic missions, mostly French, in Central Africa. The Catholic Missions of Lyons have in the Kingdom of Benin 6 stations, 1 college, 10 schools, 8 orphanages; on the Gold Coast, 6 stations, 3 schools and orphanages; on the Niger, 2 schools and 2 orphanages; in Dahomey, 8 stations,4 schools and 5 orphanages. The Brethren of the Holy Ghost have in Cimbabasie 4 stations, schools and 1seminary; in Gaboon, 6 stations, 3industrial schools; in Senegambia, 15 stations, 1 seminary, 1 printing office, 16 schools, 1 industrial school, 1 orphanage and 1 asylum; at Sierra Leone, 2 stations and schools; in French Congo, 7 stations, 5 schools; in the Lower Congo, 9 stations,l seminary, 5 schools; in Zanzibar, 11 stations, 6 schools, 2 hospitals, 1 industrial school. The White Fathers (Cardinal Lavigerie's missionaries) have in Nyassaland 2 stations, 3 orphanages, 4 schools; in the Sahara, 7 stations; in Kabylia, 1 station; in Nizab, 12 stations, 8 schools, 2 seminaries, 8 orphanages; Upper Congo. 2 stations, 4 schools; in Unyanyembe, 2 stations; at Zanzibar, 1 station; at Tanganyika, 3 stations, schools and orphanages.
-The Intelligencer remarks: "India is becoming more and more visited in the cold season, not only by politicians, and litterateurs, and students, and sportsmen, but by the messengers of Christ. The' missioner' is becoming as distinct a variety of them as the' missionary.'"
-The Bishop of Lahore, at a recent C. M. S. meeting in India, referred to the noble work opening in Kashmir. He said that many converts had recently been gathered in, and all over the district congregations of seventy or eighty met in the simplest of little churches for worship. These churches had not cost more than a rupee per sitting, if he might use that term, for, with the exception of the Bishop, for whom, in consideration of his infirmities, a chair was provided, sittings there were none [laughter]; the people all sat on the ground. The simple service was conducted and joined in with great fervor, and his heart was much touched by a beautiful cUdtom they had of repeating Jai Prabhu Yesu (Victory to the Lord Jesus) as they rose at the conclusion of their service.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
Mr. Max Wood Moorhead writes that: " A Conference of the Student Volunteer Movement is to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, February 26th to March 1st. "The objects are: (1) To bring volunteers and secretaries of foreign mission societies into personal contact; (2) to acquaint the Church with the character, scope and purpose of 'the movement'; (3) to stimulate and arouse to action student volunteers. Christian citizens offer to entertain a thousand guests, and volunteers in hundreds will probably avail themselves of this hospitality. "Such a convention will give secretaries of various boards in the United States and Canada opportunity to confer with candidates, and define the relation which should exist between them; and societies will communicate their spirit and their methods. "The following societies have been invited to send representatires: Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the American Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, the Canadian Inter-Collegiate Missionary Alliance, the United Society of Christian Endeavor, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Epworth League, etc. From many missionary agencies comes the cry of' Debt!' 'Retrench!' The Church seems largely indifferent to the Master's appeal for laborers. We earnestly hope and pray that this gathering may result in a renewed spirit of obedience to the command of Christ, and, consequelitly, the actual sending forth of many laborers. "Foreign missionaries, now at home on furlough, from' every quarter of the globe, will be present. "Will the readers of THE REVIEW pray that all prepartions may be in conformity to God's will, and that all who participate in the coming Conference may be led by the Holy Spirit?"
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND· CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Editorial Items.-[J. T. G.] mission agents, whether English or It will be gratifying to the friends African, that are, in their jUdgment, "vessels meet for the Master's use." of humanity everywhere, to know Earthen vessels they may be; we do that at the last Holland signed the not look for perfection in human in- agreement of the Brussels Confer- struments or instrumentalities; but .ence, authorizing a tariff for revenue ~ve do deeply feel that true missionary work is the Getting forth of the Lord in the Congo Free State, to raise a Jesus Christ both as Saviour and as special fund for the suppression of the King and that this work must be slave trade. If she had held out in done 'by those who, however feeble in themselves, do know Him as their her refusal to concur, the entire Brus- Saviour and obey Him as their King, sels Conference would have been a and who seek, by the power of the failure, as it required unanimous con- Holy Ghost, to be examp~es ': in w<,>r?, in conversation, in chanty, m spInt, sBeenrtlinofTtrheeatysio~f-na1t8o8r5y, powers to the in faith, in purity." to make it ef- -It would be amusing, if it were fective in this modification of the free not so serious, to note the present con- troversyabout mission comity. Here trade clause of the original constitu- are the Baptists criticising the Method- ists for entering Rangoon, and the tion. Lutherans in turn criticising the Bap- tists in. Guntur because they "im- -It is time the good people of this mersed several of their teachers under discipline for irregular conduct." Then country gave a half-hour to the man- we have the Church of England Mis- sionary Society complained of by the ner in which the United States Gov- Presbyterians in Persia, for interfer- ing with their constituency, and so on, ernment is made to play the part of sometimes with cause, and, possibly, sometimes without cause, for we do procuress in the case of Chinese w0n;ten not claim to pass judgment on any of these cases. And all this comes on us at San Francisco. We are not saymg when the brethren are reading essays and making addresses on missionary a word now in favor of letting the comity. We printed in May last an able paper read before the Calcutta Chinese in, nor about our disreputable Missionary Conference on this subject by Bishop Thoburn. That met with a violation of treaty with China; but rejoinder in the same conference by Rev. Mr. Clifford, and now the subabout those who are let in, and the ject is treated in the December num- ber of The Church Mis.'lionary Intellipurposes for which they are admitted.
No Chinese can be landed without a writ of habeas corpus from the district court of the United States. Eleven thousand of these have been issued in order to land Chinese men and women, and ninety-nine out of every hundred of these women are known to be brought hither for the vilest uses of white men as well as Chinese. The President and his Cabinet ought not to allow the majesty of law to screen slavery and lust after this fashion.
-Here is a model utterance by the gencer. The writer concludes by Church of England Missionary Society saying facetiously: "The American in connection with some administra- missionary, though often a magnifitive difficulties in one of their West cent specimen of a Christian gentle- Africa missions, which might well be man is, nevertheless, to the end an adopted as a manifesto by all mis- American, given to going ahead, and -sionary societies: not absolutely beyond the temptation of filibustering. And the English The Committee are solemnly deter- missionary is apt to be ineradicably a mined in humble dgeivpeentdheenSc~eciuetpyo'ns Divine' strength, to support only to mission agenCies and John Bull, accustomed to dwelling on an island, and with no particularpen- next ten years, and hence it is now chant for being interfered with by two-hundred-fold greater than it others." But during the while in was at the beginning of the present which these various brethren discuss century. and re-discuss the modifications nec- essary in the mission co-operative Mr. Gladstone says we have not only policy of the past, a writer in the Har- multiplied wealth in a ratio that is un- vest Fieldsuggests some modus vivendi precedented in the world's history, that the work be not hindered. but we have multiplied the variety of pleasures which wealth commands, What About Our Surplus Wealth 7 also, in a correspondingly unparalleled degree. The New York World recently pub- lished a list of the richest people ia the Archdeacon Farrar is credited with United States, with a rough estimate the statAment that the working-classes of their wealth. We say rough esti- of Great Britain are saving annually mate because when one of these five hundred millions of dollars, and gentlemen, in a legal proceeding, tes- the British nation fifteen hundred miltified, as is asserted, that he could not lions. tell within ten or twelve millions of dollars what his fortune did amount The Japan Mail some while ago to, he only represented the rest of the said there was wealth enough in a very wealthy persons whose fortunes single block of warehouses, between are in part in more or less fluctuating Cornhill and Regent streets, in London securities. It is not assumed there- to buy up the whole of Yeddo, Japan, fore, by us, that the article referred and possibly five times over. It is disto presents precise knowledge, and tinctly the Christian nations that are in some cases may be grossly incor- adding in geometrical ratio to their rect. surplus wealth.
Nevertheless, the outline stands sub- Allowing all this to stand for the stantially representative of the facts moment, take another factor, as well in the case. Here are the names, then, established as careful and consciof seventy-five individuals whose for- entious computation can make so intunes are estimated at more than five definite a propo~ition. It is stated millions of dollars. It includes three after careful examination that the inmen thought to be worth over one crease in the wealth of the Protestant hundred millions of dollars each, and Christians of the United States equals thirty-five individual fortunes which five hundred millions of dollars anexceed ten millions of dollars each. nually. That amounts to the assertion that every three years Protestant The leading statistician of Great Christendom in this country accumu- Britain is made responsible for the lates an aggregated surplus fortune, statement that the increase of the equal to the total estimated fortunes world's wealth between the years 1800 of a hundred and twenty-five of the and 1870 was greater than that of the wealthiest persons in the land, or that eighteen hundred years preceding each year Protestant Christians in this century; and, still further, that the United States lay by a fortune the increase of the wealth in the equal to the sum total accumulated world between the years 1870 and through many years by the Rockefel- 1880 was equal to that accumulated lers, Astors, Goulds and Vanderbi~ts, between 1800 and 1870. In other as estimated by the World's table. words, the world doubled its wealth in the first seventy years of this cen- Now, we have not a word, at this tury, and added an equal sum in the writing, to say about the special dan- gers to any community, in any coun- try or century, of such vast augmenta- tion of wealth. Mr. Gladstone has done well to point out that it is indi- economies; after-we repeat the sumrectly a fertile source of the negative mary-after it has used all it needed, religious tendency of our day. But given all it would, and wasted most we do not propose to moralize about wantonly, it yet has a reserve of unit in one way or another. What we spent fortune reaching the enormous write to accomplish is this: to press sum of $500,000,000 annually! home on every Christian in the land who has any surplus, who one year And this is not supposed to be thE> with another, or after an interval of "saving" of the irreligious or ignorant, ten years, finds he has accumulated but of the very best type of Christian some" savings," the question: What commonwealth. What ought we to are the special obligations growing do with this surplus? What account from savings? will we render of it at last? Not one- sixtieth of so much as these' , savings" If annually the Protestant Christians is given to save the world outside of of this land are accumulating five our country, adding what men give times the wealth of the few men who while living and leave after death. own a hundred millions of property after a lifetime, or as the accretions of We cast no reflections. We read no more than one generation, what is homilies. We prescribe no action.' this same Protestant Christendom pro- We only put an interrogation point posing to do with these five hundred before one part of the Christian millions of annual surplus? It must Church in the richest and most luxube borne in mind just what the charac- riant land on the globe over against ter of this is. It is not what these the increment of its savings. Christians now want. It is what is left. After our Protestant Christen- J. T. G. dom has supplied all its wants, catered as far as it pleases to all its whims, The Press in Heathen Lands. spent on its viands all it cared to indulge in, wornjust" as good or expen- BY J. T. GRACEY. sive raiment as it has pleased to buy, indulged itself in art and literature The area of the reading population and travel, spent on the education of of the worla has been vastly extended chilUren all it could be induced to within the century, and in heathen spend, made merry the Christmas and lands as a direct result, in large part, of other holidays, indulged ~n all lawful, the modernmission. In India the Hindu possibly some questionable amuse- and Mohammedan readers are increasments, hospitably and socially enter- ing at present at the rate of a million tained friends and neighbors; after it and a half a year. Before the translahas, besides all this, generously spent tion of the Bible scarcely one-thirtieth in charity and benevolences, sustained part of the population of Bengal could all the churches, built all the colleges, read, and at the beginning of this cenand subscribed as liberally as it could turythat vast province and its Bengalibe induced to subscribe for missions speaking millions had no prose literain this and other lands; after it has, ture; now it is extensive and rapidly in a word, been as public-spirited as increasing. it pleased to be in forwarding all humanitarianism and religion while What we say of Bengal is but typiliving, and bequeathed all it would to cal of the rest of India and of other be spent or given away after death parts of the Moslem and heathen -spent, donated, squandered, be- world where the mission has entered. queathed; and after it has wasted untold thousands, being reckless of Not to delay with further illustra- tions in heathen lands, though the literary vaulting of young Japan is a tempting theme, let us take a single illustration from Moslem literature. That we will select, not from Delhi or Lucknow, which furnish most start- publishes newspapers in a dozen oJ' ling and arousing facts of recent liter- morelanguages,would ofitselfindicate ary ventures, but from the dead-line the relation of the mission to literary of the Moslem intellect in the coun- activity. Butthe intent of this present tries lying on the eastern borders of paper is to call attention to the use the Mediterranean. We pass by the which is being made by the press of twenty millions of pages of Arabic some heathen lands in antagonism to literature issued in Beirut in 1889 by Christianity. Illustrations are abun-' the Presbyterians, because it is Chris- dant in Japan and in Moslem lands. tian, and even the great dictionaries, We will, however, limit ourselves to grammars and chrestomatics in Ara- selections from India. bic, of the Roman Catholic press at Beirut, for the same reason. All of the six hundred native news- papers of India, except a half-dozen, The Moslem literary stir is indicated may be set down as inimical to Chris- by the officially reported pUblications tianity. In all the larger Indian cities in Constantinople in three months of there'is a fair proportion of youths 1889, of which 143 were Turkish, 3 who have received an English educa- • Arabic, 2 F re~, and the others tion, many of whom are bitterly hos- in Armenian, Neo-Greek, Bulgarian, tile to Christianity. There is an abun- Servian, French and Italian. dant supply of imported European infidel literature sown broadcast Egypt is not a country to which one among these young men. But not is likely to turn to find the freshest only is the newspaper turned against literature. But the presses of Cairo us, but organizations modeled after are turning out works of vast impor- our Christian tract societies have been tance. The Turkish, dictiona~y, established and are in active operation. "Kamus," and the "Tag-al-aurus," The" Free Thought Depot" in Madras the great dictionary of classical Ara- issues a list of 124 separate works, in- bic, seven volumes-of the total ten- cl_ding 34 publications of Bradlaugh, of which have been issued in rapid suc- 19 of Mrs. Besant, 16 of Ingersoll, and cession, and which will cost, perhaps, others of Paine, Voltaire and other forty dollars, mark anything but a well-known infidel publicists. Inger- Dead Sea or a. low Nile of literary soll's lectures have the largest sale. interest. Some of these have deceptive titles. "A Bible Hand-book for Mission The modern newspaper has become School StUdents and Inquiring Chris- a power in these lands. Beirut pub- tians" and " The Bible Dissector for lishes eight political and four literary the Use of Mission School Students" and religious periodicals. Damascus, are illusive titles. The" Elements of Aleppo, Jerusalem and Bagdad have Social Economy" is said to be a most their newspapers. demoralizing advocacy of free lust, in which marriage is denounced. This We have said the missjon was the tract literature is being circulated by source or occasion of much of this benevolent contributions like those literary culture in all the lands where made to our own tract societies. Edu- it has entered. That might go with- cated natives are paying monthly sub- out the saying, but that we wish to scriptions of ten dollars to disseminate fasten responsibility on the mission to these tracts and books. One rajah in foster and direct, if it cannot control, Bengal is known to have subscribed the agency it has created or awakened ten thousand dollars for this object. into energy. That a single American Others are spending great sums for missionary society should have re- the purpose of printing literature in duced, through its agents, perhaps advocacy or defense of their own twenty languages to writing, and have published approaching three thousand writings in fifty or more dialects, and religions. Some of them are appeals of Jesus, and make a great pretence of humility. But inwardly they are to their own people to arouse them- saying: "Alas, has it come to this, selves because of the aggressions of that we should be beaten by these the Christain forces. people !" The famous poet, Shakspeare, Some of these tracts and booklets has' said: "Good wine needs no push." He means that if a thing really posare rejoillders to Christian books. sesses worth it needs not be puffed. Rev. Dunlap Moore's tract entitled For instance, a spicemonger, when "An Examination of Jainism" is an- his goods are worthless, makes a great swered in "A Reply to an Examina- display of them, and ostentatiously in- vites everybody whom he sees, saying: tion of Jainism, " or, in native words, "These are good spices; come and " a slap on the Christian face." Some buy." Not so the man who has really are curiously mixed. Here is one on good ones. People go to him wherever " A Warning to the Cow Protectors and he may be. Now you see missionaries going about. They say that the Bible, an Answer to Christians," one part de- which is impure and has not a grain fending cow killing, the other part of truth in it, is the word of God, and filled with sneers and taunts at the they shout in every street: "Come, missionaries. A Christian tract, " The brethren. This is an excellent religion, Choice of a Guru," claiming that Jesus a good caste." Why do they thus Christ is a world teacher, is answered shout? Because if they do not, not one person will go to them.
in another tract, "An Examination ***** of Jesus." Christians cast suspicion upon the More curious, however, is the cate- story that Hanuman (the monkey- -chism of the Hindu Tract Society, god) leapt over the sea to Ceylon. But an equal objection lies against the with sixteen questions and answers story of Christ walking on the sea. By bodily from the Westminster Cate- holding hi,. breath a person may leap chism, including the definition of God. an immense distance; but no amount of suppression will prevent a man All this is done because it is "good, and from drowning. To say that it will is Christianity borrowed it from Aryan- a lie. From incidents ,like these it is ism, which is chronologically the pre- clear that the Bible is the work of decessor of Christianity." man and not the word of God, and that But others are bitterly and blas- even Jesus Christ was only a man phemously antagonistic to Christianity like the rest of us. itself, and contain most wanton attacks on the Bible. This is illus- ***** llilissionaries say hat idolatry is child's play. But surely the worship trated in a wildly blasphemous Aryan of the cross is a superstition worthy of tract, published by the Hindu Tract scorn. It is only on a level with the Society, entitled "Jesus Christ a play of children who put up broom- Fool." It is said by the editor of the sticks and call them soldiers. These people put one stick across another Harvest Field to be too shocking to and worship it because Christ died on such a cross. They call our worship be translated for English readers. He, idolatry: we may well call theirs stickhowever, presents two ".mild" para- worship.
graphs, as he styles them, to show Now, there is really in all this the animus of the publication. We nothing to discour~ge, however it,may copy these for the same purpose: shock. We have long been familiar There are many sects in this world, with attacks like these from much and usually each sect contents itself with the practice of its own religion. better brains, and have learned how But it is not so with these Christians. futile they are.
They are bound to increase their num- But othertracts show still a different bers, and so they sent out missionaries, while they themselves remain quietly vein. Here is an extract from one published by the Arya Samaj, transat home. Is this just? These missionaries are ignorant and very covet- lated from the Tamil: ous. 'Vhen they are beaten or abused Missionaries come from Britain at or mocked they quote the commands a great cost and tell us that we are in heathen darkness, and that a bundle ing and virtual destruction that are of fables called the Bible is the true imminent. Hence the organization Vendanta (inspired book) which alone of clubs, the publication of tracts, can enlighten us. They have cast pamphlets, and articles in newspapers, their net over our children by teach- the appointment of learned men ing them in their schools, and they among them as preachers and defend- have already made thousands of Chris- ers of the old faith, the relaxation of tians, and are continuing to do so. caste rules and restrictions, and the They have penetrated into the most various other devices that are now be- out-of-the-way villages, and built ing employed to defeat the purpose of churches there. If we continue to the Lord and His people, and prop up sleep as we have done in the past not an effete and decaying system. And one will be found worshiping in our it is no small tribute to the value of temples in a very short time; why the the agency that we employ that our temples themselves will be converted opponents have taken a leaf out of the into Christian churches! Do you not Christian book, and are, in many know that the number of Christians is places, sedulously imitating our exincreasing and the number of Hindu ample. We engage evangelists and religionists decreasing every day? pay them; so do they; and when the How long will water remain in a well available local talent is not sufficient which continually lets out, but re- they look elsewhere, as is evidenced ceives none in? If our religion is by an advertisement for preachers incessantly drained by Christianity that has recently been appearing in without receiving any accessions, how the Bombay daily papers; the publican it last? When our country is cations of the several tract societies turned into the wilderness of Christi- are sought to be refuted by tracts and anity will the herb of Hinduism grow? leaflets, well written both in English We must not fear the missionaries and the vernacular, published and because they have white faces, or be- circulated under the auspices of a cause they belong to the ruling class. Hindu tract society; and Christianity There is no connection between the and its teachings are steadily maligned government and Christianity, for the and misrepresented with an ability Queen Empress proclaimed neutrality and an earnestness worthy of a better in all religious matters in 1858. We cause. must, therefore, oppose the missionaries with all our might. Whenever In 1786 the youthful Spaulding they stand up to preach, let Hindu preachers stand up and start rival wrote to F. H. Jacobi that he had preaching at a distance of forty feet from them, acd they will soon flee heard Biester say: "We must not reaway! Let caste and sectarian differences be forgotten, and let all the lax our efforts, and then in twenty people join as one man to banish Christianity from our land. All possi- years' time the name of Jesus, in a ble efforts should be made to win back those who have embraced Christianity, religious sense,will be no more heard." and all children should be withdrawn from mission schools. That was in Germany, and since then The Missionary Herald, of the Pres- Germany has furnished a large pro- byterian Church in Ireland, review- portion of the most intelligent and ag- ing the report of the Hindu Gujarat gressive missionary force in the world.
Tract and Book Society, says: But the stern fact remains that we The Hindus ha,e at last realized have created an agency for the adthat there is something in Christianity itself, and in well-directed Christian vancement of Christianity, which the effort, that is not to be repelled by any of the rough-and-ready methods heathen are turning against us; and, hitherto tried; Christianity is to-day felt to be an aggressive power, mov- worse, which we are not using ouring with an ever-increasing force, which must in some way be resisted, selves with anything like the I:;kill or and its influence counteracted, if Hindu society is to be saved, and the in the proportions that we should do. antiquated fabric of Hindu religious and social life is to escape the remouId- We have created a vast reading community of Christians also without giving them anything like an ade- quate supply of their literary needs.
We have not utilized the press at all commensurately with its place, power and opportunities. This is a field where the societies might combine for co-operative work much more largely than they do. There should be a great by that time India would adopt her pan-mission council on the subject reform. A few friends and organizaof missionary literature distinctively tions pledged her $10,000 annually. for non-Christian lands and for Roman Of $25,000 required for a permanent Catholic countries. There might be building, $18,000 have been raised. economic distribution of the material which would help to make much Of her work for the school in Bommore of the funds already contributed. bay, Ramabai writes as follows: It is a subject demanding special consideration by specialists.-J. T. G. "Besides visiting families, I have found it necessary to gather women Pundita Ramabai's Work. together and acquaint them with my The cultured little Hindu lady, work. I have, therefore, now and Ramabai, is carrying on a unique then, to invite ladies of the high castes, work against great odds, and we de- get up entertainments for them, leclight to note her success. A conversa- ture on different subjects, and encourtion which a missionary had with her age and implore them in various ways some time since was thus reported in to take an interest in women's educathe Bombay Guardian: The missionary tion and progress. They will not asked and she answered as follows: listen to me if I begin at once to talk " Are you saved?" to them about my school and its ob- " Yes." jects. They have been taught to dis- " Do you believe in Jesus Christ as like widows and look down upon their your Saviour? " education. So we have very carefully "Yes." to approach them, show them the " Many people believe in Christ in beauties of intellectual pursuits, make their heads and not in their hearts. them realize the superiority of en- Do you believe in Ghrist with your lightened life to one of perpetual heart 7" ignorance, talk to them about the "Yes." blessedness of useful life, and thus "Are your sins forgiven through gradually teach them to look upon Him?" themselves and the widows as beings "Yes." who have more value than cats, dogs, " Praise the dear Lord." or mere puppets in the hands of men. It will be remembered that she More opposition to our work is to be opened the school for Hindu widows met from women than from men in at Bombay in March,1889. We so- certain quarters. Many women of licited from Miss A. P. Granger, the Bombay are now beginning to take secretary of the Ramabai Association, a interest in our school, as they have contribution relating to the work that been several times invited and enterhas since been developed, and we now tained here." have the pleasure of making extracts from Miss Granger's reply. Miss Granger favors us with the fol- In March, 1890, one year from its lowing statements: opening, the school numbered twentyseven pupils, twelve of them being " In view of its ultimate dependence high caste child-widows. Five child- upon Hindu support alone it was dewidows have since been added. In- cided to move the school to Poona, on struction is given in Marathi, English the 1st of November, the objections and Sanskrit, and also in sewing, etc. first made by the Advisory Board to Ramabai asked the assistance of this its establishment there, having been country for ten years only, belieying removed. The larger expenses of an English city like Bombay, and the su- perior advantages of Poona as a stronger hold of Brahmanism, are the two most important reasons for this C'11anJ:0. " Ramabai's first idea of the location the Uriion, in this country, whose ad- of the school for Hindu widows was dress he knew. Poona. On many accounts she felt it would be wiser to place the school The library of the International there. She was, however, overruled by others and the school was opened Missionary Union is as yet an experi- in Bombay. The officers of the asso- ciation do not hesitate to state that it ment. This little sheet is sent out, has been fully as successful as they anticipated. It is not on that account after some unavoidable delays, to all that a change is now being made. A suitable building with ample grounds the members whose present address have been secured for the Sharada Sadan, at a moderate rent and wise can be ascertained, chiefly to test the arrangements made for the conduct of the school and boarding depart- question of the call for such a library. ment. On account of her approach- ing marriage, the teacher who went We have pleasure in presenting a list out from this country has resigned her position but an efficient successor of such books as we have thus far se- had been found. It was expected that all the boarders would go with Rama- cured, with an approximate indication bai to Poona. of the postage on each. Whoever " In view of this change we would ask more earnestly than ever before wishes to take out one of these books for the sympathy, support and prayers of the American people, and will close is requested to send this amount of . with Professor Max Muller'stribute to the character of our head: 'I have postage to the librarian, and after never been in India; but I have known many Indians, both men and women, keeping the book one month to return and I do not exaggerate when I tell you that some of them need fear no it by post, prepaying the amount comparison with the best men and women whom it has been my good necessary. A book may be renewed fortune to know in England, France, or Germany. Whether for unselfish- if desired a second month when not ness or devotion to high ideals, truth- fulness, purityand real, livingreligion, asked for elsewhere. I know no better hero than Keshub Chunder Sen, no heroine greater than Any donations of books or pamph- Ramabai; and I am proud to have been allowed to count both among my lets or money for the library will. be best friends.' " thankfully received; also any sugges; International Missionary Union Notes. tions as to how lt can be made more Circulating Library.-The librarian of the incipient circulating library of useful to the members. the International Missionary Union, is the Rev. James Mudge, East Pep- POSTAGE. perill, Mass. He recently sent the fol- lowing circular to all the members of Our Indian Mission, Gordon………….. 2Oc. London Missionary Conference, 2 vols, .. " 15c. Indian Evangelical 'Review, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5, 1874-1878……………. _………. " .. 14c. Romance of Missions, Miss M. A. 'Vest … 14c. Siam and Laos, Dr. House and others……13c. Decennial Conference, Calcutta ………. 120. Missionary year-Book……………. " .. 12c. Among the Turks, Dr. Hamlin………… 120. On Horseback in Cappadocia, Barrows…. lOc. Two thousand Miles in Mexico, McCarthy. lOc. Letters from India, Bruce……… …… 8c. Great Value of Missions, Liggins…. ….. 7c. India, J. T. Gracey …………………… 7c. Woman's Medical Work, Mrs. Gracey….. 7c. Ann H. Judson………………………. 7c. Sarah B. Judson………. ………… 7c. Memorial Papers of the Marathi Mission .. 30. Natural History of the Marathi Bible.. …. 30. Africa in a Nutshell, Thompson …. ,…… 20. China, J. T. Gracey …………………. lc. Open Doors, J. T. Gracey……… …….. 1c. Moravian Mission in Alaska, Hamilton … lc.
Also THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD for 1888, 1889, 1890 in separate numbers, anyone of which can be ordered as above, postage four cent.s, thus enabling any member to refer to any article or articled. Most of the papers read before the Union in these years are to be found herein. The next meeting of the Interna- when the pressing claims of India, tional Missionary Union will be held at Clifton Springs, New York, June 10th China, and especially of Africa, were to 17th. We give the notice thus early that missionaries in this country may the subject of conversation, resolved be the better enabled to make preparations to attend; and that those abroad to memorialize the Society with refermay know when to send their greetings, their suggestions, or their papers. ence to a great forward movement. Essays and letters are solicited from members now on the foreign field as That memorial seems to have prothey constitute the" Outlook Committee." All such papers or correspond- duced a profound impression upon the ence should be sent to Rev. J. T. Gracey, 161 Pearl Street, Rochester, committee of the Church Missionary N. Y., or to Rev. W. H. Belden, Secretary, Bristol, Conn. Society, and they have caused the -The members of the International memorial to be printed and widely Missionary Union, will note with active interest, we trust, the appeal that circulated with the earnest desire that Rev. Arthur H. Smith and Dr. Henry D.Porter, both members of the Union, they may be guided by the Divine make in the December number of the Missionary Herald for aid for the Spirit in their deliberations on· the Chinese suffering from flood and famine, over not less than 4,000 square matter. It is stated that the Church miles of the Chihli Province. Thousands of families are homeless. The Missionary Society is supported, even Famine Relief Committee in Shanghai, after giving $60,000 for relief of nominally, by less than a third part of the sufferers has closed its books, but the distress still continues. No two the Church of England, and it cermen within our knowledge could more judiciously distribute the few tainly is a courageous thought to add thousand dollars they ask for than to its present staff of European misthose two brethren,and we are quite sionaries one thousand within five or sure, the need will continue for some six years. Yet such is the proposal. while yet. Send money to Mr. L. S. The memorial makes certain sugges- Ward, No 1 Somerset Street, Boston, tions as to these reinforcements, es- Mass pecially the following: 1. That evan- gelists should be sent into the mission One Thousand Additional Mission- fields in groups, each group being as- aries !" sociated under a leader. 2. That the services of lay-workers should be used The English Church Missionary So- much more than hitherto. 3. That ci€'ty presents a scheme for the send- mechanics and working men and ing forth, within the next five or women whose hearts God has touched six years, from the Church Mission- should form parts of these groups. ary Society alone, one thousand ad- The suggestion of such an increase in ditional missionaries. At the Kes- the working forces is startling simply wick Convention, in July last, mem- because it is such a sudden increase bersof the Church Missionary Sodety to the present numbers. That portion gathered at the house of a friend, of the Church of Englantl which operates through the Church Mission- ary Society is amply able to provide the money, to provide the workers and the supplies for such an advance, and the need is imperativ€'. And what is true of Christians in England is true of Christians in America. The forces might be and ought to be doubled and trebled. There are abundant means of support in the hands of those who bear Christ's name. Young men and young women are in training, and a large portion of them have already pledged themselves to this work. Shall not the Christian churches of America, and the Consti- tuency of the American Board espe- cially, anew and at once "attempt great things for God, and expect great thingR from Him?" It is time for a grand forward movement. There are men enough and wealth enough in our churches to respond to the present call for an advance, if there is a will to do so.-The Missionary Herald.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IH.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
-After much painstaking in proof- of population not later than October, reading, the electrotyping process is 1892.
chargeable with a bad blunder in the -At the recent meeting of the January issue of the REVIEW. The American Board, in Minneapolis, the top line of page 5f belongs on page 5f) "Committee of Nine" reported that If readers will make a marginal note contributions to missions have not kept on the page to this effect, it will avoid pace with those to other benevol.
confusion. ent causes. No explanation was at- -The year 1892, which marks the tempted but they implied that the dis- 400th anniversary of the discovery of cussions and division of feeling as to America, also marks the centenary missionary policy, might account for of the formation of the first great this relative decline of receipts for missionary society of England, whose foreign missionary work.
distinctive purpose was the evange- The meeting presented many at- lization of the world. It was on the tractions and not a few wholesome second day of October, 1792, at Ket- lessons. Dr. N. G. Clark's paper on tering, that William Carey and his "Higher Christian Education as Re- brother Baptists formed the now lated to Foreign Mission Work ;" Dr.
famous Baptist Society, and laid thir- G. K. Alden's discussion of " Mission- teen pounds, two shillings and six ary Motives;" Dr. Judson Smith's pence on God's altar, as the beginning paper on the" Missionary Outlook,"
of the great enterprise of organized and Dr. Storr's address as President, foreign missionary work. were among the most notable features It is our deep conviction that it of that great annivprsary. The papers would be a great mistake if this referred to, must be read to be appre- memorable era were allowed to pass by ciated. Dr. Clark pleads for higher without another great 'Vorld's Con- Christian education in order to pre- vention, such as was held in London, serve and turn to account the religious in 1888. If such a gathering could sentiment of the people among whom begin at Kettering, in Andrew Ful- we labor; and for the sake of a native ler's old' chapel, with a consecration ministry adequate in character and in meeting in the house of Widow Beebe numbers to meet the intellectual and Wallis, which is still standing, and spiritual wants of their countrymen where that society was formally or- and to share with missionaries in the ganized, what an inspiration would responsibilities of establishing such such a beginning afford for an un- Christian institutions as shall secure paralleled series of missionary assem- the success of the missionary enter- blings! The end of a century seems prise. He holds that the " men must an appropriate time for the gathering be reared on the ground." Dr. G. K.
up of the results of missions in all Alden sets forth as motive forces: (1) parts of the world, and the projec- "Profound convictions as to this pres- tion of new lines of enterprise and en- ent sinful and perishing world and its deavor for the century to come. Is great need. (2) Profound convictions it too much to hope that this next as to the superabounding riches of century of missions may not have divine grace in Jesus Christ, the great passed Ulatil the whole world shall provision. (3) Profound convictions of have been acquainted with the Gos- the personal command, the personal pel? 'Ve hope that at an early day trust, and the personal responsibility the leaders of missionary enterprises to bear the good tidings at once to all in all parts of the world will co- men." Dr. Judson Smith says Chrisoperate to call such a world's con- tianity is becoming the dominant revention in some of the great centres ligion of the world; communication between all parts of the world is be- -In the August number for 1890, coming easier; the world, with only the statistics are given for Protest- here and there an exception, is ac- ant missions in China, which are re- cessible to the Gospel; and that mod- peated in the December issue, page ern missions are successful. At home 934, as the strength of the United missionary contributions are being en- Presbyterian force. Of course, the lat- larged; the supply of missionaries is ter is an error. It should read: "As increasing, and the church is com- furnished by the Presbyterians." mitted to mission work as never before. -The late Dr. Alexander William- son, of China, was identified for some -In Scotland the question of dis- 30 years with the London Missionary establishment has produced no little Society, then with the National Bible excitement. It seems almost certain Society of Scotland, and the United to come before the next Parliament. Presbyterian Church. As a translator There is certainly a religious interest and distributor of religious literature among the Scottish churches. The in the Chinese tongue, he filled a attendance upon church services is, we unique position, and to these labors -venture to say, better than in any was singularly devoted. His extensive other country in the world. The travels, researches, grasp of missions, number of praying men, and especially passion for a more economic distribupraying young men, struck us with tion of the working force, made him peculiar force in recent visits to Scot- an authority. His" Journeys in land. We cannot conceal our pro- North China," ranks as a standard found solicitude for the progressive work. His late wife, a most gifted theology which is moving many, we woman, wrote "Old Highways in fear, away from the old landmarks of China." Dr. Williamson died of nethe faith. No doubt there are many phritis, possibly due in part to his arwho are interested in these questions duous toil in thfl recent Shanghai intellectually, whose hearts are per- Conference. His prodigious activity fectly loyal to Christ and the truth, is rivaled by few of the most devoted but we fear the flffect of this ad- workers in the Middle Kingdom. vanced theological opinion upon the younger clergy of Scotland. At the -China owes to Christian missionsame time so deep is the interest in aries a great debt for information on a missions in this land of martyrs and vast range of topics. But a little while missionanes, that the practical work ago, the Chinese were wholly depend. of the churches, both at home and ent on the Peking Gazette; now they abroad, is largelyantidoting the influ- have some twenty-eight publications. ence of this skeptical opinion. The missionaries have supplied an enormous number of translations of We can never more speak or write of European booksonscience, geography, Scotland without the feeling which a history, mathematics, philosophy, etc. son would have for his mother. We They have translated the Bible into add the words of Dr. W. M. Taylor: not less than twelve Chinese dialects, "I say without any hesitation that and are now busy at fifteen more. when interesting foreign missions are Dr. Legge's investigations into the maintained in a church to the normal ancient systems of the Chinese phipoint, all other activities and agencies losophers are embodied in Professor at home will go of themselves and as Max Muller's" Sacred Books of the things, of course, while, if there be a East," and American authors have lack of devotion to that noble enter- given the world the "Middle Kingprise, nothing else will be prosecuted dom," and the" Chinese-English Dicwith either enthusiasm or success." tionary." So writes Mr. Johnston, of These are true words. Bolton.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
lJy J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
China. –.:.. China is a vast field. many centuries they have been in full That is a statement that grows by enjoyment of them, and on every side· every line of comparison we can lay. the evidences of long-established Here is a late attempt by Rev. Dr. wealth and commercial enterprise are· B. D. Gray, in the Foreign Mission observable.
Journal of the Southern Baptists (see " From the great wall to the frontier December number; it is published at of Tong-king, and from Thibet to the Richmond, Va.): . China Sea the country is dotted over "A single province of hers con- with rich and populous cities, which verted would be equal to the conver- are connected one with another by sion of whole nations elsewhere. Con- well-trodden roads or water highways.
vert anyone of her eighteen provinces In these busy centres of industry mer- and you would have more than all chants from all parts of the empire Brazil and Mexico. Anyone of a are to be found, who are as ready to dozen of her provinces would be more deal in the fabrics of the native looms, than the conversion of all Italy. As porcelain, tea and other native pro- goes China, so goes Asia. She is to- ducts, as in cottons, metals and day the citadel of paganism. Secure woolens of Europe.
her to Christ, and you secure all her " The rivers and canals are crowded dependencies, as Thibet, Turkistan, the vessels bearing silks and satins Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. from Cheh-kiang .and Kiang-su, tea Break down her idols and you de- from Gan-hwuy and Ho-nan, and rice throne the greater part of heathenism from the southern provinces to parts at a stroke! " of the empire which give in exchange CHINESE EMIGRATION. for such gifts the corn and other pro- Dr. R. H. Graves says: ducts which they are able to spare."
"There are 50,000 of these in the. In the matter of the language, Dr.
Philippine Islands; 50,000 in the Eng- Douglas says: lish colony at Singapore, where they " By means of their three classes of own four-fifths of all the real estate; characters, the hieroglyphics, ideo- 50,000 more in the Malay Peninsula; grams and phonetics, the Chinese 1,300,000 in Siam; thousands in Cochin have been able to express and pre– China. and thousands more in Borneo, serve the thoughts and sayings of theit Java and Sumatra. The colonies greatest and wisest writers through a founded by the Spaniards, Dutch, series of centuries which dwarfs int« French and English are being rapidly insignificance all Western ideas of filled up by Chinese. In the Sand- antiquity. For thirty centuries China- wich Islands there are more Chinese men have been accumulating stores of men than men of the native race." literary wealth, which are of them- China is a fertile region. Professor selves sufficiently important to attract Douglas, at University College, thus the attention of scholars and to stir described it: the literary ambition of students, and "From one end of the country to which do so in almost every country.
another the land blossoms as the rose, But by the fresh discoveries of Messrs.
and yields to the diligent and carpfu} De Lacouperie and Ball, not only is a tillage of the natives enough and to new interest added to the language, spare of all that is necessary for 'the but it is brought into close and inti- comfort and well-being of man. Nor mate relation with the tongues spoken have these advantages become the by the great civilizing nations of the.
recent possessions of the people. For world." Great changes are taking place in every form and righteousness too.
China. Rev. Young J. Allen, D.D., The doctrine of mediation is recog- LL.D., read an able paper before the' nized.
Shanghai Conference on this topic, in 4. They have some knowledge of a which he classified these changes as: true and living God, a power on whom (1) Compulsory, or those necessitated cOu.;}try, family and individual pros- by force or treaty obligations. The perity depends.
compulsory occupation by the allies, 5. They possess an implied knowl- in 1860, of the imperial capital was edge of immortality. Their emperors followed by a treaty which gave com- never die, they ascend.
merce and missions the right of un- 6. There is a providential prepara- molested access to the entire land. (2) tion. China is open from end to end.
The semi-compulsory changes, or At the Shanghai Conference this was those initiated with a view to adjust- called in question as to Ho-nan, but ments. The Chinese knew that the Hudson Taylor said it was politically treaty must be fulfilled, and that in open, though persecution and oppos- reorganizing their government they ition were great.
could not do better than copy the OBSTAOLES AND DIFFICuLTIES.
strong points of their late adversaries. 1. To the heathen becoming Chris- Hence, the innovations of foreign tians. No one can state the ca.'le of military camps, arsenals, customs, the Chinese better than the Chinese, schools, coast surveys, etc. (3) Spon- and so we "let a native Chinese taneous-voluntary changes. Inter- Christian minister state the point of national relations become cordial. The the difficulties of the native Chinaman press is callEJd into requisition, news- in learning about Christianity.
papers and books are translated. China Rev. Y. K. Yen, speaking at the has become conscious of her wants, a Shanghai Conference, said: mint, banks, post.offices follow. (4) "We must understand the peculiar Imperial, or those which define the character of the Chinese. (1) They position and policy of the country. have hazy ideas about gods. A Chi- ADVANTAGES AND HELPS. nese who went to the United States Rev. Dr. Williamson pointed out was written to by his father that his some while ago, in Evangelical Chris- sixth mother was well. What can a tendom, that there is a providential man who has six mothers know of a preparation in China for the reception mother's love? (2) The Chinese have and spread of the Gospel. hazy ideas about sin, which they con- 1. There is an educational prepa- found with crirpe, treading on one's ration. They say: "The mind is the toes, being late to dinner-the same man." The competitive examinations character for all. (3) They have hazy have quickened theinteUect of China. ideas about a future life. At a This gave rise to schools. Hence the Chinese death-bed there is never a large percentage of readers. Then word about future happiness, but only there is one written language for the about mourning and money. If they whole empire. There is asocial prepa- did Rot think the gods could affect .
ration. Through the observance of men's bodies the temples would be filial obligation has trained the nation deserted and ancestral worship would to subordination to law and order. decline. They are not to blame. It is There is no communism nor nihilism their misfortune and not their fault.
here. Divine authority can be easily The Chinese cannot see Christianity as taught. we see it."
3. There is a moral preparation. This is jUtlt what Rev. Judson Smith, The heart is recognized as the seat of D.D., has said in other language and on morals. Benevolence is urged in an opposite side of the globe: "It is not simply the greatness of anity yet they can be reached. He the population of China that makes her evangelization difficult. It is said his church in Monkdon included rather the institutions of the Chinese; it is the Chinese character; it is the in its members five or six Mandarins, Chinese history inwrought into insti- tutions; instinct in the life of the men with literary degrees; that many people. Making them a nation of themselves, exclusive, caring not, others of the Mandarins are at heart knowing not, heeding not of aught that goes on in the world outside of Christians, and many more very them; not desiring the arts we are so ready to bring them; not wishing the friendly. institutions that we would gladly see thrive among them; scorning the The mission schools are becoming a faith that we deem their life and their salvation." power for good in China. One would 2. To native Ohristians. The same fancy that there would be great preju- Christian native, already quoted (Rev. Y. K. Yen), said again at the great dice against the teaching of Christimissionary conference last year some very sensible things about the difficul- anity in connection with secular eduties to the mission work growing out of the conservatism of the Chinese. cation, but it is amongst the marvelous He said that "the Chinese Christians are not in the same favorable circum- providences of God that in scarcely stances as Christians in other lands. The former have fifty generations of any heathen country does this long heathenism behind them. They have much to contend with. We should prove an obstruction. not expect the same enterprise, activity and piety as from from foreigners. The teaching of Christianity does Missionaries often speak disparagingly of Chinese Christians. This, consider- not inure to the disadvantage of the ing the circumstances, is unreasonable and unjust. Western civilization is mission schools in China. We can furmarked by diversity. Eastern civilization by uniformity. Chinese are nish no better evidence of this than is not active physically, morally and spiritually. If I were active physi- found in the report to Government in cally I should not have this queue today. If any other Chinese would cut Hong Kong, made in 1889: off his hair and shorten his skirts I would do so too. They have a load Referring now to the 7,101 scholars upon them. All Chinese worship is who attended, during the year 1889, for selfishness. They have no knowl- schools under the· supervision of the edge of God; no recognition of being education department, there were as His sons." many as 4,814 attending voluntary schools, where they received a Chris- All classes are reached in China. tian education, whilst 2,293 scholars Rev. John Ross said at the London attended government schools, receiv- Conference that while the literary ing a secular education. The secular class in China are opposed to Christi- government schools are, as a rule, bet- ter provided for than the voluntary religious schools as regards money matters, house accommodation, school materials, staff, organization, and dis- cipline, and when charging fees, keep their fees far below the rate charged in voluntary schools of a correspond- ing class. Nevertheless, the voluntary schools, which freely teach Christian- ity without the restraint of any con- science clauses Whatever, and are in every respect conducted as denomi- national mission schools, receive from the public double the amount of pat- ronage bestowed on government schools. This clearly shows that parents of children, in Hong Kong, as Europe. prefer, on thewhole, religious to secular education, even when the latter is cheaper.
This was made by Dr. Eistel as in- spector of schools. It only confirms the judgment of Dr. F. Stewart, who was inspector of schools, but who died recently, who said: The advance in education is one of the most gratifying features in the progress of the colony. There is yet twenty-eight, is introduced at court much to be done, and female educa- by Lao-tse, is appointed chief magistion is only in its infancy; but the trate of Chung-too, introduces praclines on which the system is moving tically ajury system; for thirteen years seem to be correct, and time alone is becomes a homeless wanderer, and required to reclaim those portions of henceforth abandons himself to letters the field which remain untouched. and religion, and wanders from court to court to obtain converts to his ideal THE RESULTS ARE ENCOURAGING. government. He died, having prac- tically remained unrecognized us a The statistics at the Shanghai Con- successful reformer. After his death ference last May, showed: Of foreign his teachings became powerful. Every missionaries, men, 589; wives, 390; year 66,000 animals are now offered single women, 316. Total, 1,295. Na- in sacrifice to this sage. Here is the tive helpers, ordained, 209; unor- chorus chanted in the great sacrificial dalned, 1,260; female helpers, 180. ceremony to him: Medical work, hospitals, 61; dispensaries, 43; patients in 1889, 348,439. "Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- Churches, organized, 520; wholly self- fucius! supporting, 94; half self-supporting, 22; one-fourth self-supporting, 27. Before Confucius there never was a. Confu- Bible distribution, Bibles, etc. Total, cius; 665,987. Communicants, 37,287; pupils in schools, 16,816. Contributions by Since Confucius, there never has been a. Connative churches, $36,884. fucius; MEN AND WOMEN ARE WANTED. Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- fucius! " Ministers and laymen are called for. The Shanghai Conference asks soberly The emperor himself offers this for 1,000 men in five years. Their ap- prayer to Confucius: "I, the emperor, peal was published ,far and wide. offer a sacrifice to the philosopher Then there have been specific appeals. Confucius, the ancient teacher, the The mISSIOnaries of the Baptist perfect sage, and say, 0, teacher, in churches in America, now in China, virtue equal to heaven and earth, have appealed to the Baptists of whose doctrines embrace the past America alone to send 100 men. time and the present. . . • in reverent observance of the old statutes, with Oonfuoia.nism and Oonfuoius. victims, silks, spirits and fruits, 1 carefully offer sacrifice to thee. Mayst "Great men have short biogra- thou enjoy the sacrifice." (See Duphies," says Carlyle. The rule is not Bois's" Dragon, Image and Demon," broken in the case of Confucius. The p.l24.) outline of his biography can be given in a paragraph. He was born in the " If the Chinese," says an author, State of Tsow, B.C. 551, of noble an- "pay divine honors to any being in cestry whose record reached unbroken heaven, or on earth, or under the for over two thousand years backward earth, it is to Confucius." from his cradle. His father was a soldier of great prowess and of daring CONFUCIUS AS A FOUNDER OF A bravery. He was married at nineteen, rose from keeper of the public stores, RELIGION. to the cnarge of public lands. At twenty-two he taught letters, ethics, Fairbairn says, in his "Studies in devotion of soul and truthfulness. He the Philosophy of Religion and Hisearly became cosmopolitan: "I am tory," that" without Confucius China a man who belongs equally to the had been without a native religion." north and the south and the east and the west." He studies music at Dr. Legge, in his "Religions of China," boldly corrects this erroneous statement. Religion in China does not date from Confucius. His grand- son asserted that Confucius only "handed down" and "displayed" the ancient teachings and took them of etiquette, taking the place of ethics: for his model. Confucius himself said a skeptical denial of any relation be- he was a" transmitter, not a maker" tween man and a living God, taking of the doctrines of the ancients. Cer- the place of religion, while there is tainly the "transmitter" gave color encouraged a sort of worship of human to that which he transmitted. China genius, combined with a set of des- does not owe its national religion to potic political theories. But who Confucius. But if he did not originate can honestly call this a religion? " it, neither did he discountenance it or alter it'in any sensible degree. But Over and over we are told that Con- Confucius did emphasize the moral fucianism is not a religion, only a duties as taught or implied in the system of morality. This needs large religion of the ancients as of first im- modification. So far as the element portance and of much easier compre- of worship enters into the element of hension than the speculative side of religion it is distinctly, pervasively, theology or the religious superstition penetratingly, a religion. about the unseen. Dr. Faber pointed this out with One thing has been plainly pointed emphasis at the late General Conferout as to the effect of Confucius' large ence of Missionaries at Shanghai. "Religion," he says, "pervades every emphasis of practical duties. Dr. movement of official life in China. Matheson (St. Giles Lecturer) says: A glance at the Peking Gazette will convince the most skeptical of the "Since the days of Confucius the truth of this statement. We find there speculative element has declined and mentioned not only worship of ances~ the Chinese mind has sought truth tors, of Confucius, of innumerable almost exclusively in the path of deified worthies, but also of the duality morals." of heaven and earth, of sun, moon, stars, wind, clouds, rain, thunder, the Much has been written about Con- ocean, mountains, rivers, the four fucius in relation to the "Golden regions, the four seasons, the years, Rule." He is credited with being the months and days. Astrology, selection originator of this. But Dr. Legge, of lucky and unlucky days, omens, than whom he has no stouter cham- charms, exorcism and other superstipion, says here he tarnished a doc- tiQlls are sanctioned by imperial trine of the ancients rather than pro- authority." (See The Messenger, Shanghai, June, 1890.) claimed it. Confucius is said to have CONFUCIANISM AS A THEOLOGY. advocated the negative side of the Golden Rule: "Do not unto others This same Dr. Faber, at another time, what you would not that they distinctly pointed out some of the should do unto you." But the ancients aspects of absolute negation in Conwe~t further than that. Lao-tze fucianism as a religon. He says: taught: "Return good for eviL" But Confucius said: "What then will you 1. "Confucianism recognizes no return for good? Recompense injury relation to a living God." with justice, and return good for good." How nearly this shades, how- 2. "It makes no distinction between ever, to the Christian teaching! the human soul and body, nor is there any clear definition of man, either IS CONFUCIANISM A RELIGION? from a physical or psychological point of view." The China Review contained years since an article in which the writer 3. "All men are said to possess the said: disposition and strength necessary for "Confucianism pure and simple is, the attainment of moral perfection, in our opinion, no religion at all. The but the contrast with the actual state essence of Confuciani"m is an anti- remains unexplained." quarian adherence to traditional forms 4. There is wanting in Confucian- have no rights in relation to their ism a decided and serious tone in its parents; subjects are like children; of treatment of the doctrine of sin, for, human rights there are none-first with the exception of the moral retri- and last there are only duties. Po- bution in social life, it mentions no lygamy is sanctioned and presup- punishment for sin. It is devoid of a posed, so is polytheism. Filial piety deep insight into sin and evil. extends even to worship. In ordinary life the son must" manifest his rever- 5. It "knows no mediator, none ence, in his nourishing of his parents, that could restore original nature iJi in his endeavor to give them pleasure; accordance with the ideal which man when they are ill he feels the greatest finds in himself." anxiety; in mourning for them, when dead, he exhibits every demonstration 6. "Prayer and its ethical power of grief; in sacrificing to them he dis- finds no place" in his system. plays the utmost solemnity."
7. There is, with the exception of Confucius taught the supreme value ancestral worship, which is devoid of of personal character. The" charac- true ethical value, no clear conception ter of Alexander of Russia was worth of the dogma'of immorality. a constitution," says Colton. Confu- cius would make every character a 8. "All rewards are expected in constitution and by-laws besides. To this world." be and not to appear is the correctest thing. The wise man will assail his Confucius plainly held that these own vices and not another's: "I am are things beyond the grasp of human not concerned that I have no place; I intelligence. You cannot figure to am concerned how I may fit myself yourself the nature of God. You for one." The substance of three cannot certainly know that there is hundred pieces of the "Book of any point of contrast between His Poetry," says a recent author, may be nature and yours; hence prayers and expressed in: "Have no depraved sacrifices are of doubtful utility. All thoughts." this lies in the region of imagination; it may represent truth; it may not. "The man who, in view of gain, Neither can be demonstrated. Yet he thinks of righteousness, in view of did not forbid worship. "Sacrifice as danger, is prepared to give up his life, and who does not forget an agreement if your sacrifice were a reality; wor- however far back it extends-such a man may be reckoned a complete ship Shin as if Shin were really man. . . . "Man is born for uprightpresent." But meanwhile your chief ness. They who know the truth are concern is with the visible and palpa- not equal to those who love it, and ble nniverse and with the homely they who love it are not equal to those tasks of life. The opposition to Chris- who find delight in it." tian points of theology is entire and fundamental. But the rule of right is not indivi· dual conscience, but rather the uni- CONFUCIANISM AS A MORAL FORCE. versal conscience of mankind. Man must do all this without any help, hu- In what way and sense is Confu- man or divine. He fails, and Confucianism a moral force? There must cianism does not attempt to account be something in it by which it has for the failure. It only stands alongheld sway for these centuries. Espec- side of the failure and says man was ially in the face of sundry marked born to be good. It does not even furdefects in its ethical teaching. It con- nish an example. founds ethics with ceremonies and politics, it asserts that certain musical The sceptre of authority, of all pomelodies influence morals; its system of social life is tyrannous: women are slaves, and may be bought and sold ·as sheep in the shambles; children litical power, hence the centre of all guised as a Thibetan, accompanied by political government is morals. a Sikkim Lama, who was a sub-in- spector of schools employed by the "Withal," Mr. Edkins says, "Confu- British government. cianism has not made the Chinese a moral people. They exhibit a lament- Yet, it is not true that we do not able want of moral strength. The know much about the country and standard of principle among them is the people. The" Cyc10predia Britankept low by the habits of the people. nica" has a quite elaborate article, in They do not appear ashamed when which a great deal of information is they are discovered to have told an condensed, and there are many sources untruth." (See Edkin's "Religion in of information about this land. China.") We summarize from sources,learned Archdeacon Hardwick says: "How and popular, too numerous to name, many are the points in which Con- in the following statements: fucian tenets are opposed to Christianity, it were superfluous to enumer- THE COUNTRY. ate. The opposition in respect of doctrines is entire and fundamental. Thibet, or Tibet-for there seems no It is the opposition of nature and of preference in the spelling-or to use grace, of unregenerate and regenerate the native name, Bodyul " The counprinciples, of sight and faith, of earth- try of the god," or Bhotiya, or lyand of heavenly, And how vast Bhoots, is a section of table lands ten will, therefore, beth~ revolution in the to sixteen thonsand feet above the moral nature of the Chinaman if he sea, stretching from the Upper HimashaH ever learn to practice the un- laya Mountains and those of Yunnan, worldly lessons of the Gospel." (See on to the mountains of China in one " Christ and Other Masters," p. 57.) direction, and to those of Turkistan in another. It is difficult of access in all Confucian conservativism is essen- directions and equally difficult to travtial and inherent. It is the greatest erse. The world owes the Jesuits a obstruction to all progress. debt here as in so many other places for the earliest maps, though here as Thibet. elsewhere those made early in the It is quite the fashion to dismiss eighteenth century were crude and Thibet with the statement that very often misleading. There is no exact little is known of this country and its survey had, except in Western Thibet people. That is only true in a very where, as in Kashmir, it is the most qualified sense. The ordinary student complete. may not have a hand-book, as he has of Bavaria or Switzerland, and the The Britannica is full enough on casual reader may not be easily re- climate, products, industries and ferred to anyone or two volumes many other common matters to have from which to find at a glance what it suffice t-o refer our readers to that he wishes to know of what is known, source. and only now and again has any European been permitted to make any THE PEOPLE. personal investigation by actually traversing the country, as did Alexan- The most probably correct estimate der Csoma de Koros, who made his of the population is from a Russian way from Hungary to Thibet on foot; source which puts it at six millions. or as an enterprising Hindu, Sarat Chandra Das, who, it is alleged, re- The people themselves are worth n.. cently made a tour in Thibet dis- fuller note than a mere reference. The Turanian family of races separate into two great divisions-the Northen~ and the Southern. The Northern com- prehends the Tungus, t,he Mongol, the Tartar, and the Finn branches. The Southern includes the Malay, the Bhotiy,a and the Tamil races: The represent the Chinese government in Indo-Bhotiyas are in the northeast Thibet. These direct exclusively the countries of India, on the Himalayas foreign and military administration and in the valleys of the Brahmaputra. of the country. The civil and relig- The stronglanguage of affinitybetween ious government is left in native these tribes in Burmah and in Thibet hands. The number of Chinese troops is manifest if the chain of gradual rarely equals 4,500 men. modifications from tribe to tribe is followed. But the original Bhotiya The Dalai Lama is the supreme race are Thibetans, and they live in authority in civil government. He Thibet, not alone, but with Mongoli- resides in the famous temple palace of ans who are supposed to have been Potala near Lhasa. He is an incarsettled there since the days of Genghis nation of Buddha, and his soul passes Khan. from him into another body when he dies, in order that there may be a per- The HoI' or Horpa occupy the west- petual incarnation of Buddha at the ern part of Northern Thibet, and ex- head of the Thibetan affairs. They tend into Chinese Tartary or Little do not shout, but they might, with pe- Bokhara. They are nomads, not culiar propriety: "The king is-dead; agriculturists, and more Tartar than long live the king!" for the Dalai Thibetan in their habits. They are Lama never dies. He only disappears mostly Buddhists. But some of them in the form of one man to reappear are Moslems even within Thibet: at the same instant in the form of Turks in blood, Bhots in language. some infant born at the moment of In Ladak both the creed and the liter- the apparent death of the king. They ature are Buddhist, but in blood and search the land to find this childlanguage they are Bhot. Ladak's po- Buddha, place him on the throne, and litical relations are with British India run the Government through a vice. and Kashmir. The Bhot element in roy till he comes to maturity. His its distinct type can not be seen but duties are simply to sit cross-legged in in Chinese Thibet. his temple, and from time to time ex- tend his hand in benediction on his In appearance the Thibetans re- worshipers. semble the Chinese and the Mongols, though, according to Hodgson, many This joint headship of state and of the mountaineers differ entirely church has inhered in the Dalai Lama from the Turanian, and approach the since 1640. There are many other Aryan type. No absolutely white grand lamas, but they are subordinate skins are seen, but often a very pale to the Dalai Lama who is at once brown complexion with red hair and emperor and pope. Below these still gray eyes, and a good deal of bloom are monk-lamas, who act as scribes, on the children's faces. In appearance physicians, sorcerers, etc. It is frethey resemble Chinese and Mongols, quently the case that the correspondnot Hindus, and are more athletic ences of Lamaism with the Roman than either. They are of the same Catholic form of Christianity are overfamily as the Burmese, and their emphasized, at least very incorrect languages are like. Yet Thibetans inferences are made from these. The have no tradition or notion of a pro- Lama ceremonies of baptism, confirgenitor of the human race. There is mation. The ecclesiasticism of pope no caste, yet the social habits are and cardinal, archbishops, priors, Hindu in most r~spects. Polyandra monasteries and nunneries, abbots, prevails, and Polygamy obtains. etc., are all here. But these similar- ities are often strained, and the differ- Since 1720 Thibet has been a depend- ences in them are very great. ency of China, under the Viceroy of Sze-Chuen. Two imperial delegates Lamaism is a compound of Shamanism, Sivaism and Buddhism. The But Thibet was not without a re- Thibetan form of Buddhism is, how- ligion till it imported Buddism and ever, wholly unique. Writers are Sivaism from India. It had an earlier constantly saying this is the strong- creed, though but illy formulated till hold of Buddhism without any ap- Buddhism came. It is known as the parent discrimination. Buddhism in Bon Religion. Eighteen principal ,"ods Burmah is one thing; in Ceylon it is are enumerated. Originally it was a another thing; it is still another sort of nature worship, mixed with thing in Thibet. It is not in its ori- a superstitious element; later on, ginal purity in Thibet. It is strongly adopted from Shamans and the Sivamodified by surrounding religious ites of India, and now further mixed notions. It was born in Thibet contem- with Buddhist ideas. poraneously with the Sikh religion in the Punjab and with the Lutheran CHRISTIANITY IN THmET. Reformation in Europe. In its monasteries in Thibet are preserved heaps The Roman Catholics nave tried to upon heaps of Buddhist literature, the introduce Christianity on the Chinese language Thibetan, but the alphabet border. They began this in 1846, and being Indian, and they may date from made some inroads till 1865, when the second century. They differ in their mission property at Bonga was their language much from the spoken destroyed by fire by the Thibetaus. language of Thibet to-day. Again they endeavored to work, but in 1887 were again driven out, only For much of this class of informa- two of their nine centres being untion one must search ethnological and touched. philological works, like Brace's "Races of the Old World," " Latham's On the west the Moravians have Philology," Hodgson's great works, sought to enter the country, but have and other books like Cunningham's had to stay in British Lahore. They Ladak (the title has gone from us just commenced this mission at the sugnow). gestion of Gutzlaff, in 1853, by send- ing Messrs. Pagell and Hyde, two Max Muller, too, will often let in laymen, who endeavored to reach light, as for instance, in his" Chips," Thibet by way of Russia, but were deetc., where he says: feated in the attempt, and then tried the -India route by way of Simla, in "People have complained of the 1854, to Kyelang in Lahore, and eslength of the sacred books of other tablished a mission house 10,000 feet nations, but there are none that ap- above the sea, and at Poo, in Kunaproach in bulk to the sacred canon of war, in 1865. At this latter place they the Thibetans. It consists of two col- number forty converts. They have lections, commonly called the Kanjur done a large amount of translation of and Tanjur." Scriptures, grammars, etc., into Thibetan, and sent these into Thibet, The Kanjur consists in different where it is said all the lamas can editions of 100, 102 or 108 volumes read, and the lamas, remember, folio. It comprises 1,083 distinct number eighty thousand! works. The Tanjur consists of 225 volumes folio, each weighing from -Father Agostino, a preaching four to five pounds in the Peking edi- friar, has been addressing flocks of tion, which edition was sold for $3,000 people in Rome, and among them by the Emperor Khian-Lung. A copy even skeptical scientists. He is an of the Kanjur was bartered for 7,000 impassioned orator, and has been oxen, and a copy of Kanjur and called the "modem Savonarola." Tanjur together was sold for 1,200 Nevertheless, he is an ignorant Romansilver roubles. (See Vol. XX., ist and worships the Virgin. " Asiatic Researches.")
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
-Mr. H. W. Frost writes that the Missionaries employed, 121; days inundation in the region about Tient- labored, 23,182; stations supplied, 710; sin, in province of Chihli, was caused miles traveled, 200,443; sermons by very heavy rain-falls in the moun- preached, 12,029; Exhortations and tains: The waters spread with unex- other religious addresses, 6,587; total ampled suddenness. Mud villages sermons, 18,616; baptized into mission were completely dissolved, and swept churches, 1,893; received by letter away with their inhabitants; some and restoration by mission churches, who escaped with life lost ~he crops 2,267; total received by mission Dn which they depended for the eight churches, 4,160; professed conversions, months to come. Probably 4,000,000 2,619; churches assisted in organizing, Df people will depend on charity, in 103; prayer meetings assisted in orthis province alone, until May next. ganizing, 405; Sunday-schoolsassisted Active relief committees are at work, in organizing, 250; prayer meetings ascertaining the extent of the calam- led, 3,224; elders or bishops assisted ity, and devising means of help. The in ordaining, 43; deacons assisted in government is repairing the embank- ordaining, 98; pages religious literments, and has issued an imperialre- ature distributed, 522,789; reliigious script ordering Tls.60,000, to be dis- visits, 28,611; church houses built in tributed among sufferers. All this, connection with labor, No. 39, cost, however, is inadequate to raise the $29,965.00; books, Bibles, etc., distrirecipients above the bare preservation buted, No. 2,406, cost, $1,061.03; colof life. Rev. G. W. Clarke, of the lected for State missions, $35,357.77. China Inland Mission, writes, that to keep these people from November 15th -The Dutch Reformed Church of to March 15th, at two cents a day for Cape Colony, which has 175,555 bapadults and one cent for children up to tized white members, is coming, says twelve years, would cost $9,000,QOO. the Rev. Charles Starbuck, under Even now famine is upon the people Scottish and English Stimulus, to who can get but one meal, and that show a much more animated missionvery poor food, every twenty-four ary zeal. "Stellenbosch, with its theohours. Here is a chance not only to logical institute, is very especially a help the starving, but to reach them focus of missionary zeal." Among the with the b.read of life. The judicious others, the Wesleyan Missionary Sohelp given in 1871, 1878, 1888, re- ciety is most prominent. It has (in the moved many prejudices against mis- west) 9 stations, 6 missionaries, 96 na. sionaries and resulted in soul-saving:. tive helpers, 1,476 communicants, 1,467 scholars. The South African If any feel moved to contribute, a Wesleyans are quite independent of draft on London, England, sent to the the British conference. In the whole Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Cor- Colony they have 71 stations, 156 poration, Shanghai, China, or a post- churches and chapels, 55 clergymen, office order or New York draft, sent to 1,198 native helpers, 16,840 communi- Mr. H. W. Frost,No. 30 Sheeter Street, cants, 88,000 baptized adherents, 218 Toronto, Canada,will be forwarded to schools, 310 teachers, 13,803 scholars. the relief of the suffering millions. "But no other British society laboring in South Africa compares with the -Mr. J. B. Cranfill, superintendent Scottish societies as respects' capabilof missions, incloses summary of ity, sobriety and diligence, combined Texas (Baptist) mission work, from with true evangelical piety." The Free September 30,1889, to September 30, Church of Scotland has 9 stations, 10 1890: ordained Europeans, 2 ordained na- cational and industrial training. The tives, 23 native helpers, 4214 commu- United Presbyterians have 11 stations, nicants, 12,113 baptized adherents, 12 missionaries, 60 native helpers, 2,307 3,510 scholars. Their institute at Love- communicants, 8,080 baptized adherdale (largely assisted by the colonial ents, 43 schools, 1,735 scholars.-Illu8government) is a great force for edu- trated Weekly.
Foreign Mission Notes, by Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, England.
The Missionary Death Roll. secrated in Edinburgh on All Soul's Bishop Callaway.-At the close of Day, 1874, he settled at Umtata, March last, in his seventy-third year, around which grew up a small town, passed away the Right Reverend a pro-cathedral, a theological training Henry Callaway, D.D., first bishop of college for natives, schools for native St. John's, South Africa. Born in and European boys and girls, a hospi- Crediton, Devonshire, on the 17th of tal, and other institutions. Through- January, 1817; he early attached him- out his wide diocese he toiled with self to the Society of Friends. He inexhaustible zeal. On the failure of pursued the medical profession with health, in 1886, he formally resigned marked distinction, in London, and returned to his native land. True though his interest in religious ques- to the apostolic spirit, he devoted all tions and pre-eminently his strong his property to Spring Vale when he convictions on missions ultimately in- withdrew, and subsequently gave to duced him to join the Established the Established Church a sum of Church. On the formation of the £2,000 on his retirement. Bishop Cal- See of ~atal, he responded to Bishop laway will rank with Africa's most Colenso's call and was ordained laborious and enlightened missionary at Norwich Cathedral, August, 1854. heralds.
After a voyage of fourteen weeks to Mr. A. M. Mackay.-By the death Port Durban, he was appointed in the of this eminent missionary a lament- capacity of priest, in September, 1855, able blank is created in the Uganda to St. Andrews, Pietermaritzburg, the Mission. Most probably this event oc- first church erected in Natal. He ClIrred at Usambiro, on the southwest speedily became a conspicuous worker of Victoria Nyanza, 750 miles inland.
among the heathen and in the study Mr. Mackay was born at the Rhynie of the Kaffir language. Three years Manse, Aberdeenshire, in 1849, where later he obtained a grant of 3,000 acres his father was a noted Presbyterian of land, a day's journey from Rich- minister. Educated partly at home mond, where he founded the famous and at the Northern University, he Spring Vale Station, a prolific centre later went to Berlin in order to follow of Christianizing influence. He as- the profession of engineering. There sisted in reducing the Kaffir language he won no inconsiderable reputation to written form, and chiefly in trans- for ability and accomplislmIents. Mr.
lating nearly the whole of the Scrip- Stanley's historic letter, inviting mis- tures and Prayer Book. In this sionaries, in 1885, to the dominions of tongue, followed by a literal transla- Mtesa, moved the young engineer in tion in English, he wrote a book en- Germany to offer himself for service titled, "Zulu Nursery Tales." On the as an artisan missionary to the Church Scotch Established Church founding Missionary Society. He was readily in 1873, the Bishopric of Independent accepted, and on the 27th of April, Kaffraria, lying between Natal and 1876, sailed with the first party.
Cape Colony, Dr. Callaway was of- His desire to go forward on landing fered and accepted the. charge. Con- was frustrated by a serious illness. During his months of waiting by the classes. A pamphlet named "Times seaboard he made important surveys of Refreshing in Spain," recently pub- and laid out a useful road as far as lished in Glasgow, contains a bright Mpwapwa. When the news of the narrative of his toils for the better tragic deaths of Lieutenant Shergold school accommodation of the families Smith and Mr. O'Neill on Victoria Ny- connected with the Rio Tinto Com- anza came to hand, he resolved at pany, and increased facilities of wor- every hazard to join the lonely re- ship. He was equally esteemed by maining missionary, the Rev. C. T. the officers and seamen at the ship- Wilson. In December, 1878, he ping port for whom he opened a res- reached Mtesa's capital. Through a taurant and readiug-room, and as ~uccession of hardships, perils and ca- steadfastly sought their spiritual wel- lamities, he displayed the highest de- fare.
votion and splendid fortitude. House Rev. T. German Jones.-By the and boat-building, implement-mak- unexpected decease of this notable ing, teaching agriculture, managing mISSIOnary, the Welsh Calvanistic the printing-press, and proclaiming Methodists are bereft of one who held the message of eternal life, occupied a foremost position in the mission his nights and days among the tribes cause in the East. An overworked of Uganda. Under threat or in cap- system compelled him to sail from tivity he tarried within Uganda Ter- Calcutta, with his wife, on the 17th of ritoryuntil he was driven forth by the last March. The relatives and friends Mohammedan revolt in 1888. At his who repaired to Gravesend to await temporary abode, Usambiro, every the incoming steamer were terribly one knows how faithfully he succored shocked to learn on her arrival that the followers of Stanley and Emin on the home-voyaging missionary died on their coastward march. His decease the previous day, April 14th. In many robs the Church Missionary Society of respects his career was a remarkable its most conspicuous foreign agent,and one. A native of Anglesey, he was the whole missionary world of one of employed for some years as a working the most energetic and successful mis- quarrier. On completing his studies sionary pioneers of modern times. in Bala College he was called to the Rev. James Lundie, M.A.-To ministry of the Welsh Calvanistic the deep sorrow of the English and Church. His foreign labors began at Spaniards at Huelva, Spain, this be- the mission station of the Khasia loved missionary died unexpectedly Hills, India. By an unremitting en- on the 21st of March. At Edinburgh thusiasm he was witness to abun- University, where a few years past he dant spiritual harvests. His services received the Master of Arts degree, to the British government at the time two of his brothers on that occasion of the Indian mutiny were the means had the same honor conferred upon of averting a general rising in the them. One of the latter, Mr. Marsh- neighborhood. All through the awful all Lundie accompanied him to Spain cholera plague in India he labored un- and there ultimately succumbed in flaggingly, e5pecially in bearing the the Master's cause. The third of the stricken to the crowded hospitals.
brothers, the Rev. John Lundie, re- For his devotion on successive famine presents the Scotch United Presby- outbreaks he won the public thanks terians in Kaffraria, in which capacity of the Indian authorities and the he is sustained by a genuine mission- grateful affection of the poorest classes.
ary partner. The subject of this me- With fine literary tastes he combined morial notice was on the eve of com- an extensive and profound Oriental pleting special work for the benefit of scholarship. A large concourse of the English residents and the native mourners and spectators attended the funeral at Smithdown. Cemetery, here. My church, after many years Liverpool, on April 18th. of imancy and adolescence under another, and a part of the time under United States. my ministry, is giving signs of growth. New Orleans, June 30, 1890. EDITORS OF THE MISSIONARY RE- My church is a missionary church, VIEW:-As chairman of the Assembly'S and our young members are being dili- Standing Committee of' Foreign Mis- gently trained as soldiers for the war, sions, at Chattanooga, it was my duty and I hesitate not to declare that the to shape and present the favorable re- Church is so essentially missionary in ,sponse to an overture from the pro- her constitution, that to neglect or to fessors of our colored institution at do slackly this work, is to forfeit the Tuskaloosa, to begin a mission in the charter received from the King. Dark Continent. ,Two missionaries, -one white and the other black, are Yours, in our dear Lord, now on their way to Africa, and our R. Q. MALLARD. Assembly, at its late session in Ash- ville, resolved W reinforce them with Lutherans in all Languages. four additional laborers as soon as the means could be realized. In order to The Lutheran is a church of many deepen the interest of our people in languages. The latest statistics show this new mission, and stimulate that of her baptized membership greater generosity and prayerfulness, throughout the world 32,000,000 speak I sent the article enclosed, entitled, German, 5,300,000 Swedish, 2,500,000 "Wheah's Appeal," to our organ, The Norwegian, 2,300,000 Danish, 2,048,- Southwestern Presbyterian. Possibly 000 Finnish, 1,250,000 English, 1,113,- it might he made of larger service in 000 Hungarian, 624,000 Livonian, 480,- awakening interest in the evangeli- 000 Courlanish, 272,000 Esthnian,70,000 zation of a land long neglected, but French, 70,000 Icelandic, 48,000 Bohetoward which the eyes of the whole mian, and that in every other civilized -civilized as well as Christian world are tongue she is well represented, num- bering in the world 28,406 educated now being turned.* ministers, 38,381 church edifices, and 50,061,280 baptized members. This Your REVIEW, which I have only of church, though taking its origin in late been able to take, is invaluable to Germany, seems to know no fatherme in the preparation of missionary land or mother tongue. She is at sermons, and in the monthly concert home everywhere. of prayer, which I have always observed in my ministry. It is of great Wesleyan Missionary Society.- value in keeping my own soul stirred The society is reported struggling -on the matter which engaged the last against financial difficulties, for the thoughts of our dear Master before He relief of which an earnest call is made. mounted the throne. Your REVIEW Notwithstanding a carefully admin- ~nables the soldier of the Cross to istered expenditure, the current inmount occasionally above the dust and come does not keep pace with. it. smoke of the battle to the serene Possibly for the decrease the embitmountain-top, whence he can, at a tered controversy with Dr. Lunn and glance, survey the entire field of con- Mr. Hughes may be partly accountflict, only to descend with heightened able. The majority of the older courage to his place in the host. British missionary organizations re- gard the obstacles in the way of rais- Allow me to thank you warmly for ing their necessary incomes as multithe help you are giving m~ in my work plying rather than diminishing. The birth of numerous modern societies • We regret that space compels us to omit largely explain this dilemma, for they this strong appeal.-ED. draw upon supporters identified with " Word has been received from the long-established agencies. illustrious Department of Instruction The Salvation Army derives a at Constantinople, addressed to the princely income from the Christian government guarding the interests of public, whereas, General Booth does Syria, to the effect that there has been not aid any other organization, even issued an imperial order in favor of those traveling on corresponding lines Mr. Henry Jessup, a subject of the to his own. honored American republic, based Interest was shown at the Man- upon a statement and petition ad- chester Auxiliary of the Wesleyan dressed by him, permitting him to Society, attended by the Rev. W. H. publish the Weekly Neshra, which Findlay, M.A., of Negapatam,and the had been previously suppressed, this Rev. Professor Patterson, of Madras, permission being granted on the con- in the presence of two old-time Wes- dition that the paper shall not treat of leyan advocates of missions. One of· any political matters, nor of any oc- the veterans, who presided, Mr. Oeo. currences whatsoever which may taktf Cussons, was within a few days of place within the empire or outside its completing his eighty-eighth birthday; borders, but shall treat solely of re- the other patriarch, Mr. John Napier, ligious, scientific and moral questions.
has already entered on his ninetieth But this permission is restricted by the year. The occasion was made deeply condition that nothing shall be printed memorable by the masterly defence in it which directly or indirectly of educational work amid the great opposes any of the religious beliefs centres of population in India. Pro- current in the governments ruled and fessor Patterson held that the policy guarded by the Sultan, and also by the which had been maintained for many condition that a copy of the contents years by the Protestant missionaries of the paper be sent before it is in regard to this phase of activity was printed and published to the govern- wise and justified by its results. ment censor that he may sanction its printing and publication after he has -Liberty of the Press in Turkey. ascertained that in no respect, in The Neshra, an Arabic newspaper single words or in sentences, has there published by the American mission in been any infringement of this condi- Beirut, Syria, was suppressed without tion. The exalted local government cause, months ago, by orders from will inform him of the nature of this Constantinople. Efforts have been concession. "
made, by interviews with the local Turkish soldiers, hemmed in by authorities and by petitions to Con- bayonets and cannon, shout at the stantinople, by the intervention orthe close of their daily reviews, "Long United States consul and of the am- live the Sultan!" American Chris- bassador, to secure permission for its tians interested in the redemption of resumption, but all in vain until the Turkey will wait for further proofs of pre~ent time. the fostering care of the Sultan's gov- An Arabic paper from Beirut, re- ernment before heartily echoing this ceived here recently, publishes the fol- prayer.-Church at Home and Abroad.
lowing notice of the Sultan's gracious edict, from which our readers can Jews.-Baron Hirsch gives $10,000 judge of the nature of the " liberty of a month toward the relief of the Jews the press" in Turkey, and of the re- exiled from Russia and seeking homes strictions to which the missionaries in the United States. The American are subject in their work. This is a Hebrew says: literal translation of the Arabic "A census of the district south of copy:' Houston street and east of Broadway shows Russian and Roumanian Jews were clothed with different clothing; far in excess of one hundred thou- and were of different habits and ways sand, and the average increase by im- of life. Yet I never realized the one migration is about twenty thousand ness of the human family more than I per annum. The committee propose did that day. The poet says, "One using the Hirsch fund in educating touch of nature makes the whole world these people so as to become self-sus- kin." But one touch from the hand taining by entering trades or occupa- of Christ can do far more than that. tions which are new to them, and to It can abolish all differences, makes enable them to amalgamate rapidly us feel that we are the children of a with the people among whom they common Father, saved by a common work or dwell. Classes have been Saviour, heirs of a common inheriopened for teaching children sufficient tance, pilgrims to a common home.- English to prepare them to attend the Samoa, Past and Present, by Rev. public schools; for instructing adults Oharles Phillips. in English, in American history, methods and customs; for fitting girls Monthly Bulletin. for other occupations than tailoring, for making men handy with tools, -A Chinese society of Christian whereby they can more rapidly obtain brethren, organized in East 39th renumerative employment. It has Street, New York City, has, on the first been proposed to teach them various floor, a room for religious meetings, trades, and put some at agriculture, and, on the second, apartments for and so scatter them in different voca- the sick and homeless. It began with tions. With the aid of the employment twenty-six members, who paid $70 bureauofthe United HebrewCharities, per month for the house. positions have been found for a large number of men, the Hirsch fund pay- -A school for the Chinese, opened ing the expense of transporting them at Kelley's, North Carolina, called the to the points where they are to work, " Oriental Academy," began with and in some cases tools have been seven pupils direct from Canton, and given them." is on a farm, and the system is indus- trial. It is designed for Chinamen Samoa. – A South Sea Com- wishing to be educated, but prevented munion. At the close of a service by race prejudice or lack of funds several hundreds remained to com- from entering an American school. memorate our Lord's death. For bread The school is non-sectarian, is under the natives have often only the kernel the auspices of leading Chinamen, of the cocoanut, and for wine only the and will offer opportunities for selfmilk of the cocoanut, the natural support. bread and wine of the country. The scene was very striking. Only four- -In the Sabbath-school of the teen years since the mission ship first Clarendon Baptist Church, in Boston, approached the island. Then they whose pastoris Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, were only a herd of naked savages. is a class of one hundred of native Now" clothed and in their right Chinese. They support three of their minds," numbers of them gather countrymen as preachers in their own around the table of the Lord. There land. seemed hardly any point of resemblance between preacher and people. -A united prayer-meeting in con- We were of different races; spoke nection with the week of prayer, for different languages; were of different woman's work in the mission-field, coloring; ate different kinds of food; was held in Exeter Hall, Friday, January 9th, at 3 P. M. Representa- tives of various zenana societies were present and took part in the proceed- said that not until the end of the ings. seventeenth century did the popula- tion number more than 60,000,000, If -A converted Chinaman on our so, what remarkable growth has Pacific coast sold himself as a coolie characterized these last two centuries, in New Guinea, for the sake of work- notwithstanding famines, droughts, ing among his own countrymen. pestilences and wars. Within the last Before he died he was the means of two centuries has occurred the two the conversion of two hundred of his notable reigns of Kanghi and Keincompanions. lung, each lasting nearly sixty years, and were characterized by tranquility -The statement is again made that and good laws. The educational Mr. C. F. Studd, one of the China system also stimulates the increase of Inland missionaries, placed his for- population. The cultivation of silk tune of $500,000 in the hands of the engages a large number of persons, trustees, the interest of which is to go from the tending of the mulberry to the mission, while he shares the trees to the last step in the production common lot of missionaries. Whether of the fabric. About one in nine of this statement is true or not we are not the people is a washerman, one in ten able to say. is engaged in the cultivation of the soil, one in 100 is a bricklayer, or a -Laotsze Yaotze Nahtsze, a cele- stonemason, or a carpenter, and one brated philosopher of China, founder in 120 is a tailor, while one in 140 is a of the Tabu Sect, or Sect of Reason, blacksmith. was born 104 years before Christ. His name means" old boy," because -France is now much the largest he is believed to have been eighty land owner in Africa. Her territory years old at birth. will extend from the Mediterranean almost to the Gulf of Guinea. Even -Forty societies are at work in the great Sahara will now be under China, with between eight hundred French control. and nine hundred missionaries and teachers: -From mid-China we have news of a remarkable revival, great numbers -Dr. J. G. Kerr, of the China Mis_ being brought out of the darkness of sion, read a paper at a meeting of the heathenism. The Rev. George Clark Medical Missionary Association, at has preached to audiences numbering Shanghai, on May 20th, last year, his 4,000. Even the intensely cold weather subject being "Medical Missionaries did not prevent the people from in Relation to the Medical Profession." coming night after night. Stanley He lays great stress upon the moral Smith reports two hundred and ten value of the work of those who, to- baptized at one time and as many gether with the healing of the body, more inquirers. offer to the people that religious faith which has produced the best men and -A missionary home and business women, husbands and wives, citizens agency has been established at No. 8 and neighbors, and governments upon Seward Road, Shanghai, of which Mr. the face of the earth. Edward Evans writes: -Canton is a real Chinese city, but "It is designed as a halting-place Hong Kong is simply:a British settle- for all arriving and departing missionment. aries, of which there is now a large travel through Shanghai, which, with -The population of China is be- the exception of Hong Kong, is the port lieved to be, according to the most re- of entry for all China for Europe and liable statistics, 380,000,000. The America. The China Inland Mission people show a marvelous energy in multiplying. They thrive upon what others regard as starvation diet. It is has recently erected a beautiful and you can lift first the children of the commodious place, costing over rising generation. $50,000, for its own missionaries. The American Presbyterian is the only -At a recent session of the SociaL other society, of all who are repre- Scientists in Saratoga, N. Y., Dr. T. sented in China, who have any home W. Couthers advocated a practical for its missionaries in Shanghai. method of treating drunkards. He' All the more need is there for a Chris- would put the inebriate on the plan of tian home to welcome and shelter and the small-pox patient and put him into pass on new arrivals, often suffering quarantine till he recovers. He would after sea-sickness' of a long voyage, take away his personalliberly, declare and bewildered with the new and him both incapable and irresponsible, strange sights and conditions they are and so strike a death blow at' the entering. The missionaries in the saloons with the pauperism and crime interior have need also of some one to that proceed from it. receive and forward supplies sent them from home, and purchase such things -Samoa has recently attracted'. as they require for home use. The much attention. A large proportion agency is designed to meet this need. of the Samoans are Christians, and a The home is not supported by any missionary says that he would be denomination or society, and is a willing to match any twenty men, simple effort of an independent women and children that he might worker. It is to be carried on so as to meet there against any twenty met at just cover its expenses." random in this country as to their knowledge of the Word of God. -Rev. Dennis Osborne (India) baptized over 500 persons last winter, -In Africa the number of missionand hopes for similar success this sea- aries exceeds five hundred and the son. number of converts four hundred thousand, increasing by about twenty- -Count Campello is addressing five thousand a year. During the very large gatherings in Italy, urging past five years Africa has furnished his hearers to renounce Papacy and more than two hundred martyrs. affirm the infallibility of none but Jesus Christ. He presses the Gospel -A Missionary Reading Circle remessage upon the careless and skepti- cently organized at Columbia, Mo. cal, but his preaching is not unmixed It is an endeavor to unite young with politics. people in a systematic course of read- ing upon the subject of missions. The -Rev. John McNeil, who succeeded course will cover about three years, Rev. J. Oswald Dikes at Regent Square and those who engage in it will be Church, London, is to be relieved examined and certified as graduates from his evening service, that he may upon the completion of the course. proclaim the Gospel in destitute The course for the first year covers regions in London and round about. the lives of Judson and Livingstone, Mr. McNeil has very remarkable gifts Dr. Strong's charming book, "The as an evangelist, and it seems as Missionary Review and the Crisis of though he should not be confined Missions." The admission fee is fifty within the limits of anyone church. cents per annum. We would be glad if such reading circles might be estab- -The motto of Dr. Guthrie's whole lished in every part of our country. Ragged School work was " Prevention Information is what is particularly better than Cure." It is impossible to needed to awaken missionary con· raise the lower classes in towns unless science,
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1889
Rt. Hon. The Earl of
.MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XII. No.t.-Old Series._ _JANUARY, _ _VOL. U. No. t.-New Serle•• I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD. [EDITORIAL. ] "OUR work is practically that small portion of God's eternal work and will which is allotted to us in our little corner of space and our short minute of time."
So spake Pasteur Monod, truly and tersely, at the late Mildmay Confer- ence. It is an august conception of service, that, in God's gTand sphere, there is a little segment, bearing our name and the date of this present YE(ar. The youthful Victoria, when the Archbishop of Canterbury came to announce her father's death and her own accession as Queen of Britain, begged him first of all to pray with her that she might take the throne and weal' the crown only as the servant of a Higher Sovereign. But when we rightly. conceive of our work, however humble, it becomes invested with a divine dignity. The rudest implement 01' instrument becomes a scepter. the bench of the workman or of the magistrate alike a throne, and the blouse and ermine alike a royal robe.
A tw~lvemonth since, this REVIEW, in its present enlarged and modified form, was, with many prayers and not without some fears, launched like a bark upon strange waters. The beginning of the new year naturally sug- gests a retrospect and a prospect.
Looking back, we thank God and take courage. At every step of the way we trace providential and gracious guidance and help. We undertook the work because we heard a loud call of God amt saw a great need of man. A Jericho lay before us to be taken for Christ's crown and covenant; but, between us and success rolled a stream neither narrow nor shallow. Believ- ing that the invisible and invincible Captain of the Lord's host was leading on, we set our foot in this Jordan and have gone over on dry ground. Every difficulty, when approached, has disappeared or been surmounted. Our sub- scription list has passed our most sanguine expectations. The public press has so cordially commended our work that scarce a word has found its way into print that has been controversial or even critical. Encomiums, that seemed almost extravagant, have come from the secretaries of great Mis- sion:;try Boards and the editors of other missionary magazines. Letters by the hundred have reached the editors and publishers, referring to our endeav- ors III the kindliest and most fraternal spirit; and contributions to our pages, often gratuitous, have been sent by men and. women who stand in the front rank. of the Church of Christ.
If we rightly read the signs of the times, it has been clearly demonstrated that just such a Review of universal missions is an imperative need of our day; and that in seeking to supply this need we were simply falling into our
LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD
place in a divine plan. With the enlarged circulation and the increased excellence for which we both hope and strive, a career of increased and increasing usefulness opens before this messenger of the churches. We therefore, without hesitation, appeal to all lovers of Christ and His cause, to give us sympathetic and prayerful aid in our endeavor to furnish and diffuse missionary intelligence and in.spiration throughout the wide circle of the common Christian brotherhood.
What was said at the outset, one year ago, we now emphatically repeat, that this is with us no mere money-making scheme. Neitller of us would have considered that we had any time to give to a mere business venture however promising. One of us, besides filling the onerous position of literary editor of a large publishing house, was editing The Homiletic Review, whose ninety-six pages a month made additional editorial work by no means a sinecure. The other was pastor of a congregation where thousands of people look to him for work in pulpit and pastorate. With such tax already upon tongue and pen, such engrossing and absorbing work as this REVIEW demands would not even have been weighed in the mere balances of worldly gain. We had neither time nor money to invest in a literary enterprise, though it might promise pecuniary rewards. But we weighed the matter in God's scales, over against higher motives and compensations. The leading of God seemed singularly obvious. A network of providences entangled us as in a golden snare. A higher destiny-a divinity~shaped our ends, and we yielded to the pressure of duty, which is always also privilege. We believed strength would be given us, and it has been given.
The impression and conviction with which this enterprise was begun have only become deeper and stronger by the year's eXperience, viz.: that, in respect of missions, no greater need exists than that of the universal diffU8ion of information as to the facts of past and present missionary history. To know those facts, to be informed and keep informed and fully informed, as to the march of God and His hosts in all the earth, is, in effect, to quicken the pulse of the whole Church of Christ. In missions. Love is the skillful alchemist that turns knowledge into zeal and out of intelligence distils inspiration. If we would have more prayer we must know what to pray about and pray for; if we want more money we must know what open doors God is placing before us for the investment of consecrated capital, and what wondrous results He has wrought and is working with the merchant's millions, and even the widow's mites; if we waRt more men and women as workers, the mind and heart and conscience of disciples must be awakened from sleep and aroused from sluggishness, by the electric touch of thrilling facts. If we want more zeal, all true zeal is "according to knowledge" and consequent upon it. If we want the spirit of holy enterprise, doing and daring for God, missions must be exhibited as the enterprise of the Church, and it must be shown that no equal or proportionate investment of men, means and money ever brought returns so ample-all of which the logic of events stands ready to prove by the most overwhelming of arguments.
In a word, we believe that, if every true disciple could be continually confronted by a fresh bulletin of news from the world-wide field and kept familiar with the movements of every assaulting column now moving against Satan's citadels, all the workmen and all the money-both the per80nnel and materiel of war-would De voluntarily furnished for prosecuting this colossal campaign I To do our part of this work well-this is the absorbing question. To mix. UP the secular spirit with the Lord's work is fatal to a true and large success; and, above all other work, missions mean and demand self-sacrifice. We could no~ ask a large blessing upon any plans that had in view such gross pay as silver and gold. A Review, such as we conduct, i(not likely to be a money-making investment; if the necessary price of its production is met we are content, and any surplus would go to enrich its contents and cheapen its cost, and so enlarge its circulation and influence.
The time has come, moreover, for a Review of Missions that may take its place side by side with the ablest periodicals in the secular sphere. The gospel has found its way into Cresar's household, as well as into the jailer's family and Bethany's humble home. God is now calling the wise, the mighty, the noble, to the kingdom. Merchant princes, public leaders, statesmen, journalists, philosophers, generals, judges, sages, bow at the cradle of Christ as did the Eastern seers. Kings' daughters are among the honorable women who follow the Saviour and minister to Him of their substance, and at His right hand stands more than one queen in gold of ophir. Piety is not linked with stupidity and superstition, ignorance and imbecility. Even the infidel no longer sneers at the gospel as "fit only for women, children, and small men." The thoughtful, cultured classes of society are compelled to ask whence came that wonderful religion that illustrates the survival of the fittest because fittest to survive; that amazes the evolutionist by not being evolved at aU, but springing at once into maturity without development, and yet defies for eighteen centuries all improvement, either by addition or subtraction I And we are profoundly persuaded that a Review of Missions, properly conducted, will not only inform the ignorant and enlighten and educate the uncultivated, but may also command and compel the attention of the most intellectual and intelligent readers, and bring them into closer and more practical fellowship with mission work.
Such aims and objects necessitate no little outlay of brains and money and hard work. 'I'o these pages we invite first-class contributions, and we therefore offer propel' compensation. Culture is a costly product in the intellectual market. The pen that is dipped in liquid gold commands gold as the wages of its work and the means of refilling its magic inkstand. Literary work brings a high price because it is bought with a large sum. We cannot ask able writers to furnish us papers gratuitously, though some of them do so, unsolicited. We began this REVIEW determined that, whether it broug"ht us any compensation or not as editors, our contributors should be paid; and we have observed this rule, not only to the utmost limit of our resources, but beyond it.
There are some directions in which we need prompt and vigorous co-operation from the Christian public, and we ask every reader to give us aid.
1. First of all, we wish for our REVIEW a greatly enlarged circulation. The same cost of time and strength by which we now reach 10,000 subscribers, may as well avail for 100,000; and the larger the list of subscribers the smaller the relative cost of production, and therefore the less the price of the REVIEW. Every pastor ought to have a copy, and to secure its wide circulation in a congregation would double and treble the annual gifts to lllissions. Is there not in every church some godly man or woman who will try at least to collect enough money to supply the pastor with THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD? And with l:;Iow little labor might copy after copy find its way into the homes of leading families? The pastors are leaders, and missionary interest in any congregation seldom rises above their level. "But we greatly desire that in every family the news from the mission field may find eager readers, if not always paying subscribers. Let every subscriber, therefore, take pains to see that his copy is read outside the limits of his own home. After it has done service in his own household, let it be sent on its rounds, visiting homes where otherwise it would not find its way, to spread information and inspire interest.
If a pastor would take the trouble to suggest to his people the raising of a club and request a suitable person to take it in charge, our circulation would be trebled among them and they would get the REVIEW at a less price. Ten subscriptions for $15; or for 20 at $2 each, a large missionary map of the world, which is sold for $20 by its publishers, is given. And the map and the circulation of 20 copies of THE REVIEW for a year among his people would largely increase the interest in and the gifts to the missionary cause.
We crave help to enlarge our free list. We renew our appealfor a Review Mission Fund, by which we may furnish copies gratuitously, orat less than cost, to young men and women who are studying and preparing for work in the mission field. Whenever $1 is sent us, we add what is necessary to pay for a free copy, and place it where it will do the most good. In this way we last year put it into the hands of several hundred volunteers.
2. Secondly, we ask aid, from any quarter, in providing matter for the pages of THE REVIEW i and particularly information from all parts of the field. Accurate and prompt reports of the Lord's work in any land we cordially welcome, and if necessary will pay for. What we specially desire is, early and authentic reports from all the missionary societies of the world. If the Secretaries of these many societies will see to it that we are furnished with advance sheets of their annual reports, or a copy of the report itself when issued, we will invariably publish a careful abstract of it in the REVIEW. Many have done so, and we have, including the Woman's Boards, given the past year the latest authentic statistics of some 125 societies. We have not yet attained to the scientific form of the late Mr. Wilder's reports, but we hope in time greatly to exceed them in fullness and practical worth, if not in the element of scientific arrangement. But very much depends on the co-operation of the friends of missions, in the foreign fields and in the Boards and Societies at home. Let every reader remember that, in effect, he is one of the editors and publishers of this REVIEW; these pages are at his command to improve almost without limit. Give us a larger constituency and so a wider circulation; give us contributions from the whole field, reports of all existing societies, helpful suggestions, and in general a helping hand; and, to the last limit of our ability and resourCQS, we will make this MISSION- ARyREVIEW OF THE WORLD worthy of its name, and of the cordial place already accorded to it in the hearts of thousands of readers.
Never was the whole field of missions so inviting or the harvest so prom- ising. Never was the Church of Christ furnished with facilities so ample and abundant for the speedy and successful accomplishment of her work. Human thought and social changes move with a rapidity unknown in the lethargic ages of the past. There is a stirring of all the elements both of individual and national life; new conditions exist; new aspirations are awakened, and new developments are possible. The next decade of years will witness not only evolutions but revolutions that even now seem incredi- ble within so short a time. The Church of Christ must push all her forces' to the front, and lay a moulding hand on the plastic material of social life. The anointed tongue and the consecrated pen, the printed page and the living ep~tle, the Church and the school, the Christian family and the Chris- , tian home, must unite their witness to the power of the gospel in the eyes and ears of every creature.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AS THE ENTERPRISE OF THE CHURCH
I A word by way of apology. It has caused us no little painand.mortification that, in spite of our best endeavors, a few typographical errors have marred the pages of the REvmw hitherto. This has been owing to the fact that the printing-office which does our work has undergone, as all business establishments are liable to, frequent and radical changes during the year, resulting in more or less chaos and haste, over which we had no control. We are determined, however, that this state of things shall no longer exist.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AS THE ENTERP;EUSE OF THE CHURCH.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] To proclaim the gospel in aU the world and to every creature is, in the most emphatic sense, the one divine vocation of disciples. It is the King's business; not only as committed to us by the King Himself, and bearing the signature and seal of royal authority, but as the business which the King, first of all, Himself undertook. In all missions, the pio- , neer and exemplar, the inspiring leader and peerless worker, was and is our imperial Divine Captain. He compressed into one sentence His whole subjective biography: "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost." Luke likewise compressed into one sentence His whole objective history: H He went about doing good." All intelli- gent zeal in missions kindles its enthusiasm from the live coal brought from that celestial altar whereon the Lamb of God was offered in self- consuming devotion. The highest heroism is but a borrowed beauty; it only reflects luster from that face that shone with the supreme supernal glory of perfect unselfishness. The vindication and the inspiration of all missionary work are alike found in this: that He, the King of kings, emptied Himself of His divine attributes and divested' Himself of His divine glory and consented to the limitations of a human nature and an earthly life, that He might take the form of a servant and become obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
However loosely we may use that phrase, H cross-bearing," it has one, and only one, scriptural application: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Christ took up the cross. That, to Him, meant self-sacrifice jor others' salvationj and it means that, and only that, to every follower or disciple. Life's petty annoyances and vexations, the daily trials of patience and tests of temper, may be spoken of as "our crosses," and everything that " crosses" us may be construed as a cross. But the Word of God authorizes no such breadth of application or interpretation; it knows noplurality oj crosses j the plural form of that word is never once :found in Scripture~ Moreover, it is not our cross, but His cross; or ours only as it is first His. To" bear the cross" after Him is to give up our- selves to a life, or if need be a death, as He did, for the sake of saving souls. Moses anticipated such oblivious self-offering when he plead: "And now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin-;' and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." The true interpre- tation of that sublime intercession of the great Jewish 'lawgiver is not found in a desperate determinatioll to be identified with Israel even in their rejection; but, as we conceive, Moses was offering himself as a sacrifice for the sinning people with whom God was so justly incensed: "rather than not forgive them, blot me out of thy book!" Paul, long after and with far more light upon the glory of such divine altruism, said: "I could wish that myself were accursed from Ohrist for my brethren." That was bearing the cross; that was being crucified with Ohrist; that entitled the great apostle of the Gentiles to say: "From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks (u'!"IrtLa'!"a) of the Lord Jesus."
This, then, is the business to which the King gave Himself, even unto death, and which He has entrusted to all disciples. First of all, we are to get salvation, and then to give it; and to get it that we may give it. Every disciple is called to be a co-worker with God the Father) a co-sufferer with God the Son, a co-witness with God the Holy Ghost,* in the saving of souls. Whatever other pursuit may claim our attention and endeavor, this is the one business of every disciple's life. This is his vocation; all other things are but avocations. This is the one and only legitimate calling deserving to "occupy" us "till He come." Until this truth and fact be acknowledged and felt-until this obligation and privilege become real and vivid, vital and vitalizing-there can be no adequate prosecution of the work of missions. Until then the impulse and impetus are lacking: there is no adequate motiv'e to become a motor to our personal and ecclesiastical machinery. Weare building without a base, and the whole structure is unstable.
But, on the other hand, let this conception of life, duty and responsibility take tenacious hold of every believer: I am called of God to bear the cross after Ohrist, to follow the same business which He followedseeking and saving the lost. Then let a holy affection-a passion for souls-set this conception on fire with the flame of love! And, before such a conviction, transfigured into such overpowering enthusiasm, the work of missions would advance as forest fires move, with the strides of a giant and the speed of the whirlwind, sweeping or melting all obstacles in its path, rapid and resistless as the march of God! Such will be the energy of our work for God, when we rightly conceive it, and receive into our hearts the omnipotence of its appeal, and of its impulsive and propulsive and expulsive passion for souls.
But another kindred result will follow: We shall take up missions with a new spirit of enterprise. That word, enterprise, has come to have a fixed and definite meaning. It suggests an undertaking of importa~ce, an arduous endeavor, with the acceptance of hazard or * See 1 Cor. iii: 9; Col. i: 24; John xv: 26,27. risk. It admits difficulty as a factor in the problem and hardihood as the price of success.
Christian missions represent the most colossal undertaking ever presented to the mind of man. Here is a world lying in the lap of the evil one, and entangled in his seductive snares as Samson was ill the net of Delilah's wantonness. Here are fifteen hundred millions of perishing people to be overtaken with· the gospel message, if at all; within the life-time of a generation. Yet Christ says to a comparatively few disciples: "Give ye them to eat," and yet what we have seems hopelessly inadequate provision for such a vast multitude. But there is the authority of the King; He certainly will not command what is impossible or even impracticable. With proper organization and distribution of this multitude into companies; with our few barley loaves brought to Him to be blessed, broken and mnltiplied as broken; with simple faith in His power and presence, and with implicit obedience to His Word, we may not only feed all these millions, but find fragments left in abundance; for the gospel provision strangely multiplies as it is divided.
All true enterprises are earnestly prosecuted. David said to * Abimelech: "The king's business requireth haste." And prompt- ness, celerity of movement, needs to be introduced into our way of doing the King's business, as a part of our loyal obedience to His command. In the book of Esther we are furnished with an example of the haste with which a royal decree may be carried out. t First the fatal word went forth at the prompting of wicked Haman-a decree of death-unto the King's lieutenants, the provincial governors and rulers, to every -people after their language; a copy of the, writing was published unto all people, aIld the posts went out, hastened by the King's commandment. Afterwards when that counter-decree of life was issued, written in the king's name and sealed with his signet, letters were dispatched by posts on horseback and riders on mules, camels and young dromedaries. There were 127 provinces to be reached ;- the empire of Ahasuerus stretched from the Danube and the Nile on the west to the Indus and the Ganges on the east, and from the Black Sea and the Caspian on the north to the P61:sian .Gulf and the Indian Ocean on the south – its length nearly two thousand and its breadth nearly one thousand miles. It was on the three and twentieth day of the month Sivan that the king's scribes were called to put that decree in writing; it had to be translated into every language represented in those provinces from Ethiopia to India; it had to be promulg-ctted with haste, and yet without one of those modern facilities which we possess. There were no printing-presses,. postal unions or telegraphs; no railro&ds or steamships. Every copy must be transcribed by hand, and borne by mes- * 1 Sam. xxi: 8. t Estheriii.-viii. sengers who could move no faster than horses and mules, camels and dromedaries could carry them. And yet, through all those 127 provinces that decree was actually published upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month Adar! Throughout that wide domain, to every Persian subject, that message of the king was thus born13 in less tha,n nine months I More than eighteen hundred and fifty years ago the King of kings issued a decree of salvation and bade His disciples bear the Word of life to every creature in all this world's vast empire. And now, after waiting with divine patience for nearly nineteen centuries, He sees threefourths ojthe htlman race yet without the knowledge of the good news of grace! It is plain without argument that the Ohurch of Ohrist has never yet, in any proper sense, attempted to solve this practical problem. When Dr. Duff declared that as yet we have been only" playing at missions," he meant that this world-wide work has never been seriously conducted as the enterprise of the Ohurch. We have not yet felt that the King's command is urgent and the King's business requireth haste. Were true, sound, sensible, practical business principles applied to this 'problem, no hindrance would be huge enough even to delay the prose- cution of the work solemnly committed to the Ohurch of Ohrist. And once more we record our solemn conviction that, with thorough organi- zation, sanctified resolve and practical co-operation throughout the Ohurch, the gospel may be preached as a witness, not only among all nations, but to every living creature, within the lifet'ime oj the present generation, or even before the present century closes.
In affirming this conviction we do not forget the wide extent of ter- ritory yet to be covered with gospel effort. There are unoccupied provinces, absolutely without a single missionary or mission station. Kurdistan with 3,000,000; Afghanistan with 8,000,000; Anam with 30,000,000; Africa, north of the Equator and west of the Nile basin, with 50,000,000 more; Thibet and Mongolia, virtually left to the dominion of the grand Lama; Arabia, over whose whole ex- tent floats the green flag of the False Prophet ;-these are some of the territories yet to be taken possession of in the name of Ohrist. A few years since Mr. Stevenson, of the Ohina Inland Mission, went from Bhamo, in Upper Burmah, to Ohungking in Ohuen, Ohina, a distance of over 1,000 miles, ,and for 500 miles north and south of his line of travel, only one station, K wei-Yang, then existed! Stanley in Africa, journeying from the Great Lakes in the east to the rapids of the Oongo, found not one native Ohristian in 7,000 miles of travel.
Even countries nominally fields of mission labor are not occupied. Siam, with eight or ten millions of impressible people, whose King, Ohulalangkorn, is the most intelligent and progressive ruler in Asia, and the active, generous friend and patron of the missionaries, has a few Baptists working among resident Ohinese in Bangkok, and less than a score of Presbyterians, constituting the sole working force to bring those millions to the knowledge of God; and yet Siam has single cities with 200,000 inhabitants where there is not one mission station or even evangelist; and such things as this are true after more than eighteen centuries of Christian history! – The wide area of unoccupied territory needs not dismay us. Africa and Asia together embrace less than 26,000,000 square miles, only about twelve or thirteen times as much as the Persian Empire in the days of Ahasuerus. If in those days the royal proclamation could be carried through the imperial dominions in nine months, what is to hin- der our bearing the gospel message through these two continents in nine years? With all our modern facilities and instrumentalities we could certainly cover a territory twelve times as large in a period twelve times as long!
This thought of a possible proclamation of the Word of life to every living creature before this century closes, we have sought to trumpet forth by tongue and pen for twenty years; and it has never yet been shown to be either impossible or impracticable. It can be done; it OUGHT to be done; it MUST be done. We must cross this Jordan of Selfishness and roll away this reproach of neglect at the Gilgal of a new consecration. We must resolutely marcq around Jericho and blow the gospel trumpet. Let men deride the fewness of our missionary band, and the foolishness of preaching. Let pagan priests and heathen phil- osophers ridicule the credulous faith that expects to see ancient systems fall before the peal of a Jubilee trump. God's word is pledged. "Lo, r am with you alway." The Church of Christ has but to undertake this work, in the energy of the Spirit and with the enterprise of a true consecration, and wonders will follow to which even Pentecost was but a prelude and precursor. Yes, thig- King's business requires haste. Be- hind that command, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," there stands the majesty of imperial mtthority.
Such authority is itself urgency. He obeys not the King who does not move promptly, immediately. Celerity of movement is a necessary part of loyalty and fidelity. To move tardily at the King's command is next to open treason.
The opportunUy calls for haste. God sets before the Church an open door, great and effectual. While the command rings in our ears, "Go ye"! 10, silently but suddenly the iron gates of intolerance and igno- rance, bigotry and superstition, swing open as of their own accord. Ob- stacles that for a thousand years have stood like walls of adamant quickly disappear. But what is thus our opportune; hour is also Sa· tan's, and he appreciates and improves it, if we do not. Forward into these new openings he pushes his obedient servants, with all theirvari- ous agencies and instruments of destruction. He sends his emissaries to preach his anti-gospel and carryon his crusade of infidelity and immorality and set up his printing-presses to scatter the literature of death. Satan never lacks earnestness or enterprise in his work.
Meanwhile, what are we doing? Trifling with the whole matter of a world's evangelization; trifling on a magnificent scale! Since our Lord on Calvary breathed His dying prayer, fifty successive generations of human beings have passed away. In this awful aggregate twenty-five times the present population of the globe have perished without the gospel; and as yet the entire Christian Church sends less than 6,000 laborers into the foreign field and spends less than $12,000,000 a year on the world-wide work!
Never yet have we been in haste to enter even the most conspicuously open door. That word" opportunity" is full of ethical suggestiveness: ob, over against; portus, the harbor. The gospel ship lies at the very entrance of the harbor whose wide-stretching arms and open gates invite entrance, and where millions of people wait to welcome the gospel. While God's breezes blow toward the port and we have only to spread sail and speed on ward, we lie at anchor as if becalmed, or move so slowly and sluggishly that the barges of the vain pleasureseeker and the swift gall~ys of a piratical foe sweep past us and preoccupy the openings. Where is the enthusiasm of the Christian Ohurch ! Where our zeal for God, our sympathy for a lost race, our loyalty to our Lord, our sense of duty and responsibility!
Moreover, behold the King's couriers and posts, furnished by His providence, ready to do our bidding in hastening the King's business! First, the printing-press, what a magnificent help to evangelization, ready to multiply copies of the Word in any tongue, at a trifling cost and with incredible speed! . From a single steam-press thousands of copies may be produced every month, and tracts and religious books by the million pages. Here is a doubly useful messenger in the work of evangelization. It moves like a magic shuttle, to and fro. While it multiplies and scatters afar the message of the gospel, it spreads at home information of the workabroad. This courier of the King he never sent forth until the Dark Ages were giving place to the new dawn of the Reformation, and the Church was prepared to attend to the King's business. This courier we must use, as never hitherto, to scatter information of the King's work among disciples, as well as to scatter the leaves of the tree of life among the heathen. Information is the handmaid of evangelization. Thousands of intelligent disciples are ignorant of missions. One of the foremost philanthropists of England, to whom a copy of "The Crisis of Missions" was sent, wrote to the author: "I am sorry to confess that of the bulk of the facts which you present I have hitherto been entirely ignorant." No wonder the flame of zeal burns low when no fuel feeds its fires, and no oil fills its l~mps.
Money is another of the King's couriers. Consecrated capital is not only potent, it is well-nigh omnipotent. No marvel that Mammon is treated III the Bible as a rival god to Jehovah. Wealth suggests divine attributes-omnipotence, omnipresence, immortality, transforming en- I ergy. To have and to use money well is to multiply personal power a thousand fold, nay, to multiply one's self a thousand fold. The giver is potentially wherever his gift is. Sarah Hosmer's frugal savings educated six young men to preach the gospel in Oriental lands, and where they were she had her representatives and preached through them. A man recently died in New York City whose noble benefactious had spread so far that in not less than two hundred and fifty different places he was represented by a mission Sunday-school, a church, an asylum, a hospital, a college or seminary, or some other form of beneficence: his money made him virtually omnipresent as a benefactor. Money makes the giver also immortal. It represents not what is transient, but what is permanent. The good that men do with money lives after them; it is not interred with their bones. They who use it aright hold the lever of God, and lift a whole people to a loftier planemultiplying themselves indefinitely and rendering themselves practically present wherever their donations are doing work in their behalf ; and so even when dead their works do follow them, and they survive themselves!
If the King's business requires haste, there are ready facilities to meet the requirement. Sanctijied scholarsh-ip is another royal courier, pre- ' pared to mount the swift steeds of modern civilization and bear the divine tidings to every nation in its own native tongue. When Ohrist gave His command, he addressed humble, unlettered men. Since then the gospel has found its way into Cresar's household. Here are the princes of this world, the seers and.sages, bowing at the cross. The Bible has been translated into over three hundred languages and dialects. A Ohristian literature has been created and may be reproduced in any known language 6f earth. Steam has been harnessed to the gospel chariot-nay, even lightning waits to do the Ohurch's bidding. What are we waiting for? Twenty thousand millions of dollars lie. in the coffers of the Protestant church members of Great Britain and America; 3,000 young men and women are knocking at the doors of the church asking to be sent abroad; the whole world permits and invites missionary approach; there is every preparation for such universal movement and such rapid progress as no other century ever even forecast. WHAT IS THE OHURCH OF OHRIST WAITING FOR?
The necessity and feasibility of a grand campaign for Ohrist, with reference to the immediate occupation of all unoccupied fields, and the immediate proclamation of the gospel to every living soul, are beyond dispute. After a wide discussion by the ablest writers upon the subject of missions, the conviction is only established that the present crisis imperatively demands that the entire forces of the Christian Church should be enlisted and engaged in this glorious work. A spirit.
of consecrated enterprise must apply to this giant problem the best and soundest business principles; a system must be devised which shall prevent waste of time, money, and men, and economize and administer all the available forces of the Church. The imperial clarion of our tord, as with the peal of the last trnmp, summons all His hosts for the great crusade. , Nehemiah was a model organizer. He built up the broken walls of the Holy City, and with a small, poor remnant of the people finished the work in fifty-two days. The perfection of his organization was the secret of his success, and it embraced three grand principles: first, division of labor-every man at work over against his own door; sec- ondly, co-operation-all engaged in one work and operating upon one plan; thirdly, concentration-all at the sound of the trumpet rallying to defend any weak and assaulted point. Put those three principles into practice in the work of foreign missions, and we may build the wall of gospel witness around the world in a few years; we may push the advance of our missionary hosts so rapidly and systematically, that on every hill, in every valley, from equator to pules and from sea to sea, the gospel's silver trumpet shall sound.
Fifty years ago seven humble men in a shoemaker's shop in Hamburg undertook the work of evangelization on the principle of individual responsibility. In twenty years they had organized 50 churches, gathered 10,000 converts, distributed 400,000 Bibles and 8,000,000 pages of tracts, and preached the gospel to 50,000,000 of people. As they went from place to place the work grew, and new converts in- spired with similar zeal became helpers, so that a population as great as that of the United States, or of the Congo Free State, heard the gospel within those twenty years. If any are distrustful of mere arithmetic as applied to the problem of missions, here is a practi~al proof that it is perfectly feasible so to organize the work as to reach 100,000,000 of people every year, and that, too, with only an insignificant Gideon's band. An English preacher asked some British soldiers, "If Queen Vic- toria were to issue a proclamation, and, placing it in the hands of her army and navy, were to say, 'Go ye into all the world and proclaim it to every creature,' how long do you think it would take to do it?"
One of these brave fellows, accustomed to obey orders without hesita- tion or delay and at peril of life, promptly answered, " Well, I tkink we could manage it in about eighteen months."
There are, perhaps, in round numbers, thirty millions of Protestant church me:gJ.bers in the world. Could each of that number somehow reach thirty-three of the unsaved, the whole thousand million would be eva~gelized; and could each be brought to give one cent a day, our missionary treasuries would overflow with over one hundred millions of dollars every year. Of course we cannot depend upon enlisting in this " work all church members. Nominal Protestants include millions of mere professors, members of state churches, formalists and ritU(tlists, and millions more who, while they profess to be disciples, are actually immoral and infidel. But let us suppose that there are ten 'millions of true disciples who can be brought into line, and who by systematic effort can be made to furnish men and money for this work, even 1vith this tenth part oj Ohristendom the world may be evangelized bifore the twentieth century dawns.
Weare not responsible for conversion, but we are responsible for con- tact. We cannot compel any man to decide for Christ, but we may compel every man to decide one way or the other; that is, we may so bring to eyery human being the gospel message, that the responsibility is transferred from us to him, and that we are delivered from blood- guiltiness. God will take care of the results, if we do our duty. We are to preach this gospel everywhere" for a witness "-not coldly, officially, formally, but earnestly, prayerfully, lovingly. Christian churches, schools, institutions, homes, reared in the midst of pagan communities, constitute part of this" witness" to the power of the gospel; then, whether the gospel prove a savor of life or of death, our fidelity will not fail of its reward.
We repeat, that it is our solemn and mature conviction that before the close of this century the gospel might be brought into contact with every living soul; for if we could so organize and utilize ten millions of disciples as that everyone should be the means of reaching with the good tidings one hundred other souls, during the lifetime of this gen- eration all the present population of the globe would be evangelized; or, if the sublime purpose should inspire the whole Church to do this work before this century ends, each of this ten million believer::; has only to reach between eight and nine souls every year for the twelve years that remain. .
When Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" was first published there were some who construed the fiction as fact; and they said, "But there is among these Utopians no mansion of gospel truth: let us go and tell them the good news!" Is it not high time that we re~lized that the destitute and desperate condition of a lost race is fact and not fiction; and that, having the Bread of Life, we carry to the starving millions of earth's popUlation the gospel of salvation, with the promptness and holy haste which are the only fit way to attend to the King's business?
At the beginning of this new year, let us write on the very door- posts of our churches and houses, and on our gates, this grand motto: THE WHOLE WORLD TO BE EVANGELIZED IN THE PRESENT GENERATION.
" Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." The Earl of Shaftes~ury said: "During the latter part of
HENRY MARTYN
these centuries it has been in the power of those who hold the truth, having means enough, having knowledge enough, and having opportunity enough, to evangelize the globe fifty times over." Recent testimony is given by 120 nTtssionaries in China, representatives of twenty-one Protestant societies. They say: aWe want China emancipated from the thraldom of sin £n this generation. It is possible." Our Lord has said, "According to your faith be it unto you." The Ohurch of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission. This statement comes from those who are intimately acquainted with the discouragements-who know the difficulties. And now" for the sake of the Name," that name which is above every name, "the love of Ohrist constraining us," let us go forth. Let the sublime faith and hope of such a grand result, under divine leadership, inspire our effort. Pastors, awake! Be yourselves flaming missionaries! From the lofty altitude of your own high devotion let the stream descend that shall raise every devout hearer to a higher level. Fan the slumbering embers of a smouldering missionary zeal-heap the facts like fuel on the fires. Make the coldest congregation hot with your own burning enthusiasm. Parents, bring up your children to see the dark places of the earth and the habitations of cruelty before their eyes, as Oarey's rude map confronted him on that sheet of leather in his cobbler's shop! Merchants, open your treasuries and pour out your money. Never was an altar that so consecrated the gift. Meanwhile, let the voice of prayer, as with tho mingling sound of multitudinous waves, surge against the throne of God!
HENRY MARTYN.
BY JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D., EAST ORANGE, N. J.
IN the year 1812 a lone traveler, passing through Eastern Asia Minor, died at Tokat. His dragoman even did not know his full name, but scratched something like it upon a rude slab and went his way. The grave was soon covered by the sand from a mountain stream. They who buried him thought of him only as one of the millions who every year fan into forgotten graves. But this man was missed. Though but thirty-one years of age, he had struck the chord of heroic appreciation in England and America as almost no other man had. A statesman said: "His name is the one heroic name which adorns the annals of the English Ohurch from the days of Elizabeth to our own." His grave was sought; his body removed to a more public spot; a handsome monument reared, and inscribed with his praise in four languages. Lord Macaulay, with fine appreciation of the truly great in character coming from familiarity with the heroes of all ages, who thrills us with his lines on Horatius and Harry of Navarre, was affected to reverence by the story of this young man's life and wrote this epitaph: , " Here Martyn lies! In manhood's early bloom The Christian hero found a pagan tomb; Religion, sorrowing o'er her favorite son, Points to the glorious trophies which he won.
Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, Not stained with tears by hopeless captives shed, But trophies of the cross. For that dear naJ1le Through every form of danger, death and shame, Onward he journeyed to a happier shore, Where danger, death and shame are known no more."
Henry Martyn was born in Oornwall, England, in 1781. At sixteen he entered Oambridge University. He was intensely ambitious, and was nettled because at the early examinations he took only the second position. But at twenty he graduated as Senior Wrangler, with the first honor.
He could, however, apply his mind better than control his passionate nature. Angered one day he threw a large knife at a comrade, who dodged it, and let it stick quivering in the wall, instead of in the intended victim's heart. He was self-willed even to obstinacy and surliness to his father. No natural saint was he.
His after saintliness was not due to development, but total change, point-blank conversion. Its occasio,n was the death of his father, and the thought that it was now too late to ask from those cold lips forgiveness for his undutiful conduct. He could only go to God for it. But, having once come before that throne, and felt upon his soul the shadow of God's condemnation for sin, all his pride was crushed; having felt the light of God's countenance reconciled, his soul was ever after filled with gratitude and love. From this time Martyn was another man. 'rhat strong willfulness became strong willingness, as he gave his whole being up to his Redeemer. He was ambitious still, but he had now an Over-lord, even Ohrist. His favorite text was" Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not, saith the Lord." So thoroughly did he belong to Ohrist that selfish honors no longer pleased him. When he graduated first in his class, he wrote: "I obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to find I had grasped a shadow." His energy was not lessened, rather intensified, by having higher appeals, those of conscience and service, added to natural desire; and his faculties were new-fired by his communion with the Holy Spirit. Yet he was not without tremendous temptations from his old ambition. For a while he proposed to study law, "chiefly," he says, "because I could not consent to be poor for Ohrist's sake." But he did not know his newer self when he thought that way, and when the moment of decision came he turned his back upon all prospect of secular gain, and sought the ministry. He could not restrain his impulse for Ohristian service; it came out in daily incidents of conduct. He once rebuked a fellow student for sinful trifling. Speaking on the im1ulse, he thought he had overstepped propriety; but the honesty of his manner gave such weight to his rebuke that it led to his friend's conversion, and in after years they labored together in the foreign mission field.
But that was not the day of missionary interest such as now fills the Church. Carey had gone to India, the first English missionary there; and David Brainerd had laid down his life for Christ among the A.merican Indians. Vanderkemp was in South Africa. 'l'hese and a few others were then the far-scattered stars in what has now become resplendent galaxies of missionary heroes and martyrs in many lands.
To conceive the idea of being a missionary showed independence, enter- prise, courage, and far-sighted pioneer faith not required of those who now go out to help bring in the spoil of almost a century's campaign in pagan lands.
Martyn was in spirit alone in the world when he formed the missionary purpose, almost as much as when he lay down to die at Tokat. He loved his home; hearts close to his seemed necessary to the existence of his warm, affectionate nature. Could he break these ties? He was a man of most exquisite intellectual refinement, by genius a student, with a brilliant career awaiting him in a university chair, or as leader of a refined congregation. Could he give his life to the dull monotony of teaching the most degraded people the rudiments of decency and truth'? There was no glamour about the work. It was not a roseate outlook, but one of dirt and dreariness to anyone; and especially to a man physically weak, knowing that he inherited 'a tendency to disease that needed to be counteracted by tender living. He wrote, "This is what flesh cannot endure." There was one other obstacle, such as has determined the career of many a man. He was deeply attached to a lady of rarest worth in all that a noble man would seek ina wife.
His affection was returned. But she could not accompany him to the mission field. Thus to go was to isolate himself from everything which made life worth living, looked at from the standpoint of self.
Yet he said, "I will go," though he, quite naturally under the cir- cumstances, made that great offering of himself in the very words of Christ when expiring on Calvary, and of Stephen bowing his head to martyrdom, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." Why not? The man then died to the world as truly as if he had mounted a funeral pyre. ,I In 1805 Henry Martyn sailed for India. Nine months were con- sumed in the journey, which took him across to South America and then back around Cape Good Hope. Much of the time was spent in hard study, mastering the Hindustani language, varied by burning fever as the fiery conflict of his thought consumed his very flesh. He tells us that the most helpful uninspired sentence he ever heard was one that he found at this time in Milner's" History of the Church" ; "To believe, to su:ffel', and to love was the primitive state," i.e., of the early Ohristians. This he made the purpose of his life. At the Oape of Good Hope he went ashore. A furious war was raging between the English and Dutch for the possession of that point. Amid the horrors of the battle-field, bending over the fallen forms of English, Dutch, or Hottentot braves, he had his baptismal experience of a kind of duty such as the elegant and thronged churches of England never gave him.
Arriving iu Oalcutta he"was felled by fever, and his weakened body became a source of discouragement overcome only by his deathless devotion. The horrid rites of widow burning and devil worship were then practiced. He said he "shivered as standing in the neighborhood of hell." English friends urged his remaining at Oalcntta, where he would meet with countrymen and could preach as much as he wished without danger, receiving a salary as army chaplain. But :Martyn determined to go to the heathen beyond, to whom others would not go.
For weeks he pushed his way in a little boat up the Ganges, during the day translating Scripture into Bengalee by the aid of his boatmen, at night talking of Ohrist to the natives on the shore. Passing into new provinces he found new dialects to be mastered. His rare scholarly habit and genius came to his help. At Dinapore we find this in his diary of a day: ":Morning in Sanscrit; afternoon, Bahar dialect; continued late at night writing on Parables in Bengalee. The wickedness and'cruelty of wa,sting a moment when so many nations are waiting till I do my work." He finds that he has use for Arabic, too, in dealing with :Mohammedans, and thflrefore masters that tongue. Then the Persian language is studied. The mau seems to have been a mingling of :Max :Muller and Livingstone.
Through the glaring sun he traversed the sandy plains of the Ganges hundreds of miles to Oawnpore, fainting, fevered, with a terrible disease developing in his chest. He preached statedly to the soldiers in the barracks, and at times the poor natives would gather by the thousand in front of his door to receive his alms and hear his addresses. A strange fascination went out from his person to all who came in contact with him. A fellow English Ohristian, speaking of :Martyn's ill health. said: "If I could make you live longer, I would give up any child I have, and myself into the bargain."
Physical nature could not endure the strain of that intense spirit, and :Martyn's condition necessitated his return to England. But ha was not quite satisfied with the correctness of his Persian translation of the New Testament, and therefore proposed to put in an intermediate journey to Persia to perfect it. Pale, emaciated, too weak to speak except in a low voice, he seemed to live only by force of soul. They beheld him" standing on the verge of another world, and ready to take his flight," rather than about to endure another earthly journey. His thirtieth birthday found him en 1'01100 for Persia. In his journal he says: "I am now at the age when the Saviour of men began His ministry-when John the Baptist called a nation to repentance. Let me now think for myself and act with energy. Hitherto I have made my youth and insignificance an excuse for sloth and imbecility; now let me have a character and act for God."
After several months he reached Persia. He was prostrated by sunstroke. Recovering sufficient strength, he penetrated the country. The thermometer in June ranged from 120 degrees to 126 degrees. He existed only by wrapping hip1self in heavy blankets to exclude the heat, or wet blankets to temper ~t. So he traversed the plains. Then over the mountains where the cold at night was piercing, but with a fire in his head, his skin dryas a cinder, his pulse almost convulsive.
Reaching Shiraz, the Persian seat of learning, he began a new translation of the Testament with the help of some intelligent Persian gentlemen. While doing this work he debated publicly with their great men, and wrote articles in reply to their chief books. Sharp arguments were sometimes inspersed with brick-bats hurled at his head. Withinthe year his translation was completed. He would lay it before the Persian king. To accomplish this another long journey was undertaken. To its natural hardship was added the danger to his life from the bigotry of the people, as they knew his mission to introduce a foreign religion. He one day attended a reception given by the Vizier, bringing his Bible. Vizier challenged him with "You had better say, 'God is God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God.'" Martyn replied, at the risk of losing his head, "God is God, and Jesus is the Son of God." The by-standel'S cried out, "What will you say when your tongue is burnt out for such blasphemy?" They would have trampled the Bible with their feet had not Martyn rescued the manuscript from the floor.
But'what was the use of antagonizing the prejudices of the people? Had we simply the· diary of Martyn we might only be able to say that his burning zeal would not permit him to be silent. Everywhere he went he must be talking about Christ. But there was a providence in his tongue that he knew not of. Years afterward Sir Robert Ker Porter, in journeying through Persia, was met by people who asked if he knew "the man of God," some one who had made an impression upon the people like that of a brief sojourn of an angel among them. They said ~'He came here in the midst of us, sat down encircled by our wise men, and made such remarks upon our Koran as cannot be answered. We want to know more about his religion and the book he left among us." At Shlraz, long after Martyn's death, there lived an accomplished Persian, Mohamed Ratem, who confessed that for years he had been secretly a Ohristian. He had been convinced, he said, by "a beardlesl!. youth; enfe~bled by disease; who ~ave him a book," which had sinc~ been his constant companion. It was a Persian New Testament, and on a blank leaf the name Henry Martyn.
Martyn probably knew nothing of his personal influence upon these people; as little as we know the result of our lives.
But to return to our narrative. He was out of money, and would have starved but for help from a poor muleteer. Burning with fever, aching with weariness, breathing with difficulty from the progress of his disease, he reached Tabriz, where the English ambassador received him. For two months Sir Gore Ousley and his lady watched by his bedside, until temporary return of strength allowed his departure. In the meantime the ambassador himself presented the New Testament in Persian to the king, by whom it was graciously received and publicly commended; since which it has shone as a day star of hope to Ohristian missions in that part of the world. England has spent millions of money and many lives of soldiers in Persia. but the work of Henry Martyn, though his face was hardly known to its people, has accomplished a thousand fold more.
His work done, the frail man started for home. Thirteen hundred miles overland must be traversed before he could reach even Oonstantinople. With a heartless dragoman and servant he started across burning plains, dangerous rivers, under the mighty peak of Mount Ararat, through dense forests, drenching rains and thieving villages, he rushed onward, though fainting, and always with the dread fever or chill. After a month or more of this sort of life, we find the last note in his journal, Oct. 6, 1812: "No horses to be had, I had unexpected repose. I sat in an orchard and thought with sweet comfort and peace of my God-in solitude my company, my friend and comforter. Oh! when shall time give place to eternity?" Ten days later he was dead. How he died no one knows, except that it was alone. There was no loving kiss of wife or sister or friend upon the chilling brow, but as they would say in the East, "God kissed him and drew out his soul."
Friends·in distant India waited for the coming of one who would never come. But the story of his work floated over the lands, and with it the story of his heroism. A thrill of missionary interest went through the Ohurch. The cause of evangelization received an impulse second to none since the early days of the English Reformation.
The story of Henry Martyn almost oppresses an ordJnary Ohristian. His spirituality was so refined that it is difficult to even appreciate it. It was like the rare atmosphere of mountain heights, hard for some to even breathe. His courage and concentration of purpose make our lives seem so weak and disconnected–like water spilled on the ground, compared with the torrent that turns a hundred factories. He was dead at thirty-two, having awakened a nation, and some of us are twice that age and have hardly begun to do anything for the great crying
IN THE LEVANT
world and Him who redeemed it. We cannot fol~ow Martyn; we are not brave enough, nor fine enough in moral fiber to take his luster. Let us, then, more deeply appreciate the lesson now carved in four languages upon his tomb in Tokat: "May travelers of all nations, as they step aside and look at this monument, be led to honor, love and serve the God and Saviour of this devoted missionary."
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT: THEIR PROBLEMS, METHODS AND RESULTS.
BY REV. EDWIN M. BLISS. [OUR printer marred the first article by some serious errors. On page 889, 6th line from top, for" American historian," read Armenian Nestorian. Again, 8th line from the bottom of same page, for" American be an American," read, an Armenian be an Armenian. And again, page 890, near middle of page, for" Misairyeh," read Nusairyeh.-EDs.] II. THEIR METHODS.
THERE has never been a time when the methods of Christian work in every department, and especially in the foreign field, have been so sharply criticised as at the present. Not a few, looking over the vast fields covered by foreign missions, have received a sudden and startling revelation as to the amount still to be done, and have leaped to the conclusion that the reason why more has not been accomplished is that wrong methods have been used. Christianity, they say, is bound to conquer. Its equipment is of the best. The trouble is that its arms are not handled wisely. The tactics are faulty. Intelligent, help- ful criticism is welcomed by no class of men more than by foreign mis- sionaries; but criticism based upon an examination of one phase of a . many-sided problem, or gained in a hasty glance over the surface, is apt to be neither just nor helpful. 'fhe charges against foreign mis- sions that have recently broken out show such phenomenal ignorance of the methods in actual use, at least in the Levant, as to make them of little or no value. Th!3y are best refuted by a simple statement of facts.
The one principle underlying mission work as carried on in the Levant is that the kingdom of Christ is built up on individual life and character. Its aim is not the destruction of one system in order to establish another. It is not that Islamism is to be overthrown, but Moslems are to be converted. Not that corrupt, degenerate churches are to be brought back to pristine, or even better than pristine, purity, but individual Bulgarians, Armenians, Copts, Maronites, Nestorians are to be helped to lead Christian lives. False systems will doubtless fall, corrupt churches give place to purer ones; but that is a re.~ult, not an end in itself. The end is the development of individual Christian character. To this end are mission methods directed; by this principle are they to be judged.
The question then comes: Is the development which is sought a natural, normal one, or is it abnormal, stunted, twisted out of all recognition, So that the convertlld MOf;llem, the evangelical Greek or Jacobite becomes, not a Ohristian Oriental, but a something half way between Asiatic and European-a sort of religious hybrid, utterly incapable of reproduction; so that the moment the supporting influence of the foreign funds is withdrawn the genus disappear?
The answer to this again will come best from the consideration of the methods in use. These are: Bible Distribution, Evangelistic Preaching, Ohurch Organization, Education, Ohristian Literature.
BIBLE DISTRIBUTION.
Taking the position that the highest development of character ill built up on a personal knowledge of the Bible, it is held to be a prime essential that the Scriptures should be in the hands of every man, woman and child; should be not merely listened to from the pulpit, but read and studied in the home.
In the countries occupied by American missions in the Levant this fundamental work is done by the American Bible Society, and has three departments: Translation, Publication and Distribution,' To the former the best of scholarship is summoned, resulting in versions unexcelled for critical accuracy and fluency of idiom. There are: the Arabic, prepared at Beyroot, but reaching to the farthest bounds of Africa and Asia; the Turkish, Armenian and Bulgarian, at Oonstantinople ; the Syriac, at Oroomiah ; the Aherzijan Turkish and Ararat dialect of the Armenian, chiefly at Tiflis; the Persian, originally the work of Henry Martyn, now revised and much ~mproved; the Koordish Testament, prepared by a Koordish Armenian pastor in the valley of the Euphrates. In this work America and England have joined hands, now aividing, now sharing; each desirous of the one end-to reach every man in his own tongue with the story of the cross and the resurrection. Then comes publication. The needs of every class are carefully studied. The peasant of the Nile Valley has his Testament in type especially suited to the eyes blurred and almost blinded with opthalmia. The inquiring Bulgarian, rendered half skeptical by the statement of his priest, that the Protestants have wandered far from the venerated Slavic, has a Testament with both ancient and modern versions in parallel columns, that he may see for himself. On the shelves at the Bible House in Oonstantinople are the Scriptures in more than thirty languages and four hundred styles of printing and binding, that no one, whether he be officer of the Sultan's household, or villager on the mountains of Kurdistan, may say, "There is no Bible for me." Thus far the preparation. Then comes the direct work of distribution. Over one hundred colporteurs are employed by the American Bible Society, but every t6acher, pastor, missionary, is an assistant. These men aim to reach every reader in every city, town, village and hamlet, with the offer of the Bible. The distribution is not, however, gratuitous. A price is set upon every book, often far below its real cost, so as to bring it within rQach of the poorest, and that price is.demandod and received • from all. Except in special and rare cases, not a Bible or Testament, not even a Gospel, is given away. This is not because American Christians are unwilling to give, but because, in the experience of all, free distribution of the sacred books cuts at the very root!! of that selfrespect and sense of the Bible's worth, without which there can be no strong Christian character developed. It is also never forced upon the attention of any. Cordially, earnestly, kindly, is it offered;' but he who takes it must do so of his own free will, under no external pressure. Undoubtedly such pressure might be used as to greatly increase the sales. Sometimes it has been used, but always with loss rather than gain.
A half century of experience has shown that, as a rule, in the Levant, the best results. are reached from planting the Bible in individual hearts, rather than by sowing it broadcast.
EVANGELISTIC PREACHING.
Sometimes preceding the colporteur, sometimes accompanying, sometimes following him, always in heartiest sympathy with him, is the preacher. Now Methodist, now Presbyterian, again Congregationalist, or sturdy descendant of the Scotch Covenanter, with various names, but one heart; differing uniforms, but 'one flag. His one purpose to show the Bible as a rule of faith, but still more a guide in life. Hence, he seeks to understand and sympathize with the life about him. This was the hardest task of the missionary when he himself was the only preacher in the early days of the work. It is no easy thing to enter into the life of a strange people, get accustomed to new habits of thought and language, learn to put old truths in new lights, and none realize it so keenly as those who have tried it. One principle has been constantly made clearer. A man, to have genuine, lasting power with men, must be himself. Just so far as an American, in dealing with Turk or Arab, Greek or Jacobite, ceases to be an American, and becomes an Orient~l, just so far he loses his power to convince, persuade, help. This is not matter of theory only, but of experience. Over and over again has the effort been made to accord the daily life of the missionary to that of the people among whom he labors, and it has ever been demonstrated to be not only impracticable, but unwise. The missionary must remain a missionary. However deep and strong his sympathy with the people, he not only cannot, but he ought not to become one of them. His best power for good depends upon his preserving his own individuality, and that must be national as well as personal. With the growth of the work the physical impossibility of the missionary's reaching all who sought to learn became increasingly apparent. Thus has arisen a great body of native preachers-men drawn from every class and walk in life-who, gathering from personal contact with tlie missionary the influence of his life and thought, assimilating it to their own national character, go forth . to the thousands of their fellow-countrymen, and with them are devel-
oping a Christianity which is far more natural, and will prove far more permanent, than could be the case were the missionary the sole bearer of the gospel message. Of not less importance is the method adopted by these preachers. Its principle is entirely in accord with that underlying the work of Bible Distribution. It is not polemical. There are times when denunciation is needed, and then they do not fear to expose fearlessly the deceit and fraud by which ecclesiastical powers would blind the eyes of an ignorant people, and hold them in subservience to their own ends. This, however, is the exception, not the rule. The Moslem, drawn by curiosity or interest to attend an evangelical service, will not turn away repelled by what are to him harsh attacks upon the faith in which he has been nurtured.. The Armenian or Copt will hear no harangue against those who have hidden from him the Word of Life and held him fast in bonds woven in the cells of monk and anchorite. It is the want and duty of every day life, the consciousness of sin, the need of forgiveness and help, alone possible through a Redeemer; the hope of a blessed immortality. These are the topics of the preacher, by the earnest personal presentation of which he seeks to emphasize men's personal relations to God, develop the sense of personal responsibility, and secure the growth of personal character.
CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
The adoption of this as a distinct method of missionary work in the Levant, except in regard to the Moslem converts, was not a part of the original plan of missions, and is not now pressed to the forefront. The aim has been, so far as members of the Oriental churches were concerned, to help them to a Christian life, whatever their church connection might be. As a matter of fact, those who were thus influenced were unwilling to remain in the old comlllunions, and the priesthood were unwilling that they should, using the sharpest means of excommunication to drive them out. The formation of evangelical churches became thus a necessity, and has proved a most valuable method, not only of stimulating individual Christian hfe among their members, but of illustrating the broader relations that the Christian must sustain to the community and nation.
Under Moslem rule, church and civil life are identical. He who leaves his church leaves his nation, and heresy is treason. How to overcome this, and show that national life is properly independent of religious rites and ceremonies, has been a great problem, and the evangelical church organizations, by keeping distinctly aloof from political entanglements, have sought to show the true position of the Christian as a citizen. The formation of evangelical churches has served also as a method for developing that self-reliance which is essential to the permanence of the work commenced by the missionary and carried on by the native preacher. It has been the constant e:lfort of
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT
the missionaries to throw upon these churches, as rapidly as possible, the whole responsibility of self-management and growth. Recognizing that mistakes are less dangerous than stagnation, they have left to them large liberty of organization, of creed and of worship, seeking not to bind, but to develop by influence rather than authority. Realizing, too, that self-support is an indispensable element of growth, they have aimed at such gradual withdrawal of foreign aid as would strengthen, without bringing too heavy a burden upon communities already overtaxed.
EDUCATION.
Over this method of missionary work there nas been very earnest discussion in every land. With little or no difference of opinion as to the necessity of some instruction, there has been a wide divergence of views in regard to the degree or amount of education that legitimately comes within the scope of a missionary society. The missionaries to the Levant found absolutely no system of education, even the most rudimentary. What instruction there was was in the hantls of the priesthood, and so warped by priestly craft as to be almost useless for the development of Ohristian character. The Ohristian teacher became thus the indispensable coadjutor of the preacher and colporteur. At first his work was simple. But with community growth developed community needs. The teacher himself had to be taught. An effort was made to confine this broader instruction to those who were themselves to go forth as instructors and leaders. The advantage, the necessity even, of the same opportunities for the people were realized to the full. It was a question not of what was wanted, but of what was possible. Mission funds and mission strength, being limited, must be concentrated upon the special objects to which they were devotedthe development of Ohristian life. The necessity of community se1£- support in order to self-development also entered mto the cousideration of the question. The result has been that the missions provide free schools only for the most pnmary education aud the training of preachers and teachers, and these are free only when absolutely necessary. Just as fast as possible the whole care and support of the lower grades of general schools are placed upon the community. Grants in aid of money, assistance in superintendence and counsel, are given cautiously, though not grudgingly. With regard to the higher education, the position that has been taken in general is that the running expenses must be met by the pupils. The missions may assist by giving the tme and labor of missionaries to the schools, but there must be such charges for tuition as may be reasonably expected to meet the actual expense of each scholar, apart from the salaries of the teachers. FOT collegiate education the Mission Boards assume no responsibIlity, except that in certain cases the American professors are enrolled among their missionaries, and occasional grants are made in consideration of ot the relief that these colleges give to the Boards in the trainmg a native ministry. The general support comes from tuition and endowments secured abroad.
There are thus four classes of what may fairly be called mission schools. 1. Those supported chiefly or entirely by the Mission Boards, for the specific purpose of religious training. 2. Those supported and controlled entirely by the native communities, for the general purposes of Christian education among the common people. 3. Schools of a higher grade, under the care of the Mission Boards, with such charges for tuition as are calculated to meet the general expenses. 4. Oolleges, independent of the Boards, yet in heartiest sympathy with them, working together to the one great end of building up Ohristian nations.
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE.
There are four lines in which foreign missions seek to meet the constantly growing needs of minds stimulated to activity by the opening up of new truths through the methods already spoken of. These are the preparation of text-books for use in schools, of books for distinctive religious instruction, general information and periodical literature. The text-books are based upon the latest advances in the science of ' education, and are a means not only of instruction to those pupils in the regular schools, but a revelation to the old communities of the wide sweep of a tnllyOhristian science. In the commentaries and books of devotion are met the questions that for centuries have stirred the intense thought and speculation of the East, mellowed and attuned to the duty of everyday life by the practical common sense of the West. The department of general l1terature has not been developed as all would desire, sImply because it is Impossible to do everything that it would be well to do. The lack here IS met in a degree by the periodical literature, cluefly in the form of weekly newspapers, that bring the newly formed growing churches and communities into contact with the activity and life of America and Europe. Steadily avoiding complications with political or religious strifes, aiming to bring forward that which is noblest and bes,t in life everywhere, these form a most vl}luable means of reaching multitudes who would stand aloof from colporteur, preacher or teacher, and serve as a bulwark against the rush of infidel publications that are to many the sole representations of the advanced intellectual life of the day.
This is but a brIef sketch of the Methods by which missionaries seek to lay the sure foundations of Ohristian life in the Levant. As a sketch it is by no means complete. There are many lines of action unmentioned. Each mission has to a degreee its own methods, adapted to Its own special needs, in accordance with its own habit of thought and life. In these general lines of action, however, all agree. Upon this principle all stand, that a permanent Ohristian church is built up on individual ChrIstian lives, that such lives .are developed only by 26 ENGLAND AND FORErGN MISSIONS. [JAN., individual personal influence. This work is slow work, but all foundation building is slow. It may be that some changes of method would be wise. If so, none will welcome advice and help more gladly than those who represent the churches of America on the foreign field. The tree is known by its frUlts; methods by their results. The results achieved through these methods by Foreign Missions in the Levant will form the subject of another paper.
ENGLAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY THE REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., ENGLAND.
THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK ON FOREIGN MISSIONS.
AT the annual meeting of the York Auxiliary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel on October 29th, the Archbishop delivered a rousing speech. He remarked that there must be something significant in the great gathering of bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and in the fact that, whereas in 1878 they mustered 100, in 1888 they mustered 145. The only wonder to him was that having in their midst such an undeniable evidence of the progress of missions they should have heard such a quantity of stuff talked about them-and, for his own part, he was quite sick of it. He could not follow the parts of the discussion into a debtor and creditor account of the amount of converts they had bought with their money, and he thought they had better forget it as soon as possible. They were in a sense obliged to those who had put them on their defense; but they could not avoid a certain measure of contempt for the turn the. discussion had taken. What did the increase in the bishops from 100 to 145 mean? It was not a mere numerical augmentation. A diocese meant ~not only a bIShop but an organization-a complete body of clergy requiring church government; and a diocese was never made before it was wanted, as far as he was aware. He thought it was quite absurd to talk about the failure of missions and the mismanagement of missions. Failures there would be. Mismanagement! There was mismanagement sometimes at home, and he did not see why the colonies and foreign parts were to be exempted from it. But, allowing for all that, there was a great and mighty progress for which they had done very lIttle; and if they had been punished for their neglect a century ago they would hardly have had much cause to complain of the chastening hand that sent that punishment. Why, since the Reformation down to the latter half of the last century, they might say that nothing at all was done for missions. A nation that for a couple of centuries neglected its duty had no rIght to complain, because when it did only a very little certain fruits were bestowed upon it, and those fruits not little, like the gifts, but great, like the love of God which sent them. They might all of them take courage. The subject of those objections had now been thoroughly consIdered, and it had done /
ENGLAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
no harm; quite the contrary, in his opinion. For good, or for less good, they could not possibly neglect missions. They confessed themselves infidel when they did so. As long as they believed the truth of the love of God they must tell other people of it-that from the nature of the case, unless they hated their brother. Therefore it was useless for them at that time of day to be haggling about the exact products of missions. Whether they had gained an abundance of fruit or not, they ought to be up and doing. It was an undeniable fact that the fruits during the past twenty years had been far beyond those given them before that time.
THE BAPTIST UNION MISSIONS IN INDIA.
At the autumnal meetings held in Huddersfield early in October, Mr. John Barron, M. P., presided. After speaking of the necessity of increased missionary effort, he said that India was the first field of Baptist missionary enterprise, and they never could forget that God had honored them in that country beyond the most sanguine expectation of those who first entered on the work. Carey, in his labor of evangelization, met with discouragements not less trying than those. which were met with by their missionaries in the present day who were laboring in new countries. He fought against great difficulties and amidst great trials, but God blessed his e:tIorts and enabled him and those who labored with him to do a work in India, in connection not only with religious teaching but of educational work, the influence and· power of which were felt far and wide throughout that great country of India. In India the,English people had great responsibilities, and he was sorry to say that as far as Parliament was concerned that responsibility was neither fully recognized nor wholly met. If it were not for the permeating influence of Christian life in India-if India were left alone to the Government of this country-he feared that our position in India would not be nearly so secure as it was at the present day. India was at the present time open to influences of good and evil, and upon what the churches in this country did in promoting missionary work in India depended the future of India and the relation of that empire to this country.
The Rev. A. McKenna, dealing with the work that had been done in India, acknowledged the great assistance which had been rendered to missionaries in India by the civil and military authorities, who were the finest body of men in the world. There was not a single. man who was not in favor of progress.
The Rev. Bower Jones, of Bengal, said he had been appalled at the darkness in which India had for ages been plunged. During eighteen centuries but little had been done. There was a popUlation of two hundred and fifty millions in that empire, but no more than half a million have embraced the cause of Christ. The gospel had, however, fairly commenced its work of emancipation, an¢!. had lIghted up
THE MmAOLES OF MisSIONS. [JAN
the harems and zenanas. The condition of women in India was being improved, and there was less opposition to the propagation of the gospel.
COMMANDER CAMERON" ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN AFRICA.
At the Oanterbury Diocesan Oonference, held on October lOth, the gallant traveler gave a stirring history of the ruinous _effects of the drink traffic upon the native races in Africa. The four great evils of that county were, he said, slavery, gin, gunpowder and land-grabbing. The Africans, as a rule, were strongly addicted to a liking for strong drink, but he had never seen any illneys or delirium tremens arising from excessive drinking in the interior. A large proportion of the cargoes of ships trading on the west coast consisted of large red boxes from Hamburg full of liquor known as gin, but containing some vile chemical material. In the English colonies or Protectorates on the west coast the revenue chiefly consisted of excise and licensing duties. and it appeared to him that anyone who could pay for it could obtain a license. Thebeens abounded in the gold-digging districts, and in some of the smaller districts they actually f(jorced native teachers, sent out with the good intention of teaching people, to give way to the ruling vice, and not only to drink the gin themselves, but to trade in it. At the Oape itself "Oape smoke and the contents of the Hamburg steamers'~ were taking the heart out of the best native races, and on the east coast a large portion of the trade was in drink. Slavery, during the last few years, had been worse than ever before-whole districts being devastated-while at one camp of lJ'ippoo Tib, no fewer than fifty right arms had been seen nailed up, and his men were amusing themselves by shooting the slaves, who were afterwards cut up to feed the cannibals in the train of slave dealers. The loss of life in this trade was calculated at two millions a year. When traveling in Africa he himself opened up many routes which slave dealers had taken advantage of. He hoped to be able to do something to reparir the mischief, and if he could not get his idea carried out he might adopt the suggestion of Gordon, and form a colony at r~ake Nyanza to fight against slavery.
THE MIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. IX.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. P.] SIGNS of THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE GENERAL WORK.
THE Resurrection of our Lord was established" by many infallible proofs." Not less unmistakable and unanswerable are the evidences of the coming of the Holy Ghost and of the presence of a supernatural providence in human history. Most of all may we see God's hand in mISSIOns.
Thus far we have sought to illustrate and exemplify this great truth in specific cases and on special fields. It may bel well, however, to take
1889;1 c THE MIRACLES OF
a wider glance and get a glimpse of His presence and presidence in the whole field and work of missions; and more especially as during this month our eyes are turned, not to anyone land or form of false faith, but sweep round the entire circle of the continents.
When science, as nature's interpreter, would show us her greatest wonders, she points to the crystal and the cell; one the mystery of inorganic symmetry, the other the miracle of organic life. When God would reveal to us the signs of His own handiwork, and prove to ns that through all the ages His unceasing purpose r1ns, He points us to the mystery of a symmetrical and crystalline historic unity and harmony which no human foresight could have planned and no human skill have wrought out; and then He points ns to holy lives which combine the beauty of the crystal with the living energy of the cell; which shine not with a cold, imprisoned luster, but with the radiance· of a living light.
Dionysius of H(l,licarnassus said: "History is phil9sophy teaching by examples." The Ohristian believer mounts higher and declares that history is God, teaching by His providence and grace. Nature does not bear marks of a designing mind and hand as clearly as human history, and pre-eminently the history of missionary enterprise reveals the plan and presence of an infinite God. No man with eyes open, and mind open to conviction, can long resist this evidence. The history of missions not only reveals miracles, it is itself a miracle. It is a demonstration and an illustration at the same time that, high above and far behind all human actors on the stage, is a divine director and controller. He shifts the changing scenery to suit every new act inc the drama of the ages; and he shifts the positions, yea, and the persons of the actors, too. When He wills, when His work demands it, and His time has fully come, they enter and take up their part; and, as surely, when He wills it and His time has fully come, they leave the stage and give place to others. "God buries His workmen but He carries on His work," is one of the sayings of John Wesley, carved on his monument in England's great Abbey. But it is not less true that He raises up a Pharaoh and Oyrus and girds those who have not known Him, to show forth His power in them, and in spite of them carryon His eternal covenant purpose.
Those who have read that fascinating story of "Life Among the Turks," by Dr. Oyrus Hamlin, will remember one of the myriad in- stances of the providential limitation of human power and tyranny. At a critimil point in the history of Turkish missions, the Sultan Mahmud suddenly startled the whole empire by an order for the expul- sion of the missionaries. The news fell like a thunderbolt unheralded by the lightning flash~ The order was so imperious and arbitrary, and Mahmud was so unreasonable and implacable, that even Mr. Brown, the Secretary of the American Legation, and Oommodore Porter gave over the cas~ as hopeless. Commodore Porter prepared a. dispatch to the Sublime Porte, acquiescing on behalf of the missionaries, for whom he could not venture to interpose. Just then, on the first of July, 1839, the Sultan himself died, at the very hour when the missionaries were waiting in suspense for the execution of the order! And at the same time his entire fleet was betrayed into the hands of the Pasha of Egypt, and the Ottoman army of 80,000 men was almost annihilated. Well may Dr. Hamlin exclaim: "A startling series of events that struck every heart with dismay"! Man proposes, but God disposes. A higher plan swallows up the lower, as Aaron's rod swallowed all the rest. Dr. Goodell had, in the very midnight of that trial hour, and before there was the first hint of a dawn, said in his own peculiar way:" The great Sultan of the universe can change aU this," and lo! it was done. H God blew, and they were scattered." The work of the missions was resumed with new courage; the exiles came back, and the execution of Mahmud's order of expulsion was never again referred to. The silence of the grave fell on the Sultan and his tyrannical decree alike. A h~gher hand was holding the invisible scepter.
And this is what we mean by the supernatural factor in missionary history. It may not manifest itself in any two cases in precisely the same way. Evil may at times be prevented, and at other times permitted and overruled. But the overrule is there.
" Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record One death grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the world. Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne; Yet that scaffold sways the future; and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God, amid the shadow, keeping watch above His own."
It would be impracticable within the necessary limits of this article to illustrate fully this general supervision of missions by an -Almighty Wisdom and Power; but it is to the mind of the writer a fact so vivid as to be well-nigh visible; and a few examples of this divine interposition will suffice for the present purpose of this paper.
1. The removal of obstacles and the opening doors of access to the nations.
2. The sudden and unaccountable subsidence of barriers at critical periods and. points.
3. The raising up of men and women previously prepared for work, as obviously prepared for them.
4. The theology of inventions-a divine plan in the development of the race and of human discovery.
5. The direct transformation of individual character and of entire communities.
6. The indirect results in the modifications of existing evils and the elevation of the entire social level.
7. The obvious overruling of human mistakes and failures, and even of bitter hostility and persecution, 8. The supernatural ordering of human lives, and the limitations of them when God's purpose is accomplished.
9. The evidences of a divine strategy extending through the ages and embracing the whole world.
10.. The turning of the crises of the kingdom in answer to prayer, and in a marked order of development.
11. The development of new agencies, organizations and instrumentalities at the precise hour of need.
12. The prophetic element in all these divine plans, making these developments not an evolution but a revolution.
Such are afew of these signs of the supernatural mind and hand in the history of missions. Let us b~iefly advert to some of them.
1. The progress of missions would have been impossible without the intervention of a higher power. When, a century ago, the Ohurch as a body took up the work of evangelizing the world, ten great obstacles stood in her way, to human view insurmountable. They may be classed under four heads: obstacles to approach, obstacles to intercourse, obstacles to impression, obstacles to action.
The world seemed locked against the Ohurch, and the Ohurch seemed indifferent to the condition of the world. Oonverts were punished with death; missionaries were martyrs; woman was shut up in harems; some races seemed too high, others too low, to be reached by the gospel. Now all these obstacles are down. Who has done it?
2. Barriers have sometimes gone down as though a continent had sunk to let the sea overflood the land. Hawaii had burned her idols while the Thaddeus was crossing the deep with the first band of missionaries. Japan was undergoing a civil revolution while Oommodore Perry was casting anchor in the harbor of Yeddo. Over and over again the missionaries have gone expecting to find gigantic barriers confronting them and have found only prostrate walls. Who has done it?
3. Men and women have been prepared for the work and the work for them when no human foresight could have shaped either for the other. Who fitted William Goodell to begin in 1831 that wonderful work in Oonstantinople which at that very time needed just such a pioneer! Who but God knew that in 1877 a famine would overspread Southern India, and that a civil engineer would be needed to complete that canal, and so give the starving thousands work; and that the engineer must be a Ohristian missionary who would teach the workmen of Jesus? and who was it raised up Mr. Clough to go there long before he knew why he was a civil engi~eer and felt so strangely drawn to that very station at Ongole? Who was it fitted the peg to the hole when he set Eli Smith in Syria, Robert Morrison in Ohina, Fidelia Fisk in Oroomiah, Lindley among the Zulhs, Moffat among the Boers, Duncan among the Indians of British Oolumbia, and Hunter Corbett amon~ the simple converts of C~efoo? (Jan all history show a more marked adaptation of the man and the place and the hour, than Robert W. McAll and Belleville and 1872, when the French nation was reacting from clericalism and imperialism and formalism, and yearning for a simple, positive, primitive gospel? Who did all this?
4. Look at the theology of inventions. How came the mariners compass, steam as a motor, the printing-press, and all subsequent sim-' ilar inventions and discoveries, to be withheld from the race until the- ology, anthropology and soteriology had fought their battles, and sociology was coming to the front; and until the Church of the I4Jfor- mation was preparing to give the Bible to every people and the press was indispensable; and to carry the gospel to earth's limits, and the compass and steam were needful? Nay, who withheld this continent from unveiling until the pilgrims were ready to settle New England!
5. Passing by for the present many other points already briefly stated, and emphasized in previous articles, behold the crises of the kingdom turned in answer to prayer. Time was when the Church itself was asleep. And such men as Gutzlaff and Carey and Jonathan Edwards laid siege to the throne of grace and the Church woke, and missions began on a world-wide scale. Then doors seemed shut and a few con- secrated men and women prayed, and within ten years the openings defied occupation-they were so many. Then there was need of men and money. Prayer again turned the crisis. Gifts that· for amount were never before equalled began to be consecrated, and an unparal- leled number of young men and young women began to offer them- selves. The women began to organize till their Boards cover the Chris- .. tian Church with their network; and the Y. M. O. A. ~nd its kindred organizations multiplied from one in 1844 to 3,800 in 1888. And now signs appeal' above the horizon of a period of general missionary intelli- gence and activity more marked than any during the last eighteen cen- turies. These are but a minute fraction-a fragment from the vast aggregate of testimony that the work of missions is the work of God, and the march of missions the march of God.
It will-be yet three years before we reach the year which marks the complet~ century since the Warwick Association made the first Monday of each month a "Monthly Concert" of prayer for the world's evan- gelization, and that first :,Foreign Missionary Society sent out William Carey to India. The Church might have compassed the world already had the faith of disciples been equal to the grandeur of God's promises. But, nevertheless, God has led, ruled, moved, swayed all through this century. He has shown His Word to be all-powerful, and His Spirit all-subduing, and His Providence all-controlling. The whole history has been His story; full of mystery because full of a mysterious God; full of power because full of an omnipotent God. 1.'his needs no argu- ment; it needs only an open eye and an obedient heart. To our own conception it is the supreme charm of missions and the supreme argu- ment for missions. It invest's the work with an awful dignity!
lIIISSION OAMPAIGN IN AMElUOA
MESSRS. TAYLOR AND RADCLIFFE'S MISSION CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA.
BY REGINALD RADCLIFFE, ESQ., ENGLAND. DEAR EDITORS: Many of your readers doubtless know something of the Chiba Inland Mission that has its headquarters in London. It was founded about twenty years ago by the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, and he is now its Director, with a Council in London, and a Council of experienced missionaries in qhina. Mr. Taylor had previously been engaged as a missionary in China; sickness required him to return to England, and for a few years he was engaged inLondon by the British and Foreign Bible Society in translating, in conjunction with an Episcopal clergyman. While so occupied, a map of China was on view, and so he got a more comprehensive view of the vast needs of the interior of that mighty country than when engaged in China doing his own little personal work. This was so burdened upon his heart that he went round to the different missionary boards in Lonuon, endeavoring to get some one of them to take up the vast interior of China; but he did not succeed. Thus was he constrained, in fact, after much trembling and much prayer, almost forced to originate the China Inland Mission. From the first he determined, in order not to interfere and not to have the appearance of interfering with the other missionary boards, 1. That this new society should have no collections made for money at any of its meetings. 2. No collection books. 3. No one to be applied to for money for the Mission. 4. That the agents should be taken from different denominations, so that the mission should be unsectarian. God has prospered the little mission greatly; no difficulties from different denominations working happily in one great mission field have ever arisen. About three years since, the remarkable band of seven young men of the Cambridge University going out stirred the hearts of our young people, especially, as one of the band, Mr. Charles Studd, was a famous criclreter, and another, Mr. Stanley Smith, was the stroke oar of the Cambridge Eight, to row against Oxford, whilst another was a young cavalry officer, who, in answer to the question, "Why are you going out?" replied, "I read' If ye love me, keep my commandments; , I love Christ and so I am going." Some time after this Mr. Taylor was with a gathering of his missionary friends in China-they were giving a day to fasting and prayer, the next day to deliberation and examination of the wants of their enormous field, the thira day to fasting and prayer, then the next day to deliberation and examination, and so on for several days. They were also agreed that they would not override a minority by a majority; but though it might take much more time, prefer waiting till they were all of one accord. Well, one thing they were of one accord upon was that they could make accommodation to receive, in addition to their then number of about 190, 100 extra missionaries, and that there were ample openings for them. So they asked the Lord of the harvest for these 100, and that they should be dIspatched within a year, and that money to dispatch them should be sent in; for the mission as usual had none. There and then the assurance of faith was given that these requests were answered. Accordingly, within the year about 600 volunteers applied, and out of these 102 were selected and dispatched, and all the money needed was sent in without solicitation, except soliciting their Heavenly Father. It will be seen what a needful part was the money when it is stated that this mission will not go into debt to the extent of a single dollar.
Now, some little time after this a young American layman, Mr. H. W.
Frost, came over to ·London and took up his lodging close to the headquarters of the mission that he might learn its workings minutely. He tried to per- suade Mr. Hudson Taylor to visit America. But Mr. Taylor, full of his heavy work at headquarters and traveling over Britain and over China, hesitated to consent. But this young American could not be shaken off, and he and Mr. Taylor got on their knees for guidance, and thereafter Mr. Moody invited Mr. Taylor to his Conference at Northfield. Mr. Taylor then yielded to the solicitations of this young friend.
Having myself worked much together with Mr. Taylor in Britain he asked me to accompany him, and it was resolved that my wife and I should go, as well as Mr. Taylor's secretary, and his son, Mr. Howard Taylor, as also Mr.
George Studd, brother of the Mr. Charles Studd already mentioned, and also brothel' of Mr. K. Studd of London, who, about a year previously, went through a number of the American universities. At this same time Mr.
Wishard of the Y. M. C. A. came over to England and induced several Cambridge undet'graduates to cross the Atlantic to attend Mr. 1foody's Conference.
It would be hard for me just at this point to withhold recording with a grateful heart the very refreshing hospitality my wife and I have received from so many kind hosts and hostesses, both in the States and in Canada.
If my friend, Mr. Hudson Taylor, were beside me instead of being in another steamer on another ocean, I am sure most warmly would he join me. Indeed, it was his own suggestion, days before we had to part, that we should both have put our signatures to a joint letter, but the rush was so great the last few days that it was not practicable, yet the work seemed only commenced. But if we should never see your land again, we have formed friendships that are not likely ever to be forgotten.
The welcome afforded to Mr. Hudson Taylor, both in the United States and in Canada, by ministers, Young Men's Christian Associations, and private Christians, and the reception given to his novel and startling, but simple, childlike statements, have, indeed, been so gratifying as to make himself and his praying friends devoutly thankful-you way be sure that his praying friends are very many, scattered over the world. In fact, it is a great feature that at the London headquarters a crowded prayer-meeting is held from four to six every Saturday afternoon, where, by a large map and long pointer, each mission is pointed out and every missionary prayed for by name.
After leaving Mr. Moody's Convention at Northfield, from which two or three volunteered and were accepted for China by Mr. Taylor, an early place visited was a Bible Reading Convention at Niagara. Here there was a glorious response-ample scope was given for Mr. Taylor and another to plead for the heathen, and after he had left, Mr. R. P. Wilder arrived and spoke on the same subject. In conclusion, Mr. H. W. Frost had to write, telling Mr. Taylor that sufficient money had been given to support six missionaries to his China Inland Mission. The money having thus been pro- vided unasked, volunteers wet'e prayed for to consume it. It was soon found that the same Father could supply laborers as easily as he had supplied the money. I Laborers sprang up like willows by the water-courses-both men and women-especially in Canada, and not vel'Y distant from the region in which the Niagara Convention had been held. After careful consideration twenty were accepted by Mr. Taylor as associates of the China Inland Mission. Thirteen of these were ready to depart from Toronto. Mr. Taylor met with them and gave minute instructions, having arranged with Rev. Dr. Parsons of the Presbyterian Church of John Knox, in Toronto, for themselves and their frIends partaking of the Lord's Supper at nine in the evening, before their train left at eleven for Vancouver and China. Mr. Taylor could not be present with us, as he had still to give one day to Montreal, overtaking this band on the track for Vancouver. A sister from Mr. Moody's school had also to overtake the train, making the volunteers to sail across the Pacific with Mr. Taylor fourteen. After receidng the Lord's Supper there was an impressive scene at the depot, a great crowd singing hymns outside the cars and inside the cars, tender:partings; whilst outside simultaneous prayer for the departing ones and for those to follow the crowd-chiefly young men-repeating the petitions together, sentence by sentence. 'rhus at 11 P.M. the train slowly swept away for the China steamer to be met at Vancouver.
Besides these fourteen gone, and the six more accepted, one of whom is a Y. M. C. A. secretary, I have since received distinct intimation of 46 more that I believe are wishing to follow. There is little money to tempt anyone, viz., only about $250 a year for a sister, and about $50 more for a brother on account of his having to travel and live in inns more than a sister. The dressing, too, in Chinese costume cannot be a great inducement. This is not much to tempt an American or a Canadian. Yet I shall not be surprised if el'e long fully 100, including the twenty already fixed, soon follow those gone before.
Are not such men and women the best, the greatest friends, of the home churches? Can they go to real war without rousing their friends left at home to fight at home as they have never done before? Can they go without stirring up a far deeper interest in the American and Canadian Missionary Boards, not only for China, but also for India, for Africa, for the continent of America, etc.? Let them ever remember what noble missionaries these Boards have sent out, from Judson downwards, and what noble ones- perhaps not much heard of-they have now in the field. I have myself enjoyed their co-operation in Europe.
If we older men will not lead, 0, for the sake of Christ's dying wish, let these young ones lead us! 01' else, are not we older one!;! in flagrant disobedienc~? and I for one do not see how our churches in Britain may not sink lower and lower. Do speak out and show them that Christ has laid the responsibility on every converted soul to give the gospel to the heathen, and that we laymen cannot shift the responsibility 6if our shoulders upon the shoulders of ministers, or upon the shoulders of university men. Let us gladly accept settled ministers, who will lay down their charges. A vicar at Leeds, just before we left for America, laid down his charge in order to go out with the China Inland Mission. But for every such cultured man, and for every finished and cultured undergraduate, do we not need at least twenty men, who, like Spurgeon, Moody, or Carey, have never seen the inside of a col- lege, provided only they have the needed gifts, ;:tre already experienced in winning souls, are wholly surrendered to Christ as their king, and are full of the Holy Ghost?
THE Gustavus Adolphus Society of Germany, which aims specially to es- tablish Protestant churches in Roman Catholic countries, during the last fiftY-SIX years, has erected 1,398 churches and 691 school buildings. It re- ports immediate need of 314 more church buildings.
OPIUM IN CHINA
BRITISH OPIUM IN CHINA.
BY G. L. MASON, AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSION, HUCHOW, CHINA.
BRITISH Christians lead the world in beneficence. Their home charities are multiform, their foreign missions are everywhere. But the British Government, for the sake of revenue in India, persists in a course against a weaker nation which Canon Wilberforce pronounces "simply dastardly from beginning to end." John Bright and many other distinguished men express the same view. Christian opinion in China is fairly represented by a conservative Englishman, Archdeacon Monle of Shanghai, who says: "British authorities in India, fully knowing the attitude of the Chinese Government, deliberately engaged in the preparation of opium for China. with only two years intermission, continuously for sixty years." Americans, too, blush at sight of the Chinese caricature of an Englishman with a whiskey bottle in one hand and an opium ball in the other. In many ways so closely linked to Great Britain, and especially so in evangelization, it behooves American Christians also to know the facts and to labor and pray for the removal of this tremendous hindrance to missions and to honorable commerce and international good-will-a professed Christian government engaging in a trade which is a blighting curse to millions.
Since many may not have access to information, the following outline of events has been compiled, from personal study of the Chinese maritime customs' reports, from files of the Ohinese Repository, and from other trustworthy sources. As partisan statements have been made in books and newspapers, "that opium-smoking isas harmless as twiddling one's fingers," and that" Great Britain has not coerced China on account of opium," it may be well to remark that the writer is prepared to cite authority for every statement in this sketch.* Some hold that opium was first brought to China by the Arabs toward the close of the thirteenth century. But it was in small quantities, and" commonly used as a medicine before the trade with India commenced" in the eighteenth century. Previous to 1767 the trade was in the hands of Portuguese, but with an import of only about 200 chests a year, a chest being about 140 pounds. The habit of smoking was scarcely known. Even as late as 1830 large inland cities like Hangchow had no opium smOking-shops. Now that city has, approximately, 2,000. The very rapid growth of the habit and of the trade began when the East India Company regularly engaged in the business in 1773. In 1790 the importation reached 4,054 chests, twenty times the amount imported yearly previous to 1767. In 1799 it was 5,000 chests; in 1826, 9,969; about 1830, a yearly average of 16,800. In less than ten years just preceding the first Opium War the trade more than doubled, reaching 34,000 chests in 1836. In 1834 the East India Company closed its career, but other British officials continued the traffic, which has grown to 52,925 piculs in 1850 and 75,308 in 1880, a picul being 133~ pounds.
Smuggling is the proper term for this trade previous to 1860. In 1780 the British establised a depot near Macao on two vessels, a plan continued in later years, when armed vessels lay outside the ports, and delivered the opium to Chinese smugglers who had previously negotiated with American or British merchants living at the ports under consular protection. The East India Company entered upon the trade knowing it to be contraband.
* Besides the authorities named, any one desiring further information should see the Friend of China, London: Morgan & Scott; a small monthly. Also Th6 Truth .4lKrut Opium, London: Hodder", Stonghton.
BRITiSH OPIUM IN
For the Abbe Raynal (tr. i. 424) writes, as early as 1770: "The Chinese Emperors have suppressed it in their dominions, by condemning to the flames every vessel that imports this species of poison." The Emperor Kiahmg in 1796 issued an edict against it, and the prohibition was often renewed by imperial decree or high provincial authority (1799, 1809, 1820, 1836 and 1837) and the prohibition always based on moral grounds. "Severe prohibit<;>ry laws (1828) destroyed the trade temporarily and exasperated the British, who made some military demonstrations by sending armed vessels to Canton in 1831 and 1834. Meanwhile the contraband opium trade was fostered and the smugglers provided with armed ships."-American Cyclopcedia. See also British Encyclopcedia. In the penal code of 1830, strangling is the punishment for keeping an opium shop. In 1832 at Macao foreigners witnessed a case of its execution, the culprit being tied to a cross and strangled. ,_That the prohibition of 'the importation of opium or planting of the poppy was only partly successful among a heathen people is not strange. But is the fact that Chinese minor officials often connive with native and foreign smugglers any excuse whatever forthe relentless aim of the Bitish Government to thwart the often expressed and humane wish of the heathen government?
A crisis came in 1839. The Chinelie Imperial Commissioner Lin, at Canton, addressed a long letter to Queen Victoria, requesting her to interdictthe traffic. He also demanded as contraband, 20,283 chests of British opium, and by command of the emperor utterly destroyed it. This annihilation by money-loving Orientals, for the sake of a moral idea, of ten million dollars worth of salable property will shine in history as a deed of sublime heroism.
The British Encyclopedia calls it" a sufficient proof that the Mandarins were in earnest in their endeavor to suppress the trade. The few foreigners who were present were deeply impressed to witness this deliberate and solemn work of destruction, which occupied twenty days and took place in the presence of a great multitude of Chinese officials and people. Soon after this the British renewed the attempts to smuggle cargoes ashore. The merchants complained that the wholesale confiscation of the opium was sudden and unfair! a vain plea, for the storm had been gathering for years and was foreseen by all whose eyes were not blinded by gold. The seizure was the chief point of the casus belli.
In 1840 England declared war. At its close China had to cede the oppressor the island of Hongkong and pay twenty-one million dollars. Twelve millions of this were for England's war expenses, three millions for debts owed by Chinese to British merchants, and six millions partial payment for the opium destroyed. This outrageous robbery was perpetrated in the Treaty of Nankin (1842) and ratified the year following.
That the enforced opening of the five" treaty ports" to trade gave a great impulse to commerce and missions no one denies, but these benefits blind Western eyes to the cruel injustice of the war. At that time Sir H. Pottinger, British Minister, 'strove to get China to legalize the opium trade j and the Emperor Two-Kwang made answer in these pathetic and now historic words: "It is true that I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people."
During the next fourteen years the unwelcome trade flourished, until in 1857, the Arrow, a smuggling vessel bearing the British flag, was fired upon. This furnished the pretext for the British bombardment of Canton. As if this were not enough, the English and French combined the next year and made an expedition up the river Pei-ho to Tientsin: Thus the capital
OPIUM IN CHINA
was in danger and the terror-stricken government felt obliged to yield to the persuasion of Lord Elgin and legalize the importation of British opium. The import duty was fixed at the low rate of thirty taels a chest, or about thirty cents a pound, the British agreeing not to carry the opium 'inland. This political villainy was ratified in the Convention of Peace at Pekin, October, 1860. Thus oppression scored a great triumph in Asia to offset the grand advance of liberty then about to take place in America. China again paid Eng-land an indemnity of $10,800,000 in gold, one-quarter of which was paid to the foreign merchants of Canton; also $6,000,000 to France. Is it strange that patriotic but uninformed Chinese would fain have excluded all foreigners, missionaries included, regarding the opium trade as a direct plot against the life of the.nation? 'fhis treaty secured the opening of five additional ports, through which missionaries might enter with the gospel and merchants with shiploads of opium.
The second opium war only riveted faster the chains of the demoralizing habit and trade. The government, discouraged, made few serious efforts after 1860 to repress native cultivation of the poppy. According to Consul Spence, in Sichuan province, government interference with the planting ceased about 1865. Bu:t in July, 1869, the Chinese Government made a pathetic appeal to the British Government. And in October, a "Supplementary Convention" was signed at Pekin by which, in consideration of China's reducing her duty on coal exported and for other commercial advantages, England should allow China to advance the import duty on opium from thirty to fifty taels. As though China had not the right to charge what duty she chose without asking leave! But this arrangement the British Government steadily refused to ratify, lest a higher duty might check the trade and thus lessen the revenue at Calcutta.
In 1876 occurs the Chefu Convention. China by this allows four more ports to be opened to trade, in return for which the British ambassador agrees that opium shall stand on a different footing from other goods as regards transit duties,inland, so as to enable China to check the internal traffic. The clauses of this convention in favor of foreigners were soon ratified. The one clause'in China's benefit was not. At length after seven years of evasion by England, the irritation felt in China and the anti-opium agitation in England caused an opening of official correspondence on the subject (January, 1883), Earl Granville writing to Marquis Tseng, the Chinese ambassador in London. China proposes in addition to thirty taels import duty, a uniform rate of eighty taels for internal transit dues. The noble earl objects, proposes seventy taels (April, 1883), and insists that China 'must guarantee not to hinder the trade by imposing further taxes inland. 0 shameful sight! a mighty Christian nation haggling with a weaker heathen government for easier terms on which to debauch its people! Tseng Claims (September, 1884) that China may raise the tax on opium to any figure she may think proper as soon as the drug shall have passed into Chinese hands. And why not? Not until July, 1885, was the agreement finally signed, to be in force four years. It came into effect February 1, 1887, more than ten years after the Chefu Convention. The import duty remains the same, thirty taels. But the fluctuating taxes formerly levied inland (the Lekin) a!'e now fixed at a uniform rate of eighty taels, and these dues also England allows China to collect at the ports; but China stipulates that British opium may pass inbud, unlike other goods, exempt from taxes, and that local licenses to sell sllall be at the same rate as for native opium.
This new arrangement has been hastily called a "settlement" of the vexed
BRITISH OPIUM IN
question. A total revenue of about $1.10 per pound, all due at the ports,' brings a little more mon~y than formerly into the treasury at Pekin. Butit also hastens the physical and moral ruin of multitudes. Nine and three quarter million pounds were imported in 1887,- an increase of nine pel' cent. on the average yearly amount from 1882 to 1886 under the former arrangement. The trade has now clearer official sanction. The authorities provide safe and cheap storage at ports, and untaxed transit inland. And the cancer is to strike its roots deeper into the nation's heart. In proof of this, read the Customs reports for 1887, how at various ports the new rule "benefits the trade"; how the trade "acquires stability" and "increased facility" and "great benefit"; while at Pakhoi the opium partly "takes the place of silver as a circulating medium." The Shanghai commissioner reports: " Transit passes are respected and the native dealers are sending the opium to more distant markets than ever."
That missionaries do not magnify the evils of opium to excuse the slow progress of missions let Sir Thomas Wade, ex-ambassador, testify: "The habit is many times more pernicious, nationally speaking, than the gin and whiskey drinking which we deplore at home"-a strong-er statement than missionaries make; still it is hard to decide which of the two habits produces the more misery. Forty-five million dollars spent in one year (1887) for foreign opium, and half of it spent by people unable to buy both opium and good food, means a wide extent of woe. Mr. Eason, of the China Inland Mission, says that in Yunnan Province half of the women and fourfifths of the men are smokers. When Baron Rich'toven is quoted that in Si-chuan Province as much opium is used as anywhere, and that nowhere are the effects so little seen, it is not explained that the climate of the mountains is salubrious and that the people of the river valleys are wealthy. It is among the poor, who cannot buy both food and opium, that the misery is most seen. Here is the exact parallel to the drink curse,-work neglected, debts unpaid, clothes and bed ill pawn, children and aged parents half starved. There are frequent instances of wives sold tp provide opium. In some parts of HucllOW, Chikiang, opium-ruined vagabonds have been a terror to the farmers. In that part of the city of Shanghai under the municipal contl'Olof Europeans more than 1,200 opium saloons were licensed in 1887. No wonder that the number of prisoners in jail was twenty-five per cent. greater than in 1886. The opium habit often co-exists with alcoholism in the same individuals. All vices thrive within the opium dens. Especially does the opium mania burn out of the man all capacity for truth. A professional burglar would be received to church membership in China as soon as would an opium user.
Foreigners, shielded by British civil or military officials, smuggled opium into China for seventy years. After two wars and the payment of vast indemnities the traffic was legalized, as the Grand Secretary, Li Hung-chang, said in 1881, "not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse decision of arms." Yet apologists say that China's concessions have been voluntary. As well call the delivery of one's put'seto a highwayman voluntary, That the Chinese submitted at all graciously only illustrates their pt'overb "The legless man who meets a tiger might as well make a present of himself." After 1860, for twenty-five years, British influence prevented China from raising the duty even to a .partiallY prohibitory rate. Finally in 1885-7 a new arrangement was made which friends of China hoped might be somewhat of a check to the trade, but which ill the working seems to be rather a strengthening of eVIl. But it is an arrangement for four years only
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
and the question will be re-opened. Meanwhile let the Christian world con-' tinue in prayer that God may touch the conscience of all concerned. Parties to the gt'eat sin are not only opium merchants, but the Indian officials who, in Bengal, by subsidies, assist planters of the poppy, and who buy the whole opium crop and prepare it in government workshops expressly for the Chinese market. In this sin Christian England also shares; for" under the specious name of the home charges of the Indian Government, England is annually exacting a tribute of fourteen. millions sterling from India" (Friend of Ohina. April, 1888). And England's sin and England's punishment, unless she repents, more or less involve all Christendom. Our sharing of responsibility and the Chinese feeling were vividly impressed on the writer once when preaching on the street in Shashing. Hell was mentioned and a fine looking elderly man exclaimed with equal courJl.ge and severity: "Yes, there is such a place. Since you foreigners came, Ohina has become a hell!"
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
THE Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missions-Blatt says: "Can one live to be old in India f Whoever brings with him a good constitntion, and lives regnlarlyand temperately, can, by God's good providence, even in India. reach an advanced age. The old Dano-Halle Missionary Kohlhoff labored in India 53 years, his son 57. his son 60, C. F. Schwarz 47. Similar examples of long life in India and Burmah are to be found in more recent times also, though not so frequently as in the last century; our Senior Schwarz lived in India 44, Kremmer 47 years. There lately died in Kottajam in Travancore, Mrs. Baker, granddaughter of the elder Koh- 10ff, who in 1819 established a girls' school in Kottajam, and conducted it for 69 years I Mr. Rice. of the L. M. S., lived to celebrate the semi-centennial jubilee of his missionary service, and this year, on the 9th of February, the same honor arrived to the missionary bishop, Caldwell, of the S. P. E.,who may well be regarded as one of the most valuable missionaries in South India, an experienced administrator and an eminent lingnist. He has lately pnblished his remembrances in the Madras MaU, from which we extract the following: • As a youth of lour-and-twenty he landed on the 8th of January, 1838, in Madras, where he remained three and one-half years. His first business there was, of course, to study the language. He ,rapidly made himself master of the two dialects of Tamil, the classical, and the vernacular dialect, and laid an especial stress upon right pronunciation. which to an English tongue offers double difficulties. • • • His first practical work was among the native domestics of the English. Noteworthy is the missionary method which he then recognized as the true one, and which he has maintained through life: 'My plan was to make the congregation the middle point of my whole missionary activity. With the assistance of my native helpers I made it my endeavor to exhort and induce individuals to unite themselves with our congregation. As soon as we had won, instructed and baptized a proselyte. I urged him to bring to us all his relatives and friends. We hoped that in this way eacb new proselyte would become a shining light, around which others would gather. The plan succeeded beyond expectation, and soon the congregation was too nnmerous for the building.' He makes little account of stl'eet-preachings in great cities. •They do not reach the higher castes, and the direct fruit is in no proportion to tbe labor given. I never heard of a case in which any abiding blessing has resulted from this sort of effort.' In 1841 he removed to Tinnevelly. He made the journey on foot, passing throngh Tranqucbar. In his account of this journey there occurs a most unwarranted attack upon onr mission, which he accuses of proselyting efforts among the adherents of the Propagation Society. He shows, thereby. that he, too, has allowed himselfto be carried away by the intolerant spirit of this SOCiety, which is . well inclined to claim aU India as its domain. and while its missions are always ready to encroach upon other fields of labor (as, for instance, in the Kohl Mission) would not even concede' to the Tamils of Lutheran views the liberty of returning to their mother church. • . . Yet Dr. Caldwell, long ago, was one of the few English missionaries who maintained the sonndness of the principles of our mission in regard to the question of caste; a view which, in later times, has gained more and more snpport among them.
"In Tinne.elly he made Idyengudy (Shepherdhome). near Cape Comorin. the center of his resuUful activity. He gathered a great number of Christians out of the surrounding heathen. The congregations nnder his presidency have multiplied tenfold, increasing from 14 to 129, and the number of souls eightfold, from 1,201 to 8,167. The whole number of Tinnevelly Christians connected with the Propagation SOCiety had risen from 4,352. in 1841, to 39,577. To this increase the famine year, 1877-8, bas contributed not a little, for during this the number of souls of this mission, as well as of that of the C. M. S., was nearly doubled. His like-minded wife, a missionary's daughter, contributed not a little to this great success. She helped especially in the education of the girls and elevation of the female sex. She introduced into her girls' school the weaving of lace, in which her scholars attained very considerable skill. Dr. Caldwell's example shows what, in India, the right man in the right place can accomplish, when he is able to remain for a good long while, and so take root. In 1877 he, with his fellow· missionary, Sargent (of Talamcottah) was con- secrated in Calcutta as missionary bishop-hoth being suffragan~ to the Bishop of Madras. He has since then ordained 51 native pastors, and removed his residence to Tutticorin.
" He says that he was never thoronghly well. And yet he has held ont so long in one of the hottest districts of India. For it may be said of Tinnevelly that it has in the year •three months hot weather and nine months hotter.' Yet, strangely enough, he once, during a· furlough in England, had a sunstroke while driving in an open carriage. Sunstrokes are more common where the heat.
is variable. . He has had his share of trouble to bear. Especially since his appointment to the episcopate he has had so much hostility and opprobrium to undergo at the hands of the Christ- ians of his own charge, who felt themselves wounded in their caste pride by his reports, that it is no wonder if he compares himself with the tree of Jotham's parable, who was asked to reign over the other trees. But he concludes his reminiscences with the sentence: •Every year spent in God's service should be regarded as a jubilee year.' "
M. Weitzecker, describing the dedication of a Bassuto Church, writes • •• A numerous company of horsemen approaches, who, on drawing near the village, bring their horses to a walk, close up ~heir ranks, and advance singing. They are our Christians, of whom several took part five years ago in burning and plundering the neighboring village, the capital of this chief. But now no one flees at their approach, and behind this loophole wall, raised to guard against them, no one makes ready to fire upon them or to bar their entrance. On their side they carry neither guns nor assegais nor hatchets nor clubs, and they intone, not a song of war, but a hymn of peace. . . . Soon the women and young girls approach on foot, they also singing. They can, I cannot, for emotion chokes my voice when I remember how often I have seen these very ones fly trembling before the very chief whose domain they now enter with songs."
M. Coillard, of the Zambesi Mission, relates a fact respecting Lewanika, the Zambesi king, powerfully illustrating the tender mercies of the wicked. He lately sent a message to the missionary, assuring him that he had taken to heart his rebuke of him for killing people secretly, and that accordingly, finding hidden in the woods seven children of rebels, he had simply administered to them beer which had been poisoned before their eyes, and had then ordered them to be transported to an islet of the river, and left to die at their leisure! Well may M. Coillard say: "You see in what an atmosphere we live; our heaven would be of lead without the light of the countenance of God; our isolation would be insupportable without the communion ot the Saviour, and, let us add, without the communion of the saints."
The Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift says: "It is now often the fashion to speak disparagingly of the old pietists. This is, in the first place, very unthankful, for in missions, above all things, we are standing on their shoulders. The fathers of the present German missions were pietists. It is, moreover, immodest; for, looking at many of these pietistic fathers, we must say: We are not worthy to unloose their shoe-latchets. Grant that they were one-sided; but this one-sidedness consisted in an exclusive emphasis laid on" the one thing which is needfu1." We have become more broad-minded; but does there go out more virtue from us! We broad-minded people have always something to be' learning afresh from these one-sided pietists, namely, more selflimitation to the one necessary thing, more burning love of Jesus, more edifying application of the Word of God to ourselves, more zeal in prayer, a fuller victory over the world, and al80 more renunciation of the world. without, indeed, being altogether obliged to follow them in their avoidance of the world. These pietistic fathers sat at Jesus' feet, and did at the·same time zealous Martha service; they withdrew themselves from the world, and were yet a >alt of the earth and a light of the world. Therefore it is that, despite all the disparagement With which they treated the world, and despite all the one-sidedness with which they avoided the world, they have so much abiding fruit to witness to them."
The Zeitschrijt also says: "It is, indeed, a matter of great joy, and is worthy of all acknowledgment, that we are so inventive in trying ever more, ever newer, a.nd ever more expeditious ways of drawin~ larger and larger circles iuto an interest for missions; hut independently of the fact that many of these ways already draw very ·near to the bounds of a dubious secularizliotioll. tley are also only too apt to induce neglect in gathering and caring for the "little flock," to which it is the pleasure of our He",venly Father to give the kingdom, and which, there_ fore, at all times and in all places, remains the corpa d'elite, with which the missionary cause wins its victories. To gather and maintain this corps d'elite is above all things the heart of the work."
Again.: .. It is also quite to be approved, when we make it a point, not only to refute tha many ignorant prejudices against missions, and the many malicious misrepresentations which are always springing up afresh with regard to them, but when we also set before those who a.s yet do not appreciate the religious value of missions, the manifold incidental benefits which have redounded by their means to science, commerce, colonization and civilization generally. Doubtless in this way many a one can ana will be introduced more deeply into the cause and converted into a warm and vigorous friend of missions. Yet, if such efforts are prosecuted withont reference, or with only a timid reference to the religious motives and aims of missions, we forget that the deep r08ts of our strength are found only in the living obedience of faith, whose meat it is to do the will of God. If we forget this, all our tricks of persuasion are mefe cobwebs. It is the labor of Sisypus to be always pushing the hands of the clock from without."
"The lack which is made plain by the common complaint that nothing but the driver's stick will bring in collections, will not be made good by always contriving new ways: It rather sets home tous: You must make it more and more exclusively your aim to dig living weU.! And these are living wells: men who have the driver within themselves, of whom it is true that· the love of Christ constraineth' them; men of faith, whose faith brings them to obedience."
"Missionary narrative and history is excellent. It is the three measures of meal. But the leaven of this must be found in "the Word." This must be the chief thing. The sainted Lewis Harris has given the cause of missions in Hermannsburg an abiding root, because he was earnestly and powerfully bent on doing the central work in his parish, the work which was committed to the Apostle Paul among the heathen: 'To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.'"
A Lutheran missionary in South India, writing in the Leipzig Evangelisch- Lutherisches Missions-Blatt, considering the q1lf~stion how far foreign missionaries in India ought to assimilate themselves to the native ways, says: "The missionaries in Santalistan "-a district of Bengal, inhabited by an aboriginal tribe-" have accommodated themselves to the natives perhaps more perfectly than any others in India. They have, so to speak, put themselves on a footing of equality with them. This wise policy, so worthy of imitation, is, next to God's grace and blessing, a chief cause of their success. Yet we must remark, that what they could do there, among the un-Hindnized, uncivilized Santal people, they could not have done here among the Tamils with their many castes, classes, and peculiar institu· tions. Even the Tamil missionary finds no great difficulty in becoming a pariah to the pariahs, but in just the degree that he does this, he ceases to be a miSSionary to the Tamils; that is, he closes the door against himself, and robs himself of the opportnnity of drawing near to the hiaher castes, the Tamils proper, and gaining influence over them. It is, undoubtedly, very qnestionable how fa~ it is practical and judicious for us Europeans here in India;o live so entirely in the European style as is commonly the case. It may be questioned whether it would not be better to assume, at least in part, a more Indian manner of life. But even if this were done we should yet be far from becom· ing Hindus. At best we should only be Eurastans. There would therefore still be a wall of parti.
tion between the inhabitants of the land and the missionary. On this account these East Indians can never be fully served withont the ministrations of native helpers, who, belonging to the people by birth and nationality, feel, think and speak like them, and share their weal and woe, and so find the way to their heart as strangers never can."
M. P. Berthoud, writing in the Bulletin Missionaire, the missionary organ for French Switzerland, from the Portuguese town of Lourenzo-Marques, where there are also a good many Hindus, says: .. The passion for alcoholic drinks is what first strikes an observer on his arrival; and the more intimate his knowledge of the mhabitants becomes, the more thoroughly is he
ORGANi~ED; MISSIONARY WORK
obliged to admit that great as the eyil is on the surface, it is much greater still at the bottom. It is a terrible scourge and plague. .' : .. After this discovery, one makes another still more sad, that of the indescribable 'immo- rality which reigns without restraint. Not a soul cares to raise the least dike agailst its invading floods. The Hindus and the natives themselves follow the Europeans and better the example• .. Lourenzo-Marques possesses a Catholic church, served by a priest of mixed race: Except a few such mulattoes, few people, I am assured, attend the religious services.
However, the inhabitants, white or colored, are not anti-religious; they are satisfied with that which they possess, to wit, a priest, a church, the resources necessary to accomplish certain religio)ls forms of which Qne does not love to be deprived, that is to say, above all the funeral rites. They would, on the contrary, feel themselves annoyed, and perhaps harassed, if religion was more living, if it recalled with too sharp a distinctness the image of a holy God who will judge sinners."
"What a consolation," writes M. Berthoud," in the midst of this Sodom of Lourenzo- Marques, to see approaching to meet us a little serried column of native Christians chant- ing our hymn.! It was the 9th of July-twelve years, to the very day, since the founda- tion of our mission at Vald/izia-that, seated on the front ofour wagon, we saw them coming afar and followed their march with a moved and joyous heart. There were morc< than a hundred of them, al~clad becomingly and simply. The countenances of some beamed with delight, those of others were tremulous with emotion, with all the strength of feeling found vent in an explosion of song.
.. It is touching to see the cordiality which unites them, and which they reanimate in- cessantly by calling each other 'children of the Lord," children of the Father," beloved of the Lord,' etc. Their joyous piety has a certain self-communicating power which may well be one of the causes of the rapid propagation of the gospel. We cannot but perceive a great difference between eur Gwamba of the Spelonken and those of this region, who are in general much more vivacious. This difference may have its bad as well as its good side.
We will not judge, but note.
H I come now to another trait of the life of this church, to wit, the exaltation of the religious sentiment. It appears, first, in the ordinary language, which takes a piou" form apro_ pos of everything, even the most simple material things. Thus people cannot salute each other without making long phrases concerning the will of God and its manifestations; they no longer say of anyone that he has been sick, but that' he has been smitten of God.'
'You ask one who is taking leave when he expects to return. • It is God who knows,' is his reply, given in a peculiar unctuous tone, though' all the while he has his well-defined plans of return. Whatever work has been dose, whatever word has been pronounced, 'it is the Spirit who has shown it, has dictated it.' A person who is going to his work, will say that he IS going' to labor for the flesh,' without giving any heed to the nonsense of the expres.
sion. 'The Spirit, the flesh,' these terms occur in conversation apropos of everything. 1 can in a measure understand how a language constantly made up of pious expressions might be employed by a community of Christians who had all attained perfection. But in a church of which each member still has to strive with the old sinful nature, it be<lomes affected, and we shall soon see one of two results: either the religious sentiment will be- come exalted, or quite as probably it will become enfeebled, and pious phrases will no longer be anythmg more than pharisaical forms; or, quite as often, the former alternative will give birth to the second."
Since M. Besthoud's arrival at Lourenzo-Marques there had been more than thirty conversions, n.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Woman's Missionary Societies. of • amongst the Indians of Manitoba and the Oanada.* Northwest. I. Woma~'s Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the Presbyterian Church in SUMMARY. Canada-Western Division. Organ- ized 1876. Home Work.
Mrs. Hugh Campbell, Secretary, 194 Rich- Number of Mission Bands ….. : ……. 124 mond street, West Toronto, Ontario. Members in Mission Bands .• a,829 Auxiliary Societies … , ….. . 351 They sustain work in India, Formosa, New Members in Auxiliary Socie- Hebrides, Trinidad, and Honau, China, and ties ………………….. . 9,025 Life Members … , ……….. . 251 .. We are indebted to Mrs. Dr. J. T.Gracey Members of both Local and for this additional account of Woman's General Society……… , • 2,336 Missionary Societies in ClLnada and Great Presbyterian Societies .. , .. . 21 BritILin.-EDs. Total Membership ……………….. . 12,854 Increase in Membership …………. .. 4,291 New Presbyterian Societies………. . 3 New Auxiliaries ………………….. . 98 New Mission Bands ………………. . 49 New Life Members………………. .. 00 Finances. retary, Mrs. E. S. Strachan, 113 Hughson Contri~1;lted by Miss~C!n Bands. . . .. $5,273 25 street, North Hamilton, Canada.
Auxlhartes .. .. …. 19,856 19 The work of this Society in Canada is di- from other sources 528 00 divided into Branches, as follows: Western Branch Central, Eastern, Nova Scotia, New Total amount contributed …..$25,65754 Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island. To these Branches there are certain Districts II. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- auxiliary as follows: St. Johns East, St. ciety of the Presbyterian Church of Johns West, Winnipeg and Qu'Appelle. Canada-Eastern Division. Organ- ized 1877. The tabulated statistics are as follows: Auxiliary societies, 138; members, 4,086; Miss Edith Burns, Secretary, 18 Kent life members, 237; mission bands, 49, with street, Halifax. I,711 me~bers. For the year 1887 the amount of money raised was $14,197.51. The amount The grand total of the receipts of the So- since organization in 1881 is $46,909.46 ciety for the year ending Oct. 17, 1887, which Twelve missionaries have been sent to the is the latest report available, amounts to various fields. $5,091.77. This Society has no missionary period ical III. The Women's Baptist Foreign of their own, but edit a department in the Missionary Societies of Ontario and Outlook, a periodical of their Board. Quebec, Canada. The foreign work of the Society is III President, Mrs. J. H. Castle, Toronto, Japan, the home workthroughont the Prov- Canada. Corresponding Secretary, Miss inces. The" Crosby Home" a't Port Simp- Buchan, Toronto, Canada. son, B. C., is in a flourishing condition. Th4ilre are now 20 girls in attendance. The The work of this Soeiety is represented by McDougall Orphanage and Training Institwo sections, Eastern Ontario and Quebec tute among North American IndianS' has and the Society of Ontario. It has been in 10 boys and 8 girls. A mission school for operation over eleven years. girls (French) has been established at Actonvale with 25 pupils 14 of whom have The section of Eastern Ontario and Que- been converted during the year. bec is represented by 47 mission circles, and raised the past year the amount of $1,555.80 The girls' school in Tokyo. Japan, has while the Society of Ontario is represented been crowded to its utmost capacity, 127 by 150 circles, and money raised $4,626.74 ; or, boarders and 100 day pupils. Fifty of these the two sections, exclusive of balance of have been converted and baptized. Th.ere previous Veal'S, $6,182.54. are now 65 native Christians in the school, Much attention has been' given to evan- W9rk is carried on in India, at Akidu, Co- gelistic work, and the training of native canada, Samulcotta and Tuni, all in the .Christian women for work among their own Telugu country. people. A special donation of $1,000 was given the past year to open work in another '!'hree Eurasian women are employed, and station in Japan, and Shidzuoka was se- report more work than they can do. A ected, and a building free of rent secured &::lCces.ful girls' school is reported at Co- fo), two years. and Miss Ounningham has reo canada. Miss Alexander, of Toronto, sailed cently reached Japan to take charge of this during the veal' to recruit. the mission. A work. Arrangements were also made for Zenana House has been built at Cocanada. aiding the Chinese girls in Victoria, B. O.
IV. Woman's Baptist Missionary Women's Missionary Societies of Great Union of the Maritime Provinces,. Britain and Ireland. Organized 1870. I. Society for Promoting Female Educa- Mrs. John March, St. Johns, N. B., Cor- responding Secretary. tion in the East. Established 1834.
Its home territory includes Nova Scotia, Secretary, Miss Webb, London, England. New Brunswick and Prince Edward's Island. This SOCiety is the oldest organized Society for carrying on work amcng the women of the The Society supports its own missionaries East. It commenced with schools in India and in India and contributes to the support of China, but the work was snbsequently extended fonr of the men employed by the parent to other countries, and now Includes Ceylon, Board. With much misgiving they appro- Japan, the Straits, South and West Africa, the priated at the beginning of the year $3,500 Levant, Egypt and the Holy Land, Turkey in but rejoice at its close over an income of Europe alid Persia. As early as 1835 one of the $1,735 in excess of that, and $258.30 given to Society's missionaries gained access to a house the Home Mission Board. Total income in Calcutta. $4,493.30. The object of the Society has been and ill V. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada.
President, Mrs. James Gooderham, 166 Carlton street, Toronto; Corresponding Secstrictlyevangelistie. Recently they have estab- supports 29 schools, with about 8,000 pupils. lished medical missions in North India and the There are day and night schools, and for Holy Land. Forty European missionaries are boys and girls and women. All. are inemployed, who have charge of abont 275 structed in the Scriptures. The annual schools, attended by 19,624 scholars. Some 380 income is about $25,000. zenanas are visited, with about 3,000 pupils_ The annnal income about $35,000. V. Ladies' Association for the Support of Bible Women and Zenana Work The Society publishes The FemaU MiBBion- in Connection with the Baptist Misary Inteliigencer, a monthly magazine of some sixteen pages. sionary Society of England. Es- II. Indian Female Normal School and tablished 1868.
Instruction Society; or Zenana Bi- This Society has work in India, North- west Provinces, Bengal, Madras and the ble and Medical Mission. Estab- Punjab, which consists of schools, zenana, medical and dispensary work. lished 1852. The annual income is about $30,000. This Society was organized in Calcutta, Forty-four European female agents are emand the first work was the establishment of ployed, and 105 native workers, with the a Normal School in that city for Eurasian support of 50 schools, with over 1,600 pupils, teachers. The Society extended its opera- and over 20,000 dispensary patients. tions into three Presidencies, and added to the training of teachers, zenana visiting, VI. The Female Association for Proestablishment of female schools, employment of Bible women and medical missions. moting Christianity among the Wo- The constitution of the Society had been undenominational until 1880, when a division men of the East_ Irish Presbyterian occurred, some adhering to the old constitu- Church. Established 1873. tion, others forming a new society in connection with the Church of England. Since This organization was established through the the division the work has greatly extended, inlluence of Dr. Murray Mitchell and Rev. Nathe societies working in different parts of rayan Sheshadri. Their first missionary sailed India. Annnal income about $50,000. About for India in 1874. Now there are eight lady 27 stations are occupied, with 52 female missionaries, two of whom are medical. Three and 150 native workers. About 55 schools stations are occupied, Surat, Ahmedabad and are supported, with over 3,000 pupils. The Borsad, while girls' schools are supported in Society publishes a quarterly magazine, three other places. There are 14 schools with The Indian Female Evangeli8t. 800 pupils; Bome 30 houses visited. There are two dispensaries, one at Surat, the other at III. Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wesleyan Ahmedabad. The SOCiety employs 12 female native workers. This organization has some Missionary Society. Established 160 auxiliaries, an annual income of about $10,- 000. 1859. Woman'8 Work Is a small magazine published The prejudices against female education" by this Society, quarterly, at Belfast, Ireland. Were giving away somewhat when this Society began its work. It has work in Cey- VII. Woman's Missionary Association lon, India, China, South and West Africa. This Society is auxiliary Ito the General of the Presbyterian Church of Eng- Wesleyan Missionary Society. Their most successful work has been in Ceylon. Their land. Established 1878. annual income is about $35,000. Their work is in 48 stations, with 80 missionaries, 35 The work done by this Association is in native workers, 202 schools, with nearly five stations in China and Singapore, and 10,OOD pupils. Much of their work is super- one station in India-Rampor Bauleah. intended by the wives of missionaries. Miss Ricketts was their first missionary to China, and went out in 1878. IV. British Syrian Schools and Bible The annual income of the Society is about Mission. Founded 1860. $10,000. Thirteen female (European) and 8 native workers are employed, and 5 schools, This Society was organized soon after the with 155 scholars, supported. A quarterly fearful massacres of 1860 in and about magazine, caUed Our Sister8 in Other Lands, Damascus. The Druses put to death about is issued by this Society, published in Lon- 11,000 Christians, and their widows and don. children were turned adrift and fled to the seaport towns. Mrs. Bowen Thompson, who VIII. Church oflEngland Zenana Mishad spent much of her life in Syria, went to Beyrout and at once organized schools, and sionary Society. Established 1880. then established others in various centers. The Society has now about 28 alrents. with This Society was formed by a separation ~ male native workers and 94 female, and from the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. It works in connection with Church of England Missionary Society. At its formation it had 31 Enropean mission-
CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
aries in 17 .stations, and at the close of the XI. Ladies' Society for Female Eduseventh year it had 88 missionaries, 49 na- cation in India and South Africa, tive assistants, and 396 Bible women and of the Free Church of Scotland. native teachers in 42 mission stations. Its present fields are India, China and Japan. This SOCil"ty has done very suceessful work Income for 1887-8 about $115,000. in Southern India and Africa, and has re- centlv added medical work to its various The Society supports 181 schools with 6,928 agencies. It has a staff of 20 European and scholars.* India's Women, the organ of Eurasian helpers in India, and 120 native' this Society, is published every alternate Christian agents, with some 5,000 pupils unmonth, a magazine of 56 pages. der instruction. In Africa 12 European and 57 native Christian agents, with 1,675 pupils. IX. Zenana Medical College. Estab- A very successful boarding-school is car· lished in London, 1880. ried on at Loredale, South Africa, with over 100 pupils. About 30 missionaries' wives This is an unsectarian institution. Its object have supervision of the work. is to train Christian women for medical missionary work in the East. The ladies wl10 The income for 1887 was about $55,000. have finished their college course have been sent to Iudia, China, Ceylon, Syria, and Africa XIII. The Helping Hands Zenana by various missionary societies. The appli- Association. cants for admission have been more than could be accommodated. The income for 1887 was The object of this Association is to bring about $4,000. G. G. Griffith, M.D., Secretary. the young people of Great Britain and Colo- 'nies into active sympathy with the Protest- X. Ladies' Committee in Connection ant missionary societies working among the women of India. The Society has sup- / with the London ,MissionaryS 0- ported schools at various places in India, paid part of the expenses of a medical mis- ciety. sion,and aids in several other departments of missionary work. This Society supports 24 missionaries, 15 in India, 6 in China, and 3 in Madagascar; This Society publishes a monthly paper also 136 girls' schools, boarding schools. 20; called Indian Jewels. day schools, 116; with OVer 7,000 scholars. Over 250 Bible women are employed. It is WOMAN'S BOARD OF THE CUMBERLAND difficult to properly present this work, because of the lack of classification of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. information concerning it which obtains in the report of the Society. Recently this WE gladly correct a mistake in stat- Society has issued a magazine of woman's work called Quarterly News. ing the income of the Board last year XI. Ladies' Association for the Promo- (p. 922), which we made but $1,920.87. Rev. H. C. Bird, one of the leading tion of Female Education among the pastors of this Church, writes us: Heathen in the Missions of the So- "The figures are incorrect as you may ciety for the Propagation of the Gos- see by referring to the Assem8lv's Minutes, p. 104. The receipts of the board were $7- pel. 6.',8.44 ; and the whole amount in the trea- sury during the year was $11,212.63. I would This Society has work in India, Burmah, be glad to have you make the correction. South Africa and Japan. In India 61 mis- It is still a poor exhibit, but is a little betsionaries, and in Africa 10 are at work, ter than in your notice." with over 300 female native agents.
The Society publishes a monthly magazine called Grain 01 Mustard Seed.
III-CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Ohina. Chinese elders. Seven of the native pastors came from Central China, and one from Pe- LETTER from our editorial corre- king. The foreign missionaries represented different stations along the coast, and in spondent, John L. Nevius, D.D. : the interior, as foHows: Two from Canton, one from Ningpo, two from Shanghai, .two CHEFOO, Oct. 5, 1888. from Hang Chow, two from Suchow, one The Synod of China connected with the from Nankin, two from Chefoo, two from American Presbyterian Church, North, Weihien,~two rom Chi-nan-fn, one from Pewhich convenes once in five years, held its king and three from Teng-CllOwfu. One of last meeting in Ling-Chow-Fu. in the Pro- the representatives from Canton was' our vince of Shantung, on the 13thofSeptember_ veteran missionary, Dr. Happer. Though It was composed of twenty foreign mission- forty-five years have passed since he first aries, eight Cbinese pastors, and twelv~ came to China, there IS very little a.ba.te- * Over 2,000 Zenanas under visitation, and ::,187 pupils regularly ta.ught. ment of his physical and mental vigor, and ganizations in the West have now their recetltainly none in his missionary enthusiasm presentatives in China, viz.: American and zeal. Presbyterians, North and Sonth; Dutch Reformed, English Presbyt.erians, Scotch All the delegates, except those who reside Presbyterians, Irish PreslJ) terians, United in the interior of Shantung, came to Chefoo Presbyterians, and Canadian Presbyterians. by steamer, and completed the journey to A committee was ·appointed to open a cor- Teng-Chow, distant about fifty-five miles, respondence with these Presbyterian bodies, in mule-litters, or on mules and donkeys. inviting them to meet us by their represent- The road lies over a rough and compara- atives at the next General Missionary Contively barren and sparsely populated coun- ference, to be held in Shanghai, in 1890, to try, presenting, however, many picturesque devise a plan of uaion. It is hoped that it views of hill and valley, while much of the will not be many years before the moveway the Pechili Bay is in full view on the ment towards organic union will overleap north. Our guests from the south of China Western denominational bounds, and incorwill have many interesting experiences to pOl'ate different families of churches mto remember connected with our rough, and one Chinese National Church. to them novel, modes of locomotion. Now the mule-patH winds round the edge of a The longest and most spirited discussion steep gorge or precipice, again we ford a during Synod, related to the use of other st,ream or fiounder through a pool of mud than grape wine in the administration of the and water. The mules and donkeys meeting Lord's Supper. In China, the manufacture on the road make the hills resound with of grape wine is unknown. There is, howtheir vociferous salutations, and sometimes, ever, a fermented wine produced from gluwhen sportive or intractable, overturn the tinous rice and millet in common useamon<:, litter, and leave the passenger to extricate the people, and believed by some of us to himself from his portable mat-shelter, and correspond in almost every respect, except the muleteers to catch the refractory ani- its origin, to grape wine in the West, and to mals, repair damages, and make a new start. be equally appropriate as a symbol. This Wheu Dr. McCarter came to this region, wine has been generally used in Shantung, about twenty-five years ago, he very aptly especially in stations in the interior. It was characterized the motions of these mule- objected to enjoining the use of grape wine litters as a constant alternation between in all cases, that such a course would be unthe motions of the" sieve" and the "pepper- necessary and burdensome; that the nse of box." Dr. Gulick, who visited us later, very grape wine is not essential to the validity of discriminatingly added the" bottle-washing the ordinance, and insisting on it would be motion." The U SIeve motion" is the result contrary not only to the intent of the ordiof the animals keeping step; that of the nance, but also to the general spirit of "pepper-box" of their breaking step; while Ohristianity; that the introduction of this the U bottle-washing motion" comes from· new wine in China would excite curio.ity the mules jumping down the rocky inequali- and a superstitious reverence for outward ties of the road, From these happy simili- and uuessential formR; and that it wonld tudes the experience of a traveler during make the Ohurch the instrument of introa journey of a day and a half, including a ducing a new beverage into Ohina, and innight in a Chinese inn, can be imagined. crease drunkenness with all its attendant evils. Differences of language form a serious difficulty in transacting business in this A resolution expressing the o;>inion of the Synod. The records of the Synod are kept Synod tha.t grape wine should be used whenin the universal written language of China. ever it could be obtained was passed by a Members speak in English and Mandarin, majority of 21 to 17. Another resolution which is the spoken language of North enjoining the exclusive nse of grape wine China. The native members from Central was negat,ived by a large majority. The China have learned to speak Mandarin, so minority entered a complaint against this that they are fairly well understood. As a. last action of Synod, and the matter will thus rule speeches are formally translated from be brought before the next General Assem- English into ~landarin, andvice-versa. Busi- bly. ness is conducted in a very orderly manner, the native members being now almost as Some of the statistics of the Synod of familiar with rules of order as the foreigners Ohina are as follows: Initiatory steps were taken toward securing the organic union of the dlfferent Pres- Number of Churches……………….. 42 byterian bodies in China. This movement .. .. Church Members added which nas been a matter of great interest to many missionaries in China for years past, since last Synod …………………. 1,981 has been much stimulated and facilitated Number of Church Members Expelled.. 560 by the action of the recent Pan-Presbyterian .. " H " Died. . . . . . . 292 Alliance. Seven distinct Presb;yt~ri1<n 01'- Total Number of Male Church Members 1,837 U Female" .~ 1,325 " ..
" ., Foreign Ministers….. 38 .. Native .. .., . . 23 .. Preachers of all Grades 85 .. Preaching Stations••• 179 Brazil. diminished. The so·called enthusiasm over the abolition of slavery in Brazil was largely dne to PERNAMBUCO, September 24, 1888. the popularity of the movement. Althougb but HOWEVER high may be th estandard of morals One case has com~ to my knowledge, I am so of the Romish Church, her practices have so well acquainted with the Brazilian character nullified her precepts that in Brazil morality that I do not hesitate to say that many people seems to form no part of religion. Morality who were not in sympathy witll the work of the separate from religion is .a frail bark on the abolitionists, and who will evade the law as 10lllt swiftly fiowing current ofsin, and religiou with. as they can, contributod to defray the expenses out morality is a vehicle for hypocrisy to ride of the public demollstmtiOllS, and decorated and in. An indication of how little moral infiuence illuminated their own houses becanse abolition is exerted by Romanism may be taken from the was popnlar and they had ltot the courage to fact that in this city of Pernambuco, the popu. appear on tbe othor side. If they shonld bEt lation of disreputable characters Is thickest called upon to justify tbeir action, they wonld right around the principal churches, where they make patriotism their shield. 'l'he Brazilian is attend mass for the purpose of display and con- very jealous of the honor of his country, and in quest as they would a theater. the abolition of slavery the thOugbt of the re- From this separation of religion and morals moval of Brazil's reproach of being the only civarises one of the chief difficulties for the gospel ilized country maintaining slavery seemR to give to overcome. Romanism answers the purposes more satisfaction than that of the right and of those who desire to be religious without in- jnstice done, or that of the oppression removed terfering with their morals; and those who dis- from so many Imman beings. This same national regard religion are not snsceptible to appeals for pride has been of great service in suppressing 190rality through religion. Hence it is that persecution whenever it has arisen against us while tbere are many people wbo have practi- missionaries. The tOlle of inflnential people who cally renounced Romanism because of its being endeavor to pl'Otect ns is: "Are we not a civil· found wanting and not because of something ized people, and sball we permit indignities such better having been presented to them, it is hard as only could be expected of barbarians? " now to make them desire religion of any kind; and since they will not see it, we mnst deVise It is somewhat of a trial for us who, methods to more fully carry ont Christ's word, through experience, have learned wba~ it " Go." We hold our services in private houses, is to be a Christian, not to be able to use the halls and small churcbes. Occasionally a passer- word" Christian" as we understand it; but by is attracted by the singing and enters shyly. in this land, the simple question" Are you He hears the Word of God read or proclaimed. a Christian? "would invariably be answered Perchance his heart is prepared by grace to re- in the affirmative. Christening is what ceive the word, and he at length becomes a makes a Christian; so we have to resort to member of tbe church. But oh ! the many who other phraseology in speaking of 01le'8 renever come to hear of Jesns. We go in private lation to Christ. Amollg the followers of to this one and that; but the masses are not Christ, the word" believer" takes the place reached. Street preaching is prohibited bylaw. of the word H Christian.n In differ~nt parts The colporteurs of varions Bible societies have of Brazil the names given to Protestants by planted the Word in many parts of the country; tbe popnlace vary according to circum-· but, except ill the principal cities, no misSionary stances attending the introduction of the Apollos has entered. work. In Rio de Janeiro, the first place in While the Romish Chnrch fails to exert a moral which the gospel was preached, they are infiuence, it has made its impress on the so~ial called "bibles," due probably to the st"ess life and cbaracter of the people. The deception laid on the use of the Bible alld the estimaengendered shows itself not only on lying lips, tion with which it was held by the first bebut in the disposition of tbe people to appear lievers_ Before the good news would be acwhat they are not. The maintenance of a good cepted, the genuineness of the evidence had reputation is of more importance than that of a to be established. In another part, the good character, and to a wonderful degree the Protestallts are called "Jesus," for that Brazilian is bound to that which is conventional name, of course, was above every name in and popular. Many people there are who regard the preaching_ In the province of Ceara, the Ro!nish Church and the various social cns- where the first missionary was a married toms out~·! J. in;; therefrom as folly and super- man, every believer, whether man or wostiiion, an" ret, rather than be thought pecnliar, man, married or single, is called a U marthey conform thereto. Others there are who are ried priest." Here in Pernambuco We arc impressed with the truth of evangelical teach- called H new sect." ings and practices who are kept by tbis false pride from frequenting our meetings, insignifi- There are. several things that lead me to cant in aspect and attended mostly by people of advocate" self-support" as the most feasilowly station. Let our cause once become popnlar in Brazil, and missionary reports will con- ble ba.si~ for missionary work in Brazil. tain large figures, but the proportion of genuine Christian character among our members will be First, it is possible. I consider that theobh- gation to support me rests 110 more upon the whole church than upon the individual members of it. of which I am one, and therefore, it being possible for me to support my- the missionary is not self.supporting, any self and serve my Master a& missionary, I am compelled to do it. To live 'on the char- convert who shows any capability for pubityof others when God puts it within my lic work expects, if he engages in it, to ~ive power to provide for myself would be incon- up his present occupation and receive a sistent and insincere. In so saying" I am salary from the missionary society. not accusing anyone who does not support himself. The question turns upon the p08si- A self-supporting mi.sionary in Brazil is bilityof supporting one's self and fulfilling bound to have the respect of the general pubone's obligations as missionary at the same time. It has been said that if a missionary lic when it would not be given to another. for has to,take time to earn his own living he two reasons; first, because his occupation cannot do as much missionary work as if he were free from all care as to his income. I brings him into constant contact with the people, will not dispute that point in this paper; and lack of respect for a missionary is in most but it must be granted that whatever mis- cases due to lack of acquaintance with him; sionary work is done by a self-supporting missionary in a foreign field is just so mnch and second, because the Brazilian looks with more than wonld be done if he stayed at snspicion upon anything that may be propaganhome for the wa.nt of a salary. Let the dism for tbe sake of the money there is in it. churches in the home lands support as many missionaries as they can-as many as need Their own experience with priestcraft and the to be supported-and let as many go forth Jesuits has made it so. Only recently a gentleas are willing to support themselves, and man who comes to our meetiugs told me that yet the laborers wiII be inadequate to the work to be done. Do some of you say you the vicar of a certain important parish in this don't see how any missionary can support city had told him that he is a priest because his himself; that yon are overworked as it is, and to attempt to earn your own living be- father had educated him for one, and although sides would be death to yon? Let me say that earning one's own living is a check he does not believe in half that Romanism against breaking down. With nothing to teaches, he remains a priest because it is his restrain you, and surrounded by so much that appeals to your sympathies, and work occupation. Is it at all unreasonable that a pouring in upon you which you did not seek, Protestant missionary, against whom Romanists how can you refuse even thongh you know that you ought to rest? Self-support puts are already prejudiced, and who lives in better you under obligations that compel you to style than their own priests, should be suspected refuse, and so takes your mind from the very work: that wears you out as to be more of being what he is for the sake of what he is beneficial than idle rest. paid? ', Moreover, there are other things to be taught'the people besides what is done un- Up to the present, the best resource for selfder the head of regular 'missionary work. Lessons of thrift aud industry are best com- support in Brazil s~ems to be that which arises prehended if exemplified by the mission- from the demand for private tutorage in varions aries themselves. With au appearance of good living: without any ell'ort on your part branches of learning, and particularly in the to obtain it, what idea can you give them of industry? You may tell them of how English language. There are always to be many hours a day you devote to study in found people of too liberal ideas to be governed order to labor ell'ectively among them; but what idea have the majority of our converts in matters of business and secular education by ';f what intellectual labor is? If they can religious prejndices, while many most unyieldsee what you do to earn your livelihood, they wiII understand better what industry ing Romanists do not hesitate to employ us means, and the ell'ort you put forth in order to live among them to preach Christ will be rather than not receive instruction on a par with a strong proof of how much you love Him that of their neighbors. In choosing this occuand them., In imitation of you, they will coutitiue to support themselves, and labor pation we are not obliged to take upon ourselves for Christ among their own people without any more work than is necessary for our supexpecting any pay therefor. This feature has been noticeable in connection with self- port, or any that interferes with our gospel supporting work in Brazil, while, on the other hand, we have observed that where work. We invite our pupils to our meetings; some of them become regular attendants and a few have been converted. Besides the indirect beneficial results of our contact with the people, there are others that the missionaries of the next generation, and even we in later yelJ.rs, will feel. God ha,tl blessed the missionary work of the past century to a wonderful degree. He has not despised the inexperience and poor methods em- ployed; yet He would have us profit thereby and improve thereon. Let the Pr.otestant churches of Europe and AmericlJ. give their millions of money; but I believe that the acme of missionary times will not be reached till there are millions of person~ going forth from those same churches into all the world, depend- ing only on God's blessing, on the labor of their hands or brain to provide them with means to live and labor among those who are dying for the want of the bread of life. God speed the day. GEORGE B. NIND, Methodist Episcopal Layman. Persia.; Islam in the village of Ula, to begin work there until It could be opened in Haft Dewan. The LETTER from Rev'. John C. Mech- first thing to do was to secure a house In that village. A man who was connected with civil lin: matters was willing to rent us his property, pro- vided we would give him big rent. But before SALMOB, May 16, 1888. the bargain was made the proposed transaction became public, and the man received such II I was one of the 2,000 young people that beatin~-bastinado-that he died from the ef- fects of it. Thus the work was begun in blood, pledged themselves for Missions a year ago. I though the man was not a martyr for our cause, bnt for money. Before long another man vengraduated from Western Seminary, Allegheny, tured to offer his place for rent. He received large money in advance for three years. As Pa., was accepted by the Presbyterian Board soon as this became known it caused an awful stir. He was fined-one-quarter of the money and sent here. bein<: taken from him-and he was also severely beaten. Afraid for his life, he fied to Tillis, Rus- Three of the seven missionaries that arrived sia. Many times his wife came to Dr. Shedd and pleaded with him to take back the money and here in October remained at Salmos-Mr. Mech- give her the paper. But though we had the right to the place, the next qnestion was to get lin and his wife, and Miss Emma Roberts of possession. The people were furious and it did not seem safe to go to our house. We had to Atlanta, Ga. Messrs. McDowell and St. Pierre appeal to the government; finally, our minister at Teheran carried the matter before the Shah, and their wives went on to Oroomioh. and a special order was sent froin the throne to the Governor of this province~ I will tell you how this station was opened, A chain of circumstances showed God's and how God's hand was seen in it. Work has providence and answer to prayer. The present Ameer was then Governor of been done in this Plain for several years by Oroo- Oroomioh, and on the death of the then Ameer, who had been unfriendly, was apmioh helpers. But frequently "they disgraced pointed to fill his place. Jnst as he left for Tabriz, he got the mandate of. the Shah. their profession by quarreling and by lying. He sent for the Governor of Khoy, who was responsible for the troubles having The missionaries felt it necessary to put a mis- gone so far, and degraded him before the people, probably more to revenge himself sionary here who could always aid and control than to punish the Governor, with whom he had a qnarrel. He also gave orders that no the helpers. As to the peoples of Salmos, five one molest us iu Salmos. Posters were put up in DHimon, the central market town, nationalities are represented here. 1. Per- wa.rning all against interfering with us. Here was the chain of providences: The sians-from whom come our rulers and many death of the Ameer, the appointment of a friendly successor, his receiving the decree business men-all, of course, Musselmen, but when he did, and the orders he left in Sal- mos. And this was not all. He r~ported the very friendly. We call On them anc1 they on us. Governor of Khoy to the authorities in Teheran and they summoned him to the Many of this class are reading the Bible. Sheik capital. He knew that if he obeyed, he would be beaten, and deg~aded from his Islam, the religious head of this Plain, is very position. So instead of going, he sent a present of seven hundred Tomans ($1,050), friendly, and a man of such infiuence that the and aU trouble passed over. As soon as Mr. Wright, who was stationed here by the mis- Governor does not meddle with his affairs. sion, could take possession, he made his home in Haft Dewan. Some of the leading Much prejudice has been broken down by the men met him and said that they would op- pose him in every way, would raise money medical treatment of Drs. Holmes and Cochran, and have their own schools, and their child- ren should not come to his. They said: whom they hold in high esteem. 2. Jews. .. Why don't you do as your Master did? If they did not want him in their city, he They are many and very friendly. We will went to another." Mr. Wright answered soon open work among them. They are here, as everywhere, a marked race, and their busi- ness is trading. 3. Nestorians. These people, among whom we have one church, belong to the Oroomioh Plain, and still cling to the Old Church. 4. Monntain Koords. They are 80 near that we may count them as belonging to the Plain. 5. The Armenians. They are the rich- est, and are either farmers or merchants, hav- ing a strong national pride. Their great hope is one day to become a separate power, but Russsia, Turkey and Persia will all resist this.
Snrroundcd by Mohammedanism, and often sorely pressed to become followers of the False Prophet, they never gave up their form of wor- shiplor their belief in Jesus as the Son of God; but they did not hold so strongly to ltJe spirit as to the letter, of the Bible. Formality took the place of heart worship, and the priests cared more for the fieece than for the sheep.
But here they remained, as if to witness for the doctrine of the Trinity; and it seems as if God had left them here, that, revived and qnickened, they might give salvation to all these peoples.
At the annual meeting in the fall of 1884 it was, therefore, resolved to open a station for work among the Armenians. Haft Dewan was chosen because it was one of the most central and in- flnential Armenian villages of the Plain.
Dr. J. H. Shedd, of Oroomioh, came that fall to Salmos, and rented a house from Sheik that he loved their souls too mueh to leave alHicted are drawn to the gospel wi~ them; he would stay. A year passed by greater interest. Since reaching the coun. and all parties became and have continued try it has been my privilege to preach two very friendly. or three times weekly. In Tarsus from 200 to 400, and in Adana from 1,200 to 1,500 per- The hostility to our mission may be easily sons were gathered each Sabbath; prayer_ accounted for. Twenty minutes ride from meetings are largely attended, and the Haft Dewan is the village of Khosroo-Shah, Sabbath-school lesson has to be given from where for nearly fifty years the Catholic the pulpit, there not being room to arrange Lazarists have had a mission. When they classes for such large numbers. came there the town was one of the richest on the Plain, partly Armenian and partly The Kenerous contributions of Christian Nestorian. To-day it is one of the worst; friends in America for the famine sufferers its lewd women and drunken men give it have proved a means of grace among everywhere a bad odor. Tke Catholics have the people. A few Sabbaths ago we had taught them to gamble and encouraged' communion in Adana, at which 54 perstrong drink by their own example. For sons united with the church on profession the first time in twenty years a man has of faith. In Tarsus the work has not been been seen in Persia dead-drunk by the road- so prosperou~ owing to the lack of a regular side. For many years these monks meddled pastor and an unsuitable place of worship. with civil affairs, securing justice only for Yet there are many to be gathered into the those that favored tbem and pnnishing churches. whom they would. They also farmed the taxes and became so obnoxious that the Gov- Another promising feature is the educaernment gave strict orders that they should tional interest among the youth. Besides let civil matters alone. They are now under the contributions for the famine sufferers, the ban. Dreadful lies had been circulated which were $2,445 last year, there was given concerning us, and these poor people of $2,400 for the scholarship fund for the poor Haft Dewan expected the worst from us. and orphan children of St. Paul's Institute. But as time showed that we did not meddle From this last amount $425 was seut with with their affairs, they became friendly and the famine money for immediate use in now wonld not wish us to leave. Though helping our poor children. On our arrival' none have come out on the Lord's side, we were surprised to learn that 75 children many seem glad to hear the Word. The had been assisted. Calling at their schools woman whose husband rented to the mis- we saw dozens of pale, sickly-looking, yet sionaries at first stole everything she could bright children, sitting on the hard fioor, get, but this sbe has ceased to do, and has their clothing patched with pieces of many been known to speak good words for Mr. colors, and worn daily for more than a year Wright. She seems in fact to be a Christ- (they stay in the house while their ollly garian. ments were washed and dried). Some had only worn-out books, which they· shared The work has thus begun; .the Bible is with others. Asking the teacher, ' Is this read and studied, and the fields are ripen- the condition of the children all the year?" ing to the harvest. Next winter I hope to the reply was: .. They are now in a better work on the Plain among the Armenians, state, as the famine is passing. Many conmany of whose villages have not been vis- tinue the school with insulHcient clothing, ited. barefooted and often hungry for days." Many lived on two or three metallics (cents) Asia Minor. daily. .. Often hungry, yet industrious; shivering with cold, burning with heat, still ST. PAUL'S INSTITUTE, TARSUS, Ang. I, 1888. most eager to make progress." Beyond the EDITORS OF lI1lSSIONARY REVIEW.-YOU will pale faces and frail bodies we saw active be glad to know of the safe arrival of our minds and souls to be loved and won for party, our expenses being paid by Col. Christ. They are entirely dependent on Elliott F. Shepard. Arriving at Mersine, benevolent friends for futher education- •Tarsus and Adaua, we were most cordially if they are properly cared for and educated, welcomed by the missionaries and hundreds what a greatblessing they will prove to this of the native friends. These three cities needy and darkened lalld J now being connected by rail are almost as one city, having a population of nearly It was God's own time for us to come while 100,000, consisting of Mohammedans, Arme- the people are so needy and eager to receive nians, Greeks and Fellaheens. The first the gospel. Our mission is to teach and thing we noticed was the exceeding poverty preach the truth. The kind interest of the of the people, owing to the recent severe missionaries and people here encourages us famine. This year's harvest is good, still in our work. Tarsus will be our head- there are thousands of sick, aged, feeble quarters, where our school will be located, women and little children who are unable yet we will worK in other cities and villages to work for their support, whose suffering throughout Asia Minor, is beyond description. The people thUS We expect to.open our school in a rented her husband was on a journey far from hOIDe. house, October 1. There are many appli- He heard a rumor of what was going on, and cations for admission, most of whom are started in a hurry for home, telling his friends orphans and poor children. The sum of $50 that if his wife had taken up with these fanatics will support a child for one year in the he and she would soon separate. Within two school. days he and his wife were found with hands joined praising and blessing God for His good- For the success of our mission we depend, ness In giving them such a blessed outpouring with God's blessing, upou the direction of of His Holy Spirit. our Board of Trustees and Managers and the benevolent support of Christian friends. Whilst the Boers were praisio!( God for His I hope you will always be interested in this goodness, it came into the hearts of some that work, and help it any way you can. It is they had a duty toward the heathen, whom they the Master's work, to whom be all the glory. had hitherto looked upon as little better tban animals, to serve them, the snperior race. In I shall be glad to correspond with -and their gatherings for prayer they brought the hear from you at any time. condition of the heathen before their heavenly Father, and SOOn they felt that they must be up Yours in Christ. and dOing. Applications for help were made to (Rev.) H. S. JENANYAN. various missiOnaries, especially to those of the, Free Church of Scotland. These appeals were Mission Work Among the Zulus in gladly responded to, and before long 'they had NataJ, Africa. several native evangelists preaching the gospel throughout the country. There are now fifteen BY REV• .TAMES SCOTT, IMPOLWENI. stations or preaching places where the heathen are gathered together to hear of Jesus and His A VERY nnexpected and interesting work has love. These stations are just the Boers' farmbeen begun amongst the Zulns in Natal. The houses. On the Sabbath the Zulus may be seen European population of the county of Umvoti, gathering in from the neighboring kraals and of which Greytown is the principal place, are villages, old and young, men and women, a few Boers, who belong to the Dntch Reformed clothed, but mostly heatheu in their blankets, or Church (Presbyterian). Their minister, the even without one. The largest shed available, Itev. James Turnbull, was a licentiate of the generally the wagon-house, has been prepared Free Church of Scotland, educated at the New for the occasion, and there the missionary or College, Edinburgh. native evangelist, or, in absence of either, the Dutch farmer, conducts a simple service in the Mr. Turnbull's congregation, like their coun- Zulu language. The writer has on some of these trymen throughont Sonth Africa, read their occasions seen as many as eighty Boers and Bibles, attended ordinances, and were ont- three or four hundred Zulus gathered together wardly good Christian people. Their Christi- to worship the one true God, the services comanity, however (except in some special cases), mencing on Saturday and being continued till did not extend so far as to caring for the salva- Monday afternOon. There was often a dearth tion of the heathen perishing around them. of preachers, but gradually this difficulty is van- Being nnder British rnle, they showed no open ishing. Most of the Dutch farmers know the hostility to mission work; probably, however, Zulu language, and are well acquainted with the same spirit was in them -as in their country- the Word of God; and though at first diffident men who burned down Livingstone's station, of their own powers, they were persuaded to who destroyed the stations of the French mis- hegin by reading a few verses of Scripture and sions in Basutoland, and who hindered the ad- offering up prayer. Now they are conducting vance of rmissions whenever they had the services more and more freely, and thus are bepower. coming bound together, black and white, in one common love to the Lord Jesns Christ. Very Three years ago God's Spirit worked in a soon God gave the blessing to this wonderfnl marvelous way amongst these people. The work. Not many months after the first attempts commencement of this outpouring of the Holy were made, over One ,hundred gave in their Ghost has been attributed to different human names as candidates for baptism, These have agencies; the Boers themselves say the chief now been formed into a native church in conagent was the reading and meditating upon nection with the Dutch Church of Greytown ; God's holy Word. many more have professed faith in Christ, and are now under instruction and being gathered in After varied experiences, one and another from time to time. Tbe work is carried on amongst them began to feel that they were new under the direction of a committee of Dutch creatures in Christ Jesus; although they had f:irmers, who, besides being themselves heartily been members and office-bearers of the Church, engaged in the work, employ three native evanyet they now for the first time felt Christ a)iv- gelists. ing power within them. No SOOner did one speak to his neighbor of the change which had Amongst thElse evangelists is one man, Petros come upon him or her than the reply came: Skosan, whOse case is a striking fulflllment of J.' Such also is my experience" ; and soon whole families were rejoicing together and praying for theil' neighbors and kinsfolk.
One case worthy of mention is that of a WOIDan who was brongbt into the light while the prophecy of Isaiah xi. This man's father government, foster a universally spread was one of the regiment of Zulu warriors who, sense of distrust and insecurity; Everyone sees a foe in his neighbor and a snare in iu 1836, at asignal from that cruel tyrant, Din- friendship. Thelife of the chiefs, great and small, is one of extortion, sensuality and gaan, fell upon and in cold blood murdered, in intrigues. Revolutions, like fever, are en- Dingaan's own palace, the Dutch leader, Retief, demic. and all his party of about seventy men. The son is now an evangelist, supported by the de- Some time ago, in London, the cloak of scendants of these same Dutch Boers to preach respectability was torn asunder, and the the gospel of peace to his heathen fellow-coun- world shuddered. Here there is no cloak trymen. The father, who still lives, is also a of respectability, no law, no public opinion member of the Church of Christ. to fear. Passions are let loose without any restraint, and the grossest bestiality goes GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. about in broad daylight, barefaced and shameless. There is no innocent childhood Central A.frica.-Themail from Europe and or family ties. National brigandage and news from our nearest neighbors, 900 miles slavery have borne their fruits, and brutalolf, reach us only once a year by occasional ized man.–The Christian (London). traders or travelers. The rest of the year We are entirely cut off from the outer world. North Africa.-Within four days' journey of I send these lines by a caravan of Portu- Britain one may land on African soil and find a guese traders returniug to Benguela. We large field-almost untouched-for Christian hope that in time communications may be labor among the natives of Algeria, the Kaopened with the West Coast through our byles. Visiting recently among these people, American brethren of the Biha. The be- and making known to them for the first time ginnings of a mission like this, far away the glad tidings of salvation, I was much struck from the great arteries of trade and immi- with the atteution given to the message. Doubtgration are expect.ed to be bard. Pioneers less the novelty of an Englishman speaking to ought to bE' giants in faith and courage. them in their own unwritten langnage and deliv- ering snch a message as a free salvation with,ont The climate is most trying to Europeans, works was sullicient of itself to caI1 forth snch and bardly less so to tbe natives. The land attention. Seated one evening in a Kabyle devoureth its own inhabitants. Independ- house I was greatly delighted with the readiness ently of that, there is much worry in set- to listen to the gospel. The wonderful story of tling in a place so difficult of access, and in the resurrection of Lazarus was being read laboring to make a wild sand-hill overlook- when my host announced that supper was ready ing marshes habitable•.Materiallife is very and when I liked I conld have it bronght up. difficult. It is a constant struggle and trial Having expressed a desire to finish the narraof faith, a daily lesson of trust and un- tive the little company of Mohammedans conreserved confidence in the loving-kindness tinned to give the ntmost attention to the words and faithfulness of -our heavenly Father. read and spoken. Snpper ended, the conversa- Far from complaining of hardships and pri- tion was renewed. One of onr company, an vations, I must say that, on the whole, they honorable Marabont or religions Mohammedan, are less th!l.n we had anticipated. who, becanse of ha'i'ing made a pilgrimage to Mecca, was called Elhadj, entertained us while Those who read our monthly, Journal des he read from an Arabian tract. The man Missions Evangelig:ues, know that when we showed us with evident pride a book in Arabic crossed the Zambesi we penetrated into one (I presume a portion of Scripture) gh'en bim of the Prince of Darkness's strongholds. two years ago in Algiers by a Christian English During '30 years of mission life I have lady who was distribnting tracts among the found nowhere the ideal heathen, so good, people. Frequently dnring that evening's con· so meek, so yearning after the things of versation my statements were met by the words, God, which some preachers at home rel'lre- "You are right," "Trnly." That night I had sent the African savages to be. But no- two sharing the sl~eping apartment with me. where have I met with a tribe so hopelessly Having seen me bow the knee in prayer, one of degraded. The Barots6 themselves say that them asked me afterwards U I had been pray· theirs is a land of murder, that no one is ing. Replying that I had. he added, "May God allowed to grow old: their soil is saturated answer yonr prayer I" How one is saddened with blood; human bones bleach every- in observing these people praying, as they proswhere in the sun. The spear, a terrible trate themselves toward the east! How the piaything in the hands of these Zambesians, longing comes up to see them worship God in does not ever get rusty. Superstition and spirit and in truth I Who will offer himself to witchcraft spread their wings of darkness help make known the gospel among them? and death over every village, hamlet, hut Those of us who are in the field wonld do more and individual. We live in the middle age", if our hands were s!rengthened by brethren at but the middle ages in savagedom. The in- home. Sometimes too much is expected of missatiable l:Teediness of these poor people, sionaries in forei&n cl/untries, where, with 11Imitheir inveterate habit of stealing and lying, the total absence of anything like justice, the utter powerlessness of the so-called lies to be looked after and no domestic help olany growth of grass covered the formerly weUreal value, and often without means to tlnd even trimmed paths. proper help, the missionary has much secillar .. As we approach the skirt of the groves we labor to perform which necesarily reduces his are strnck by the dead silence which reigns. No laughter is to be heard, no sign of a welcome tilne and strength for his proper work. Like from our old friends. The silence of death breathes over the lofty crowns of the palms, the China inland missionaries we are without slowly waving in the wind. We enter, and it gnarantee of salary. Moreover, no fixed sum is in vain we look to the right and left for the can We look for regularly. The society sends to happy homesteads and the happy old· scenes. its missionaries that which is entrusted to it, Tall grass covers everything, and a charred pole but it leaves the missionaries free to receive here and there, a few banana trees are the oilly from any source through which God may be evidences that man once dwelt here. Bleached pleased to send to the help of His servants. sknlls by the roadside, and the skeletons of Want of means often puts a drag on the chariot human hands attached to poles tell the storr, of wheels, and causes the worker not a little anxi- what has happened here since our last visit. ' ety as he finds the will present to perform more, but the wherewithal to perform lacking. May It appeare<i that the notorions Tippoo Tib had the Lord of the harvest enable all who pray that been there to " trade," and in the coorse of that laborers be thrust forth to help also in the send- process had killed all who offered resistance, ing of them on their way.-Aifred S. Lamb. carried off the women, and devastated the flelds, gardens and banana groves. Bands of destroyers -Mohammedanism and;Missions. An inter- from the same gang bad returned again and again, esting article on the influence of Arab traders and those who escaped the sword perished by the in West Central Africa, contributed by Lieuten- small-pox and famine, which the marauders left ant Wissmann to the current issue of the" Pro- in their train. The whole tribe of the Bene Ki ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," ceased to exist, and only a few remnants found throws light on the qnestion of Mohammedan- refuge in a neighboring state. ism and missions, raised by Canon Taylor at the last Church Congress. The writer's experience Snch must be counted amongst the'resillts of of Mohammedan influences upon the native Arab "trading" in Africa, and if it is at such popUlations is in direct contrast with the asser- cost that the bleSSings of Mohammedan civllzation that the creed of Islam is that best suited tion are purchased by the native races, it is no to their need.. He gives a graphic account of wonder that they are not considered a desirable two visits to Bagna Pesihi, and certaiu villages acquisition. Even if it be true that Christianity of the Bene Ri, a division of the Basonge, in is sometimes tardy of operation in its beneficent Central Africa, before and after tbe arriv/!l of effect upon the blacks, Christian missionaries a gang of Arab traders on the scene. and Christian traders can at least boast that they have never wittingly acted otherwise than On the first occasion, in 1882, he was welcomed beneficently towards them. In their case the by a prosperous and contented tribe, whose perpetration of such atrocities would be imposcondition and occupations bore ample evidence sible. With the followers of the False Prophet it to the existence of its villages for decades In is different. Their religion is merely a superstipeace and security, free from the disturbing tion, adapted to the needs of aggressive and elements of war and slave·hunts, pestilence and militant tribes, and does not profess to inculcate superstition. The huts of the natives were tenderness or humanity, mnch less the loftier roomy and clean, fitted with shady porches, and teachings ofthe:gospel of Christ. surrounded lly carefully kept fields and gardens, in which were grown all manner of nsefnl England.-" The Christian Union plants and fruits, including hemp, sugar, to- for the Severance of the Connection of bacco, sweet potatoes, maize, manioc and mil- the British Empire with the Opium let. A thicket of bananas and plantains occupied the back of each homestead, aud shady Traffic," with Sir S. A. Blackwood palm groves supplied their owners with nuts, oil, fibers and wine. Goats, sheep and fOWls as its President and Dr. Maxwell abounded, and no one seemed afraid of thieves. Honorary Secretary, gives the fol- The people all had a well-fed air, and were anxious to trade, their supplies being plentiful lowing reasons for its formation: and ell'tremely cheap. A fowl could be pur- Became as a nation we are responsible cbased for a large cowrie shell, and a goat for a yard of calico. Everywhere the visitors found through our Indian Government for a trade a cheerful, courteous and contented population, which is ruining the oodies and souls. and uncontaminated by the vices of civilization, and destroying the homes of multitudes of the yet not wholly ignorant of its arts. Chinese.
Four years later Lieutenant Wissmann Became our national connection with this chance(l to be in the same district. and after the evil traffic is peculiarly close and revolting. privations of a toilsome march through dense, The poppy is grown in Bengal alone over an inhospitable forests, rejoiced as. he drew near to . extent of more than 500.000 acres, and this the palm groves of the Bal:D& Pesihi. A dense growth is carefully fostered by the Indian Government. The OpiUIU drug is ma.nufac- tured under c.onstant Government direction and supervision. It is sold at auction by the Government, expressly and intentibn- ally for the Chinese market. Including that from the native states, about 85,000 of the vilest offenders in .. the trade," some chests, containing over 5,000 tons of opium, holding positions as office-bearers, others', are thus exported annually from India to through taeir liberality and pecuniary aid China, and a revenue of five, six, or seven to missionary and charitable institutions, millions sterling is derived by Government enjoying contentedly the admiration of from it. It is a great Government institu- their fellow-worshipers as great Ohristian tion, for which England is directly and pe- philanthropists. It is a sin and dis,,"Tace culiarly responsible. tb.a.t the representation of a Christian to a heathen mind should be the rapacious Because through many, many years this cupidity of merchants whose merchandise traffic nas been carried on in spite of the is making the unhappy peoples they trade remonstrances of the Chinese Government, amongst .. twofold more the children of hell and of the thousandfold testimony that it than themselves." It is impossible that the ministered only to debauchery, and to moral Church's foreign missionary effort can sucand social ruin. The Convention of 1885, ceed as long as she goes with a soul-saving though it has given to the Chinese the right gospel in the one hand and a soul-damnIng to put a heavier tax upon imported opium, trade in the other. May God give her minishas not altered in the slightest degree our ters grace to declare His whole mind and own relations as a country to the gross im- will in the matter, and enable her to wash morality of the trade. her hands and garments clean from all complicity therein. If her efforts in the Because while, for very shame's sake. we ensuing struggle are not to prove futile, in have done a little (only a little) to restrain deep contritioll her first step must be that the bavoc which opium was working among of self-judgment and purification. Judgour Burmese Ifellow-subjects. we have done ment must begin at the house of God. As nothi"g to check the ruin which it is work- co-workers with God all His true followers ing in Ohina among a people in friendly alli- are under a threefold obligatIon to do their ance with us. utmost. We owe this for the sake of our Lord and Master, who has commanded His Because eVJlry thoughtful and educated gospel to be preached in every part of the Ohinaman, heathen though he be, cannot world; for the sake of our missionary brethhelp denouncing the immorality and un- ren, in removing the stumbling-blocks we righteousness of the nation which has de- have placed in the way of their work; and liberately sown among his people a seed of for the sake of the poor heathen whom we ever-extending vice and degradation. have enthralled body and soul.-Christian Leader. Because in the largest mission field of the world, according to the unanimous testi- India.-We have received the report of mony of missionaries in China, our relations the Travancore District Committee of the as a country to the opium traffic form one London Missionary Society. It is a closely of the chiefest hindrances to the spread of packed little volume, and its perusal leaves the gospel. a vivid impression of unusual activity and ingenuity in all :departments. Read- Because national judgment must surely ing-rooms have always played an important follow upon national sin, and it faUs upon part in Travancore. The room at Nager- British Ohristians especially, not only to coil has now been the scene of special gathacknowledge this sin, but to lead the com- erings on Sunday afternoons for many munity in protesting against it, and in con.. months. At these meetings the people have tinuous efforts to effect its removal. produced the publications of the Hindu Tract Society, and have put forward their -The Foreign Liquor Traffic. Weare glad best men to argue the case against Ohristto hear tbat the Foreign Missionary Society ianity, while the Christians have replied of the Glasgow Y. M. O. A. are making in- forcibly and clearly. This is excellent vestigations into this subject with a view work, stirring up in the people a great exto the taking of some definite action. Brit- citement, and making them feel that Hinain has a terrible account to settle with the duism must fight if it is to continue to live. Almighty in this matter. The blold of thou- The medical mission has proved itself of sanas of natives in India and Africa is to- great value. There is a medical native day ('rying out to Heaven against her. agency, carefully trained, and doing most These dark races implore our aid in turning valuable work in the branch dispensaries, the tide of a traffic which threatens them and it is proposed to enlarge this departwith rapid ruination; but Ohurch and State ment by training a large number of young alike seem to turn a deaf ear to every ap- Christians as dressers. Classes have been peal. Why is the voice of our churches held in which domestic medicine has been silent? Oan it be that the terrible extent carefully taught to catechists who have to of the trade is not fully known? or is it that labor in the remoter parts of the districts; the Church shrinks from fear of the revela- a.nd the elements of obstetrics have been tion" which a careful search would entail Y Silence, in view of the facts which many' of her ministers and pastors do know. only increases her blood-g1liltmess. Alre.a.dy it is lmoWll that in her very bosom a.re a number ,ta.ug,ht to Bible,women similarly situated. II. They are to have in 18110 a constitutional A new dispensary has been opeued at Par- government-the first native example of it uttipalIi, and another one is being erected in Asia. at Nagercoil. Toward the latter H. H. the Maharajah of Travancore has con~ribnted 10. They have separated Shintoism and Rs. 800. The evangelistic work of the mis- Buddhism from the Government, and abolsion 'has been encouragingly su~cessful, 411 ished their administrative Bureau of Reliadults from heathenism having'beeu bap- gion. Universal toleration prevails. The tized during the year. During that period ancient faiths are considered barbaric and 593 persons were admitted from the rank of incompatible with the new career of 1;he adherents to that of church members. empire. The Government acknowledges itself to be without a religion, and is consid- Japan•..:….Progress. An interesting ering what form of Western cultus it may best adopt. letter appears in The Ohristian Advocate from Abel stevens, D.D., now 11.' They have legally recognized the in Japan. He groups together an Christian Sabbath, and it is observed as a. extraordinary chapter of events, in- day of rest by all Government offices, the dicating the rapid approach of Japan public schools, banks, etc. toward Christian civilization. -Japanese Views of Christianity. Several The following is a summary of the remarkable changes that have taken eminentpnblicists ofJapan are carrying ona very interesting discnssion just now. The object is place amongst the Japanese: to determine whether or not it is advisable for the people of Japan to embrace the Christian 1. They have abolished their old dual sov- religion. The Japan Weekly Mail, in a recent ereignty, and restored to power their an- issue, summarizes this discussion. It states cient Mikado, the representative of a that those connected with the movement say dynasty more than 2,000 years old. that Christiau dogmas are a bitter pill to swal- low, but advise that it be swall~,wed promptly 2. Theyhave thrown off the strongest sys- for the sake of the after effects. Mr. Fukuzawa, tem of fendalism that history records. a well-known writer, nrges this course, although he says he takes no personal interest whatever 3. They have established a single national in religion, and knows nothing of the teaching of army, a navy, and a general police after the Christianity; but he sees that it is the ereed Western models. All these are clothed in of the most highly civilized nations. Professor European costume and drilled in European Toyama, of the Imperial University, has pubmanner. lished a work to support his view. He holds that Chinese ethics mnst be replaced by Christ· 4. They have organized a remarkable sys- ian ethiCS, and that' the bene1lts to be derived tem of national education, which Gen. Grant from the introduction of Christianity are: (1) pronounced, when here, the hest he had the improvement of music;. (2) union of senti- Seen in his circuit of the globe. It was de- ment and feeling, leading to harmonious co·opvi~ed by an American. It comprises primary eration ; and (3) the fnrnishing of a medium of or common SChools, n..rmaland polytechnic intercourse between men and women. It is academies, and an Imperial university on argued by others that the youth of Japan, being the model ofthe German university. . free from tbe tbraldom of creeds, and free to act according to reason. are so far in advance of 5. They have established a mail system, Europeans, and instead of talking about adoptand have entered into the "Postal Union." ing " foreign religion, Japanese should go After the example of England, their postal abroad and preach their religion of reason to department includes the savings-bank sys- foreign countries. Other writers nrge the same tem, and the deposits (mostly by the poorer views. The writer in the Yokohoma newspaper classes) for last year amounted to $12,500,- says that those wbo urge the teaching of Cbrist- 000, nearly double the amount of the preced. ianity represent an in1lnential section of eduingyear. cated Japanese opinion; they are signs of the times. "To Japan, in an emphatically agnostic 6. They have esta.blished a scientific medi- mood, came Western science, with all its marcal faculty, with native physicians educated velous revelations and attractions. At the in Europe, and all the European improve- shrine of that science she is worshiping now." ments, in place of their old medical jugglery. Jews.-Dr. Dalman's statistics of the work 7. They had Ino knowledge of the public and success in Jewish evangelization must surjournal before the arrival of Perry; they prise all who have not watched the course of now have the public press, including no less events. There are no less than 47 Protestant than 500 per10dicals – dailies, weeklies, missionary societies devoted exclusively to this monthlies; political,literary, scientific. arduous vocation. These employ 377 mission- aries, laboring at 157 centers of Jewish pop- 8. They have introduced the steamboat, ulation, and have an annual income of about the telegraph, the telephone, etc., now made by native hands. Native companies navi· gate the rivers and neighboring seas with excellent steamers, quite satisfactory to foreign travelers. half a million dollars. In addition .to these very patent fact in n very plain phrase. The Proother missionary societies engage in this special testant Church has not only skeptiCism and inwork, as a branch of their general work. Eng- differentism, but also Vaticanism, to deal with, land has eight of these 47 societies, sends out and a fresh illustration of the nalTO w. persecnthlg' about two-thirds of the 377 men, and supplies and intolerant spirit ofthe Roman ChIll cli is seen about two-thirds of the money. Scotland has in the trial and imprisonment of Rev. J. M.'Vila, a five societies, Ireland one. Germany twelve, hard-working and successful Protestant pastor Switzerland one, the Netherlands three, France of Malaga, in Spain, A Roman Catholic priest one, the Scandinavian lands five, Russia (i. e. issued a violent pamphlet against him, to which the Protestant churches of,) four, North Mr. Vila replied in another pamphlet. Vila was America seven. The cities in which the larg- arraigned in the courts on charges, the chief of est number of mIssIOnaries are engaged which was that he had said that the" timber of are London, lBudapest, Constantinople, Da- the manger out of which the priest's horse fed mascus, Jerusalem, Tunis. As the total of was the same kind of wood employed by the all the Jews on the face of the globe is artificer to mannfacture an image bf the Virgin abont 6,400,000, there is one missionary of Sorrows, and that one timber had quite as for every 16,976 Jews. In addition to these the much virtue as the other." From an account Roman Catholic and the Greek Churches also just at hand in Light and Truth we learn that engage in this work. Pastor de Ie' Roi,of Bres- the trial took place in the presence of a large lin, also a reliable statistician, claims that at crowd of people. The public prosecutor asked least 100,000 Jews have confessed Christ since the Court to sen~ence the accused to six years' the beginning of the present century. Those imprisonment, a fine of 2,500 pesetas and costs. yet living of these, together with their descend- The counsel for the defense claimed that the ants, probably nnmber 250,000 children of Abra- Bible supported everything found in the pamham who havh entered upon the spiritnalinherit- phlet. ance of their father. When we recall the fact that ten years ago there were in existence only .. Then Se:'ior Vila spoke, and his simple, elo- 20 societies for the evangelization of the Jews, quent address greatly moved the people-many with only 250 laborers and an income less than of whom wept, and said, as they left the hall, half of what it is now, the marked progress in 'We are now Protestauts, also l' He said his this sphere of Christian activity. is peculiarly intention was not to make a personal attack encouraging. on the priest, but to combat the false teachings of the Roman Church. As true followers of -The existing Jewish Congregation at Mos- Christ, they did not hate or attack anyone. The soul (Mesopotamia) boasts of very ancient or;- Roman Church, on the contrary, had always opgin. When Tiglath Pileser, King of Assyria, posed the truth of the gospel; and, without apconquered the northern regions of the kingdom pealing to history or uncovering the ashes of the orIsrael, he carried captive a uumber of the il1- thousands sacrificed by the execrable Inquisihabitants, and settled them in different parts of tion, his presence in the tribunal that day was a his own dominions. At that time a Jewish con- living testimony to Romish persecution. A gregation was established at Nineveh (now large crowd followed Senor Vila from the Mossoul), and it is this congregation which has court, and expressions of lively sympathy rewithstood the vicissitudes of ages. The Jews ~011nded on every side. He teIls us that he was of Mossoul even now consider it as a special full ofjoy that he had been priYile~ed to testify favor of Providence that their ancestors became publicly beCore the tribunal concerning the truth captives before the destruction of the first Tem- of the gospel." ple, so that they were spared the great misfortune which overtook Jerusalem. They glory in "Great attempts were made to influence the the fact that their congregation is older than tribunal, and so powerful are the Roman Caththat of Babylon, and that later on, when the olic clergy in Malaga. that only one paper dared kingdom of Judea came to an end, those of the to refer to the case. At last, on April 3, the inhabitants who made their way to Assyria, magistrates pronounced sentence, and Senor were enabled to enjoy their hospitality, and to Vila was forthwith condemned to two years, receive every possible support from their breth- four months and one day's imprisonment, beren in faith already settled in that country. The sides 250 pesetas fine and payment of costs. Mossoul Jews possess two synagogues, a Beth The Spanish prisons are such abominable dens Hamedrash and a cemetery. The ancient burial of filth and iniquity that this sentence is no gronnel which was first used by the early settlers light matter. Senor Vila lias appealed to the was destroyed at the capture of Nineveh. The Supreme Court at Madrid, the sentence of present-day Jews have adopted the Sephardim which will be final. ritual as their minhag.-Jewish Chronicle. " The trial has been the means of producing a Spain.-Persecution. When (in 1883) the great awakening in :Malaga, and numbers of late ArchbiSHOp of Canterbury said .. power- persons are confessing Christ. It has also led ful influence.. are at work which are entirely many to attend for the first time Senor Vila's antagonistic to Christianity," and that .. the church, and all the services are very crowded- Church of Rome is absolutely powerless to meet even on week-nights persons are turned away. these anti-Christian movemente," he expressed a ill" The same growth is taking place at the mission IitatiftDi ill t.~ i.rreu•• villai'eli. "
INTERNATlVNAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
Mohammedanism in Ohina. Clarke in 1886. (6) A proclamation BY REV. H. V. NOYES, CANTON, CHINA. published in Peking in 1866, by a How was Mohammedanism intro- Mohammedan mandarin, and trans- duced into China? What has been lated by Professor Vassilief, a Rus- its history? What is its present sian learned in Arabic.
status? The evidence is all in favor of be- In this attempt to answer these lieving that Canton City is the place inquiries, information has been de- where Mohammedanism was first rived from the following sources: (a) established in China. 'rhe account Mainly from a work printed in Paris given in the" Annals of Kwantung"
in 1878, and written by P. Darby De seems pretty well corroborated, viz.: Thiersant,Consul General and Charge "At the commencement of the dy- d' Affaires from France to China. nasty of Tang (618 to 908) there He tells us that his book is the result came to Canton a considerable num- of investigations running through bel' of strangers, natives of the king- fifteen years, and that he got much doms of Annam, of Cambodia, of Me- information from Mohammedan dina, and of several other countries.
priests. Doubtless he was able also They worshiped heaven and had no to get much definite knowledge from statue, or idol, or image, in their Roman Catholic priests, who are temples. The kingdom of Medina is scattered so widely through the coun- near to that of India, and is where try. (b) From writers on the subject the religion of these steangers, which in the eighteen volumes of the is very different from that of Bud- "Chinese Repository." (c) From dha, originated. They do not eat Williams' "Middle Kingdom." (d) pork, nor drink wine, and regard as From writers in the Chinese Re- 'impure the flesh of every animal not corder, and the China Review. slain by themselves. HaVing asked It is generally conceded that little and obtained f,'om the emperor an information, as to their origin, can authorization to reside at Canton, be obtained from the Chinese Mo- they built magnificent houses of an hammedans of the present day. architecture different from that of What is known in regard to it, seems the country. They were very rich to have been obtained from: (1) In- and subject to a chief chosen by scriptions on tablets found at the themselves. By reason of their good mosques in or neal' Canton City. (2) fortune, they became so numerous Accounts of India. and China by two and influential that they were able Mohammedan travelers, written, to maltreat the Chinese people with one A.D. 850, and one A.D. 877, in impunity. This was carried to such Arabic, and transla:ted into French a pitch that a mandarin high in by the Abbe Eusebius Renaudot. (3) rank'was impelled to issue a procla- The Chinese annals of Kwangtung mation in the name of the emperor, (Canton province). (4) A Chinese warning these foreigners that if they work" Ui UiYuen Lvi," that IS "Ori- continued to conduct themselves so gin of Mohammedanism," "Ui Ui" badly they would be punished se- being the name given to Mohamme- verely."
dans in China. (5) A Chinese book The tablets at Canton, the Peking found in the province of Yunnan proclamation and the t~o Chinese and translated by Rev. George W. books alrE'ady mentioned all give, in somewhat different forms, the story China. The first Mohammedan temof a bright appearance in the West- ple, built afterwards in the Northern sky, connected with a singular west, at Si Ngan Fu, one of the two dream of the emperor, which the as- capitals of the empire, dates from trologers and soothsayers interpreted A.D. 742, from which we may suppose to mean that a great sage had arisen that Islam did not penetrate by land in the West, who was ruler 01 a pow- into the north of the empire until erfulcountry named Medina, and that that time. In the flourishing period it was very important, in the inter- of Kai Yuen (713-742), relates the Si ests of the empire, that friendly rela- Yu Chen, 'the barbarians of the tions be established with him; that W est arrived en masse in the Middle then the Emperor sent an embassy Kingdom, and, as by an irruption to Mohammed, who appointed three from more than a hundred kingenvoys, of whom only one lived to doms, removerl at least a thousand reach China, by way of Si Ngan Fu, leagues, bearing with them as presand afterwards settled in Canton. ents their sacred books, which were This sounds wonderfully like the received and deposited in the hall for story of the introduction of Bud- translation of sacred books and candhism, and may be taken with at least ons of the imperial palace. Starting one grain of salt. This much, how- from that epoch, the religious docever, appears to be true, that in the trines of different countries of the early part of the Tang dynasty, West spread themselves and were about A. D. 628, a maternal uncle practiced openly in the empire of of liohammed, Wahib Abi Kabcha, Tang.' came to China, was received with much favor by the Empet'or, and " The first real nucleus of Mohamestablished himself in Canton. P. medans of the West implanted in Darby de Thiersant states that" this China was a contingent of 4,000 man obtained an authorization to Arab soldiers, which the Kaliph build a mosque at Canton, and, at Abu Giafer sent, in the year 755, to the same time, the right for his co- succor the Emperor Sou Tsong, menreligionists to profess freely their aced by the rebel An-Io-chan, and worship in the empire." He then who. as a recompense for their sergoes on to say: "Wahib Abi Kabcha, vices, permitted them to establish his mission accomplished, returned themselves in the principal cities of to Arabia in 63-&, hoping to find again the empire. These soldiers, who the Prophet, but on arriving he was married Chinese wives, may be conapprised of his death, which caused sidered the first stock origin of Mohim profound grief. He rested for a hammedan Chinese." time, and when Abu Becker had. formed the Koran from the scat· The above extract contains the tered leaves left by Mohammed, he substance of what is known concerntook the holy book and set out again ing the entrance of Islam into China, for China. He ,suffered much in and the account is corroborated by returning to Canton, where he died, the fact that those who have given worn out by the fatigue of the voy- attention to the matter say that the age. He was interred in one of the Mohammedan Chinese are different suburbs of the city, where his tomb by race from other Chinese; that in remains until this day, an object of them may be clearly recognized a veneration to all believers in the ex- mixture of Arabic, Turkish and treme East. It is to him that lVlus- Chinese blood. sulmansare indebted forthe construction of the most ancient mosque in From this time, A.D. 755, or there- about, until the lattel' part of the ninth century the trade of Canton With Arabs and other people fro~ the West must have been very dians. This is the account given of flourishing. One writer says that them when Yunnan was constituted "under the dynasty of Tang the a province of the empire in 1295. ocean was fatigued with the thou- "They were true savages, without sands of ships sailing from the Orient the least trace of civilization, living to the Occident." In 1068 the em- in a state of nature, ignorant of how peror appointed a foreigner named to cultivate the soil, sustaining them-. Siu Ya To Lo to administer the gov- selves by hunting and fishing, and ernment of merchants from the burning their dead without cere~ W-est. That functionary designated mony." The emperor, Kublai Khan, quarters for the fOl'eignel's, and their appointed one of his ministers, called families continued to be inscribed on Omar by some, by others Sayid Edthe registers of the State. It is prob- jell, or Si Tien Che, to administer the able that harsh measures were after- government of the province. He wards employed against them, for a taught the people agriculture, social number emigrated to Kiungchow, obligations, and the art of writing, on the island of Hainan, whel'e they and by wise institutions succeeded in built foul' mosques which still exist. civilizing th,em. He taught them the On that island also are yet found the religion of Mohammed, and at the descendants of ancient Mohammedan same time the respect which they families. From this time the com- ought to have for Confucius, to merce of Canton with foreigners whom he erected temples, and also diminished continually, and they for built mosques in all the cities. He the most part returned to their na- gathered around him a great numbel' tive land. of Mussulman scholars and others whom he loaded with favors, and In the Yuen dynasty, commencing who established themselves in the 1280, the Arab merchants, profiting country. He governed for six years, by the influence which their co-re- and died much lamented. The people ligionists had at the court of Kublai- built fol' him a magnificent tomb, Khan, renewed on a grand scale their while the emperor erected a temple relations with China. But for thel in his honor. This man was originmost part, instead of returning to ally from Bokhara, but submitting to Canton, they betook themselves to Genghis Khan became a part of his the provinces of Fuhkien, Cheh- guard. He evidently had a large inkiang' and Kiangsu. The port of fluence over the people. Marco Polo Foochow became by this circum- says that from 1280 to 1300 the stance a grand center of commerce. whole population of Yunnan was Mohammedan. We have given a view of the course of events which brought Islam There have been several rebellions. into the provinces that lie along the One, in 1817, induced by the massacre eastern coast of China. It evidently of a number of Mohammedans by came by means of commercial inter- other Chinese, the burning of a course to a great extent, and by way mosque, and the injustice of certain of the sea. mandarins, sustained by the gov- ernor. The insurgents, after having It remains to inquire how it was defeated in several encounters the planted in the remaining provinces. imperial troops, laid siege to the capi- At thE' extreme south of the western tal of the province, where the gov- border is the province of Yunnan, ernor had shut himself up. The em- said to contain three and a half mil- peror sent at once, a large body of lion Mohammedans. In the earlier soldiers who defeated the rebels and centuries this province seems to have obliged them to take refui'e with the been inhabited by wild tribes not less savage than the North American Insavages on the frontiers. The chief all the Mohammedans in China. was made prisoner and cut into frag- And these Mohammedans came by a ments. This Insurrection continued different route from those who enabout a year. tered the eastern provinces. Those came from Arabia, by way of the sea, Another rebellion broke out on the but these from Turkey and Persia, western frontier in 1826 which was through Bokhara, and thence into ended in 1828. Another took place the province of Kansuh. THis provabout 1834, provoked by the manda- ince is therefore considered the cenrins of Chan Ning Fu, who caused tral point of the sect, in the extreme a massacre of Mohammedans at East. And the sect has had its exthe city of Mong Mien, under the istence there mainly since the genpretext that they wished to revolt. eral breaking up that took place More than 1,600 men, women and when that fearful Tartar general, children had their throats cut with- Tamerlane, swept not only through out mercy, and this horrible butchery Central Asia, but over the burning was continued until Mohammedans plains of India, and over the frozen from the neighboring towns ran to steppes of Siberia, passed beyond the their succor, and meted out terrible Caspian Sea, beyond the Black Sea reprisals. The troubles were settled to the banks of the Danube, conby a general whom the Viceroy sent quered Asia Minor and Syria, and for that purpose. even went down into Egypt, and stopped, at last, not because de- By far the most serious rebellion in feated, but only tired of conquest. this province commenced in 1855, and was not ended till 1873. It origi- The first mosque in the northwest nated in a contention about some sil- was built at Si Ngan Fu, in the provver mines, but grew until the whole ince of Shensi, A.D. '742. The Ohinese province was embroiled. Near its Repository mentions an embassy commencement a fearful massacre of sent with valuable presents, by way Mohammedans took place, encour- of Kashgar, as early as 708. From a aged and even ordered by the officers Mohmamedan writer in the same periof government.' This was followed odical we have the following: "In by eighteen years of bloody strife the reign of Wan Tsing, A.D. 842, sevculminating in the surrender of eral myriads from the tribes of the Ta Li Fu by the Mohammedans, Ui Ui (Mohammedans) petitioned to which virtually ended the rebellion. enter China, and the emperor directed After the surrender seventeen Mo- them to be settled in the various dehammedan chiefs were invited to a partments of Shensi, where they banquet, and suddenly, a precOIi- have enjoyed the support of many certed signal being given, were all sovereigns and have furnished a sucbeheaded; those who had favored cession of loyal and upright scholars the surrender as well as those who for the service of the State. These had opposed it. To the lasting dis- have maintained the pure, true faith grace of the Chinese general, within for a thousand years without defecthree days, in the city and surround- tion." The information about Kansuh villages, out of 50,000 inhabitants in these early times is very meager, 30,000 were mercilessly butchered by but we have the following in regard the soldiers acting under the com- to the country lying farther west. mand of their chief. In 713 a Moslem, Couteybe Ibu, con- quered Bokhara, and took Samar- In regard to the rest of China, it is kand. The Chinese eIt!peror was only necessary for our present pur- much alarmed at his conquestH, and pose to consider particularly the treated the ambassadors that he sent provinces of Kansuh and Shensi. They contain nearly three-fourths 'Of with the gl'eatest respect. This there by the rebels or abandoned by event is important, as from it dates the owners, who had been obliged to the establishment of Mohammedan- ism in ~houresm, where later was flee to save their lives, The Chinese founded the kingdom of Ui Ui, or militia of the neighboring districts, Mohammedan Chinese. In 1124 this kingdom gave its subjection to China learning of this, clamored for a part at Samarkand. There is not much more of importance to relate in con- of the booty, which the Mohamme- nection with these provinces, until the present dynasty. It is evident dans stubbornly refused. TheChinese that in the contentions which were did not dare to attack them, but continually occurring between the Chinese and th.e Mohammedan prov- waited an opportunity for revenge. inces on the west and in Central Asia, It came at length from quite a small the Chinese now and then conquered portions of Mohammedan territory, affair. One day a Mohammedan cut and now and then theseoutlyingprov- inces regained their independence; some bamboos from a grove neal' the that Mohammedans were more 01' village where he was. The owner, less employed as allies 01' soldiers in not a Mohammedan, ('harged him the Chinese army, became officials, with cutting them without permis- sometimes 'occupying very high po- sion, and was answered arrogantly. sitions, and that in this general mix- He then complained to the Moham- ing up along the border a large num- medanreligious chief, and not obtain- ber of Mohammedans became per- ing l'edrel>s went to the Chinese dis- manent inhabitants of the western trict magistrate. The magistrate did provinces of China. not dare to punish the offender, but plotted with the leader of the large This account would not be complete town of Chely to massacre the Mo- without some notice of the great re- hammedans. One of their villages bellion which took place in Shensi was therefore laid waste by the and Kansuh from 1861 to 1873. Like Chely militia. This was followed by all othet' Mohammedan rebellions in a general uprising of the Mohamme- China, it was not on account of relig- dans, and a sanguina,ry contest of ion. The members of this sect are three daysand three nights, in which quite as clannish as the pure Chinese, they came off victors. When the and generally go together in any mandarins sent imperia,l troops to attempt to resist what they deem op- succor the vanquished, these were pression or to gain dominion. The also obliged to bea,t a shameful outbreak of 1861, commencing in retreat. Shensi and spreading to Kansuh, originated in this way: "A Chinese "The insurrection then spread rebel chief, after having devastated throughout the provlllce and made Sz Chuen, invaded Shensi. To resist its way into Kansuh. It was kept the invasion the militia was organized up for twelve years, and cost an im- in every locality. The Mussulman mense amount of blood and h-eccsure militia, commanded by their own before it was finally and most thor- chiefs, were by their own wish kept oughly put down by that valiant . separate from the other militia. The General Tso Tsung Tang." bandits at length took the city of U Nau. The Mussulman militia took " In regard tothe central provinces back the city, in which they found of the empire, the following quota- immense treasUl'e, either brought tion will suffice: "The history of lfohammedans in these provinces is the history of the inhabitants of each province. We need not speak par- ticularly of them. We only say that since the dynasty of Yuen, 1280, a great number of them have occupied very high positions, both in the capital and in the pr.ovinces, as ministers, noting, h.owever, some facts whi"eh generals. vicer.oys .or g.overn.ors." have a bearing upon the answer.
Mention ought also to be made .of (1) Mohammedanism in China does those colonial dependencies of the not seem to have gained its numbers empire which are largely Moham. by proselytizing. The Mohammedans medan, viz.: Koko Nor on the south of to-day in general trace their deof Kansuh, and on the west all that scent, fo!' hundreds of years, from part of IIi which lies south of the Mohammedan families. They have Tien Shan Mountains, and where multiplied by a natural increase. are situated the noted eight Moham- They also add to their strength by medan cities. purchasing, in times of famine or other calamity, large numbers of The following is an approximate children, who!:n they bring up accordestimate, in round numbers, of the ing to the doctrines of their religion. present Mohammedan populati.on of They llaye been known, during a China. Dr. Williams says that. single famine, to purchase 10,000. n.orth of the Yang-tsz Kiang, there are at least 10,000,000. (2) They hold to their religion very tenaciously, by which is only meant P. Darby De Thiersantgivesan esti- that they do not easily leave their mate, more partIcularly by provinces, sect. The instances are rare where as follows: Kansuh, 8,350,000; Shen- they become Christians. On the si, 6,500,000; Yunnan, 3,500,000 to othe).' hand, they sit so loosely on their 4,000,000 (this includes the savage foundations of doctrine that they tribes who reside on the frontiers of find no difficulty in going through Burmah); Shansi, 50,000; Chihli all the forms of the Chinese ritual 250,000. Of these 100,000 are in the when they are appointed to office. neighborhood of Peking.. There are They can wOl'Rhip the tablet of the in the city eleven mosques, one near emperor, but they put the picture of the palace, vel'Y beautiful, built the Prophet hehind it. opposite the imperial pavilions, in honor of a Mohammedan queen, (3.) There does not seem to be any whom the Emperor Kien Lung es- special 'antipathy against them, on poused in 1735. Shantung. 200,000; the part of either rulers or people, Hunan and Hnpeh, 50,000; Kiang,;i, on account of their religious belief. 4,000; ~iangsu and Nganhwui, 150,- They have often held office and have 000; Kwangtung, 21,000; Kwangsi, had many favors granted them. Tho 15,000; Kweichau, 40,000; Szchuen, contests or rebellions in which they 40,000; Honan, 200.000; Chekiang have been, from time to time, conand Fuhkien, 30,000. If we add to cerned have seemed more like imthese a probable estimate of 300,000 mense clan fights than any contenfor Koko Nor and the southern part tion about religious belief. The of IIi and take the larger estimate for question has been about dominion, the province of Yunnan, we have a not about faith. This is evidentfr.om total of somewhat more than 20,- the fact that when, in one part of 000,000. the country, Mohammedans are en- gaged in a bloody rebellion, those in Having given a cursory view of other parts are not molested. Durthe introduction of Mohammedanism ing the years of rebellion in the into China and its subsequent history northwest, and also in Yunnan, Mo-' there, having given statistics to show hammeclans, under the very shadow its present strength, we wi}} not ven- of the imperial palace, lived without ture to tread the delicate ground of the least appearance of molestation. prophecy, but leave others to an- The great clan fight ahout a silver swer the question, ,Vhat in the future mine in Yunnan' could never have is likely to be its influence itl China? been dl'awn out into an eighteen N. Y., became Corresponding Secre- years' bloody contest, unless there tary. Twenty-five thousand dollars had been something more than that was estimated as necessary for pur.
silver mine at stake. So in the north- chasing and finishing buildings to ac- west, a contest about the division of commodate fifty boarders, and $5,000 spoils, or the cutting of a few . annually for its maintenance. Salubamboos, was, indeed, the match tations came to the organization which set fire to combustibles, but from England and from India. certainly did not furnish fuel for . Sir William Wedderburn, of Engcombustion to the flames of that land, lately retired from the Indian fierce contest that raged for twelve Civii Service, wrote: years, and was only quenched at last "Both Lady Wedderburn and myself are in rivers of blood. The contest was very glad to receive news of Pundita Rama- a contest for power. bai. We are both much interested in female (4) We can never be sure how education, especially in India, and it will give us much pleasure to do what we can to much the Mohammedans in China promote the Pundita's proposed normaJ are influenced from without. Dr. schooL When you have completed your Williams says that the last great plans I shall be glad to hear from you rebellion was largely fomented by again; in the meantime allowme to express Turkish sectaries. the pleasure I feel that Pundita Ramabai has found such good friends and snpporters Ramabai'a Institution for Ohild- in America." Widows. Dr. Ramakrishna Bhandarkar, pro- THE little high.caste Brahman fessor of Sanskrit in a college in widow, Ramabai, bearing the high- Poona, India, after a confet'ence with est honorary and literary degree be- several of his friends, wrote: stowed by the Brahmanic brotherhood, and known by the title" Pun- .. We are glad that you American ladies dita," invented by an English lady are going to interest yourselves actively with the amelioration of the condition of your unfortunate sisters iii India. I assure 'for convenience of foreign introduc- you we shall consider it a duty to give you tion, came among us in an unosten- all the assistance we can. I suppose the tatious way, studied our institutions details of the scheme will De settled when and organized support of a cherished Pundita Ramabai and the female teachers will arrive in India."
plan of her own for elevating and Dr. Bhandarkar and his friends educating "little widows" of high- were indol'sed by Hon. Lionel As- caste families in India, and departed bUrner, who was for thirty-six years the country as unostentatiously as in the Indian Civil Service, as "very she entered it. The organization responsible, influential men."
which she accomplished while in On the· eve of her departure from this country is entitled "The Ram- the United States we received from abai Association," which was formed her the following personal note: at Channing Hall, Boston, Dec. 13, .. VALLEY STATION, NEB., Jun" 16, 1888.
1887. It was supported by Rev. Ed- .. DEAlt BROTHER IN CHaIST : ward E. Hale, D.D., who was elected President, and Dr. Phillips Brooks, .. I received your kind letter a few weeks Miss Frances E. Willard, Rev. Geo. ago, but could not answer it through want of time. I have sent a few circulars to you already, and am sending a new one which A. Gordon, and the since ascended, has just come out. It isjust twenty months Dean Ra.chel L. Bodley, M.D., who since I have seen you when we talked about was Ramabai's patron saint all the· my work and when so little of hope seemed while she was in America. to exist, but the Heavenly Father has been with me in all that I have attempted, and A Board of Trustees was consti- my hopes are now almost realized so far as tuted for America, and an" Advisory the material assistance goes. The main Board" was appointed for India. work is y..t to be done, and I hope and pray Miss A. P. Granger, of Canandaigua, that the heavenly grace will strengthen and sustain me in my undertaking. .. Many good people seem to have a misun- religious schools. High-caste girls, derstanding about the work that I am try- she says, may be in the missionary ing to start, and are generally inclined to schools in some instances prior to discountenance my project. Their fears marriage, but not after that event, seem to have arisen from th"fact that my institution for child-widows is to be a purely either as wives or widows. She says secular one, and also from a misappr..hen- the missionary schools are open to all sion that its founder is diverting in this castes, as they should be, and are none direction the energies of Christian women of them devoted exclusively to highand funds which should properly go into missionary channels. This latter I emphati- caste women, much less to high-caste cally deny, having never, in public or pri- widows. In the circ-ular referred to vate, attempted to do such a thing which in herletter, she set forth some feawill injure the foreign missionary cause. tures of the case. The movement is truly unique, its author, talented, .. I havegood reasons for making my school purely secular. Such institutions are a necessity at present. sincere and standing in her individ- uBecause: ual capacity for what she esteems an .. The orthodox Hindu widows will notgo to important reform in her own coun- try, by what she thinks is the only anv school home if the study of Christian religion is made a condition to their admit- tance . feasible method for reachlllg and re- .. It is against their faith, and they will not lieving high-caste Hindu widows, sacrifice their conscience to worldly advantages. whose trials and deprivations she has .. Such a condition will prove a strong •experienced. It would seem that even temptation to many light-minded women, Anglo-Saxon love of fair play, not to and make hypocrites of them. say of freedom of speech and press, .. Missionaries do not reach the strictly or- would justify us, even if we disap- proved her measures, which we do thodox widows, who suffer most, and who not, in allowing her to reach those of are in the keeping of their male relatives. Some of these relatives will be glad enough to have their daughters or sisters educated our readers who may not other.wise in purely secular schools, but they will by have had the opportunity, through no means let them be instructed by mis- the following quotations from her sionaries. Such widows, if once educated own statements of the case. and become self-supporting, having all the freedom of action and thought, and un- She says: trammeled, it is hoped that they will accept .. A few Hindu parents would not mind tbeir daughters coming in contact with chil- Christ, when they realize the advantages of dren or people of inferior castes before the marriage, but this cannot continue after the His religion, which they will be requested girl has gone through the marriage cere.. mony, the only religious sacrament to to study if they choose to do so. And even which she is entitled and which is consid- ered the means of her regeneration and by if we are disappointed in our hopes fur their virtue of which she becomes a high-caste woman and a member of her husband's famconversion,.we shall at least have the com- ily. A few married high-caste girls and women are allowed to be seen and instructed fort of having done ()ur duty in relieving by foreign missionaries in the zenltnas, but not in the missionary schools. These women, their sufferings and giving "them the means it must be remembered, do not belong to the strictly orthodox families; their husbands, by which they may lift themselves out of fathers-in-law or fath~rs, in whose keeping they happen to be aR wives or widows, being the lamentable state of drndgery, and be- half skeptical, half Brabmanical, or, per- haps, partly Brahmo and partly Christian come self-respecting, self..supportin~ mem- ill belief, and all of them men who are edu- bers of society. The Bible will be placed in their hand, but we cannot make its study a condition for the above reasons. I do not ask any people to give their money to this instead of to missionary work, but I ear- nestly solicit the assistance of our friends who have it in their power to help forward more than one good cause.
•• Very truly yours, RAMABA!."
Ramabai affirms the unique char- acter of her proposed institution cated in Western ideas.
as devoted to high-caste widows-a U Even among these families the educa· class which she thinks is wholly un- tion of Women is limited to merely reading, reached and absolutely unapproach- a little writing, and at the best the four fundamental rules in arithmetic-an educa- able through missionary or other tion not so thorough as to enable them to think for themselves or to qualify young together with the pious Hindus who look widows to become teachers or to engage in upon this movement as dangerous heresy, any occupation which would make them in- may try to annihilate it. dependent of male relatives. There may be a few exceptions to this statement among "But our trust is in the Heavenly Father, the Brahmos and other non-orthodox fami- who is our st:rE'JIgth aud who~ because He is lies, but among these the necessity is not so almighty, is aole to bring us safely out of great. as widows are not put to the severest this serious difficulty." trials as in orthodox communities. Death of Mr. Ahok's Mother. .. It is strictly true of every orthodox Hindn family that women are never allowed WE say" Mr. Ahok's mother," beto be visited or instructed by a foreign mis… cause we cannot present her after sionary. I derive my knowledge of the so- our custom by her own name, and cial condition of the orthodox high-caste also because her estimable son has Hindu women neither from fables nor from become so Widely known that the the statements of half-informed persons, but mother shares in the luster of his I get it directly from what I have seen and renown, though her sterling qualiknown. I myself Was born and reared in ties merit wide recognition and rean orthodox Brahmanical honsehold, and spect. Mr. Ahok is a wealthy Chithough my parents approved of women be- nese merchant who was led to Christ ing educated they would have been the last through the agency of Rev. S. L. persons to allow their daughters nnder the Baldwin, D.D., now Recording Secinstruction of missionarjes~ retary of the Methodist Episcopal 1IIissionarySociety,and who before he .. It was not until after their death when I professed Christianity at all donated had attained my leg-al age, and then there $10,000 for the founding of an Anglobeing no male relative to control me, and Chinese College at Foo Chow. 111'. my education having enabled me to get my Ahok waR a lay delegate from the Foo independence, that I had any chancL' of see- Chow Conference to the Methodist ing the missionaries and other people not of Episcopal General Conference held my own caste, and of reading the books in New York last May, but was unwhich were antagonistic tomy ancestral re" able io come; whether alone because ligion. This is true to-day of every other he was unwilling to risk his chances household like that of my parents. of escaping the leasllPs of our ob- structive Chinese legislation, we can- "I have deduced from these facts that not sav. Ahok's mother stoutly anthe orthodox high-caste women of India tagOlized his acceptance of Chriscannot be helped by missionary societies. tianity, but later herself beC>1:{llle a An agency which is neither identical With genuine Christian with marked indinor antagonistic to these societies lllust be viduality of experience. employed in order to draw these women out of t~eir secluded homes. Purely secular in- 'Ve take from the California stitutions are the necessity of the hour in Christian Advocate the following India, institutions which will be like homes account of the funeral of Mr. Ahok's to the little widows, where their material mother: wants will be supplied, and their physical pain alleviated. The education afforded in Not long since~ at the age of eighty..six, these homes must prepare them to face the occurred the death of the mother of 1I1r. world and must pnt within their reach the Ahok. The first intimation the writer had power which will be the means of their in- of the sad event was the receipt of the fol- dependence,leaving them free at length to lowing note, written by an Eng-lish-speaking think and choose for themselves. . . . clerk in Mr. Ahok's store: .. I am sorry to inform yon that my mother left this world "As for ourselves we are convinced that at 7 o'clock this evening, and we shall pnt it is not against our Christian belief to carry her in her everlasting bed to-morrow morn- to those who need it help in any shape, even ing at 8 o'clock. Will you please notify though we may not be able to carry our others," etc. Having been requested to creed with it. It will do no harm to any of conduct the funeral exercises, we reached us to read the beautiful parable of the Mr. Ahok's residence a little before the . Good Samaritan" twice over, and try to time appointed, a,ud noticed a. coffin in II find out what our Lord Christ meant to teach by it .
.. I am aware that even after setting forth this plan in the plainest language, many Christian people may still mi.apprehend or misrepresent it without meaning to do so; and, on the other hand. all enemies of woman's_progressand freedom in Hindustan,
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
framework of a recess of the room where day until the burial; but, instead of having the services were to be held, Soon after senseless heathen ceremonies, social religious the company had assembled loud weeping meetings are held, and the gospel Is preached. was heard, aud immediately Mr. Ahok and Thus our Chinese Christians adhere to harmless his two adopted sons, together with several native customs, only substituting Christian for other ",ale relatives, slowly entered the heathen worship. recess from another room, bearing the body, encased in elegant silk, and laid it in We are informed that about five years ago the collin. The weeping continued wh~e Mr. Ahok's mother had quite a protracted the unoccupied space in the collin was struggle, deciding whether she wonld become a being filled with the pith of a certain plant, Christian or remain a Buddhist. Since his conand with bits of paper rolled into small version, Mr. Ahok has had preaching Sunday balls. After this, the assembled friends afternoons at his residence, as well as mid'- viewed the face of the deceased, when we week social meetings and family prayers. His were requested to proceed with the ser- mother used to alternate between these services vices. These consisted of the singing of a and the worship of the idol, which had for so hymn, prayer, a short address from the many years delnded her. While continning words," Blessed are the dead that die in the this practice she had a good opportunity to com- Lord." etc.• followed by another hymn and pare the two religions. One day, after attending the benediction-aU, of course. being- in Christian worship, she said to her friends: Chinese. During tJ,e services Mr. Ahok sat "You may take my idol away; hereafter your on a piece of matting on the floor, near the God shall be my God, and your Saviour my head of the collin. 'Vhen tbe benediction Saviour." And the joy which shone in her was pronounced, the friends quickly dis- countenance showed that she had indeed found persed, leaving the sorrowing relatives him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, alone with their dead. In a short time tbe Jesus of Nazareth. The idol was presented to collin was closed and hermetically sealed; Bishop Merrill when he was here in 1883. From but it has been decided that the interment the time of her conversion, this aged Chinese will not take place until the forty-ninth day lady had a bright evidence of acceptance with after the death. In this part of China the God, and became more and more firmly estabwealthy families, and many of the middle lished in the faith during her few remaining classes, begin on the seventh day after a years. Through her influence Mrs. Ahok's death a series of U meritorious" ceremo.. mother, who still survives, was also constrained nies for the repose and general benefit of the to turn from idols to the true and living God. soul of the departed, or the three souls, according to the heathen notion. In one form How encouraging all this to the missionary of or another these ceremonies are repeated the cross, who, in such a benighted land, is every seventh day from that of the death, oftentimes depres8ed by the mass of heathenism, some continuing until the forty-ninth day. which, like a moral miasma, environs him as Buddhist or Taoist priests are hired to man- does the very atmosphere I What proofs the age these exercises, which are described in conversion of these aged ones that in China, as that painstaking work, .. Social Life of the elsewhere, the gospel of Christ is "the power of Chinese," by Rev. Justus Doolittle. for four- God unto salvation to every one that believteen years a missionary here at Foochow. eth " lOur millions of dear brothers and sisters in America, who, by their prayers and money, Mr. Ahok is following the custom of having are advancing God's cause in heathen lands, his friends and relatives meet every seventh may well rejOice with us over all such triumphs of grace.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
GENERAL SURVEY. MARCH: Mexico Central America. OUR intention is during the twelve- City Evangelizati;n. month to turn the whole wheel round and bring successively to view every A PRIL: I n d'la and C eyI on. Brahpart of the world-wide circle of missionary labor. We give the scheme manism. for the year, and as far as may be the MAY: Burmah, Siam and Laos. structure of THE REVIEW will conform throughout to this plan: Buddhism. JANUARY: General Outlook. Sur- JUNE: Africa. Freedmen in North America. JULY: Islands of the Sea. Utah.
vey of the World. North American Indians.
FEBRUARY: China and Confucian- AUGUST: Italy, France, and Papal ism. Thibet. Eurqpe. SEPTEMBER: Japan, Korea. Medi- and master the languages that must cal Missions. be the vehicle of communication.
OCTOBER: Turkey, Persia. Mo- To estimate the entire number of hammedanism and Nominal Chris- converts in all foreign mission fields tian Sects. at 3,000,000 is very liberal, in fact in NOVEMBER: South America, West excess of the real number; but it Indies. Papacy. Home Missions. ~ust be remembered that these rep- DECEMBER: Syria. Jews. Educa- resent not less than 600,000 families tional Work in Missions. and 30,000 churches, mission stations As in January we propose a gen- and schools; and that out of these eral survey, it may be well, first of 3,000,000 converts, 30,000 workers all, to keep before us certain figures have gone into the field, Of' one out of and facts of world-wide significance, every 100, while Protestant Christen- even at risk of repetition. dom has sent forth but one out of There are 3,064 languages in the 5,000 !
world, and its. inhabitants profess The money annually raised for more than 1.000 religions. carrying on Protestant foreign mis- The most cat'eful computation sionsis a little short of $11,250,000, or which we have been able to make an average of 37Yz cents per year for at' find makes the present popula- each evangelical chul'ch member, or tion of the globe somewhat over leES than one tenth of a cent a day.
1,500,000,000. Of these, pagans, Accurate figures we are unable to heathens and Mohammedans con- give or get concerning either medi- stitute 1,040,000,000, and the rest cal missions or the educational work.
(460,000,000) are nominally Chris- As to the first, theil' growth is so tian, Papal, Greek and Protest- rapid that if we could present accu- ant. There are, however, not more rate returns they would be hope- than 31,500,000 Protestant church lessly in the rear before we could get members. At least one-half of this this number of THE REVIEW electro- 460,000,000 are Nothingarians and typed. For example, the Edinburgh Oonfucionists, To these more than Medical Missionary Society alone, thousand millions, Protestant Chris- which had in Hl71 only 7 students, tendom sends 6,230 messengers of the and in 1881, 16, had in 1886, 170 qual- cross, of whom 3,000 are ordained ified medical missionaries in active missionaries and 2,500 women. To service. Within ten years the in- these, in estimating the sum total of come of the society increased five- workers, we must add some 30,300 fold.
native preachers, teachers, catechists As to schools, they exist in con- and lay helpers, who have been raised nection with all missions and are up out of pag'an, heathen and Mo- often the first form of evangelistic hammedan communities as the first ageney. It is computed that for fruits of missions, making a total every fifteen church members and ad- force in the foreign field of 30,530, of herents gathered in heathen lands, which about five-sixths are converts there is one school. If so, then the from heathenism, Could these work- total number is not far feom 200,000, ers so be distributed as that the en- which, including schools of eveey tire .unevangelized po>puiation could size and grade, feom the primary to be equally divided among them, each would still have to reach, within an the collegiate, is not, we are persuad- ed, far from correct. But we hope average lifetime, at least 28,400 souls before the year closes to gather more with the gospel! And this, too, with accurate and trustworthy figures.
all thp. disadvantages of having to There are in the world 16,447,990 get to the field and get over the field, Sunday-school 'pupils, by the last figures published, The average Of the rellults of missions, w,: have membership is probably about fifty, no space to pl'esent facts, which must which gives 329,000 Sunday-schools be exhibited as the various fields pass in the world. All these figures are before us. approximate only, but they may The American Board alone occuhelp to form a general conception 9f pies 1,000 centers of evangelical in- the world's present condition and fluence, and $124,274 were contrib- needs, the comparative growth of uted last year by native converts in missions, and the outlook for the these various fields!
future. The largest body of the Prpsbyte- Certain grand facts ought to stand rian Church of our land, and in the 'boldly before us like the mountains North. has organized and sustains 34 on a landscape. miSSIOns in both hemispheres, 1. The world has been fully ex- manned by 550 foreign missionaries, plored. There remains probably no of whom 115 are ordained mi;J,sters llndis'covered territory. and 154 unmarried ladies, besides 151 2. The origin and history of every native ordained ministers, 171licen- nation have been traced; languages tiates and 804 other native helpers.
have been reduced to forms, and lit- The churches number 311, with 23,- erature created. 740 communicants, of whom 2,897 3. The present marvelous facilities were received during the past year; for rapid travel and communication in schools of all grades 23,770 pupils give easy access to all parts of the were enrolled; 80,000,000 of pages in globe. 21 languages were issued from 8 4. Commerce of the globe, espe- printing presses, and upward of 75,- cially by sea, is in the hands of Prot- 000 patients were treated in hospitals estant nations; postal and telegraph and dispensaries.
unions extend into all countries. Reports of other denomination!
5. The Bible has been translated may be found in our pages for the into more than 300 tongues-the past year, and can be traced by the press is greatly utilized. copious index appended to the De- 6. Barriers so completely removed cember issue.
-Christian missionaries under pro- Missions to the Jews are assuming tection of law in every land. new importance and meeting with 7. A native ministry is developing, new success. The professed converts and the churches gathered out of from Israel number 1,000 to 1,500 heathendom will ~on be taking care annually; and most of these are from of themselves. the educated class. Joseph Rabin- As to missionar:y societies, etc., The owitch in Bessarabia, and Rabbi Lich- Quarterly Review for July, 1886, es- enstein near Buda-Pesth, are leaders timated the total number asnot fewer in this modern movement among than 146. They must in 1889 exceed their own countrymen.
150, at the least, and more likely The destitution of the world must reach 170. In Great Britain there not be overlooked. During the cen- are from twenty-five to thirty; in tury since Carey went to India, Dr.
the United States from forty to fifty; Murray Mitchell computes that at on the continent as many more, least 200,000,000 have been added to known to exist at the beg'inning of the pagan population of the globe; the last year, while scattered through and that for every 10,000,000 added heathen and Mohammedan lands are to nominal Christendom, fully 15,- as many more; from the Hawaiian 000,000 have been added to heathen- group to Japan, and from Japan to dom.
Syria; and Madagascar round to Some countries like Thibet hav.eso Polynesia again. far been practically inaccessible to evangelism. Immense tracts, em- For thirty years his life was spent bracing a thousand iniles square and in an unwearied effort to evangelize millions of people, have not, in some the' native races, to explore the un- cases, one missionary station. Mex- discovered secrets, to abolish the des- ico is called a Christian country, yet olating slave traffic of Central Africa, Bishop Hurst of the Methodist and with his last words he wrote, , Church says that there are 8,000,000 "All I can add in my solitude is, people there who never saw a copy of the Holy Scriptures. In many papal may Heaven's rich blessing come lands St. Joseph is practically wor- down on every vne, American, En- shiped as superior to the Virgin glish, or Turk, who will help to heal Mary his wife, and Jesus Christ her this open sore of the world." Son. "And other sheep I have which SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, PAUL and Barnabas went on a and there shall be one flock and one mission tour. (Compare ~cts xiii: 2-4; xiv: 3, 27; xv: 3, 7-12.) Their shepherd." career and report to the churches at Antioch and Jerusalem typify and TEXTS AND THEMES FOR MISSIONARY prophesy the whole history of mis- sions. It has been a history of su- SERMONS. pernatural interpositions. God has given testimony unto the word of THE following is old, but worth His grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by the hands of preservation: His servants. At the London Con-' ference the modern apostles of mis- .. Go lie into aU the world, and preach the gos- – sions gathering the Church together pel to every creature." in the metropolis of the world, re- Unbelief. There are so many heathen, and so hearsed all that God had done with them and how He had opened t.he much oppositiou to the gospel, the world can door of faith unto the Gentiles, de- never he converted. claring what spiritual miracles and wonders of transformation God had THE LORD. " The God of heaven shall set up wrought among the nations by them. a kingdom which shall never he destroyed: but Every result wrought in apostolic it shall break in pieces and consume all other days has its correspondent and coun- kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." Read terpart in modern days: Dan. ii : 44, 45. Psalms ii: 8, and lxxii: 8. Isa.
1. God gave testimony to the word ii: 2, 4. of His grace. Unbelief. The heathen will be saved without, 2. Opened the door of faith to the the gospel. Gentiles. St. Peter. "There is none other name [but 3. Converted the Gentiles and puri- Jesus] under heaven, given among men, fied their hearts by faith. whereby we mnst be saved." Acts iv : 12.
4. Gave them witness, imparting St. John. .. He that believeth not the Son the Holy Ghost. shall not see life,. but the wrath of God abideth on him." John iii : 36. LIVINGSTONE'S SLAB IN WESTMINSTER. Brought by faithful hands JESUS CHRIST. .. He that believeth not shall be damned." Mark xvi: 16. Over land and sea, here rests DAVID LIVINGSTONE, Unbelief. The gospel makes the heathen no Missionary, better. Traveler. Philanthropist, Facts. Eighteen hundred years ago, except Born March 19. 1813, the Jews, there were none but heathen; what nations are now better have been made so by at Blantyre, Lanarkshire. the gospel. Died May 1, 1873, GO, PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. a.t Chitambos Village, Ulala. Scruple. But all have not gifts to preach. St. Paul. "Having then gifts, differing ac. cording to the grace that is given to ns; whether MINISTRY, let ns wait on our minister· ing-he that GIVETH, let him do it with sim· plicity. For as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ… See Rom. xii :4-13. 1 Cor. xii: 14-22. Read 1 Cor. ix : 7, 13. Rom. x: 15. Truth. God hath made all nations of one blOOd. Eyery man is one m"mber of Ii bod.y of
PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIOKS-;)!O~THLY BULLETIN
1,500,000,000, 800,000,000 of whom are perishing, yon, 0 ye oj tittle faith?" "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Read Matt. vi : l1H34. through ignorance of the gospel and the way of Miser. Then you forbid me to providefor my life. – i'amily? "He that provideth not for his own Inquirer. As one member of this family, is worRe than an infideL" Experience. Is the best way "to provide" what ought Ito do' for your own to "rob" God and your fellow JESUS CHRIST. Have the same care for your men? Read Mal. iii : s-:.10. The very way" to provide" a curse. "Thel'e is that maketh himfellow men, as the members of the body for self'rich, yet hath nothing: there is that mak€'th every part. Place yourself in their condition, himself poor, yet hath great riches." Provo xiii : 7. See also 2 Cor. viii : 9. then in yours. .. Whatsoever ye would that Avarice, I am not able to do much. IfI had as they should do to you, do ye even so to them." much as 80me men I shouldn't value giving.
Per}Jlexity. I have a family and friends to St. Paul. "If there be tirst a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath." provide for-so many calls, I cannot attend to 2 Cor. viii: 12.
the wants of the heathen. Ignorance. I would give, but I know not what becomes of my money. Bellevolence. _Yourself in their condition, Public Prints. Read and understand. would you have them lhus treat you? "Render Pride. I am ashamed to give so little as I feel able. I must do more, Or it won't be to all their ducos." Provide for every part. thonght anytTling. THE LORD. "The pride of thy heart hath de- False Philosophy. By giving much to send ceived thee." Obad. iii. See the widow's two mites. Luke xxi: 1–1. the gospel abroad, I shall rob myself and child- Self-Indulgence. But why banter and urge a man so? What the" great hurry" of sendren, and come to want. ing the gospel to the heathen? THE LORD. "There is that scattereth, and Mercy. Heathen die as fast as Christians; yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth 15,000,000 sink into the grave every year, and go, without the gospel, to the judgment unpremore than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." pared.
" The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that Zeal. "What thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Ecc. ix : 10. watereth shall be watered also himself." Prov. GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD .ilID PREACH TIDli xi: 24. 25. GOSPEL. Selfishnes8. But I ought to lay up something beforehand, for myself FIRST.
JESUS CHRIST. "He that trusteth in his riches shall fall." Prov. xi : 28. " Seek FIRST [to promote] the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." Matt. vi : 33. "Lay not up for yourselves trea8Ures on earth."
WO'l'ldly Prudence. But if I lay not Ull some- thing against time of need, who will take care of me, when old and infirm?
JESUS CHRIST. "Take no thou-ght for your life," etc.-" Shall he not much more clothe VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-The native boats on the Upper ciative attendance of colonists at purely mis- Congo have begun to liy the Free State liag, sionary meetings than at the public evening seswhich insures to them protection. From Stan- sions of the conference this year. We were ley Pool to Equator Station, traveling is per- thankful to see it. MiSSIOnary work among the f~ctly safe. One boat brought from Stanley natives here is not definitely understood ~mong Falls five tons of ivory. the colonists generally. They get some strange impressions of it which a very little personal -At Badza Manteke, in the Congo Mission observatiou shows them to be wrong. Wewant of the American Baptist Missionary Union, them to inform themselves. seven persons have been put to death for the testimony of Jesus. The work is steadily pro- -At Kangwe, on an island of the Ogowe, 379 gressing. candidates were recently received into the class for catechumens, and 91 persons have -REV. CHARLES W. KILBON writes entered tbe churcb. from Adam's Mission Station, Natal, -The first section. of the Trans-African South Africa, July 19, as follows: Railway from St. Paul de Loanda to Arubaca has heen finished, and the work is going on. "You will be interested to know that while This section is forty miles long, extending from the' International Missionary Union' was open- the coast to Kabiri. The road from that point ing its sessions in New Jersey the Natal Mis- turns sonth to the Coanza River, whence it is sionary Conference of our little colony was hold- to be extended directly west to Ambaca, 225 inlJ; its annual meeting at the capital, Pieter- miles from the coast. maritzburg. Your first day was our last. On that day, in our devotional exercises, your meet- ChinR.-The communicants, which were ing was spoken of, and special mention of it scarcely a score forty years since. accordwas m'lde in their prayer. ing to the report of the American Board. _"We have never had fuller and more appre- now exceed 32,000. and are increasing at the rate of 2.000 a year. Telegraph and railroad faith and as a missionary force. Now he appears Jines thread the land, a knowledge of the in an article with the title, "The Great Mission- J%iglish language is eagerly sought, and tbe ary Failure." He enters into calculations and stir of a great movement is felt in the land. comes to the conclusion that" it would take the A proclamation lately issned in many prov- Church Missionary Society 2,7!JO years to overw inces describes the missionaries as teachers take the additions made in India by birth in a of virtue, and their influence as helpful to single year." His manipulation of figures is the state,' enjoining all citizens to refrain deceptive. Sir Charles Atchison, an Englishfrom violence, and to live with them in the man in India, says that" in the Punjab, the relation of hosts and guests. Hindu and Mohammedan religions are practi- cally stationary, that of the Sikhs has declined, -After eighty years of contact with Eng- whereas the Christian religion has increased land, there are 32,000 Christians, for which 38". per cent." The quality of Canon Taylor's we may be thankful, and 150,000,000 opium intellect may be j lldged by the fact that at the smokers, for which we may hang our heads late Episcopal Congress at Manchester" he exin shame. The slave trade, the liquor traf- pressed the opinion that the bishops' physical fic, the licensing of immorality-these were pO'~'ers often g'ave way because they were corow bad enough, but the opium curse is the sum pelled to put their hands on the greasy heads of of all vilJainy.-J. Hudson Taylor. thousands of confirmation candidates." There were cries of" shame" from the audience. -The Chinese Government threatens to drive all missionaries out of Pekin and Can- Franre.-The annual report of the Societe ton in retaliation for the bill which has been du Nord says that they have now in the adopted exclndlng the Chinese from the north of France 52 pastors and 145 places of United States. worship, of which 84 are temples, and nearly 30,000 adherents. -The Baptist Missionary Magazine for December reports 260 baptisms, and news -Dr. Pierson was present and made an adhas been received of 23 recent baptisms at dress at the opening of a new station in Swatow, China, and 73 at Ongole, India. PariS, the Salle Rivole. The very name of this hall is associated in Paris with all that -The first railroad built in China with the is included in the words, .. The world, the sanction of the government was completed tieRh and the devil," and where ior .one hun w in August. It runs from Tientsin to Taku, dred years Satan has held sway. It is situfifty miles. and the trains are crowded with ated in a densely populated quarter, at the passengers. confluence of the rue St. Antoine and the rue de Rivole, abont half way between the Englnnd.-London Missionary Society. The Bastile and the Hotel de Ville. It was for- Ladies' Committee, in connection with the so- merly nsed as a ball room; then a fashionciety, does not form a separate organization, as able billiard room; later it was most notoriin the case of some of the other large societies. ous for the low dances which were held in We append the leading statistics: Mission sta- it; and since the days of the republic it tions and sub-stations, 1,.87 (1,161 in Madagas- has been the meeting-place of the Anarcar) ; foreign workers, ordained, 150; lay, 21 ; chists. This wicked den, in the very heart native workers. ordained, 1,143; lay, 5,156; of Paris, has been transformed, by the McAll communicants, betweeu eighty and ninety thou- 1iission, into a gospel temple, where every eand, of which more than sixty thousand are night the H good news" will be proclaimed. credited to Madagascar. The statistics are not Its support is furnished by the New York quite complete. Full returns would show some- Anxiliary. whst increased figures. The total income is over a htindred thousand pounds sterling. lndia.-Out of the 555 adult converts bap- tized by the English Church missionaries at -The valedictory dismissal of a band of Amritsar, India, since the establishment of forty-five missionaries in connection with the the mission in 1852, no less than 253 have Church Missionary Society took place in St. been converts from Islam. While this be- James's Hall, Piccadilly. Twenty-five of the tokens no great movement among the Momissionaries are returnin!( to the field, and hammedans toward Christianity, it shows twenty are new recruits. Already nearly twenty that Moslems can be reached and brought others have departed, chiefiy going to Africa. under the influence of the gospel. Except Bishop Crowther, who returns to the Niger, and one lady for Lagos, all the forty·five -A revival of Hinduism is taking place in taken leave of are for Asia-Palestine, Persia, Madras Presidency, India. In the past the India, China, and Japan. Eight of the new re- Hindus have looked on the efforts of the cmits are university men. Sir J. Kennaway, missionaries with contempt or indifference. Bart, M. P. (presiden t), presided over a large Now they are becoming alarmed at the gathering of friends and supporters, and on be- progrbss of Christianity, and are opposing half of the society and the meeting bade the it by every means in their power. They missionaries Godspeed. have formed U preaching societies" and u tract societies," and are fighting for Hin- -The latest outburst of "Paganism" in England is an arrai!(nment of missions as a duism by the methods which have proved "failure." Canou Taylor last year made a sen- .'tiou b111 laudatiou of Islam as a system of so effecti ve for the spread of Christianity in English missionaries, it reports the astoundthe hands of the missionaries. ing number of 838 native ordained ministerll, and 4,005 native preachers, 61,000 chur"h Japan.-The Christian converts increased members and 280,000 adh~ents. But as yet 50 per cent. last year, till they number over scarcely one-half of the population has 7,000, with more young people seeking in- been reached by the gospel. struction than ever before. Contributions of Japanese Christians the past year for lIfexico.-Mexico is a Christian conntry, educational and religious objects amount yet Bishop Hurst of the Methodist Episto over $41,000; and not only professed copal Church says that in Mexico 8,000,000 Christians give, but others who see the have never seen a copy of the Holy Scripwork in progress, especially parents, for the tures. sake of the moral culture 'obtained in our New ]lexico.-The South American Mis_ schools. Mr. Neesima reports $3i.ooo sub- sionary Society has started a new missiou in Pa.ragua.y under encouraging circum… scribed by a few Japanese gentlemen, in- stances. cluding tw ' of the highest officials of the government, toward the enlargement of the New Guinea is one of the most interesting Doshisha school into a Christian university. points in the world's missionary work at Count Okuma, minister of foreign affairs, present. A few years ago the whole people Count Inouye, late minister of foreign af- were the worst lotof cannibals known. Now fairs, but who has recently returned to the many of them are receiving the gospel, and cabinet as a minister of agriculture and a change is rapidly coming over the island. commerce, have subscribed l,OOO yen each. Viscount Aoki, vice-minister of state. gives New Zealand.-New Zealand, as a matter 500 yen, while six other prominent officials of fact, is evangelized. Christianity has and bankerc have given together 28,500 yen. not failed of success in a single island. In India and elsewhere they had to gather the -The number of converts in the Japan converts one by one, but in New Zealand a Mission of the American Board has in- movement set in, and great numbers came creased in fifteen months from 4,226 to forward; its advance was almost like a bush 7,093, a gain of 2,801. This ie. the most re- fire. The number of native clergy at presmarkable record in any mission of the ent laboring there is qnite three times what Board, except the Sandwich,Isbnds. they had previously been. These are not supported by money from home, bnt by the -Awakening. The Rev. A. B. Hntchlnson, contributions and endowments of their own C.M,S., Nagasaki, says: .. In this remote people.-Bishop Stuart, D.D., of Waiapu. corner of distant Japan there is an awakening and inquiry after the truth which have Scotland. – A recent number of The already resulted in the baptism of over 200 Scottish Geographical Magazine has papers converts, principally adults, in the northern dealing with subjects specially engaging the part of Kiushiu, which is the portion allotted attention of the friends of missions. Not to to me as my special sphere of work. Others speak of Mr. H. O. Forbes's paper on .. Atare being prepared for admission into the tempts to Reach the Owen Stanley Peak," fold of Christ. My fellow-worker on the which goes over ground occupied by the eastern side of Kiushiu, Rev. J. B. Brandram, New Guinea Mission of the London Missionanc1 our brethren of the Presbyterian and ary Society, we have notes on .. Recent Ex- American Episcopal Methodist missions, are plorations in the Territories of the African rejoicing over similar proofs that the gospel Lakes Company," by E. G. RavenBtein, is still the power of God uuto salvat,ion to F.R.G.S., with a map of the territory, at everyone that believeth. I would ask 'ear- this moment of more than usual interest, nest prayer for the workers in this land." between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa, far in advance of anything that has y+t been -According to The Ohinese Recorder the given of that region of Africa. There is need of Japan at the present moment is also a very graphic account of .. Lnkoma," 1,000 preaching missionaries. Out of 100 an island in Lake Nyassa. by Archdeacon ordained missionaries, only thirty are en- Maples, F.R.G.S., the headquarters of a gaged in preaching. Some Buddhist priests hopeful branch of the Universities Mission have taken snch titles as bishop and rever- in Central Africa. The Archdeacon,like his end, and a Professor of the Old Testament chief, Bishop Smythies, warmly commends has been engaged by the Kioto Buddhist the work of the Scottish Mis~ion~ on the college. There is a crying demand for lady Lake, referring to the members of the teachers for women of rank, and also for Established Church of Scotland at Blantyre Christian teachers for pri vate and govern- as competent translators of the Scriptures, ment schools. This is as tr..e of India as of and to the Buchanan brothers as the enter- Japan. prising missionary-colonists at Zomba. His account of the work of his own mission at Madagascar. – The London Missionary Lukoma is most instr,uctive, showing how Society continues to push its work here with the missionaries in their mission ship, increasing success, notwithstanding the political changes and the aggressive atti- OharleS Janson, rea.ch the coa.st villa.ges to tude of the Church of Rome. Witu its 30 the south, holding classes for inquirers and he was for more than thirty years superin_ preaching the gospel to the people who tendent of tbe Sabbath-school of the First come out to hear. Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Ga.
Syria.-The first volume of Dr. Eddy's -A Gift '-_ Books. The author and pub. Arabic Commentary on the New Testament, in lishersof "ThA Crisis of Missionst'~ Rev. Dr. chIding Matthew and Mark, has been published Pierson and Robert Carter & Brothers, have in a book of nearly six hundred pages. offered to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions a second thousand copies for gratu. -The Abeih field hasa force of 50 workers, 89 itousdistribution. These will be sentprompt. ly by the Board, postpaid,to all who will order being teachers and alicensed preachers. There them witb the understanding that they are to be read and loaned to others. A thousand are 4 'organized churches, with a membership copies have been offered by the same parties of 297, 24 having beeu added during the past to the American Board. year. Regular preacking services are maiutained at 18 places. There are 20 Sabbatho -'ii, M, C. A. The eleventh World's Y. schools, with 980 scholars; 43 high and com· M, Co A. Conference, at Stockholm, in mon schools enroll 1,681 scholars. The total August, showed the American continent at contributions for benevolence and education the front of this great work. The United amouuted to $2,308. States and Canada, taken togetber, report 1,240 associations and 152,721 members. -The Death of Dr. Meshaka, of the Jewish Canada organized the first association on mission in Damascus, is a great loss. Says the the American continent in Montreal on the Presbyterian Messenger, London: 9th of December, 1851. The choice is to be between Amsterdam and Paris for tbe •• He was, perhaps, the oldest Protestant twelfth World's Y. M. C. A. Convention. Christian in Syria, and exerted a powerful influence for good. He was respected by his -Christian Endeavor. The report of the townsmen of all classes and creedS, and his Seventh Annual Convention of the Society of funeral was the largest eVer Seen in Damascus. Christian Endeavor gives the very rapid growth The streets, windows and housetops were of this movement within two or three year., uncrowded all the way through the city, and eveu til it numbers over five thousand societies with outside the gate vast crowds were assembled." Over three hundred thousand members (while scores of new societies are being formed every 1'urkey.-Government opposition to all evan- week in all denominations). This indicates a gelical inlluences is manifested in restrictive widespread desire and need for that which in legislation towards the mission schools, and in in- some degree at least is met by this organization. terference with the personal liberty of native The United Society of Christian Endeavor asks teachers, and sometimes of missionaries. Mr. no allep;iance, exercises no authority, levies no Straus, the American minister at Constantino- taxes. It simply exists to give information, ple,is ably guarding the interests submitted to his aud to aid the societies, by giving them the best care, and his efforts are warmly appreciated by methods by which young people can be traiued the missions, and are worthy of hearty commen- for usefulness in the Church. Its affairs are dation. • . . Colleges at Aintab, Harpoot, managed by representatives of the evangelical and Marsovan, almost the only schools of this denominations. grade in the Turkish Empire, the great numher of boarding-schools for boys and girls.in all -Protestant Episcopal Missions. The 20th these missions, and the far greater number of annual session of the Missionary Council day-schools taught by graduates of these higher of the Protestant Episcopal Church was recentschools, are far superior to all other schools of ly held in Washington, D. C. About 250 delethe same grade in the land, and are steadily gates were present. Tbe report of the Board pervading the life of the whole people with the of Managers of the Domestic and Foreign sentiments and examples of the Christian faith. Missionary Society showed that the SOCiety The theological seminaries at Marsovan, Har- has in foreign lands 41 priucipal and 145 poot, and Marash are quietly raising their stand- ont stations, an increase of 37 since last year; ards according to the growing needs of the field that it has 133 missionaries and 227 native and the better class of candidates for the min- helpers in the field. an increase of about 60; istry furnished by the colleges.-Report to the that it has 91 day and boarding schools, an in- American Roard. crease of 12, and 3,364 pupils, an iucrease of "193. At the hospitals and dispensaries in Japan and United States.-Magnificent Gift for Freed- China 16,331 individuals were treated during the men. Securities to the amount of $1,000,- year. The treasurer's report shows a balance 894.25 ha.ve been placed in the hands of the of $53,000 to the credit of foreign missions. treasurer of the American IIlissionary Asso- The report of the Woman'8 Auxiliary to the ciation' by Mr. Daniel Hand of Ciinton, Board of Missions showed that the gifts in Conn. The interest of this munificent gift money and boxes this year amount to $276,154. is to be spent every year in the education of the colored youth of the South, and is -Inter-Seminary Alliance. The meeting given by one who for many years was in held in Boston this year was the largest of the business in the South. He has had a pur- gatherings of this association ever held. It was pose to devote his fortune to this work for the ninth convention. Five hundred young men a long time, and has fulfilled it in the clos- from the seminaries were reported to be p"esing years of bis life. He is now in the ent. The papers presented were valuable. Drs. eighty-ninth year of his age. It is said that Herrick Johnson, Phillips Brooks, A. J. Gordon and Joseph Cook stirred the bearts of these young men.
STATISTICS OF TBE WORLD'S MISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
BRITISH OONTRIBUTIONS TO FOREIGN MISSIONS, 1887.
[WE are indebted to Rev. W. A. Scott Robertson, Hon. Canon of Canterbury and Vicar of Throwley, England, for these highly interesting statistics, summarized and analyzed.-EDs.] Summary of British Contributions to Foreign Missions, 1887.
Church of England Societies (Table No. I.)•…..•…………………•..•••….••……. £461,236· Joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists (Table No. II.). ……….. … ………. 187,048 English and Welsh Nonconformist Societies (Table No. III.) ………………………… 367,115 Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Societies (Table No. IV.)…………………………….. 202,940 , – – – Roman Catholic Societies (Table No. V.)………………………………………….. 10,420 Total British Contributions for 1887………………………………………… £1,228,759 N. B.-This total does not include any fund.• derived from Rents, Dividends, or Interest, nor Balances in kand from the previ0U8 year, nor any Foreign Contributions. ANALYSIS OF THE RECEIPTS, 1887.
Table No. I. Foreign Missions of the Church of England.
Analysis of Receipts.
From Abroad British When & from In- Contri- Founded. Name of each Society, and Total Amount of Receipts for 1887. "estmeuts. butions.
1799 …. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £221,330 (in addition to £48,604 received at Mission Stations). British Contributions………………………………………… . £207,704 Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad …………. , ….•……… £1,075 Dividends, Interest, and Rents. . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . ……………..••• 12,551 No B.-This Society maintain8 the Church Missionary College at Isltngt(}n, which it founded in 1825. 1701. ••. S00IETY FOR THE PRoPAGATION OF TilE GoSPEL, £112,245. British Contributions ……………………………………….. . 9~,811 Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad………………………. . 3,388 Dividends, Interests, and Rents ………………………………. . 10,051 1808 ….LONDON SOCIli:TY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS, Brft~!~~ontributions……………………………………….. .. Borne Receipts from Churchmen Abroad……••..•……..••…•..••• 1,090 28,174 Dividends, Interest, etc………………………………….•…… 2,700 1880…•CHURCH OF ENGLAND ZENANA MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £23,268. British Contributions………………………………………… . '22,674 From Abroad ………………………………………………. . 594 1823….COLON[AL AND CONTINENTAL CHURCH SOCIETY, £37,673. British Contribntions ……………………… , • •……………. . 18,395 Raised and Ex-pended Abroad ……••………………….•……… 19,237 Dividends, Interest, etc•……….•……………………….•…•.• 41 1698 …. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, £33,699 (in addition to £79,000 derived from trading).
Portion paid in aid of Foreign Mission work, about …………….. . 12,000 1860…. CENTRAL AFRICAN MISSION ON THE UNIVERSITIES, £13,285. British Contributions ……………………………………….. . From Abroad ………………………………………………. . 399 12,169 Intere"t ……………………………………… ; …………. . 717 1844…. SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £12,215. British Contribntions…. . …………………………………… . Raised and Expended Abroad …………………………………• 3,470 8,745 1870…. MISSIONARY LEAVES ASSOCIATION (aiding Native Clergy of the Church MIssionary Society), £8,348.
British Contributions……………….. . …………………… . 8,315 Dividends………………………………………………….. . 33 SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE CHURCH AID SOCIETY, £4,787. British Contributions………………………………………… . From Abroad and Sales ……………………………………… . 115 4,672 1865 ….LAPrE.' ASSOCIATION FOR PROMOTING FEMALE EDUCATION AMONG THE HEATHEN, £:;,188 (included above in the S. P. G. total), 1860…• BRITISH SYRIAN SCHOOLS, £4,196.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 4,010 Grants and Interest ……………………………………….. . 186 MELANESIAN MISSION, £4,703.
British Contributions …………………………………….. . 2,215 From Abroad……… ……………………….. …………….. 2,488 1841. … COLONIAL BISHOPRICS' FuND, £12,546.
British Contribution………………………………………. . 495 Dividends and Interest…………………………………….. 11,437 Grant from S. P. C. K. and S. P. G………………………… ••• 614 1869 …•"THE NET' 8" collections, £2,084. For McKenzie Memorial Mission …………………………… . 110 1,311 For other Funds …………………………………………… . 663 1883 …•CENTRAL AGENC.i FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, £1,646.
Sums not herein included in the totals of other Societies, about 385 1848….ST. AUGUSTINE'S MISSIONARY COLLEGE (exclUSive of Endowments for a Warden, a Sub-Warden and three.Fellows), £2,862.
From Missionary Studentship AssoCIations•..••.•…•..•..•••••.• 2,251 From Funded ExhibItions, ••••• , •••• , •••• , •• , .. ,., ••••• " •• , …… . 611 ,An-a_ly_sis_oJf-R_e-c-e-ip-t.s.. , From Abroad British When & from In- Contri- Fonnded. Name of each Society. and Total Amount of Receipts for 1887. ,estments. butions.
1860 ..• .CORAL MISSIONARY FUND (to aid Schools and Catechists of Church £22 £952 98~ l1i"sionary Society), £974. 69 997 British Contributions…………….. ………………………. 2,176 570 Interest……………………………………………………. 442 1840…. FOREIGN AID SOCIETY (for France, B"lgium. Italy and Spain)…….. 300 18M .. .. ANGLO-CONTINENTAL SOCIETY. about.. …………………………. 1867 …. DELBI MEDICAL MIS~ION TO WOMEN AND CHILDREN, about. ……… 437,236 1877 …. CAMBRIDGE MISSION TO DELHI………….. ……………….. …….. 1691 …. CHRISTIAN FAITH SOCIETY FOR THE WEST INDIES (Rents)…… ……. 24,000 COLUMBIA MISSION, about……………………………………….. Tot;al amount of Donations, Legacies and Annual Subscriptions from the British Isles to the Societies above named for 1887… ESTIMATED VALUE of other gifts sent direct to Mission Stations, or gathered specially for Missionary dioceses, schools or Zenana work………………………………………………
Total for Church of England Foreign Missione. 1887 …………. . £461,236 Table No. II. Foreign Missions-Joint Societies of Churchmen and Non- conformists-A. D. 1887.
1804…. BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOOIETY, £147,881 (in addition to £102,443 derived ('rom sales) Devoted to Foreign Mission Work, abont………………………. £89,000 1799 …. RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, £Z9,J40 (exclusive of £170,950 derived from 16,812 29,961 Trade). 9,883 Devoted to Foreign Mission Work…………………………….. 8,109 1866…. CHINA INLAND MISSION, £J3,717. 5,171 , British Cvntribntions ………•.•……. ;………………………. 4,626 From Abroad ……………………………………………….. £3,756 6,000 18fi2 …. INDIAN FEMALE NORMAL SOCIETY, £9,995 …………. :……………. 112 3,274 184ll…. BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL AMONG THE 3,100 JEWS, £~,183 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,……… 74 1,517 2;595 1834 …. S0CIETY FOR PROMOTING FEMALE EDUCATION IN TIlE EAST, £6,249 (in 7,00« addition to needlework sent abroad, valued at £.,306). £187,04~ British Coutributions……….. ………………………………
Dividend", etc., £931; Grants, £147.. .. ….. . .. .. . . . .. . . . …. . . .. . . .. 1,078 1732 …. MORAVIAN (EPISCOPAL) MISSIONS OF THE UNITED BRETHREN, £16,803.
British ContributlOns ………………. , …… ,………………..
1872 …. EAST LONDON INSTITUTE FOR HOME AND FOREIGN MISSIONS, £11,592.
Portion de·oted to Livingstone Mission and other Foreign Mission Work, abont ……………… , .. , ………….. ,…….. ……..
)858 …. CHRISTIAN VERNACULAR EDUCATION SOCIETY FOR INDIA, £4,742 (in addition to £4,904 received in India from sales).
British Contributions…………………………………………
Grants and Contributions in India ……………………………. '.' 1,402 Interest…………………….. .. ……………………….. …. 66 W ALDE:r{8IAN MISSIONS AID FUND.
English and Irish Contributions, about…………. ……………… TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCtEl'Y, £1,5~1 (iu addition to £456 from sales).
British Contributions ………………….. '" …………………. Interest .. _…………………………………………. _.. , ….. 4 1856.•.. TURKISH MISSIONS (FROM AMERICA) AID SOCIETy…….. ………….
ESTIMATJIlD VALUE of other contribntions in money and in needlework, &c………….. ……………. ……………. …………………
Total amount of British Contributions through Unscctarian or Joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists for 1887…… ……….
Table No. III. Foreign Missions of English and Welsh Nonconformists, 1887.
1813…. WESLEYAN MISSIC:l1ARY SOCIETY, £133,303 (in addition to £58,827, raised and expended in Mission Stations).
British Contributions … _……………………………. , …… . £119,898 From Abroad …………………………………………….. . £7,035 Dividends and IntereRt …………………………………….. . 6,370 1795 …. LoNDON MISSIONARY SoOIETY, £146,410.
British Contributions ……….. , . . 0 ………………………… . 118,554 Raised Abroad .. _ ………………………………………… .. 23,716 Dividends and Interest ……………………………………. .. 4.140 1792….BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £7;;,058.
British Contributions ……………………………………… . 56,173 Raised Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,3.31 Dividends,Interest1 etc…………………………………… . 1,534 1855 …. ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS, £13,450.
British Contributions……………………………………… . 13.400 From Abroad. etc…………………………………………. .. 50 For Women's l'lission Fund see below.
1867 …… FRIENDS" FnREIGN MISSION ASSOCIATION. £8,964.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 8,529 Dividends and Interest……………….. . ………………… . 435 1832 .••. WESLEYAN LADIES' AUXILIARY FOR FEMALE EDUCATION, £7,529.
British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 7.347 Interest I'nd I' Grant..• , .. , …… , ……… , …………… , … , .. . 182 Analysis o.f Receipts.
From Abroad British When & from In- Contri· Founded. Name of each Society, and Total Amonnt of Receipts for 1887. vestments. bntions. 1~56 …. UNITED ME1'HODIST FREE CHURCHES' FOREIGN MISSIONS, £17,475. British Contril:>utioDS………………………………………. £7,722 Raised Abroad. . . . . . . .. •• . . . • . . . .. •• . • . . . . .. . • .. . … . . • . . .. . . ….. £9,753 1840 .••. WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODISTS FOREIGN M,SSIONARY SOCIETY, £.,bll. British Contributions…………………………………….. . 5,118 From Abroad………………………………………………. 2,332 Interest, etc………………………………………… ……. 361 1817 …. GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £8,107. 4,735 British Contributions……………………………………… .
From Abroad…………. ………………………………….. 3,181 Interest, etc……………………………………………….. 191 METHODIST NEW CONNECTION FOREIGN MISSIONS, £3,782. British Contributions……………………………………… . 3,210 From Abroad ……………………………………………… . 464 Grants £61, Interest £47…………………………………… .. 108 1845…. EVANGELICAL CONTINENTAL SOCIETY, £2,208. British Contributions…………………………………….. .. 2,194 Interest, etc ………………………………………………. . 14 1836…. COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY, £6,314 ……………………………. . 6,053 British Contributions ………………………………………." . Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 190 Interest, etc ….. " ………………………………………….. , 71 1,829 h FRIENDS" MISSION IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE . ……………….. .
PRIMITIVE METHODIST COLONIA.L MISSIONS, about …….. .., … : ……. . 2,000 PRIMITIVE METHODIST AFRICAN MISSION, £2,154 ………………….. .
British Contributions………………………………………… . 2,042 F'rolD Abroad" .. .. . . ……. … . …………………………….. . 112 ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, £2,356.
British Contributions………………………………………. . 2,311 .
Interest …………………………………………………… .. 45 ESTIMATED VALUE of needlework sent to mission Stations, and other un· reported Contributions. …. ….. . …………………………. .. ~,ooo Total British Contribntions throngh English and Welsh Nonconform- ist Societies for 1887…….. …………………………………. £367,115 Table. No. IV. Foreign Missions of Scotch and Irish Presbyterians.
FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSIONS, £102,112.
, (British Contribntions .. £35,488 F orel.gn "JIU,SS.lOns ………………………. 1J SFcrohomolAFbereosaadn.d..G..r.a.n.t.s £5,465 2~,053 LInterest …………. .. 5,792 Ladies' Society for Female Edncation………………………….. . Jews' Conversion Fund ……………………………………… . 11,005 921 6,706 Continental Fund ………………………………………….. .. 130 5,116 Colonial Mission……………………………………………. . UNITIW PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISS[ONS, £57,465. 63 3,373 General Fund.. { British Contributions and Legacies…………. . 48,309 Interest, etc……………………………….. 4,077 CZeonnatinnaenMtaislsaionnd.C..o.l.o.n..i.a.L……………………………………l…………………………………. .. 931 J CHURCH OF SCOTLAND MISSION BOARDS, £55,709. 4,148 British Contrioutions ………………….. . Foreign Missions. '1 rna{::~st~.~~~~'.~~.~~~.l. ~~~.s.'.~.~~~.t.~,. ~.t.~ .. :" 10,~: 24,481 Jewish Mission ……………………………………… , ……. . 1,131 7,165 Colonial ",nd Continental Missions………………………….. . 11 4,938 Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions… …………………. 5,721 Ladies' Association for Educating Jewish Girls…….. ……… 811 1,117 1864…. NATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND, £16,077 (in addition to £16,439 500 15,266 from sales). 6,481 British Contributions …………………………………….. .. Interest …………………………………………………. .. 3,000 1841 …. EDINBURGH MEDICAL 1I1ISSIONARY SOCIETY, £6,981. 1,300 British Contributions ……………………………………. .. • 774 Interest …………………………………………………… . 3.000 W ALDENSIAN MISSIONS AID FUND, abou t …………………………. . 18.",1 .•.. LEBANON SCHOOLS, about ………………………………………. .
1,s'j'1, … OR.IGINAL SECESSION CHURCH'S INDIAN MISSION, about …… _………. .
ESTIMATED VALUE of other Scottish Contributions ……………. ..
Total Scottish Presbyterian Contributions, 1887…………… . £188,319 IRISH PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS, £18,500. 2,053 6,098 British Contributions…………… .. 285 274 3,553 Foreign Missions, £8,710 .. School Fees and Grant.s …………. . 3 2,800 { From Abroad. .. .. .. .. . .. .. … . ….. . 1,'719 Interest………………………… .. 97 288 Jevish Mission ……. o • o • o ••••••••••••••• _0 ••• 0 ••••••••••••••••••••• 1,167' 163 Ladi..s' Female Missionary Society…………………………. . Colonial Mission….. ' ………………………………………. . £202,940 Gujarat Orphanage ……………….• o •••••••••••••••• •••••••••• _ Continental Mission ………………………………………… . Mrs. Magee's Indian Education Fund (interest)……………… .
Total British Contributions through Scottish and Irish Pres- byterian Societies for 1887 ……………………………. .
NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
Table No. V. Foreign Missions of British Roman Catholics, 1887.
Founded. British Contributions. ASSDCll'rION FOR 'rHE PROPAGA'rION OF THE 'FAITH, £8,760. England …………………………………………………………….. £1,883 Ireland. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . .. . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . .. … . . . . .. .. .. .. . . . .. .. … .. .. .. .. 6.572 Scotland. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . … 30li N.B.-7'he total 'income of the Roman Propagnndafor 1887, collected fl'Ome1lery diocese in Christendom, amounted to 6,462,276francs .. i. e., about £258,491. 1870.•.•ST. JOSEPH'S FOltEIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY A,l'm COLLEGE, at Mill HIli, Hendon. 1,660 Total. …………………………………………………………… £10,420 SUMMARY FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS.
TOTAL BRITISlI CONTRffiUTIONS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.
1871 …………………………….. £855,742 1880 ……………………………. £1,108,950 )872…………………………….. 882,886 1881. ……………………………. 1,093,569 18T& …………………………….. 1.03:!,176 1874 …………………………….. 1,009,199 1882 ……………………………. 1,191,175 1875… , …………………………. 1,048,408 1883 …………………………….. 1,216,530 1876 … , …………………………. 1.018.472 18~4 …………………………….. 1,220,861 1877…………………………….. 1,100.793 1885 ……………… , ……………. 1,228.951 1878 …………………………….. 1,071 ,944 1886 …………………………….. 1,195,714 1887 …………………………….. 1,228,759 1879 …………. , .. , ….. , ………… 1,086,678 VIII.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Earl of Aberdeen. man in the House of Lords and at the same time moving as a benefac- THE Earl of Aberdeen, whose pic- tor among the common people ! We ture forms our frontispiece, was hon- are pleased to be able to put before ored by the presidency of the great our readers the "counterfeit pre- Conference of Missions in London, sentment" of a man noble in a douwhich began June 9, 1888. ble sense, perhaps the nearest to the late Earl of Shaftesbury of any of He is a man comparatively in.his the many lords of England, and youth-we judge not over thirty-five whose lady is not a whit behind him years of age-with black hail' and in true nobility of character. eyes, a slender figure, and a nervous temperament. While speaking he As president of the Conference he moves from side to side, rests on one performed the duties of the chair foot at a time, frequently crossing with much g'l'ace and manifest pleasone leg over the other; is by no ure, and right cordially welcomed means a flueut speaker 01' a great the delegates in' a brief speech. He orator. But his character and life aLso entertained the Conference at his are his standing oration. He is country seat a few miles from London. known among his countrymen as a Our readers, we are confident, will be man foremost in every good word glad to look upon his face. A. T. P. and work, a friend and patron of all benevolent societies and institu- The Slave Trade in Eastern Afrioa. tions, While other landed proprietors are using their immense estates IT begins to look as if the hour had for their own emolument, grinding struck for the suppression of this their poor tenants into more abject curse of curses! For the first time poverty, and while the wretched in history there is a coalition formed crpfter system leaves the land which of the great powers of Europe effectthe tenant has improved and e,"en ually to stop a traffic that for centhe hut he has built to revert to the turies has been the scandal of Chrislandlord when the term of the ap- tendom, and has entailed untold prenticeship expires, the Earl of Ab- miseries and horrors upon Africa. Competent witnesses testify that the erdeen is enabling his tenants to be- trade was never carried on more excome owners of their own little farms tensively than at the present time, and houses, parceling out his own nor with greater cruelty and sacrifice estates among his tenantry. What of life.
a blessing- to Britain to have such a Against this enormous and iniquitous trade the British Government prosperous, there was a disposition has waged a single-handed and al- to regard the activity of England in most useless warfare for half a cen- the same quarter with jealousy, and tury. Her vessels have pursued the there was ground to suspect that slavers wherever they have been the value of British co·operation found. She has kept' them in con- was not thought of till the A~ab stant fear and mitigated the evils of slave traders had proved more than the trade, but has not succeeded in a match for the company. breaking it up; indeed there has of late years been a revival of it. With England's support secured, Thank God, several of the other the circle of the alliance was com- European powers have now agreed pleted by assurances of assistance to assist in the good work. The first from Italy, Austria, France, Belsuggestion for a movement of this gium, Russia, Greece, and, last of character is credited to the Nor-th all, Portugal, in maintaini.ng a naval Ger-man Gazette, a paper which is blockade of the East African coast. supposed to be the mouthpiece of For a century or more Portugal Prince Bismarck. Recently an article has been the greatest European appeared in the Gazette which stated helper of the slave trade, having not tbat the Arab slave hunters werp not only not interfered with the slave only the curse of the native tribes hunters, but encouraged them by but a menace to the English, the putting difficulties in the way ofthose Belgians, and the Germans, and to who attempted to do so. For years the work of civilization carried on by England has endeavored to force a those nations. Hitherto, it was said, reversal of her policy. but Portugal's England had been the only power very weakaess has protected her. and that had made any effort to put a she has only yielded now reluctantly stop to the slave trade. The work, and when the pressure has become however, was too large for any sin- irresistible. gle people. "Only by co-operation can the. civilized nations concerned Among the methods of action sugsucceed in putting a stop to a state gested by these powers for the supof things which is a disgrace to our pression of the slave traffic, the most century, and we may confidently practicable, under the present cirhope that the German as well as the cumstances, is the establishment of English people will prove equal to a naval patrol along the coast of the the task which is here imposed upon Red Sea and as far south as the them alike by the sacred principles southern boundary of Zanzibar. This of religion and of humanity." In coast is now controlled for the most other words, Germany invited .Eng. part by England, Germany and Porland to join her in putting down tugal, and these three power;; might the slave trade-the invitation being together form a most effectual b.lockback~d up by a subsequent proposal ade against the slave ships touching which seems to suggest that the at Eastern ports. If these outlets anti-slavery crusade started by Car- are permanently closed and the slave dinal Lavigerie might be advantage- traders cut off from all their princiously used as the basis for common pal markets, the traffic must soon action. come to an end of itself. J. M. S.
What stirred up Germany to make THE refusal of the American Gov- . this proposal were the troubles lately ernment to unite with other great experienced by the German settlers powers in putting an end to the drink and traders on the East African coast. traffic, so utterly destructive of piety, So long as the affairs of the Ger- morals, human happiness and human man East" African Company were life in the Western Pacific, may well arouse all true men and women to a vigorous remonstrance. In Polynesia This evil of drink is so mighty and the native races are in danger of ex- so increasing that the most strenuous termination by the" unrestricted use exertions should be at once put forth of firearms, ammunition, dynamite, and especially intoxicating drinks." to at least prevent its fiuding new fields for its destructive and demoI,li- acal work with the countenance of u.
For the sake of the profits accruing Christian government. A. T. P from this infamous business traders The Brazilian Synod. pus!} their trade and thrust "firewater" upon these poor savages. IT is doubtless known to our read- ers that the last General Asseml,ly Then these ignorant and degraded of the Presbyterian Church appointed and half brutal people. maddened by Drs. J. Aspin wall Hodgeand Charles drink, act like madmen, and use E. Knox to assist iIi the organization murderous weapons and explosives with fearful recklessness. Is it any of the independent Union Synod of ~onder that Christian missions Brazil, representing both the Northmake but little progress among ern and- the i:::louthern Presbyterian them? What head way can the most Church. While these two branches heroic labors make when offset by a of the great Presbyterian family at home were not ready to come to- gether again as one, the mission churches of both and the missiona- diabolical intoxicant that unseats ries of both, in "Brazil, earnestly reason from her throne and turns the sought a union, which has been haphuman body into a stronghold of Satan and sets every power and pily accomplished. The occasion was one of intense and memorable inter- est, and the Union Synod will un- passion on fire of hell! Austria i doubtedly become a great power in and Germany, Russia and France, that kingdom. The delegates came and even Protestant England and America, join hands in this nefarious back full of enthusiasm, which they have imparted to several of thegr~at home synods.
traffic. To such a terrible extent has .. It is a grand truth, when one fully compre. hends and measnres it," says The Church at it gone that an effort to terminate it Home and Abroad, .. that another independent was inaugurated through the "sim- Presbyterian body las been created in the world by purely missionary work. Five months ago ultaneous and united agreement of the Presbyterian Chnrch of PerSia, also a child of missions, was taken into the fellowship of the all the powers interested." Lord Presbyterian Alliance in London. Now the Granville, the Eng-lish Foreign Secre- second, the offspring of the Presbyterian Boards North and South, is ready to be added to the tary, the prime mover in the under- Alliance; and by the time that the next quad- rennial meeting of that body shall be held in taking, received favorable answers • Toronto we hope that there may be still others from all the governments except the ready for admission."
United States, which should have Fr.om the letter of our Editorial Correspondent at Chefoo, China, Rev. been prompt to respond and to Dr. Nevius, elsewhere given, we learn second the laudable movement with- that one of the important questions out regard to the money interests of discussed by the Synod of China, at traders. Secretary Bayard has here- its recent session, was the union of tofore taken high moral grounds in his state papers, but the Christian all missions in the empire holding sentiment and conscience of the na- the Presbyterian system of doctrine and form of government. A com- mittee, consisting of A. P. Happel', tion demand a better and more posi- D.D., John L. Nevius, D.D., and Rev. George F. Fitch, with an equal numtive answer than the following, of ber of native brethren, wasappoi'lted to correspond with the representaour Secretary of State: tives of the other" consulting" mis- sionary bodies laboring in China, and "While recognizing and highly approving the to propose a meeting of delegates moral force and general propriety of the pro- from all such bodies at Shanghai in posed regnlations, and the responsibility of con- 1890 during the meeting of the Misducting such traffic nnder proper restrictions, sionary Conference already arranged the government of the trnited States does not· for. Another forward step in the feel entirely prepared to join in the international interest of union on mission ground nnderstanding proposed, and will. therefore, for the present, restrain its action to the employ- J. M. S_ ment, in the direction ontlined by the snggested arrangement, of a sonnd discretion in permitting traffic between its own citizens referred to, .and the natives of the Western Pacific Islands."
The Missionary Review of the World — December 1888
THE RELATIONS_ OF MISSIONS AND COMMERCE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI. No. 12.-Old 8eries._ _DECEMBER, _ _VOL. I. No. 12.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE RELATIONS OF MISSIONS AND COMMERCE.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
[Read before the late General Missionary Conference, London.] PAUL at Ephesus encountered not only the general opposition of'
tile world, the flesh, and the devil, but he had special trouble with an unprincipled craftsman. At Philippi, also, he found a stock company making merchandise of a half-demented girl whose conversion inter- fered with their business. And from that day to this, human rapac- ity has again and again thrust itself across the path of philanthropy and beneficence.
We do not forget that legitimate commerce has been a great factor in the development of civilization and even in the progress of the gospel.
The growth of the early Church followed the liues of trade across the Mediterranean, and on the Continent of Europe Latin Christianity penetrated the forest homes of stalwart races where Roman arms and merchandise had opened the way. Secular enterprise has built the great Christian cities of our Western hemisphere, and opened mission fields everywhere in the chief islands of the sea. The California of to-day could not have been created by missionary effort alone, and the magnificent spectacle of a British Empire in Southern Asia, with its Bible, its schools and colleges, its law and order, its manifold en- lightenment and moral elevation, could not have existed but for the long and sometimes questionable career of the East India Company.
But there is no universal law in the case. Civilization, even in its rougher forms, has not always preceded the missionary move- ment. Often it has pr<ved a hindrance. Throughout British Ameri(ja, mission stations have followed the factories of the fur traders ; but in Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, and Madagascar, mi?siollflry ,labor 11as led the way~ Qenturies.ago, also, missionaries fron;J, Ireland and Iona, pene~rating not onlyEn~land and. Scotland, putmany pm.'- ,tions.of the Continent, were unattended. by secularenterprise"q,nd yet .their.inflnence Wa8S0 strong and deep that Europe and the. world have ,feltlt Il.nd.rejoiced i:nit ever since. Those hordes of Nortbmen whom Br i. t a i n -could,." n. ot. r e si-s~t. , .n or the armi!.)s of C-4~r- lElma-gne con q-ue r or eveD.: ,~ " " .~ check, were tamed at last by the simple, aggressive influence of the gospel, unattended by either military or commercial power.
Three things have been found almost universally true: first, that the gospel has always elevated the character and established the power of our civilization in whatever lands its influence has reached. More than once has it been confessed that England could scarcely have retained her Indian possessions but for the conservative influence of those Ohristian missions which measurably restrained the injustice of rulers, while it promoted the enlightenment and the loyalty of' native princes and peoples.
The second principle, which is generally true, is that the first contacts of commerce, and especially during the period of rough adventure and lawlessness, are evil. Whether adventurers have gone before or have followed the missionary, their influence has caused a blight. Whale-fishermen in Tahiti and Hawaii, convicts in Tasmania, kidnappers in Melanesia, slave traders in Oongo, opium dealers in China, and whiskey venders among the Indian tribes of North America-all have proved a curse.
It is impossible to exaggerate the hindrances which have been thrown in the way of the gospel by these influences. And the distinctions which are made in our own lands between the Ohristian name and the wrongs and vices that prevail in the general community, callnot be appreciated by those who s.ee us at a distance, and mainly on our worst side. Judging from the wholesale classifications of their own religious systems, they naturally identify the name European or American with the generic name of Ohristian.
Moreover, while here at home most men are under conventional restraints, adventurers in distant mttrts, removed from influences of home, too often give loose rein to their lowest instincts, throw off allegiance to Ohristian influences, and become hostile to missionaries and to missionary effort. They are hostile because the high principles and clean lives of missionaries carry with them an implied condemnation of their own shameless vices.
I wish it were possible to feel that governments, as such, had ·been wholly free from wrongs to inferior races. But there is no one of the so-called Ohristian nations which can cast the first stone at another. All have been guilty, more or less. These facts become more serious when we consider that to these nations our lost world chiefly looks for the blBssed gospel.
The early American colonies had Ohristian missions for one great motive in their settlement. There it might have been expected that commerce and evangelization would proceed hand in hand, and that William Penn's beautiful drea:nl of brotherhood would be realized, but although we have had in the last 250 years three heathen races on whom to exercise our gifts-the Indian, the, African and the Mongolian-we have abused them all, and each in a different way. Our record is sad snd disgraceful, and we are in no mood to read lectures to other Christian nations. But we are ready to unite with them, heart and hand, in any measures of amendment.
There are consolations in this dark history, as there are in the coolie traffic of the South Pacific. One is, that all this time the Christian Church, or at least portions of it, have realized the wrong, and have done what they could to save the people from destruction and lead them unto eternal life. There have never been more beautiful exemplifications of Christian love than those which were exhibited by Moravian missionaries through all the early history of our dealings with the American Indians. And thousands of our own people have followed their worthy example. Never in the whole history of martyrdom has one seemed to follow so nearly in the footsteps of the vicarious Redeemer, and so to fill up the remainder of His suffering even unto death, as the saintly Patteson, who literally died for the sins of unscrupulous kidnappers, of the Caucasian race.
A third principle is, that improvement generally follows as commerce becomes established. There is much comfort in this. The fi1;st rough adventurers are at length followed by a better class. Homes are established by Christian merchants; fathers who are solicitous for the moral atmosphere which surrounds their children, exert a wholesome influence; the missionary is no longer sneered at, but is supported; vice that was open and shameless is fro.wned upon. The church and school have arrived. In many a land where the first wave of our civilization .seemed to cast up only mire and dirt, order, intelligence and religion at length prevailed.
There was a time in San Francisco when the courts of justice were paralyzed, and when the right-minded citizens felt constrained to send to Hawaii for a missionary to return and establish a Christian church in his own land. Even saloon-keepers joined in the call, alleging that without a church and Christian institutions no man's life was safe.
In all new mining fields, whether in America, or Australia, or South Africa, the first contact has been demoralizing, and yet in those same settlements, when order had been established, when the Christian family had arrived, when a church and a schoolhouse, and a Christian press and Christian influence had obtained a footing, all was changed. And dark as the problem of civilization in Africa now is, and urgent as may be the duty imposed upon us to save the present generation, we do not hesitate to prophesy that European civilization in West Africa a-half century hence will be full of life and light. Even at the worst; we are by no means disposed to hand Africa over to Islam, which in all these centuries has done so little for the heathen tribes-which, by degrading woman, has tended to destroy the family, and, therefore, the State, ~nd which has depopulated every. country that it has ever controlled. The only hope of Africa. is in our Christian civiliza- tion.
But if missions are to prosper in the future, it will be important to promote a more just sentiment toward inferior races. The time should soon come when races like the American Indians, or the Maoris of "flew Zealand; should be allowed equal natural rights with Caucasians.
The time should soon come-if missions are to be a success-when might shall not make right, but weaker nations shall be treated as one European nation would treat another. The time should soon come when treaties with a country like Japan shall not be made and en- forced mer6ly for the convenience or profit of the great Powers, but shall have the same regard for even-handed justice as if the Japanese navies were thundering at our gates. The time should come when all commerce shall be so regulated that it shall not curse the nations with which we have to do. We have often counted upon improvements in inter-communication as factors in the advancement of the human race and as agencies of Redemption, but of late we are sometimes rather appalled than cheered. For example, the fond hopes which we cher- ished five years ago in regard to the opening of the Congo, have been sadly clouded over. And the fact that the Congo State is under inter- national control would seem to render it a proper subject of considera- tion in this International Conference.
Allow me to call special attention to this subject. Whatever may be thought of the propriety of discussing here the abuses that may exist in the colonies of separate European powers, there can be no doubt of our privilege and duty in this case. The Valley of the Congo is com- mon ground, and moreover, it is a vast mission field. Directly across the path of our progress in the evangelization of the Dark Continent lies this gigantic evil of the liquor trade. At the very gateway of our missionary enterprise crouches this hydra, whose hideous proportions no flight of poetic imagination can exaggerate. I need not give the statistics nor discuss the details which have become so familiar, but success or failure in African missions is concerned in this issue. The toils and sufferings of our brave missionaries appeal to us. How can we continue to send our heroic Hanningtons, and Combers,andPark- ers, and yet neglect the very first duty which we owe to Africa? The honor of the Christian name is at stake. Those who persist in.ign<1l'ing thed~inction .between· so-called Christian. nations I,tud the Christ~n Church, arear,raigning the Ohurch for neglect in. this matter., ~~y: are parading the'conservative infiuellce.:of Isla~, all the· beat: hope ai AIi'iea, and are eUl'sing the daytlmt our Christian civilizatio;!ildistllrhed it&: reign. – .; ,0'" , " ,'"",, "
Raeems desirable to treat this question ou broad gJ:ounda,whi(lh..~iU enlist,thesympathiel!lofth~ larg.est possible.oonstituan~J. Thejs~e hefore;Uis is n!)t thetemperanoequestiou with: ,which-.manl otusc BE"6 accustomed to deal. It has all the enormity of systematic cruelty to" children; it is a conspiracy by representatives of civilizcd nations against simple tribes of men who know not what they do. On such an issue the humane and pitiful of every name-Protestant or Catholic, Christian or unchristian-should unite their common protest.
The proofs that the rum traffic among the African tribes tends to destroy all other departments of trade, are so numerous and so well known that I need not dwell upon them. It is enough that this ac- cursed evil blights all hope of the present generation, that even those who had begun to gather about them the comforts of civilization have gone back to barbarism-that women who had learned something of modesty have again discardetl clothing that all their resources may be expended for drink. But the evil is not confined to the present; it incapacitates the people for future commerce al!d thrift; it casts a , blight upon those whose hopes have been turned toward Central Af- rica as a great field of true commerce. Never before has Christendom made so gratuitous a concession to the sordid gains of a few unscrupu- lous blsiness firms-one which involved so great a cost to national honor, to the fair name of the Christian Church, and to the best in- terests of millions of mankind.
No doubt great discouragements beset this question, and many whose sympathies are really touched are nevertheless hopeless of results. We may be very sure that the representatives of the liquor traffic are quietly but effectively exerting their influence to thwart every effort 'made in the interest of humanity. I am informed that at Washington an agent is employed by the" liquor interests," whose whole time and energy are employed to baffle all attempts supposed to conflict with their busmess.
But, on the other hand, what are some of our encouragements to , effort? " First, the fact that so much has already been done to arouse public sentiment on the subject. I refer to the various public meetings which have been held in London, and especially to the formation of a work- ing committee representing the Missionary Societies of Great Britain. , Second, that the constitucncies represented here are so vast and may' be so influential. Mr. W. T. Hornaday, of Washington, D. C., has pertinently'asked: "Who are the more powerful, the traders who de- sire to enrich themselves out of the palm oil purchased with gin, or the Christian nations which were represented at the Berlin Conference, with their 388,000,000 of Christians? America has sixty-five foreign missionary societies, Great Britain seventy-two, and the Continent of Europe fifty-seven, not including those of the Roman Catholic Church. Are thoy not strong enough to cop.. with th.. rum traffic on the . Congo?"
A third encouragement is found in the fact that a united movement by the Christian Church is in the line of true commercial interest.
All enlightened statesmanship should be on our side. The Royal African Company, tradiug on the Niger, has already restricted the rum traffic on that river as a matter of business policy; as the only hope, in fact, of promoting legitimate commerce. .
Fourth. We find encouragement even in the counsels of the Bel'lin Conference. Count De Launy of Italy, Sir Edward Malet of Ind'ia.
Mr. Kasson of the United States, and Count Van der Straten of Bel- gium plead for restriction. And the Conference itself finally adopted a sort of compromise, by expressing" a wish that some understanding should be arrived at between the Governments to regulate the traffic in spirituous liquors." Even the representatives of France and Ger~ many, though not voting for restriction by the great Powers, expressed the belief that "the Congo Government, in any measures which it might deem it wise to adopt, would find the Powers ready to co- operate to this end." 4nd the Congo Government, represented by the King of the Belgians, is more than ready to do all that the sentiment oj the nations will sustain him in doing. .
Have we not, then, great reason to believe that a united plea of all Christendom would be listened to by the contracting Powers? I say a nnited plea, for separate national movements are considered wellnigh useless. Each Government would feel that its own individual action would only cut off its subjects from the profit of the trade, and throw it into other hands, without at all diminishing the devastations which we deplore. It must be an international movement to be successful.
The same Powers that made the original treaty can revise it, and we represent those Powers.
But the strongest consideration which presses upon us is found in a most touching appeal which comes from an unexpected source. A, line of action has been suggested, providentially and significantly, by a Mohammedan prince in West Africa. I marvel that so little heed has been given to his words. The Emir of Nupe, speaking for his own dominions, sent many months ago the following stirring message to Bishop Crowther of the Niger Mission: "It is not a long matter," runs the appeal, "it is about barasa (rum).
It has ruined our country; it has ruined our people very much; it has made our people mad." And then, in the name of God and the Prophet, he beseeches Bishop Crowther to ask the Committee of the Church Missionary Society to petition the Government to prevent bring- ing barasa into his land. May we not consider this an appeal not merely to the Church Missionary Society but to all missionary societies in this Conference, and to the ~hurches which they represent? Has not this Mohammedan prince struck a keynote for this great occasion? What particular measures shall be adopted it is for the wisdom of this great body to decide. May God direct its councils!
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT. .887 –
And what if we should .not fully succeed? Let us suppose the very worst: yet one thing is certain, at least, the reproach of the Christian name will have been removed. It can no longer be said that the Church -is sitting at her ease while the powers ,of darkness seem to triu~ph.
And lastly, there is one great power supreme over all1 which we may believe is wholly on our side, and to that our petitions should arise as with the voice of one earnest and importunate soul. Africa is a vineyard which God has given to His Son for a possession, and the cause of African missions is a vine of His own right hand's planting. Let us pray, therefore, "that the boar out of the wood" shall not waste it, I and H the wild beast of the field" shall not devour it.
MISSIONS IN THE LEVANT: THEIR PROBLEMS, METHODS AND RESULTS.
BY REV. EDWIN M. BLISS. 1. THE PROBLEMS.
THERE are few departments of Christian work that 4ave to meet such shifting problems as foreign missions. Weare accustomed to the rapid mar~h of events in our own land, but too often have an idea that while we are moving others are standing still; or else we lose sight of distances of time as well as space, and imagine that changes which, even in the keen air of the West: have taken generations, should be accomplished in the East in a few decades. It is one of the most difficult, albeit one of. the essential, elements in a sound judgment of our foreign missions that we recognize, and correctly estimate, the changing phases of the problems they have to meet.
When American missionaries first entered the Levant they encountered a dominant false faith, a corrupted Christianity and Judaism. Islam, proud of its past success, was copfident of its superiority and assured of its ability to meet the rush of Western civi~ization, and either conquer or utilize it. The Jews, reserved, clannish, returned the contempt of Moslem and Christian with a hatred intensified by the repression of centuries. The Christian, guarding jealously the relics of the conquest of the early Church, looked with disdain at the offspring of the barbaric West who came to teach them Christianity! The problem of missions in the Levant, fifty years !;tgo, was to establish themselves, secure a foothold.
That foothold has been secured. Evangelical Christianity has established itself on a firm basis and is recognized as a permanent factor in the life of the whole region.
Thus its relations have altered. Islam recognizes a foeman worthy of its steel. The Christian churches are beginning to think they have a friend rather than an enemy. The Jews alone remain unchanged, 'apparently unaffected, and Am~rican missions have turned from them to the small element of original paganism that has until recently been hid from sight among the mountains where the relics of the Hittite Empire have lain ~o long buried.
The question of Ohristianity V8. Islam is attracting the earnest con- sideration of the world as never before. Not to ~nter into the general discussion, it is sufficient to say that the question in the Levant is essen- tially different from that in India or Africa. In Africa, Islam has practically free scope for all its efforts, unhindered opportunity to use the means by which it achieved its early successes. As a religion, it is unquestionably superior to fetichism, and when it has only fetichism to meet, it will always win the day. In India, too, it has almost un- limited sources to draw from, and if hemmed in on one side, can easily spread out on another. In the J.Jevant it has exhausted its re- sources. Its aiID now is, not to advance, but to hold its own against both outward attack and inward decay. Shrewd, farse'eing men have recognized the irresistible advance of Western civilization, and have . sought to find some means of assimilating it to the precepts of the . Koran. Others, with perhaps a keener sense, have declared the two absolutely incompatible. Isillm must conquer civilization, or be con-, quered by it. Hence have arisen two opposing parties, young Tur- key and old Turkey, and .ninisterial crises gain a new significance, when we realize that they are by no means merely political, but are the outcome of contests that, little by little, are disintegrating the whole . fabric of the Oaliphate.
In these contests evangelical Ohristianity exercises an important, though not always perceptible, influence. It shows few converts. Its work is still preparatory-sapping and mining, rather than direct assault. Were there religious liberty for Moslems, what might be we can hardly say. When, under the pressure of Europe, Imperial " Hatts " declared freedom of conscience for the Sultan's subjects, it was the Ohristian sects that the Turkish Government had in view. To this day, no man can turn from Islam without incurring loss of every- thing. The problem of missions in the conflict with Islam is how to work so that when the break comes, as come it must, Ohristianity shall be able to hold the ground. In order to do this, it must be quick to see opportunities, wise in their use, pati~nt while results seem very small.
Evangelical Ohristianity in its relations with the corrupted Ohristi- anityof the Eastern churches has passed through several stages. At first it was hailed with gladness, being looked upon as a hopeful means of securing freedom from the oppression of the Moslem Government. Soon it appeared, however, that the immediate result was to under- mine and destroy the influence of the hierarchies. and the whole power of the priesthood was hurled against it. The influential lay element was also hostile, not so much because of its sympathy with and respect for the ecclesiastical, as because in the course of these centuries church life has become so welded with national life as to be practically the same thing. He who left the Ohurch left the nation, and every heretic was so far forth a traitor. To understand this fully and give no undue blame to the opponents of Protestant missions, it is essential to study the history and organization of the Eastern churches. It will then appear: that our great problem has been to show that a man could be an evangelical Ohristian and still remain an American historian, Greek, Oopt or Bulgarian. Here came the sharpest contest. There are few more interesting studies in the history of missions than those that show the growth of peace through strife. Over and over again have the Saviour's words been proven true, " I came not to bring peace, but a sword," and yet by the sword has peace been established. Thefirst missionaries said to the native churches: "We have come not to establish a new church, simply to help you in your own church life." They soon found that impossible. In the face of persecution and excommunication they were compelled to form a new church, organize a Protestant Ohristianity. The immediate problem was thus changed. This must first be put on a sure footing, establish its distinctive character. The gospel preached was largely, of necessity, a gospel of separation. Now again there is III change coming. The Protestant Ohurch is recog– nized as a distinct power in the land. Still very inferior in numbers, its influence is out of all proportion to its size. Its opponents cannot fail to recognize this, and many are already calling a halt, considering whether alliance is not better than war. In this there is both hopa and danger. Dividing partitions are breaking down, and many hith· erto unapproachable are coming within the reach of evangelical ideas. On the other· hand, pure Ohristianity has ever suffered more from diplomacy than from persecution. It is well to say, as is being S/1id again, "we have no interest in a Protestant Ohurch as such; our effort . is for a Christian life, by whatever name that life may be called." But is a true, enlightened Ohristian life possible in connectior.. with the old communions? An ignorant Ohristian life is undoubtedly possible, but can the same be said of an enUghtened Ohristian life? Are the old churches capable of reformation, or have they become so affected by the dry rot of an ignorant ecclesiasticism that the only thing possible is to tear down, gently if possible, lest the dust of ages rise in such clouds as to choke the workers and build up a.n entirely new edifice? If so, what shall the edifice be? How far shall Western wine be put into Eastern bottles? Will the true evangelical American be an American still, with his old national traits the same, only purified? or will he he something as different from his old self as the American is from his English, Irish or German ancestor of a few generations since?
Then, a.gain, there are all the problems of social life. What are· the relations that should exist between evangelical Ohristianityand the existing social customs of the people? How far should each community be left to work out its own problems? How much guidance andinfluence may be advantageously used to direct aright and at the 'sametime ' not check that normal natural growth, without which life has no gen- ' uine, permanent character? Such questions come up by the score in every mission station. The problem is not so much" How to reach the masses," but "How to guide them." The age of simple evangelism has passed; the era of growth is well under way, and the problems before a mission's annual meeting, whether in Egypt, Syria and Persia, or in Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, are the sa.me that perplex the learned convocations of, scientists, philosophers, theologians and philanthropists in Europe and America.
Evangelical Ohristianity in its relations to Paganism furnishes a somewhat new problem for the Levant. It has been popularly understood that 0hristianityand Islamism had so permeated the. whole region that paganism, pure and simple, had been crowded out. Later investigations, however, have' showu amQng the mountains, south and west of Antioch, and along the Persian border, large communities which, while nominally Moslem, are really pagan. The Misairyeh of Northern Syria are the lineal descendants in.race and religiou of the Oanaanites who fled before Joshua, and the Yezideesof Kurdistan probably keep up the rites of the Oarduchi that harassed Xenophon and the ten thousand. Both classes are as yet almost absolutely inaccessible to any Ohristian influence. Holding to their ancient faith with a pertinacity that is wonderful, yet compelled by a relentless oppression to cover their belief under the forms of a hated religion, they have developed a power of deceit and dissimulation that probably has no equal in the historyof any race. Defying all investigation, punishing treachery or apostasy with instant death, they seem impregnable to approaches of allY kind. There is something almost fascinating in their gloomy isolation, which has repelled all Ohristian workers except.the sturdy Scotch Oovenanters,who, with persistency not less dogged thall their own, but a faith that lays hold on the power of the Highest, have commenced an attack. Their problem is sim.ple, but not the less difficult. They drill, not through rock, but adamant.
None of these problems, however, are greater than that of infidelity. It is one of the strangest things in nature, that light and air, in themselves so essential to health, when brought in contact with what has been kept in darkness, so often bring not health, but fermentation and decay. The first result of exposing the errors in old beliefs is the shaking of all belief. The Moslem reads the Bible~ loses his faith in the Koran, and is apt to doubt the validityof the Bible, too. ,To his mind, each disproves the other. What, then, shall he believe? Too often nothing. The Copt,Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian; 'finding that the Testament does not indorse the practices of a church hallowed byages :of implicit faith,. jumps at the conclusion that the creed at thefounda- tion of those practices must also be wrong, and casts overboard all
¥IRACLES OF
creed; or rather, because au Orieutal.canIJ.ot live without one, mak~s a Greed of creedlessness. The spread of infidelity through the Levantis appalling, and many a time does the missionary, whether onthe sea- board or far inlaud, stand dismayed to find that it has gained a foot- hold where he least expected. To go into detail is unnecessary. .Every pastor and teacher knows what the problem is. Varying, perhaps, iu some of its forms, it is essentiall.f the same, whether in America, Europe,Asia or Africa. Here home and foreign workers join hands•. The pastor who feels that he knows but little of the per- plexities of work abroad, to whom Moslem and Nestorian are but vague individualities, knows that an infidel is much the same whether he wear hat or turban, be clad in the somber hues of the West or the brighter colors of the East.
This is but a sketch, a glimpse such as the pebble might gain of the . bottom of the ocean as it skims the surface, touching but here and there. There has been no attempt to state the problems in full; simply to outline their nature, in the hope that sympathy may be developed and prayer directed. The great work is one. He helps most who sympathizes most, and he sympathizes most who understands best.
THEMIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.-NO. VIII. [EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] SYRIA.
SYRIA presents another of the unmistakable signs of the superna- tural power at work in the great field of missions.
Asaad Shidiak was the secretary of the Maronite Patriarch. When the lamented and beloved Pliny Fisk, after kissing the lips of the dy- ing .Levi Parsons, in Alexandria, himself returned to Jerusalem to follow his friend, within two years, he wrote, in his last hours, a fare- well letter to Dr. Jonas King, and while Messrs. Bird and Goodell sat by his pillow and listened for his dying words, he passed away, mourned even by weeping Arabs. About this time, over sixty years ago (1825), there was a remarkable state of religious inquiry. There was moving in Syria the same Power that moved there at the first Pen- tecost in Jerusalem, and afterward in Oesarea and Antioch. Men were pricked in their hearts and came to the missionaries to learn the truth, peing convinced of the shallowness and emptiness of their own relig- ious systems. At the same time rose the persecutiug spirit, which for more than a quarter of a ceutury interfered with missionary work in Syria. The Sultan issued his firman to all the pachas of Western Asia prohibiting the circulation of the Word of God, and the Maronite con- verts had to face death like the martyrs of the first centuries.
Asaad Shidiak, the secretary of ·the Maronite patriarch, and after- ward the tutor of Jonas King, was employed to copy Mr. King's fare-
"892 THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS. " i[DEiO
well letter from Pliny Fisk. And he attempted to answer it.· As he reached the last page of his reply, like a flash o.f lightning the truth struck him. He saw that he was arguing against his own reason and conscience and opposing the higher teaching of the divine Spirit. He was intellectu,ally honest, and, seeing himself in error, was candid enough to acknowledge it and surrender himself to his convictions. The heart makes the theology, and h,is heart gave up the rebellious attitude which had led him to depart from the living God. He dared to say that he saw himself in error and openly forsook it. 'rhe Patriarch tried persuasion. He wrote him patriarchal epistles, and sent him enticing, and then mandatory messages; he promised him official pro- motion, he sought to bribe his conscience to compromise with his con- victions; then he threatened him with excommunication and all the terrors of the Church's indignation. But it was all in vain.
He sought to win and to warn him by personal interviews, but in- effectually. Then Asaad Shidiak's marriage contract was annulled, but even against the beguilements of woman's love, the convert proved heroically steadfast. Twenty of his relatives conspire against him, and by force deliver him into the patriarch's hands, and by the patriarch he is cast into prison. He is confined to a cell, loaded with chains, and tortured daily with cruel scourgings. The people are allowed to visit him, to revile and mock him, and to spit in his face as they had done with his Master before him. His own kindred joined in this cruel per- secution, and not only would not interpose to secure his release, but opposed it.
Once they led Asaad Shidiak out of his dungeon and placed before him an image of the Virgin to be kissed by him in token of homage . and recantation of error. The alternative was a vessel of burning coals. He chose the burning coals, pressed them to his lips, and with a scorched and blackened mouth returned to his cell. At length they built up entirely around him a wall, leaving but a small aperture .through which he could get breath, and through which they could pass him enough food to keep him alive, and so prolong the sufferings of the starving man. His body wasted and became a skeleton, but his mind was invincible. His heroic spirit defied them to break the cord of love that bound him to his Lord. They killed the body, but after .that had no more that they could do ; and. before that body gave up the ghost, Asaad Shidiak, the Maronite martyr, had proved to them . that they could not subdue the spirit of one whom the Lord had led into the clear light of His own truth and the fellowship of His dear Son. Syria had once more sealed with martyr's blood the testimony of Jesus I
THE MEN FOR·
THE MEN FOR MISSIONARIES.
BY REV. PROF. DELAVAN L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.
AND the women as well. Through long years the cry for more men has been painful almost to agony. For lack of laborers the Master's work has languished everywhere, while much more than half the world has lain altogether untilled and desert. But, now at length, we be- gin with joy to behold hundreds offering themselves, ready to go even to the ends of the earth. And hence, it may not be amiss, indeed, there is special need to remember, that though numbers are indis- pensable, the spiritual quality and the intellectual caliber of the heralds of the Cross are a matter of even greater moment. For, after aU that has been said to the contrary, the idea is still by far too common, that the choicest of the sons of God must be reserved for regions where the gospel is already well established, and that if only possessed of piety, anybody will answer for the frontier or the foreign field. Whereas, the task .of exploring and pioneering, of founding and building, of gathering and moulding, is such and so great, that the mediocre, the thin-blooded the white-livered, the dull-eyed, are certain to fail and prove a hind- rance, and only men of nerve and mettle, of force and fire, of large ca- pacity for planning, and leading, and inspiring, can at all meet the de- mands of the case. And, in particular, the mission field has bound- less room for 1. The man 1cho loves. That is, through the combined operation of grace and nature,has a genius for loving-goes after people heart foremost -and thus readily wins confidence and affection. What continual cheer and manifold benediction arise' in a face and voice overflowing with kindness and sympathy! The missionary must love men as others love gold or glory, pleasure or power-with a passion. He must love all men, great and sntaIl, white and black, cleanly and unkempt, and'especialiy the bad, even to the non-churchgoing and the outrageously wicked. Concerning publicans and sinners, harlots and saloon-keepers, instead of passing them by as outcasts and hopeless, his cry must be, Lord, show me how to teach and win! Love effectually smothers disgust and fear of failure.
With a life evidently so pure as to be above all suspicion of countenancing the least of their evil-doing should be joined such a spirit and demeanor that the worst shall feel instinctively that they have found a friend and ., helper•. Love finds slight place for frowns and rebukes, and.nonE) stall 'for -scolding and fault-finding., -. . .
~. ,The man who -prays•. , ,As Jesus did, who had no need totrav,et or ,climb to the place ofcoznmqnion,but liye!l every hou~.asin-theinupe . diate p~eseReeQf His F~ther,_aRd preathed.pont4lu31ly the,atJIl~phflre Y-of;:de'V'otion~ There IS special Ileed that. th~ missionary pray in t:w.sUe~p ~~t, fune~tsense,· because the task on hand for him is so . arduous, that " only heav~nly 'w~om and might will ate all avail. 'l'he, v:.ery high~st of merely human h&lp~ are ridiculously inadequate. Not tQ speak of the immeasurable mass of ignorance and superstition and moral corruption which overspreads the heathen world, the human mind by sin is so dark- ened, the heart is so stained and scarred, the will is so perverse, that the . same invincible forces are required which in ancient days opened blind eyes, cleansed lepers, stilled the winds and waves; and brought dead Laz-' arus forth from the tomb. In such a desperate case there is no help or hope but in resorting to Him for whom nothing is too hard. It were fool- ish and insane to attempt the regeneration of Utah, or Mexico, or India, or Japan, except in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and in firm reliance on the sweet promise, "My word shall not return unto me void."
3. The man who sees. Perceives clearly things unseen and invisible to most. Too many walk habitually only in that carnal wisdom and prudence from which the best things of the kingdom are hopelessly hidden. Fear and unbelief are stone blind; ,at least have eyes only for difficulty and danger. To the soul sluggard there is always a lion in the street. At first Elisha's servant beheld only the Syrian host encompassing the city, but at the prayer of the prophet his eyes were opened, and then he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. A sharp vision for heavenly helps is an indispensable part of a missionary's furnishing, for without it he cannot attain unto that faith "which treads on impossibilities," and hesitates not to venture out at God's command, not knowing whither, or caring to know; Only this celestial sight is able to discover in the foundation and scaffolding the dust and din of the building process, the sure prophecy of the fair temple in due season to stand complete, or in the actual and external of the individual, of society, or of the church to-day, the divine ideal steadily advancing, and some time without fail to be revealed. Not to see things invisible is to have slight call to be a standard-bearer in the Lord's host.
4. Tlte man who 10a-its. Or, is divinely patient, because confident in God and hopeful, sure that righteousness sits upon the throne. "He that believeth shall not make haste." Our Lord was strangely calm, was never excited or in a hurry; and there is great need that His ser- vants keep cool and preserve their equanimity, that the judgment be not seriously deranged by the sudden and fierce onset of some impetu- ous emotion. It is so easy to fret because of evil-doers, and to wax impatient because the wheels of the kingdom move so slowly. There is constant call for that gospel temperance which is continence or 8e1£- control. Time is indispensable in healing inveterate evils. Good in- stitutions grow only by slight increments. And the over-fiery is bkely to work even greater mischief than the sluggard. To speak unwisely and rashly may be worse than not to speak at all. One needs to master the situation and thoroughly to understand the fa.cts in the case-needs to gain a place in the confidence and esteem of menbdore he is in a condition to do much toward setting things to rights which have gone all awry.
5. The man who rustles. A term in frequent and honored use upon the frontier, but not yet received into the dictionary. Waiting is not' the only virtue, and it lies hard by a vice. A rustler is one who is up early and at it with all his might, full of masculine vigor, and of enterprise and tact. He does not sit with folded hands, waiting for good things to happen, but exerts himself to the utmost to make them happen. To rustle for souls is to go out after them, hunt them up and lay hold of them, and in the same heroic fashion to make sure of congregations, money, or whatever else is required; patience and modesty, and passive endumnce are well in their place, but there is also large room for push and dash, and Ohristian strategy and the wisdom of the serpent. The servant of the Lord is not allowed always to follow the Fabian policy, or to fight simply upon the defensive; it is also for him to set forth npon campaigns of aggression, carrying the war into Africa and making fierce assaults.
6. The man 1()7w sings. Literally and figuratively, playing included, sings with the lips and with the heart, and with the understanding. The missionary should learn how to. sing songs in the night of sorrow and of peril and of pain, as Paul and Silas did in the Philippian' prison. His heart should be trained to sing continually for joy and to praise God at all ·times. He should also possess full appreciation of the mission and value of the service of song in the house of the Lord. Few, indeed, are the congregations which hold the hymn-book in sufficiently high esteem as an instrumentality for salvation and sanctification. Sankey the singer, for usefulness in evangelistic work, follows· hard after Moody the preacher. Not to be able to sing, and even to play, is to be burdened with serious defect.
7. The man 1J)ho laughs. Yes, he, too, has a mission. It cannot be doubted that too many of the good and earnest are simply pained and shocked, oppressed and cast down in the presence of unusual difficulties and of gross outbreaking sin. Some find no resource in days dark and disastrous but in hanging their harps on the willows, and no relief but in tears. But such are by no means always the wisest and best among the saints, and are not likely to be most successful in their work. Aud, indeed, is there not a more excellent way? What will be lost or put in jeopardy by cheerfulness and smiles without and within, by bearing with equanimity and good-nature what cannot be helped? It is wise to search for the bright side, and even for the lndicrous side, .of evil events, and to laugh at calamity and laugh away fears. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, and not only to the possessor, but also to all hIS neighbors. Verily, it is well to "rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, Rejoice/'
THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF FRANCE AND THE MCALL MISSION
THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF FRANOE AND THE McALL • MISSION.
BY REV. R. M. SAILLENS, PARIS, FRANCE.
I. THE position occupied by France during the last three cen- turies in the religious world is one of peculiar interest. France was, before the Reformation, the stronghold of the Papacy, "the eldest daughter of the Church." It was here that the movement of the Crusades originated; here, also, that the monkish orders, for the most part, were created and had their greater success. From this fair land the Holy See drew the larger part of its revenue. It is no wonder, therefore, that when the" heresy" broke out, the Church put forth her most strenuous efforts to retain France in her obedience. She spared nothing in the endeavor, and she succeeded, by the acuteness and cruelty of a pope's niece, Catharine de Medicis, ~nd of her wretched sons. But she succeeded only in a measure. Protestantism was van- quished, but not destroyed, as it was in Spain, Italy and Flanders.
It remained as a thorn in the flesh of kings and popes; it remained as a leaven, which silently but surely worked the whole nation into a new spirit; it remained as a check upon the clergy, which never was able to recover its former power in this country, and has ever been obliged to watch over its own members, the ignorance and immorality of whom were proverbial before the Reformation.
The action of Protestantism has been more direct still. In the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church movements have been produced which owed their origin to the influence of the gospel. Such men as Pascal, Arnaud and Fenelon could not have arisen in a land wholly given up to popish rule. Unconsciously to themselves, the Jansenists were the timid, but true, successors of the Reformers. Pascal wrote his Pensces and his Provinciales by the light which the Huguenot martyrs had kindled.
Another result of the French Reformation was the Revolution of 1789. That great event might be defined: the fruit of Protestant seed fallen in Papist soil. There was in it a strange association of the spirit of liberty with the spirit of fanaticism, as if Loyola and Voltaire had combined in the effort. Jacobinism is the name which history has given to that monstrous combination. But all that was good in that glorious and dramatic movement can be traced back to the gospel influence. The father oithe Revolution, Jean Jacgues Rousseau, whose writings did more than any others to prepare and inspire it, :was It Prot- estant. The man who began to sound the aTarm, and was the first to set his timid hand 'against the old edifice, Necker, was also a Prot- estant.* Alas! that Protestantism should 'have been so weakiy repre- • He was a. Protestant also, the 'man whose v~ry name l"e~ll" th'; Reign 'Of Terror, a.~d Who seemed to ha.ve been born tor that day of blooq~heq anq re'verige~Ma:mi. Such are *he lessons of history I seuted! Who knows what the Revolution would have brought forth ifthe Protestant churches had then been faithful and courageous; ahd, claiming for themselves the honor of having originated the movement, had claimed also the privilege of leading it onward ! .
In another respect, also, France stands apart from .other Latin nations. She has been closely allied with the Protestant world by her theology and by the ties of blood. Scotland, Switzerland and America are in a great measure the daughters of Oalvin. Huguenots and Puri- tans are almost synonymous terms. No nation, except the Jewish people, has sent out so many of her sons to all parts of the earth to become' a blessing wherever they have been. France has, by the Revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, impoverished herself for many long ages; but her poverty has made the riches of the world.
For all these reasons this country deserves love and compassion.
She is not Protestant, and yet Protestants must feel that she is some- what their mother. She is not Romish, for her Romish neighbors dread her liberal and revolutionary spirit. 'ro sum up in a few words: France has, three centuries ago, rejected evangelical Ohristianity, but she has retained a taste of it, which makes her uneasy and restless forever.
Yes; this is the cause of her constant agitation, so singular in a race '" which is remarkable for its natural patience and fondness of routine.
She has seen the light, and unconsciously gropes in the dark, longing to see it again.
II. There have always been some attempts mad'e by the French churches to evangelize their own people, especially during the last sixty years. A blessed revival of religion, which took place toward the year 1830, resulted in the formation of several native societies and agencies for general evangelization. The English Methodists, at the same epoch, sent over to France some devoted men, among whom was Mr.
Oook, whose name became a by-word III the south of France. The Baptists of America also were drawn toward France. They sent a mis- sionary, Mr. Willard, who formed half a dozen native evangelists, each of whom has been working with some success. The Baptist churches which were thus created are now about twelve in number, with a mem- bership of eight or nine hundred, all made up of former Roman Oath- olics. They still retain their connection with the American BaptIst Missionary' Union.
But the success of _those societies and agencies was greatly hampered by the want of liberty, or even toleration. The Methodist evangelists in the south of France, and the Baptists of the north, were constantly prosecuted and :tined for holdIng meetings, for distributing books, etc., etc.· Some of the noble pioneers of those times were sent to prison more than once.' Their converts shared in the reproach and p.ersecu- tion whiehthey endured. They did not hold large and public meetings, but 'Were bound by the law to meet only in private hou~es: aJ?d with no more than twenty people. Their reports, if .they wrote any, could only speak of weary tramping from village to village, from farm. to farm; of a soul being converted here and there. Honor to those, our worthy predecessors! Much of the fruit which we gather to-day is due to their patient~ ignored, silent sowing, in suffering and in tears.
But 1870 brought us, after the dark hours of defeat and shame, the glorious sunrise of liberty.· In a marvelous and une~pected way the Lord sent us the help which we needed· to make good that golden opportunity. No one should have thought that an English pastor, who had passed middle life, and who spoke French but imperfectly, would become the most successful evangelist of France in these times. And yet, no doubt, Mr. R. W. McAll had been prepared by God Himself; and his whole previous course as an architect, and then as a minister, was only God's training for this, his special life's work.
When, on Sunday, January 17, 1872, Mr. McAll opened a little shop in one of the streets of Belleville, for the preaching of the gospel- in answer to the urgent appeal which had come to him from an ouvrier,* he could not possibly foresee what a large tree would grow from this little .root. But he came in a most propitious time, when the ground, recently fnrrowed by the terrible plow of foreign and civil war, was ready for the seed of peace and hope; he came, not with a new panacea, not with some grand scheme of social regeneration, but with the old remedy which had never been applied, with the old gospel, so new to those poor people! His aim was not great in men's opinion: he came not to save a nation, but to save souls.
Three principles, at the outset, were adopted by him, and have never ceased to be at the basis of this mission. Their combination is, we believe, the cause of its success.
The first one is: Nothing but Ghrist. Ohrist and Him crucified is the only attraction, the only theme, tne only aim. No paid choir, no high-flown rhetoric, no scientific or literary entertainments, are used to draw the people together. "Oonferences sur l'Evangile" are the words painted in large letters on the outside of the halls. It would have been easy to gather very large audiences by other means, but it would have been impossible to retain them. The Ohurch cannot com- pete with the world on the world's own ground; David is very clumsy (and what a blessing he should be so!) in Saul's armor. There are in Paris plenty of concert halls. Ours are gospel halls; they are never opened for another purpose than to make known, by word or by song, the love of God through Jesus Christ.
The second principle on which this Mission is built is Oatholicity. On its platforms ministers and members of aU denomination!! are equally at home. Each church has a right to claim the Mis!!ion ft,!! her • The whole "tory of the beginning of the l{i81'1ion, from the pen of Dr. l{eAIl1:timself, will be found in the book, .. A Cry from the Land of Calvin and Voltaire." London: Hodder & StoUirhton, Paternoster Row. own. We recognize the right and proclaim the duty of every Christian to preach the gospel, and we offer him an 'Opportunity to do it. The Mission chooses its agents without any regard to their ecclesiastical tenets, but solely on account of their evangelistic powers.
This principle has secured for us the hearty co-operation of every true minister and every true church of Christ in France. The, Re- formed, the Free Church, the Methodists, and the Baptists, have vied witI-J each other in offering their help, in wishing us success. And it hal' secured also the sympathy of the Christian world at large. It has not been one of the least results of this Mission; that it has brought to- gether Christian men and women whom ecclesiastical prejudice kept hitherto separate. We have seen, more than once, on the platform of one of our humble halls, clergymen of the Church of England-yea, eveh deans and bishops-side by side with Quakers and dissenters.
The last fundamental principle of this Mission is what I will term, for want of a better word, its lay character. Ministers are laymen, and laymen are ministers, when they speak in the McAll Mission. Both are witnesses of the same blessed fact. The people would not accept any other kind of preaching: they will leave the room if they are not interested, though a· doctor of divinity may be speaking, and will applaud a workingman who takes their hearts by his words.
I firmly believe that the success of the McAll Mission is due, under God, to the adoption and carrying out of the three principles which we have thus briefly defined.
III. The word success has agam come under my pen. I hasten to explain what it means. .
In a country like this, success means small things in appearance.
Everything has to be done, and as the most important part of the edi- fice is the foundation, which 'is never seen, so the most important part of our work lies in the preparation of the conscience and the heart- the first having slept so long that it is dead.
Peter's success was great when, in a single day, he led 3,000 to Ohrist from among the worshipers of Jerusalem. But Paul's success was as great, and the importance of his work for the world at large was perhaps greater, when for two long years he spoke in "the school of one Tyrannns," in the heathen city of Ephesus-and yet, in all probability, those two years' efforts brought to Christ a compara- tively small number of converts. .
The McAll Mission numbers at present 25 stations, or mission halls, in Paris ;11 in the immediate suburbs and 79 in the provinces, making a total number of 115. Some of these are opened every night, but the greater number are nsed only on Sunday, a.nd two or three times dur- ing the week. Adults' and children's meetings, Bible classes and mothers' meetin~s, dispensaries, young men's associations, all these and .
other methods of work are carried on, 900 THE RELIGIOUS STATE OF PRANCE AND TBE-lrICALL ~SSION. [DEC•• The aggregate attendance !luring last year, in the 17,000 meetings which have been held, has been 1,114,233. The number of people who are under gospel influence through these mission halls, who a.ttend more or less regularly and may be said to be favorably disposed-people who formerly were freethinkers and indifferent to their religious interests-can be safely estimated at 50,000.
But these figures only represent the superficial results of the work. Among those thousands, many hundreds have truly accepted Christ as their Redeemer. In everyone of those 115 mission halls, the visitor will see, generally sitting on the front rows of chairs, people remarkable by their cheerful countenance, the tidiness of their dress, though they be poor, and the true home feeling which they evidently have. Who are _these? The scoffers, the careless, the evil-doers of yesterday. And- these are not the only ones. In the splendid halls above, many are singing the praises of the Lamb, who learned, sitting once on these same chairs, to love the music of His name. If space allowed, we could tell many a touching story. We could speak of lives renewned, homes made happy, deaths that have been made victories.
Yes, the work has been encouraging, and continues to be so. But we have now come to a point where, in order to secure the results which have been acquired, and to make this missiol} a greater power for good, a new and important step must be taken.
The converts must be cared for. Gospel meetings, Bible-classes, and societes jraternelles do not any more suffice them. The Lord has instituted ordinances, by which the members ot His body are to be visibly united to Him and to each other; no human institution can take the place of the Church. Experience has shown that the converts (as a rule) will not join the existing Protestant churches. Many of them shun the very name of Protestant, which the past wars of religion have made very unpopular in some parts of the country. The mode of worship adopted in most of the old churches is cold and solemn; it contrasts with the simplicity and homeliness of the McAH meetings. This seems to be a case in which, according to our Lord's teaching, new wine cannot be put into old bottles.
And yet the converts are there, remaining in a state of spiritual infancy, having scarcely any influence on the masses which, if they were formed into a body, they might draw to themselves more easily than we can. Our own conscience presses us on the matter. Many generals have lost their conquests by advancing in the enemy's country without securing the land behind them by strong garrisons. Weare anxious, in order to go forward, to establish a solid basis of operation. But how shall it be done without touching the principle of eccle'!liastical neutrality, which has, hitherto, been one of the _caus.es of success? After much prayer and consideration, the following order has been adopted, and has begun to be put in operation; ,A Christianchnrch will be organized in every station where there is a sufficient" number of converts. The hall, however, will not cease to be opened to the general public, and no change will be made in, its aspect which would give it an ecclesiastical appearance.
Each church will be placed under the care of a minister of one denomination or other. That minister may be, at the same time, the pastor of "one of the older chnrches; in that case the mission church will be an annex of hIS own. But it will not always be so, and the directors of the mission may themselves appoint, in agreement with the denominational bodies, a minister whose time and strength will wholly' belong to the. mission, either as evangelist or as pll:stor of the newly formed flock.
It is expected that every denomination, either by their individual members or by their missionary associations, will help to support these. small churches until they are able to support themselves, so that the MeAn Mission, as such, will continue to give its whole energies, and to' spend its whole resources, in carrying the gospel to places which, as yet, have been nntouched.
The scheme has been submitted to our friends and has met with their approbation. One or two of our halls in Paris have already been appropriated to different deriominations: one of the largest and most successful, Salle Baltimore, on Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, is on the point of becoming the center of a Reformed congregation, with a young pastor attached to it who has already been working several years with uS as an evangelist. One of the Free Churches, with her pastor,Rev. A. Fisch, at her head, has voted to give up her present locality and to adopt as her chapel 6ne of our mission halls, sharing the rent and expenses with us. Our Methodist brethren also desire to enter into the scheme, and in their last visit to this country the Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., and A. M. Murdock, D.D., President and Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Union, have cordially accepted an arrangement by which one of the MeAll missionaries will become the pastor of a Baptist church to be formed in one of the halls of the Mission.
This plan has seemed to us the only one by which we could meet the requirements of our converts without founding a new sect. These churches will be nurseries. Elementary teaching, such as they could not get elsewhere, will be given them. Their organization will be very simple. But as they will grow in numbers and develop in knowledge, it is' expected that they will unite more and more closely with the several denominations with which they will be connected, while retaining a filial regard for the mission from which they will .have sprung. A brotherly feeling will also bind them together; having the same origin, the minor points on which they will differ will not suffice to create antagonism between them. This will be a new fact in the' history of Missions.
1'HE STATESMANSlnp OF
And something more may be expected. These churches, formed of converts from Romanism, will draw to them their former coreligjon. ists. Evangelists will rise from among them-men better acquainted than we Protestants are, with the language that the people want to hear. And these missionary churches, infusing as it were new blood in the veins of the old French Protestantism, may, by the blessing of God, become in the cOining storms the refuge of every true heart, the hope and the salvation of France.
THE STATESMANSHIP OF MISSIONS.
BY J. M. LUDLOW, D.D., EAST ORANGE, N. J.
[This paper was written for and published some time since in THE HOJIiILE'l'IC REVIEW. It presents, in a fresh and truly masterly mauner, one feature of the mission work of the Church which has seldom been presented-certainly never more eloquently-and We olfer no apology for reproducing it in our pages, for which we have the esteemed author's cordial assent. In future numbers of the REVIEW his facile pen will sketch for our readers the career of sQveral of our Missionary Heroes.-.T.M.S.] OUR purpose in this article is to emphasize and illustrate an element of power in the propagation of Christianity which is not ordinarily taken account of. Merivale gives a good summary of the causes of the early tri. umph of the Church: (1) External evidence 01 the truth-fulfillment of prophecy, miracles, etc. ; (2) Internal evidence of the truth-satisfying the sense of man's need; (3) The holy character of believers; (4) The political help given by Constantine, etc. To these aU Christians will add (5) the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost, making the Christian ages a perpetuation of Pedtecost. But one oC the reasons which Gibbon gives for the spread of our religion comes nearer to our topic, viz. : The organization of the Church as an institution especially adapted to the building of the Christian commonwealth in the heart of the secular empire of Rome, and its spread among various peoples. From the first missionary projects of the Apostles, down through the centuries to the founding of the latest modern mission, the Church has displayed marvelous political foresight, tact and enterprise, fulfilling the injunction of its founder, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
The expression, "Statesmanship of Missions," occurred to the writer while attending a conference of missionaries at one of their stations in the heart of the heathen world, listening to the explanation of their projects, and witnessing the magnificent results already attained. The impression was irresistible, that these men were not simply a band of devoted teachers and preachers, but statesmen, as worthy of the name as were the representatives of European governments at the time assembling at Const(tntinople, 01' those old empire-builders whose astuteness.is praised on the pages of history. This conviction was confirmed a few weeks later, while standing upon the deck of a Mediterranean steamer, in a group of English officers who were discussing the vexed problem of the Ottoman rule in the East. Said one of them, who has since reached highest distinction for military and diplomatic ability, "The American missions alone are doing more for the satisfactory settlement of the Eastern question than all our governments."
By statesmanship we mean especially that sort of wisdom which recognizes the natural movement of great peoples due to racial tendencies and historical culture; selects geographical points of advantage, the location of centers of greatest influence;· adopts the most ellficient methods of persuasion-now addressing the common individual in the s.ubstratum of society, and again approaching those in authority; appreciates the subtle influence of language, impregnated, through translations of Scripture and the pUblication of works on Western science, with Christian ideas; and estimates shrewdly the varied abilities and adaptation of the men who are selected for special fields and forms of missionary work. In emphasizing this human clement of mission- ary power, we do not overlook the supernatural force in Christianity to which all its triumph is ultimately du·e; fOl' the question will constantly arise, Whence did these men acquire statecraft? They were educated in no school of diplomacy. They never sat at the feetof the Charlemagnes, Suleimans, Bismarcks and Gladstones of political control; yet they have seen farther than these masters into the swirling mysteries out of which empires have emerged. As of the Great Master, we ask, "Whence have these men wisdom, having never learned?" There is but one reply, Where the Mastel' found it-through communion with the divine Spirit.
Foremost among the statesmen of the world we must rank the Apostles. Stand upon a housetop in Joppa to-day, and. gaze out at the steamers of England, France, Austria, Italy, Spain-all Christian lands-which dot the sea at your feet. Then recall the vision which Peter had on one of these housetops; how he foresaw the gathering of the Gentiles, and, in spite of the exclusiveness of his Jewish habit of thought, began to lay the beams of the ne·w kingdom across the borders of aU nations and kind reds and tongues I The first mission projected by the Church at Jerusalem showed a spirit of enterprise worthy of the Catholic faith which prompted it. Antioch was the chief center of influence on the Eastern Mediterranean. In this old capital of the Seleucidre mingled the tides of Asiatic and EUropean civilization. It was also a chief seat of paganism and immorality. Through the grove of Daphne roamed emperor and senators from Rome, princes and generals from the East, astrologers, soothsayers, scholars and adventurers from all lands. JuvenaI, describing the influence of Antioch upon the empire, said that the "Orontes poured itself into the Tiber." Into this distributing reservoir of current thought and life at Antioch the Apostles put the clarifying, life-giving element of the gospel. . From Antioch the great missionary Paul worked out upon the high way of travel. Cypru~, Ephesus, Corinth, Athens, Rome, were kindled with the sacred flame from his Caith. Mark occupied Alexandria. Others penetrated to Odessa and Babylon and the banks of the Indus. The rule seems to have been, "Strike for the centers." This displayed not merely preaching zeal and love for souls, but immense enterprise, and, at the same time, genius sufficient to direct it. The prophecy of what has since come to pass was the light within their great souls, and they planned deliberately for world-conquest. And so wisely did they plan and work that Justin Martyn pictures the opening of the second century thus: "There is not a nation, either of Greek or Barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wandel' in tribes and live in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe in the name of the crucified Jesus." Fifty years later, Tertullian said: "We have filled every sphere . . . cities, castles, islands, towns, the exchange, the very camps, the plebeian populace, the seats of the judges, the imperial palace and. the forum."
We know but little of the details of Church extension in the ages immediately succeeding the Apostolic. The results, however, show the same careful, systematic and far-aimed scheme of operations. The statesmen who directed the empire were matched by the ecclesiastics;:indeed, .twdatter adapted the machinery of the secular government to the use of the Church. Gradation in authority, division of fields of labor, strictness of internal dis- cipline, a definite policy for aggressive work against the outlying paganism, soon ,attracted the attention of men to the fact that there was a real com- monwealth of Christians which was commensurate with the imperial do- main. And when the empire fell to pieces there remained the marvel of a compact, unimpaired, spiritual kingdom, maintaining its secular form, with but a single rent-that made by the Latin and Greek schism. Did the early Church absorb into itself the best political genius of that age? or were the devotees of the new religion especially endowed with such genius for their work, as, at the beginning, a few fishermen were gifted with such transcend- ent ability? This is one of the questions which secular historians have not answered.
Medireval missions may be dated from the career of Ulphilas, the" Moses of the Goths." To reach those vast and widespread nations so as to perma- nently affect them with the gospel, it was necessary to create a written language for them. The capacious intellect which grasped the problem was joined with as remarkable energy of purpose in solving it. Prof. Max Mul- ler gives this deserved tribute to the great missionary: ,. Ulphilas must have been a man of extraordinary power to conceive, for the first time, the idea of translating the Bible into the vulgar language of his people. At this time there existed in Europe but two languages which a Christian bishop would have thought himself justified in employing, Greek and Latin. All other languages were still considered as barbarous. It required a prophetic sight, and a faith in the destinies of these half-savage tribes, and a conviction also of tile utter effeteness of the Roman and Byzantine empires, before a bishop could have brought himself to translate the Bible into the vulgar dialect of his barbarous countrymen." Gibbon cannot withhold his admiration of this virtual framer of Gothic civilization. " The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers and shepherds, so ill-qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was im- proved and modulated by his genius; and Ulphilas, before he could frame his version,was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty-four letters, four of which he invented to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the Greek and :Latin pronunciation. The character of Ulphilas recom- mended him to the esteem of the Eastern court. where he twice appeared as the minister of peace; and the name of tMoses was applied to this spiritual guide, who conducted his people throngh the deep waters of the Danube to the land of promise."
The dramatic scene in which Odoacer, the conqueror of Italy, bows his huge form in order to enter the humble cell of Severinus, the evangelist to the tribes of Pannonia and Noricum. there to take counsel regarding the policy of his l'ule, may be taken as one illustration from hundreds in which the statecraft of those dark ages learned at the feet of the greater wisdom imparted to the builders of Christ's kingdom.
The mission of St. Patrick in Ireland reveals the same super.eminent ability. With profound knowledge of human nature, he studied the peculiar character of the Irish people, established schools for the training of com_ petent teachers and preachers, shrewdly brought Christian truth into debate with reigning Druidism, antagonized piracy and slave-dealing, destroyed superstitions. The town and the See of Armagh are to-day the monument of his far-sighted policy. Kildare is still the memorial of Bdgid's .. Cell of the Oak," or training-school of women, as Derry is that of Columba's " m~wl'Y, ·whetke~ iss~ WHIJWl ~f ,4QVf(j}~~ wen who 'QroOke the power of the ancient paganism in the North, both of Ireland and Scotland, long before Augustine arrived on the southern coast of England with the peculiar dogmas of the Church of Rome. It was no blind enthusiasm, but transcend- ent genius, that built in the far North the institutions of lona and Bangor, the latter of which had at one time between one and two thousand students, attracted .from every part of Europe, and who were sent back to be the planters of a new order of affairs in France, Germany and Switzerland, The England of to-d!ly, independent in its faith, owes much more than ordinary historians admit to the sagacity of the eady British Christians, whose hearts felt the prophetic touch of that wisdom which has made Protestant Christen- dom the dominant type of the world's civilization.
Augustine's mission to Kent is credited with being one of the masterpieces of statecraft in its era. Gregory, who inaugurated it, had, before he was made pope, attained such repute for diplomatic ability that he was chosen to be the arbiter between emperors in the strife of theil' subtle ambition.
The English Winfred, afterward Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, a worthy compeer,of Charles Martel. The latter might hammer the Northern nations to pieces, but it needed the genius and enterprise of the former to remold them, to organize society after the new model, and thus conserve the conquests of the sword. It required amazing executive ability to organize and give permanent operation to the monasteries which sprang up at every advantageous point amid the forests of Germany. Well does Maclear say: "The Sees of Salzburg and Freisingen, of Regensburg aod Passau, testified to his care of the Church of Bavaria; the See oC Erfurt told of labors in < Thuringia, that of Buraburg in Hessa, that of Wurzburg in Franconia; while his metropolitan See at Mentz, having jurisdiction over Worms and Spires, Tongres,Cologne and Utrecht, was a sign that, even before his death, the German Church had already advanced beyond its first missionary stage."
Of the abuses of the monastic system we are well aware. Many of the inmates of monasteries would have developed a healthier piety in private homes, and been more useful in the ordinary circles of social life. Too often the exclusive duties and narrow studies of the monks ~enerated fanaticism; while their herding together, and consciousness of power through organiza- tion, led them to courses which were disgraceful to themselves and hurtful to society. This is true, however, chiefly of monasteries when not sanctified by the missionary spirit, but where men were led to seek seclusion for' its own sake, in city cells or caves in the desert. On the other hand, the insti- tution, when used as an agency for the dissemination of Christian truth among paglLns, was one of consummate wisdom. Instead of leaving solitary heralds of the Cross to make their way with only the proclamation of gospel doctrines, the monasteries brought the practical exhibition of the superiolity of Christian civilization to those who had been ignorant of it. In the midst of pagan hordes, living in semi-barbarism, rose the walls of a commodious, .often stately, pile, planned by the best architectural skill of the age. The members of the brotherhood were not, as a rule, the aged, the weak, the, timid, but the young and energetic. Hundreds of monks-at Fulda, under the great-hearted Sturm, oyer four thousand-were gathered into the new . community. Forests were cleared, waste lands drained, useful arts practiced and taught to the pagan natives, the fine arts cultivated, and learning pur- sued in all branches then open to inquiry; while, most prominently, religion was exalted as the promoter of all this thrift and beneficence. Montalembert I does not throw a false color into his picture when he says of these monks, that simplicity, benignity, and joy.transformed. their exile from the worId into a paradise of G~d. They brought not barren Christian dogma., but Christian life, however far from pedect, into the very midst of the godless degradation of paganism; and, as a. fact, they leavened far and wide the entire lump.
Coming to modern missions, we find no less brilliant illustrations of our theme. It is too soon yet to trace the wisdom of the workers fully in the results of their wOl-k, since the revived interest in it dates almost with the century. Lord Lawrence, while Viceroy of India, reported: "Notwithstanding all that the English people have done to benefit India, the missionaries have done more than all other agencies combined." The same may be said of the opening of all pagan lands to Western civilization. The missionary has been a far larger factor in the problem than would be measured by his strictly gospel work.
One of the most beautif'11 monuments in India was built by Sarfojee, the Rajah of Tanjore, to the memory of Schwartz, who died in 1798. These lines may be taken from the epitaph which'the Rajah composed: ",To the benighted, dispenser of light. Doing and pointing to that which is right; of Ble~sing to princes, to people, to me.
May I, my father, be worthy thee."
Well might the Rajah call Schwartz his father, for when the old Rajah, his real father, was dying, he called for the missionary, and, putting his hand upon his son's head, said: "This is not my son any longer, but thine, for into thine hands I deliver him." By his practical counsel, Schwartz really kept the crown upon the young prince's head. He quieted revolts among his people, as when 7,009 rebels, who had refused to hear the government, said to the missionary: "You have shown us kindness. • . . We will work for you day and night to show our regard." When famine desolated Tanjore, and the people were taking their revenge upon their rulers by refusing to sell them provisions, and when no threats from the authorities availed, Schwartz was able to secure within two days 1,000 oxen and 8,000 measures of grain. The British resident wrote home: "Happy indeed would it be for India if Schwartz possessed the whole authority."
After the English victories in Burmah, in 1826, a grand military reception was given to an Amet'ican lady. Sir Archibald Campbell, the conqueror, welcomed her in person r.t the head of his staff. At the dinner given to the Burmese Commissioners this lady was accorded the seat of honor. This was a tribute which the British authorities rendered not alone to the personal heroism and consecration of Dr. and Mrs. Judson, but in recognition of the importance of their work as beariJ;lg upon the civilization of that country. It was not the mere zeal of an enthusiast that kept Judson at his post for seven years in Rangoon before he could claim his first convert. His soul was balanced by the weight of a grand project, whose accomplishment he foresaw through all the darkness of atheism supported by the throne. So clear was it to him, that he could abide the horrors of the prison and the stocks while the seed was decaying, as it were, in the soil, to bring forth the glorious harvest which others should reap. The statesman-eye of Daniel, in Babylon, caught the luster of coming empires with scarcely more clearness than did the prophetic soul of Judson discern the future of Burmah, when alone he gazed upon the temples at Ava and exclaimed: "We stand upon the dividing line of the empires of dat'kness and light. 0 shade of Ah-ranhan, weep over thy falling fanes;. retire from the scenes of thy past great- ness. A voice mightier than mine, a still small voice, will ere lon~ sweep away every vestige of thy dominion." Never did greater prescience guide an ambassador to, a foreign court than when this solitary man wrote in his journal: "Weare penetrating into the heart of one of the great kingdoms of the world to make a formal offer of the gospel to a despotic monarch, ' and through him to the millions of his subjects." To-day the king of Burmah sends his princely children to sit at the feet of the successors of Judson, and learn the deepest lessons of both secular and celestial wisdom.
Beirut, in Syria, is called the "crown-jewel of modern missions." It was taken from the bed of Moslem degradation, cut and set by the deliberate planning of a handful of American Christians. As late as 1826, Beirut was a straggling, decaying Mohammedan town without so much as a carriageway through it, a wheeled vehicle, or a pane of window-glass in it. The missionaries who came to it were persecuted by authorities and mobbed by the populace. Some were driven to the Lebanons; others fled to Malta. There they matured their plans, chimerical to all but the eye of faith. They projected Christian empire for Syria, not the gathering of a few converts. Schools, colleges, printing-houses, churches, Western culture in science, art and religion, were all included in their plan. They retumed to Beirut bringing a hand-press and a font of Arabic type. Night after night a light gleamed from a little tower above the mission building-a prophetic light seen out on the Mediterranean-where Eli Smith, and, after he was gone, the still living Dr. Van Dyck labored in translating the Bibleinto Arabie. When, in 1865, Dr. Van Dyck flUng down the stairway the last sheet of "copy" to the compositor, it marked an era of importance to Syria and Asia Minor, to Egypt and Turkey, and all the scattered Arabic-speaking peoples, greater than any accession or deposition of Sultans and Kh'edives. There is nothing more eloquent than the face of the venerable translator, in which can be read the making of the grandest history of the Orient.. The dream of the exiles has been ,accomplished. Beirut is to-day a Chl'istian city, with more influence upon the adjacent lands than had the Berytus of old, on whose ruins it has risen. Stately churches, hospitals, a female seminary, a college, whose graduates are scattered over Syria, Egypt, and wherever the Arab roams; a theological seminary, a common-school system, and three steam-presses, throwing off nearly a half-million pages of reading-matter a day; a Biblehouse, whose products are found in India, China, Ethiopia, and at the sources of the Nile; thes~ al'e the facets of that" crown jewel" which the missionaries have cut with their sanctified enterprise.
Across the Mediterranean, answering to the college at Beirut, stands Robert College, just above the fortification built by the Turks when they invested Constantinople. It was founded in the practical wisdom which foresaw its influence upon the surrounding people. Weare not surprised at the statement of those resident in Bulgaria, that the rapid development of that people into a compact nation, "with destiny in its eye," is due to the education of so many young Bulgarians at the American College on the Bosphorus. These men have returned to their homes to assume positions of control in every department of life. They are the advisers of the nation and the executors of its will.
David Livingstone, the Apostle of Africa, ranks among the foremost statesmen of modern times. Sir Bartle Frere, the diplomat, says of him: "No man ever attempted, on a grandel' or more thorough scale, to benefit and improve those of his race who most needed improvement and light. In the execution of what he understood, I never met his equal for energy and sagacity. Every year will add fresh evidence to show how weH-considered were the plans he took in hand, and how vast have been the results of the
WORK IN
movements he set in motion." Florence Nightingale says: "He was·the ·greatest man of his generation. There are few enough, but a few statesmen. He stood alone, the bringer-in of civilization, or, rather, the pioneer of civHization, to races lying in darkness. Learned philologists from Germany,not at all orthodox in their opinions, have told me that Dr. Livingstonewas·the only man who understood races and how to deal with them for good."
Shall we not put Marcus Whitman among our American statesmen? He labored humbly among the Nez-Percez Indians in Oregon before the.Rocky Mountains were regarded as passable for civilization. His practIcal eye saw n • • • In those continuous woods, Where rolls the O~egon. a.nd hea.rs no sound. Save his own dashing •••"
the untold wealth of soil and mine and commercia] advantage, while the professional statesmen at Washington were incredulous of their value, and were negotiating their disposal for some fishery rights in the North Atlantic. His far-vision alone caught, across the Pacific, the gleam of ships cOI,l1ing from China and Japan. Clad in bearskins, he appeared not only before the American Board, but among the magnates of the capital. He brought with him no formal credentials, and. needed none. His earnest, patriotic conviction was attested by his mutilated face, some parts of which had been frozen off by the sevel'ity of his passage over the mountains, "our natural Western boundary;" as was then believed by our most astute politicians. His wisdom was attested by his arguments, and the basis of international treaties was changed by them. Perhaps to Whitman, more than to any other man, we Qwe our possession of that vast and exhaustless territory south of latitude 49, now included in Washington and Oregon. His monument, which graces the town of Whitman, in the County of Whitman, is a meager tribute to the sagacity and patriotism of this great pioneer statesman of the Northwest, who there fell a martyr at the hands of our country's enemies.
But, to fully illustrate OUI' theme, the Statesmanship of Missions, we would have to recite the entire history of these evangelistic movements dur·· ing the eighteen centuries since the Founder· of Christianity first com· missioned the builders of His kingdom. Take down your old volumes of. missionary l'ecords of thirty 01' forty years ago. Read the stories of solitary labors, of the conversion of little handfuls of men here and there over the heathen world. They awakened but little attention at the time of their first publication. Then take the map of the world to-day, and locate these apparently common-place scenes. Behold! they are the centers, not only of religious light, but of the dominating forces that make for mod€1'll civilization!
Doubtless the missionaries were wiser than they knew, but they also knew that they were wise. A writer, speaking of the scattering of the early Church by persecution, describes the disciples as cinders piloted through the ail' by Providence, kindling Christianity where they fell! But the cinders were each a man with glowing brain, as wen as with ardent love and quench-. less devotion. each one himself kindled by the All-wisdom that sent him forth.
MISSION WORK IN CATHAY.
BY REV. GILBERT REID, CHI-MAN-FU, CHINA.
The progress of missions in China is great, increasing more and more as the .yea~'s pass by. Forty-five years ago there were only six nativeChriltians of the Protestant faith. Increase by the same proportion the next forty.five years as during the last, and there will b~, not 38;000, as we now- find, but·· , over 180,000,000 actual communicants. Looking on the whole field, beyond the limits of one's own denomination, and we find stations scattered along the coast, up the Great Riv~r, and far and wide in all the interior.. N()ta. province but has some/converts to Protestant Christianity. Our society may be weak this year, but another has never been stronger. Hope ever comes from the whole, not from the part. Thirty-six societies are l'epresented in China, with upwards of 490 male missionaries, over 200 unmarried female missionaries, and nearly 200 native ordained ministers.
Great as is the progl:ess, great-awfully, solemnly great- is the need. We can say that the ·Chinese Empire has opened her doors; but what is meant by the Chinese Empire? A writer says that China has 300,000,000 of people, and then adds that China has eighteen provinces. His first use of the word "China" is synonymous with the Chinese Empire, and his second use with China Proper or the eighteen provinces. These vast regions outside the eighteen provinces are ov~rlooked in the general calculation, Manchuria, with a population of upwards of 12,000,000, has one treaty port and thl'ee mission stations, those belonging to the Scotch United Presbyterian Missions. Mongolia, extending over a vast extent of desert, and with an estimated population of 2,000,000, has only one missionary, the indefatigable worker of the London Mission, Rev. James Gilmour. Tibet, with upwards of 7,000,000, and IIi, with 2,000,000, population, are both tightly locked in from all foreign and missionary impression, except as meeting Russia to the north, and Great Britain to the south. The island of Formosa has been advanced to the position of a province, has three treaty ports, and a very successful mission work carried on by the Canadian and English Presbyterians. The island of Hainan, still a department ef the province of Kwangtong, has now one treaty-port, and one mission station of the American Presbyterians. Such ends the border land of the Chinese Empire.
As to the condition of China Proper, wha.t do we find? Of the eighteen provinces only two have no pel'manent mission stations, Hunan and Kwang-si. The former has a population of some 20,000,000, and is visited by members of the China Inland and London Missions, but is as yet too hostile for permanent settlement. Kwang-si, with a popUlation say of 7,000,000, had for a short time a station belonging to the American Presbyterian Mission, but owing to a serious riot the missionaries were driven away, and have not since been able to secure the needed protection and residence. The provinces of Knei-chir, Yunnan, Kiang-si, Gan-kwong, Kansnk, Shen-si and Honan are occupied by missionaries of the China Inland Mission alone, though the Canadian Presbyterians are soon intending to open a station in the hostile province of Honan, Missionaries may now travel in all parts of China, and preach the Word, though residence in particular places, and especially the provincial capitals, is generally subject to great opposition. It is, however, a matter of congratulation that of all the capitals only five are at this time unoccupied by missionaries-those of Kwang-si, Kiang-si, Hunan, Honan and Shen-si I To a portion of this success we are indebted to the China Inland Mission alone.
In such an enumeration as we here attempt to give, we should not overlook the labors of the Roman Catholic missionaries, who have prepared the way for Protestants in most of the interior. In fact, we fear if the Roman Catholic priests had not first gone into the interior on the basis of the French Treaty of 1860, which especially referred to the French priests, all Protestant missionaries would have been able to do but little, except.by way of travel. Now, following the precedent of the Roman Catholics, Protestants may
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND LAY WORK IN THE 19TH CENTURY. [DEC'-
reside in 'the interior, and may purchase property in the name of the Church.
The very heroism and persistency of the Roman Catholic missions in China.
should check our inherent sectarian prejudice, and induce us to applaud the good wherever found. '
Great favors h3.ve already been bestowed on the cause of Christianity by the toleration and protection from the Imperial Government. That much of this is directly due to the mediation of foreign powers is not to be denied; and yet the Central Government, while resenting much of the past treat- , ment of the stronger nations, is in no way inclined to reverse its attitude toward either foreign missionaries or Christianity. Coming down to the lower officials, who ha'e control of the many districts and departments of the eighteen provinces, there is oftentimes a glaring disregard of imperial orders in regard to Chl'istianity, and this spirit is largely intensified by the antagonism of local residents. As Christian converts increase in number, we may expect frequent persecutions in certain sections. The need in China is truly great, but we must count the cost before accepting the call.
The way for preaching the simple gospel, for the practice of medicine, for the curing of the opium habit, is open in many places throughout China; and it is for the Church to seize the opportunity when it comes and in the way it comes. We may not realize all that our preconceptions would feign mark out, but the best plan is to commit all our ways unto the Lord, and He will direct our paths, Possessing our souls in patience and running with pa- tience, we cannot, as servants of the kingdom, fear defeat or in reality be overcome.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND LAY WORK IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY A. WOODRUFF, ESQ., BROOKLYN, N. Y. PERHAPS there is no more encouraging feature of the century in which we live. for guaranteeing a hopeful and progressive future, than the numerous forms of Christian organization which now invite, if we may not say engross, the attention of men and women, especially in so-called Protestant countries. We propose here and now to show that our much cherished Sunday. school system has not only borne an important part in developing these organizations, but has really been the parent of them, and united them more or less intimately with the growing principle of lay labor, thus reviving the fundamental principles of the New Testament. The aspirations that have incited good men in all ages to be the prompters of lay activity, and the many who claim to have formed the first Sundayschool, furnish good evidence of the value of the Sunday-school system itself; and the fact that so many of these claimants arose about the end of the last century marks that period to be the time of the inauguration of the movement which the World's Sunday-school Convention, in London, in 1880, decided it to be.* Accepting this, shall we not also be obliged to accept as the outcome of the Robert Raikes system, the definition of the Sunday-school system to be primarily the teaching of the Bible by laymen in classes of six or seven, more or less. The :flowingand ebbing of the 'oceanic tides are scarcely more apparent thal'l the rising and falling of spiritual reforms by influences and instruments wielded by the divine hand in accomplishing His momentous purposes in the moral elevation of our race. We will claim the Sunday-school as one of these instrumentalities, and the closing of the eighteenth century as the '" See" Centena.ry Memorill,l of the EsiIl,QUs'lment of Sunda.y-scp.oo!s," ebbtidc, in England anu America, the flood to which is the lay teaching of the nineteenth century, as will be shown later.
All along the line of Christian history there have been both men and times that have clearly indicated reforms, in Church and State, which seemed to give gleams of hope that a permanent day was soon to dawn. But these partial hopes have been revived only to be more or less clouded; not until the year 1800, when the influence of the Sabbath-school first began to be felt in England and America, was there anything to prevent the relapses that had so often darkened, not to say dissipated, the expectations which imme_ diately followed the face-to-face teaching and preaching of the primitive Church.
A glance at the history of that day would indicate a darkness that could only be penetrated by some new luminary; and if this light was to be permanent, it must be kept so by a more widespread teaching of the new Testament than the schools of learning had hitherto furnished. True, the gospel had been faithfully preached by many most efficient teachers, but only in important centers; and Church history had not developed an almost costless theory, which, like the first teaching of the gospel, should be commensUl·ate with the wants of the entire race. We shall endeavor to show that this achievement has been accomplished, and may, in a high, natural, and important sense, be attributed to the Sabbath-school organization of the nineteenth century.
What could be more natural than that the immediate fruit of this teaching to the masses should revive a missionary spirit, which is the glory of our cf'ntury; and that this struggle of men and women to bring souls to Christ, should give to the general proclamation of the truth a power that it never had before, and create a sympathy that would not rest until every individual bought by the blood of Christ was brought within its influences.
Nor is it but natural when this sympathy of the pew with the pulpit, and the masses with the Sunday-school teacher is once created, that the funds should not be wanting; stimulating, not preceding, the personal moral force, the lack of which would make money a curse instead of a blessing for the accomplishment of every reform of the Church, if we should not add, of the State?
May we be forgiven for pausing here a moment to complain of our good magazine writers, of the statisticians or statistical writers of our age, of the professors of learning, nay, of the Church at large, in that the Sundayschool is ignored by them, its teachers held to be a non-commissioned band; although it is one of the greatest of moral forces, holding in its hand, in England and America alone, 16,000,000 of teachers and pupils. If the critical scholar shall, as we have said, claim that to other causes may be attributed the moral force which we have attributed to the Sunday-school, we will imperatively demand that they show us these causes and their capacity to do it; and if this can be done successfully, then we may not close our Sunday-schools but will add to them their better theories of lay labor.
While we are thus pleading for the greatness of our organization, let us not overlook the fact that it has grown out of the simple command, "Go teach!" and not" Go organize!" The first was insisted upon by Christ and His apostles, and the latter was left to such organization only as should preserve the spirit or the first great commandment; and obedience to this command is the only guarll.ntee of its capability of univerl!!al expansion. Nor can it be denied that such is the educative power of teaching that the Sunday-school has furnished tn its reflexive influence the broadest and the best, if we may not say the most effective, college of Christian teachers in this century that the world has yet produced.
Glance at the one million of voluntary Sunday-school teachers, bending over the pages of the Bible with the immediate obj~ct of bringing its sacred truths into contact with fifteen million pupils. Grant thatJt may be rightfully claimed that, without fhe theological seminary and the ordained ministry, as this country enjoys them, the world would,sink back into unbelief, infidelity and barbarism. Still, we maintain, that without this spiritual host, the home and foreign missionary societies could not maintain their present standard, much less furnish a ministry commensurate with the wants of the race.
But perhaps we should more clearly present the intrinsic value of this movement by enumerating the increase in the missionary societies it has begotten since its influence has begun to be felt. At the beginning of the century there were seven missionary societies; now there are 147, not to count many of the smaller ones.
But the reader is ready to inquire, Have not other causes beside the Sunday-school produced all this?
As we have admitted above, other centuries have had Bible teaching, more or less effective in given localities; but may we not justly claim that the1'e has been no such uniform progression as that which we now behold, and which we attribute to the institution whose results we are here reviewing. Holland, Germany, Sweden-in short, all the countries of Europe-have had more or less of a preached gospel; but, until the latter part of this centui'Y, it may be doubted, if not disbelieved, that there has been any ascertainable ratio of progress. This was not from the want of general intelligence, nor even adequate civilization, but from a want of zeal produced by efficient lay teaching.
But if we contrast mOi'e specifically the moral conditlOn of England and America in the year 1800 with their pi"eSent condition, and state the change which, if rightly claimed, have been the fruit of the Sunday-school, we shall have before us the grounds of encouragement, which will not only enable us to anticipate what the Sunday-school is yet to be, both in its home and foreign work, but also the help that it shall give to every other religious enterprise which shall bless the future of our race.
While at the demand of the Sunday-schoolcommunity, England organized her British and Foreign Bible Society for the supply of Sunday-schools with Bibles, she has taken in tUt'll some of our Sunday-school improvements and adopt.ed our public school system, and, in general, the improvement in her institutions has been little less than our own; we shall only have space to chronicle the noble inventory applicable to our own country.
We have taken the accumulated corrupt populations of the old world and made of them a country that, morally, will favorably compa1'e, if we may not say, greatly transcend, any country in the world. We have peopled a territory equal in extent, and nearly equal in population, to any other civilized country, and elevated it into a free Republic, with institutions of leaming equal, if not superior, to any other on the globe. We have transplanted the seedling-s of liberty from eur Eastem border on the Atlantic to the Pacific slope, and there placed the Sunday-school, the State, for the occupancy of future millions. Our Sunday-schools have originated seventy-five per cent. of the churches in the Westem States, there to develop and guarantee the fut~re perpetuity of our nation. In the hour of trial these W ('stern States sent the fo~ce necessary to help the East in working out the problem of the freedom of more than four millions of slaves. We have also tra.nsfe:.ored our Sunday-school system to other States and natiOns, and now there are: In Germany, 3,000 Sunday-schools, with 30,000" teachers and 300,000 scholars; Italy, 200 Sunday-schools, with 850 teachers and 12,500 scholars; France, 1,100 Sunday-schools, with 4,500 teachers and 115,000 scholars; Belgium, 57 Sunday-schools, with 160 teachers and 2,350 scholars; Switzerland, 1,500 Sunda,y-schools, with 6,522 teachers and 97,890 scilolars; Spain, 100 Sunday-schools, with 400 teachers and 8,000 scholars; Portugal, 30 Sunday-schools, with 100 teachers and 1,000 scholars; Holland.. 1,291 Sunday-schools, with 3,800 teachers and 141,640 scholars; Bohemia, 90 Sunday-schools, with 260 teachers and 2,875 scholars; Mora,via, 38 Sunday- schools, with 60 teachers and 1,423 scholars; Sweden, 500 Sunday-schools, with 18,000 teachers and 200,000 scholars; Denmark, 300 Sunday-schools, with 2,000 teachers and 25,300 scholars; Russia, (German population), 23 Sunday-schools, with 438 teachers and 6,017 scholars; Brazil, 21 Sunday- schools, with 35 teachers and 518 scholars; Chili, 255 scholars; Uruguay, 11 Sunday-schools, with 40-45 teachers and 700-900 scholars.
While this has been accomplished, we have survived the Civil War ar,d treasured up its fruits sufficient to show the world that, whatever the cost, the right is to succeed until itl:! final triumph. Our missionaries are laboring side by side with all the missionaries in the world, and many, if we may not say the majority, of them, together with our home ministry, have found their spiritual birth and culture in the institution for which we are pleading; and with the help of our Sunday-school education the theory of missionary labor has been revolutionized so that nations are being born in a day.
If there is ground for what we have said above, though it be vastly less than we have claimed for it, who will deny that there is that in it which no other system holds, for loving personal appeal from heart to heart; and that it presents for a well-founded future, the 'progressive steps toward the mil- lennium, for which the world is now praying and laboring as it has never done before.
Admit, if we must, that all our assumptionS are wrong and our hypotheses entirely false, yet tell us, ye Churcb militant, is the multiplication of schools of learning, is the clearer declaration of systems of theology, are the elo- quence and thundertones of the modern preacher, or the propagandisms of Church and national reforms comparable to this movement of a mighty host all along ,each division of the family of man, organized in executing the commission of our Great Commandei- that shall demolish the lines of "national pride, and wipe out the bitterness of denominational demarkation, and shout the rallying cry of "Peace on earth, goodwill to men," in every household in the world?
Once more only will we appeal to our friends, at horne and abroad, and ask them what they will do before this century shall close to bring the Sunday- school within the reach of every tribe of man, nay', of every hamlet, which is yet without this gospel influence for }Vhich we have been pleading? Shall we not earnestly and affectionately bring our supplication before Heaven, and into the condition which revelation has assured us shall secure an answer? , Are we prepared to make the corresponding sacrifice? Do we believe in its possibility? Shall means and measures be forthcoming from a convic- tion firm and abiding that anything sbort of what we have specified, if not rendered, will leave us under the doleful reproach, "Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye did it not untoque" I
TRANSLATIONS FROM.FORElGN MISSION_ARY
TRANSLATIONS FROM VARIOUS FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CRAS. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
PROTESTANTISM EXPOSED!
THE Christliche 'Welt contains the following gem taken from an Italian paper published neal' Naples: .. Catholic Christians, living in the truth proclaimed by Christ, are liever intent on calumniating Protestants. But Protestants calumniate the Catholics in every way., Protestants are liars by natnre. Each one makes for himself a law which pleases his passions; by means of ,lies they gaic access to Catholics. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they use deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; their month is fnll of cursing and bitterness, as is written in Rom.'iii : 13. Protestants are liars when they affirm that the Catholic faith is not that of the Apos_ tles, when they paint black the Inquisition, when they charge the Catholic Church with shedding blood on St. Bartholomew's night, and with revoking the edict of Nantes. What the Protestants are is stated by Paul in Rom.' i '29. Protestants are to be compared with mad dogs which run through fields and canse much danger; they curse all they do not understand; they are clouds without water, trees without frnit ; lilthy as waves of the sea; they 1Iy about like a meteor which rapi'Aly disappears and leaves nothiug but darkness; they are teachers of a church founded. on polygamy and robbery; their religion is based on murder and treachery; tbey are enemies of Christ and cynically trample on His religion. What is written, Matt. xxiii : 33, applies to themthey are serpents, a generation of vipers. They have no firm doctrine: the teaching in London diJrerd from that in Berlin. They believe what tbey like, and each one acts according to his pleasure. Under their smUe they hide the kiss of Judas; their individual reason is tileir law. They are ravenous wolves under the cloak of a lamb. They have spread themselves by means of the dagger and murder_ lies and vices, crime and deception, blood and immorality. They make their reason the judge of revelatioc'; their Christianity is anti-Christianity. This is a true picture ofProtestantism. Flee from their devilish art, by meaus of which they seek to turn souls away from the Church 1"
Surely, if Protestants henceforth do not know what they are this journal is not to be accused_ ,But the best is yet to come, The next number of the same journal says.: "Martin Luther, the chief originator of the sect of the Protestants, throughout his entire life sus- tained the most intimate relations witl< the devil, from whom he received his unhallowed doctrines. The devil slept with Luther, he helped him in his studies, and. even ate with him. Respecting Calvin and ZWingIi, we know similar tilings. There exists, in recent times, a sect of devil-wor- shipers, which has no other origin than in the so-called Reformation."
The Yearly Report of the Pilgrim Mission of St. Chrischona, near Basel, in Switzerland, for 1887, gives the outlay of the mission at 128,955 fmncs, or $24,501. This Mission house trains young men of different nationalities and denominations, mostly artisans, for Christian work III Europe, America and other parts of the world_ The Berliner Missions-Berichte says: "A new thought has lately Imtered. into our mission work, namely, that we owe the heathen in our newly occupied colonies more affection, more attention and more labor, than we owe those among whom the Lord has so visibly opened the way for us and blessed our ~ol'k among them. I cannot acknowledge the justice of this demand. The missionary cause is a reichsunmittelbare Sache_" This phrase has a technical value in Germany, which needs explanation. Under the Empire, which was dissolved in 1806, the many princes of Germany were divided into two classes, those who, though exercising sovereignty over their own people, were themselves the vassals of other princes, and those who, whether their work was less or more, owned no superior except the Emperor. These latter were. reichsunmittelbare Fursten, "princes holding imlllediately of the ·Empire." So the writer of this maintains that missions depend immediately on Christ, and not on Chl'ist through William II. "The cause rests upon the comtnission and Good Samarit~n love of our Saviour, who will havll ~ll. men saved and brought. to thQ knowl'edge of the truth. Into this holy world of love no element of subordinate rank ought to be introduced, such as the question of the suzerainty or protectorate of the German Empire."
The Missions-und Heidenbote, of Neukit'chen, for April, 1888, gives the following account of Roman Catholic missions in Eastern Africa: .. Until lately We had to do with two different Roman Catholic missions. The one is the so-called • Congregation ot the Holy Ghost and of the Sacred Heart of Mary,' commonly called' the Black Fathers.' They number some fifty missionaries, working at seven central stations, none of them very far removed from the coast. Besides missionary work strictly 80 called, they also carryon a general work of culture. Especially are they devoted to the care of the sick. The other Roman Catholic mission is that of the' African Algerian :liissionarie.,' commonly called' the White Fathers.' They have advanced their stations far into the interior, and set them as widely as possible apart. As it appears, they limit themselves mainly to proper missionary work. "unhappily, we do not know the number of their laborers.
.. As we learn from the journals, there has come on the field a new German mission of the Roman Catholic Church, of which a column of thirteen priests, besides artisans aud agriculturists, is already on African soil. As we learu, the south of the Germau possessions in Eastern Africa is assigned to them, while the Kilimandjan region 1s to remain under the Brothers of the Holy Ghost. Results are yet to come. So mnch is clear, the Roman Church is bestirring herself mightily to lay her hand upon Eastern Africa. As yet evangelical missions have the precedence; will they maintain it! Let us accept this question as a serious question of concern for us, too I ..
The Heidenbote reports the number of the Herrmannsburg stations in Barsutoland as being 23, with 10,273 members or adherents. Last year 1,251 pel'sons were baptized; 1,678 scholars attend school.
The NOl'wegian missionaries have found themselves able to reoccupy in Zululand four of the five stations which they had been obliged to abandon in ' consequence of the Zulu War, besides three places in the so-called Zulu reservation. In Natal they have now, instead of one, three stations. The number of preaching-places in the whole territory is twenty, served by fifteen missionaries and ten evangelists. Four hundred souls have been won.
Madame Jaques writes from Spelonken, another district of the same French-Swiss mission: .. Those of our Christians who are a little remote from the station and live surrounded by their pagan relatives, are doing au admirable work, and are truly faithful in their vocation. It is grand to see how, little by little, one after the other, the members of a numerous family are drawn to the worship, come a second time, find pleasure in it, and end by giving themselves once and for all to the Saviour. It is evidently the exhortations of ~he first converts of their households; It is, above all, the instruction given by example, which first speaks to the conscience of the others and brings them to the desire of being enlightened on the question of salvation."
M. Jaques writes: .. Yakobo Maloungana has turned to Elim; I have resumed with him my work of translation. We are now on the 11th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The translation of this book is much more easy than that of the Epistles. As the Gwamba have had at all times much to recount, their lauguage lends itself most happily to recitals, while, as soon as there is occasion for a demol)stration of principles where reasoning plays a great part, one finds himself in the presence of a real embarrassment. This is what I have more than once experienced in translating the Epistle to the Romans, in which the argumentation of the apostie is sometimes so condensed. In· twenty years from now, when we shall know our language to the bottom, and shall have Gwambas, who will be able to render some rational account of it, we shall be in condition to make a more faithful translation of our sacred books. In order that it should be absolutely exact, it is necessary that our vocabulary should be enriched with a number of new words. at present absolutely lacking to it, such as are needed to express the most elementary notions of morals and of psychology. Thus, you would search in vain in Gwamba for a term corresponding to .. truth," but yon find a profusion of words destined to express the ideas offallieluxid, deception, seduction, etc., a fact which indicates that our natives are ouly too little strangers to the practice of tl!ese sad vices."
The Finnish MIssionary Society, whose mission in Gwamba land, in Sou~h western Africa, dates back twenty years, labored there twelve and a half years before being able to report a baptism. A year ago the number of baptized Christians was 80. Since then, by the blessing of God, it has more than doubled, being now 165. The last year's income of the Finnish Society amounts to 107,478 Finnish marks. Reckoning a Finnish mark at 16 cents: this is equivalent to $17,196.48. __ ,. '.
The Cape Colony Synod of the Berlin Mission in South Africa gives the following report of operations from Sept. 29, 1886, to the same date 1887: Baptized, 50; confirmed, 9; .died, 17; communicants,601. ..
The following, from Missionary Voskamp, of the Berlin Society, gives a. vivid picture oi a great Chinese city: "We hired a bearer and proceeded through the endless confusion of the narrow, diTty streets of Canton, throngh the evil smells of a many-thousand-year-old decaying cultnre, on past all the innumerable shops and idol temples, halls of justice and idol altars, past all the numberless human forms, poor and rich, well and sick, vested with silk or cOTered with rags, painted with vermilion or oonsumed with leprosy, which flood the lanes of the giant city of Southern China, out through the pet nun, the great iron Northern gate, through several streets of the suburbs, past scattered hutB-llnd now the great allUVial plain of the Nort~stream delta stretches before our eyes. A purer air breathes over the land and encompasses us after we have escaped the exhalations whieh rest, suft"ocating and heavy, upon the city of the million souls• .. In the schools aud on the crossways, where the passing wayfarers were resting in the tea-hust, we sought opportunities to preach the Word of God. Often we fonnd them, often we waited in vain. Hanya guest listened an instant, then silently took up his bnndle and went on his way. There was nothing in the proclamation oC the Word that engaged the man's interest. Companies of heathen hungry for salvation, and hanging upon the 1Ips oC the missionary, were not to be found in the mountains; such. we may well say, are not to be found anywhere in China. The Lord alone knows where a seedcorn of eternity sinks into a human heaTt. The man takes it with him; often it sinks out of reach or is choked by the thorns and briers of heathenism, yet often, after the 11I>8e of years, it shoots up again into the light. At one tea-hut, which was covered with the leaves of. the fern palm, there gathered around us a great company of women. They were burdened with stones out of the neighboring quarry, at the same time carrying their infants on their hips. They laid oll" their loads and listened. I was greatly deligbted with the attentiveness with which they received the Word. Some also asked very intelligeut questions ~ •Sir, if we are not to worship idols, how shall we pray to the Heavenly Father" A heathen, sitting near, disturbed us by his unseemly witticisms. The language is rich in such equivocal turns. People do not understand the reference, and are taken in by the seeming harmlessness of the phrase. The helper explained to me the more Usual of them. Theyopen a Tiew into the hideons depths of heathenism. Often young children may be heard prattling them, as they have heard them from their parents.
There are few Protestants so bitterly set against the Roman Catholic Church that they would· not be glad to include her in, a comity of· arrange- ments for a partition of missionary work among the heathen. Unhappily, however, Cardinal Lairgerie, Archbishop of Algiers, seems to be the only Roman Catholic prelate interested in missions who instructs his missionaries not to establish themselves within a certain considerable distance of any Protestant station. In general the temper of Rome is only too well ex- pressed by this quotation from Friedrich Prippe, given in the Evangelisch- Lutherisches Missions~Blatt for April, 1888. "Missionary activity among all peoples is doctrinally an exclush'e right of the Catholic Church. Every other missionary activity, therefore, presents itself as an encroachment upon the exclusive right of the Catholic Church." That is, it is better that the heathen should be lost than be Christianized bya Protestant. Such mutual strife between those who acknowledge the same God and Saviour is sad'
. indeed.
Herr A. Gehring, of Trichinopoli, in South India, writes in the Missions- Blatt, describing a girls' school: .
.. I wish I could only present to the friends of missions at home the little brown-faced company, in their variegated, becoming costume, with their ornaments in nose, ear~, hair, and wherever else they can tlnd a lodgment. EYen the poorest cannot alford to be wholly without them, although, to be sure, all is not gold or silver that glitters. You at once become aware, by the expression of the ehUdren's faces and their whole demeanor, that they belong to the higher classes. When the, heathen girls have attended school awhile they lay Bside, in ~ mea~)lre, their sjlyncs!l to'lVBJ"ds.tb.6. missionary and become more approachable, and I am inclined to think that the Christian inftuenee makes itself noticeable in their general appearance. At Ilrst they are often greatly-diSinclined to learn the Christian lessons, but it seldom occurs that they utterly refuse to give their iuterest to the Christian instruction. On the contrary, the heathen children often shame the Christians by their animated answers. And how touching it is, when these children, with their hands laid over their eyes, join in the school,prayer, and with their Christian fellow·pupils repeat' Our Father who art in hea~en'. It Is certain, that here many II seedcorn is sown, and even though these children, forced to it by their parents, continue to bedaub their foreheads with the ashes, marking them as votaries of Vishnu or Siva, at least Christianity is no longer a strange thing to them, and the folly of heathen. ism no longer unknown; and while in general it is the women who cling most tenaciously to heathenism, even when the men are careless of It, it cannot but be that such heathen girls, hrought up in Christian schools, will in later life be …uch more cordially affected towards Christianity."
Herr Gehring brings a serious charge against the Roman Catholic missionaries of South India, which ought to be looked into, for it is either a grievous calumny 01' a crushing accusation, "In the surrounding Roman Catholic congregations it is customary for girls, before their marriage, to grow up without any manner of instruction. They know about as much of Christianity as a newborn child. When marriage seems to be impending, they are sent a few weeks to the catechism class, and there learn by rote the so·called mantrams, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ave Maria."
Referring to the accompanying table, which shows that in forty-five years the number of TamilChristians connected with the Lutheran mission hasrisen from 1,400 to 14,000, the Missions·Blatt exclaims: "What are our 14,000 Christians compared with the 14,000,000 Tamils who are yet heathen? How dark is still the night of heathenism in those millions oC heathen souls I" Yet the rate of increase-tenfold in forty·five years-is most gratifying. Of these rates of increase, the vital factor in the question, Canon Taylor, in his article, "The Great Missionary Failure," seems to ~ake no account whatever. He computes how many thousand years, at the present absolute annual increase, it would require to overtake even one year's addition to the popula~ tion. But he entirely passes over the fact, shown by Sir William Hunter, to whom he refers again and again, that from 1872 to 1881 the population increased 11 pel' cent., and the native Christians 64 pel' cent; At that rate it will not take a geological reon to do something effectual for India. An -eminent Semitic scholar has remarked to me that accuracy is a quality which Canon Taylor never came near. That may explain his saying that Sir WH– Ham Hunter allows half a million Hindus as eligible material for present missionary effort, ,whereas he allows jifty millions!
The Missions·Blatt gives one of the oldest missionary prayers known. It was found written on the first page of the first church book of Tranquebar, of 1707, written by one of the earliest missionaries. It is as follows: "0 thon exalted and majestic Saviour, Lord Jesns Christl Thou Redeemer of the whole human racel Thou who through thy holy apostles hast everywhere, throughout the w)1ole wori,d, gathered a holy congregation out of all peoples for thy possession, and hast defended and maintained the same even until now against all the might of hell, and moreover assurest thy servants that thou wilt uphold them even to the end of the world, and in the very last times wilt multiply them' by calling many of the heathen to the faith I For such goodness may thy name be eternally praised, especially also because thou, through thy unworthy servants in this place, dost communicate to thy holy word amoug the heathen thy blessing, and hast begun to deliver some souls ont of destructive bllnduess, and to iucorporate them with tbe communion or thy holy Church. Behold, it ill thy word; do thou support it with Divine power, so Gliat'by thy power many thousand souls may be born to thee in these missiou stations, which bear the names of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, souls which ilfterwards may be admitted out of this earthly Jerusalem into thy heavenly Jernsalem with ever- iasting and exultant joy. Do this, 0 Jesus, for the sake of thy gracious prorillseand thy holy merit, Amen." .
The Journal des Missions EvanglUiques, in remarking- upon the greater
OIi.GANlZJi:l> MISSIONARY WORK
ease with which a missionary field is reached now than a generation ago, . observes: "We know that It requires about tweuty days to accomplish the 6,000 marine miles Which divide , the English coasts from Cape Town. The railway which joins this city with Kimberley has been pushed out some 6rO miles, a pas.age of about twenty-four hours. Nothing easier, as we see, tb!ln to go from Paris to Kimberley, In the heart of South Africa; it requires but twenty-1Ive days and from 1,500 to 1,600 francs. But less than thirty years ago M. and Madame Mabille have had I'voy- age of 104 days between England and Cape Town, and they found it to require 1Ifty days, including . the necessary preparations for a wagon journey, to go from there to Lessouto. To-day the Zambezi Is hardly farther off than was, forty years ago, the country of Mashesh-in the Transvaal. Only on reaching Kimberley do they harness up the heavy wagon which transports the missionary to Kazungula, where we cross the Zambezi to enter into the country of the Barotsls."
It has been already mentioned that. as tue French Government, since tak- ing possession of the Gaboon, has forbidden the American missionaries to . teach anything but French in their schools, these have found it necessary to solicit their Frer;.ch Protestant brethren to send them out teachers, which they have done. The editors of the Journal remark: .. The reception given to our friends at the Gaboon, a!) well by the authorities as by the American missional'ies, has been excellent. The latter have themselves written to thank the Society for the pains which j,t has taken to secure and send out these auxiliaries of French speech, the introduction of whom had become an absolute necessity, involving the vet·y existence of the mission. Thus our young people have found at the stations true friends, with whom they are happy to be fellow-laborers."
One of these young gentlemen, M. Virgile Gacon, who found in the American mission a more rigorous rule of total abstinence than is com- monly thought necessary in France, writes: .. Mr. Good haR explained to us In full the importance which here belongs to the question of abstinence. The matter is not difficult to comprehend: when once a black man has tasted alcoh61, it Is too late to say to him, Stop. At another time I sha11 be able to write at length on this 8ubject. For now this one fact will suffice. There is near here a "Village, which will soon be entirely destroyed. The cause is 'water-of-Iife,' em-t-de-vie, or rather, water-of-death, In many places 'men have been known to die a few hours after having drauk these drugs. purchased at high price. He who follows such a business is unworthy of the name of civilized European."
M. Brandt, of the French mission in Senegal, touches upon a loo well- known fault of the African character: "At every moment I am baffled against their iuertla, their lack of reflection, aud above a11 the mobility of their impressions. If I ask of my scholars to enumerate to me the distinguishing marks of a truly Christian child, they will give them with marvelous preCision, but a. to actiug agreeablJ thereto, no one dreams of it. They have rather a superabundance of those ready-made phrases, those expressions so beautiful in the mouths of those who really feel them', but so cold when com- ing from those who are not touched by them, and which may be called the pafcia of Canaan, ,'Many words and few deeds,' is something of which I have often to remind them."
II.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Society for Promoting Ohristian Knowl- nance of bishops and clergy for the Colonial and edge. Pounded 1698. Missionary Dioceses in the training of candidates for holy orders, and in preparing native students TRIS society Is the Bible and Prayer- Book for lay missiou work. It devotes a portion of Socf,etyof the Church of England. During the its funds to aid medical missions in the East, year It circnlated 588,907 of these books or por- and for the training of medical missionaries. tions in over 75 languages, at a cost to thc This latter plan n()w includes the training or society's funds of over £10,000. It is a Tract female medical missionaries for the spread of and Pure Literature Society. During the year the gospel among the women of India. Five works of religious and other sound literature thousand pounds have been voted dUring the were sold to the amount of £78,730, aud books year for the extension of medical missions, and £2,000 toward the endowment of the Sees of to the value of £8,805158. were granted free to Perth,W. A., Bathurst. and Ottawa; £1,000 churches, mission rooms, schools, etc. It is a ,Jli88i07la1"!l Socf,ety, and assists in the maintetowards, a Clergy Endowment Fund for the Primitive Methodist lfissionary So-. diocese of Perth, and £900 for the maintenance ciety, of students in mission seminaries and boarding- schools' in the diocese of Madras. Twenty- FORTY-FIFTH report for year end- three stUdents of various nationalities are main- ing March, 1888: tained in theological colleges in preparation for holy orders, and forty-four natives are also The gross income of the General Fund for being trained for lay mission work. the past year has been £17,868 18. 10~d" and tlie gross expenditure £13,187158. ~., Besides this its noble Training College at leaving a balance in the treasurer's hands Tottenham involves a considerable expense. It of £4,680 68. 7d. But £500 of this balance is , expended during the year £7,955 to erect 109 money the committee will have to repay in buildings for church purposes. Its efforts as an a short time, and £2,500 more is money held Emigrant's Spiritual A id Society are extensive. for a special purpose, so that the balance, strictly speaking, is £1,680 68. 7d. The total amount of grants in money and , The gross income of the African Fund for books made in the year ending March 21st,1887, the year has been £2.584 148. 9d., and the gross expenditures £2,134198. 7d.; leaving a wag '£41,667 178. 4<1., including the charge on balance of £449 158. 2d. This balance will, of cGurse, be expended in a month or two the SOCiety's funds for Bibles and Prayer-books from the audit. sold below cost price. The society's liability for grants promised amounted at that time to The districts have sent £617 58. 2(,l. less to nearly £74,000. The society's income from all the General Fund this year than last, but sources was £35,l1R 58. 5d. The grants voted £805 178. 7d. more to the African Fund. for the various branches of the society's work in the year much exceeded its income, aud its British and Foreign Bible Society. assets have been reduced £7,320 98. ABSTRACT of the report, 1888: Society for the Propagation of the Gos- The issnes of copies at home and abroad pel in Foreign Parts. have been the largest the society has ever known. The total number of Bibles, Testa- ESTABLISHED in 1701. Report of ments and Portions' has been 4,206,032. This is an increase beyond the issues of last year the year 1887 : of more than 273,354. Of the total issues 2,293,393 copies Were sent from London; ovel During the 187 years of its existence, the 1,312,639 from the depots abroad. Society's work, which began in 1702 in the Receipts: The gross total, £250,382108. 5d United States and the West Indies, has been The expenditures, £224,823 98. 9d. This pays the deficit of last year, £10,021 178., and extended to Newfoundland in 1703, to Canada leaves a balance of some £15,000 in the treasury. in 1749, to the West Coast of Africa in 1752, to Oolonial and Oontinental Ohurch So- Australia in 1795, to the East Indies in 1818, to ciety. South Africa in 1820, to New Zealand in It139, to INCORPORATED in 1887. Report for Borneo in 1849, to British Columbia and Bur- the year 1887-88: mah in 1859, to Madagascar in 1864, to the The special object of this Society is to Transvaal in 1873, to Japan in 1873, to China in .. supply clergymen and catechists and teachers to British residents in the Colo- 1874, to Fiji in 1879. n ies, on the Continent, and in other parts of the world." Archdeacon Wilkinson, D.D., The following comparative statement gives preached the anniversary sermon. The report is voluminous. The receipts for the the amounts received under the several items, year, if we understand the statement, amounted to £41,695 138., including balance into which the Society's finances are divided, in at the beginning of the year.
1886 and 1887 : Pilgrim Mission of St. Ohrischona.
COLLECTIONS, SUB- 1886. 1887. THIS mission is located near J3asel in SCRIPTIONS, AND £ 8. d. £ 8. d. SWitzerland. From the yearly report we DONATIONS. 77,72513 3 learn that the outlay of the Mission for .1887 13,0551l! 10 was 128,955 francs ($24,501). This, Mission- General Fund…. 75,764 6 5 house trains yonng men of various nation- Special Funds … 13,408 2 1 10,323 12 5 alities and denominations. chiefly artisans, 25 0 0 for missionary work in Europe, America LEGACIES: and other parts of the world. General Fund…. 7,652 2 2 3,954 7 4 Special Funds … 200 0 0 4,680 19 5 • Bibles, 869,061; Testameuts 1,938,097; Portions 1,898,874. RENTS, DIVIDENDS, Etc. : General Fund.. . . 3,552 8 3 Special Funds. .. 5,134 16 0 Gross Income of l £105,71114 11 £109,765 5 3 the SociAty f – It will thus be seen that the gross receipts for 1887 exceed those of 1886 by £4,054 : that the General Fund received a total larger by £5,035 than in 1886. of which £2,672 were under the head of LegacIes, and £1,961 under ,the head of Oollections, Subscriptions, and Donations, and that the Special 'Funds show a decreasennder each head, which amounts to £981. Fiji Island Mission. SIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, we give the latest statistics of this FROM the paper read before the Confer- marvelous mission: ence at London by Rev. John Calvert (see The McAll Mission nnmbers at present l!5 pages 656-00 of this REVIEW) we gather the stations, or mission halls, in Paris,l1 in the immediate suburbs, and 79 in tb,e provinces, ' latest facts re.pecting this marvelous mis- making a total of 115. Some of these are openeil every night, bnt the greater number ~on. I are used only on Sunday, and two or three times during the week. A.dults and child- .. With only 9 white missionaries, we have ren's meetings, Bible classes and mothers' meetings, dispensaries, young men's asso- 3,505 native preacMrs; 56 ordained, who take ciations, all these and other methods of work are carried on. full part in the work of the ministry with the The aggregate attendance during laat English missionary, 47 catechists, 983 head year in the 17,000 meetings which have been held, has been 1,114,233. The number of preachers, with 1,919 ordinary local or lay people who are under gospel infiuence through these mission halls, who attend preachers. There are 1,268 chapels and more or less regularly, and may be said to befavorubly disposed-people :"ho, formerly, other preaching places; 28 English church were freethinkers and indifferent to their religious interests-can be safely estimated members, 27,097 full native, church mem- at 50,000.
bers. These are Well cared for by 3,480 de- Hebrew Ohristian Work in New York.
voted cloiss-leaders. There are 40,718 schol- REPORT to Jan. 1, 1888: ars in our 1,735 day and Sunday-schools, This work is under control of Rev. Jacob Freshman, a converted Israeliteand Rabbi's taught by 2,526 teachers; and 101,150 at- son. The Center is 17 St. Mark's Place, New York. Preachin~ in German anil English tendants on pUblic worship. The jubilee of every Saturday afternoon, English services Sundays and Fridays. No statement of fithe mission was lately held. Fifty years nances is appeniled. The property has been boughtand paid for and is without debt, save previously there was not a Christian in aU the $10,000 first mortgage. It is essentially a faith work, Mr.and Mrs. Freshman having Fiji; then not an avowed heathen left. no salary. In our jndgment it inspires con- fidence to print a full account of all receipte Cannisalism has, for some years past, been and expenditures, and we commend this suggestion to friend Freshman, wholly extinct, and other immemorial cus- toms of horrible cruelty and barbarism have disappeared."
Bahamas Baptist Mission,.lBB7•.
REPORT 81 stations, 14 sub-statIOns, 1 mlS· sionary, 98 evangelists, 148 baptisms during the year, received otherwise 58; number of members, 4,161; Sabbath-school teachers, 396; scholars, 4,027. Amount of contributions not given.
The Finnish Missionary Sooiety.
THIS mission of this society in Sonthwestern Africa dates back 20 years. It was over twelve years before a baptism waR ,eported. The pres- ent number is 105. The last year's income of the society amounted to 101,478 Finnish marks, equivalent to $17,196.48.
Basel Mission Society, Basel, Switzer- United Methodist Free Ohuroh (London).
land. THIRTY-SECOND report, 1888.
RECEIPTS: £ 8. d. Ordinary Receipts., . . . . . . . .• . . •. 9,849 13 9 THE latest and, most anthentic statistics of Miscellaneous and Special……… 519 17 7 this Interesting mission are furnished by Rev. Commemorative Fnnd. . •. . . . . . . . 905 0 0 Foreign Local Receipts. . . . •. . . . . 9,753 9 4 H. W. Hulbert in the two valuable papers given by him on the Basel Mission In our October and TotalIncome. . . . . . •. . . . . . . . 21,O'JIl 0 8 Deficiency on the year……….. 426 18 10 November issues. We give the snmmary as follows: , To·day the Basel Society has four fields of £21,454 14 6 £ B. If: labor, East India, China, Gold Coast, and Cam- EXl'ENDITURES: Home Expenditure …… , …..•. 3,978 9 4 eroons and Victoria in West Africa; 44 sta- Foreign Expenditure. . . . . . . . . . . . 7,722 15 10 tions 79 ordained male European laborers, 31 Foreign Local Expenditure…… 9,"53 9 4 day European lay workers, 85 female European £21,45414 6 laborers, 577 native workers, 19,98ll adherents, Bible Ohristian Missionary Society (London). 9,497 communicants, 207 schools and 7,486 schol· THIRTY-SEVENTH annual report, ars. The annual income of this society is 1888: £36,000, of which the native converts contribute The statis~ical tables show that the Society has at present 126 missionaries, 742 local £778. preachers, 390 chapels, 119 preaching places, 10,552 members, 254 on trial for membership, MoAll Mission, Franoe.
FROM the admirable paper of Mr.
Saillens, the assoCiate of Mr. McAlI, given in this number of THE MISand in the Sabbath-schools, 2,990 teachers, and different villages ; from four villages they w~ the first-fruits. 21,310 scholars. There is an mcrease of 16 Total of baptized Christians …•••…•. , •• 1145 Received from other missions. ••. •• . .• . •• 11 local preachers, 13 chapels. 13 preaching places, Children of Christians….. .. …………. 230 39 memhers, and 589 scholars. Newton Abbot 586 Died ………………………………. 16 is not included in this year's returns, the Con- Excluded ………………………….. 14, Emigrated and joined other missions ference of 1887 having decided to unite that (with their children) ……………., 101 mission to the Torquay Circuit, or these tables -131 would show larger totals anti. increases. Present…. .. .. .. … .. … …….. …. 455 RECEIPTS: £ 8. d. Oolonial Missionary Society. By Home Contributions……… 4,397 19 10 " South Australia………….. FIFTY-SECOND annual report, 1888; .. Victoria…………………. 493 10 9 .. New Zealand…………….. 2,0~8 5 2 This Society repl'esents the Inde- pendent or Congregational Churches. 114 10 1 £ II. d. £7,094 510 Balance from last year … , .. … 307 0 4 DISBU1ISElIrENTS : £ 8. d. CASH RECEIVED. To Balance, with Interest…….. 598 3 3 " Home Disbursements…•…. 3,685 13 7 Annnal Subscriptions……….. 670 12 3 .. South Australia………… .. 47210 9 Donations…………… …….. 111 Z 6 .. Victoria………………… . 2,237 10 10 Congregational Collections….. 675 3 9 .. Queensland …………….. . 25 0 0 Sunday-schools, Boxes, etc….. 20 14 8 .. New Zealand…………… .. 232 5 1 Repaymeats(Passagesaccount) 190 8 6 .. China…………………… . 526 13 4 Dividends on Stock.. ………… 32 • 5 Legacies……………………. 2,610 15 8 Total Disbursements.. ….. 7,77'11610 Jubilee Fund, Winnipeg ac- Total Receipts.. ……….. 7,094 5 10 count…………………… 250 0 0 £688 11 0 £4,868 2 Foreign Ohristian Missionary Sooiety. JUBILEE FUND.
ABSTRACT of thirteenth annual re- £ II. d. To Balance from last year…..• 473 15 7 port, October, 1888: Receipts to date (including £750 SUJ(KARY OP WORK AND WOBKBBB. from Legacies to Society).. 1,964 0 8 Dividends on Stock…………• 38 16 8 .. Nnmber ofmissions, 6; stations, 24: male £7,344 15 0 missionaries, 24; Cemale, 13; helpers, 22; EXPENDITURES. whole nnmber of paid workers, 59; additions £ II. d. during the year, 798; net gain, 588: nnmber Grant from Legacies to Jubilee under the care of the society. 2,473; children in Fund……………………. 750 0 0 Grants to Churches, Stations, Sunday·school,2,689; In day-school, 880. . and College.. .. •.. .. .. .. … 1,905 14 8 Voyages and Outfits…… …… 195 14 6 PINANCES. Rent of Office, Attendance,Gas, .. Total receipta for the year $62,767.59. Of etc……………………..• 51 0 8 Salary of Secretary ………..• 350 0 0 this sum $2,670.40 was received from the sale of Postages, Carriage, and Inci- securities, and $2,100 "Was returned on invest- dentals …………………. 26 Z 2 Printing, Paper, and Advertisements. Deducting these amounts leaves $57,- ments…………………… 38 4 10 997.19 as the contributions of churches, Sunday- Annuity for Gift of £1,000 …… 38 16 8 Deputations, and Traveling sch,ools and individuals, This is an increase of charges ………………… 24 10 6 817,437.84. Aside from bequests the increase is Deposit Account (H. W. & Co.). 1,000 0 0 $10,035.74. The total expenditure amounts to Balance……………… :. 487 18 1 $60,092.66. With a single exception there has £4,868 2 1 JUBILEE FUND. been an increase in the receipts each year from £ II. d. the first. In the last six years the increase has Deputations, Expenses, and been fivefold. Hundreds of churches and Charges. .. .. ….. . . .. .. .. … 131 2 0 Printing, Postages, etc.. … …. "1 0 SChools are fsIling into line each year. The re- Purchase of Stock………….. 2,044 7 6 Loan, Winnipeg account…….. 250 0 0 ceipts from the Sunday-schools amount to $15,- Balance……………….. 47 2 Z 662.gJ against $10,573.08 last year. This is an £7,344. 15 0 increase of fifty per cent. The interest and en- American 'Arcot 'Mission in Connection thusiasm of the superintendents and teachers with Refornled Dutch Ohurch.
are constantly increasing. The work among THIRTY-FOURTH report, 1887: the ehildren is by far the most hopeful feature of SUJlJlARY.
our home work. Additions to members in 1887, 245; but, as an offset to this, there was a. decrea.se of "Please note that our Woman's Board does not contribute to our treasury, as in some other societies. A. McLEAN, Secretary."
Bethel Santhal Mission.
PASTOR A. HAEGERT, founder and director, Bengal. Report of 1887-8. Summary. Married, ·13; confessed faith in Christ and "Were baptized, 34. They came from eighteen 223, leaving a net increase of only 22. A instead of taking them. from my report.. This large par,t of this loss is accounted for by !tatistical table is madeup from reports sent to the erasure of the names of persons who the Stated Clerk from the various Presbyteries. have ceased attending church. and is iuaccurate in many respects.
The.present status of the Mission: 8 mis- "J. L.SECOR, Secretary." sionaries, 7 assistant missionaries, 3 native We are in doubt now whether the p~tors, 185 native helpers, 8 .stations, 56 $11,212.63, which we stated as conout-stations~ 23 churches, 1,755 Church mem- tributed by the Woman's Board of bers, 00 congregations, 5,508 the aggregate Foreign Missions, is embt'aced in the of native Christians, 6 Christian boarding figures given above. schools, 5 Anglo-vernacular schools, 8 Hindu girls' schools, and 84 primary schools, Woman's Foreign Missionary Boards and chiefly in the villages; making altogether Work in the United States.* 103 schoolS, with a total attendance of 2,765 scholars, of whom 1,699 are boys, and. 1,066 I. Woman's Union Missionary Socigirls. ety. Organized 18tn.
EVa.IU!;elical Lutheran Ohurch in the Miss S. D. Doremus, 'Correspondiug Sec- tary,54 East 21st street. New York. U. S. (General Synod). This Society is Rupported by 27 Auxiliary 8U)l1lARY. Societies. The reported income for 1887 was $37,346.69. It conducts work in Calcutta, MISSIONARIES in the field: Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Allahabad and Cawnpore,India; in Shanghai, China; and in Yokohama, Japan. The sumR Unangst, Rev. and Mrs. Wolff, Miss Dr. Kugler contributed for the support of their work at mission stations amounts to a considerable and Miss Dryden. total, nearly $10,000.
Whole number of native gospel workers. 11i7 The report contains no summaries of Baptized members…………………. 10,256 a.orents and other facts. . Net gain during the year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r~6 Communicants………… .. …. …..•.. 5,316 Miss Hook, of Calcutta, says: "During the Sunday-schools (regularly organized) …. 8 past year tllere has been a revival of Christ- Sunday-schoo! scholars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. – 890 ian literature. New books, papers aud Congregations or~an~zed in 1887 . . . . . . . . . 8 tracts have been written. and an immensely Prayer-honses buUt ID 1887.. . .. . •… .. . . 14 large number of the old ones have been sold Whole number of schools……………. 158 and distributed." Teachers. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. ••… . .. .. 184 Pupils io all the schools ……………… 3,886 Dr. Reiffsnyder, of Shanghai, conducta a Candidates for the ministry. . . . . . . . . . •. •• 12d very prosperous medical work.
RECEIPTS. The organ of the Society is The Missimtary Link. It is published monthly. The Cor- For the work in India and Africa, from all responding Secretary of the Society, Miss S. Bourees, $25,249.50, as follows: Collection at D. Doremus, is the editor. The .. RoOm .. of General Synod, $71.26; American Tract Society, this Society is 41 Bible House. $100; from the Southern Church, $493.72; Publicatiou Society, $1,500; Woman's Missionary II. Woman's Board of Missions. (Con- Society, $3,987.65; from individuals, Sunday-' gregational.) Organized 1868. schools aud churches, $19,090.87-$10,903.13 less than called for' by the Board, and indorsed by Miss Abbie B. Child, Home Secretary No.1, General Synod. To make up this serious defi- Con!(regational House, Bostou, Mass. ciency an appeal was sent to pastors and Sundayschools, from which only partial responses had Three Women's Boards of the Cougregatioual been received np to date of report. "An urgent Church co-operate with the americau Board, call for reinforcement comes from India and namely: The Woman's Board of Missions, with Africa, and the Board promises to send addi- headquarters at Boston, the Woman's Board tional men as soou as possible." of Missions of the Interior. with headquarters at Chicago, and the Woman's Board of Mis- Oumberland Presbyterian Ohurch. sions of the Pacific, centering at San Francisco. The last has just organized an Oregon and IN our last number (page 845) we erred in giving the receipts of this .• We are indebted to Mrs. Dr. J. T. Gracey, Society for 1887-8. On application to Buffalo, N. Y., for the preparation of this the Secretary we received the follow- entire matter relating to Womau's Foreign ing correction: Mission Work. So extensive ha.s the work become that we 'are obliged to confine the .. Tle receipts in our work last year were as exhibit in this number to the United Statea. follows: In the next number we hope to give the For foreign missions ……• '" .•….. 815,265 97 work of the Canada and the .European For home missions………………. 27,672 59 '".S. ocieties.-EDS. Total for the year……….•…..842,988 56 "Your mistake doubtless occnrred by your taking your figures from the statistical table .in the back part of the Minutes of the Assembly, Washington Territory Branch. This Pacidc Africa, Mexico, and among Indians and Cblll~ Board was not organized 'till 1872. The three in this conntry. Boards had contributed to the general work 01 the Prudential Committee at the time of the 1. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society 01 seventy·dfth anniverEsry of the American the PreBiJyterian Church. Organized 1870. Board, $1,270,000. lIliss S. W. Du BOis, 1,334 Chestnut street, On January 11, 12 of this year, the Woman's Pbiladelphia, Home Secretary. Board celebrated its twentieth anniversaryin Mt. Vernon Church, Boston. Mrs. S. Brainard Pratt, This society has 2,725 auxiliary societies and in ber "Twenty Years' Review," said: ·'In lIands, and supports 183 missionaries, 8 of whom 1868 we began with seven missionaries, four are physicians, 27 zenana visitors, 84 natl"8 ot whom have continned through all these helpers, and 165 day and boarding·schools. Its years at their labors. In 1888, we can number income last year was $150,000, making a total of 171 missionaries who have been under onr care, $1,647,618 since its organization. twelve or whom have died, others withdrawn, and now we have in active service 102 mission- 2. The Woman's Board ol.Missions qf the aries and 132 Bible women. Twenty years ago Nl»'thweBt, organized 1870. It has 1,522 auxilithe Board had no school buildings of its own to ary societies and bands, supports 71 misSionaries, which to send its ·seven teachers. Time 4 of whom are physiCians, 57 native teachers will fall to tell how one after another day and and Bible readers, and 102 day and board:ngboarding·schools have been opened and build- schools. Its receipts last year were $102,499.87, ings erected, houses, hospitals and dispensaries and its total contributions $726,277.35. built, which have been like little glimpses of America, nay, more like the very gate of heaven 3. Woman'8 Board of Foreign .Missions, New to the thousands ot girls whom they have shel· York, organized 1870, has 900 auxiliary societered, telling in langnage which all may read, ties and bands, supports 41 missionaries, 32 that American women are stretching out belp- native helpers, 22 schools, and its income last Ing hands to their sisters of every nation for year was $65,544.35, a total since its orgaDtzalove'88au. tion for foreign work of $430,346.
.. 'rhe Board's drst fields otlaoorwere Chilla, 4. Woman'. PreBbyterian SOCiety, Nl»'tkern Ceylon, Turkey and Zululand. They have added New Yl»'k, organized 1871. This society has 220 to .these India, Persia (1870), Japan, Spain, .subordinate organizations, and support. 5 mis· Mexico, Austria, Micronesia, West Central and sionaries, 13 native pastors, 49 schools and East Ceutral Africa. scholarships, and its income last year was $10,413.36, a total durin~ its existence of $120,812. "In 1810 the Woman's Board welcomed Its drst daugbter, the Philadelphia Branch; now it has 6. lWJman's PreslYyterian Board of MI,'8iom twenty-three brauches, comprisnlg 1,700 aux- qf the Southwest, organized 1877, headquarters Uiaries and circles. One more glance backward. at St. Louis. It has 376 societies and bands. Its income last year was $7,193.18, making a What bas it cost, this work of twenty years r total since its organization of $28,968.58. It has several missionaries under Its care, and scholar- Last year the receipts amounted to $123.240,45, ships in many count.ries. and for the twenty years, in money paid Into the Treasury, $i79,457.·23. 6. Woman's NorlJi, PacVlcPreabyterian Board of Missions was organized last year (l88i), and " The Woman's Branch at Boston supports 110 has for its home field the Synod of Columbia. missionaries and 121 Bible women in its various There was some regret at the separation of this . missions. The receipts for the year ending territory from the main society and at the multi_ December 31, 1887, were $12il,2Z9.45. plication of the number of societies, bnt as the step Wl,S taken with the approval of the Presby- "The Woman's Board of the Interior has tery and Synod, all concur, and wish an In- 1,500 auxiliaries, and supports 62 mission- creased efficiency for these workers. We are .aries. Their income last year amounted to sorry not to be able to give the number of $51,171.40. The Woman's Board of the Pacific auxiliaries, but the society is not yet in condi- bas 75 auxiliaries and supports 3 missiouaries. tion to report, Its Income last year was was $4,045.38, Mrs. B. Douglas of Chicago, TIl., thus sum- "Life and Light, the periodical of the Wo- marizes the women's work of the whole of these man's Congregational Board, reports a circula- societies: tion of 15,451. This Board also issues a paper "Number of Women's Boards and Socie- for the cbildren, called M't88Wn Day-Sprinu, which has a circulation of over 17,000. Tbese ties for work among heathen women, in papers are published in Boston, the former at the Presbyterian Charch, North…….. 6 60 cents a year and the latter at 25 cents." Number of auxiliary societies and bands connected witb them………………. 5,743 III. Woman's Boards, Presbyterian Number of missionaries supported by them on the foreign field……………. 260 Church. Number of native assistants………….. 158 Number of boarding and day-schools….. 820 THE missions of the several Presbyterian 'Woman's Boards are in Syria, Persia, India, .. In addition to these larger items, we have Siam, Japan, Korea, Papal Europe, Southwest aided in the building, furnishing and sapport of schools, hospitals, orphanages, training-scbools for nurses, asylums, aud dispensaries; have translated books into: foreign languages and pri~ted them; have built a boat for African of concerning the operations the ladieli'·soeie- waters: have supported a Mexican newspaper, have met all expenses connected with onr work ties in connection with their general society: at hllme, and have paid unappropriated into the "In reply to your card I wonld state, that in the treasury of the Assembly's Board, five per cent. of. our receipts for cohtingent expenses con· Sonthern Presbyterian Chnrch there was contrib- nected with our special work. uted last year by Ladies' Foreign Missionary Societies, $20,732.71. The number of these .. The whole amonnt raised for these pnrposes societies contributing was 457. In 1874 the by the women of onr Chnrch since the organiza- contributions of these societies amonnted to tion of the first SOCiety in 1870, is $2,934,021. $2,111.50:" in 1878, $10,107.54. Since 1874, Adding to this the many thonsand dollars given when the contribntions of the societies be- to specific objects outside of the regnlar esti- gan to be reported separately from the other mates, and the legacies paid into the Board receipts, the total amount contribnted by them direct from the estates of Presbyterian women has been $185,682.34. The societies have in (one of >'hich is the largest legacy they ever re- general had no association witl, one another: ceived), amouutin~ in all to about $5CO,000, we Within the last year Presbyterian associations have raised during these nearly eighteen years have in some cases been formed." over $3,500,000. V. Reformed Presbyterians. The two periodicals published by these so- cieties jOintly are Woman's Work for Woman. THE REVIEW last year reported the formation and Our MissionF'ield, and Ohildren's Work . for Ohildren, and both are self-supporting. of two Presbyterial societies. We have endeav- 7. 7heWoman's Board Of the Pacific Islands, 1871 <Presbyterian). We have no report of this ored to ascertain something further abont them, society, and can do no better than to refer to TUB RRVlEW for December,1887, page 785. bnt have nothing. A note from Rev. R. M. Som- IV. Woman's Work in the Presby- erville, New York, Sept. 13, 1888, says: terian Church in the United States "We have no women's missionary societies, (Southern). except in connection with individual congrega- There is no separate organization of the tions, and there are no pubUshed reports or tbeir ladies of this Church for the conduct of foreign work. We are indehted to the Corresponding work." . Secretary of Foreign MiSSions, Rev. 14. H. Houston, D.D., 113 N. Charles street, Balti- VI. Women's Board of Missions of more, for the following response to our inquiry the United Presbyterian Church.
Organized 1879.
Miss Margaret Shaw, Recording Secretary, Pittsburgh, Pa.
This is a joint home aud foreign missionary SOCiety, and the following table, thongh contsin- ing matter extraneous to our purpose, is too val· uable to mar, so we give it entire : COIdl'ABATlVE SIDOrABY 011' STATISTICS.
– – – – – – – – – 1883. 1884. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. Presbyteries Represented……………. . '0 ….25 .. ··32 56 Presbyterial Societies…..•………….. 16 41 43 Congregational. ……………………. . 33.; 34.5 :l99 469 5:;2 675 Members Reported ………………… . 10,593 11,007 12,071 13,585 15.~ 17,529 CONTRIBUTIONS.
Foreign Missions ………. '.' ……… , .. $7,546 $8,365 $10,177 $10,763 $13,803 $15,619 Home Missions ………………….. .. 4,304 4,2'J7 4,924 5,650 5,835 5,363 Freedmen's Missions ……………… .. 2,082 2,103 2,788 6,'06 17,316 3,215 Church Extension ……… ' …………. . 906 860 1,096 2,121 1,188 2,108 Congre~ational Purposes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,819 12,438 12,970 Otber Objects. 4U Ministerial Relief….. …… ………. 371 Ot'phans' Home… .. ……………… 4,379 Miscellaneons ……….. ;…………
Total "Other Objects " ………….. 10,839 12,528 10,732 4,120 5,812 5,192 Total. …………………………. $25,731 $28,082 $29,767 $3s,749 $46,395 $44,467 Boxes NOT included….. …… ……….. 6,310 :Miss Shaw says: and retrenchment of work in Egypt. where " Comparing this with report of previons year, schools which had been in existence many years we find that 2,005 have been added to the mem- have actually been closed for want of funds. bership·, while there has been" failing off in contributions of $1,961. We had hoped to have ".T¥ Women's Missionary Magazine, pub- $50,000 to report thIS year, and had there been lished by a committee appointed by the General tlie growth there Itas been for several years MiSSionary Society, thongh making its tlret apback, this would have been the case. pearance in August, 1887, is on a caBh basis, with .. A. deep and prayerful interest ha& pervaded a steadily increasing 8Ubscription Jist. Many the whole Church, and especially in regard to tbe kind words and subscriptions bave been received debt 'i:estlng on the :Board of. Foreign· Missions for it from persons of other chnrches as well as our own,·' Report, of the MFiavyeIW, 1o88m8e:n*'s Foreign Missionary Organizatio' ns of t, he Presb, )rterian ' Chure,b, Co the yoor ending lIl'
.CD .CD .; .t.o,- ~ .~ 8i..~,-0il. t ti ti i ~".":"e~ := .E os &" ! " . ~ ~" ~" ~ – -iil – -z– c::lo"S ~.t. >C<D ~"t>"< Woman's Foreign Missionary Soclety of the Presh. Ch., Phila….. $149,640 $19,821 2,382 91 Woman's Preshyterian Board of 221 – 133 Missions of the Northwe.t …….. 82,472 15,412 1,522 0 68 49 Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Preshyterian Church, New york ……………………… 62;544 12,407 1lOO 76 Womau's Presh. Foreign Mission- 41 30 ary Society of North'u New York. 10,413 0 118 14 5 13 Woman's Preshyterian Board of Missions of the Southwest…….. – -7,21-7 ,–5-03- – – 4-7 – – – -8 – – – -7 – – – -0 – $312,286 $48,143 4,969 319 254 183 VII. Women's Board of Foreiin Mis- at Chittoore, India, together with two caste sions of the Cumberland Presbyte- schools at Vellore. Their organ, The Mission rian Church. , Organized 1879. Gleaner, is puhlished once in two months at 26 Miss S..C. McClurkin. Correspondine: Secre- Reade street, New York, for 25 cents a- year. tary, Evansville, Ind. During the year the Society has sent Its lIrst This Board supports work in Japan, Mexico and among North Americau Indians. Its in- medical missionary. A young Chinese lady come last year was $1,920.87. The children's paper of the society is called The Missionary graduated in New York, offered herself to the Ba1lnBr, and has a circulatiou of 3;600; price, 25 cents. And they conduct a department of Woman's 'Board and was accepted, and is now their own in The Missionary RecO'l'd, the general missionary oigan of the Church. As no sum- in Amoy, China. mary of the work is given in their Eighth Annnal Report, we cannot make one up, hut during Miss Y. May King, M.D., is a native oC China, the past year 120 new societies and hands have been organized, and the total now enrolled is but brought up from the age oC two years in the 822. They have printed and purchased 10,552 leallets during the year, and the Secretary has family of Dr. McCartee, for many years a medo written ],m5 letters. They have no separate periodical•• ical missionary in China. She is the lIrst woman VIII. Woman's Board of Foreign of her nation, as far t.S known, to obtain a med- Missions of the Reformed (Dutch) ical education in this country,and attaining the Church in America. Organized 1875_ lIrst honors of the institution at which she pur- Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. M. Ho'well, 36 sued her studies. Her prospects for usefulness East 70th street, New York. are great, and she already asks for funds to It now has 200 auxiliary societies and bands. During the twelve years they have made 350 start a dispensary and hospital. In India the life members. The total receipts in that time amount to 3126,874. For 1887 they raised $17,- Society has work at Vellore, Tindivanum. Arnee, 544.81. Their report states that, "The Woman's Board has assumed the support oC the girls' Chittore, Wallajah and Madanapalle. In Japan, schools established by Synod's Board, and it is not probable that the womeu ofoor Church will at Yokohama and Nagasaki,while from Tokyo, as ever enter upon work disconnected, or npon the forming of schools other thau those established ,a center, Japanese women are sent forth to read by the Board oC the Church." the Bible and gather women into the churches. The sum of $5,500 has beeu annually pledged for the support of three seminaries, one at The" Jonathan Sturges" Seminary, at Nagasaki, Amoy, China, one 'at Yokohama, Japan, and one is fairly started with fourteen hoarders; th.e. oFrodremroefcthhainstiaca.bl lree.asIotnbsewleonhga8vteot~oo.vlanr.y In China the "Charlotte Duryea" School, at Amoy, has had forty women in attendance. The girls' school at Kolong·See has had ahout lIfty pupils. The Children'S Home is a new branch of work organized during the year. Many cases of cruelty towards girl children having come to the knowledge of these ladies, they, in connection with three friends of the English Preshyterian Mission, determined, if funds could be raised, to establish a home where children might be taken in,and cared for. They suc,ceeded in raising bEl- tween six and seven hundred dollars, and ha,'e started this beneficial work. Whil~ nothing so far has' been asked of the B,oards towards 'its support, yet work of this character must apPlllll unresistingly to the hearts of mothers In the home land. '
A day-school started on the island of ADioJ' I.
an9tber neW.feature of the work for the y!lllf•.. IX. Reformed (German) Church in the Africa, on the Congo; in Obln., Swato1V Nlngho; Japan, at Tokyo, Yokohama; United States. Rev. A. R. BartholotIlew, Secretary, Potts- France and Sweden. At the annual meeting, a novel feature ville, Pa. The Secretary of the Board of Foreign was introduced, in the form of questions. to be ans:""ered as follows: First question, Missions for this Church says the wo'men of What IS the testimony of missionaries in the Church do not print any report of their regard to the importance of our Society' work. They· co-operate with the General Second question, What is left undone in the' .Society, but in what form we cannot say. foreign field' Third question. What re- mains to be done in the home·field t Fourth X. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- question, In What ways may our work in the foreign field be appropriately enlarged t ciety of the Evangelical Lutheran The following. relating to the drink trallle, Church of the United States of an,d specially bearing on the Congo, where thiS Board supports work, was adopted : America. Organized 1879. " Whereas, The exportation of intoxicants Miss M. H. Morris, Corresponding Secre- into heathen lands is frau!:'ht with untold tary, 406 N. Greene ~treet, Baltimore, Md. evil to the natives, and is one of the most serious obstacles to the work of evangeliza- This society has a Board of Home and tion in those lands; Foreign Missions. .The Corresponding Sec- retary's report for the year gives the fol- "RESOLVED, That this Woman's Baptist lowing statistics: Number of Wom..n's So- Foreign Missionary Society enter its protest cieties, 379; Young People's Bauds, 67. against the continuance of this tralllc ; Total, 436. Number of members, 10,613; honorary members, 1,106; life members, .. RESOLVED, That we recommend to the cir- 166. Total members, 11,874. The total cles represented in this organization to pe- amount of money raised for the year is tition Congress to prohibit the exportation $14,197.88. Of this amount $6,425 was for of liquors from thi~ country to heathen Foreign Missions. The Lutheran Mi8sianary lands, and that this be done before June 15; Jaurnal, a magazine of the Church, has five 1888." pages under the direction of the women, and it has about fourteen thousand sub- 2. Woman's Baptist Foreign MiBBionary scribers. Society Of the West. Organized 1871.
The Society has work in Gunthoor, India, Mrs. A. M. Bacon, Corresponding Secre- consisting of ten day-schools, with nineteen tary, 3112 Forest Avenue, Chicago, Ill. native teachers and 618 pupils. These schools are under the care of Miss Dryden, The total receipts of this society last year who received from the English Government were $44,846.12. It has also an invested the' position of Superintendent of Girls' Medical Fund of $3,335.88, through which Schools in Gunthoor. In 1886 Miss Kugler, four medical women are preparing for for- M.D., was appointed their first Medical eign work. It conducts a" course in Christ- Missionary to Gunthoor, where a dispen- ian Doctrine," a .. prepltratory course for sary was opened in 1886, and an effort made candidates," in which four ladies graduated to raise fifteen thousand dollars for a hos- during the year, and eight others are en- pital. Part of this money has been secured. rolled. Besides the countries in which the Zenana work is carried on with the help of Boston Baptist Society labors, this society eight native assistants. Two of these help- supports work in Liberia, Africa. It has ers devote all their time as Bible readers in sent 46 women to the foreign field. the dispensary. Bibl~ women have 109 schools, with 3,850 Miss Susan Kistler has jnst been appointed scholars, of which 1,133 are from heathen to the work in India. homes; 246 baptisms are reported by them. They conduct a "Home for Children of Mis- XII. Baptist Women's Boards- sionaries" in this country at a cost of $1,21;9.37. Northern Convention. Their periodicals are: Helping Hand, 1. Woman's Baptist Foreign Mi88ionary which paid its own way last year and passed Society. Organized 1870. over to the general treasury $1,646.63 ; The King's Messenger to Heathen Lands also Mrs. O. W. Gates, Corresponding Secre- published as a monthly for young people. tary, Newton Center, Mass. LilUe Helpers, its predecessor, was pub- lished at a small loss of $249.09 last year, Last year the rallying cry was "$70,000 and has now been supplanted by King's or more," and their receipts were $75,369.47, Messenger. being an advance of $13,000 over the pre- vious year; $10,000 of which was an advance 3. Woman'8 Baptist Foreign Missionary from' donations. 2,633 churches contribute Society Of the Pacific Coast. to this fund, with 1,243 circles, 32,973 contributors, 616 Bands, with 14,120 members. This society has been organized during They support work in Burmah among Karens, Shans, Eurasians, Chins, Kachins; in the year, and, of course, has no published India,.a.mong the Telugus, and in Assam; in report. XIII. Executive COmmittee Woman's HONEY. 818,512.21 20,'1117.63 Mission Society. Auxiliary to Under appropriation: Southern Baptist Convention. ~ Domestic Missions, inclnding Indian 8,053.28 4,573.15 President, Miss M. E. McIntosh, Society and Colored Work, ………….. . 49,049.06 Hall,S. C. Foreign Missions…………….. ..
Secretary, Miss Annie Armstrong, 10 E. Specials seut throngh Treasury: Fayette Street, Baltimore, Md. Domestic, including Indian and Col· This society has been formally organized, ored……………………….. . we believe, within the year. The Ladies' Foreign………………………. . Auxiliaries, however, to regular Southern Specials reported but not sent Baptist Convention Missionary Society, contributed during year ending May I, 1888, as through Treasury……………. . follows: Boxes: Arkansas•.•.•..•••••••.••..•……• $24196 Domestic……………………. .. $128,989.99 Colored………….. ' •.. ' …….. .. 20,922.01 Indian ……………••••…… '…. . 19,900.85 Foreign…………………….. .. 1,873.34 Florida……………………….. . 432 2'1 Total Value of Boxes.. ………. $171,686.19 Georgia ………… ; …………..• 1,811 83 Total in Money …………….. , . 100,985.33 ~~tsi~~i:::::::::::::::: ::::::::::: 1,722 11 205 28 Total for 1887-88……………… $272,671.52 1,167 95 : ~~I:~:~~~::::::::::::::::::::::: 54120 XVI. Woman's Foreign Missionary 3,01555 Society of the Methodist Episcopal *North Carolina ………………. . 1,238 67 South Carolina……………….. . 2,14766 -tTennessee (division of receipts Church. Organized 1869.
not reported) … .. ……….. . MrR. H. B. Skidmore, 230 West 59th Street, Texas (six montus).. . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . 411 75 *Virgiuia.. ……… ………. .•… 2,61850 New York.
The work of this Society is conducted by Total ……………………. $15,554 73 twelve co-ordinate branches.
XIV. Free Baptist Woman's Mis- The administratIOn of the Society is in an sionary Society. Organized 1873. Executive Board, composed of three dele- gates from each branch, that meets aimn_ The Secretary, Miss K. J. Anthony, of Providence, R. I., kindly furnisbes us a few ally. This Society is independent, in tha.t it items in lieu of the annual report, which is not published at the time of our going to selects it own missionaries and disburses ita press. own funds, subject to ratification by Mis- The Woman's Society supports Miss Combs, Miss Butts, Miss Hattie Phillips, sionary Board. Mrs. Smith, Miss Ida Phillips, and Miss Bacheler. The last two are in America at Its home work is represented by 4,383 present. auxiliary societies, and 115,228 members, The work of this society is located in with 8,524 life members. The amoun.t of Bengal, India. money raised the past year was $191,158.13. These ladies do not publish a separate paper, but conduct a department in both The receipts for the year ending October, Foreign Mission Jaurnal, Richmond, Va., 1888, will be more than $11.000 advance on and The Baptist Basket, Louilwille, Ky. this. The Society has made an advance in its receipts each year. The whole amount contributed to October, 1887, since organi- zation is one million six hundred and eighty tlwusand dollars. '
XV. Woman's Auxiliary to the Board The work is organized among young la.dies of Missions of the Protestant Epis- and children. copal Church. Organized 1871. One hnndred and thirty missionaries have Miss Julia C. Emery, Secretary, Room 21, Bible House, New York. been sent out to foreign fields, of whom Miss Emery informs us that their annual re- twenty-four were medical missionaries, and. port is in the hands of the printer, and she graduates of medical colleges. About sevkindly favors US with the following: enty-five missionaries are now in the variou'! SUMlIIARY OF YEAR'S WORK, 1887-88, miSSIOn fields. The Society has work in Ja- Accomplished in 48 dioceses and 12 missionary jurisdictions, by 48 diocesan and many parish pan, Korea, China, India, Burmah, Bulgaria, branches and individual members of the Woman's Auxiliary. Italy, Mexico and South Amerlca. Itaims to do : I. Direct evangelistic work: 1. Through ladies sent out by the Society from the United States to labor in foreign fields as missionaries.
2. Through native Christian Bible women, who visit the homes oi the women and reach *Not connected with organization, but them in all possible ways, whether in the kindly allowing statistics to be printed for information. city or village.
-t Only partial account received of $473.,95. II. The society does indirect evangelistic work:
MISSIONARY WOII.K. [DEO••
1. By establishing and sustaining day and This vigorous Society was organized in boarding-schools. 1878 at Atlanta, Ga., and has just celebrated its first deCilde. The movement was new 2. Through benevolent agencies, such as among Southern women, who, bj education orphanages, medical work among women, and associa.tion, are eminently conservacarried on by American aud native Christ- tive, and at first many stood aloof, but sigian physicians, and the establishment of nal success marked their efforts, and a.t the hospitals and dispensaries. close of the first year a good, strong organi- zation was reported. Each sncceeding year a. By creating a native Cllristian litera- has marked an advance, until now their home work is represented by 2,399 auxiliary ture. societies and 56,783 active members. Some Work has been organized amnng the Ger- 338 new organizations have beeu added dur- ing the year, with 553 ·members. They report man Methodists, and this is represented by 104 auxiliary societies, and 2,614 members. 750 childrens' bands, wi~h m.907 members; Societies have also been organized in Germany and Switzerland. In Germany, 33 but these are included in the aggregate ; auxilia.ries, with 487 members, and Switzer- Life members, 1,250. The Secretary says: land, 14, with 497 members. The amount .. The growth of the work is of secondary contributed by "oth American and Euro- importance compared with the spiritofmispean GermanI! last year, 1887, was $3,005.71. sions that has been kindled in the hearts of not a few." The Heatlwn Woman's Friend has a circulatiou of 20,293, and has not only been self- Woman'8 Missionary Advocate is the offisupporting from the beginning, but from its income many millions of pages of miscella.- cial organ of the Society, and has a circulaneous literature for gratuitous circulation has beeR printed. The Society, in addition tion of 12,000. It is self-sustaining. It is to its annual contributions, has raised an published at Nashville, Tenn., for fifty cents endowment fund of ~.OOO for the establish- a year. The Society prints and distributes ment of a zenana illustrated Christian a large amount of literature, over a million paper in India. The first copy appeared in of pages havmg been scattered the past 1884. It is now published in four of the lan- year. guages of India, and about five thousand copies are issued every month. A German The foreign work is represented by 22 mispaper has also been established, and has sionaries (1 medical and 1 trained assistabout 1700 subscribers. A large number of ant), 43 teachers and assistants, 7 boardingleaflets, hoth in English and German, are is- schools, 19 day-schools, and 862 pupils; hossued annually. pital, 1 ; Bible woman. 1.
The Society OWns real estate amounting CHINA.-The reinforcements sent to this to about 5250,000. field the past year strengthened the hands and cheered the hearts of those who had, Full statistics of foreign work cannot be through much sulfering and toil, held the given, but in North India, in addition to the posts of duty assigned them. Sickness and missionaries employed, there are over 40 overstrain told heavily on that faithful band assistant miSSionaries, zenana tea.chers ; 194 of brave workers. Two ladies who went Bible women, 115 native Christian teachers; out in the spring were received as from the while in South 'India, 188 Bible women are Lord, and greeted with the words, "You employed, with 103 native Christian teach- have come to save our lives." Thedevelopers. ment of the work and its ever-widening cir- cles have absorbed the new laborers. and There are in the boarding and'day-schools there is urgent need for further reinforceover 8,000 pu pils, and over 3,000 zenanas mcntj. regularly visited. MEXICAN BoRDER,-The work in this field In China there are 38 day-schools; in has grown steadily, and now extends on both Japan, 12; inBulgaria,l; in South America. sides of the Rio Grande, with more invita- tions to entel' wide-open doors than it is posn ; in Mexco, 11. while in Italy and Korea sible to accept..
there is work which is not tabulated. Laredo Seminary is growing in strength 1ledical work is carried on in Korea, China and infiuence, Miss Holding attended the last annual meeting of the Board,and spoke and India, where there are hospitals and eloquently of her work, stating the immedi- dispensaries. There are three homes for ate need for more room to accommodate the homeless women, and three orphanages. pupils. Her request was sorrowfully re- The Society has homes for its missionaries fused, because of other obligations that in all these fields. must be met. She did not turn away dis- pirited, but, with cheerflliness and faith XVII. Woman's Foreign Missionary that grasps the promises, said: "I have trnsted God for it, and will get it," and she Society of the Methodist Episcopal did. How? We IIca.rcely know, only that Church, South. Organized 1878.
President, Mrs. J. Hayes, Baltimore, Md. Mrs. D. H. lIlcGarock, Oorresponding Sec- retary, Nashville, Tenu.
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY
the money came to Miss Holding in small 40 Mission Bands, and a membership' of special gifts, sanctified by love and prayer, and' the house was built, It is finished, has 3,000. been dedicated, and the beautiful" Hali of Faith" stands as an object lesson to tbia pu- We cannot find in their report the exact pils of trusting God for all things. amonnt of money raised by this Society for BRAZIL.-The college at Piracicaba knows no law but that of progression. It has been 1887, but conclude it to be a little over five subject to changes the past ye.r, owing to the removal of missionaries ; bllt Miss Watts thousand dollars; the amount for the pa.st writes: .. The college has passed the crisis brought about by these changes, and there four years is $15.222.65, and tbe report adds, will be an advance movement." .. The receipts of the past year are above Rio College, in the capital city, is beautifully located on a spur of the mountains any previous year." overlooking the waters of the bay, and far enough from the crowded center to be free The organ'ofthe Society, Woman's Misfrom yellow fever. No case has ever occurred there. sionary Record. is a twelve-page paper. pub- Miss Bru,:e has encountered many difficul- lished in Pittsburgh at 50 cents a year. This ties and much opposition from the Government officials in her persistent effort to paper has been established tbree years. and tound a first-cbss institution, but has at last has a circulation of 1,7po. and meets all exsecured the necessary license and opened the college, . penses, most of the labor given to it being INDIAN TERRITORY.-Harrell Institute, at gratuitous. . Muskogee, has passed through a successful year. Faithful and efficient teachers have The first work adopted by the Society exsupplied every department. The influence, both Christian and educational, of this in- clusively its own was a girls' school in Yokostitution is extending to distant tribes, and more room is needed for boarding pupils. hama, Japan. This school now nnmbers VALUE OF PROPERTY OF WOIllAN'S BOARD. 60. Four of the girls taught bere have been China …………………………… $57,200 assisting the missionaries this past year. Mexican Border…………………. 35,000 Brazil. .. . .. .. …………………… 45,800 The Society employs three missionaries. Indian Territory………………… 15,500 Work has been commenced in Wagoya; Japan.
XIX. Friends' Missionary Society.
Total. ..•………•……………… $153,500 Esther Tuttle Pritchard, Dearborn Avenue, Chicago, Ill. The contributions of this Society for 1887 The work of this Society began in 1881. amounted to $71,379. The amount given in Since that time other societies have been formed, with a membership of 3,892, and in table is $69,7~, but the explanation is made these years tbe amount of $27,840 had been raised. They have done mnch valuable that $1,650 was sent direct to the field, and service in stimulating the raising of money~ These societies were entirely separate, and including- this makes the total named. have had no bond of union, except that they were of the same denomination; but the Their receipts sinceorganizationaregiven need of a general organization was felt, and so representatives of these societies were in the following table: apPointed to meet for this purpose, and in March last (1888) 70 delegates met in Indian- RECEIPTS SINCE ORGANIZATION. apolis and organized" The First National Missionary Conference of the Woman's Am't rec'd for fiscal year 1878-9 $4,014 Z1 Foreign Missionary Societies of Friends." " .. 1879-80 13,775 97 The aim of this conference was to adopt .. u " u ,.. 1880-1 19,382 10 some basis of co-operation among the ten 25,609 44 independent missionary organizations of " u u 29,647 31 Quaker women. 38,873 52 1881-2 52,652 12 This was accomplished by appointing a 51,588 76 General Superintendent (to be elected an- 1882-1J 50,092 63 nually) over each of their three depart- "1883-4 69.729 65 ments of work: 1. Junior and Juvenile 1884-5 Work; 2. General. Literature; 3. Systematic 1881Hl Ohristian giving. These superintendents .. .. 1888-7 are to elect their General Secretary of that work annually, a two-thirds vote being 1887-8 necessary to elect. The name under which ,these general secretaries shall act shall be Total ………………………$355.345 '17 Woman's Foreign Missionary Union of Friends. XVIII. Woman's Foreign Missionary Their relation to missionary boards of the Society of the Methodist Protestant yearly meetings wasd iscussed, as to whether they should become auxiliary, and turn Church; Organized 1879. their collections over, or maintain their orga,nic individuality as women's societies. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. M. A. Mil- Their decision wts to be independent, reler, Pittsburgh, Pa.
This Society was organized nine years ago. It now has auxiliaries in seventeen of the Annual Conferences of their church. They now number 3W Auxiliary Societies, with cordirig their conviction" that the separate school In. Up to this time over five hun_ form of organization by the societies is the dred different Chinese have been in the providential channel of women's work in school, and ail have been taught more or mission fields." less of the English language. The first Sabba.th after the school was opened a Sab- The figures are as follows: Number of bath-school was organized, which has had a separate missions,4. Tokyo, Japan, Indian session every Sabbath evemng from that Mission, Mexico City, and Matamoras, Mex- time to this. Fifty-nine have professed ico co-operating with Friends' Missionary faith in Christ and joined the church. Many Committee in four missions, viz., Ramallah, of them are faithful to their duties, and are Palestine, Monsourich, Syria, Mexico and living up to the light they receive. They Alaska. have paid, as tuition, and in subscription to the property and in collections for missions, Number of missionaries….••..•.•• 8 $2,545.88.' They have paid $770.58 more than Number of schools …..•…….•••. 4 the native helper has cost. Then the Board Number of churches …………… I has property in this great city of the North- Congl'egation at Tokyo, attendance from west, free of debt, worth at least $16,000." 35 to 50, not yet united in membership with Friends. The enrollment of the day and Sunday- Pupils in schools………….•…. 241 school has been 60, with an average attend- Receipts for 1887. . . . . . .. . . . ••• $11,288 ance of 30. The Board has recommended One of these eight missionaries has sailed, opening a mission in China. and Miss Butler will be associated with the Methodist missionaries in Nanking, China, The work in Africa has met with some ob- until the Church founds a Chinese mission stacles by war, which scattered the people. of its own. The mission in Tokyo has been At Rotufunk a Girls' Home has been built; especially prosperous, and accounts of con- and is now occupied. versions have been "received in the India Mission. XXI. Christian Woman's Board of The li'riends' Missionary Advocate, which Missions (Disciples). Organized is a private enterprise, yet is indorsed and supported by the societies. It is published 1875. in Chicago at 415 Dearborn street, at 50 Mrs. S. E. Shortridge, 358 Home Avenue, In- cents, and is ably edited by Esther Tuttle dianapolis, Corresponding Secretary. Pritchard. This Board is represented by 697 auxillaries, an Increase over last year of 168; a membership XX. Woman's Missionary Associa- of 12,849, an increase of 1,840 ; missiou bands, 272, an increase of 117. The income amounts to tion of the United Brethren. $26,226.01, an increase of $1,500. The auxili- aries are distributed through 27 States and Mrs. L. K. Miller, President, Arcanum, Territories, District of Columbia and Jamaica. Ohio. It should be remembered that this society is both home and foreign. It has work in Jamaica Mrs. L. R. Keister, Corresponding Secre- and in India. The women of this society have tary, Dayton, Ohio. organized children's banes to the number of 272, a !(ain of 117. The Thirteenth Annual Report of This association has been in existence the society will be found in Missionary Tidings, thirteen years. They have branch societies the organ of the society, published at Indian- in every self-supporting conference, and in apolis, Ind. many of the mission conferences, and report 41 branch societies and 315 local, with an XXII. Woman's Missionary Society aggregate membership of 7,555, life mem- bers, 336, and 77 children's bands and 22 of the Evangelical Association. young ladies' bands. The summary given is as follows: 't missionaries, 't native mission- Mrs. W. H. Hammer, Cleveland, O.,Corre- aries,5 day-schools, with an attendance of sponding Secretary. 192; church membership of 706; value of property, $26,000. This Society conducts work both at home aud abroad-at home in Oregon and "lse- Woman'8 Evangel is the organ of the where, abroad in Germany and Japan. society, published at Dayton, Ohio, for 50 cents. Work is supported in Coburn, Ger- The following are the footings of their many, with two appointments and thirty statistical report: Auxiliaries. 78; mem- , pupils in Sunday-schoOl. The Board has bers, 2,048. Income, $1,654.39. It conducts authorized commencing work in Berlin. work in Germany a.nd Japan. Eighteen Five years ago they sent a missionary to Children'S bands raised $120. work a.mong the Chinese in Portlapd, Ore- 1I"0n.· The Rev. M. Sickafoose, their mission- The organ of the missionary society of ary, !aye: .. When the Board began the work this Church is The Missionary Messenger, we had nothing, not even a member of any published at Cleveland, 0., and the ladies church, to assist in the work. We had to conduct a department in i~. pay $25 a mOQ.t4 for a hOnse to 40ld the
1888·1 CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
III-CORRESPONDENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
INTERESTING letter from J. Hudson tion, and obtained three, who represent Taylor, of the Chinese Inland Mis- churches in Plttslleld, Mass., Detroit, Mich., sion: and St. Paul. M'nn.; and subsequelltlyeleven others from Canada, representing Belleville. [In sending us this letter, Mr. H. W. Frost, Toronto, Galt, Hamilton, and Stratford, vol- unteered and were accepted. a friend of Mr. Taylor's who jourueyed with The expense of the journey to China, estihim in his whole A,,,erican tour, adds the mated at $250 each, has been provided by contributions gi ven at Northfield, Clifton following facts: .. 1111'. Taylor sailed from Springs Sanitarium, and other places, u.nd from the whole l'roceeds of the sales at our Vancouver by the Batavia on his way to meetings of mis.sionary literature. The mis- sionaries now going out have their support Yokohama and Shr.nghai, Oct, 5th, expect- provided or promised for the next year, and will correspond direct with the individuals ing to rea.ch Japan the 17th and Shanghai a or churches whose representatives they are. From what f have seen of the :nlsweek later, from which place the 14 mis- sionary spirit in the States and in Canada. I feel sure there are many others who can. sionaries proceed inland, the 7 ladies to the not themselves go out to the field who will be glad to have a representative there.' training-school at Yang-Chan, and the 7 goen- Will you pray for much blessing on this tlemen to the school at Gan King."-EDS.] first hand of fourteen workers from this side the Atlantic, now joining us for our Ulland SS. Batavia, ! work, and ask that ten times as many may soon follow their example! VANCOUVER, B. C., 5th Oct,., 1888. f Yours very truly in Christ, EDITORS OF THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF J. HUDSON TAYLOR.
THE WORLD.-Knowing how deeply interested India.
you are in the cause of China'S evangeli- [THE following highly interesting letter was written to Mrs. Rev. B. -zation, IwilJ send youafew lines before sail- L. Herr, of Tarrytown, N. Y., who has kindly consented to its publica- Ing from this port to-day. tion in our REVIEW.-EDS.] Most unexpectedly to me, God has opened l HOL:MWOOD, COONOOR, NILGIRt, HILLS, INDIA, June 8, 1888. f the way for a band of recruits to proceed to My Dl!:AR MRS. HERR: You will see by the China. and 14: young missionaries from date that I am up here in the delightful sanita- rium so generonsly provided last year, where I the United States and Canada are now am gaining steadily, though slowly, in strength. It is always a pleasure to me to write about my on board this vessel. Quite a considerable work. I like to share its joys and its I.rials with others. But I hardly know where to begin. number are wishful to join us, but eight who Perhaps. as yours is a ladies' circle, some of my experiences among the women here will interest are accevted are unahle to leave immedi- you as much as anything I can write.
ately, and our time has not allowed suffi- As yon donhtless know, my department is medical work; but it i. totally unlike home cient correspondence with the remainder to medical work. The diseases themselves are, in many cases, different from any that euter into enable us to definitely accept or decline home practice; then, too, the native ideas of diagnosis, hygiene and drugs are often much their offers. As a tentative measure, to harder to combat than disease.
deal with these cases and to facilitate com- For instance, it i. almost impossible to eon- Tince even an Intelligent native that burning is munications, an Auxiliary Council has been not a sovereign remedy for various ailment•• formed, to meet In Toronto, though some of They led a blind man to my dispensary one day. Hi. eyes had been injured hy an accident, the members reside in the States and some and the substance of both eyes was completely gone ; ~et bis friends, with his CuU consent, ha4 in Canada. Mr. Alfred Sandham, of the Willard Tract Depository, Yonge Street, Toronto, Is the Honorary Secretary. He will receive and forward to China the con- tributions promised for the support of the band now going out, and any other moneys sent for the furtherance of the work; and the Council will with due care accept suit- able candidates and make arrangements for their joining us in China from time to time.
This work really originated at the Niagara Believers'meeting. I had the opportunity of speaking twice on the subject of Missions there, and then left for Chicago, as pre- viously arranged with Mr. Moody. But 1I:lessrs. Reginald Radcliffe, George B. Stndd and R. P. Wilder, subsequently spoke on the same topic, and the feeling so deepened that when it was ascertained that $250 would support a lady missionary in Inland China, and 8300 would sustain an evangeli~tic brother, support for eight new workers WILS put Into the hands of one of the Secretaries of the Conference. Mr. H. W. Frost, of Attica, N. Y. In consequence, I appealed for workefs a~ 1I:1r. jIloody's AUjrust Copvepf brallded his baek elear from the neck to the bathing the hot skin, and moistening' the wai~t. The scars were about an inch wide, and parched lips, etc., then inquired if the from one to two inches apart, and this to restore child-born seven days before-were living. sight t I have not infrequently been asked to One of the women answered indi!ferently, cure large festering burns, inflicted on little .. Yes, it's alive yet." I asked where It.was, children for iudigestion, convulsions, teething and 8he replied, "Oh, it is in tlu;re," pointtroubles, etc. Another remedy, applied in ex- ing to another room. U but never mind the treme cases, consists of making an incision in baby, it is not worth while to do anything the scalp, generally nearly circular, lifting up for it; it is nothing but a. girl!" the whole integument. depositing strong drugs beneath it. and then replaCing the integument. I I went in at once, and found the poor little have not been able to learn all the compound thing lying on a rough cord bedstead, with used iu these cases but know that stramonium only one thickness of thin cloth beneath it.
is one of them. A .ery commOD belief is, that a It had never been washed, and for four sick person must be entirely without food or days had not beeh fed, and every tiny bone drink until he or she begins to improve, and was visible through the drawn skin.
there are cases where tbe patient actually dies Physician though I am, my eyes filled for lack of proper nourishment. A strong paint with tears. as I took up the little skel.
is that bathing is very injurious, Bnd SO an un- eton. I did what I could to save, but …
happy patient will lie day after day ill thi~ bot merciful Father took the little soul to where climate without a bath or a change of clotbing, it would be loved .and developed; even nntil the odors are most sickening. Custom though it had been" only a girl," and as l forbids that the mother of a newborn cbild thought of the blessed change I thanked shall have food or driuk for three days. and no Him that mye!forts had been unavailing, water must touch her person for at least nine The mother died a few hours later, but I days; and the child. itself, in some castes, must wonder if you ladies, in your relined homes, not be washed until a week old. can imagine the death scene in India! No Among tbe more ignorant classes, a patient sooner did they learn that death was near, who is delirious is looked on with aversion aud than neighbors began to swarm in, until the fear, and the treatment is a violent beating, "to miserable hut had llwenty or thirty in it, all drive out the demon that possesses ber." In vying with each other in groaning, shriek.
one case of protracted delirium I actnally bad to ing, smiting the chests and screaming. In Bet Ii watch for two nights to prevent a beating vain J showed them that the noise wru. tor· and death, which I am sure would have resulted. ture to her poor brain, and that her head Well, theu, here Is my work, and not an easy began to roll from side to side again. I one. to meet and combat these and a hnndred could not keep them even from throwing other equally harmful notions, day by day; argu- themselves full weight onto her poor chest, in!!:, where I can obtain a hearing; instruct- laboring harder and harder to give her ing wbenever prejudice does not prevent tbe re- breath, and when I wanted to give a few ception of instruction; reproving, when that drops of medicin!", but failed because her seems necessary; and insisting, when the weI· jaws were already set, I turned cold and fare of a patient demands that. faint to see her own mother strike her to In a certain way the natives have un- compel her to swallowl I saw that I could bouuded confidence in my skill, and will do no good, and, as the strain was too severe throng to the dispensary formy medicines; to be borne unnecessarily, I left her two but when J run athwart their ideas, some· hours before she died, but the scene haunted times 1 have to be very decided, and once or me for months. But my experiences are not twice. in critical cases, I have been obliged all sad; they are dsUghtful when I succeed to say, when some old midwife has persist. in relievmg sulfering, and many a time I ently interfered with my work, .. Either you have felt repaid for my. separation from must send tilat woman home, or I shall go." home and friends when I have been the When I can concliate a midwife and let happy means of saving the life of a woman her help me, I always do so; but they are whom no one else but myself was allowed to the class that is most jealous of my inllu. see. Sometimes, too, I lind a comical side to ence. and most determined in opposing me a medical missionary's life, as for instance and my methods. when they brought a little girl to me, who I shall never forget (I wish I could) one was so terrilied at the ~ight of my watch experience that I had: I was called up at that it was half an hour before she would midnight to see a woman in the last stage. let me come near her.
of puerperal fever. I told the friends before You ask about the difllculties of my work, I went that I could do nothing for her, It but I think you will read some of them, at was too late. least, in what I have already written, though However, I arose'and started; I found her only one who has tried it can know the tossing and muttering in a delirium that trials involved in working constantlY amid rau into stupor and then death. I did such ignorance, lilth and degradation. In lI'pat l could to make her I'Olllfortable, adqition to this, I have 1)&d till! triq,ls of in. competent assistants, and, worst of all, my ter I wish to approve-" the neClessity of ignorance of the language. Clloser and more active fellowship among disciples." His plan of promoting the spir.it This latter I hope to overcome, though of unity seems to be the wise step. And I my three months' illness has hindeJ'cd me would add, if such an inter-denominational sadly. However, I shall resume study next committee should be constituted, tbat its week, I hope, and, as the Board has kindly first work could not be more important than granted me a year of freedom from medical to send out advisory recommendations that work, in order to study, I hope next January similar local committees be formed in tbe to resume practice witt. proper helpers and diJferent mission fields among the missionwith a fair command of Telugu. aries. In this way tbe interests of the en- tire world would be quickly placed in the My work is not especially hindered by hands of those who are most able to advise. caste, as I :have it fully understood that I It would certainly be the incarnation, so to speak, of an idea of uniou both at horne and work for an, and in times of danger the abroad.
proudest Brahmin will admit me to his wife, We who are out in the field, in close comeven though my feet have just trodden the bat with tbe enemy, see the need of cofloor of a pariah's dwelling. This is a great operation, unity, sympathy, as we never comfort to me, and I appreciate it more as saw it before. While eJforts in that direc- I see how caste interferes in all other de- tion have been pushed further in Japan partments of mission work. than in any otber field, yet a great deal of those eJforts have appeared to better ad- I think I have written enough to show you vantage on paper than in any practical apthat my especial task is not an easy one plications. To see ·the churches at borne but it is a fascinating and delightful one isolated from each other in co-operation after all, and I am very happy in it, and ex- and· sympathy is certainly painful. If this pect much more happiness when I can be so, what must we say when these churches converse with the poor shut-in women endeavor to propagate the same spirit of freely, and if I can ever feel that through ostracism and dissensIon ~mong heathen me one of them has been led into the light converts t of life it seems to me that it will give me a thrill of joy almost unendurable, for that is 1 should consider it one of tbe most prothe grand work for Which I am in India. It pitious signs of this closing century that a is pure satisfaction to me to relieve physical great International Assembly should he suffering, and a work that is sadly needed held to give us some basis of union and coin this fair,lost land; but to reach a lost operation. While the London Conference soul and lead it to the One Physician is joy has generated such a spirit of fellbwsLp, unutterable and incomparable. let tbat spirit be fostered still in some manifest way which shall ultimately crown And now, I do not know if I have told you this closing age with a fuJI realization of just what you wanted to know, but if you or the Saviour's prayer, that his disciples may any of the ladies of your circle will ask me be perfected into one. Then may we hope any questions, I shaH be very glad to reply. to begin to say of the heathen: And may I ask as a favor that after this letter has been read in your meeting you Will U His sov'reign mercy has transformed unite in a prayer for the Telugus, and es- Their cruelty to love; pecially fe»:' me, the only medical missionary to the Telngus in our Society? Pray that I Soften'd the tiger to a lamb, may have strength, spiritual and physical, The vulture to a dove I" and that I may be allowed to win many of the Telugu women to Him who is their Morocco, Saviour aud ours. LETTER from our correspondent, With the prayer that your· circle may Rev. E. F. Baldwin: have its share in this work, and may be blessed in its efforts to interest others and MOGADOR. Oct. 3. 1833. to aid in fullllling the promise of the Father There are a few items of news from this field, to the Son, .. Ask of me,and I shall give thee which will be of interest to the readers of THE the heathen for thine inheritance,' I am, REVIEW. We have been occupying this post only a few months, having come from Tangiers, in Very sincerely, your sister in the work, North Morocco, where we were several years. EMMA J. CuMMINGS, M.D. We were delighted to find the door wide open at first. Those who have any experience or BAP,4LTA, MADRAS PRES., INDIA. knowledge of Mohammedan fields will know the difficulties that beset workers in them, and Japan, how thankful we were to find little opposition here. However, as 800n as the Lord began to LETTER from Rev. E. Snodgrass: work, the evil one showed his objectiollll to having his kingdom invaded. ::lHoNAI, JAPAN, Sept. 24, 1888. EDITORS MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: I was greatly interested iu a letter of Dr. Pierson in the September REVIEW written from Loudon concerning the great World ,",'onference. One item especially in his let- We baptized our first convert here a few on work in China, and another is hoping to weeks after we arrived. He was converted as leave for India in November next. he listened for the first time to the gospel which was spoken in the the open air. This My heart was gt'f'atly moved by the a!lshonld enconrage workers among Moslems, dress you gave at Mildway, the SUllday the dUllcnlty of whose- conversion has passed after the Conference, and the longing to do Into a proverb. The native Governor attempted something, more than ever betore, took posto arrest this young man at once, snd he has session of me. This the reading of your since been in mnch jeopardy of life and liberty. .. Crisis of Missions," greatly increased, and Upon my baptizing another man, a convert also the effort of which the inclosed papel' from Mohammedanism, a few days ago, the speaks is the outcome. A deal' friend. an first One I mention was at last arrested. The invalid, who would go abroad did health same night, another, an inqnirer, was thrown permit, Is joining me in the work. Already Into prison. Instant and earnest prayer was we have several members, and we are hoping made for them by us, we claiming Peter's re- when we have the inclosed paper printed to lease as a precedent, and asking that they might send it broadcast, and that hundreds of be set at liberty that night. This the Lord did Christian girls will join our rauks. for us, and great was the joy when they came knocking at the door where we were accus- Will you pray for us, that the hearts of tomed to hold our meetings. many of our members may be moved to go out into heathen lands. and that they may The conversion of Abraham, the last convert go forth, .. strong in the power of the Lord" f mentioned, was the silver lining to a very dark cloud. We received word a few days since of Yours faithfully. the departure to be with Christ of Miss Caley, MARION E. LASRI'1"1'. who was one of the most valued of the few workers for Christ in Morocco. She was on CHRISTIAN GIRLS' llISSIONARY UNION. the staff' of the North African Mis8ion. The same day that we received tbese tidings we This Union is fOl'med with the purpose of were visited by this man, Abraham, to whom banding together Christian girls, with the Miss Caley had given the Gospel of St. John, object of stimulating definite prayer and in Arabic, some montbs ago in Larache. He sustained effort for specific missional'ies had worn the book out by constant reading, and and their work, and also to plead the needs thereby had been led to Christ. He had also of the foreign mission field. It is earnestly been reading to many others on his journeys as hoped that none will join but those who a cattle dealer. Several in one city and others have definitely given themselves to the elsewhere, he claimed, had received the truth. Lord and are longing for the spread of His Thns God is working. We trust the readers of kingdom. THE REVIEW will pray unceasingly for this neglected corner of the mission field. The desire of the few who have started this Union is that from time to time mem- The opposition that has been aroused of late bers may be led by the Holy Spirit to conhas almost shut the door of opportunity here secrate themselves to God for service in the for openly speaking of Christ io the streets or foreign mission field. With such missionshops. I am abont leaving for a journey in the aries a constant correspondence will be kept interior. up, and interesting items of news will be forwarded to each member of the Union at Ohristian Girls' Missionary Union. the beginning of the month.
[THE following letter to our asso- Of the original fifteen members of this ciate will explain itself. It is one of Union, one is already in. China, and another has given herself for foreign work and hopes the many outcomes of Dr. Pierson's to leave tor India in November. visit to England and Scotland, subsequent to the rising of the Mission- It is purposed to raise a fund by the subary Conference in June. The scheme scriptions of the members, in case at any time a member of the Union, feeling led of here proposed is admirably conceived, God to devote herself to foreign work, should and we earnestly hope that the be without the means of carrying out her desire. The Union would then faU back upon this "Christian Girls" of America, as fond to help their sister forward, It is therewell as of England and Scotland, will fore proposed that each member lay aside, .. on go and do likewise.-J. M. S.] he first day or the week, 3d," to be forwarded to the treasurer each month. And as the Union .. 94 LANSDOWNE PLACE, BRIGHTON, l will be conducted in s simple manner, there Aug. 10, 11l88. i will be no working expenses beyond printing and postage, which will also be covered by this DEAR DR. PIERSON: About six years ago subscription . a little .. Missionary Pr~yer Union" was formed amongst my pupils and governesses. We are anxious that the association &nd work Oneot the little band, ayearafter,entered of the Union should be bright and warm, there- fore propose that the snbscriptlons be sent in by the 20th of the month, togethel' with any_inter- esting items of miBsionaIT intel1lpnce Iatelf received; and the next monthly report will pass who 41 years ago became a firm adherent of on such itelllll of nc.ws to each member, in order that the iuterest be personal and sustained. the evangelical faith, and has been ever WhUe it is most desirable that the fund of the since its best known and most widely hon- Union should grow, ready for demand to be made upon it, in case of need, let It be an under- ored defender. . stood thing amongst us that this being the Lord's work, we ask no one but the Lord Him- Mikail Mesbaka was born on Mt. Lebanon, self for money, for" the sUver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts;" lit the May 20, 1800. His father was in the service same time gladly receiving IIny gift that may be the outcome of the Lord's own promptings. of the famous chieftain and ruler of Leb- A card will be sent to each member on anon, the Emir Besheer. Soon after his joining the Union, containing the general subjects for prayer and praise: Special birth the family moved to DeiI' el Komr, the requests will be sent each month in the re- port, and members wishing such inserted seat of the Lebanon Government. As a lad must forward them to the secretary before the 28th of the month. he was wide-awake, anxious to gain knowl- The thought in the minds of those who edge. From his father he learned arith· formed the ·nucleus of this Union was spe- cially to arouse and maintain an interest in metic, bookkeeping, and his father's trade, foreign missions in the hearts of Christian girls; at the same time the names of any that of a !:,oldsmith, which he was obliged to ladies willing to become "Associates" will be gladly received. The amount of sub- take up upon the loss of his ancestral do- scription from these we leave to themselves. mains. His love for mathematics was As this is above all a Union for prayer, it is hoped that those who join it will system- aroused by his desire to be able to foretell aticaUy lay before the Lord the ~neral and special needs of the mission field at eclipses as some of his learned JeWish large, and of our own particular interests in it; and so shall a blessing redound to neighbors were able to do, and when his each one who thns pleads. uncle came to visit them in 1814 from Dami- Oards of membership can be obtained by inclosing two penny stamps to the Secretary etta, Egypt, a mau learned in mathematics Christian Girls' Missionary Union, 94 Lans- downe Place, Brilrhton. and natural sciences, he took lessons from Syria.. him in the elements of astronomy, geog- HIGHLY interesting letter from raphy. algebra, natural philosophy and the Mrs. Mary Pierson Eddy: higher mathematics, in which he ever took BEIRUIT, Aug. 14, 1888. Travelers to Damascus mourn that this keen delight. At the age of 17 he went to city of such historic interest has become transformed into an ordinary modern capi- Damietta, Egypt, as a clerk, and acquired tal, with new shops and houses and broad streets and markets; as, for instance, that some property there. During this period narrow street called" Straight," mentioned in Scripture, has been changed into a wide he attended a wedding where music was new carriage road for a great part of the way aerose the city, and the old markets, provided, and some one present asked his with their appearance and odor of a dim and fabulous antiquity, are being displaced opinion about an air that was played. Be- by arcades, rivalling those of European cap- • itals. fore he could reply, one of the bystanders But during the last month, to one inter- said, .. 0, he is a mountaineer, he knows ested in the revival of Christianity in its early home, Damascus has lost something nothing of music I" SO keenly did he feel of greater value than all its antiquarian treasures. This ioss it has sustained in the the sting of this remark that the next day death of Dr. Mikail Meshaka, sometimes called the" Luther of the Easter… Church." he began the study of music under the best Ouce a bigoted follower of the Greek Ortho- POX Church, and enemy.of Protestantism, instructor he could find, and became not only a proficient performer on many instru- ments, but an author of a work on the music of the East. In 1820, on account of the plague, he left Damietta and returned to Mt. Lebanon. After holding for seven years positions of honor under the Emir Besheer, he was taken ill. During the five mo~ths of his confinement his thoughts turned to the study of medicine, and on recovery he commenced with intense earnestness to study it with an Italian physician resident in the town. In 1831 he was present at the siege of Acre with the army of Emir Besheer.
Later he went with the Egyptian army to Damascus, thence to Hums, where he re- mained for a time acting as physician to the troops among whom the cholera was raging. As the couutrywas in an unsettled state, owing to the invasion of Ibrahim Pasha, he retired to Damascus to pursue his medical stUdies there under experi- enced physicians. .
The year 1845 found him again in Egypt whither one of his instructors had gone, studying with him, and in the Medical Col- lege in Cairo. After eight months he ob- tained his degree and at once returned to Damascus to begiw his true life work. At this point too, the transforming power Qt the simple story of the Cross entered Lis Ufe An exhaustive essay on Eastern tuuela and entirely changed its whole current. already mentioned. A historY'lf Damad" ….. Thenceforth in season, out of season, he to illustrate its present places of inte1'""t. spoke, wrote, and lived Christ. In 1870 a. This has been translated into Germa.n and stroke of paralysis deprived him of the use published in Berlin. Another of permanent of his right arm and confined him to his interest, describing popular beliefs in regard room, but for eighteen years he has daily to "the evil eye," H good and evil omens.'" received the visitors who were attracted to and other Oriental superstitions. A bistory him by bis eloquence, his learning, parti- of the early civil wars of Syria, and a hiscularly his stores of information respect- tory of the Druzes. ing Oriental history and customs, his zeal in behalf of his countrymen and for the ad- He was for many years American Vicevancement of true religion. Consul in Damascus. With his different visitors he could converse upon their favor- Two months before his death, some of the ite topics with ease, being versed In theolmembers of our family paid him a visit. En- ogy, medicine, rhetoric, mathematics, bottering by two long narrow passages they any, astrology, astronomy, chemistry, music emerged from nnder a vine-covered door and architecture. He was also versed in into the open central conrt of the house, silk culture and silk 'weaving, and in the with)ts marble pavement and large foun making of the fiJagree work of the gOldtaint and were soon ushered into a, long smiths, for which Damascus is famous. room; at the upper end of which, on a low divan, sat Dr.'Meshaka, dressed in richest TaU and commanding in appearance when of Damascus silk, who for 18 years was young, his vigorous constitution carried not able to stand and receive his guests, him safely through his checkered career to but was wont by his genial manner and his 89th year; and when death came his uncourteous salutations to make them wel- dimmed eyes had never known the need of come. The raised upper half of the room glasses, his hearing was unimpaired, and where he sat was in Oriental style, deorated there yet lingered on his cneeks a ruddy with elaborately intricate mottoes in Per- glow, which his long years of helpless consian seript, carved woodwork and mirrors finement had not effaced. He was an Indesunk in the walls. Before him, on an inlaid fatigable student of the Bible. His oft-remother-or-pearl book holder, in the form of peated saying was, .. We are here to prepare an X, was a book which he was studying. for heav,en. Our only rule and guide to Around him on the walls hung various Arab another world is inits pages. Let us, thereinstruments of musie. Another room in the fore, study it to learn the ways of its inhouse, his favorite place, which he wished habitants and the nature of the life we the party to visit, Was an Oriental room, should pursue here, to fit us for an entrance adorned with rugs and ornamental devices, there." He called the Bible .. the pillar of and with a tiny fountain playing in the our faith," "theruleof our guidance," Uthe deeply recessed window. Now (hat he has mirror of God's will." His funeral was atgone, it seems strange to think of that tended by hundreds to show him honor. spacious home to which his three sons had Thousandsfrom near and far have lamented each brought their brides, and where their his death. Many eulogies, in prose a.nd families were reared, without its venerable poetry, have been written and published in his own country. patriarch and head. As an author aud controversialist, Dr. Syria has lost one of its most eminent scholars, Damascus a noted citizen, and Meshaka accomplished what no one else Protestanism a staunch defender; but his could have done in the early days of Protest- works still live to establish truth and conantism in Syria. He was the author of 14 fnteerror; his example still endures to in- books and pamphlets-seven of which were spire the youth of Syria; and when the hison controversial subjects. One, a reply to tory of .. restored Christianity in the East" the Greek Patriarch, Maximus, giving the shall be written, then, in bold outlines will history of his conversion to Protestantism, appear, with the name of Asaad Shidiak, entitled" Reasons for Obeying the Gospe!." '1 the martyr of Lebanon," the name of Another,.. ProofsofEvangelical Doctrines," Dr. Meshaka; one of whom sealed his brief .. A Reply to a Friend,…. A Vindication of testimony to the truth with his blood,like Stephen; the other, like Paul, for many one Accused of Forsaking His Church." or years was permitted to be a witness for Jesus with pen and voice. his other works we may mention a .. Higher Arithmetic," and an" Almanac for a Cen- Barmah.-The Burmans seem tury," beginning with the year 1870, with more ready to hear the gospel than copious tables, to harmonize the diverse ever before. Twenty-nine were bap- reckonings of days, months and years in tized in June, or half as many as were current use in the East amongst Jews, Greeks, Copts, Mohammedans and Occi~ reported for the whole of 1887, dental Christians; also all theappea.rances of the heavens and eclipses for the century.
1888.J INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
Vernacular Languages and. Literature Conference of Missionaries in Meiico last February, was the demand for of Mexico. THERE lies before us as we write, a the establishment of missions con- printed form of eight pages, which ducted in the vernaculars of the is of much more than ordinary inter- country, and the use of these ver- est. It is entitled "Yacuic iyec naculars in printed form for Scrip- Tenonotzaltzin in Jesu- Christo Que- tures or other literature. The prose- nami Oquimo Ihcltilhuili in" San cution of work in the vernaculars Lltcas." It is the first form of the seems to have not met with special Gospel of Luke, being published by favor, and so far as we can learn private subscription, at the press of was rather summarily dismissed, with the Methodist Episcopal Mission in the reading of a single brief paper by the city of Mexico, in the Nahuatl a brother who was interested in the or pure Mexican language. It has dissemination of Spanish literature.
been revised by a competent hand, How far this indicated that the mis- from an old Jesuit translation into sionaries on the ground were simply this language, which, so far as we not informed on the subject of these know, is the only fraction of the Janguages, or their mature judgment Scriptures extant in any of the na- after thorough canvass of the sub- tive tongues of Mexico. The edition ject we cannot say, but if ever they now issuing is only a small one of a have carefully studied the matter, , thousand copies, and is made as an they have managed by some mas- experiment to test the demand for terly inactivity to keep out of the and usefulness of such publication public press of the United States of the Scriptures, or portions thereof. their data or their discussions. We Nahuatl, or Mexicano, is a living are not disposed to champion the use language, constantly undergoing the of these vernaculars, because we changes incident to speech used by have not satisfactory data upon large numbers of people, and is sub- which to reach a conclusion, but we ject to the friction of a foreIgn civili- have considerable doubt if those who zation, both old, in the Spanish form, have to do with the matter, have and new in" the English, with which themselves, with care and patience it is brougbt into contact through investigated the subject. '
commerce with the United Stutes and There are a few facts to be borne Europe. This language is further in mind, howevel', in making up a subject to modifications arising from judg-ment of the propriety of this ex- local separations of the people using perimental edition of Luke in :Mexi- it. The old Jesuit Gospel has, there- can.
fore, needed not only doctrinal re- 1. 1'[exicans, not Spaniards, rule vision, but retouching- to eliminate Mexico to-day, and the grave ques- archaisms. How well all this has tion arises, what relation has this been done, and how useful this ver- fact to the literature we ought to nacular "portion" may prove, even seek to produce. Mexicans are not if fairly well done, are points upon only the governing race in Mexico which we venture no opinion at tbis now, but are likely to be such for a writing, and upon which few pel'SOIlf; long time in the future. The hope can throw much light. of a progressive civilization is linked One of the topics which received up with them. Nobody would ex- some consideration at the General pect progress and modern ideas, po· litical, social, or religious, as repre- chism for the use of priests, by sented by Protestantism, to be en- Paredes Caroch y Castano, appeared, hanced by displacing the native, for and in 1865 Gastelu published a small Spanish rule. Juarez had not a drop catechism at Orizabo, in Maya (1). of Spanish blood in his veins. Diaz, In 1869 a catechism in Nahuatl or, the present Chief Executive of the Mexicano, was published at Chimal- Republic, is nearly a full-blooded popoca. In 1878 Ripaldo issued his Me~ican, and" the George W ashing- " Catechism of Christian Doctrine" in ton of the Republic, Hidalgo," was Mexican. Nor was all this confined part Mexi~an. These native Mexi- merely to religious literature. They cans dislike, some say "cordially paid large attention to the study of hate," the Spanish language, which the natives tongues and to their was forced upon them by their con- development. As early as 1595 querors as politically their national Ringon published his "Grammar language. Thlil bulK of the native and Vocabulary of the Mexican Lanraces are prej udicea against acquir- guage," and this was reprinted as ing it, and exhibit toward it the most late as 1885.· In .1714 Pacheco pubopen hostility, and among themselves lished "Arte del Idioma Tarasco," do not speak it, nor do they teach it and that was reprinted by the Govto their children. ernment in 1886. Tarasco was spoken over a large territory in West Although the old Spaniards forced Central Mexico. their language with their civilization on the natives of Mexico, they In 1863 a spelling-book in Otomi were shrewd enough themselves was published at San Jose. In 1880 carefully to study the native lan- Cabellero published a " Grammar of guages, compile grammars, lexicons, the Mexican Idiom," in Mexican and easy reading books and catechisms, Spanish, on the Ollendorf method. from which the priests could orally It was dedicated to Altamirano. In teach the people in their own tongue 1886 the Government printing-office in which they were born. It is said published, at Cordova, a reprint of a that they published the first book work in Zapoteco. ever printed in the New World in 15~9, and that was in the Mexican lan- In the very learned work of Manuel guage, and for purposes of religi- Orozco y Berra, published in Mexico ous instruction of the natives. In in 1864, entitled "Geografia de las 1544 they printed another such book Lenguas y Carte Etnografica de Mexfor religious instruction of the Aztec ico," we have a colored map, show- Indians in their tongue. In 1544, also, ing the ethnological and philological a book was published at Cordoba, in distribution of the Mexican races. Aztec, for the instrllction of Indians; The names of the tribes arranged in and in 1546 Molina's" Christian Doc- catalogue occupy ten pages, but the trine" was translated into Mexican. names of the languages occupy less It is shown thus that three centuries than five. These sixty-nine lanago these priests saw the importance guages are divided by him into eleven of using the vernacular languages families, though he gives a long list for indoctrinating the people. Nor (over sixty) of idioms outside of the does it appear that they have ever general classification. The two leadintermitted the use of this means. ing families are Mexican and In 1834 Perez published a catechism Othomi. in the Otomi language, which was indorsed by the Government sys- Among the latest general native tem of instruction. In 1840 "Ex- wort,s of great value on Mexican ethtracts of Doctrine," a smaller cate- nology and philology, is that of Mr. Francisco Pimental, entitled "De- scriptive and Comparative. Table of the Indian Languages of Mexico, or great as the total Indian population Treatise on Mexican Philology," pub- el the United States and Territories, lished in the City of Mexico. A large including Alaska I chart, some 16×24 inches, accompanies this work, which, besides the It is, therefore, with no slight classification into four orders of these pleasure that we greet these eight Mexican languages in the text, pre- little pages as the promise of the full sents a graphic view of them in the Gospel of Luke in Nahuatl, or what form of philological trees, named, is, technically speaking, Mexican, numbered and colored, so as to enable which is not a generic term, but the one at a glance to see the relation of title of one of the languages, per any language to its group or to the haps the greatest, certainly at preswhole. ent the most widely spoken, in the Republic of Mexico. A careful study of the geographical distribution of the languages in which Whether Spanish ought to be these publications, previously refer- pressed on the native races by misred to, were made, shows them to sionaries is not beyond debate. The have been mainly contiguous to the people dislike it. They have not City of Mexico. The Mexican or Uf,ed it except as compelled to do so. Nahuatl, indeed, commenced at a Mr. David A. Wells pronounces it point opposite Southern California, "a language not well fitted for the swept south through ten degrees of uses and prog'!'ess of a commercial latitude, with a width varying from nation, and which will inevitably fifty to one hundred miles, till south constitute a very serious obstacle in of the city of Mexico, and then across the way of indoctrinating the Mexithe continent, with an average belt of can people with the ideas and methpel'haps one hundred miles. It pen- ods of overcoming obstacles and doetrated among the other languageil ing things which characterize their along the coast again to the borders great Anglo-Saxon neighbors." of Guatemala. Otomi was one of the greater languages, covering a terri- English will press more and more tory perhaps one hundred and fifty into Mexico, as it has into all the miles each way, lying directly north territory we acquired from Old and west of the City of Mexico, and Mexico; and it has done that, not even a little south of it. The City of merely because it has become the Mexico was on the borders of these national language since we incorpotwo languages, though located in rated the Territory, but because it Nahuatl or Mexicano territory. is the "language of commerce of North America," and Mexico is com- Latham, speaking of the Nahuatl, ing into close and closer commercial or pure Mexican, says: "It is pre- relations with us. eminently an intrusive tongue. It is probably spoken beyond its original There is, perhaps one may aml'm boundaries in every direction, some- with safety, more liability of English times (as in Central America) in iso- displacing Spanish in Mexico than lated patches." It is the vernacular there is of Spanish displacing these of the Valley of Mexico, and of the "Mexican vernaculars among the nainterior on either side of that Valley, tive races. Not more than one-sixth and is probably spoken by three mil- of the total population of the country lions of people-possibly more. To is European, including Spaniards. give the gospel, therefore, to the peo- It may be a fair question whether ple speaking this language in their the short cut to the native populaown vernacular, is to give the wrltten tions is, after all, through the Spanish gospel to a population ten times as language. Perhaps it may be through these vernaculars, perhaps through the English language. Missionary Training for WomeD. called of God to a special work, need a special training for that work, do BY MRS. LUCY RIDER,MEYER. not also women, called of God to their special work, need a special ONE of the things, unknown in the training for that work? And at the bottom of all really effective religiOUS religious world till very lately, is work must lie a thorough knowledge of the Bible. Cavah'Y, artillery, the Missionary TrainiBg-school. Let even light infantry, must know some- thing of the use of powder. us look at it. I hardly need bring illustrations of First of all, is special training the fact that this broad, basal knowl- edge of the Word of God is not posneeded for women having the mis- sessed by average Christian women. No, not even by the Christian women sionary work in view? This question who are very actively engaged in religious work. It would be marmust be answered. Life is too short, velous, indeed, if it were. We are not ready to claim such startling the call from the whitened fields is superiority for woman, as to assert that, without stimulus or direction, too urgent for us to spend time and she arrives instantly at a point reached by our young men only after thought and money on anything but a long course of study. The Lord forbid that I should ignore, or in the the absolute necessities of Christian slig-htest degree depreciate, the blessed illumination of the Spirit of equipment. In answer: There are God on the page of His Word, but people are not born with a knowledge hundreds of women, yes thousands, of the Bible, nor are they-I speak reverently-born again into it, Neiunder the auspices of the Church, ther does anyone, untrained, know how to 8tudy the Bible. The power devoting their whole lives to religious of concentrated, critical study cornel' always and only by long and careful work, and hundreds more are press- discipline.
ing on, many of them young and in- Next to this great need of knowing more of the Bible, comes the need of experienced; and, whether for good knowing the best methods of work. The old way of training schoolor ill, they will soon be in the field. teachers was to thrust them out alone into the actual work of teach- These women are to deal with the ing, and let them learn by the hard- est, through their own blunders and most precious interests of time and failures-a painful process to the teacher and all expensive one to the eternity. Can the question be asked unfortunate childl'en upon whom she experimented. But the Normal whether they need special prepara- schools that have sprung up all over our land tell of a better way in secution for their work-preparation lar teaching, a way in which theory and practice and kindly criticism go which can only be secured in a tech- hand in hand. And if the work of a. nical school? / First, as to a knowledge of the Bible.
Everyone must agree that something of the same broad and deep knowl- edge of the Bible as a book, which we endeavor to give our young men in our theological seminaries, could not fail to be of utmost value to our C~ristian workers among women.
Apart from the many occasions when such knowledge would be needeu tor use, it is fundamentally necessary in the character of the worker. It is a foundation stone, the absence of which may not indeed overthrow the whole super$tructure, but cannot fail to render it weak and unsym- metrical. But while we plead for this foundation stone in the training alike of our young men and young women for Christian work, we do not fail to recognize the marked dif- ference in their work. We believe that there is, and that there must always be, a difference. But if men, secular 'teacher is too responsible to accommodate a family of forty-eight.
be entrusted to novices, what shall but already its capacity is overtaxed, we say of the religious teacher? and arrangements ar!! in progress for Testimony as to the need of special mOl'e room.
preparation might easily be accumu- Though the school has only com- lated. Mrs. McGrew, M.D., of India, pleted its third year, 106 different says: "Such preparation would be young women have been in attend- invaluable to our missionaries." ance. Twenty different States and The venerable Dr. Butler says: Territories have been represented by "The idea seems to me to be of these students; and, whileltheschool divine origin. It would be a great is nominally Methodist, yet the class- help to those going to the foreign room work being undenominational, field. even as physicians. The work five different denominations have had would be in much safer condition adherents among our pupils. Mis- with trained missionaries. With sionaries trained in the school are such training ladies would be ten now at work in Chicago, Arkansas, times better prepared for their South Carolina, Indian Territory"
work." A student of the Chicago Utah, India, Japan, Africa, South Training-school writes back from America, China and Korea.
Japan: "Tell the girls they can't But it is in our financial support realize how much good their Bible that the hand of God has been over study is going to do them." Another us with richest blessings. The school student says:' "Many, many times I is poor, never having had, even dur- find my experience at the school a ing all its building, a larger donation right-at-hand aid in some emer- than $3,000, and not many so large gency." as $1,000. Students pay $3.00 per But the best argument that the week for all expenses, and this makes Christian world feels the need of the school self-supporting, so far as special technical training for mis- running expenses are concerned. All sionaries is the succe~s of the schools our teachers and lecturers give their that have been established to meet services without salary, which makes this need. The writer may be par- it possible for us to give tuition free.
dOll.ed for believing that the Chicago Five teachers and assistants reside in Training-school is the one best known the building (with all the students), in the United States, and that a brief and devote their entire time to the description of this institution and its school. In addition to their work, methods may be of interest. This we have a large list of lecturers, in- school 'has been in existence three cluding some of the best known years. It was established largely by teachers and ministers of the coun- the exertions of private individuals, try. We gratefully recognize the and has never been organically con- special blessing of God, in thus pro- nected with any missionary society, 'viding volunteer service which it though on its Board of Managers are would be impossible to secure other- representatives from, the Chicago wise, without the expenditure of City Missionary Society, and from several thousand dollars annually.
the Woman's Home and Foreign The money needed to erect and Missionary Societies of the Metho- furnish the building has come by dist Episcopal Church. A charter voluntary contribution, as the wants was obtained in 1886, and the first of the school have been made known.
rented house being found Insufficient, A monthly paper, The Message, pub- a central and convenient lot was pur- lished at the school, has b('en the chased, and a large building was principal means of communication erected upon it. This building will with the public. It is from this source-also, voluntary contributions and for which she needs special prep.
as the LOTd shall move the hearts of aration. His people to give-that we look for Then, very prominent in the plan the money necessary to give us the enlarged accommodations that we of school discipline, is the systematic need. The school has never had a putting into practice of the things dollar of endowment, nor has it ever paid a dollar of salary. learned from day to day. All kinds of religious work are done by the The course of study pursued in the school is definite, and a diploma is pupils in the mission fields which a. given for completion. It is technical in character, no literary branches re- great city furnishes in such sa~ abundance. Can anyone doubt the value of such pl'actical contact of the worker with the work? Is it not far betterthat the tlrst attempts at work ceiving attention. There are three should be done under the eye of an great lines of study: 11't, The Bible; experienced teacher, where mistakes 2d, Methods 0/ teaching the Bible can be pointed out and better ways and doing religious work; and 3d, suggested, while lull and rich sym- Nursing and Elementary Medicine. pathy is given, rather than to sub- The Bible is studied, first as a whole, ject the young worker to the terrible and then book by book, with analysis test of being thrust out a thousand of each. Lectures are received on miles from a helping hand perhaps, Bible Interpretation, that we may be to struggle and suffer alone? And guarded against the vagaries that not only is this the only merciful have done so much, lately, to bring way for the missionary, but it is the all lay work into contempt; Old Tes- only safe way for the Church. A dis- tament and Church History, and tinguished foreign missionary says: Christian Doctrine. In methods we "If there were any way of testing have general instruction in organ- missionaries in similar work at home, izing and carrying on work, with a before they are sent out, it would be little innocent modified homiletics, a most satisfactory plan. Every fail- such as the making out of analyses ure involves great expense, discour- on the Sunday-school lessons, and ages many pel'sons at home. and preparing prayer-meeting talks. We induces tl'ouble and perhaps discord have also instruction in house-to- in missions and societies,"
house visitation, the management of We tlnd that the training we give children's, young people's and cot- answers this other incidental but tage meetings, temperance, revival most important end-it tests, both and kindergarten work. Miss Isa- physically and spiritually, the mis- bella Thoburn, fifteen years a mis- sionary candidate. We believe that sionary in India, has been with us this alone would justify the existence the past year, and has given valuable of the school, and that it would be aid in this department. We pay the part of true economy for mission- special attention to Sunday-school ary societies to supportit for this end work, our course being a very good alone, if there were no other means normal training in that line. We of support.
have also class instruction in singing The practical work of the students, and elocution. though taken by way of training, is The third department of our work, found to be of great value to our nursing and elementary medicine, is overworked city pastorll. During a intended to prepare the students for single term of seven months 4,386 re- the emergencies that may come upon ligious calls were made, 750 opportu- any woman in the home, but which nities for prayer or Bible reading the Plissionary will in~vi4tbl;y meett were embl'aced; many coI.versioI.l'I were known to have taken place; may well each ask ourselves, Wha.t large numbel·s of children were is my personal relation to this movetaught in industrial and Sunday- ment? Have I any duty toward schools, and many people were this line of work? Is it not the spebrought for the first time within the cial duty of everyone in these daYIiI to reach of Christian influences. Ingen- watch for opportunities to turn the eral, we may say that the influence of flow of young lives into channels of our large body of students at work in special religious and miSSIOnary the city mission has been great, and work? How greatly the efficiency has contributed not a little, we may of even the ordinary home worker in modestly believe, to the establish- church and Sunday-school would be ment of the order of "Deaconesses" increased by a year of special trainin the Methodist Church-an order ing in Bible study and religious which finds its first members, by the methods. A year in such a school way, in the "Deaconess' Home," would "finish off" a Christian girl's which is a direct outgrowth of the education better than a year in Euschool. rope. Many of the training-school students are such because of a word But the school is a stimulus, not to fltly spoken by teacher or pastor. the home work alone. Several of And are there not many others who our pupils, soon to go to the foreign might by word of ours be led in such field, would never have found their a school to a revelation and inspiraway there but for the influences of tion that would invest life with new the school. The school is-if it is meaning? How many a woman in possible to separate the ideas-more a our land, measurably-perhaps most Bible than a missionary enterprise. sadly-free from home ties, is soul- Young women are welcomed to it weary for an object in life. In the who wish to know more of the Bible Romish Church snch women throw and methods of teaching the Bible, themselves-and their fortunes, if whether they have the missionary they have any-into the arms of the work in view or not. But as they omnivorous convent. Why should study the Bible and the field the mis- there not be a conesponding, even if sionary spirit grows. The wider, a more intelligent, devotion in our deeper knowledge of the Word of Protestant churches, where the spe- God must produce a great increase of' cial consecration of a life means not a missionary zeal. Jesus Christ, re- living death, but a life of special joy vealed centuries ago as the Incarnate and privilege? Word, appointed His Apostles, first that they" might be with Him," Upon us may ·be laid that other and second, that He "might send blessed duty-and duty is always them forth" (Mark iii: 14). The se- privilege-of doing with the means quence is not one of mere accident, God has put into our hands, what we but of deepest necessity. Whenever may not do with our lives. The cost we "draw near" to Him, revealed of training a worker in the Chicago to-day by the living Spirit in the school is only $100 dollars per year. written Word, He will "send us How better could business men or forth." The Bible training-school busy women duplicate their lives for movement, drawing men "near" God and the missionary cause than by a better knowledge of Christ, by supporting students in such a through the history of Himself given .school? in the Bible, is of deep significance in the present remarkable era of mis- And above all let us recognize the sionaryactivity. hand of God in the movement. Let us acknowledge that the" tree" so IJ.l closing tl1is brief djscu,ssion, w~ "fqll qf sap" is His, ~d JI~ will direct our relations to it-whether Hovey, "Manual at Theology. II pp.
we are to go or send, whether we are 00-104.
to give His Word or give gold. God 8. Chapter IX. Providence.
gives the dominant thought of the 9. Chapter XII. Man Needs a Saviour.
Pamphlet… Life of Christ," Rev. J. L.
centuries-nay, in these rapid days, Hurlburt, M.A.
almost forthe decades, and happy are 10. Chapter XIV. The Person of Christ.
they who heal' His watchword at this Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- time;' "THAT THEY MAY BE WITH ject-Person of Christ.
ME," and" THAT I MAY SEND THEM Hovey, "Mauual of Theology;" pp.
190-207. .
FORTH." Pamphlet, " The Person and Character Prepa.ratory Study for Oandidates of Christ," T. Armitage, D.D.
AMONG THE BAPTIST LADIES. 11. Chapter XV. MediatoriaofficeofCbrlst.
THE Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis- Hodge. "Systematic Theology;" Vol.
sionary Society of the West has II, pp. 455-461.
taken in hand a correspondence Hovey, "Manual of Theology;" pp.
207-234.
course of study in Christian doctrine. Pamphlet, .. The Way of Salvation."
It is conducted by Mrs. H. W. Bar- 12. Chapter XVI. Atonement.
bel', Ph.M., of Fenton, Michigan. It Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- is so unique a movement, and one ject-Atonement.
which may inspire others, if not to Pamphlet, "The Sin Bearer," Horatius Bonar,D.D.
imitate yet to emulate, that we ven- Pamphlet, .. Can I be Assured of Salva- ture to take the space to reproduce tion Y"
tb.e lessons and readings of the cur- 13. Chapter XVIII. Regeneration (Repent- riculum: ance and Faith).
LESSONS. READINGS. Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- 1. Chapter I. The Being of God. ject-Regeneration.
Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- Hodge, .. Systematic Theology;" Vol.
ject-Existence of God. Ill, pp. 31-36.
Hovey, "Manual of Theology and Eth- Hovey, .. Manual of Theology;" pp.
ics :" subject-Existence of God. 242-263.
2. Ohapter II. The Bible a Revelation. 14. Chapter XIX. Justification.
Hovey, .. Manual of Theology;" sub- Northrup, Lelltures on Theology; sub- ject-The Bihle from God. ject-Justification.
Hodge, .. Systematic Theology," V01. 1, Hodge, "Systematic Theology;" Vol.
pp.lM-166. III. 116-125, 141-145. Hovey, .. Manual of Theology;" pp. Broadus, pamphlet, .. Three Questions as to the Bible." 2S3-272. Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- 15. Chapter XXI. Sanctification. ject-Inspiration. 3. Chapter III. The Attributes of God. Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- 4. Chaptel IV. The Trinity. ject-Sanctification. Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- ject-Trinity. Hodge, .. Systematic Theology;" Vol.
III, pp. 2l<!-226.
Hodge, "Systematic'Theology;" Vol. Hl'vey, .. Manual of Theology;" pp. 1, pp. 442-448. 273-299. 5. Chapter V. The Deity of Ohrist. Nortl).rup, Lectures on Theology; sub- 16. Chapter XXIV. The Church. ject-The Deity of Christ. Pamphlet, .. The Origin of the, Bap- Hodge, "Systematic Theology;" Vol. 1, pp. 483-488, 495-510. tists," G. B. Taylor, D.D. Hovey, "Manual of Theology;" pp 1'12-190. 17. Chapter XXV. Baptism.
Pamphlet, " The Position of Baptism In the Christian System," H. H. Tucker, D.D.
18. Cbapter XXVI. 'l'he Lord's Supper.
6. Chapter VI. -The Deity of the Holy Pamphlet, "Close Commtinion," Alva.h Spirit. Hovey, D.D.
Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub. 19. Chapter XXVIII. The Resurrection. ject-Deityof the Holy Spirit. Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- Hovey, .. Manual ,of Theology;" pp. 235-242. ject-Resurrection.
'1. Chapter VII. Purpose of God. Pamphlet," Stateof Man afterDeath," Northrup, Lectures on Theology; sub- ject-Divine Purpose, A. Hovey,D.D. 20. Chapter XXX. Heaven and Hell, E.evi>w ILlld Examination,
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS. ~
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
SYRIA.. partridge upon the mountains. But SIXTY-SEVEN years ago Pliny Fisk if a building can be hired, and a and Levi Parsons were sent to Jeru- school established, the Maronite, the salem to begin work among Jews, Jew, the Druse, the Mohammedan, Mohammedans, Druses and other the Greek, the Roman, the Protest.
sects. They soon found the Holy ant Chl:istian, are safe within their City not the best center of opera- own walls, and can there, and there tions; so the headquarters of the only, preach and teach their faith.
mission-field were moved to Beirut. The cost of these schools in the Since those days Central Turkey has interim is only from five dollars to become a field for missionary labor- ten dollars a year. In the South the ers from many societies. In all the cost of a boys' school would be but a evangelical schools there are about few dollars a month. In the college 120,000 children, and some $00,000 tuition is eighty dollars a year.
has been contributed during the one Modern missionary work in Syria year from all these churches. The began in 1821. In 1841 Beirut was language spoken is Arabic, and the made the central station. It had the missionaries have translated, and, advantage of being on the seacoast, through the mission press at Beirut, and was a mission station only two have given the Bible to one hundred years younger than Jerusalem, hav- and fifty millions of people, whose ing been occupied in 1823. The prin- sacred language is the Arabic. Mr. cipal stations are Beirut, Sidon, Whiting, going to China to labor as Tripoli, Zahleh and Abeih, with a missionary, sent back to Beirut for eighty-six outstations. Across the Bibles for the millions there who country, east of Beirut, on the spurs speak the Arabic. of Lebanon, is Zahleh, consecrated India has fifty millions who read by the life and death of Rev. Gerald the Koran in Arabic, and who, if F. Dale in 1886. North of Beirut is Christianized. must get their Bible Tripoli, also an important seacoast literature from the mission press of station with outposts; special effort Beirut. Persia and Egypt also make was made for a school building there large demands upon this source, this a few years ago. Southeast of Beirut, tree of life, whose leaves are truly also on Lebanon, is Abeih, where the forthe healing of the nations. Syria educational department is a promi- is the land of the Bible, washed by the nent feature. South of Beirut, Sidon, Mediterranean, the Lebanon Mount- on the seacoast, like Damascus, ains running through it; its plains, claims to be the oldest city in the its mountain slope~, filled with vil- world. In Syria there are over a lages and rich in historic interest. million of people. Not only are the In regard to what has been done eyes of all the world turned to Syria, by the Presbyterian mission: first, the but the feet of all races stray to its educational work. Sixty thousand soil. The religions are as various as children are in these schools in the the races. The False Prophet has the Turkish Empire; and experience has most numerous followers, and Moshown that, in Syria, the school is hammedanism is the dominant rethe only way to begin the good work. ligion. The Sultan of Turkey rules the land, and owns personally enor- In the midst of a population so mous estates in the various provinflammable, so riotous, open-air inces. Syria has many Sundays. preaching is an impossibility. A '1'he Druses observe Thursday, the small thing might excite a crowd Moslems Friday, the Jews Saturday beyond endurance; the massacre of and Protestants Sunday. Arabic is 1860 was begun by the shooting of a the spoken language of the majority, ture, mathematics, natural sciences, though there are as many languages Turkish, English, French and ..Latin as races. Arabic, being also the re- langua.ges, mOl'al science and biblical ligious language of Mohammedan- literature, medicine and surgery, etc.
ism, and missions being to the Mo- There is a hospital, with dispensary hammedans of Syria chiefly, much and pharmacy. The whole work is of time and labor is devoted to the conducted on Protestant evangelical study and printing of that language. principles, and the Bible is the text- At Beirut in 1886, 19,331,750 pages book. Rev. George E, Post. M.D" of of Scripture were printed. Since the th!! Syrian College, says there is con- press was established there, about nected with the College a Young 350,000,000 of pages of God's Word Men's Christian Association; that of have been printed-" enough to cover the 180 students of the institution, 120 a carriage-road around the earth are connected with this association; at the equator." . The tracts printed that of these nea.rly half are active at Beirut were 1,702,500 during the members; and that the remaining same year. Steam and hand-presses ha.If represent the various Oriental are kept running from daylight till sects.
dark, and are unable then, with fifty The Jesuits tried to keep pace with employees, to supply the demand for Protestants at Beirut as to college, ap- the truth. The work of bookbinding, paratus, library, and even by free tui- etc., is carried on to a great disadvan- tion, and for the first time translating tage in the present building. Econ- the Bible into Arabic, but higher and omy and convenience demand a much scholastic, not popular, Arabic. They larger and better-planned building, could not sell the Bibles. As it was or the work will falI far below the possible to get masses said for souls needs and demands of the time. for five cents, people elsewhere sent The Arabic is the religious lan- to the Jesuits to get masses said, and guage of 200,000,000 of people. What they kept the money and gave the a. lighthouse Beirut is! and how fal' Bibles to the prie~ts instead. The the Beirut Arabic Bible may go! priests had no use for them, and sold Wherever Mohammedanism is found. them for nomina.l rates. One case is In Beirut there are one church and known where bigoted Papists thus six preaching places. The total num_ got hold of the Bible in Arabic from ber of church members was in 1886 their own priests and found the error 281; of these, 155 are women. of their belief by reading them; So There is a presbytery, ca.lled tbe God used the very method used by Presbytery of Beirut and Mt. Leba- the Jesuits to defeat the Protestant non, and the effort is to be ma.de to cause as the way of making more have tIle native pastora.tes self-sup- Protestants! .
porting. The Mohammedans are not THE JEWS.
idle; in Beirut, each adult Moslem .. TM Jew first. "-Rom. i : 16. was obliged by government to give " Give to him who gave the Bible; a dollar toward building the new mosque. Think from whence it came to yon: Do you love yool precious Bible P The Syrian Arabic College of Bei- Then restore it to the Jew."
In 1884 wa.s first brought to the rut was established in 1865, and the attention of the religious world the regular course began in autumn of rema.rkable Jewish-Christian move-'
1866. The medical depa.rtment was ment in Southern Russia, under the added in 1867.' 'fhe langua.ge used leadership of a learned and piou~ law- is exclusively Arabic, the common yer of Kischneff, Joseph Rabinowitz; tongue of Syria; the course em- and since then we have, from time to braces Arabic language and litera.- time, had accounts of the growth and development of this communion. heart in hisJewish brethren, a.s thw boa.IIted Jts adherents are as yet compara- of their noble descent from Abraham, Is&a.c, tively few, but the movement has and Jacob, and were proud of the wisdom which the law, received from Mount Sinai, attracted attention everywhere as a gave to them; and who, on the other hand, factor of great importance in Christ- saw through their stubbornness and their ian missions. The baptism in Berlin proclivity in good and prosperous timesto of the spiritual leader of this move- desert the living God, their heavenly Fatlrer, ment indicates that the development and choose for themselves new gods, namely, the love of money and the sover- is healthy and in the right direction. eignty over their brethren through science The original thirteen theses of this and mammon. communion, published in the official 10. The man who unites within himself "Documents," issued by this Society all these characteristics, we have, after a thorou~h examination of all the books of in Hebrew and German, represent the hi:tory of our people. the children of the faith and animus of these earnest Israel, found in the one Jesus of Nazareth, souls. They read as follows: who was killed at Jerusalem, before the dest~uction of the last Temple. 1. The present moral and material condition of the IsraeJitish brethren in Rnssia is a de- 11. The wise men of Israel, among his cayed, distorted and disconraged one. contemporaries, could not yet understand and grasp his doctrines and his salutary 2. Under the circnmstances, to sit in lazy idle- purpose, which was his aim in regard to ness would signify to give consent to the entire his Jewish brethren, this namely, that he ruin to onr Israelitish brethren. laid stress upon the observance of the mandates of the law that touch the head 3. In order to better our circumstances, and hearts, and not on the trilling features we cannot look to our rich people or their of outward acts and deeds. But we, the money for help, nor to our Rabbins with Jews. who live in the year 5644. we can their dQctrines, nor to her writers with with a certainty say, that this Jesus sought their reasoning, for these are all bent on ouly the true welfare of his brethren, and their own benefit, and the welfare of Israel offered peace to bis whole generation. is not their object. 12. Therefore, the power of our 10Te for 4,. Nor must we seek a refnge in leaving our Israelitish brethren compels us to keep our birthplace, Russia, in order to emigrate holy, and to fear the name of this Jesus, to the land of Israel, and just as little in an our brother, and, with all submission of amalgamation with the native non-Jewish heart, we should learn his holy words population of Russia. spoken in truth and love, as they are re- corded and explained in the Gospels, we 5. It is our duty to seek hope and assist- should impress them upon our brethren ance here in Russia, through our own ex- and the children in school; we should reertions, with all our heart, with the assist- ceive the Gospel books as blessed into our ance of the Lord (Jehovah), the only one houses, and join them to all the holy writ- iugs which have beentransmitted to us as a who can help. blessing from our wise men in all genera- 6. The material conditions of the Jews tions.
cannot be improved, unless it is preceded by 13. We confidently hope that the words of an improvement of the moral and spiritual our brother Jesus, which aforetime were status of the people. spoken to our Israelitish brethenin justice, love and mercy, may take root in our hearts, 7. In order to bring to rights the moral and may bring to us the frnit of righteous- condition, there is need of deep-seated re- ness and of salvation. Then our hearts newing of a spiritual regeneration. We will turu to love the true and the good, and must throwaway our idols, the love of then, too, the hearts of the people and the money as such, and in its place must make government will be turned in good will at home in our hearts·the love of truth as toward us, to give to us aid and succor such, and the fear of evil as such. among the other nations, who live securely under the shadow of European laws, which S. In order to attain such a regeneration have been given and written in the spirit of we need a helper, a physician, whose person our brother, who gave his life to make the and medicine have been found reliable. world blessed, and remove evil from the earth. Amen. 9. In order to find such a person we must look among the descendants of Jacob for a The treasurer, the secretary and man who loves Israel,and who has given his life for the sanctification of God's holy one of the missionaries of the British name, and for the sanctification of the law and the prophets; a man who is known to all Society visited Kischinew in the the inhabitants of the earth on account of the purity of his soul, and his love for his people, the children o~ Israel; a man who, on the one hand, recognized the greatness of spring of 1886. It was because of movement has spread not only to their visit then that the Conference other parts of Bessarabia, but even was held at which the new Hebrew to the capital of Russia; and we Christian Church was formed, and hope will go on, along with kindred the new movement inaugurated. At movements, till through Israel, all the. close of the Conference, M. shall know Jesus and His redeeming Rabinowitz turned to the secretary of love.
this society and gave him the follow- When Mr. Rabinowitz visited Eng- ing exquisite parable: land lately he was received at the A few foolish people driving in a four- Conference H:(lJ, Mildmay, and pubwheeler happened to lose a wheel. Finding licly welcomed by Mr. J. E. Mathiethat the car moved along heavily, they son and Rev. J. Wilkinson. About looked about and found that a wheel was foul' years before, Mr. Wilkinson saw missing. One of the foolish men jumped down and ran forward in search of the miss- in a newspaper some mention of what ing wheel. To everyone he met he said, Mr. Rabinowitz was doing, and acor- "We have lost a wheel; ,have you seen a respondence ensued; there being an wheel? have you found a wheel?" One earnest desire to see one another, a wise man at last said: .. You are looking in meeting took place in Berlin in Augthe wrong direction. Instead of looking in front for your _heel you 'ought to look ust, 1885. The first interview was behind." That is exactly the great mistake very touching: at the words" Wilthe Jews have been making for centuries. kinson," "Rabinowitz," in true patri- They have forgotten that, in order to look archial fashion, they fell on each forward aright, they must first look behind aright. The four wheels of Hebrew history other's necks and wept and kissed may be said to be Abraham, Moses, David each other. Having a great desire a.nd Jesus. The Jews by looking in front, to consult Mr. Wilkinson, Dr. Saphir, instead of behind, have failed to find their and other friends, and to meet Chrisfourth wheel. Thank God, that" THE SONS tians in England, Mr. Rabinowitz came to London after Christmas 011' THB NEW COVENANT" have found the especially to be introduced to the friends at Mildmay. The meeting Supreme Wheel-JESUS. Abraham, Moses a.nd David are but beautiful types and symbols of Jesus. They were, and still are, the repositories of His energy; they were, and are still, moved and managed by Him, as had therefore been arranged that truly as are the Cherubim and Seraphim. they might give to their brothel' the Thank God, we have found our Brother right hand of fellowship. Mr. Jesus, our all, .. who of God has been made Rabinowitz had already addressed unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- several gatherings of his Jewish tion and redemption"; from whom alone we have found divine light, life, liberty aud brethren, and very touching it was love, for the great here. and the greater to hear him preface an address to a hereafter. And now, with bright eye and number of Jewish children with the jubilant heart, we are looking forward to words, "My dear little brothers and the pulsing splendors of His appearing.
This parable was the crown of the sisters."
Conference, and has in it the divine Mr. Rabinowitz, speaking in his and human evolving energy of own language, and his interpreter Christ, which is destined to fill the being Mr. Adler, told how, after world and eternity with the highest years of study of the Holy Seriptures, life and bliss. his eyes were opened to see that Jesus, of whom Thus by Christian prayer and par- the new Testament testified, is the Messiah for whom all true Isrselites were looking. He told able the new movement was inaugu- how, long ago, he was in the habit of reading the rated, which has been placed before Old Testament with his Jewish brethren; how the world in a pamphlet entitled, at St. Petersburg. Constantinople, and other "The First Ripe Fig," by Professor 'places he had songht to improve their position, Delitzsch, of Leipzig, and in an ad- and to obtain for them equal right~ -with their dress entitled, "The Everlasting Na- fellow citizens. At one period he hoped much tion," by 'the Rev. Dr. Saphir. The from the liberal disposition of Alexander II., but all hopes in this direction were 1!C&ttered to the winds by the, outrages in Bulgaria, by the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they Russo-Turkish war, aud by the persecution that believe, notwithstanding all they broke out in Moscow. He turued his thoughts have gone through, that God will be then to colonizatiou, and, visiting Palestine, was faithful to them, and that He has deeply pained as he beheld the indignities to still some purpose in regard to them. which, at the Wailing Place in Jerusalem, his Unfortunately, Christian and Gentile brethren were subjected. Here also, as he was with them are synonymous terms, standing on the Mount of Olives, the conviction and what they who believe in Jesus was forced upou him that the Jesus of whom he as the Messiah have to show is that had read in the New Testament, was the Mes- they have so accepted Him, not alsiah. Then it was that the words of our Lord, though they were Jews, but becau8e .. Without me ye can do nothing," came home they were Jews. As Jews hear, first, to his mind. On returning to his native place words from the Pentateuch and the many Jewish brethren visited him, and with Prophets, and then from the Gospels these on the Sabbath he read the portion of the and Epistles, they cannot but feel Old Testament appointed for the day, and then that in all there is the same voice, some portion of the New. Testament, expound- the same language, the same Lord. ing it to them. Many ofthem came to think of Jesus as he did, and then, feeling that, in order Now from ice-bound Siberia comes to convince them that he had indeed accepted the intelligence of a gospel movement Jesus as the Messiah, he should be baptized, he essentially of the same character as went to Berlin for this purpose. Some thought that in Kichneff in Bessarabia. It that then he would become a Christian, but he has been assuming considerable promtold them that he was a Jew still, only that he inence during the past two years, but had received Christ into his heart as his Saviour. only lately has reliable information been secured concerning its nature Another text much impressed on his mind and prospects. It is also a movement about this time was, "If the Son shall make you Christward among the Jews of Westfree, ye shall he free indeed." After his bap- ern Siberia, originating, strange to ism he thought the Jews would not call upon, say, entirely independently of that him as they had done before; but even more under Rabinowitz. The leaderin the came, because then they saw that he was really enterprise is Jacob Zebi Sheinmann. in earnest in the matter, and they argued that He is a Polish Jew, who, twenty as he had always taken an interest in his breth- years ago, through independent ren, and by his efforts secured them some thought, came to the conviction that advantages, he must mean well. Some few, the" Messiah, the Son of David," was however, opposed him, and wrote letters to the thE' true Saviour. The open avowal papers against him, but this soon died out· of this conviction gave mortal offense Having given himself to the study of the New to the strict Chasidim or Talmudic Testament, he taught openly and publicly, and Jews of his country. They first exalso published his sermonS and pamphlets in the communicated him, and then, on the Russian language, these being circulated by the oath of four perjured witnesses, sethou$and. Many then began to. see that it was cured his condemnation on the charge a good thing to be a Christian, and asked for of perjury; whereupon, he, with baptism. Thus he showed that there was life other unfortunates, was transported amongst the Jewish people, though they seemed to Siberia. He took his faith with to be wrapped in death, aud now they needed a him into exile, and did what he could place of worship, a liturgy, and several other to awaken in those around him a things, about which, indeed, he had come to faith such as filled his heart. Baving England to consult his friends. Above all, they been an almost unheeded vox clamanneeded that passport, the Bible, which God tis for fifteen years, he providentially Himself had provided for them, but which they became acquainted with th~ work had so long neglected. And this he prayed his of'Rabinowitz. Among uncalled-for Christian friends to help to give to his Jewish mail matter at Tomsk, where he brethreu.
Mr. Rabinowitz is a type of the God-fearing Jews who believe in Scripture and love their nation, and who in that way are prepared to re- ceive Him who is the center of Scrip- ture. In sending missionaries to the Jews there is a foundation on which to rest. The Jews, as a people, can- not forget that they are children of
PROGRJl:Si AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLlCTIN
was engaged in business, he found a. sway of Talmudic prejudices as are copy of the pamphlet called Bikkure those of Eastern Europe. Then that Teena, containing the public confes- power among missionary agencies, sions and two sermons of the Kich- Delitzsch's Hebrewtranslation of the neff reformer. He saw in the latter's New Testament, is being constantly work the realization of the dreams of called for by these Jews. The British his exile, and at once entered into Bible Society, which publishes this correspondence with Rabinowitz. book, has established a depot at They exchanged documents concern- Tomsk, and the book is being eagerly ing their doctrinal views, and it was read and studied, but no distinct J ewat once discovered how entirely in- ish-Christian organization has as yet dependent of each other they were. been effected.
Sheinmann calls his pamphlets Kol The first of some special services kore bamidbar (Voice of One Crying for the Jews in London was recently in the Wildel'ness). His sentiments announced for St. Mary's Church, and ideas, as also his methods of Whitechapel. Bills were distributed gospel work. have a most remarkable warning them against attending; So similarity to those of Rabinowitz, counter-attraction was started in the showing that the hearts and minds form of an address by a popular of both must have virtually gone Jewish lecturer, and a delegate from through the same process in finding the Jewish Board of Guardians was their Redeemer in Christ. This new placed at the door of the church to movement'is yet in its formative pe- take down the names of those who riod. But indications abound that entered. Nevertheless, the audience even more effectual work may be of the Jewish lecturer was about looked for than has been done in twenty, whereas 150 Jews listened Southeastern Russia. The Jews of with the greatest attention to a dis- Siberia are not so entirely under the course in the church on Isa. i: 18.
VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
". A.frica. -The attention of the civilized world section that brave German, Emin Bey, lifter seis now so intently fixed upon the rapid march of curing the confidence of the natives, Is believed to have firmly established himself, (or the purevents on the eastern coast of Africa, that a pose of suppressing the horrible traffic. It is a condensed notice of the African situation, as it section with which communication from the now appears, will interest our readers. For east coast is almost impracticable. Trying to fiud Emin, Stanley ascended the Congo and the supposed commercial advantages. Englaud and Aruwimi, one of its branches. Disinterested Germany have secnred from the Sultan of Zan- and competent judges believe that betweeu the zibar large grants of territory. Those of the headwaters of the Aruwimi and Wadeiai, his former embrace nearly one million square miles objective point, just north of Lake Victoria Nydirectly opposite the Island of Zanzibar, and ex- anza, he fonnd his way blocked, and was comtending several hundred miles to the northwest pelled to make a wide detour to the west, from and into the interior of the continent. This terri- which to move eastward by a more northerly tory is practically controlled by the British East route. The possibility, if not probability, is African Company, which has all the powers inci- that this is true. If it is, there has not been dent to a thoroughly equipped government. The snfficient time to hear from him. It is the ex- German claim o(more than 740,000 square miles, pectation of the British African Company 'hat consists of a triangular section lying north of the Stanley will yet march from Wadelal, Emln's British claim, and of a much larger territory lying center of power, southeasterly to the eastern to the south of that claim. Outside of these there coast, strengthen British prestige and possesis a French claim amounting to about 700,000 sions, and perhaps establish a New African Free square miles. Adding these together. of the State nnder British protection. With this hope- 4,500,000 square miles of Africa not ruled by fnl view of the African Situation, as it now is, foreign power, more than one-half 18 lU the we must wait patiently until we have something Sahara. In the heart of Africa, on the Great besides mere conjectnre.-New York Evan- Lakes, and for a long 'distance north o( them, we gelist. find the slave trade, whose horrors lind ravages extend over a vallt rel:ion of country. In this -The completion of the survey for the new miSSionary may help to eonvlnoe railroad past Livingstone Falls greatly in- Mwanga that the English and GerIllBllB do creases the importance of the work of the not, by their annexations of territory, mean American Baptist Mission steamer on the to remove him from his throne, or to punish Upper Congo. The Henry Reed is the hi~for the murder of Bishop Hannington. only means for carrying the missionaries and maintaining the mission stations in China.-The China Inland Mission won a the great Central African Valley, as t,here new interest among us the past summer by are yet no means of public conveyance. A the presence of its leader, the Rev. J. Hudcompany has been formed for maintaining son Taylor. He was heard at Northlleid the steamer and its mission ~ork, which and elsewhere with much interest. His last year raised $1,127.99 by means of one words were greatly reinforced by his life of dollar life memberships and ten cent annual self-sacrifice and devotion to the cause. memberships. The income of this mission the past year is put down at £33,000 sterling. The large -A note from Mr. Reading, in West Africa, Humber of one hundred missionaries left says: .. The Evangelical Missionary Society of Great Britain last year to reinforce the staff Paris have sent two more French teachers to already at work. The number at present is our West African mission. Mons. Lesage and given at 294. They have come from ~nd's Presnet sailed from Antwerp on the 19th Jf End to John O'Groat's, from Ireland, from March and reached Gaboon on the 16th of April. Wales, and from Sweden and Norway; and They will be stationed at Gaboon, and will be- they have been enabled to cover ground, gin teaching immediately. All the instruction though of course very inadequately, in no must be in the French language, but religious fewer than fifteen provinces of China. For exercises in the schools are not prohibited. No 22 years the work has been carried on under attempt is made to interfere in any way with Mr. Taylor's direction, and he estimates purely religious gatherings, and the gospel is that over 4,000 souls have been converted as freely ta~ght throug!)out the colony, in any through this agency. A few medical mislanguage, as it is in Paris. The labors of our sionaries are at work, and others are studybrethren are being blessed, and the future pros- ing in Edinburgh. There were no fewer pects of the mission are assuring. than 600 applications for service during the last two years, from which a judicious .. The brethren in our West African mission choice was made. Accepted candidates are are rejoicing in the continued presence of God's urged to pursue speeial stUdies for a time, Spirit. There is now no hindrance to the and a home has been opened at Cambridge preaching of the gospel, and at some of the sta- for those who are able to go thither for a tions great interest IS manifested in religion. course of study at tae university. The Batanga church is in the northern part of the field, and is under the pastoral care of Rev. From his own letter to us (see "Cor- Frank Myongo. At the ~ommnnion season in respondence," page 931), Mr. Tay- Aprillhirty-three adults and eight infants were lor secured fourteen additional mis- baptized. Not more than half the people who came could get admittance to the church. The sionaries from the United States and inquiry class numbers 120." Canada, who sailed with him on his -It is announced that the Marquis of Salis- return early in October. bury, the English Premier, has directed the British Consul-General at Zanzibar to use England. – The Society for the all his inllueuce with the Sultan to induce Propagation of the Gospel held its him to exert his power against the three annual meetings during the sittings slave traders who have attacked the Afri- can Lakes Company at the head of Lake of the Lambeth Conference, and sev- Nyassa. On the tenth of August the Sultan sent a special messenger to check these eral foreign bishops gave addresses. There- slave-traders, and some good may be hopcd port stated that the number of ordained mis- for from this movemeut. sionaries, including nine bishops, on the So- ciety's list at the present time. was 596. -Uganda. The latest tidings from Mr. There were also in its various missions Gordon, the English Church missionary in about 2,000 catechists and lay teachers, Uganda, were dated March 7, at which time mostly natives, and more than 400 students all was quiet. The mission boat had been in its colleges. The Bishop of Japan said taken away and a watch ~et upon Gordon's the attitude of the educated classes toward nlovements. Though Mwanga, the king, Christianity there perhaps might best be was more friendly, the natives were forbid- described as an attitude of respectful hesi- den to attend any services, and the sale of tation. Bishop Smythies said that from his Christian books had been stopped. The king experience in Africa he was more than con- had invited another member of the Church vinced that missionaries must in every pos- Missionary Society to come to Uganda, and aible way keep away from every aet of cir- Mr. Walker had left Usambiro, March 31, to cumstances which would inve.ilt them with join' Mr. Gordon. It is believed that the the character of civil officers. I'r&noo.-The Annnal Report of the Societe ian missionaries, by the immediate estabdu Nord gives the following statistics with lishment of a Hindoo theological college I regard to Protestanism in the north of Of course these are hopeful indications. A France: In lS07 there were in the 9 depart- wide-awake heathen nation is a more promments coveredby the work of this Soc¥ty S ising field for missionary effort than one Protestant churches and 5 pastors,1Ivith that is sound asleep. about 10,000 nominal adherents. Now, there are 52 pastors and 145 places of worship, of -The Church Missionary Intelligeneer which S4 are temples, and nearly 30,000 ad- draws attention to a curious illustration of how herents. the East and West are reacting on each other. Mr. Hackett, at Allahabad, lately gave a lecture (lermany.-The Gustavus Adolphus Soci- on "TheAryan·VedicReligion." ItwasmostIy ety of Germany, which aims specially to taken up with an account of a catechism put establish Protestant churches in Roman forth by Pundit Raghunath Rao, the Dewan of Catholic countries, during the last fifty-six Indore, as a short catechism of the Aryan-Vedic years, has erected 1,398 church and 691 religion. "Our friends in Scotland will perbaps school bUildings. It reports immediate be flattered, but certainly astoniShed, to learn need of 314 more church buildings. that it is taken word for word from the Shorter Catechism, so familiar to all dwellers north of the India.-A brief statement of the compara- Tweed I Only it consists of some 20,000 questive progress of Protestant missions in tions and answers, those relating to our wrd India and Burmah during the thirty years Jesus Christ being omitted. On this being extending from 1851 to 1881, and of the pointed out to the Dewan, he defeuded his comagency by which that progress ha9 been pilation ou the ground that the truths were comlargely made, are here collated from Sir mon to both, and he wished to use a formulary William Hunter's recent address before the that might, as far as pOSSible, commend itselC to Indian Section of the Society of Arts, and both Christians and Hindus. It may perhaps be will interest our readers. During the period considered one of the most remarkable plagiaalready named, the stations of Protestant missions in those countries advanced from risms on record." 222 to 601-nearly three-fold: their congregatious from 267 to 4,lSO–more than jifteen- -As to the value of the work perfold: the number of native Protestant Christians from 91,052 to 492,882-more than formed in India by the first Protestjive-fold: and the number of communicants from 14,661 to13S,2M-nearly ten-fold. The.se ant missionaries-Carey, Ward and large advances are the results of a large increase in the number of native ministers- Marshman-a native Hindu paper an agency which is the chief, last and only hope under God for the conversion of any says: "They created a prose verheathen nation, and to the securing of nacular literature for Bengal, they which missionary effort should be largely established the modern method of directed. A native Protestant Church has, popular education, they gave the first we are happy to say, grown up in India, grand impulse to the native press, largely supplying its own staff of laborers. they set up the first steam-engine in It will SOOIl. beeome quite able to do so. India, and in ten years they trans- During the thirty years already indicated, lated and printed the Bible, or parts the nnmber of ordained native ministers in- thereof, in thirty-one languages." crea.sed from 21 to 575-or twentY-86.>en-fold: a.nd the number of native lay preachers -The Presbyterian women of India raised from 493 to 2,856-nearly siw-fold. last year in their missionary societies and Boards, in cash and missionary boxes, -Hindooism is waking up in India, with a nearly $8,000 for home missions. spa.smodic and convulsive twist which is more like a sign of death than of returning Italy.-Signor Sonzogno, the proprietor life. Christianity has made such inroads and able editor of a leading daily newspaper that the old religion begins to feel weak in of Milan, Italy, recently made the startling its knees, and to realize that it must fight announcement of his intention to becomea for its existence, or at least for its old-time full-fledged and active Italian Bible Society influence and power. Publications in its by issuing a popular edition of the Bible in defense are now extensively circulated. A halfpenny numbers-a price which would Hindoo Tract Society in Madras noW issues bring it within the reach of nearly every large monthly editions of leaflets, in which man, woman and child in Italy. This an- Christianity is assailed in a way which indi- nouncement has great significance when cates that it is felt to be a dangerous thing. viewed under the light of the fact that the A large pnblic meeting of the Hindoos of new Penal Code makes the priest responsible Madra.s was recently addressed by a popular for his ntterances in public and private; speaker, who urged the necessity of com- not to the Pope, but to the State. Signor bating the successful aggressions of Christ- Sonzogno has the candor to announce that this new enterprise has not been undertaken in the interests of any Church, or of reli- gion, but simply as a commercial enterprise, Which, besides being financially profitable to himself, Will also promote the good of Italy. PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN.
lap.D.-According to the Japan Weekl,l1VaU, in North and South Kafirland and Zuthe Japanese publicists are earnestly discussing luland; they are educational and evan- gelistic. From the remarkable misthe propriety of an omcial adoption of Christian- sion station of Lovedale, Kafiryouths ity as a means of perfecting their civilization and go forth all over the country. A of maintaining a moral standard among the Lovedale register has been published, people. It ia said, also, that many high omcers tracing the career of over 2,000 former of the government are in favor of such a step, pupils. In Central Africa, the. wellnot because they believe in the Christian religion, known Livingstone Mission belongs but because they believe its adoption would to this Church. Its dangers and diffipromote the best Interests of the country. culties demand the prayers and sym- pathy of all interested in missionary Iladagasc.r.-Mission Schools. The Cfhron- work. In the New Hebrides Mission icle of the London Missiouary Society has seventeen missionaries are at work. an interesting article on the elementary In South Arabia, the Keith-Falconer schools as organized and carried on by the Mission is now fully equipped, with agents of that society in Madagascar. Dr. Paterson in charge, and the Rev. The growth of these schools has been ex- W. R. W. Gardner as ordained mistraordinary. Twenty-five years ago they sionary. In the Lebanon Mission, a numbered 7, with 365 scholars; in 1886 small beginning of five Protestants they numbered 1,005, with 102.747 scholars. has grown to a community of 135, a church membership of 86, with 1 pas- Some at these schools. however. are under tor, 6 lay preachers and 28 teachers.
the care of the Friends' Foreign Missions, The Ladies' Society of the Free which co-operates heartily with the London Church of Scotland carries on work Society. The several provincesare divided in Calcutta by means of a Christian into districts, and each district bas a meet- home or boarding-school, in which Ing-house. used both as a church and school- are ninety pupils, a day-school for house. Most of them are built of adobe, Hind u girls with 100 on the rolls, and with thatched roof, and are very plain zenana work. The same kind of work buildings, with mud fioors. The school -is carried on at Madras, and, to a outfit consists of a few lesson sheets and smaller extent, in Bombay and Nagtext-books for the ·teacher's use. The pore, and also in Santalia, Poona, and pupils, however, provide tnemselves with Berar. a primer, a copy of the New Testament, the native Christian newspaper, a cate- a South Sea Islands.-This island of Rarotonga, chism, grammar and geography. There are six standards according to wnlch these which has in such wonderful way provided schools are regularly examined by their superintendents. The teachers are sup- missionaries for New Guinea, Is still keeping up ported in part by the natives. The object of these schools is to teach the children to its record of devotion to the missionary work. read the Bible, and in this they succeed, and so these schools become the chief An appeal to the churches on that Island for reauxiliary to the direct preaching of the gospel. The coming generation of the Inforcements Is never made in vain. Though Malagasy will have as a foundation not only an ability to read the Scriptures, but their brethreu are made martyrs, more than also a fair knowledge of gospel truth. enough helpers Immediately volunteer to f111 Scotiand.-An extremely interesting their places. The last report comes that six bird's-eye view of the missions of the native teachers of New Guinea had just b~en Free Church of Scotland i!J given by ordained at Rarotonga. They were fully Professor Lindsay in the monthly equipped, and were to leave for New Guinea in magazine of that Church. The mis- September by the John Williams. sions in India, to which 70 per cent. of Thibet. – Destruction of Roman the Church's funds and agents are de- Catholic Missions. The region in eastvoted, are in five centers-0alcutta, ern Thibet bordering upon China, Madras, Bombay, Poona, and Nagpore. Each may be described as a nu- in the provinces Szchuen andYuncleus of Christian higher educational work, surrounded by a circle of ver- nan, has been occupied by Roman nacular and more purely evangelistic effort. Native congregations exist in Catholic missionaries since 1846, and all the mission centers, and the pas- the missionaries have been steadily tors are paid partly by the congrega- pushing forward into Thibet proper. tion and partly by the society. The In 1865 the mission at Bonga was de- South Africa Missions are carrif.'d on stroyed, its houses burned, and the missionaries having been driven from that place established themselves on the Chinese side, where they felt tolerably safe. It now appears that during last autumn these mission- aries were severely persecuted, their houses burned, and only two of the nine centers remain untouched. The bitter antipathy toward Christianity aorritled exclamations from all parts of on the part of the lamas. The acts of the great Metropohtan Opera-House. She violence are said to have been done told ot two sisters, Mormon girls, one sixdirectly under the eyes of the Chinese teen years old and the other fourteen years authorities, who took no steps to old, whom she saw in a squalid condition, punish the persecutors. both with babes in their arms,and bothgirls the wives of their own father. Another Turkey.-A delightful surprise awaited the case mentioned was that of a man who had members of the European Turkey Mission married, besides a wife outside his family, at. the annual meeting in June last, as they his own mother, his grandmother, his recounted the progress in their several sta- daUghter, and his granddaUghter-alI these tions:-the number of communicants dou- wives living at the same time. The Nabled in one station, and relatively large ac- tional Union will take steps to ameliorate cessions in others, the increased attendance the condition of the Mormon women as tar in the college and high schools, the earnest- as lies in its power. ness of native Bible-women in commending the gospel alike to children and to adults, -The two volumes containing the prothe enlargement and success of the mdus- ceedings of the London Missionary Contrial school, and generally the new life and ference wi1l consist of about 600 pages each. activity among native Christians. But the Arrangements are being made for issuing event of the year wM to follow a month the volumes in this country at a. very low later in the dedication of a church edifice price, probably less than seventy-five cents at Sofia, the capital of the principality. a volume. At such a rate there ought to The services were attended by a iarge and be a very large circulation ot these records interested audience; among others.. on in- ot the most remarkable missionary gathervitation. was His Royal Highness, Prince ing of the century. The volumes shonld be Ferdinand, who, on leaving, presented the iIi the h&nds ot all clergymen and of ~he church with five hundred francs as a token friends of missions everywhere. of his goodwill. The whole scene, so in contrast with the bitter opposition of a few -Receipts of Missionary Societies. We years ago, might well fill the hearts of the regret to note a very material decline in missionaries with thanks~iving and praise, the receipts of the Presbyterian Board of and inspire them and the entire evangelical Foreign Missions (North), and of the Methocommunity with new hope for the future. dist Episcopa.l Missionary Society, during the first half of the current fiscaJ year, United States.-City Ev~geliza compared with those of the corresponding tion. Frank Russell, D. D., one of the months of last year. The deficit in the secretaries of the Evangelical Alli- tormer Board amounts to $92,910.88. The missions are a.lready complaining. and the ance, says, in Our Day: secretaries are alarmed. One of our oldest and most faithful missionaries in Syria .. Churches covering more than a million and asks. .. What shall we brea.k up? Our a half population are united as never before in village schools (about the only things that household visitation, whicb, unlike a canvass, can be stopped) are the very life of our has in it the element of permanence. Visitors work. They keep the doors open for the from the churches co-operating in a community preaching of the gospel when people other- wise would no~ come." Surely neither of are interblended as to denominational lines, these great denominations will go back on each becoming acquainted with a little field their splendid records I of scarcely more than ten dwellings. It.!s estimated that there are more than 25,000 church -A Magnificent Gift. Mr. Daniel Hand, members engaged in this activity. The city of of Gnilford, Conn., has given $1,000,000 to Brooklyn is organized into fifteen branch alli- the American Missionary Association for the ances, with an average tI) each of over 50,000 education of poor colored people in those states population. Baltimore, under similar organiza- in which slavery existed in 1861. tion~ has published a large pamphlet made up from statistical returns of the work-a kind of -W. E. Blackstone, Esq., of Oak Park, religions directory of the city. Buffalo, Roches- Illiuois, h.,.s made a donation of $3,000 (about ter, Oswego, Ponghkeepsie,Kingston, Newburg, Rs. 9,000), for erecting a Ladies' Home at Mat- tra. He desires that this home shall be not only and many other places, are well organized, while a place where women workers may reside, but more than 100 towns, West and South, are mov- where they may be trained for the work under ing in the same line." competent leaders. There are hundreds of widows residing at Mattra and Bindraban, and -Mormons. At the Woman's Christian thonsands of female pilgrims visiting these Temperance Union, in New York, lately, shrines annuallY, so that the opportunities for among the speeches was an address by work for women are very many. Mrs. AngieF.Newmann, who has charge of the work among Mormon women. Her graphic description of the shocking condi- tion at the Mormon women in Utah elicited Atrlea.*-A correspondent at Gaboon writes: steamers cau then find tnll employment on the .. At the spring C?mmunion 25 were added to Upper Cougo imd Its branche. In bringing to the Kangme church and 8 to the Benita church; Stanley Pool the rubber, gums, spices, ivory, 84 were added to the Batanga church at the and agricultural products of the valley, which ssme time. The sceues at these communion are wanted by the civilized world. The raU: seasons are wonderful. Crowds attend and road also will be an important factor In comgreat Interest is manifested. Candidates for merce. because it will bring to the markets of membership are mauy, but none are admitted the world large supplies of articles which are until they have gone through a long course of now obtainable ouly In limited qnantities. instruction In the Catechism and doctrines of Christian missions ~hould pre-empt the Upper the church. The relations of the missions with Congo Valley iu advauce of commerce, since It the authorities in the French part of the field is well known that the introduction of trade, are good. Everything appears hopeful. Two with its corrupting influences. and, above all, its or three more laborers are needed." deadly liquors, makes mlssiouary work among any people more dimcult. The time to push -Arrivals on the Congo.-Mr. C. B. and Mrs missions iu the Upper Congo Valley is now.- Glenesk, of Aberdeen, Scotland, for the A. B. M. BaptiBt Miss. Maaazine. Union. Misses Kartson, Anderson and Svenson, and Messrs. Anderson and Rangstrom, all -Hope for the .. Dark Continent." The of Sweden, for the Swedish mission here. All fnture of Africa is a subject now attracting the arrived per steamship Alrikaan, at Banana, on attention otthe civilized world. More and more the 12th of May. will the leaders of civilization attend to the problems which are raised by the opeuing ofthls You will have heard, possibly, of the death of vast contineut to modern commerce. The rail- Mr. Shoreland, of Bishop Taylor's party. Died road and the telegraph will soon stretch across on a vessel on which he hoped to work his way the land, steamships will follow all its great home. rivers to tlie head of navigation, and every salubrious province will iuvite emigrauts from -TheIssue. Prof. Dl'ummondsays, the older parts of the civilized world. Civiliza- tion'is at last beginning to feel its mastery of "The plajn issue is now before the the world, and to see that the natural resources world: Is the Arab or the European of the earth must all be brought uuder its couhenceforth to reign in Africa f Africa trol. The slave-trade, and the various prac- tices of savagery, must soon come to au eud the is claimed by everybody and belongs world over. It will not be long before it will be to nobody; and in the meantime seeu that the good health of the whole world is depeudent upon the good health of all its parts. Arabs pour into it from North and Decency, thrift, morality, religion, commerce, the arts of civilization will follow the railroad East with the deliberate purpose of and the telegraph, contending In new couutries as in old with the lower and bestis! elemeuts of making a paradise a hell." civilization. The various missionary societies of the world are calling the attention of their -New developments on the Congo. The respective governments to the fact that civiliza- omcers of the Congo Free State are contin- tion in Africa is worse iu its effect on the natives uing their explorations of the Upper Valley, thau their aboriginal savagery. Whatever may and find the products of the country rich ann be the result of Stauley's raid into the heart of varied beyond expectation. Immense planta- Africa, he will be followed finally by those who tions of bananas, oil-palms, maize, manioc, pea- will represent the higher Interests of human life, nuts, beans, etc., were encountered, and the aud they will work for something more than the supply of these articles which may be obtained makiug of money by whatever means. The for commerce is practically uulimited. It is rum-trade, the opium-trade. the slave-trade iu said to have been settled that the Mobangi is the Africa aud Asia are crimes of civilization quite lower course of the river Welle, discovered by as much as of barbarism.-Ohristian Register_ Dr_Sohweinfurth; and so a large part of the Soudau comes iuto the valley of the Congo, and -Christian influence in Africa' in another will find the natural outlet for its products generation will be a great power,and weare through'that river. The engineers who are sur- not !lontent to hand that country over to veying the route for the railroad past the Liv- Islam. As the work is more extended new iugstone Falls report that, after full survey, the adverse influences may arise, but we must construction of the road from Matadi, below the welcome the sympathy and help of all Christ- Falls. to Lukunga River is easy_ The road will iaus_ Old systems of religiou must be bet- run ilome distauce south of the river Congo. ter understood, as they have to be met, and all commerce must be so regulated as not The survey ot the whole route to the Pool will to curse the nations. Hopes cherished of the opening of the Congo have been clouded be completed duriug the summer. The con- by the liquor traffic. The Congo is an inter- struction of this railroad will mark a new era lu the development of Central Africa. Fleets of • Not till after the foregoing pages had been cast did we decide to add 16 pages to this num- ber, In cousequence of which we are able to give additional matter, althoul'h not exactly iu our usus! order.-EDi. national mission field, but at its gates sacred classics of China, and' the religious crouch that hydra-headed monster, and the bent of the Chinese people is indisputabie. martyrs of the Congo appeal to us not to A vocabulary fit for the conveyance of neglect the ma.tter of drink. The issue be- Christian ideas is already in use; the an. fore us is not the temperance question only, cient cult of China supplied terms descrip_ but a conspira.cy against the children of those races. It blights in the bud 0.1 the tive of the attributes of God; Tauism prohopes of the Christian Church and the best vided a psychological nomenclature; Budinterests of mankind. The representatives dhism enriched the language with meta.- of the traffic are spending all their energies physical and religious terms; and the euly to contend against mission· work.-F. F. Nestorian and Roman Catholic missions im- Ellinwood, D.D. ported into China the familiar terms of -Strangely mixedtidings comefrom Nyassa Christian theology. Lastly, China having Land. In the midst of all the commotions subjugated all the aboriginal tribes in her the missionary work seems to be going for- vast territory, and having now been laid ward with vigor. At Bandawe 1,179 young open to the civilization of the West, is playpeople were present in the schools at the ing a part in the East similar to that of closeo! the term, one-third of these being Rome in early times in the West, and is a girls. There are 38 native teachers at work, peculiarly promising center for Christian IIond Dr. Laws, of the Scotch Free llhurch operations. Mission, says that, at the rate the work is going forward. the next generation of the France.-A large number of young ladies Tonga people would have nearly received a of high social position are endeavoring to Christian education. Among the Angoni, get the Sunday morning delivery of shop 'Work was progressing peacefully both in the psrcels abolished in Paris, and are pleading northern and southern regions. At Chirenji, also for a whole holiday on Sundays for the Which is on the road between Lakes Nyassa employees of the large shops. and Tanganyika., the people, though under arms in defense of themselves from the -The Breton Mission. A recent issue ot Arab slave-traders, were listening to religi- Le Tremetois contained a contribution by an ous instruction. Dr. Cross' says: .. Nothing astonished me more than to see over a hun- English lady, entitled, "A Trip to Tremel." dred young people every morning come After referring to the many natural attractions creeping through the hole in the stockade of Brittany, the writer points out that not only surrounding the school-room, and beginning is that province of France easily accessible to the day's lesson." English people, but that liviIJg there is very cheap_ CalliIJg attention then to the Breton -By request of M. Goblet, the French Yssion, of which Pasteur G. Lecoat is director, Admiralty has ordered the men-of-war in she says: East African watersto chaseall slave-ships, "M. Lecoat has translated the whole Bible '0no matter under what ftag they maybe, and into the grand old language. And "be is pro- pursue with especial energy any which claiming the glorious gospel as far through may he fiying French colors. Brittany as it can be taken with the aid oC but Chlna.-The United Presbyterian Magazine two schoolmasters, three colporteurs. and one tor September (Edinburgh) has an article on evangelist; and that in the face 011,800 priests China and the Gospel, by Dr. Williamson of and twice as msny nuns, He is even trans- China, which is of interest to American mitting it to the many thousaud Breton laborers readers from the hopeful view it takes of the in Havre and Jersey. This untiring paateur present condition of China as a mission field. finds in Mme. Lecoat an invaluable coadjutor. rhe recent proclamation of the Chinese :Many a destitnte orphan finds in her a mother Government has secured the protection of tender and true. Not only is her house a verinative Christians in the exercise of their table orphanage ; she has near it a hospital, unreligion, and the article shows that this act der her charge. And at length she has the wish of government merely" crowns the mani- of her heart-a echool for girls, needing only told preparation made by Providence for furniture and a mistress's salary to become a the conversion of China to Christianity." seminary of true evangelical Christillnity and inrhis preparation is fourfold-educational, dustrial training." moral and religious, philological, and politi- cal. The competitive system of government About £36 per annum will be required as appointments, in vogue since the first cen- lIalary for a teacher. The mission has land for tury of our era, ha.s led to the use of a common spoken language over a great part of a. large room, but about £350 is needed before the empire_ Schools are multiplied all over the building can be erected. The lady con- the country, and" there is no mission field cludes: in which there is such a large proportion of the people who are able to read." The " It is impossible for one who loves the Lord Iouthority of conscience is taught by the to stay at Tremel without becoming deeply in- terested in the Bre tou Mission. And it has none of the draWbacks that from time to time stagger a critical mind in some other missions. (1) No extravagance. There is literally no use- less or careless expenditure. (2) No worldlll poaition to maintain. Here the example of Christ and his first missionaries Is Collowed too represented by the twenty-six letters of the nearly Cor that I 3. No tnainceritv or overprQ/usion. Absolute honesty and downright English alphabet, twenty-four letters of the straightCorwardneBs permeate its every ramill.- cation." English phonetic alphabet are captured aDd Ha1'l'aiJa.-From Molokai, an isiand of the made to do service in·this new English pho- Hawaiian group, comes the news of heroic self-sacrifice .on the part of a Catholic netio alphabet; and we then have one priest, Father Damien, a Belgian by birth, and now in the prime of life. Ever since simple alphabElt taking the places of forty ISTd, this missionary has devoted himself to the care of the lepers who live at the east or more, and becoming available as the end of the Island. With his own hands he has constructed for them wooden houses, to written language of 200,000,000 of people who replace the huts of gra.ss in which they formerly lived. He has, in addition, built have no written alphabet, because they them a chapel. During the fifteen years of his stay,on the island, his attention to the don't know just how to use one. We have sick in all the stages of their terrible malady has been unremitting. As a result, he never had a gushing confidence in .. Fonethimself is now a leper, and is doomed soon to die. Another heroic priest, Father Con- iks," but we are constrained to hope for rady, has recently sailed from San Francisco to care for him, and eventually to take his valuable results from a scheme considered place. practicable by an Oriental scholar like Mo.>; India.-The Calcutta correspondent of the London Times reports two prominent cases Miiller. and heartily commended by the exhibiting the evils of Child-marriage and Madras Times. the urgent need for reform. In one case a girl-wife, aged eleven, was branded with ltaly.-A further expulsion from Rome of red-hot irons by her mother-in-iaw. In the other, a girl, aged eleven, of good position, Capuchin Nuns and "Sisters of Perpetual was found by the police dead, her throat having been cut with a razor. Her husband Adoration" is being carried out by the alleges that she committed suicide, but the matter is being investigated, These barba- Italian Government. the communities in rous customs are accepted apathetically, without the faintest attempt at amend- several convents having had notice to leave ment. the city. Rev. J. McDougall, of Florence, -The telegraph reports the volnntary writes of .. several men of considerable burning of a young Indian widow on her husband's funeral pyre. No marvel if a power" who lately have left the ranks of woman prefers death to the sorrows and penalties of such a widowhood. Rome and joined the Free Italian Church.
-The Bombay Guardian recently pub- One of them is attracting crowds to the lished a literary curiosity called .. The Indian Phonetic Alphabet," which includes, gospel bv his eloquence at Hisa.. Roman in one view, what is essentially a Roman alphabet for all the languages and vernac- priests are, by a recent Act, no longer ulars of India, nearly every Indian sound being represented by a Roman letter. More allowed to preach sermons which assail the than one hundred and fifty languages and dialects are current in India and in British political institutions of Italy. They are Burmah, with their 256,000,000 of people, and very angry about this, but the Protestants the distinct alphabets of those countries, many 01 which are very elaborate, outnum- regard it as a step towards religious equalber all others in the world. Some forty different alphabets, or syllabic systems. each ity. ' having ,from two hundred and fifty to five hundred combinations are used to represent Japan.-Women in Japan are more respectthe sounds of the 150 languages, and more than 10,OOOdiffersnt signs and types haTe ed than in any other Oriental country. Two been elaborated from the original alphabet to represent the fifty simple sounds-all vears ago a society was organized among that the combined Indian vernaculars con- ;a;in. 'As these simple sounds cannot all be thewomen, whose members agreed to read portions of the Scripturesoaily, and to pray for each other. This society numbers 2,500 members, who are scattered all over the country. At its last annual meeting in Tokio many addresses were made toan a.udi- ence of 3,!l'JO persons. A" Soclety for the Promotion of Woman's Education" has been orl(anized during the past few months, and the nobility of the land have pledged sub- stantial support-the Prime Minister and the Governor of Osaka each contributing $10,000. The Japanese women of Osaka. have organized a Women's Christian Association.
At a recent meeting in the Y. M. C. A. hall, the audience, composed entirely of women, numbered 1,000. The women and many of the leading men of Japan have beenbrought into active work for temperance and social purity through the efforts of Mrs. Leavitt, the" Around the World Missionary" of the American W. C. T. U. The liberality of the Japanese Christians is far beyond the aver- age churchesof America,and so faithful are the native preachers and teachers, that if all the American and English missionaries were recalled from the field the /:Ood work would still be carried on."-Miu M. j. Olokey, Pres. oj the Women's MiBS. Society oj the United Pres. Ohurch. Jerasalem.-8ome things a.re being said by requesting the HOTa Government ·to carry about Jerusalem which it is not pleasant to hear. .. In 1885-6," says Dr. Merrill, .. I as- out their own law, with the assistance of a guncerta.ined tha.t there were 130 shops or places in Jerusalem where liquor, chiefly boat on the East Coast to back up and support wine and arak, wa.s sold. The shops were kept byChristia.ns or Jews." "The use of the native governors there, and to watch liquor among Mohammedans," he adds, "as well as every other class of the inhabitants, against any attempts to bribe them. This plan seems to be increa.sing, and the fact causes missiona.ries, t …a.chers, and others who are was formeriy pursned with success on the Zaninterested in the welfare of the country, great anxiety." zibar coast, when the slaves were taken from -" The Judson Centennial Year" may be the British Indians. observed by those who wish to honor the memory of the great America.n missionary, New Gulnea.-In a recent letter to a friend, by contribnting to the America.n Baptist Missiona.ry Union in three wa.ys : Rev. James Chalmers, writing of a visit paid to 1. To the Judson Centennia.l Fund of the various mission stations along the south $100,000, for the enla.rgement of the mis. sions, in individua.l subscriptions of not coast, in charge of native South Sea Island less tha.n $1,000. 2. To the fifty per centadvance needed in the income of the Mis- teachers, gives a cheering report of the progress siona.ry Union. This atrords an opportunity to those who do not feel able to give $1,000 of the gospel amongst the cannibals. Speaking at once. 3. To the Judson Memorial Chnrch in Mandalay, Burmah. The first $1,200 to- of a village named Vagavaga, he says: "There ward this was given by an old Bnrman Woman baptil'led by Dr. Jndson. $3,000 are is a change seen even in the appearance of all still needed. the natives. They were a wild cannibal lot a. -The first permanent American mission station was e"ta.blished in 1835 by Messrs. few years ago, Mr, Pearse asked one of the Perkins and Grant, of the American Board, a.t Oroomiah, the chief town of the Nes- natives if they eat man, and was answered, 'No. torians. They found the people without printed books, possessing only a few manu- no eat man now, all fellow missionary now.' script portions of the Bible in the ancient Mid nnknown Syriac, Few men and but In the evening, at seven, a bell rang, and soon one woman could read. Not theological error, but idleness, va.graacy, drunkenness, hymn·singing was heard; they were having formalism, superstition, prevailed. In eourse of time, the spoken language was evening prayers. You cannot realize it-savwritten, schools established, tile Bible translated, churches gathered. After a.ges, cannibals, murderers, now seeking to eleven years' toil came the first spiritual revival. Many others have followed. All worship God. It was strangely pleasing to hear 'the work of the American Board in Persia was in 1871 transferred to the Preshyterian an old hymn tune iusuch a place. • • • 1 had Board. In the churches are now numbered nearly 2,000 communicants, and in the a good time at South Cape. I got refreshed in schools, 2,500 scholars. visiting the stations with the New Guinea Madagascar.-Mr. Sturge asserts that" tm lately the importofslaves from Mozambique had teachers. At Savaia, where, only a short time been stopped and the slaves liberated; but the Hova Government has now entered upon a ago, there were cannibal feasts, there are three retrograde or renegade conrse, and seems to be fast relapsing into the savagery af the past." catechnmens and six who can read well, and all But one statement closely affects Great Britain. With reference to the concubinage slave trade the people friendly." on the East Coast, it is even more disgraceful, as almost all the real owners are British subjects, -In the British protectorate of B~chuana Christians, and often bighly educated. In Its details, too, I think that possibly it is the more land, God's Word is gradnally but surely gaining cruel slave trade of the two. This slave trade could easily also be checked in a week or two grouud. Heathenism is slowly being uprooted, and superstition overcome. God has revealed Himself to these poor people in many ways, and their minds and hearts are being awakened to realize that God is the Lord. At Kanye, espe- Cially, has the power of the living God been manifcsted. The native chief, Kbame, at Sho- shang, prohibits the manufactnre of Kaftlr beer, and does not allow liquor to be brooght into his country by the white man. On the latter p,oint he is very firm, aud ouly recently expelled two men, who had been trading in the land for many years, for endeavoring to introduce that detesta- ble brandy, contrary to the law of the conntry. The chief's son at Kanye has also recently stop]led the selling of brandy to his people.- L • .M. 8. Chronicle.
-A New Hospital.-The Rev. R. Wardlaw Thompson, foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, calls attention to the hos- pital in connection with the medical mission at Antananarivo, which has been condemned on sanitary and other grounds as no longer fit for use. It has become imperatively necessary to erect another in a more convenient Situation, and an appeal is made for a new hospital by the mem- bers of the Friends'Foreign MisslOn Association. The responsibility of maintaining and mana- ging the medical mission in Mada~ascar devolves on the Friends' Foreign MthiessmionedCicoaml mmiitstseie~' nbtuot so great is the value of the missionaries of the London Missionary So- ciety, and to the people nnder their care that the SOCiety regnlarly contributes one-thh-d of the annnal cost of maintaining It, a.nd urges their friends to assist in providine: the funda for the Rew hospital.-Tlie London CIIrl8titJ1I.
!!TATISTIC8 OF Till!: WORLD'!!
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
Woman's Work in the Reformed Ohurch. lose hellrt and faith P Who can read it and ~ot be glad and grateful P IT may stimulate the good women of our And yet this is not the measure of the power church to know something of the growth and oPJlortunity of the Church of Christ In thiB land. Leaving out the Romau Catholics, the, amongst them of the spirit of giving to Foreign net iucrease was 574,861 communicants. This is at the rate of 4.35 to each church, 6.6 to each l!rIissions. From 1874, when the first contribu- minister, and 1 to every 21 communicants. An average of ten to each church would by no tions of Ladies' ~ssionary Societies were re- means be an extravagant expectation. That would give a net increase for the Protestants ported, these girts have been as follows: churches of 1,320,000. This is the number ·we might have had this year; it is the nnmber we 1874…………….. $2,111 50 may have for the year to come. 1875…………….. 4,455 33 1876. . . . . . . . . . . •. . .. . 8,817 85 Population Statistics in Japan. 1877. .. . .. .. •. •.. . . . . £,625 78 1878…………….. 10,107 54 THIll Loodon and China Telegraph, referring 1879…. ..•. ……… 8,81551 to recent publications on Japanese statistics, 1880…………….. 10,03136 says that on January 1, 1885, the Japanese Em- 1881…. . . . .. …….. 10,608 0600 pire had a population of 37,868,987, or an average 10,984 of 99 Inhabitants to each square kllometer, 1882…………….. which is about the same average as Italy, and 1883……… …….. 13,053 74 much more than that of Germany. But if the 1884…………….. 12,47063 large area of Yezo and the Kuriles, with its 1885…………….. 16,030 111 small population, be deducted Japan, proper haa a population of 131 to the square kilometer 1886…………….. 16,653 89 while Great Britain had only 114. For various 1887…………….. 18,406 74 reasons peculiar to the country and the people 1888…………….. 20,7'02 71 the distrlbntion of the population i~ by clusters. Total In llrteen years, ..•.. $137,782 34 In eight administrative districts the density Statistics of the Ohurc-hTehseoMf"tuhseWUnnairtye. ~ reaches 220 per square kilometer, for these in- clude the fertile rice plains and the most pro- States. ductive fisheries. Japan is a country of small peasant cultivation, rice being the principal THill Independent has again been at pains to staple, and hence the mountainous districts are very thinly inhabited. The average number of gather, so far as possible, the statistics of the persons in a household is 4.91, while In Germany it is 4.7; but in urban households the averege is Christian Chnrches of the United States. It much smaller than in the country or than thosII of European cities. Notwithstanding the denhowever, says that In not a few instances the sity of the population, the small nnmber of pop- ulous towns is very striking. Only five have a figures are given for former years. For some population exceeding 10,000, viz.: Tokio, 902,- 837; Osaka, 353,970 j Kioto, 255,403; Nagova, denominations, such as the branches of Plym- 126,898, and Kanagawa, 104,320. Six only have a population between 50,000 and 100,000. This onth Brethren, it.is not possible even to get esti- peculiarity in distribution is due to the circum- stance that Japan is not an industrial but an agmates; they refuse to give information. There ricultural country. Another pecuIisrity is the proportion of the sexes. There were 19,157,977 are hence thousands of Christians who are not males and 18,711,110 females, sO that, reversing the rule In Enrope, the males preponderate. enumerated by our contemporary. It says: This is said to be due to the tact that there is a great preponderance of female mortality between .. Our summary shows that there are 138,885 15 and 40, Japanese statisties on this subject churches, 94,457 ministers, and 19.790,323 mem- being wholly different from those of European bers in this country. These totals, which are countries. At the date of the census there were rather under than over the exact figures, are big 8,898 Japanese abroad, their distribution being with meaning. One hundred and thirty-nine as follows: Corea, 4,356 j China, 2,068 j America, thousand churches founded and maintained for 817 j Russia, (mainly Eastern Siberia), 671; the worship of God I More than ninety-four Great Britain, 264 j France, 164 ; Gel'ftlany, 129; thousaud ministers set apart for the declaration and the remainder in othercountries or on the sea· and exposition of the doctrines of Christianity I Almost twenty millions of souls baptized in the -The Central Baptist says: .. The history faith of Christianity I These areeoquentfacts. of the work in Cuba shows that it has been They are witnesses of a living faith, an earnest scarcely less than miraculous. Six churches, spirit) and a consecrated life, For these facts numbering 1,100 members, have been estabtell or sacrifice and effort and costly endowment-, lished in two years. In the Sunday-schools which are not the symptoms of unbelier and there are 2,500 teachers and pupils, and in godlessness. Unbelief has been in the world longer than Christianity; it came to the country more than a century ago ; but it has no facts like these to speak for it."
The net gains for the year were 6,434. churches, 4,505 ministers, and 774,861 communicants. These facts are eloquent, too. They show that the long-predicted decline of Christianity has not yet set in. Christianity is still increaSing her churches, her ministers, and her communicants. Every year many thousands of her communicants and hundreds of her ministers are swept away by death; but her numbers do not.fail. She gathers in converts and educates ministers, and fills all the gaps, aud has a large excess. The excess this year is 4,500 minister", and 775,000 communicants. This means an addition to the force of ministers of about 87, and to the number of communicants of 14,904 every week. More than seventeen new churches were orl!:anized every day of the year.
Every dllY saw seventeen churches, twelve ministers, and 2,129 communicants added to the forces of Christianity In the United States. This is the story which our statistics tell. Is it not a sublime story P Who can read it and the day-schools 500. And all this at a cost church houses built, 27; cost (ra.ised by ot only $5,762. But there Is urgent need for missionaries on their fields), $21,486.40 ; total .. house of worship in Havana, now. Diaz pleads for it in the name of Christ. Let not mission fund expended on the fields, PII,- his pleading be in vain." 508.57.-Examiner.
-Rev. A. J. Holt, State missionary of the -The Missions to Seamen ha.s 41 mission Baptist Church in Texas, reports the follow- vessels and boats daily carrying the divine ing summary of the year's work: Mission- message on board ships. If this non-paroaries, 130; days labored, 22,222; stations chial agency were to cease, in many cases supplied, 600; miles traveled, 111,625; ser- none would deliver the message of salvamods preached, 11,564; addresses, 16,582; tion.-The Living .Church. baptized, 3,689; received into mission churches, 4,642; churches organized, 154; -The total income ot the United Presbyterian prayer-meetings organized, 349; Sunday- Church of Scotland during the past year amolIDtschools organized, 265 ; pages of tracts dis- ed to £368,009, or £5,536 less than in the pretributed, 460,839; religious visits, 24,247; vious year. The membership of the church on the 31st of December last was 182,170, being an increase of 107.
Native Foreign Com· Contri- Work· Ad- muni· Schol· butions. herents. cants. ars. ers. FIELDS Oll' LAlIOR. – – — — — —— — — • No. of Stations Native Workers. Schools Or- Or- Lat. dained. dained. 1,393 £ Cellon…………… 78 16 1,276 10,937 3,277 271 1~,637 90 In ia ……………. 79 49 8,445 2,~ 80S 19,716 China……………. 10 50 24- 54 1,149 1,5M Western Africa….. 26 17 4 1,234 45,704 11 625 88 West Indies, Hondn- 13 90 7,243 1,4« 43 ras and Bahamas. 11 South Africa(Trans. 15 1 684 15,145 5,160 51 5,011 774 vaal) …………… 32 – – – – -12 – – -6 – 218 -7-,02-1 -1-,31-7 – -26- -1-.85-9 – -7-0 Totals…………. 236 123 127 5,359 88.401 14,834 752 53,141 £2,466 • Exclnsive of sums raised and expended at the several stations.
-Rev. James Johnston, Secretary of the day-schools, with a membership of 318,000. and Centennial Missionary Conference, makes a curi- a teaching force of 33,340 ; number of preachers ons calculation in his work on "A Century of 3,262. The value of church property is 810.3118, Christian Progress," just published by James 361. The estimated annual increase of member Nisbet lie Co., London. He makes an elaborate ship with churches is 47,600. The number of incomparison of the increase of populaGion stitutions of learning which have been received during the last hundred years, with the re- is twenty-nine-five universities, nineteen colspective increases of Protestants, Roman Cath- leges, aod five institutions; but there are some fifteen or twenty from which no report has been olics, and followers of the Greek Chnrch, and received. the result is very striking. Protestants in Europa Rome. – With a less popul&tion than man., have increased, according to this showing. other large cities, Rome has no less than SO from 37,700,000 to 134,000,000, or nearly fourfold; cardinals, 35 bishops, 1,469 priests, 828 candi- dates, 2,832 monks and friars, 2,215 nons, etc. Roman Catholics from 80,100,000 to 163.000,000, These ligures are, of course, very much lower or twofold; and the Greek Chnrch from 40,- than those of the days of the temporal power ; 000,000 to 83,000,000, also twofold. Mr. John- yet, during that regime there was more immor- ality and crime in Rome than in any other Euroston draws from this preponderating vitality of pean city, and even still over 100,000 of the in- Protestantism the most hopeful augury of its habitants cannot either read or write. These future victory. facts speak for themselves, and dispose once for all of every Rornish claim in regard to the civiliz. -According to the Directory of the ing power oCthe Apostacy. Roman Catholic Church for 1888, there are, in England and Wales, Roman Oathollo Missions. 2,314 Catholic priests to 1',728 in 1875, and these preside over 1,304 churches, chapels and stations. Scotland has 5 bishops, 324 priests and 237 churches and chapels. The Roman Catholic MR. JOHNSTON alBo contributes a valnable popUlation in 1887 is given as 1.354, appendix to the Handbook of Foreign MiBriotII, 000 in England and Wales, 326 in published by the London Religious Tract So- Scotland, 3,961,000 in Ireland. To- ciety, au •'Roman Catholic Missions." "It will be getherwith the colonies, the number seen from the table given below,.. says the Muof Catholics under British rule is rionary Herald,"that, although Roman Catholic 9,682,000. missions have been carried on from two to three -The Disciples ot Christ for 1888 report 6,{S7 h nndred years and in some instances are qnite churches: 620,000 communicants; 4,500 Sun- vigorous, they are !1I111 matched by the foreign missions of Protestants, whieh began, on a large Romanista have presented a variety of motives seale, less than one huudred years ago. There to induce men to become adherents of their faith, are in the Romish Church a large number oCmis- and that the submission to baptism has been in sionary societies, but they are all under tho many places the only prereqnisite to enrollment direction of the Propaganda at Rome. One as a Christian. Their roll of converts includes of the most marked methods of prosecuting large numbers who know and care little for any work is by the establishment of missionary col- form of Christianity. The notion which is enterleges,ln di1ferent parts of Europe, for the train- tained in many qnarters that the Romanists Ing of men for particular fields of missionary are prosecnting their missions with marvelous work; such as the Chinese College at Naples, the energy and snccess will be a good deal modified Central African Seminary at Verona. It must by the sight of the following table. " be borne in mind that, from the beginning, * SUMMARY OF ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS.
(Taken from tables in Missiones OatlwlicllJ, 1886.) In.-China Re~ions Oceanica Africa DIVISIONS. India. Peninsula China. adjacent and and its Is- Total. –e-tc-. – – – – – -to-C-h_ina.. -A-me-ri-ca-. -lan-ds-, e-tc.- —- Adherents …………… 1,183,142 674,317 483,403 77,~ 114,845 210,000 2,742,961 Churches and Chapels…. 2,677 1,668 2,429 360 200 7,561 European Missionaries.,. 996t 342 471 …..4.1..6 180 417 2,822 Native Missionaries….. 378 2111 752 93t 1,779 . ……. …..2.0..5 954 4,504 Elementary Schools…… 1,566 25,219 …….. Elementary Scholars….. 64,357 . '2i:i66 . ……. 110,742 "Deducting those returns which cannot be fairly classed under modern missionary work.
t There seems some obscurity in the table from which these figures are taken, poslflbly from some of the returns not distinguishing native from European missionaries. The numbers are combined in the total (1,089) under the column for Europeans. It is probable that there are rather more native and fewer European missionaries.- Handbook of B'ln'eign MiB8io1l8, p. 841.
-Jesuit M1ssions.-A recent issue of the by Pius IX. lind forty-three by the present pon- Etudes Religu'Ulle8 contains some statistica of the ti1f. Of the cardinalS, four are Romans, twentynumber and distribntion of the J esnit mission- eight are Italians, and twenty-nine are of oxtmhe.r aries abroad at the commencement of the present nationalities. During his pontificate, Leo year. The numbers are those of the varions has established the following new offices: One orders of the priesthood, priests, coadjntors and patriarchate, nineteen arcbhbishoprics, fifty- .. scolastiques," but in every' ease the number of seven bishoprics, thirty-four apostolic vicarates- one apostOlic delegature, eleven apostolic prepriesta is more than twice that of the other two fectures. In all there are now thirteen patriorders put together. In the Balkan Peninsular archs, 185 archbishops, 752 bishops. On the first there are forty-five Jesnit missionaries; in of January of the present year there were 728 Africa, and especiallyEgypt, Madagascar and the archbishops and bishops of the Latin Rite, fifty- Zambesi region,223; In Asia, especially Arme- six of the Oriental Rite, 318 titular archbishops and bishops, twenty without title, and five pre- lates nullius dioecese08. The whole Roman hierarchy consists of 1,254 persons.
nia, Syria, certain parts of India and parts of -A.merican JIIissionaJ')' Association.-Last China, 699. In China alone the number is 195, statistics: Receipts, $320,953; expenses, $328,788. In the 58 schools in the South, all of French nationality. In Oceania, inclnding , there are 9,896 pupils. There are in the the Phllippines, the Malay Archipelago, Austra- South 131 churches organized by this Asso- lia and New Zealand, the number is 270; in ciation, with 8,056 members. Four new churches have been organized. There are America, Inclnding certain specified States of 18 schools among the Indians, with 580 puthe Union, portions of Canada, British Hondn- pils; five churches, 13 missionarie., 397 ras, Brazil and Peru, 1,130; the total number of church members, and 11,091 scholars. Among the Chinese 17 schools aud 1,131 pupils, and J esuita scattered over the globe in purely mis- three new missions. Thirteen women's sionary work being 2,377. These are of various State organizations join with the Associa- nationalities, but the vast majority are French. tion in the work. The ASlIDciation now has 136 churches, 115 missionaries, 8,452 church -London Ti1M8. members, 972 being added during the year, -The Ghararsha Colea, the official paper and and 17,114 pupils in Sunday-schools. $226,- year-book, issued by the authorities at Rome, 000 were expended in the Southern field; $8,920 in the Chinese missions, and $48,967 has been published for the year 1888. Accord- among the IndIans. Ing to it Leo XllI is the 263d pope since St. Peter. The number of cardinals is sixty-one, of -The Minutes of the British Wesleyan Conference state that there are 545,290 whom five are cardinal bishops, forty-three are members at home and abroad, and 48,951 on trial; ministers fully ordained, 2,225; on cardinal priests, and thirteen are cardinal dea- trial, 263; with 364 supernumeraries. The cons. As the whole college of cardinals consists Australian Church numbers 79,135, and the of seventy men, there are only nine seats va Canadian 200.479. During the year 40 minis- te·rial probationers were received into full cant. The oldest cardinal is Dr. Newman of connection, 4 of whom are Hindus,l Chinese, England, whose age Is eighty-eight; the young- 3 Africans, and 1German; there are 263 j uni- est is Cardinal di Renda, who is only forty-one. ors still on probation, The local preachers Of the present college, eighteen were appointed number 15,657.
EDITORIAL NOTES
VIII.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
[BY A. T. P.] THE following letters to the editors obtainable for a few cents. It shows, in we answer in the REVIEW as matter striking contrast, the annual expenditure of of interest to the general readel': the United States and Great Britain for for. eign and home missions, education, sugar "I have been very much interested in and molasses, iron and steel, cotton and readinl' the articles on a • Crusade for Mis- woolen goods, bread, meat, boots and shoes, sions,'!ll the October REVIEW. I have some tea and coffee, ministerial salaries, liquors, maps for pulpit and associational work, but etc.; and, in additiou, gives a diagram of the wish to make myself something up to date. popUlation of the world according to relig- Have you any printed maps or diagrams. ions faiths, each square on a larger diagram statistical or of countries, in the form of standing for one million people. pamphlets or leaflets that I could enlarge mto large wall maps, or any other new and In addition to all these we would have a valuable information that I can utilize that chart of comparative increase in the number you can furnish me with? I wish to do as of societies, translatiolls of Scripture, mis- Dr. Pierson suggests, start a' Crusade for sionaries and workers, scholars in schools, Missions' in my own vicinity. expenditures for missious. etc., from the be- "Yours fraternally, C. L." ginning of the century to the present date, so far as any approximation to accuracy can In response we beg to say. that in all at- be obtained.
tempts to reach the public mind on mis- It might be well if, besides all these, there might be also a chart to show comparative sions, if we can at once attack the citadel supplies of mInisters, teachers, etc., at home and abroad, with the relative sizes of their of thennderstanding through both Eye-gate respective H parishes"; dividi!lJ:' the whole nnmber of souls to be reached, equally, and Ear-gate, our success will be doubled. among all the workmen.
We advise the use of maps, charts, com- If ail these, except the general wall map, could be made so as to be ~upported in one parative tables of population, expenditure, frame on separate rollers, so as to be pulled down ~uccessively as the speaker needed etc., made large enough to be seen at· a them, these charts themselves would make a most startling and powerful exhibition of distance.
First of all, a map of comparative religions ought to be prepal'ed. For this a model may be found in the front of .. A Manu"l of Mis- sions," prepared in 1854 by Dr. Jno. C.
Lowrie, and published by A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York. Of course since 1854 very important change~ have taken place, which necessitate changes in the coloring of the map. But that map will be found an excel- the truth, and would themselves speak elo- lent basis for the construction of a large quently to the public mind, heart and conwall map which presents at a glance the science. comparative condition of various countries If it be asked, how can these be procured, as to religious beliefs. we answer, make them for yourself. It re- Next, we advise a wall chart of compara- quires very little mechanical skill, and: if tive populations. This might be made by you lack ability, get some one to do it for upright columns of different heights. Tak- you under yonr personal supervision. This ing,for instance, Siam, as a basis or limit is a work that no man can do for another. of measurement, with eight to ten mIllions, The very labor of COllecting and arrang- this might be represented by a column four ing the facts, by which the work is done, is to five inches high, i.e., one-half inch to the itself the greatest source of blessing to the million-then the other countries could be man who does it. No accurate statistics arranged in order, until we reach India and can be obtained. Figures as well as facts China, which would be represented by col- are constantly changing. But if the man umns from ten to fifteen feet high. Of course will study the subject, and as fast as he gets these columns should be represented in the hold of facts and of accurate fignres emsame colors as those which on the map ex- body the results in his charts, he will find hibit the religions prevailing in those lands. himself fast becoming an authority on mis- In this way, at a glance, the eye would take sions, correcting not only his own mistakes in the comparative numbers of people under and misapprehensions, but those of others the control of each great nation, and the asweU.
relative extent of Paganism. Heathenism. It behooves us all in studying missions not Mohammedanism, Papacy, Greek Christian- to be impatient of results. The field is the ity, and Protestantism. world, and we have but a lifetime in which Next we would have a wall chart of com_ to explore it. Of course, we cannot conparati1!e expenditures, of which there are duct the exploration in person, and must abundant models, none of them better than depend in great part on others'labor and that published in colors by the Baptist MIS- results of their researches. Statements will sionary Union, Tremont Temple, Boston, and often be made that are incorrect, and by repeating them we shall be led to propagate Burns Thomson, and the wonderful Iltol'7 error; but as errors are exposed we must of Wil1iam A. B. Johnson in Sierra Leone, correct them, and so approach nearer aud now out of print. But it must be remem_ nearer to absolute correctness and exact- bered that we have made no mention of the ness. We must not claim for ourselves or life of Robert Moffatt, of William C. Burns, others infallibility, but only that we are of Dr. Goodell, of Dr. Duff; of the story of .. philosophers," lovers of wisdom and seek- William Duncan in British .Columbia, the ers after truth. But we may do much to missionaries in the Fiji Islands, the work in belp each other, and as we learn facts and Madagascar, nor of John Williams in the gather exact statistics, we may make them South Seas, and a host of others. We have available to otbers wbo are on the search taken five almost at random, because they like ourselves; Every pastor must be a mis- happen to have possessed peculiar charm sionary, and not expect all his work of col for us, and are representative of work' done by godly and educated men, refined women, lating and comparing to be done for him. medical missions, and the uneducated, con- What a man does himself is like his own secrated mechanic. ILl'mol', made for him and in which he moves As to the histories of mission work, it is easily and familiarly-he has proven it, and hard to separate it from lIiography, but we it is like a part of himself. A. note-book venture to give five more books which cover with divisions for various classes of facts, wider territory, viz: "Ten Yea~son the Eu- and' in which, under its own department, phrates,"byWheeler; "Among the Turks," each new, well-ascertained fact is entered, by Hamlin; "A. Century of Christian Pro- will soon become a thesanrus of informa- gress," by Rev. Jas. Johnston; Warneck's tion, and of more value than any compila- " HIstory of Christian Missions," edited by tion that can be made for us by the most Dr. Smith; and the Ely volume. But here, again, we have not even mentioned Goodell's skillful bands. The facts one gathers and .. Forty Years in the Turkish Empire," both assimilates to himself and his uses, he can a biography and a hIstory; .. Medical Mis- always command, and itJs these that make sions," by Dr. John Lowe; "Our Indian Mis- him ready, even at short can, to advocate sion Field," by Miss Rainy; " Foreign Missions," by Dr. Anderson; Christlieb'! the great cause of missions. noble little book on the same topic ; "Siam," by M. L. Cort; "The Cross and Dragon," Ly The second letter is from Balltsore, India: B. C. Henry; "The Handbook of Foreign .. REV. A.. T. PIERSON, D.D.-I have recently Missions," by the London Religious Tract become a reader of your most excellent Society; or, Dr. Thompson's grand book Oil HEVIEW, and it has increased my appetite U Moravian Missions." .tor such reading. The object of my writing now is to ask if yon will kindly take the There are five other books We advise every trouble to name in the REVIEW what you man and woman toread, each in its way un. reg-d.rd as th~ five most valuable books of surpassed, as bearing on missions in general, nlissionary bIography, and five others, most seeking and savin,. the lost, viz: first and valuable, of the history of mission work. foremost, Hodder's "Life of the Earl of "Idare say that you will find it difficult to Shaftesbnry" ; then, the" Life of Jerry Mc- choose from a mass of material that is so Auley," published and widely scattered by rich and the request I make might be the New YOl'k Observer; Belcher's biography rath~r unreason..ble for one within l'e..ch of of Whitefield; "Memoir of Mary Lyon"; j'mbhc libraries. But in a far-off station, and the" Life of William E. Dodge." But Sllut up to one's own library, with money we are conscious that in naming these, we for buying and time for reading both very are possibly passing by others equally de- limited, It becomes a question of no little serving of this honorable mention. importance how the limIted time end money can be best invested. In doing this, I dare WE have been lUuch impressed say you wiJI confer a favor on many others with the consecrated men and wo- situated like myself in heathen lands. men of Gl'eat Britain. We have met few such in our own land, who U HARRIET P. PHILLIPS." lay wealth, position and influence, ab- To answer such an inquiry is not so easy solutely at the feet ofJesus. There are as to propose it. The field of missionary many noble merchants and princely biography is fertile and luxuriant in the givers here, who combine singular amplitude and magnificence ot its products. Nowhere in the wide range of literature is commerClal talent and tact with lib- there to be found combined so much of the romantic and the real, the highest attain_ erality. But England and Scotland ment In character and the hIghest achieve- present not a few who have aban- ment in practical life and work. We ven- doned busmess, practicality, that ture to name five biographies of surpassing interest, without attempting to accord to them liuch supreme excellence over all ethers, viz.: "Life of AdoniramJudson," re- centlyedited by his son; "Fidelia Fiske," by Rev. William Guest ; "David Bramerd," new edition, recently edited by my colleague, _ Dr. Sherwood i "Seedtime m Kashmir," a memol1' of W. Jackson Elmslie, M.D., by Dr.
NOTE!!
they may work for Christ. Campbell of a bishop who is well-known for his dislike White, of Glasgow, declines election of cant and his skill in snubbing those who practo Parliament, because he will not tice it. .A pious lady of his diocese was illushave his work among the poor of trating the doctrine of special providence by a that great city interfered with by ease in her experience. An aunt of her own public engagements; the Earl of was setting out on a sea voyage, when she felt Aberdeen helps the tenants on "a warning from on high." She obeyed the' his lands to become owners of their warning and did not sail. Next day the ship own houses and farms; the Provost was wrecked and all the passengers perished. of Aberdeen subordinates everything '.. Was not that saving of my aunt's life a clear to his duties as a Christian and his case, my lord, (jf divine providence 1" "1 canwork for Christ. Lords 'Radstock not say," replied the Bishop, "for I do not know and Kinnaird and their families, your aunt." Jas. E. Mathieson, Esq. ; Hugh Mathes<n, Esq.; A. H. Moncur, ex-Pro- We would call attention to the vost of Dundee; Alexander Balfour, Shaftesbury Institute for Girls in Lonof Arbroath; Mrs. Drummin Stew- don. Two ladies, disguised as factory art, of Logie, Forres; Mrs. Mary girls, visited the low theaters, music Watson, the Countess of Cairns, halls, gin palaces and streets fre- Sir T. Fowell and Lady Buxton, quented by this class in the West Sir John and Lady Kennaway, Sir End, in order" to become acquainted Arthur Blackwood, Robert Paton with their habits and associations, and Mr. Charrington, Miss Annie and learn how best to meet their McPherson-these' are a few of the needs." hundreds of men and women in the British Isles who are giving time, Since the publication of "Only a money; influence, personal labor to Factory Girl," in June, 1887, contriall sorts of missionary enterprises, butions, unasked, have poured in home and foreign, and to city evan- from all parts of the kingdom, gelization. London is the greatest amounting to over £2.000, and an Incenter of Christian work on this stitute for West End Factory Girls .globe. God has many devoted ser- has been established. In the little vants in the United Kingdom, who book, "Rough Diamonds," will be sound no trumpet before them and found an account of the work carried whose very names we hesitate to on there. Four hundred pounds a print, so modest are they in their year is required· to meet the current work for Christ. expenses, including rent and taxes, and about £200 to start a Country THERE is a tendency nowadays to Training Home. measure missions by mercanti.le and monetary standards. The question THE Rev. Griffith John, the eminent "Do missions pay?" is a character- missionary of Hankow, declines the istic American inquiry. How much honor of this year's chairmanship of does "each convert cost" '! If this the Congregational Union of Great method of computation is to prevail, Britain. In substance he says': "I per.haps it would better be carried am doing a great work so that I canfurther, and we might ask how much not come down. Why should the some of our modern products of our work cease, whilst I leave it, and "high civilization" at home are come down to you?" Not many worth to society. years since our Senators at Washing- ton were surprised when Dr. Henry The logical basis of :Mr. Chadwick's recent H. Jessup, of Syria, declined the apargument was the monetary value of saving a pointment of United States Minister human life. Every human being in the land is to the Persian Court. Few, if any worth, he says, £150. But is this really so f foreign missionaries would exchange places with an emperor. They es- :Mr. Cha4wick mliht relllemb,r the lltory told teem it their highest privilege to preach the gospel to lost men.
EDITORIAL
IT is proposed to hold a World's ,I MEMORIAAf. Sunday-school Oonvention in London in 1889, from July 1-4. The repre- REV. ADONIRAM JUDSON •. sentation to be from America, one to every 100,000 of population, or about BORN AUG. 9, 1788. 600 delegates, and appointments to DIED APRIL 12,1850. be made only from well-known Sunday-school workers This is the day MALDEN. HIS BIRTHPLACE. of world's conventions. THE OCEAN, HIS SEPULCHRE. IT is vain to talk of lack of money to prosecute missions, while the CONVERTED BURMANS.AND thousand millions spent for strong drink annually stands in contrast THE BURMAN BIBLE with the 5,000,000 spent for foreign missions. The fact is, Indulgence HIS MONUMENT. and Mammon are the idols of our boasted nineteenth century civiliza- HIS RECORD IS ON HIGH. tion-like the Baal and Ashtoreth of the Phrenicians of old. It was stated DR. CAIRNS said,at thePan-Presbyat the London Conference that the terian Alliance in London, that one annual keeping of 100 race-horses for way to reach the masses of the peo- the races, inclusive of interest on ple is by the collection-box, which is their purchase money, equals the en- both democratic and aristocratie, tire annual inCOrlle of the London permitting all who will to takevolun- Missionary Society! tary part in the support of the gos- pel. We feel like adding, that if the THE "American Board" has a collection-box were the only way of grand and heroic history to look supporting the gospel, the aristoback upon. We rejoice in its noble cratic feature ot pew rents, oftenrecord, and not least, that the stand times extravagantly high, might not taken against the Second Probation, repel so many who belong to the or postmortem theory, has not alien- democracy. ated gifts fl'om the treasury. The more we !>ee and hear of these specu- PROF. DRUMMOND, at the World's lations about the supposed preaching Conference on Missions, while reto spirits in prison, the more we are ferring to Africa as a mission field, satisfied that the "Eternal Hope" has no foundation in Scripture, and asked the question: "Is it right to is delusive and dangerous. As Dr. Noble, of Chicago, well said : "There go on against what seems a proviare two things we may do-work for dential barrier against a European men's salvation while we know there missionary living there at all?" 'is a day of gractl, or hope for a day of grace for them in the next life and We should earnestly deprecate the so neglect them now." For myself, abandonment of destitute fields be- I have no doubt which, for us and cause they are regarded unhealthy. them, is the only safe course to pur- If the element of personal risk is to sue. be considered, why not enlarge the scope of the risk and take in not only THE centennial of the birth of health but all exposures to life and Adoniram Judson was observed at liberty? How soon, under the operathe Baptist Church in Malden, Mass" tion of such a principle, would mis- August 9, and a tablet was erected, sionaries begin to decline to go anybearing the following inscription: where unless assured of immunity from all personal danger!
Nothing is sublimer in missionary biography than the devotion of men and women who, for Christ's sake and that of perishing souls, have dared climate, cannibalism, persecution, she set in motion and regulated the poison and death. Where would have delicate mechanism of his being, nor been the 30,000 living Karens, and the other 20,000 now asleep in Jesus, had would he allow it to be displaced by Judson retired before Burmese fever and persecuting intolerance? How the costliest chronometer. Were the about Krapf in Africa, and David secrets of all hearts revealed, we Livingstone, forty times scorched in the furnace of African fever; how might find that behind many a life about Mrs. Grant in Persia, and the devoted Stoddard, Pliny Fiske, Dr., that has come with observation, that Bushnell, Coleridge Patteson and Harrington, Dober at St. Thomas- has been conspicuous for great useand the splendid heroism of the Moravians among the African and fulness in winning souls, there lay Syrian lepers? some obscure, unobserved, undemon- THERE were added, on profession of faith hearly one thousand sonls a week, on an strative influence like the secret average, during the year ending May 1 last. to the <:hurches connected with the Presby- sacred touch of this poor, uneducatterian General Assembly. North. The total numlier added on examination is given a,t ed old nurse I All we have to do is 51.062. to abide in our calling, however We hear much congratulation ex- humble, but abide with God. pressed upon this result. Yet let us remember that this great Church re- Popery "Puts Eetween. " ports aboJlt three-quarters of a million communicants. This is a gain 1. ITSELF as mediator between of about one for every fifteen com- heaven and earth. municants. In other words, it takes fifteen disciples a whole year to bring 2. Priest between sinner and God. one soul to Christ! How long, at that rate, would it take 20,000,000 3. Auricular confession between Protestant Church members to over- penitent and mercy. take the unevangelized population of the globe? At that rate we should 4. Penance between offender and have but 2,000,000 converts a year godly sorrow. for all Protestant Christendom I 5. Mass between believer and right- eousness in Christ.
6. Indulgence between him and self-denial.
7. Tradition between him and Scrip- ture.
8. Purgatory between him and heaven.
9. Celibacy between priest and home.
10. Good works between believer and justification.
11. Extreme unction between him and death.
12. Saints and Virgin Mary be- tween him and prayer-hearing God.
THE religious impulse of the whole Errata.-On page 414 of June numcharacter and career of the late Earl ber, sixth line from top, it should of Shaftesbury is directly traceable read: to Maria Millis, his pious old nurse, who before he was seven years old, On a continent, equal to two-andtaught him of Jesus, and at whose a-half Europes, they have covered ~ side he learned the prayer which he never failed to use till his dying day. territory as large as all the United Neglected by his own parents, the States except Alaska. etc. Africa evangelist of Parliament owed to has about 8,500,000 square miles. this evangelist of the nursery the Europe about 3,400,000. The Congo first lessons he learned in the school Free State reaches a territory of of Christ. The watch she left to about 3,150,000 square miles, about him, he wore on his person as a re- as large as the United States, excluminder of the sacred touch by which sive of Alaska.
In the same number we erred in giving credit for the admirable arti- cle on The Insufficiency of Buddhism to Principal D. H. MacVicar, D.D., '; instead of to his worthy son, J. H. ' MacVicar, B.A.