The Missionary Review of the World — August 1910
GEORGE WILLIAMS' MEMORIAL Y. M. C. A. BUILDING
of the World VOL. XXXIII. No.8 AUGUST, 1910 VOL. XXIII. No.8 Old Series New Series SIGNS OF THE TIMES THE EDINBURGH CONFERENCE clergymen with non-conformists has awakened much severe criticism from We must postpone until our Sep- both sides. The delegates from the tember number a full report of the Society for the Propagation of the great World Missionary Conference, Gospel were severely arraigned by which met in Edinburgh June 14th to their own party because of their par- 23d. That report will deal with the ticipation in the conference. These outstanding features of this remarka- critics do not recognize the standing ble gathering, and will give many of of non-conformist clergy or the validthe brief but powerful utterances of ity of their sacraments and would give noted missionaries, native converts, no recognition to their work. They statesmen, scholars, pastors and of- favor union with the Church of ficers of missionary societies, as they Rome rather than with Protestants. spoke on the subjects assigned to the The delegates to the conference, howeight commissions, one of which was ever, Bishop Montgomery, the Bishop discust on each day of the confer- of Southwark and Surrey, the Bishop ence. of Birmingham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Canon Robinson and This gathering of missionary ex- others, spoke in charitable, broadperts was a sign of the times in its minded and sympathetic spirit about evidence of the advance toward closer the work of other Protestants and sympathy and more united effort manifested a commendable spirit of among Christians in promoting the fellowship and a readiness to coop- Kingdom of God on earth. For the erate that surprized many of those first time in the history of such con- present. ferences the "High Church Party" of the Church of England sent delegates On the other hand, severe criticisms and joined in the discussions. Their have been exprest by members of the work in foreign missions is not as Church Missionary Society and other large and important, nor, perhaps, representatives of the evangelical paras distinctly evangelical, as that of ty of the Church of England and by many other divisions of the Church of many non-conformists because of the Christ; but their willingness to meet compromises agreed to and the ground on a common platform with "non- surrendered at the demand of the conformists" and their readiness to High Church party. These were: (I) recognize the work of other societies the exclusion of all consideration of is an encouraging step in advance. Christian work among Roman Catho- This ulllon of High Church lics, Greek Catholics, Copts, Arme- native converts express their convic- nians, Nestorians, Abyssinians and tions and hearts' desires and relate other Oriental Christians; (2) the pub- their experiences; they discust ideals, lication of the statistics of missionary methods of closer cooperation, of work carried on by Roman Catholics, nobler achievements, of more Christ- and (3) the expression in the confer- like service and considered plans for ence of views in sympathy with a more satisfactory relations with native closer union with the Church of and home governments.
Rome. On the continuation committee, One sign of the times in the con- also, which is to carryon the work of ference was in the sentiments most the conference and is to seek a realiza- approved and applauded. These were; tion of its ideals in comity and co- (I) An immediate attempt both to operation, there are two members of strengthen the present work and to the High Church party-the S. P. G. occupy the neglected fields; (2) a -tho no other society, not even the determination to train the Christian greatest of all, the C. M. S., has more Churches in non-Christian lands in than one representative on this com- self-support and self-government, and mittee. We do not sympathize with to put on them the responsibility for the sentiments exprest by the Bishop the evangelization of their fellow of Southwark and by Bishop Brent, in countrymen; (3) a loyalty to Christ as favor of closer union with the Roman the only begotten Son of God and the Church as at present constituted, or of only Savior of men; (4) a belief in a recognition of her missionary work, the Bible as the only adequate revela- but we think there is no occasion to tion of God to men and of the way of criticize the conference as a whole salvation; (5) the necessity of dis- when not more than four out of over tinctively Christian education in mis- three hundred addresses made any sion schools – including Christian mention of the papacy. We would all teachers and professors and Christian welcome such a reformation in the text-books; (6) a purpose to insist Roman Catholic doctrines and prac- that so-called Christian governments tises as would make union with shall not hinder the progress of the Protestants possible, but we see no gospel by forbidding missionary work present indication of such a reforma- in their jurisdiction by catering to tion. non-Christian leaders and customs, or The work of the Edinburgh con- by countenancing injustice, vice or ference was distinctly that of broaden- traffic in strong drink, opium or their ing horizons, deepening sympathies injurious drugs; (7) a strong desire and strengthening convictions. Men for more real union and closer co- and women of every Protestant Chris- operation in missionary work-includ- tian creed met together in friendly ing union presses, hospitals and educa- council; they each learned what the tional institutions, free interchange of others were doing, what God was ac- members and a division of territory complishing through them, where the with a view to economy of labor and field was over-supplied with workers, expense and greater efficiency in and where was the greatest need; they servIce.
heard world-renowned leaders and We look to the "Continuation Com-
SIGNS OF 1'Htt 1'IMES
mittee," of which John R. Mott is American family of nations. "We have reached a point when it is evichairman, and J. H. Oldham secretary, dent that the future holds in store a time when wars shall cease; when the to accomplish great things in more nations of the world shall realize a adequate world-wide evangelism, true federation as real and vital as that cooperation among Christian workers, now subsisting between the component arbitration in points of disagreement, parts of a single state; when, by destatesmanlike pressure brought to bear liberate international conjunction, the on governments, and a world-wide strong shall universally help the weak, union of prayer for missions. and when the corporate righteousness of the world shall compel unrighteous- A SINGULAR PARADOX ness to disappear and shall destroy the habitations of cruelty still lingering in One very striking sign of the times the dark places of the earth. This is is that we find organized militarism 'the spirit of the wide world brooding side by side with advocacy of arbitra- on things to come.' That day will be tion: A Peace Palace at the Hague, the millennium, of course." and Dreadnoughts in the navy yard! Never before have we known such LOWERING THE LEVEL OF THE costly and colossal preparations for MINISTRY armed conflict; never before such world-wide sentiment in favor of a Another deplorable tendency of the parliament of man for the settlement times is the secularization of the sacred of controversies. It seems a competi- calling, sinking the divine vocation of tion between ballots and bullets, to the gospel herald and ambassador for see which will win the day; and one Christ to the low plane of a trade or of the greatest reasons for confidence at best a learned profession. that peace measures will finally prevail is that war is getting so desperate- The big salaries so often nowadays ly expensive and destructive that no paid to the occupant of a metropolitan nation can afford it. Selfishness is pulpit, is one sign and cause of such becoming a protective factor in ar- degradation to a secular level; for, resting armed conflict and compelling when a congregation pays a preacher mankind to cultivate the beneficent so high a price, it is almost impossible art of peace. to disassociate from such large stipend the idea of a corresponding ownership THE PEACE OF THE WORLD on their part and obligation on his. There is a proneness to reckon such Secretary Knox, speaking on "The a minister as a hired servant, and Spirit and Purpose of American Di- dictate, if only indirectly and implomacy," declared that the most ac- pliedly, the terms of such service. tive sphere of such diplomacy is in Nothing sacrifices the unique charthe relations of the United States with acter and authority of the Christian the twenty other republics of the ministry more than to make prominent Western hemisphere, most of which the monetary and commercial side of are passing through an evolution simi- the relation between preacher and lar to that of the United States, and people. It is a historic fact that the the influence of the diplomacy of the virtue and valor of the sacred office United States could be traced to the development and welding of the Pan-
have been in proportion to its inde- trenchant words about "theological pendence of man, and its purity has adventurers and quacks, and foes generally been most conspicuous in within the Church, who, while oc- its poverty. It is a bad sign when cupying evangelical pulpits and chairs, God's ambassadors get rich; when the and enjoying their emoluments, preach preacher's business begins to draw, and teach what the bodies to which from worldly motives of gain. Then, they belong regard as heresy," brand- how naturally, unworthy candidates ing them as "dishonest pretenders who respond to the magnetic power of should leave the Church they dismoney and ambition! Somehow serv- honor." ice in the ministry seems inseparable from self-denial for Christ's sake. We These remarks "Dr. Parker's succesmust cultivate the divine side of our sor" regards as personal, and he apwork, and teach others how blest it is pears before the Union to ask exto "endure hardness as good soldiers plicitly if his withdrawal is desired. of Jesus Christ." AU appeals to enter No doubt this withdrawal is what most the ministry at home or the missionary of the members wish, and would have work abroad must emphasize the voted had the issue been boldly met. spiritual rather than the secular and But timidity and compromise evaded carnal, or we shall degrade the highest the issue, and partly from fear of a of callings to a lamentably low level. split, discussion was stifled by con- The multiplication of candidates is a fining all remarks to Mr. Campbell calamity if secured by the adultera- and the chairman, Rev. Sylvester tion of character. Horne, the former a master of the arts of the demagog, and the latter, THE RISK OF COMPROMISE having the acuteness and astuteness of the politician. The practical result was Another tendency of our time is that Dr. Forsyth had no strong backto purchase peace and outward union ing and Mr. Campbell has a sort of at the cost of silence and concession. tacit consent to go on his way and yet keep his standing in the Union. We have no little fear that the federation of Free Churches in Great We are not, consciously, advocates Britain is at present in peril of com- of controversy or uncharitableness. But promise for the sake of harmony. The at times a fair fight is the only right pastor of the City Temple, in London, and safe course. We know personally has rapidly run the race of liberalism the parties in this contest, and feel and, at times, come dangerously near strongly that a man who holds and to, what seems to many, verging on teaches what Mr. Campbell does, has blasphemy. Principal Forsyth, lead- no right place in a union of Evangeliingthe conservatives, has been dealing cal Congregationalists. Mr. Horne's daring blows at the new Theology, and reply, while conciliatory, was too the battle has waxed hot. These diplomatic and did not touch the real liberals, excluded from the Edinburgh heart of the matter. The battle must International Council in 1908 complain yet be fought to the finish. Dr. Forsyth of being practically shut out from the is not to be construed as a second platform and program of the Congre- Torqllemada, who would erect a new gational Union. Dr. Forsyth has used Inquisition; he feels more like an
OF THE
Athanasius, seeking to guard the and improvements, he sent back word deity of our Lord and the unity of that, on six working days he would our faith. Federation is good if it be at the King's service, at any hour, does not mean cowardly compromise day or night, but that as he kept one and silence in the presence of error. day in seven holy to the Lord, he could not work for any man tho he PEACE AND TRUTH were the king. Whereupon he got a new message from the King, saying, Daniel O'Connell used to say that "Quite right! Monday will do equally "no revolution is worth a drop of well." Even a king can respect a human blood," and so used "agitation" kingly conscience on a subject. in~tead. But far more is it a fact that no federation is worth an ounce of PLENTY OF MONEY WHERE THERE conscience or truth. Unity is too IS WILL dearly bought if verity is the coin paid for it. That is not liberty but license 1£ anyone doubts that men can give and lawlessness which is secured by more to the Lord's work if they will, it removing ancient landmarks which is only necessary to look at the amaour fathers set up in the fear of God zing extravagance and recklessness in and defense of truth, and bathed in automobile purchases. There are now blood to maintain. There is no chance in over twenty States factories whose for heroism where we have not at output this year will be nearly a least a "patch of lentils" to protect quarter of a million machines, Michiagainst invasion. gan itself leading in nearly one-half the whole number. The capital in- A GOLDEN RULE OF LIFE volved reaches from $150,000,000 to $175,000,000, and over 200,000 em- Emmanuel Kant is the author of the ployes and 5,000 agents are at work famous "Categorical Imperative": "So to promote this new industry. Men live that the principle of your own by the thousand mortgage their dwelllife may be worthy of being made a ings and sell their life insurance poliuniversal law." This has been well cies to get an auto car! Oh, for a like said to be little more than an echo enthusiasm in work for God! of the golden rule. It expresses a profound truth, that we only live as A PERIL IN OUR HIGH-SCHOOLS we ought when we would be willing to have all others do as we do. We Dr. Francis E. Clark, of the Y. P. are to be exemplars of virtue, like S. C. E., is not the man to deal harsh- Him who "left us an example"-liter- ly with the young; but he indicts the ally a "writing copy"-"that we should high-school system, and is amply upfollow His steps." held by Mr. D. R. Porter, Y. M. C. A. secretary for work among boys, whose THE SABBATIC CONSCIENCE unveiling of appalling moral condi- tions is even more startling than Dr. A good story is told of the late Clark's, who says that one cause of King Edward, that when he sum- deterioration is the high-school dance, moned a certain contractor, who was sometimes so public and promiscuous a prominent Wesleyan, to meet him on as to "have many of the objectionable his Sandringham estate on a Sunday features of the public dance-halls." afternoon to take orders for repairs
Many girls, not out of their teens, carelessness and overweening ambition have been ruined body and soul, for when the daughter has brought dis- time and eternity, by these dances. grace and confusion of face upon the The high-school secret societies are family.
another source of evil. Tho in some "I write about this because I have cases supprest, many still exist, openly upon my heart particularly the boys or secretly, and parents and pastors and girls of this high-school age, the have been writing to Dr. Clark to com- age of adolescence, the most critical, mend his new assault on these nur- and in many respects the most impor- series of infantile snobbery. tant, period of human life."
"I formerly thought that girls were more' easily reached by the ap- THE LONDON Y. M. C. A. MEMORIAL peal of religion than boys, that their Our frontispiece represents the In- consciences were more sensitive, and ternational Home for the Central Y.
their higher natures more fully devel- M. C. A. of the world, now building, oped than their brothers. I am com- and to be dedicated as a memorial to ing to doubt that, especially with girls Sir George Williams, the founder of of the high-school age. the parent association.
"On the cars and on the streets I It will be a missionary Mecca for see more vulgarity and rudeness of all nations, as well as a model home behavior, less respect for others, and for young men, and a center of more indifference to the general pub- activity in their behalf, in Bible study lic welfare among the high-school and evangelism. This original asso- girls than among the boys; and it is ciation has kept itself true to the pure often harder to find stedfast, earnest, faith of the gospel, and promotes every Christian workers among them than good work at home and abroad.
among those of the other sex. Exeter Hall, its old home, was the "Yet it is not the teachers or the greatest rallying-place in the world for pupils who are chiefly responsible for all causes closely linked to the King- this condition in many of our high- dom of God, kept clean for God's schools, but primarily the parents,who uses, and the new hall will keep up do not know enough or care enough the succession. Besides all other helps to keep their children out of these se- to body and soul, there will be bed- cret societies, and who encourage the rooms for over 200 men. late hours, the dances, and the attend- The building was begun a year ago, ant dissipation for the sake of the sup- and will require eight months more to posed social advantages. Or, if they do finish and furnish, and about £60,000 not encourage them, they yield weakly in money. And as it is to be an inter- to the importunities of their children; national memorial, we not only give and the demoralizing results are the our readers the picture of the me- same. morial and the founder of the Y. M.
"Many "I. father or mother has awa- C. A., but hope many may be moved kened with shanle and contrition, when to aid the project. It would be hard it was too late, to the results of such to invest money better.
SYRIAN MISSION, AND ITS
SECOND PERIOD: 1870.1910 Doctor Jessup's two volumes are a robbery, fanaticism and controversy; sort of encyclopedia of the mission and, third, distraction of mind and work in Syria, and show the great discouragement as to all permanent re- changes of the last forty years. At sults. As men do not build anything the reunion of the dissevered branches solid and lasting on the crater of a of the American Presbyterian Church, volcano, Syrian missionaries often in 1870, the new school branch which questioned whether schools and col- had remained allied with the Congre- gationalists in the A. B. C. F. M., united with the Presbyterian Board, which before represented the old school, and Syria became, by amicable arrangement, the special field hence- forth of the now reunited Presbyterian 01Urch, the mission itself, by its own action, becoming identified with the Presbyterian system. This period of transfer also coincides with the period of organized activity on the part of the Presbyterian Sisterhood, to whose sympathetic aid and prayers a large share of the progress of the work is due. They have done nobly in help- ing to provide and support helpers, buildings and scholarships.
Syria has always had a considerable Moslem population, and all perturba- tions in the Mohammedan world have, like earthquake convulsions, produced REV. SI MEON H. CALHOUN more or less marked tremors and quakings in this land, so closely identified leges, hospitals and churches, could with the dominions of the Sultan. The find on such treacherous soil any firm Russo-Turkish war, in 1877, the revolt foundations. Conflict with the Mos- of Arabi Pasha, in Egypt, five years lem power was constant; the censorlater, and the Mahdi's uprising, with ship of the press, so strict as to be the troubles in the Sudan, etc., have not only tyrannical but comically ab- so seriously impeded the mission work surd; the jealousy of a fanatical sect in the Syrian field as at times to that had power to suppress all threaten its continuance. Three evils Christian testimony, was a constant were the harvest of such seed-sowing : menace; and oftentimes nothing but fi rst, general disturbance, with con- the presence of consuls and gunboats stant peril of outbreak; second, an in- "saved the situation."
vasion ()f refugees and ruffians from As to press censorship, Dr. Jessup revolted districts, bringing into Syria cites some cases almost beyond lawlessness and violence, beggary and credence. Every foreign book com-
ing into the Turkish Empire through Arabic book, tract, or paper must be the custom-house is held by the censor sent to Constantinople for examinafor examination; and, if it has in it tion before publication; it may be held anything about Mohammed or the for six months or a year, and, if re- Sultan, Turkey or Syria, Arabia or turned at all, so mutilated as to be Mecca, is confiscated, or at least practically' useless; and, before being mutilated. Encyclopedias can only offerd for sale, the printed copy must find admission by cutting out articles be forwarded for another censorship. on such subjects before shipment! A daily paper is liable to have whole Even guide-books are often seized be- columns struck out at the last moment, cause of their contents, as construed for which other matter must be subby inspectors. A map of Europe stituted. which had on the east end a strip of Asia labeled "Armenia," was confis- For further details, again the reader cated, and one of "Palestine under the must be referred to the two volumes Kingdoms of Judah and Israel," and where, with painstaking, the lesser showing the divisions made by Joshua features of the work are delineated among the twelve tribes, was de- and the life colors added. But the stroyed because "the Sultan, Abdul grand lessons we must not lose, that, Hamid, can not acknowledge any in this mission field the foes are many kingdoms of Judah and Israel in his and desperate, and the difficulties, empire, and has authorized no such humanly speaking, insurmountable; divisions." The defense was that the yet, notwithstanding, it would be hard period referred to was many centuries to find any place where progress has previous, but the rejoinder was that been more obvious and marked, and "this map was not made then ! Judah the harvest more ample and satisfacand Israel did not know how to make tory. In this history, every decade of maps!" An Arabic geography was years is like a century in development, supprest because Arabia was referred and single eventful transactions someto as an "independent province"; and times mark eras or epochs. The from a book a quotation was ex- Syrian mission is identified with alpunged from Titus I: 5, about "set- most everything good and great-exting in order in Crete things which ploration, evangelization, education, were wanting," because it implied that translation, publication, medical work, in the Sultan's domain something was church development. In face of al- "wanting" and needed to be "set in most every form of hindrance-intolorder I" And, in another book, the erance, persecution, censorship, restory of Gideon and his three hundred pression, banishment and martyrdom, was supprest, probably lest it might massacres and wars, famine and pesembolden some other three hundred to tilence; yet it has moved on. The deeds of daring! Such censorship Dr. American press, founded at Malta in Jessup calls "idiotic," but it shows a 1822, and removed to Beirut in 1834, unique barrier against which, for all has become a sort of lighthouse of the these years, Syrian missionaries have whole Arabic-speaking world. The had to contend. missionary pioneers of ninety years ago, Fisk, Parsons and Jonas King, Two manuscript copies of every have been followed by Goodell, Bird,
THE SYRIAN MISSION, AND ITS
Eli Smith, W. M. Thomson, H. G. O. stones in this path of progress. We Dwight, Hebard, Van Dyck, De For- know of no other missionary field pre- est, Dale, Bliss, Eddy, the Jessups, senting quite the same sort of varied Calhoun, Mrs. Bowen, Mrs. Watson, charm in its annals. The reader of Miss Taylor, and many more-a most these memorial volumes finds himself illustrious band of men and women, in a continuous garden-walk-not "of whom the world was not worthy," without its passion-flowers, crimson and everyone deserving a record borders, and weeping-willows; but full among the heroes of faith, and a of the forget-me-nots of memorable column in the Temple of Fame. incident, the morning-glories of prom- This whole ninety years is a fas- ise, the fruitful vines and olives, with cinating romance, with tragic chapters, the palms of victory lining the whole but all belonging to the heroic. The way.
martyrdom of the first Maronite con- Beside all the historical matter of vert, the first girls' school ever opened Dr. Jessup's book, there is a character- in the Turkish Empire, the boys' semi- istic autobiographic portrait of the nary, the Greek war, the plague; author, half unconsciously drawn, es- Protestant Christianity a religio pecially revealing his keen perception illicita, in 1835; the massacres of of humor and strong common sense; 1840; the recognition of Protestantism and, withal, deep devotion to the as a religio permissa, in 1844; civil Word of God and the work of Christ war in Lebanon, 1845; the first evan- -four features which go far to out- gelical church in Beirut, 1848; new line the whole man. At bottom, he Arabic translation of Bible begun, had a deep, genuine love for the Old 1849; first steam press, 1853; Crimean Bible and its divine gospel, and an war, 1853-55; Ratti Ramaiyoum, unquenchable passion for his mission- decreeing that no Moslem convert ary work that no offer of home pul- shall be put to death, 1857; Arabic pits, missionary secretaryships or for- New Testament completed, 1860; eign consulates could quench or cool.
civil war and massacres the same year, His letter of declinature, when, in and 20,000 refugees fed and clothed 1870, he was urged to take the secre- and $150,000 spent in relief. Then, in taryship of the Board, was itself one 1862, first steps toward a Syrian col- of the noblest missionary documents lege; formally opened in 1865; new we have ever seen*-not only a re- Arabic Bible completed the same year; fusal on grounds of duty, but of in- theological seminary opened in Abeit, clination; not only conscience and 1868, and transferred to Beirut, 1873; reason protesting, but affection and seal of Sultan's authorization placed preference. The position offered in on thirty-three editions of Arabic New York was one which, to ambi- Scriptures, and local Board of Damas- tion or avarice, would have been cus' approval of 330 Arabic publica- tempting. But all the temporal ad- tions, in 1887; railway opened from vantages were accounted as nothing; Beirut to Damascus, ISg5; Arabic the thought of going away from his Scriptures authorized in all Greek beloved Syria filled his eyes with tears, schools, 1896; four hospitals in opera- tion, in 1900-these are a few mile- * "Foreign Missionary," Vol. xxix, pp. 114-118.
and his heart with anguish. He de- ing the rest. When the question arose clined this "loud call" because he had in the new church at Beirut, whether not the self-denial to leave his Syrian the old curtain, used to separate the work; brethren in New York askell men and women, should be hung, he a sacrifice to which he was not equal in refused to settle the matter, and left urging him to exchange the poverty it to the native Christian brethren and exposure, exile, trial and anxiety themselves. The cnrtain was there for of his missionary life, for the comfort some years afterward, until the and security, luxury and dignity, of a Syrians themselves became enlighten- high and well-salaried office in his ed enough to abolish it. How wise to own land ! Yet some people compas- see that such a cnstom could not really sionate a missionary and whine about be abandoned until the people were his trials and self-denials as if they ready for such a step! Vhen a few constituted carrying a cross too heavy brethren in the missions declined to to be borne! fraternize with others because psalm- The reader will find the author's singing was not their exclusive form common sense everywhere exhibited of praise, Dr. Jessup calmly observed in these volumes-his freedom from that, while he could explain to the morbid notions, extreme views, sancti- people the difference between Presby- mony and pietism, excesses of all sorts. terianism and prelacy, he had not been He punctures scores of fanciful and able to make an Arab see why mis- fanatical bubbles and reveals the hol- sionaries, laboring to lead pagans and lowness and shallowness of hundreds ::Ioslems to Christ, could not com- of religions shams and shows; while mune with others in the same work, he gives sound advice as to both who sang "Jesus, Lover of My Soul!"
physical and spiritual health, and ex- etc. He pronounces "the money ques- hibits practical wisdom in many mat- tion the bane of all missions," and "the ters where so many others lack dis- paying of native teachers and preach- cernment. N at a few saintly souls ers out of foreign funds an unmixed have brought religion itself into dis- evil," being misunderstood by the na- repute by their follies and vagaries tive population, and putting those thus and utter disregard of the laws of paid in the attitude of hirelings and common prudence and tact. tending to demoralize them by For instance, Dr. J essnp warns "weakening their sincerity," etc.
new-comers to beware of exposure to Again, he refers to a fanatic who the Syrian sun, to carry an umbrella taught perfectionism – maintaining or wear a helmet hat, or both; and that no child of God can sin, and, cites instances where in so-called de- therefore, "it is the old man inside pendence on God three fanatics who that sins, getting rampant, lying' and refused advice died shortly of sun- stealing, so that the believer is not stroke and brain-fever. When he responsible," etc.-Dr. Jessup disposes preached in Arabic, he avoided the of this nonsense by a story of a Ger- stilted classical style and used the man judge who, when a criminal at- colloquial, watching the women and tempted to defend himself on this children to see if they paid attention, plea, "The old man did it; I didn't."
and, if so, judging that he was reach- "Very well, then," said the judge, we
THE SYRIAN MISSION, AND ITS PIONEERS 57
will send that old man to jail for six acceptable with God? An d again he 1110nths !" When the A nglican bi shop says, there is "nothing to be converted in Jerusalem tried to erect exclusive to; you can't love, or pray to, a mere barriers between his constituency and negation." He counseled missionaries all non-Episcopal believers in Pales- to keep entirely aloof frol11 political tine and Syria, he points out the questions. and make it their object to amazing inconsistency of his leveling, on the other hand, all barriers between KASrM BEG AMIN~ JUDGE 01:0' CO U RT OF APPEALS~ CAIRO himself and the "Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher," who carry on a sys- Author of "The Emancipation of W oman," and tematic Satanic farce of the so-called "The New W oman" "Holy ·Fire" to deceive pilg rims; and he exposes the utter absurdity of thu s let in light, educate the young, care den ying fellowship to Christian be- for the sick and suffering , and publievers while he extends it to shame- lish good books, and let the governless imposters, making fraternization ment alone. Referring to a certain turn upon ecclesiastical forms r ather sincere but misguided party, he writes than moral and spiritual integrity. He these golden words : refers to another fanatic who came to the Holy City to preach the new doc- "It is a pity that deep piety and pertrin e of no more death. "But, what sonal loveliness should sometimes be if you should di e ?, "Oh, that would linked to an utter want of common bust the whole thing," was the reply, sense! Faith sometimes becomes and it did. A new doctrine that will spasmodic with high nervous exaltanot bear a practical test is not worth tion.· It then becomes unreasoning, while to preach, or even to fig ht harmful as serpents, foolish as doves. against. He tells of another extremist Believing itself inspired, it will take who came to Palestine to proclaim exact obedience to God and dependence on Him by faith, and abandon ed his own wife in so doing, who gave up active efforts to evangelize, to "sit down" with the Spaffordites and wait for the Lord's coming! With one sentence Dr. JeSSl1p dismisses Babism.
He pricks thi s Persian bubble by showing it a mere revamp of old pantheistic theories, and adds that Abbas Effendi's latitudinarian views that all men, pagans, idolaters and all , are accepted of God, would seem to "make any attempt to propagate Babism a work of supererogation ." For what is the I1 se of zeal in proclaiming a religion if all men, irrespective of doctrine or deportment, are equally
no advice, and sacrifice all the capacity physically; about the hottest, pesfor usefulness, attained by long years tilential and uninhabitable by white of preparation, study and spiritual men; the entire population not over equipment, for the sake of making one 300, and unable to support one medgrand leap into certain destruction ical man; and probably unable altowith no possible thought of any cor- gether to raise five dollars in cash.
&1;001 for (/il'/$ /.ibn". Tf;e%!lic<1/ Sc'loo/ AMERICAN M ISSION, BEIRUT" SYRIA responding or compensating good." He advised his correspondent, if he or He recalls Dr. S. H. Cox's reply to a any of his medical friends were about ranting Mormon apostle, who said, to establish in Jericho a "white cross" "God does not need your learning"- mission, to "order coffins beforehand, "neither does God need your igno- as wood is not obtainable there." He rance." To a young student of med- never received any answer to his leticine who proposed to come out to ter and the medical student did not Jericho to join a proposed organiza- "go to Jericho!" At a university tion for medical work there, he writes, alumni dinner, in America, what was that of all places Jericho was the last his surprize to see the president, bechoice for headquarters to a paying fore a vast multitude of guests, light medical mission, being the lowest vil- a cigar and set the example of puffing lage on earth, morally as well as out smoke; and he turned to his com-
SYRIAN MISSION AND ITS PIONEERS
panion and remarked, "Has the pres- encomiums, even from pashas and ident of this university, who preaches Moslems, that, in sheer self-defense, and teaches continence and self-con- they have had to start schools of their trol to 2,500 university boys, himself own, and, in default of teachers, go no control over the appetite for cigar- to the mission-schools for them! smoke! Dr. Schaff," he added, "said to me that the Heidelberg fifth Dr. Jessup, with all his scholarship, centenary celebration was the greatest stuck to the last to the old gospel. He beer-drinking bout in human history. had no use for the "new thought," or Is this great university commence- a dead orthodoxy which he felt to be ment to shrink into a smoking bout?" only a splendid seal set upon a sepulcher; the Bible and the Chris- It is a tribute both to the capacity and tian faith must be the basis of all consecration of these Syrian pioneers preaching and teaching. He held up that, despite all the foes and fears they such men as Dana and Dawson and have had to face, their progress along Guyot as illustrations of teaching the all lines of work has been so constant profoundest and purest science in the and conspicuous. The statistics, car- reverent spirit of the devout believer. ried down to 1908, show the following ~Tedicine and science, he says, may be summaries: taught in a Christian spirit, and with thorough instruction in the Bible; American missionaries, men and women 41 Christian physicians and scholars will Native Syrian workers……………. 226 thus be trained who wiIl be pillars to Stations and out·stations. . . . … . . . . . . . . III the Church in their native land. Churches ………………………. 34 Church buildings ………………… vVe have done scant justice either Regular preaching-places ………….. 57 to the history of the Syrian mission, Church-members …. _.. '.,""" __ , , 6,025 or to this "l'nagnum opus" of its lead- Sabbath scholars ., … ,"" …… ,…. 2,744 ing missionary. But those who would Total membership from the beginning. 5,831 read a couple of volumes, rich in in- Syrian Protestant community. . . … . . . . 4,792 formation and instruction, find a gal- Native contributions, 1908…………. 7,553 lery of portraits of the illus- $49,536 trious dead and living, and a mine of wealth in suggestion and in- As to educational work: spiration, will not lose time in getting access to Dr. Jessup's "Fifty Years in As to educational work: Syria." May the God of missions speedily send another gifted worker to Total number of schools, 1908 ….. ".. 116 take up the standard which has fallen Total of pupils………………….. 5,688 from his dyjng hand and which he never allowed to trail in the dust! Total in schools of Beirut, 1909 ….. , . . 13,256 Of these, Moslem………………… 4,462 As to presswork: Total pages, 1908 ………… , …….. 44,589,571 Of which Scriptures .. , ……. , ….. ,. 30,507,000 Total from first …….. , …… , ….. 923,345,755 Scriptures distributed in Syria, 1908… 9,941 Total Syria, Egypt, etc., 1908………. 92,311 Copies of publications during year. . . . . 183,602 The school work has won such
INDIAN OF PARAGUAY, FROM SAVAGE TO
BY JOHN HAY Of the Inland South-Amerka Missionary Union, Interdenominational It was in the year 1892 that I first just have to be content with that posifound myself in South America, going tion. Ve are proud of our nationaliout under the auspices of th~ South ties of earth, and I was eager to let America Missionary Society, the the people know that I was not an Church of England mission in South Englishman, but a Scotchman. America, and at that time the only missionary society sending mission- The passengers on board the aries to the savage Indians of that steamer not only noticed that we were continent. strangers, but they wanted to know where we were going. We had diffi- A companion missionary and myself culty in understanding their questions were sailing on the River Parana from because they spoke in Spanish, and Buenos Ayres to Concepcion, in our Spanish just then was limited, but Paraguay. We had a journey in we managed after a fashion. We told front of us of 1,300 miles up-stream. them we were going to Paraguay. This gives incidentally an idea of the magnificent character of the waterway "Oh," they said, "you have plenty leading into the interior of South of room there." _"Yes," we repiiecl, America from the Atlantic seaboard. "we know that." We had been read- It is possible for large passenger ing something of the history of Parasteamers to steam up river much fur- guay, and had learned that about ther than Concepcion in Paraguay. thirty-two years before the date on There is a line of steamers sailing reg- which we found ourselves going up ularly from Rio Janeiro on the At- the river, there had been a terrible war lantic to the River Plata, and then up in Paraguay. It had lasted five years, into the interior to CUfomba, in the and at the end of it practically the heart of Brazil, in the state of Matto- whole male population of the republic grasso, a distance of nearly 2,080 miles had been swept from the face of the from the sea. Tho there is such a earth. Nearly a million and a quarter magnificent means of access into the men were slain. country, the Indian tribes of the interior are still for the most part un- liVe said, "Ve are not going to that touched by missionary effort. part of the country-the civilized part-but to the Indians of the Chaco." The passengers on board the The passengers were not prepared to steamer on which we were sailing believe that at first, but when they noted us as strangers, and located us found we really meant it they began as "Ingleses," i.e., Englishmen.. I was to think there must be something not an Englishman, and I am not one seriously wrong with our mental aryet. I was a Scotchman, and I was rangements. We had ample time to eager to let the passengers know it, get their opinions as we continued to but they did not know the difference sail up the river. between an Englishman and a Scotchman. I soon learned that when a We learned that the Paraguayan Scotchman leaves his native country Government had repeatedly attempted he becomes an Englishman, and so we to subdue these Indians. Soldiers had gone armed with swords, guns, bayo- nets, and brass cannon. Every effort th;1t military science could make was that part of the world. He was not, made, but the result each time was as some people conceive a missionary disaster and defeat. I had at that to be, a man with a tall hat and frocktime the proof-sheets of an article that coat, and a Bible under his arm, was then in the press for publication. preaching to a number of natives un- It had been written by one of two gen- der a palm-tree. He was drest in a tlemen who had been on a scientific thin pair of cotton trousers; he had expedition to explore the River Plico- a belt around his waist, and a sheathmayo to find a navigable channel from knife stuck in the back of his belt; Bolivia to the River Paraguay. The he had no waistcoat or coat, his shirt Bolivian Government had offered a sleeves were rolled up above his ellarge sum of money to any explorer bows, and the neck of his shirt was who could do this. The bait was a open. He had on a soft felt hat and tempting one; a special expedition he did not look particularly clean. He was formed; a steamer was built for had just come down from among the the purpose of the expedition. Scien- Indians, and had not had time to go tists and men trained to travel and ex- ashore to wash himself. He looked plore were on the expedition. All very much more like a cowboy than a kinds of scientific instruments, ammu- missionary, but he was the missionary nition, and stores were taken. Every- all right. He had come to buy stores, thing, in short, that experience could and to meet us, and he expected we suggest as necessary to insure safety would help him up river with the and success, was provided, and the ex- canoe. So the first bit of missionary pedition was led by Captain Page. work I ever did was to get into that They went up the river, but they did canoe, and help to paddle it up stream. not come down again. They were I had been brought up in Glasgow attacked by the Indians, and wiped myself, on the River Clyde, accusout, even as the Paraguayan soldiers tomed to rowing. I thought I could had been. Only two of the party es- row pretty well, and as a matter of caped with their lives, and they had to fact, I could, but I found that padflee on mule-back across the Chaco dling on the River Paraguay against with the Indians after them. As I the swiftly flowing current making its read the account, and heard the stories, way to the sea at the rate of four or it did not help to enhance the outlook five miles an hour was a very differfor us going up among the same ent exercise. I had not gone very far Indians. But we knew that two mis- until I had a pain in my side, and sionaries had gone ahead of us, and another pain in my arm, and I would had been there one year. They had very gladly have laid the paddle down not been Killed, and we expected to take a rest, but that was not perneither should we. missible. I just had to keep at it, and paddle the pain out. I got what our Finally we reached Concepcion, athletes call the second wind, and on 1,300 miles inland. One of the mis- we went. Finally, after something sionaries had come down river in a like fourteen hours' paddling, we little canoe to meet us, and, as we reached the place where the missionlooked at him, we began to understand house had been built on the bank of what missionary work would mean in
the river, and there I saw the Indians ended. It was one mysterious, uninfor the first time. telligible jumble of sound, from be- ginning to end. Their language had There they were, in a palm-log hut, never been reduced to writing, and sitting around a palm-log fire . Their there was no grammar, vocabulary or bows and arrows, and clubs and spears, dictionary to help their words to were strewn on the ground all about memory. One had just to try and unthem. Their blankets were half off derstand what was said. The situaand half on, and the firelight was tion seemed absolutely hopeless when flickering on their dusky copper- one considers the suspicious character colored skins. They had their feather WILD NAT[VES LIVING IN THE OPEN head-dresses on, and their faces were of the Indians to outsiders, and the painted in curious patterns. They fact that we had no proper means of had no eyebrows, no eyelashes, and no communication with them to make our beards and whiskers; not because purpose known. In spite of these these don't grow, but because they things, however, we proved what the don't let them stay. Neither do they Apostle Paul wrote, that "the gospel clip or shave them off, but they pull of Christ is the power of God unto the hair out with the finger and salvation to everyone that believeth: thumb. to the Jew first, and also the Greek." And we had won the confidence of the But if they were terrible to look at, Indians from the beginning just by it was even more terrible to hear them the lived-out spirit of the gospel. speak. We could tell neither where their words began nor where they We just took them as we found
THE INDIAN OF PARAGUAY, FROM SAVAGE TO CITIZEN
them, a people living by hunting and better exchange for their skins and fishing. Their country, not being feathers, they were perfectly delighted, suited for agriculture, their only way and looked upon us as superior kind of providing food was by hunting and of traders. They had, of course, no fishing. They had, accordingly, large idea of a missionary, or what a misquantities of skins and feathers to sell, sionary meant; and we were not able which they could only sell where there to speak to them intelligibly enough was a market for them, and that was to explain our purpose as missionin the nearest town, Concepcion, thirty aries. We were, nevertheless, doing miles down stream. We found also real missionary work. We were winthat there was a demoralized portion ning the confidence of the Indians, and of the Indians living on the banks of using the means at our hand by which the river, drunken, good-for-nothing, we could reach and help them, and I who acted as traders for the wilder never so thoroughly understood the Indians living further in, and who meaning of that scripture, "living took the skins and feathers to Concep- epistles, known and read of all men," cion. These Indians, however, were, as I understood it when we had to live as a rule, ill-used and cheated when the gospel among these people before they went there to trade. They were we ~ould preach it to them. made drunk with a kind of native rum called cana, and when the Indian was But, you may ask, how did you gain too stupid to know what he was doing, their confidence so quickly and so everything he possest was often taken thoroughly as to be trusted to take from him without any proper return their skins and feathers, when they being made, and sometimes those who were previously so suspicious of outprotested against this kind of treat- siders? Well, that simply was by the ment were shot. Finding such a con- lived-out spirit of the gospel along dition of things existing, and having another line. We were strangers to gone there as missionaries to the the country and its ways. All being Indians, and feeling it our duty to city-bred men, we knew nothing about protect them from this abuse, we per- digging and delving, planting, and suaded the Indians to give their skins hoeing, and our food supplies were and feathers to us, promising to get limited to such as came from Conthem exchanged for them, and to cepcion. In order to have some vabring them back what they required, riety, we cut down some forest-trees thus becoming intermediaries between along the bank of the River Paraguay, the Indians in the Chaco and the and we planted some sweet-potatoes. traders in the town. It became quite We had no idea when the potatoes a common thing to see the mission- should be ready for digging, but the aries going down the river with their Indians had a very good idea, and it canoes loaded with skins and feathers, was not long before they began to and returning with cargoes of fish- come and ask us if we did not want to hooks, beads, looking-glasses, boxes buy some sweet-potatoes. We were of paint, and other articles which are quite ready and bought them, until we dear to the heart of the Indian. began to wonder when our own would be ready. Investigating, we found When they saw we secured so much they were ready; that the Indians were
digging up our own potatoes and sell- but they hac! images; we had no ing them to us. That was good busi- images but we had a book, and we ness from the Indian point of view, treated the Indians differently from but not from ours, so we took care to the way in which the Christians treatdig out our potatoes afterward our- ed them, therefore, whatever we were, selves. we could not be Christians.
We made no fuss about it to the Ve won their confidence so rapidly Indians. Had the Indians treated the in this way, that before I was six Paraguayans as they had treated us, months there it was possible for me the Paraguayans would have shot to have my wife join me, the first white them. When we did not do so they woman the Indians had ever seen. were greatly astonished. They could She did not stop at the bank of the not understand it. They knew it river where we commenced, but went could not be because we were afraid right into the interior. I will never of them, because we had lived among forget our first journey inland. We them perfectly unarmed where the went in a bullock-cart without springs, Paraguayans dared not live witLout the Indians helping us cut down palmposting sentries. trees to make a better road. When a swamp or river had to be crossed and Thus they were just taking onr was too deep for the cart, rafts had measure to see what they would do to be made, and the goods floated with us, thinking it would be a profit- across, and my wife as well. Finally able thing to have us among them, we arrived at our station, and there we were such simple-minded people, my wife saw our first house. and that they might even trust us with their skins and feathers if we were The Indians were eager to see what willing to get a better exchange for my wife would be like, and she came them. So we got into the hearts of the in for a very minute examination. Indians, won their confidence, and They crowded into the little house made it safe for us to live among them after us, and wanted to sit down bewhen guns, swords, bayonets and side us. I got them finally to go out, mere world power had failed to secure but they would not go away. They any other result than disaster and watched us through the palms, and it defeat. was a long time before we could teach them that they must not watch us like And, because we treated them as this. They did not mean to be rude, Christians should treat them, they told but they had no idea that anyone us we were not Christians. Think of would want a house in which to shut the irony of it! They gave us another himself up and not be seen. Their name. They called us "Kilanikihaki- idea of a house was simply to take lyitsitchwaitkyahik," which means, a few branches of a tree and stick "the men of the book," or, "the men them into the ground with the leaves who go by the measure of the book." hanging over. They would throw Vife were proud of the name. They some grass on the top of the leaves, saw we had a book, and that we and spread a deerskin on the ground seemed to reverence that book as the underneath, squat 011 the skin, and say so-caller! Christians reverenced their they had a house. All the people of images. The Christians had no book,
J9IO] THE INDIAN OF PARAGUAY, FROM SAVAGE TO CITIZEN
the village lived together under such quired power when they came to these shelters without distinction between words and found they could make the the families, and everything that a paper speak. A new power had been man or woman did from the moment bequeathed to them of which they of birth until the moment of death was had had no idea before. done in the open. In crowding around us they simply wanted to show their The influence of the gospel on some friendliness, and treat us as they of them wassllch that it constrained would treat one another. We have them so to apply themselves to their here a picture of the absolute confi- studies that one fellow learned to read dence established between them and in only eight months from the time us in only six months from the time that I arrived myself. A CHACO INDIAN. DREST TO MAKE A VISIT We went on from that point and he started with the vowel sounds. At continued to reduce the language to the end of eight months he was able writing, translating the Scriptures to go to the desk in the church and into it as we were able, and gathering read a chapter of St. Mark's Gospel, the children together into school, and and give an address to his people. it was not long before we began to But he had studied. I have seen him have converts among the young peo- at our sitting-room table, his face restple. Later, the young men were gath- ing in the palms of his hands, and his ered into school also. Some of these book on the table in front of him, were convertecl ancl became stanch just with the concentration of his ef- Christians. forts, the perspiration in beads upon his face, his bare copper-colored anTIS We reducecl the language to writing on the English orthography and on the phonetic principle. We commenced with the vowels a, e, i, 0, u. We prefixed consonants to these vowels so as to form syllables, and each consonant, of course, placed in front of a different vowel, formed a different series of syllables. vVe taught them this in the first lesson, until they were thoroughly masters of the syllables and then words were formed by the combination of the syllables.
In the second lesson we had simple words of two syllables just to encourage them to make them so that they could read them at first sight, having already mastered them as syllables and vowels in the first lesson, and I have known some of the Indians literally to dance with the sense of ac-
and chest, until he had to scrape it fellow who learned to read in eight off with his knife and shake it out on months. He also wanted to help. I the earthen floor. All this just by the gave him a wire-staple press and he constraining power of the gospel. put in the wire stitches in the backs of the books; and there we were, the Our chief text-book was the Scrip- two Indians and the missionary workture, as we were able to translate it, ing together hand in hand and heart in with additions from simple readers heart, impelled and inspired by one such as would be used in the public spirit, even the Spirit of God. Yes, schools at home. God had made missionaries of these men just as much as He had made a In addition to this, one of the con- missionary of me. Well might the verted witch-doctors, for we had con- Apostle Paul say, "The Gospel of verts among them, also began to learn Christ is the power of God." to read, and set the fashion for the adults. One day he came to the print- But that was not all. It made pering-office where I was setting up the fect gentlemen of them. These Intype to print 5t. Mark's Gospel. He dians are inveterate smokers. Towas eager to hasten the production of bacco grows there wild and they pre- God's Word in printed form among pare it in a way peculiar to themselves. his people, and wanted to help. He It smells abominably and every time watched me setting up the type, and the Indians came to my wife for their after I had locked the type in the lesson in the adult reading classes they chase, and had put it in the printing- made her sick. She did not complain. press and was printing the sheets, I She just endured it, she was so eager looked around and found Manuel to teach them, but they saw what it standing in front of the font of type. was doing and they felt it was too bad He had the stick in his left hand, and to cause her that suffering, so they dewas arranging the type in a line just cided among themselves to take their as he had seen me doing, only with smoke early in the morning in order this difference-he was not selecting that the smell should pass away bethe letters. I had to explain that fore they came to get their lesson. would not do, and he was greatly dis- That was gentlemanly, and indicated appointed. He then came and watched a tremendous transformation. me printing the sheets, and he said, "I think I can do that, Blackbeard." That On another occasion my wife was was the name the Indians gave me washing clothes. She was the medical because I would not pull the hair out missionary of the station, but yet as of my face as they did. I replied that the mother of her own family she had I believed he could if he tried. I to keep the house clean, and cook the showed him how to put the paper in dinner, and make the baby's clothes, up to the guides, and how to pull the and mend them when they needed lever to get the proper impression. mending, and wash them when they Then I handed the machine to him needed washing, and all this in addiand he went on from that without any tion to her official work of mothers' further teaching and printed all that meetings, prayer-meetings, Bible remained to be printed of St. Mark's classes, weaving and spinning classes, Gospel. After him came the young etc., as missionary. On this occasion
THE INDIAN OF PARAGUAY, FROM SAVAGE TO CITIZEN
she was washing the clothes, and she plished among that people, for I have was tired. One can be tired there just not yet told you what they were like doing nothing in the great heat, but among themselves. When we went on this day she was wearied with over- among them we found infanticide was work. An Indian was standing be- common, that they were killing on an side her and saw it. He did not say average four children out of every six a word, but just took her gently by as soon as they were born. A comthe shoulder and pushed her to one pany of Indians had camped in front CIVILIZED NATIVES FILL[NG HOUSE-FRAME WITH MUD side, and he started in and washed the of our door, a little one had been born clothes himself. We read of the stone into their midst. They promised to that rebounded sometimes, and here spare its life and give it to us, but they we are experiencing an example of it. did not keep their word. They killed The lived-out spirit of the gospel, and it and buried it. I got a spade and the kindnesses we showed the Indians began to dig to see if it was true when in the first days came back to our- I found where they had buried it. selves. We usually get as good as we At first I could find nothing, but as give if we wait long enough. "What- I began to grope with my fingers soever a man soweth that shall also he among the soil I had dug up, I found reap." little bits of things that looked like pieces of egg-shell. They were little And yet I have not given an ade- bits of the skull-bone of the infant, quate idea of what the gospel accom-
and nothing more of the body was to skin upon which she had been lying, be found, simply because they had tied it with cords into a little bundle, buried it so near the surface that their carried it to the bank of the River hungry, half-starved dogs had scraped Paraguay, and there dug a hole in the it out and eaten it. When I took these sand. The hole was too small to put little bits of bone and showed them to the body into, but they simply laid it my wife we simply wept together. It on the top and trampled it in with was all we could do. The awful over- their feet. whelming sense of impotence was more than I shall ever be able to de- Such was the character of the peoscribe to anyone, and we felt that ple, and such their condition to whom nothi'ng but the power of God coultl we carried the gospel, and which we cope with such a situation. fonnd effectual after every earthly power had failed. Now there is a But there were worse things even civilized community there, with than that. If a mother died leaving churches and schools, and evangelists behind her a suckling child their cus- able to go out with the printed Word tom was to bury the baby alive along of God in their hands, who can read with the dead mother, and when my it and explain it in places to which the wife was nursing our own first child, missionaries would find it difficult to born there among the Indians, she go. They now know the meaning of nursed a little Indian baby who had decent houses, and if one could see inbeen rescued by one of the mission- side their houses he would see equal aries just as it was about to be buried transformation. One would see beds alive. and bedsteads. chairs and tables, knives and forks, plates and spoons, It was also their custom to kill the and kerosene-lamps. So that, putting old people, or to leave them behind the matter on the very lowest level, to starve, if they were too old or feeble it pays to do missionary work. to take their share in the hunting, and provide their portion of the food sup- Business men owe something to the ply, and it was not long until we had missionaries, and the men who make quite a company of pensioners at the these knives and forks, and plates and mission station rescued after they had spoons have more customers than they been deserted by their people. would have had but for missionaries. The Paraguayan Government owes In addition to that, if anyone be- something to the missionaries, and the came sick among them they believed president, recognizing what had been that the sickness was caused by an evil done, and the bloodless victory that spirit taking concrete form in the vic- had been gained, sent us the national tim, and I have known a poor creature flag to hoist on the top of the churchto starve herself to death in front of steeple and teach the natives to respect our door, refusing to take a morsel of the president. food in her effort to starve out the loathsome thing that she thought pos- Science owes something to the missest her. When she was dead her peo- sionaries, and the gentleman who was ple came and doubled the body up one of the two that escaped the disaswith the legs against the body in a ter that befell the expedition to the sitting position, wrapt it in the little River Pilcomayo, returned to the
THE INDIAN OF PARAGUAY, FROM SAVAGE TO CITIZEN
Chaco after we had commenced our down on paper its tone, its intensity, work there, to study the habits of the its appeal; wrung out of the man by lung-fish which is founel in the the force of circumstances arrayed swamps. When he came out the sec- against him; and tell you what his ond time he needed no soldiers to pro- thoughts are in his loneliness. tect him. Simply an Indian boy as a guide to see that he did not lose him- Bear in mind that the 1. S. A. lVL U. self in the forest. That gentleman is station at Santa Teresa is purposely now in Glasgow, the professor of designed to reach the inland forest zoolog-y in Glasgow University. His tribes in that part of South America, name is Professor Graham Kerr. that it is recently built and occupied, that all contact with the outside world Ve haye thus briefly traced the is broken for weeks or it may be steps from savage to citizen because l1..1onths on end, that to it there is no in that civilized community all natives regular road and that all supplies have that are baptized Christians have been to be carried across swamps and given the status of citizenship by the rivers from the nearest town, a long Paraguayan Government. Manuel, journey of great difficulty occupying the converted witch-doctor, has been several days, then think you are on appointed president i de ta junta, Indian territory. which is equal to mayor in this coun- try. The Paraguayan Yerbatero in search of Yerba, has governmental Vhat has been done for these In- powers to thrust back or shoot the dians it is our duty to do for others. Indians and occupy their lands. To There are three hundred Indian tribes him, if they can not be made to work on the Amazon River, and other tribes or assist, they are of no more value on the River Paraguay who are still than vermin, or criminals at the best. waiting for missionaries. In connec- On the nearest Yerba plantation, some tion with the forward movement of distance from Santa Teresa, some In- • the Inland South America Mission- dians, with whom the Yerbatero were ary Union, we want two volunteers at at deadly enmity, swooped down one the present time for our new station night in search of food, a band of among the Kaingua Indians, or forest savages estimated to be hundreds Indians, in Paraguay. "Pray ye there- strong. They are obliged to live on fore the Lord of the harvest that he what they catch, caterpillars, roots, will thrust forth laborers into his etc. They never have peace long harvest, for the harvest truly is plen- enough to stay in one place to cultivate teous, but the laborers are few." or raise food for themselves. At once an expedition was fitted out to go in Paul saw the beckoning hand and pursuit, with orders to surround and heard the summons to come over into shoot down the "brutes." In vain did Macedonia and help; and responding, Brother Vhittington remonstrate Europe for the first time heard the against the brutality and heartlessness. gospel. To-day from the forest belt Off a motley crowd went to the work in Paraguay, inland South America, of human slaughter. At first the In- the distrest cry of a strong, noble soul, dians eluded their pursuers, and up to facing single-handed awful odds, the time of writing they had baffled comes for helpers. I wish I could put
them in their search. Other tribes also stalment of a movement in Roman in these untrodden parts, many of Catholic circles to capture this virgin them within reach, are thus worried, territory for their Church. I leave harassed, and put out of existence if you to imagine his feelings as he conthey show the least resistance. To templates the fierce opposition that besuch our dear brother has gone with fore long he will have to face in the the gospel, and he yearns to get near corrupted minds of the simple-hearted enough to them to bless them; but see but deluded Indians, besides the many the situation! He feels he is face to difficulties peculiar to the situation imface with difficulties of no ordinary possible to describe. You do not wonnature, but calmly trusts in God to der, I am sure, that Brother Whitcarry him through. tington cries out for "great hearts" willing to face the dangers and sac- Another "swooping down" is the rifice all for Jesus' sake. Those who descent of a band of Jesuits on the enter this "den of lions" with him will Indian territory. This contingent has assuredly prove the mighty power of obtained a free grant of land from the God to keep. Pray for workers. Pray Government, and is settled at the for Brother G. C. Oehring (medically mouth of the river Virangua, thirty trained), who goes out soon. He has miles from Santa Teresa, with many given up a promising career at Christ's tons of material to build a church, call to serve under this banner.* erect a mill to grind the wheat they intend to raise, etc. The party con- * The headquarters of the I. S. A. M. U. is sists of three priests, two of them No. 113 Fulton Street, New York. Field secre· medicals; the others are different tary, Alfred Vinn. The Canadian Council office classes of tradesmen. This represents, is No. 274 Bathurst Street, Toronto. Secretary· Brother Whittington says, the first in- Treasurer, Rev. A. W. Roff, editor of The Chris- tian Worker.
South America has been well desig- tain ranges that constitute the backnated "the neglected Continent," and bone of the continent, are already only of late years has proper attention crossed and pierced by a railway sysbegun to be turned to its evangeliza- tem. Nature has provided a navigable tion. Meanwhile its political transfor- waterway, which rivals if it does not mation and material development are surpass any other continental river compelling the notice of the world. system. Its mines of wealth are being Its vegetable possibilities and mineral rediscovered, that made South Amerresources challenge industrial and ica the glory of the Incas, and the covcommercial enterprise, and appeal to eted prize of the Spaniards. We look that self-interest which is never irre- for a new era, already dawning, for sponsive. A great continental railway this long sleeping continent, which will be built, within a few years. from most of all needs evangelical Christhe Gulf to the Cape; the vast moun- tianity.-EDITOR.
UNOCCUPIED FIELD IN CENTRAL
BY REV. SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S.
Unoccupied Fields in Central Asia impress of an arid climate, and the yoke of that creed "which seems to Between the nearer and farther have imbibed its nature from the stern east, north of India and south of the inexorableness of the desert, on the Siberian steppes, stretches the region one hand, and the utter relaxation of known as Central Asia. Here is the the oasis on the other."* roof of the world and the watershed of the largest continent. Here I. The Field to Be Evangelized three empires, India, Russia, and China, meet. Here three great re- In the following survey we include ligions have struggled for the mastery, Tibet, Afghanistan, Chinese Turkesand one after the other gained su- tan, Bokhara, Khiva, Russian premacy for centuries. Buddhism and Turkestan, and the trans-Caspian Christianity still count their adher- province, together with the steppes, ents, but Islam has swept the field, and according to the tablet the field except in Tibet, and the whole terri- under consideration has a total area tory is practically unoccupied by of 2,6gS,730 square miles and a popu- Protestant missions. More unknown lation of 23,368,000. than Central Africa and in some places less thoroughly explored; a vast area These figures, however, would give of ghastly deserts and fertile oases; a wrong impression of the real density of parched plains and navigable of population. Since the rainfall of rivers; of perpetual snow and per- Central Asia has decreased so that its petual drought. It varies in elevation rivers fail to reach the sea, far less from the low depression of the Cas- than a tenth of the total area is perpian Sea and the basin of the Turfan, manently habitable. The population, three hundred feet below sea-level, in therefore, is comparatively dense in the very heart of Asia, to the high the irrigated oases along the rivers. plateaus of Tian Shan and Mount The nomads wander from place to Kailasa, 26,000 feet above the sea. place in search of pasture for their flocks. Altho usually the mountain parts are comparatively rainy and well .. Huntington: HThe Pulse of Asia." covered with vegetation, the lowlands, which comprize most of the country, t Table (Statesman's Year Book, 1909). are intensely dry and almost absolutely desert. The people are equally Area Popula· varied, the fierce Afghan being as dif- Sq. Miles tion ferent from the Tibetan monk as is the Tibet (with Koko-nor) ..•.. 463,200 6,500,000 truculent Mongul from the mild Afghanistan ………….. 250,000 4,500,000 Chanto of Chinese Turkestan. Yet, in Chinese Turkestan ……. 550,000 1,200,000 spite of all this, 110t only the physical Bokhara …………….. 83,000 1,250,000 features of the country but the habits Kbiva ………………. 24,000 800,000 and character of the peoples possess a Russian Turkestan distinct unity, for all alike bear the Ferghana ………..•…. 35,446 1,828,700 Samaracand ………….. 26,627 1,109,900 Syr Daria …………… 194,147 1,795,400 Semiryechensk ……….. 144,550 1,122,400 Trans-Caspian Province ……. 213,855 405,500 Steppes (four provinces of Ak· molinski Semipulatinsk, Tur~ gai and Uralsk) ……….•. 710,905 2,856,100 Totals for Central Asia .. 2,695,730 23,368,000
Two main types of civilization pre- exist between India and Tibet, which vail: the condition of nomadism and are ratified by China, but no Tibetan that of intensive agriCUlture with territory may be sold or leased to any cities, centralizing life in these irri- foreign power without the consent of gated oases. Askabad, for example, the British. has a population of 30,000, and a garrison of 10,000 soldiers, and is the 2. Afghanistan, by the new demarcapital of a province nearly ten times cation of its boundaries, includes five the size of Scotland. Yet it is only a major provinces-Kabul, Herat, Kanfertile spot in the vast solitude of the dahar, Afghan Turkestan and Ba- Karakum desert. If Egypt is the gift dakshan, and two provinces, Kafiristan of the Nile, Bokhara is the gift of the and Wakhan. Oxus, or Amu Daria, and Turkestan of the Sir Daria River. Population, In the province of Herat alone as well as vegetation, in all Central there are six hundred villages, but the Asia is limited largely to irrigation chief centers of population are the areas. provincial capitals of Kandahar, Kabul, Herat, Balkh and Kunduz. I. Tibet, extending eastward from The first named is the metropolis and the Himalayan Mountains to the fron- has a population of 50,000. tiers of China, has a population estimated at over 6,000,000, according There is considerable agriculture; to the "Statesman's Year Book." The exports to India and Bokhara amount country being bleak and mountainous to at least a million pounds a year. and jealously guarded against strang- Northern Afghanistan is tolerably ers, there are still wide regions unex- rich in copper, lead, iron, etc., but the plored. The greater part of the sur- mineral resources are undeveloped. face consists of high tablelands with . The climate is, on the whole, saperpetual snow-capped mountains. In lubrious, combining great dryness the central part there are numerous with extremes of temperature. At lakes. Kabul there is snow for three months in the year, and the thermometer The climate is varied, but in general ranges from 3 below zero to IIO the air is pure and excessively dry. In above in the shade. the southern part there is agriculture. For the rest, the pursuits are pastoral. The principal trade routes for car- The chief minerals are gold, borax and avan are: Balkh to Herat, 370 miles; salt, and there has always been a large Kandahar to Herat, 400 miles by trade with China, and at present an southern and 367 miles by northern increasing trade with India. Lhasa, route; Kandahar to Kabul, 318 miles; the capital, has been once and again Kabul to the Oxus, 424 miles; and to visited by Englishmen. It stands in Peshawar on the Indian frontier, 191 a fertile plain at an elevation of nearly miles. 12,000 feet, with a popUlation of from 15,000 to 20,000. The chief marts of The common door of entrance to trade with India are Yatung, Gyang- Afghanistan from Persia is by way of tze and Gartok. According to treaties Mashad, from Bokhara by Merv, and and conventions trade regulations now from India by the Khaibar Pass to Kabul, the Gomal Pass to Ghazni, or from Chaman, the terminus of the Northwestern Railway, to Kandahar.
There are roads for artillery, but no It is by way of Kashgar to Osh and wheeled traffic and no navigable rivers Andizhan, the terminus of the Central in the country. Asian Railroad in Russian Turkestan. This route is easier physically, as it 3. Chinese Turkestan (called Sin- crosses the Terek Davan Pass (1,200 Kiang) in its widest sense includes feet) and shorter, but the Russian Kulja, Zungaria and outer Kansu, the taxes and passports favor the other Chinese dependencies between Mon- road. golia and Tibet. The inhabitants are of various races and the chief towns 4. Russian in Central Asia. The are Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, total area and population of Russian Kiriya, and toward the north, Aksu. dependencies and possessions in Cen- In some regions about the Kashgar tral Asia are given in the table above. and Yarkand rivers the soil is fertile; The chief centers of population, trade fruits and vegetables of all sorts are and communication are the following grown. cities: Tashkent (155,673), Kokand (81,354), Namangan (62,017), Sa- Extremes of heat and cold mark markand (58,194), Karshi (25,000), this region, zero weather changing to Hissar (10,000), Khiva (5,000), Osh sudden spring. April is often so (34, I 57), Semipalatinsk (36,040 ). warm that even then the swarms of flies and gnats which continue all About sixty-five per cent of the summer begin to be troublesome. "A population in Asiatic Russia are disagreeable feature of the otherwise sedentary, fifteen per cent seminot unhealthy climate are the strong nomadic, and twenty per cent nomads and long-continued desert winds of the steppes. The density of the which fill the air with dust and make population varies greatly. everyone irritable." The climate varies exceedingly, ac- The country has immense undevel- cording to latitude and elevation, but oped resources. For the new China is generally healthful. this region offers an easy and promising avenue of expansion analogous to The country produces cereals, fruit, the southwest of the United States. cotton, tobacco, hemp; and breeds of On the east is the desert of Gobi and goats, sheep, horses and camels. Gold, in the center the Lob-nor, a series of salt, alum, sulfur and other minerals salt lakes and marshes. are also exported.
The highest trade route in the world The means of transportation is by leads from India over the Karakorum caravan along good roads in many Pass, 18,300 feet, into Chinese Turkes- directions, but more especially the Rustan. Caravans loaded with "tea, sian Trans-Caspian Railway and the spices, doth and Korans" make the steam navigation of the River Oxus. dangerous journey. Skeletons of The Orenburg-Tashkent Railway, horses and camels strew the pathway, with its branches running south, is of and yet fifteen hundred Chinese Mos- the greatest significance for the politlem pilgrims chose this path over the ical, economical and missionary future roof of the world to Mecca in a single of this vast unoccupied area. A mere year! There is one other route to go summary of the 3,202 miles of railfrom Chinese Turkestan to the west. ways in actual operation is a startling evidence of the progress of the march
of civilization in this part of the world made itself felt on all. The wild, and a challenge to missions: fanatical Pathan from the Indian frontier allowed his ardor to cool St. Petersburg to Orenburg, I,230 down here until he became almost as miles. wild as the comfortable merchant from Bokhara. All were intelligent men, Orenburg to Tashkent, 1,174 miles. who, in their wanderings, had picked From Tashkent, steel rails stretch up much useful knowledge; and as a to Merv (603 miles), and from Merv rule the constant rubbing up against ever southward to Kushkinski (195 their neighbors had produced good miles), the furthest military outpost manners in them. They were seldom of Russia toward India, leaving a gap anything else but courteous, if they of only 500 miles to New Chaman knew that courtesy would be shown and the railway system of the north- them, and a visit from one of them west provinces. was always a pleasure. They discust The amount of money, time and politics constantly, as their trade delabor expended by the Russian Gov- pended so much on the political situaernment in works of irrigation, tion; and the man in all Asia whom bridges, railways, military hospitals they watched with keenest interest was and depots is surprizing. Abdul Rahman, the Ameer of Kabul. In addition to this railway system, The Central Asian question is one of there is a regular steamboat service great interest to them; every move in on the River Oxus between Petro the game is watched with keenness, Alexandrovsk and Charjui for over and the relative strength and probable 200 miles, and from Charjui to the intentions of the two great powers, head of navigation, Patta Hissar, for whom they regard as struggling for 288 miles. the supremacy of Asia, are freely dis- Russian Central Asia is, therefore, Ctlst by them." accessible nearly everywhere by rail or river, and the great centers of pop- A conglomeration of different races, ulation are knit together by telegraph, tribes and peoples struggling for excommerce and military occupation. istence rather than for mastery; a The highways here are ready for the medley of humanity displayed no- King, but Tibet and Afghanistan are where else on the globe in greater vastill closed lands. riety and yet welded' into a seeming unity by physical environment, a com- II. The People to Be Evangelized mon, tho alien, religion and common political hopes and fears-such is The heart of Asia has been the Central Asia. meeting-ground of many nationalities and races for many centuries. At The swarthy Afghan, the fair Mon- Kashgar Colonel Younghusband met golian, Turcomans, Uzbegs, Tibetans, men from nearly every part of Asia. Tajiks, the intellectual type from the "Ethnologically," said he, "they dif- schools at Bokhara, the enterprising fered greatly, but they were all merchant, the Khirgese nomad, the Asiatics, and nearly all traders, and Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush who comtheir general characteristics in conse- bat perpetual snow and cold, as well quence varied but little. The effect as the Chantos of the Tarim basin of Central Asian listlessness had
NOTE-In addition to the fields of Central Asia that are shaded on the map , Anam is occupied only by Roman Catholics, and Siberia only by
Catholic missionaries.-EDITORS.
scorched by desert heat-all together there are aboriginal tribes among form the population of this vast and which Moslems have been doing such unevange1ized region. Not counting successful, quiet work that already the small colony of Jews, and the 100,000 nominal Christians have larger groups of Christians of the turned Moslem. In the district of Russian Orthodox Church, a few Birsk alone there are 91,000 belonging Armenian and Hindu traders, the en- to these tribes. Within ten years they tire population is Mohammedan, ex- will all be Moslems."
cept in Tibet. Islam has spread over The prevailing religion throughout all the region and dominates the heart the whole of Tibet is Lamaism, a cor- of Asia socially, intellectually and rupt form of Buddhism, but along spiritually as strongly and over- with it there still exists the older Bon whelmingly as it; does in North Af- or Shamanistic faith. Altho the gov- rica. The city of Bokhara, with IO,- ernment is conducted by commission- 000 students and 364 mosques, is the ers appointed at Peking, it is prac- Cairo of Asia; it is the center of tically in the hands of the priests or Moslem learning and influence for all lamas, whose number is so great as to the middle East. Tashkent has over give Tibet the name of a kingdom of three hundred mosques and a large priests. According to the "States- Mohammedan library. AU the great man's Year Book," nearly all the gov- cities of Central Asia, with the excep- ernment taxes are expended on these tion of those in Tibet, are out-and-out lamas, who live in sumptuously deco- Mohammedan. Afghanistan is wholly rated temples and monasteries.
Moslem and Chinese, and Russian "Among the people polyandry is com- Turkestan, with the exception of the mon. There are courts of justice, but ruling and military classes, are also doubtful cases are often decided by prevailingly Mohammedan. lot or by ordeal, and in criminal cases The social life, the literature, archi- evidence is extracted by torture." The tecture, art, etiquette and every-day whole social system in Tibet differs speech of all Central Asia bear the widely from that of its neighbors trade-mark of Islam. An ordinary on the east and the south, and is pocket-compass goes by the name of stamped by the character of the pre- "Mecca-pointer," and the wild men of vailing faith and the practise of Hunza, shut out by the mountains polyandry. In general, education is from every contact with the outside restricted to the priests alone, but the world, have no God but Allah, and no women, on the other hand, who con- idea of the world save that its center duct most of the traffic, learn writing is Arabia. and arithmetic.
Nor has the conquest of Islam The Buddhism of Tibet is not the ceased. It entered Siberia in the six- ordinary coarse heathenism of other teenth century, but in the nineteenth parts of the world, "but a heathenism century the Moslem faith won many based on hundreds of folios, evolving adherents among the pagan tribes of their philosophic system of dialectics, the north and even among the Finns a hoary heathenism, centuries older on the Volga. Baron P. Nicolay re- than Christianity. Proud, self- ports that "In the province of U pa righteous, and self-satisfied it is, in
UNOCCUPIED FIELD IN CENTRAL ASIA 59
spite of its hollowness and super- the reputation of being the most imficiality; stubbornly tenacious of life, moral cities of Asia." A so-called reand so complete and minute in its or- spectable woman may have three or ganization that it inexorably sways four husbands in a year because of the whole life, religious, political and divorce and temporary legal marsocial, of its adherents." riages. Among the Khirghiz women and the nomads of Central Asia in The testimony of all travelers and general, better conditions prevail; but of official documents agree regarding in Russian Turkestan and Bokhara the social, moral and intellectual deg- the usual results of the Moslem social radation and need of the Moslem pop- system are everywhere in evidence. ulations of Central Asia and of the people of Tibet. The languages used in the area un- der consideration are many. Tibetan, One of the darkest places of the derived from the Sanskrit, is the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty, tongue of Tibet. In Afghanistan, is Afghanistan. According to the Pushtu is common everywhere, altho "Statesman's Year Book," "judicial the Turkestanis use Turki and the corruption and bribery are universal Kafirs have a language of their own. and the criminal law based on the Persian is the court and literary lan- Koran and tradition is barbarous in guage and is taught in the schools. the extreme." Torture in every in- The languages of Chinese and Rusconceivable form is common and the sian Turkestan are Russian, Chinese, prisons at Kabul are horribly inhuman. Under the absolute rule of the Ameer, Jagatai Turki, Kashgar Turki, Kirgthere is not even the semblance of religious liberty or personal freedom. hiz Turki, Uzbeg Turki, Wogul and The new coinage of Afghanistan Wotjak. The percentage of illiteracy typifies the relation of Church and is very high. For Afghanistan it is es- State: on the obverse side of each piece timated at 90 per cent, and for Russia is a mosque with pulpit and minarets in Asia the figures given by census are encircled by rifles, standards, swords 81.8 per cent of the males and 94 per and cannon. Persons who misbehave cent of the females. Conditions in in a mosque or omit prayers receive Tibet are nearly as bad. the lash, and the spies of the chief magistrate of Kabul make him an ob- III. How Far Occupied ject of public execration and universal dread. This extensive territory, with an area of nearly 2,700,000 square miles, Immorality of the most degrading thirteen times the size of France and type is common at court and among over twice as large as all of the the Moslem clergy. The degradation United States east of the Mississippi of womanhood is complete, from the River, has within its actual bounds residents of the palace to the dancing- only two mission stations. And the girls of the street. Among the whole- population, excluding the Cau- Chantos of eastern Turkestan social casus, of over 23,000,000 souls, of and moral conditions are very low. which at least 95 per cent is non- "Flagrant immorality is well-nigh Christian, is almost entirely unreached. universal. Khotan and Keriya have The British and Foreign Bible So- ciety reports that from its depot at
Tifiis in the Caucasus four colporteurs Church at Eli there are no other mis- and two assistants are employed, and sionaries, nor is there any Christian that the circulation of the Scriptures mission work whatsoever in all east- for 1909 was I5,529 copies. Most of ern Turkestan save at the centers men- their work, however, is among the tioned, Kashgar, Yarkand and Urum- Russian troops, and the effort to chi. At all these places even, the pop- reach the Turkish tribes of trans- ulation is so large that they are only Caucasia, who are Mohammedan, is partially reached, and all the other por- only beginning. Beyond the Caucasus tions of the area are absolutely they employ one colporteur, whose neglected.
headquarters are at Tashkent. Sales In regard to Russian Turkestan, we of the Scripture there for the past must also note as possible evangelizing year were I,705 copies. forces the German Protestants to the The Swedish Mission, organized in number of 30,000 who live in the 1&)4, occupies two stations in Turkes- Caucasus, and whose influence extends tan-Kashgar and Yarkand. In to some extent across the border. In Kashgar there is one center for Mo- Khiva and Russian Turkestan there hammedan work and two centers for are some German Mennonites ex- the Chinese. The total number of pelled from Russia for one reason or missionaries is eleven. In Yarkand another, and they try to spread the there are five missionaries working gospel among the Moslems and also chiefly among the Mohammedans. At give a good example by their Chris- both stations medical mission work is tian life. There are also some German emphasized. At Kashgar there are Mennonites at Auli-Ata, eastward between seven and eight thousand from the city of Tashkent, who have patients annually. The total number commenced to distribute the gospel of native workers at the two stations and to preach among the Khirgiz is six, one of whom is a regular evan- nation. Generally speaking, however, gelist. The four gospels have been the Sarts, U zbegs, Jews, and all the translated into Kashgari and put other populatior. of Bokhara, Khiva circulation. All the rest of the New and Turkestan, are still unreached.
Testament has been translated III The gospels have been translated into Europe, but as it now stands it is un- Uzbeg, Turki and Khirgiz, and the suitable without careful revision. For whole Bible into Russian.
the Chinese the entire Bible is, of Attempts to enter Tibet were made course, available. very early in the history of missions.
The China Inland Mission has lately In I845 (not to speak of the journey placed one of its missionaries at the of the Apostle of Tartary in 1330) capital city of Urumchi, on the east Fathers Gabet and Huc penetrated to frontier of Chinese Turkestan. The Lhasa, only to be arrested and sent one worker at that city is preparing as prisoners to Canton. Numerous himself for work among the Mohan1- attempts have been made since, both medans by the study of the Turki lan- by Roman Catholic and Protestant guage. missionaries, by way of India and Save for two or three missionaries China. The Moravian Church for belonging to the Roman Catholic over forty years has been laying
UNOCCUPIED FIELD IN CENTRAL ASIA
siege in the name of Christ to these unevangelized. The Church Mission- ancient strongholds of Buddhism. A ary Society on the northwest frontier cordon of missionary posts is being of India, at Peshawar, Bannu, Dera- drawn around Tibet, and altho it is Ismail-Khan, is in close proximity weak and wi th long gaps in the links, not only to Afghanista~, but is be- it already extends westward from ginning to carryon mission work by Kashmir along the north frontier of itineration and through its hospitals, India and Burma and reaches up to as well as the circulation of the Scrip- the north of China. tures in the semi-independent states It is more than 2,000 miles from the and frontier tribal areas between the Moravian station among the Tibetan boundary line of Afghanistan and Buddhists, Ladak, to the Chinese fron- India, in Waziristan, Tirah, Swat and tier, where the China Inland Mission Chitral. But no missionary society in on this extreme outpost is trying to India has actually crossed the Afghan reach the eastern Tibetans. The whole border from the south, nor have the story of the attempted entrance into societies from Persia on the west, or this great closed land is full of heart- from China on the east, entered the stirring heroism. The Moravian areas under consideration.
brethren now occupy three stations in IV. The Task Remaining and Estimate. little Tibet. They have prepared of the Situation grammars on the language and pub- lished a dictionary and the New Tes- Lying along the northwest frontier tament in Tibetan. of India is the extended line of C. M.
The China Inland Mission, the S. outposts all the way from Quetta Christian Missionary Alliance, the in Baluchistan to Srinagar in Kash- Scandinavian Alliance Mission, the mir. Some of these missionary out- Church of Scotland Mission, the L. M. posts are organized and equipped on S., the C. M. S., and the Assam Fron- such a scale as to be real mission tier Mission have all made prepara- bases, ready to furnish both personnel tory efforts, more or less extended, to and equipment for an advance into enter this field. Tibetans who come Central Asia, where spread out for over the border for trade are in touch more than 1,000 miles due north and with these missionary agencies. The for 3,00 miles from west to east, all natural line of approach at present the way from Meshed, in Persia, to for the penetration of Tibet seems to Batham, the first frontier station in be through China. In any case, the China, is the unoccupied heart of Asia.
evangelization of western China The great historic cities of Samar- would profoundly affect conditions kand, Tashkent, Khokand, Andijan, across the Tibetan borders. in Russian Turkestan; Turfan, Aksu, The Central Asia Pioneer Mission Rami and Khotan, in Chinese Turkes- (organized 1902) has a station at tan, and the centers of population in Hoti-Marden on the border marches Afghanistan and Tibet are all with- of India, near Peshawar. The object out missionaries.
of this mission is to enter Afghanistan. Leaving out of all consideration the Within a short distance of this out- nomad tribes so hard to reach, scat- post they report 2,000 villages yet tered as they are in sparsely settled
districts, and confining our attention Russian and Chinese Turkestan, both to the great centers of population in for the education of native workers the oases, and the cities where trade and to reach the better class of Moand travel gravitate, the number of hammedans through Christian educamissionaries required for an adequate tion. As soon as there is more liberty occupation of Central Asia, on the and present hindrances are removed, basis of only one worker for every there should be three Christian col- 50,000 people, would be 468, instead leges: one for the Caucasus, one at of a handful of isolated workers m Bokara, and one for Chinese Turkesdistant outposts. tan at Kashgar or Yarkand. Because this field is thoroughly Mohammedan To occupy only the great cities in in its character, the need for women Tibet, Afghanistan, Chinese Turkes- workers is as extensive and intensive tan and Russian Turkestan, together as is that for men. with the vassal states of Bokhara and Khiva, would mean at least one hun- When we consider the desperate dred missionaries, and of that number condition of the whole population, deat least one-half should be medical prived of all medical skill and subject mISSIOnaries. Colonel Wingate, in to every superstition and cruelty, the writing of the spiritual needs of Cen- establishment of modern mission hostral Asia, says: pitals in each of th elarge centers of population seems not only essential "One remark is applicable to all the but imperative. tribes that lie beyond the Indian frontier, to the Mohmands and Shinwaris, In regard to literary work, much to the Kohistanis and the Chitrals, to remains to be done. A periodical in the inhabitants of Swat and Dir, of Turki should be published and a large Hunza and Yasin, that they are all Christian literature prepared in the to-day without the help and relief of various vernaculars spoken. medical science and skill, and would hail with uncommon thankfulness the In the judgment of some missionary arrival of the medical missionary with leaders, the best lines of advance in his dispensary and hospital, for the the immediate future for the strategic sake of which they would tolerate his occupation of Central Asia might be Bible and listen to his exhortations, indicated as follows: First, to and learn to love the Savior of all strengthen by immediate reenforcemankind." ment the work begun so courageously and successfully at Kashgar and And what is true of the borders of Yarkand by the Swedish Mission, and Afghanistan is true of all the regions to have missions under Swedish or beyond. Danish societies begin work in the other great centers along the Russian The experience of all workers in railway in Turkestan. This work Moslem lands is unanimous that could best be done by such societies greater and better results can be ob- as would not be under political sustained through the work of medical picion on the part of the Russian Govmissionaries than in any other way ernment. A line of missionary outamong this class of people. posts might well run from New Chaman in Baluchistan to Hunza, in Educational work should be organized in all of the great cities of
UNOCCUPIED FIELD IN CENTRAL ASIA
the tributary states of Kashmir, ann traveler who has visited these lands. include between these two flanks the "I remember the rude Mongols," says stations of Wana, Sherrannee, ThaI, Colonel Younghusband, "far away in Chitral, Mustaj and Yasin. All of the midst of the Gobi desert, setting these points, altho devoid of mission- apart in their tents the little altars at aries, have already been occupied for which they worshiped. I recall nights a number of years as centers of Brit- spent in the tents of the wandering ish influence and administration by Khirgiz, when the family of an evethe political, civil and military offi- ning would say their prayers tocers of the government of India. gether; I think of the Afghan and From Hoti-Mardan as a center, the Central Asian merchants visiting me towns of Aladand and Thana in Swat, at Yarkand, and in the middle of of Dir in Baraul, Kiladrosh in Chitral, their visits asking to be excused while and Kamdesh in Kafiristan, should be they laid down a cloth on the floor and occupied. That this advance is possi- repeated their prayers; of the late ble is the opinion not only of mission- Mehtar of Chitral, during a morning's aries in India, but of Christian gov- shooting among the mountains, halternment officers. If the missionary is ing, with all his court, for a few mogoing to wait until the foreign office ments to pray; and, lastly, of the wild sanctions his going and guarantees his men of Hunza, whom I had led up a protection or the vengeance of any in- new and difficult pass, pausing as they jury done him, then the doors are reached the summit to offer a prayer closed. If the missionary is to wait of thanks, and ending with a shout until it is safe to take his wife and of 'Allah '" And this is only one teschildren into Central Asia with him, timony how the heart of Asia is it may not be possible, but the doors thirsting for the living God. are not closed to those who are willing to go in the same way as the selected The fact that there are great diffi. officers of the British Government. culties and apparently insurmountable "Unmarried men, or those who are obstacles which have hindered the willing to leave their families at home, evangelization of Central Asia in the knowing the language, strong, robust, past should not limit our faith or cool fearless, tactful-if we had a hundred our ardor to-day. The reasons for the of such qualified men, carefully se- long neglect and for the present utlected, there would be little difficulty terly inadequate occupation of any of in putting them into positions of these countries of Central Asia were enormous advantage for the spiritual doubtless both religious and political. occupation of Central Asian terri- The fanatic intolerance and pride of tories." Islam or Lamaism have baffled the faith and deferred the hope of those The present spiritual destitution who might otherwise, perhaps, have and the age-long neglect of all these entered and possest the land. Tibet countries is the strongest possible ar- still seems closed against the actual gument for their occupation. The residence of missionaries, altho the pathos of all these millions still people are being reached across its groping restlessly for the true light borders. In Afghanistan there is tofinds a voice in the record of every day an absolute veto against any mis-
sionary entering, and there is little have a strong claim to recognition.
prospect of this changing under the The recent rapprochement of Russia present regime. A convert from and Great Britain and the new demar- Islam to Christianity is regarded, cation of their respective spheres of within the realms of the Ameer, as influence in Persia will doubtless lead having committed a capital offense, to mutual understanding, and may yet and both law and public opinion throw open wide even the doors of justify his execution. Afghanistan for the proclamation of Conditions in Russian Turkestan the gospel.
and among the Chantos of Chinese It is not probable that amid all the Turkestan are not so intolerant. restless movements in the neighboring Everywhere the entrance of a med- Moslem nations-Turkey, Persia and ical missionary might prove the be- India-Central Asia and Afghanistan ginning of established work. Re- will remain dormant. On the con- garded from the purely political stand- trary, there are indications that the point, officers in the British army have Pan-Islamic movement has reached again and again admitted that hos- Bokhara and Kabul, as well as Orem- pitals and dispensaries are a valuable burg and Tiflis. Not only is there dis- asset in the pacification of frontier cussion of social reform in the Moslem tribes, and as one of the missionaries press of Russia, but the Tatar paper, expresses it: "Now is the opportunity Terdjuman, recently contained a prop- and we must seize it or sit with folded osition calling for a Pan-Islamic con- hands while others step in and do in gress to discuss the reformation of another name what should have been Islam. At present the Moslems of done in the name of Christ." Chinese Turkestan are "the essence of The policy of Russian advance in imperturbable mediocrity. They live Central Asia, as exprest in the a careless, easy, apathetic existence; famous circular dispatch of Prince nothing disturbs them. It is their Gortchakoff,* admits "that the posi- destiny, shut away from the rest of tion of Russia in Central Asia is that the world, to lead a dull, spiritless, of all civilized states which are but easy and perhaps happy life, which brought into contact with half-savage, they allow nothing to disturb." Let nomad populations possessing no fixt these Moslems, however, once become social organization . . . with the ob- aroused through the press or the der- ject not of extending beyond all rea- vish preacher, and who can tell what sonable bounds the regions under our might be the result in Central Asia.
august master's scepter, but in giving Now is the opportunity to carry the a solid basis to his rule in guarantee- gospel to them.
ing their security and in developing Nothing can hold back the advance their social organization, their com- of Western civilization into the very merce, their well-being and their civili- heart of Asia. The railway and the zation." If this official expression of caravan are forcing upon them the real purpose of Russia in Central through every pass and along every Asia be still true, then missions surely channel of communication the latest * Date~ November 21, 1864; see Hamilton's "Af· inventions of our times. At Kabul ghanistan," appendix, pages 493·497. one may see motor-cars, sewing-
UNOCCUPIED FIELD IN CENTRAL ASIA
machines, gramophones, rifles and mounted by those who have faith in smokeless-powder. One of the results God. The kingdoms and the governof the visit of the Ameer of Afghanis- ments of this world have frontiers tan to India was that he arranged for which must not be crossed, but the the erection of looms in his capital, and Gospel of Jesus Christ has no fronnow we hear of the transportation by tier. It never has been kept within camel-train of pianos, and motor-cars, bounds; it has a message for the whole and a plant for wireless telegraphy race and the very fact that there are through the Khyber Pass. For the millions of souls in Central Asia who management of all these modern in- have never heard the message bedustries a staff of European engineers comes the strongest of reasons why and mechanics is admitted into the we must carry it to them. Every year country. For some years European we hear of further advance into these physicians, both men and women, have regions of Central Asia by commerce, been under the protection and the pay by travelers and by men of science. If of the Ameer, and yet the missionary they can open a way for themselves is forbidden entrance. in spite of all these difficulties, shall the ambassadors of the cross shrink Afghanistan is perhaps to-day the back? The fact that Central Asia has most difficult country for a missionary .for the first time a place in the prayers to enter. Not only is the Ameer's and faith and enterprise of even a written permission necessary, but the few Christians is a sure promise of Indian Government also must consent its final evangelization. and no European is allowed to cross the frontier without permit. It is al- BIBLIOGRAPHY most as difficult for those who are employed by the Ameer to return to The Statesman's Year Book, 1909; Ellsworth India. Even the British political Huntington, The Pulse of Asia, New York, 1907; agent residing in Kabul is little better David Fraser, The Marches of Hindustan, Edin· than a prisoner, and hundreds of peo- burgh, 1907; Perceval Landon, The Opening of ple have been killed merely on sus- Tibet, New York, 1905; Dr. Susie C. Rynhart, picion of having visited him and With, Tibetans in Tent and Tempte, New York, given reports' of the doings of the 1901; Annie Taylor, Pioneering in Tibet, (n. d.); government. Yet all these difficulties H. G. Schneider, Working and Waiting for Tibet, of long neglect, of political barriers, (n. d.); Angus Hamilton, Afghanistan" London, and national jealousies, and religious 1906; Frank A. Martin, Un,der the Absolute Ameer, intolerance, in Tibet as well as in New York, 1907; Ralph P. Cobbold, I.nnermost Afghanistan, are oo.ly a challenge to Asia, London, 1900; Sven Hedin, Through Asia, 2 faith and intended of God to lead us volumes, London, 1898; Our N oythwest Frontier to prayer. The evangelization of Cen- in India, C. M. S. Review, August, 1908; T. H. tral Asia has in it the glory of the im- Pennell, Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan possible, and all difficulties can be sur- Frontier, Younghusband, The Heart of a Conti· nentj Wright's Asiatic Russia, 2 volumes, Lon- don. 1903.
Current numbers of RC'vue du Monde Mussulman, Paris; Dawn in Central Asia, London; The Geo· graphical Journal, London; Colonel S. Wingate, The Spiritual Needs of Central Asia, and Some Features of Chinese Turkestan. BY REV. H. LOOMIS, YOKOHOMA, JAPAN Report for the Year 1909 among Japanese emigrants, you will find a larger percentage of them are The past year has shown steady and Christians than are to be found in the encouraging progress in Christian home land. For instance, there are work in Japan. In a summary given fifteen Congregational churches (Japby Rev. Dr. Davis at the recent semi- anese) in Hawaii, with 748 members; centennial conference in Tokyo, he re- there are independent Baptist and ported as follows: Methodist churches in Seattle; and on the rolls of the first Presbyterian "There are now nearly 600 or- Church at Seattle are the names of 238 ganized churches in Japan. More members. The Presbyterian Church than one-fourth are self-supporting. in San Francisco has r75 members, These churches have a membership ex- and Miss Harwood reports there must ceeding 70,000. Last year the mem- be in the different churches at Los bership increased ten per cent. There Angeles at least 600 members. And are nearly 500 ordained Japanese these are only samples of what will be workers, 600 unordained male work- found in China, Korea, Manchuria ers, 200 Bible women, nearly 100,000 and wherever the Japanese are. scholars taught in over 1,000 Sabbathschools. There are about 4,000 stu- Testimony from an Outsider dents in Christian boarding-schools, and roo Christian kindergartens and There are also other results of other day-schools where 8,000 scholars Christian effort that are neither tabuare taught. About 400 students are lated nor reported, and yet they are a trained in the theological schools, and factor of no small importance in the 250 women in women's Bible-schools. religious life of the Japanese. In the Several of the larger churches have review of the recent semi-centennial organized missionary societies which conference there appeared in the public are extending the work in Japan and press an article by Mr. Kanzo Uchiin Formosa, Korea, Manchuria, and mura, who is a man of recognized China. The Protestant Christians ability and influence and has quite a gave for Christian work last year following among young Japanese as a nearly 300,000 yen ($150,000)." religious teacher. He affiliates with none of the sects and takes simply the But the figures given in the annual Word of God as his guide. Speaking reports come far short of showing of the recent semi-centennial conferwhat is the actual strength of Chris- ence, he says : "We must not forget tianity among the Japanese. It was that there are hundreds and thousands estimated by Bishop Evington that of Christians in Japan who have had previous to the year 1900 there had nothing to do with missionaries, and been a loss from the rolls of some who naturally on that account would 30,000 members. Such persons have take little or no interest in such a connot ordinarily given up Christianity ference." (in fact, I suppose that such are the exception), but had removed in most That there are Christians in this cases to other places, or to some other country who were not converted by country. Go where you will and missionaries or their agents, and who
IN JAPAN
without belonging to any church, and in numbers and interest all the time. knowing nothing about dogmas and I wrote you last year of the number sacraments and ecclesiastical orders, of soldiers in Manchuria who were are yet devout believers in God and calling for the gospel, and that twenty- Christ, is a fact very little known, I five or more were writing me for think. But that such is a fact is in- teaching. controvertible. "This year many of those men were "Christianity outside of churches" sent home and new ones took their is taking hold of the Japanese people places. Some who received the truth far more strongly than missionaries must remain in their regiments imagine. The Western idea, that a another year. But they are telling the religion must show itself in an or- good news to their comrades and ganiied form before it can be recog- many are asking the way of life. Not nized as a religion at all, is alien to long ago a letter came from one who the Japanese mind. With us, religion has been so zealous in leading others is more a family affair than national to study the Word with the names of or social, as is shown by the strong fifteen of his fellow soldiers who asked hold that Confucianism has had upon for the gospel. Now there are thirty us, without showing itself in any or- writing me from Manchuria telling ganized societies and movements. And me of their isolated, lonely lives, and I am confident that Christianity is begging me to send them the gospels now, slowly but steadily taking the and Christian literature. I have done place of Confucianism as the family this as far as I have been able, and to religion of the Japanese. Indeed, I show their appreciation and desire to can cite a number of cases where have it, they sent 2.50 yen to pay Christianity has been adopted in this postage. I want to send each one of form by my countrymen. those men a copy of the 'New Testa- ment for New Year's. As far as I see, Christianity is making progress in this country far "Then those who returned to their ahead of missionaries. This new homes here in Japan have been sowing form of Christianity adopted by my the seed among their friends here, and countrymen is neither orthodox nor letters are coming from people whom unitarian. We go to Jesus of Naza- I have never seen nor heard of before, reth directly, and aim to live and be asking to know the way of life. I made like Him. And I am confident want some Testaments to send them, that in making the statement, I voice too. May I have 100 copies? a sentiment of many, both known and unknown to me, who are disciples of "I am still in correspondence with Christ without having any connection over 200 people who are seeking, and with so-called "churches." want to be saved. There is nothing but the Gospel of Christ can save Work for the Soldiers their hungry souls, and I long to give it to them. "The work over the country-I mean Japan, Korea, and Manchuria," "I wonder if we realize how many people there are in this empire who says Miss L. J. Wirick, "is growing are reading the Word of God in the quiet hours of the home? And it is
blest to know that so many are calJing Christian literature is read far more for it, too." widely than many think, by non- Christians as well as by Christians. Circulation of the Bible The words of the prophets and apos- tles are quoted in the daily newspapers Owing to the absence of one of the alongside of the words of the ancient agents during the greater part of the sages of China; and many of the sayyear, and other causes, the sale of the ings of Christ are coming to be almost Scriptures was not as large as during household words. No other religious the year preceding. But the demand books are so generally read and ponis not less than heretofore, and when dered as the Christian Scriptures. we consider the fact that more than Amid the present confusion in ethical five million copies of the Bible, Tes- thought, Christian ethics are recogtament and Portions have been circu- nized by many as being the highest lated in this country during the last standard of living; and their straight thirty years, it is a wonder that so gate and narrow way are seen to lead many are being sold all the time. The to life, even by those who do .not total circulation during 1909 was themselves enter them. The Chris- 8,844 Bibles, 83AIO Testaments, and tian world-view is growing more and 255,541 Portions. more familiar; and when the Chris- tian preacher, standing in the presence This large and continuous demand of men of education, speaks of God, for the Scriptures is a sure indication he seldom any longer needs to say of a real desire among the Japanese that, when he speaks of God, he to know what the teachings of Chris- means the infinite, eternal, unchangetianity are. It is reported that there is able, and yet personal Presence that among the students especially a keen fills all the universe with His glory. desire to know the life and teachings Thus, around the churches there is of Jesus. A secular publishing-house forming an ever-widening ring of has put out a life of Christ, based upon those who are seeking after God, if Farrar and David Smith, which has haply they may find him." had a large sale. More Missionaries Wanted Another surprizing and interesting fact is that during the past ten years Looking over the vast field, and two hundred thousand copies of the seeing how much there is that is still Christian Union hymn-book in J ap- unoccupied, the J apanese hav~ awaanese have been sold. kened to the realization of the great and pressing need; and, contrary to Christianity and Society their attitude a few years ago, are asking for more missionaries. This The result of Bible distribution, is also being urged by such men as Christian preaching, and religious Rev. Mr. Ebina, who is one of the teaching are becoming more and more most popular leaders in Japan, and evident, and also in various ways. has not been classed hitherto as espe- Speaking of the work of the Holy cially friendly to foreigners. In a re- Spirit in Japan, Rev. Dr. Imbrie, in cent article on the subject of the his historical address at the recent conference, says, "Christian truths and Christian principles are finding their way into the minds of the people.
"Foreign Missionaries in Japan," he thirty-four for evangelistic work and writes; "In our opinion, it can not six for education. Similar requests be said that your mission in Japan is are being made from other missions. yet completed. It must be recognized that this mission is taking on a new Independence of the Japanese Churches significance and is becoming constantly clearer. Our revered and beloved For a number of years past there foreign missionaries are the living rep- has been a growing desire on the part resentatives of the lofty religiousness of the Japanese Christians to be inand experience which we Japanese dependent of foreign control. Some now demand. Whether the nation shall have a vigorous and well- of the mission boards have been unrounded development or not depends willing to grant it, owing to the fact on whether or not we assimilate this that so much money was being inconsciousness and experience. vested in different ways it was ieared that some of it might not be used in "You, with your strong, clear, accordance with the wishes and purethical consciousness and your kindly, pose of the donors. peaceful, loving sensibilities, have you not a motive that ought to call forth But the Congregationalists led the faith fr0111 us in Japan? If you are way, and later the Methodists, and a conscious of this, th en your mission part of the Presbyterian bodies have is as clear as the day. P olitical and followed. The results have been more economic affairs do not bring us into satisfactory than was expected. In direct relation. It is based upon the fact, it is conceded by those who are Christianity of America, which you represent, in our own spiritual life. Should you not exert yourselves to the utmost, not only for the peace between America and Japan, but in a real sense for the establishment of the Kingdom of God? Now is the time, we firmly believe, for you to bestir yourselves and manifest the seriousness of your purpose. You simply must not furl the banner of Christ; nay, rather you should lift up and advance and proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God on earth."
Following out this desire on the part of the Japanese for more helpers in their work, the Canadian Methodist Mission has made an estimate of the foreign missionaries needed in their part of the field during the next five years and made an appeal to the Home Board for forty new missionaries,
most concerned that it has been entire- ily cooperating in every essential mat- ly successful. Speaking for the Con- ter.
gregationalists, Rev. Dr. Greene says, "Some will naturally ask the ques- "Hardly ever before in any land has tion, 'How does the missionary feel Christianity borne riper or more about the change?" To the writer it varied fruit at so early a stage in its seems that the feeling is one of gen- history. And it is a matter for great eral satisfaction. The missionary is rejoicing that with this growth in freer to do the work than under the numbers and this multiplicity of labors old conditions, and of work there is there has been manifested an increas- certainly any amount, and enough for ing sense of responsibility for the two or three times the present mis- evangelization of Japan. There has sionary force in Japan. At any rate, already grown up a large body of self- we have not heard an expression of supporting churches which are deep- desire to get back to the old condi- ly imbued with the belief that it is tions, not even for the sake of the mis- their duty to prove to the world that sionary."
Christianity is no longer an exotic, General Outlook but has planted its roots firmly in J ap- As to the general outlook, Rev. Mr.
anese soil." Johnson, of the East Japan Mission, In a report of the annual meeting writes, "There is in Japan to-day of the mission of the American Board, among the leaders of the people, al- Rev. Mr. Lombard writes, "Especially most a universal cry for a stable basis pleasing were the many references of morality. The suicides and gross that gave evidence of the successful immoralities of students and business cooperation of the mission and the men have startled the people into in- Kumiai churches, thus further estab- quiring the reasons for such moral lishing the value of the policy that failures. Hitherto education was maintains complete mutual independ- thought to be sufficient, but the help- ence with the closest cooperative ac- lessness of the people is made appar- tivity." ent in the appeal of the Minister for Rev. Dr. Spencer testifies in regard Education that teachers and pro- to the satisfaction that has been felt fessors would try to inculcate moral in the Methodist body as to the work- ideas in those whom they taught.
ing of the plan of having a Japanese Right here we come in touch with bishop in control. In an account of this awakening conscience. All over their last annual meeting he writes, the land, from cold, wind-swept "There has not appeared on the part Hokkaido to sunny Formosa, farmers, of the Japanese any act manifesting artizans, students, merchants and the desire to exclude the foreigner. scholars are listening to the gospel He has been welcomed in all its ses- message and are being led into the sions, his voice has been heard in its kingdom. Never before has the nation deliberations, and no discrimination in been in a better attitude to receive the voice or vote is made against the mis- Truth. She is reaching out for. some- sionary. The utmost harmony and thing higher. We believe she is reach- good will has prev3iled throughout, ing for the Truth.
the missionary and the Japanese heart- "The best piece of news concerning
A GARDEN OF THE LORD IN THE
our work in the "Hokkaido is the invi- schools, before closed, are opening to tation of the president of the steel- the gospel." rolling plant to one of our Presbyterian missionaries. The company is Speaking of the future of Chriswilling to provide a home for the tianity in Japan, Dr. Motoda says, "It missionary and to equip him for his is our firm belief that Christianity will work among the six thousand em- be the future religion for the greatest ployees. What a wonderful oppor- number of the people of Japan, that tunity to bring the gospel message policy has nothing to do with the matand influence to such a company of ter, and that Christianity will be unimen." versally adopted, not because it is politic to do so, but on account of its Rev. ]. E. Hail, of the West Japan giving full satisfaction to the spiritual Mission, writes, "Marked are the evi- needs of man." dences of God's hand in recent movements affecting the whole empire. In a description of a Christian meet- During the late war, Christian work ing at the hall of the Y. M. C. A. in among the soldiers reached tens of Tokyo, the writer says, "There was thousands, who, with a favorable re- a refinement and a sweetness in those port of Christianity, have returned as faces which one does not often see, victorious heroes to homes and vil- and when one listened to what was lages heretofore shut against Christ. said by the speakers of the day and Reports of the evangelical addresses heard the prayers that were offered, at the World's Students' Federation new visions of the immediate future Conference, the first international rose before one's eyes, and that augathering ever held in the Orient, dience seemed like the city of God were published in all the dailies and set on a hilI, into which shall be gathread by millions. Homes, villages, ered all the children of God that are scattered abroad."
A GARDEN OF THE LORD IN THE SOLOMONS SECOND ARTICLE * BY NORTH COTE DECK We are anchored now at Tulagi, in The evening meeting is just over. the Solomons, where we have come in As I looked at the ring of woolly heads, the mission vessel Evangel for mails bowed over tattered hymn-books and and supplies. It is raining and blow- Bibles, around a flickering hurricaneing hard and at night the wind has a lantern on the hatch, while the wind wonderful way of whisking through howled and the awnings flapped and the rigging which makes one wish for the rain drove in gusts across the deck, dry land and home, where there is no I thought of the· well-lighted churches need to think of anchors dragging or and the quiet Sunday evenings at cables breaking. But we have had a home. Sunday so happy that one thanks Him again and again for the joy of being .Yet cheerless as it was outwardly, here in His service. the Lord came near to cheer, for He went through many such storms in His * For the first part see July REVIEW, pp 529, et. seq.
earthly wanderings. He is a high Then very simply we told of God's priest that can be touched with the remedy; "His medicine," reverently I feeling of our infirmities, and He has liked to call it. As they sat around on a gracious way of giving a peculiar mats, some quite children, some old joy in such service and surroundings men with horrible sores, some young which makes up for everything else. wives gaily decorated with beads, or _ Thinking over the many strange ex- men with strings of white cowrieperiences of our floating home, one's shells across their foreheads; then I mind went back to a meetipg held in thought I saw another: a heavenly wide Wanoni Bay, on the far-off Visitor, unseen yet real, and I wonisland of San Christoval. School dered how much they would have to was begun there three years ago by be changed to be like Him, as is his six men from Malaita at the urgent wish. Then the meeting ended with a entreaty of Peter Wetigo, a solitary simple hymn, almost a chorus, "Jesus Christian man who lived in the bay, saves me just now, just now Jesus where I had my first real experience saves me." of preaching to heathen. After lunch there was a quiet meet- The meeting was held in a large ing of the Christians, to carry out the house, with doors made high up and Master's wishes when He said, "This narrow, in self-defense, so that no one do in remembrance of me." I rememcould get in quickly. There were ber it was raining at the time, a heavy three seats of honor-three stumps- squall from the mountains around, but one for myself, one for the interpreter, it only seemed to shut us in with Him while on the third the old chief, idly more closely; and the surf thundered fanned himself with his great hat and on the beach a dozen yards away, but grunted approval at intervals. it only emphasized the absolute still- ness in the room as that little company Unaccustomed to native audiences, of Christians sat with heads bowed it was with very mixed feelings that reverently. one stood up to tell them about the Way. While one described the Passover feast held year after year for many The feeling which was uppermost centuries, until one evening it was held was one of utter helplessness as I for the last time in the presence of the looked at some of the faces around One who came to fulfil the picture of and wondered how they could possibly the passover lamb; and then as one understand these things which are. described the upper room, the strife, the feet-washing, and repeated the Spiritually discerned, it made one last command, "Love one another," I long afresh for the prayers of friends think most of our hearts were bared at home. We count it joy to come to His eye and bowed to His comhere, leaving home and comfort, but mand. we are helpless unless God works and' friends at home pray; always remem- Then the simple elements were ber that. We had a sheet on the wall passed around and absolute stillness with the Ten Commandments, and, reigned as we remembered Him and likening them to a foot-rule by which tried to forget the world around. Sudwe measure, tried to show how, by this denly I caught myself wondering how standard, all men "come short."
19IO] A GARDEN OF THE LORD IN THE SOLOMONS
it all appealed to the group of heathen those months were. Do you remem- natives i!1 the next room, as without ber that verse about buying up the moving they squatted around in dif- opportunities? That just seems to fit ferent attitudes silently watching this this man, with his brief and fruitful strange, impressive service through service.
the open door of the darkened room While at Wanoni I paid a visit to beyond, their white eyeballs gleaming all that remains to remind the world in the gloom and the strings of white of Tom Solomon. There was great cowrie-shells making strange mark- difficulty in getting a guide, all being ings on their faces. And then we afraid, as well they might because it scattered, each, I think, wanting to was full of danger to them. We fol- be alone to live over again those lowed the river up some two miles, solemn moments of fellowship with a dark eerie gorge, the stream rush- Him. ing over boulders and between banks This district, too, like so many of ferns and overhanging creepers.
others here, has already its martyr. Sometimes we jumped from boulder Tom Solomon was a candidate in to boulder, or climbed around pro- Queensland, but returned to the jecting banks, holding on to decaying islands before being baptized. Coming roots and fragrant creepers, till we back to Wanoni Bay he began attend- reached a place where there was a ing school at once; but he did more. little more sunshine and a narrow Taught like all the others that he was ledge bet'ieen the river and the steep, "saved to serve," he became a zealous rising hill. Here we found the over- worker, bringing so many to school grown garden and the blackened and that the chief on his side of the river desolate ruin of a native hut. Only became alarmed. the skeleton framework was left, So he invited T 0111 back to his old gaunt and bare. I could not help home on the banks of a mountain looking up on the hills around for river under pretense that he wanted some savage face watching tiS out of a school. There silently in the dead the bush.
of night three men fell on him and But it was all silent, deadly silent, hacked him to pieces with axes. Tak- except for the rustle of the stream ten ing what remained of his body, they feet below; and a kind of chill came threw it over the high bank of ferns over us all. At any moment some one into the river below and then burned might have safely shot us from above.
down the house. Among the ashes near where the The chief refused to allow anyone head of the dead man's bunk had ap- to bury the body. So there in the parently been, I came across the stream, head down, it lay, a ghastly blackened and rusted head of an ax, warning to alI others not to come to perhaps one of those used that dark school; till God, I think, in pity sent night.on the unsuspecting man. And a flood which carried the body down there the three of us, bareheaded, and out to sea, where it awaits "that stooping under the broken rafters, great day." with the music of the stream in our Tom had only been home a few ears, joined in reverent prayer- short months; yet how well invested prayer that God would look down and
that He would avenge the blood of beach. Truly "if a corn of wheat fall His servant by bringing in many into the ground and die it bringeth through this thing, "That he being forth much fruit," and friends, we dead might yet speak." What a com- ought to lay down our lives for the fort that Jesus knows and cares. brethren. The fruit appears already, for one of those stealthy murderers Then parting the ferns which shut has since been converted after steadily out the river from view, we turned attending the services, and now the down-stream and homeward; and I old chief wants to move down to the noticed that the guides went faster beach to have school in his village, than before and seemed relieved when and we expect a martyr's harvest. at last we stept unharmed onto the A MOSLEM INVITATION AND A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE flY GEORGE F. HERRICK, D.D.
Eight centuries ago, when the world sons of men. What then have we to was Europe and the Nearer East, do with "attack" and "defense," with there rang through Christendom the "army" and "conquest"? We may recry, "To arms! Let us rescue the gret dropping the word "crusade" beholy sepulcher from the infidel; snatch cause of its etymological meaning, but the symbols of our faith from Moslem even this word conveys so sinister a hands." Is it not the irony of history meaning to those we wish to help that that to-day Moslem bayonets alone it is better that we simply let it hold prevent "Christians" from fiying at its place in past history, each other's throats in those holy places? Hark! is the cry echoed from the east to the west, from Moslem to The "Christian" nations are indeed Christian lands, a challenge? It lacks armed to-day in a fashion which the ring of a challenge. It is too makes us smile at the brave panoply plaintive for that. It is altogether in of the crusading knights as we do at a minor key. It is a cry for help. It children's mimicry of war. But the is a distress signal. "Have compasforces that are gathered here have no sion on our poverty, our ignorance, armies at their back. Competition in our helplessness. Help us to break the hurried laying down of Dread- and cast away the fetters riveted and noughts in the great ship-building rusting on our limbs for ages and genyards does not concern them. The erations. We see you standing erect, very terminology of war and battle we like men, clothed, fed, sheltered, discard. See! we wear no coats of walking, running, winning in the race mail; siege guns, mountain batteries, of life. Give us a fraternal hand. armored cruisers we have none. Never mind our conceit of a lineage Enemies we have none among all the and a national history confessedly il-
1910j A MOSLEM: INVI'fATION ANt A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
lustrious and more ancient than your march with us along the path of maown. Don't remind us too often that terial progress toward the attainment all that is noble in our lineage and of material prosperity and wen-being. our history is underground. You can They are attempting at one bound the help us. Come and let us help you establishment of constitutional governto see how you can effectually bring ment. They are learning the ABC us the help we need. of liberty, individual and national, and they have not yet learned the entire Now, as we consider what the in- alphabet. They do some groping in vitation and welcome extended by the conduct of a deliberative and legis- Moslem peoples to Christians of the lative assembly. But they are honestly West really signifies and implies, let trying to learn and put in practise the us see and frankly acknowledge that, lesson learned through experience except in very few and isolated cases, and practise, ages long, by the Westit does not imply any readiness to ac- ern nations, and in this they ask our cept and profess our religion in place help. It is in a good degree a fra:- of their ancestral faith. Our privilege ternal appeal. The appeal is meeting and duty in this regard will be consid- with a fraternal, if not wholly unselfered further on. ish response.
I. What, Then, Do Moslem Peoples Ask Egypt, perhaps, presents the best il- lustration of the significance and value From Christians of the West? of the Christian response to this cry of an opprest and distrest people. We I. The Moslem world powers ask see there a Moslem people, in the "Christians" to come and teach them space of a quarter of a century, lifted, the art of war on sea and land, as under Christian influence, out of dense "Christians" practise it, and to supply poverty and its attendant hopelessness them with such war material, such into rapidly increasing material prosweapons of precision as will enable perity; lifted from abject, almost anithem, as Japan has done, to cope on· mal, slavery into conscious manhood. equal terms with their "Christian" neighbors; and "Christian" nations Even in Turkey, under the iron rule are acceding to their request. of absolutism, progress was making in the larger cities of the empire for The question here raised is one which the long stride toward liberty and runs deeper than the purely political material prosperity taken two years relations of Mohammedan to Christian ago. Better roads, better houses, betgovernments. One fact we are in ter lighting, better sanitation are evidanger of failing, it may be fatally dence of progress made. In these and failing, to grasp, viz., that in a Moslem in other and similar ways Mohammestate questions civil and questions re- dans in Turkey have profited from ligious, civil officers and religious of- their proximity to their neighbors of ficers, are not merely united: they are the West. Along this path of progress identical. The sharpest sword a Mos- they will, we hope, advance, with more lem ruler wields is that of his prophet. elastic step, in the years to come. Church and State in Islam are vitally joined and inseparable. 3. Leading Mussulmans invite and welcome Christian help in their efforts 2. Moslems and Moslem peoples are asking us to help them arise and
worthily to educate their people high-school conducted by the Amerthrough schools and the press; to in- ican mission in Constantinople, three troduce scientific healing, and even in were Mussulmans. Of the three, two, their struggle, under great difficulties, brother and sister, were from one for social reform. family and had attended the school for seven years. The father, a physician, Weare far from claiming that the was the most intensely interested Mussulman peoples of Turkey, as a listener present at the closing exerwhole, or any large fraction of those cises of the school. The mother also peoples, join in this appeal to us for was present on a balcony overlooking help in these more vital movements the stage. There was no person shartoward reform. ing in the exercises of that occasion more self-possest, more modest and How much in earnest, how intelli- less self-conscious, than the young gent and determined some thousands Turkish maiden of that little group of of Mohammedans have long been in pupils. their effort to approach a Christian standard intellectually, hygienically, What possibilities of good and that and morally has ~en abundantly evi- of the highest are not infolded within denced by the increasing number of the high moral and Christian training Mussulman youth attending Christian of the schools and the press estabschools in Constantinople, in Cairo, in lished among Mussulman peoples by Beirut, in Tabriz, Teheran, and all Christians of the West and now welover India; by the rapidly increasing comed by those peoples. circulation of the Bible and of Christian literature among Mohammedans What, then, and how much has been and by the crowding of our hospitals accomplished in our response to the with Mussulman patients. On the invitation and welcome extended by part of all these there is a cordiality, Mohammedans to Christians of the a gratitude, a manifestation of frater- West ? We will make no boast connal feeling quite as marked as is found cerning the purely material benefits among profest Christians. Examples conferred by Christians upon Mohamof what is here stated could be given medans in the later years. They which would swell this brief paper into themselves make much of this. Some a large volume. results of this contact between the East and the West has more than ma- Observe that all this is new in the terial worth. But if this were all, we history and experience of Mussulman have done little of real and permanent peoples. That it is profoundly signifi- value in relation to our fellow men as cant, who can doubt? That in Tur- spiritual or even as moral beings. key, till July, 1908, all this accumulating influence of Christian upon Mo- But when we consider what is inhammedan was altogether outside of volved in the third class of influences anything resembling a propagandist mentioned, which are welcomed by movement, that the approach has been an liberal and enlightened Mohammefrom Moslem to Christian adds great- dans, the value of the influence is imly to its significance and value. mensely increased.
In the class of eight, two boys and Waive for the moment the purely six girls, graduating last year from a intellectual uplift which Western edu-
1910J A MOSLEM INVITATION AND A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
cation brings to Mussulman peoples. hardly for a Christian to enter the lists Estimate, if you can, the significance in refutation of this interpretation, of the moral training which we are in- even tho it necessitates the sealing up vited to bring to Moslems. There are of many specific commands Qf the many excellent moral precepts in the Koran and an ignoring of the whole Koran, but there are other teach- history of Islam. The welcoming of ings, "revelations" called out by the Christian civilization and education by moral degeneracy of Mohammed's Moslem peoples wiII produce sur- later life, which have profoundly and prizing results. Give to Mussulman balefulIy influenced the devotees of children of this and coming genera- Islam for almost thirteen hundred tions the ethical teachings of Christ's years. The significance of this in- "Sermon on the Mount," as· the foun- fluence is seen in the necessity under dation on which to build their charac- which the most intelIigent Mohamme- ters, and then fraternity will be neither dans feel themselves placed to resent spasmodic nor superficial. And then Christian criticism of Mohammed's a religion of creed and form disso- moral lapses, or to apologize for them ciated from life and conduct will be a on the ground that a prophet can not thing of the past, and the great err, and also by completely divorcing dynamic of the personality of Jesus religion from life, and that both theo- will demonstrate its attractive and retically and practically. In the light saving power. of the life and teaching of Jesus, where true religion and true life are identi- II. Our Invitation to Mohammedans and fied, it is monstrous to claim that a man may be at once a favorite of the Their Response Most High and a sensualist and merciless to his enemies. What is this invitation? In one word it is an invitation to accept Jesus Events like those of April, 1908, at Christ alone as revealer of God and and near Adana, and like those which Savior of men. took place all over Turkey in 1895-96, are entirely in accord with specific The response made to this invitaprecepts found in the Koran and with tion by the overwhelming mass of the "prophetic" example, and will recur 230,000,000 of Mohammedans in the whenever religious fanaticism sets world is an indignant, or contemptuous aflame the ferocity and cupidity of or blind refusal. "Christianity is for faithful Mohammedans, provided you," they say, "and Islam is for us. .there be the incentive of a permission Ours is the later, the final revelation given by their acknowledged Kalif of God to men. It is the perfect rewith an armed force behind him, and ligion. We accept the Tevrat, the with the hope of plunder and political Tebour and the Injil. We now ask gain before them. you to accept the Koran. Do you suppose we will throw that aside and Islam and the Koran have recently accept only the other three as you do? been authoritatively interpreted as God forbid!" favorable to constitutional government and to equality of Christian and In what way are we to meet and Mohammedan under the law. It is overcome this repulsion? How are we first to gain a hearing for Christ's message, and then to secure the ac-
ceptance of the priceless boon Christ and love united, before Moslem eyes, offers to men. and that sort of crusade will soon draw devotees of Islam-sooner than I. Unquestionably, first of all, by it will draw heathen peoples-into a making the Christian life irresistibly real brotherhood, all alike children of winning. True, Mohammedans act- one Father, with one head, Jesus ually separate religion from life; but, Christ. To the invitation so given all the same, none anywhere are more those Christians in Moslem lands who quick to appreciate the charm, none are accustomed to look below the surmore ready to respond to the winning face of life around them note the repower of pure and unselfish living sponse of acceptance, wide-spread and than those acquaintances one forms real, if far from general. Indeed, the among Mussulman peoples. opinion is ventured that in Turkey, where the chronicled results of mis- It is not the doctrine of the trinity sionary effort are mainly found among which has kept Mohammedans from the Christian races, those results becoming Christians. It is the un- which do not lend themselves to lovely character and conduct of the statistical statement, but are far-reach- Christians they have known all ing and full of promise for the future, through the centuries which has are found more among Mussulman closed and barred their hearts against than among Christian races. Christ. 2. The missionary among Moham- No contrast in the moral world is medans should invite those whose conceivably greater than that between friendship he has gained to study the the life of Christ and the later life of New Testament and also Church his- Mohammed. The one great mission tory with his personal assistance. of the Christian world is to hold Christ Without such assistance intelligently, before Moslem eyes. The person of systematically . and sympathetically Christ as revealed to us in the gos- rendered, any Mussulman inquirer is pels, this simply and alone, taught sure to go wrong. It is on the basis and lived by Christians, is our fra- of such study alone that discussion ternal invitation to the Mussulman of Christian doctrine can be fruitfuJIy world. Apparently, slight response conducted. A Moslem inquirer often, has yet been made to this invitation. in a first interview, proposes his ob- Is not the reason of this found in th~ jections to the doctrine of the trinity. fact that, till this day, the winning, Such a discussion at that time will be attractive person of Christ has been fruitless, and more probably worse hidden, caricatured even, as it has than fruitless. The Oriental mind is been presented to Mohammedans? constitutionally averse to logical and systematic procedure in investigating a Even if we do not recall the lurid subject, especially if feeling and perhistory of Europe, and take only the sonal interest enter into the result. present spectacle presented by Christendom before the Mussulman world, The advance made in recent years, how little do we see that personal even in Mohammedan countries, in power which has made Christianity physical science, tends to correct this dominant in the world! Let Chris- habit of the Oriental mind and will in tendom disarm, and exhibit, not battleships and colossal armies, but law
A MOSLEM INVITATION AND A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE
time result not only in freer religious from unfriendly eyes one's most ininquiry and discussion, but also in timate thoughts and experiences more fruitful study by Mohammedans greatly helps to keep the response to of the Bible and of the nature and his- Christ's invitation unuttered. The call tory of Christianity. The Mussu1man from the crucified and glorified Lord is already anxiously asking why it is is "Follow me and I will bestow upon that the devotees of Islam are every- you life eternal, life more abundant. where left behind in the race of life If you love me, keep my commandas compared with Christians, even ments." Love to Christ at its strongwhere, as in Turkey, Christians are est forces open confession, and imthe subject races and Mohammedans pels to that testimony which life, and are the ruling race. The inquirer is it may be death alone can seal, the reaching an answer to his question testimony that a convert remaining a which is essentially false. It is an leaven among his own people can renimportant part of the duty of the der, testimony of unique and permissionary to help him to gain a true suasive power. and right answer to his inquiry. Are there not many in every Mos- 3. It is for Christians to advance lem country who have, in their secret still further in their approach to Mo- conviction, seen the mighty contrast hammedans. It remains for them to between the person of Christ and that say in the utterance of fraternal love of Mohammed, felt the recoil of an and solicitude, "Come now, accept the honest and aspiring soul from the message of salvation made you in the duty of following their leader from gospel. Jesus the Christ is the one Arabia, and felt drawn toward the Savior of men. Follow Him, obey pure teaching and the attracting per- His commands. Receive life from sonal power of the uplifted Jesus?' Him." What will be the response to Are there not those-an increasing this invitation? There may follow, number-who see that religion which not controversy, but serious fraternal consists of a creed and of an opus consideration, under the light of operatum and permits its devotees to sacred Scripture, of history, biog- break ad libitum everyone of the raphy, reason, above all, under the commands of the second table of the convincing power of the Spirit of divine law proclaimed from Mount God; and the final result will be a full Sinai, can not be from God or lead to conviction and surrender to Jesus God? Christ. It is for us to foster this leaning of Then what? Then the great trial men, born devotees of Islam, toward comes. Mind and heart submit to one greater than Moses, one who said, Christ. But old customs, relatives, "Before Abraham was, I am," one early friends, personal interests, all who lives still and evermore. It is unite to make open confession of his for us to lead wanderers to Him who new faith by one born a Moslem as is "the Way, the Truth and the Life." near to the impossible as we can well conceive. The age-long habit of It is for us tenderly, patiently, ur- Orientals, where the social tie is gently, to repeat in Moslem ears the stronger than in the West, to conceal invitation, "Come to Jesus." The re- sponse, "If it tarry, wait for it. It
will surely come and will not tarry." before Moslem eyes, among Moslem Have we any right to doubt this? peoples, will, according to His own When the invited guests make their promise, draw all men unto Himself. excuses, and keep one another in coun- Events transpiring in the world are tenance in slighting the royal invita- hastening on this result. tion to the heavenly feast, let us not forget the hungry souls in the high- The Hearer of prayer will use-is ways and under the hedges, and let us using-His own mighty forces to asnot be discouraged if even they have sure the answer to the prayers of His to be compelled to come in and par- people. Let us not be impatient in take of the heavenly feast. The the face of difficulties, obstacles and providence of God, at work in the delays. Let us confidently commit the world, is one of the compelling forces banner we bear aloft to those who with which we cowork. The Spirit of come after us, when the evening God works on human hearts where shadows of our own lives lengthen. our dul1 eyes see men as trees walk- Victory is emblazoned on all its ample ing. Christ, the ever-living Christ, folds. To the eye of a robust faith by and through those who live Him the day of the full redemption of the Moslem world draws on apace.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF TANGIER Mr. Mayer Barkey has just joined the truth." In the afternoon we went Dr. Goldstein, of the Mildmay Mis- visiting with the doctor, and were resion to the Jews, in the work at Tan- ceived very nicely. While he was atgier, Morocco. He sends the fol1ow- tending to the patient I talked with ing notes. the other members of the household about their souls' needs and invited What I like is the abundance of them to our Bible classes. work to be done. The Jews seem to be !Iuite accessible and without preju- In the evening a young man came dice. They seem to be a type we do not often meet. What a blessing to be for an English lesson and r conducted able to enter freely into their houses and to gain a listening ear! I have the lesson for the doctor. We had an already begun work and will tell you interesting conversation, and as the something of my experience. young man was quite ignorant of his faith and of the Bible I asked him to On Monday morning we had about read the history of Bible characters, seventy patients. I was introduced by Abraham, Isaac, and others, write a Dr. Goldstein, and they welcomed me composition on each, and I would corvery kindly. After a little singing I rect his composition and discuss it spoke to them from John 3, about the with him. He comes twice a week. way Christ treats those who come to Him. They paid every attention to There are many opportunities, too, the words spoken, and nodded their of speaking to those who come at odd heads, as if to say, "You are telling times to see the doctor. One man seemed to have already thought about the truth in Christ, for as soon as I
IMPRESSIONS OF
began to speak to him he referred to since several families usually live to- the difficulties of confession. I quoted gether in what is called a patio, and the words of Jeremiah, "The fear of as soon as they see us they all gather man bringeth a snare," and told him around us. that his words showed lack of confidence in God to help us in difficul- In another house where two families ties. live together, a statement that I was a converted Jew led to a long conver- There were twenty-one at the Wed- sation on the Scriptures. They said nesday evening class. It was a pleas- at once, "You will never make us beure to see the interest and attention lieve that the Messiah has come and of the people. They sang very heart- convert us." I replied that I was sure ily and listened most attentively. At that I could not, but that God was the end of the meeting they thanked able. They contradicted me vigorus very much, an unusual thing for ously the first time, but still they were Jews, and they promised to come regu- interested in what I said and asked larly. me to call again. The second time there was less contradiction, and they I am thoroughly enjoying the work, seemed to think there was much truth and am finding more to do than I have in what I said. They asked for a time for. Nearly all the families I Bible, and when I took it to them I have called on want me to go again, had to spend another hour and a half. and often ask me why I have not been In fact, the people are becoming so sooner, tho I may have called the very interested that besides expressing a week before. I waste no time when I wish for frequent visits they are atvisit them, for I speak to them all the tending the meetings very regularly. time of the Gospel of Christ as the power of God unto salvation. Some- A few days ago we were all invited times they ask me to rcad to them, and into a Jewish house. An educated at others I suggest that we should young man, well acquainted with Hehave a little reading of the Bible, and brew, began to ask questions about they listen most attentively. various Bible truths. He became so interested in the explanations and the On two consecutive Saturdays a fulfilment in Christ of prophecies that man asked me to go to his house. I we spent practically all the time in went and found that he was very much speaking about them. The doctor and interested in the things of Christ. His one of the others also took part. wife, a very intelligent woman, seemed to have been brought up by devout At Passover time fewer patients Jewish parents. She can read Hebrew came to the dispensary and not much and she understands it a little. At visiting could be done. During these first she held to rabbinical Judaism; days I enjoyed talks with the patients, but when I pointed out some of its not giving them an address as usual, defects, quoting passages in Hebrew but standing among them and asking in support of what I said, she grad- questions. Little by little they were ually consented to listen to gospel brought to see their need of salvation truth. Two sisters and some neigh- and the provision God had made for bors were also listening attentively, every individual soul in Jesus Christ. an advantage we generally have here, I believe more profitable work has
been done with the few in this way bodies would give them entrance into than with the many. One day I opened the Kingdom of God, but a look of my Bible at the seventh chapter of faith at Jesus Christ and acceptance Revelation, and I felt there was a of Him as their Savior would insure message for the people in the four them salvation. By virtue of His last verses. I said to the patients it blood they could receive pardon and seemed to me a great pity that the be cleansed and made fit for heaven. Jews were taking so much trouble and spending weeks over the cleaning of I often hear Jews and Jewesses say, their houses, when they were not the "How true is all that he is reading and least concerned to cleanse their hearts, explaining to us." And sometimes which could be done so easily to the they grumble at the heavy burden the profit of their souls. I told them that rabbis have put upon them. We trust no cleaning of their houses or their that all this by the Spirit of God will bring forth fruit to everlasting life.
HINDRANCES WHICH THE SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN JAPAN PRESENT TO THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE GOSPEL * BY REV. J. G. DUNLOP A volume might be written on helps be served at meal-time. "With imand encouragements which the social placable minuteness, with ferocity of conditions in Japan present in our detail, everything was ordained for Christian work, but I have been asked him, even to the quality of his footto speak on hindrances, and this paper gear, the cost of his wife's hair-pin, will deal with hindrances only. and the price of his child's doll."
The hindrances which the social "The result was to suppress all conditions in Japan present to the ac- mental and moral differentiation, to ceptance of the gospel arise chiefly numb personality, to establish one unifrom the social organization. It is form and unchanging type of characwithout doubt the most closely-knit ter. To this day every Japanese mind communalistic system on a large scale reveals the lines of that antique mold which the world has ever seen. For by which the ancestral mind was commany hundreds of years the Japanese prest and' limited." have lived under a system by whichto quote one of Lafcadio Hearn's Hearn calls it the rule of the dead. compact sentences-"personality has "The hand of the dead was heavy, it been wholly supprest by coercion, the is heavy upon the living to-day." life of every individual being so or– dered by the will of the rest as to Of course, that was old Japan. render free action, free speaking, free Feudalism was abolished by law a genthinking out of the question." eration ago, but you can not destroy feudalism in a generation. We have Legislation and social custom in old it to-day in every family, in every pub- Japan were absolutely tyrannical. lic office, yes, in every church in this Every detail of the heimin's (com- land. In theory, the individual has maner's) existence at least was pre- become free; in practise, he is not scribed by law, from the size, form, much more free than his ancestors. No man is yet complete master, in our and cost of his dwelling down to the Western sense, of his activities, his number and quality of the dishes to time, his means. In Japan there is * A paper read before the Council of Presbyterian and Reformed Missions at Karuizawa, Japan, on August 26, 1909.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN JAPAN 61
still "interference extraordinary," to bars and from the officials or elders use one of Hearn's illuminating of the village or ward section of the phrases; and, to quote another, the town in which one lives that is almost power of the community for "com- incredible. Even now the only safe pulsory cooperation" is still extreme. and comfortable rule of conduct in a "Compulsory cooperation" – is not Japanese community is to act in all that suggestive of some council his- things according to local custom. The tory? We marvel at the demands that slightest divergence from rule is reare made upon us missions in this land, garded with disfavor, and privacy men and women from countries that does not exist. I often tell the ] aphave known personal and political anese in my preaching that Chrisliberty for centuries, where self-asser- tianity, if nothing else, will in time tion and self-government have never give them a different style of house been represt, personality never been to live in, for Christ said: "But thou, clipt like a hedge, restrained and when thou prayest, enter into thine pruned and clipt in a hundred ways as inner chamber, and, having shut thy in this land-I say, we marvel at these door, pray to thy Father who is in demands, but what can you expect in secret, and thy Father who seeth in a nation where the individual of every secret shall recompense thee." Smal! class is at once "coercer and coerced, chance for privacy in a land whose like an atom in a solid body, able to walls are of paper that a wet finger vibrate, indeed, but the orbit of his can easily pierce. Here everybody vibration most rigidly fixt?" knows all about everybody, and eccen- tricities and singularities are quickly How does all this hinder Christian marked and quietly supprest. There work? That needs but brief state- is restraint everywhere, from three diment. In a community where, gen- rections-from above, from one's erally speaking, no one is free, evan- equals, and from below. This last gelism can not make rapid progress. sort is not the least formidable as In the family no one is free. Mar- witness the "strikes," so called, and riage does not, as with us, mean the other troubles in Japanese schools, of foundation of a new family: it is a which a Japanese paper related lately mere incident in the history of a fam- that there have been over 2,500 altoily long established. Either the wife gether since the beginning of the or the husband becomes the adopted Meiji era, forty years ago. With child of another family. Marriage. such pressure from above, from about, signifies adoption. In either case, from below, how much personal whether the young woman goes as liberty has one to investigate freely yome (bride) or the young man as and iustly a new teaching presented yoshi (adopted son), the new bond is to him? one of bondage to a househoJd, a family with a history and traditions I was struck two days ago in hearand religious connections of many ing the annual report with the many generations, perhaps of centuries. The references to successful Sunday-school children of the new couple belong to work. Why is the Sunday-school the family, the traditional ancestral work easier than other Christian family, rather than to the father am! work? Because the children in this mother. No one is really free in the land have a freedom that no one else family. Everybody from the youngest has. With us of the West, repression to the grandfather is subject to some is strongest in the case of the child, one else or to the whole family, living but Japan reverses that. I sometimes tell the Japanese that with us the and dead. child is in tutelage but the adult is And as the individual is not free in free; while with them the child is free and the adult is in bondage. Not the family, the family is not free in merely tip to the age of school life but the community. There is in this land an amottJ.t of interference from neigh-
considerably beyond it, the child has those cities, but mostly from people a degree of liberty far greater than is from the provinces temporarily domallowed to Western children. In fact, iciled in the large cities. This is not in Japan, children are so unrestrained said in disparagement of those great and allowed to be so mischievous that preachers and pastors. Their churches a Japanese proverb says: "Nanatsu are strong churches and they are great 'J'atsl~, michibata no ana de sae mo men. But it by no means follows that, nikumu." "Even the holes by the because they have succeeded in buildroadside hate the boy of seven or ing up churches of several hundred eight years old." Later, unfortunate- members in Tokyo or Osaka, they ly, this freedom is curtailed to a tragic could do the same thing in other and fatal degree and children are places. I should like to see Mr. taken away from our Sunday-schools Demura or Mr. Miyagawa spend ten just when- they are approaching the years in the city of Takata, Echigo, or age when experience and the psychol- in Toyama, Etchu, or in Takaoka, the same province, or in some of the ogists teach us the young mind and smaller towns along the same coast. heart are most susceptible to religious In a large section of which I spoke in influences, that period of adolescence our mission the other day, where when the doors of the heart in most there are several towns of more than cases are closed to the earthly parent, 10,000 each, and numerous villages, and, if the individual is not to suffer and hundreds of thousands of people, great harm, should be opened out to where one of our mission stations has the Father in heaven. In America and for many years maintained two England, the age at which young peo- earnest evangelists, changing the men ple come most easily under religious from time to time, there has been, to conviction is between 16 and 20, and my knowledge, just one baptism in a what a blest thing it is so, that at dozen years. Nat even the greatest the time of greatest moral danger, preacher in Japan could have greatly God daims us for His own! But in influenced the adverse conditions Japan the susceptible age is after 20, there. The force of custom, oftraoften after the soul is besmirched and dition, the power of the many over bedraggled in sin. Why? Because the individual, or individuals here and in the earlier age, 16-20, the young there over the many, is still too strong people of Japan are still studying or in those communities to admit the working at home or near home. In Word of Truth. school they are in the middle school, in their own province within a few It is this fact that makes some of us miles of the tombs of their ancestors. wonder whether the time has even Later, in the high-school age, they yet come for a general advance upon have to journey to Tokyo, Kyoto, the villages of Japan-at least in the Sendai, etc., and are absent from home more backward sections of the ema year at a time, sometimes for two pire. That it must be made someor three years-and it is then first that time, and that it must be a foreign the Truth can get at them. In fact, in missionary task and can not be left to most cases, the fisher of men, if he is the Japanese church alone, we are to catch the Japanese, has to catch him ready to concede. But we realize from away from home. It is not universally our experience,. our hard, barren exso, but I venture to estimate that nine perience, not in the villages, but in the out of ten of our Christians have been towns and smaller cities, that it will be converted at a distance from the home a task calling for an immense expenrestraints. The great churches in diture of human prayers and human Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe – Mr. tears, of human life and of golden Demura's, Mr. Miyagawa's and others treasure, and there is such a thing as -get their members, not from families beginning too soon. In the Roman that have been long established in Empire the cities were Christian long
SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN
before the country, so that the word three yen per year, have been securedfor countryman, paganus, the native it is hardly too much to say that they of the pagus or country, came to mean have been dragooned and driven into unbeliever, pagan; the dweller on the the society, many of them being people heath was the heathen. It will not be without an atom of what we ordinarily different in Japan. The great mass call philanthropy in their whole conof Japan's fifty millions are not in the stitution. When Japan contributed great cities, not in the Hokkaido, IOO,OOO yen to the San Francisco where the population is largely one earthquake sufferers a few years ago, of immigrants from the south, up- how was the money obtained ? We rooted from their old homes and freed know how such sums are obtained in from the old restraints, and among the West. They are free-will offerwhom, therefore, Christian work is ings of men and women whose hearts measurably easier. The great mass live are moved by sympathy for those who in the vill~Kes and towns and small are in trouble, but here that sum was cities where the population is com- levied on the ·nation, so much per paratively stationary, where, in large household. Even the Church in Japan measure, the same families continue raises its money much in the same way. Little is left to the will of the from generation to generation, where individual. The system of levy is everyone knows everyone else, where everywhere in operation. This is a local society has been pruned and dipt, great hindrance in the early stage of bent and bound, like those wonder- Christian work, in the stage when the fully shaped trees that you sometimes missionary has chief charge and befind in old gardens, that can not easily fore there is a body or group of Japbe trained into new shapes. anese members who can coerce-in the gentle, smooth way of Japan, but I need not give illustrations of this coerce – the individual into doing denial of liberty to the individual. Everybody engaged in Christian work what he ought. in this land knows these things, and Another of the results of the ancient knows how the work is hindered and languishes because of them. social order is an extreme formalism. The missionary or evangelist does not And as the rigid regimentation of easily come into close touch with the society in Japan has denied liberty to ] apanese individual. He is surroundthe individual, it has largely crusht ed by a whole barbed-wire entangleout spontaneity and voluntariness, the ment of formalism which is not easily very qualities that are Christ's first cut through. Dr. Gulick, in his "Evodemand of men. It is "Whosoever lution of the Japanese," has a strong shall confess me before men"; "If thou chapter on "Indirectness and Nominalshall confess"; "vVhosoever will let ity"-the )'umei mujitsu (having the him take"; "Thy people shall be will- name but not the reality) feature of ing in the day of Thy power"; "Every ] apanese life. It is a land in which one whose heart stirred him up, and emphatically things are not what they everyone whom his spirit made will- seem, a land in which you have always ing, brought Jehovah's offering"; to be looking beneath the surface to "Whosoever is of a willing heart, let get at the reality of things. The him bring it." That is the way of servant of Him who "knew all men Christianity, but it has never been the and needed not that any should tesway of Japan. Japan has perhaps the tify of man" learns in time the short largest Red Cross Society in the ways of approach to the hearts of men world, a society with a philanthropic even here, but it is only after long object and whose members might be experience and self-discipline, and supposed to have joined because they everywhere the acceptance of the goswanted to join, of their own free will ; pel is hindered by the all-prevailing but we know how that million and a formalism of the Japanese people. half of members, each paying their
In addition to lack of freedom and up of government college professors, of spontaneity and voluntariness and government college students, a few to formalism, I should charge up middle- and normal-school boys and against the old social order also a sys- girls, two or three teachers of such tem of caste, which, tho very mild in schools, several military officers, a comparison with caste in India, is still larger number of non-commissioned quite real. The same system which officers and soldiers, a number of busiordained the place of each individual ness men, a farmer or two, a blind in the family and each family in the shampooer, and some mechanics and community ordained the place of each laborers and their families. The Lord class and occupation and calling. I Jesus Christ is the only power in this heard a prominent Christian speak land that is breaking down man's sinlately of the wonderful impression he ful barriers and making a united nagot of the solidarity of the American tion of the Japanese. In their old and English peoples when he was pagan life they were strictly separated abroad last year. In Japan the school- into classes and that is their normal teacher is a school-teacher and nothing condition to-day, and that condition else. He is expected not to have any is one of the greatest barriers which interest in politics, religion, or busi- Christian work has to surmount. ness. He sets out to school in the morning with his little lunch-box un- A system which never aimed to der his armand he stays in school till train the individual for independent night. He walks the street to school thought and action, but rather for coand back. but with no contact with operative action, to fit him to occupy any other' class of the community. He an exact place in the mechanism of a is a school-teacher and nothing else. rigid society, a system whose ethics So with the official in each kind of were all involved in conformity to office, so with the doctor, and the sol- custom, has naturally little use for the dier, and the rest. Each class stands public presentation and discussion of by itself, with little contact or sym- truth. The only public speaker the pathy with the others; they are rather old order knew was the street-fakir, at cross purposes with one another. the public story-teller, the actor, or the But he found in England and Amer- singing-girl, all despised, tho as inica that the teacher could be a citizen stitutions preserved and fostered for and an enlightened man of affairs, the centuries. The preacher of the gospel, politician or the soldier could even be too, is first despised. Those who asa preacher, and the minister a pol- semble to hear him come, at first at itician and man of business, and there least, only to be amused. Their whole was a sympathy and fellowship predisposition is to treat him and his among them all, and they stood to- message with contempt. In a land gether in a way that was entirely new where no individual has been conceded in his experience of men. All that is the right to hold an opinion of his own absent here. It is hard even when or to change his opinion at will, the men have become Christians to get man who takes it upon him to advise them to mingle freely with those of men in a public place what they should other classes and occupations. Only think and do can only be regarded after years can we see such a spec- as a presumptuous impostor. Our tacle as I have often rejoiced and preachers are not taken seriously. gloried in in our older Church in Public assembly, public discussion of Kanazawa, founded by Mr. and Mrs. great subjects, is still a new thing, and Winn, and now about thirty years old, the preacher still ranks with the public where seven years ago, when I was entertainer and gets scant respect. associated in its work, it was a com- .Public teaching even by the newsmon spectacle to see over roo present papers has a hard time in this land, at worship on Lord's day-roo made where no one feels the need of being taught more than he got in his home
CONDITIONS IN
in childhood. A Shinto writer said dancing was innocent enough, but the long ago: "The Chinese, being bad whole institution of the geisha is not at heart, in spite of the teaching which innocent. I wish to see in her not a they got, were good only on the out- beauty, but a moral leper-the last vile side; so their bad acts became of such rag of Orientalism which Japan will magnitude that society was thrown be persuaded to throw into the gutter. into disorder. The Japanese, being If Japan only knew it, if she had at straightforward, could do without heart and held precious the purity of teaching." And another Shinto her youth and manhood and the happischolar, Motoori, said: "It is because ness of her womanhood, she would the Japanese were truly moral in their realize that she could better afford practise that they required no theory to parade her tens of thousands of of morals, and the fuss made by the lepers before her visitors from abroad Chinese about theoretical morals is than her tens of thousands of geisha. owing to their laxity in practise." A lady said in my hearing the other Don't you know old Samurai who day that she avoided, in her purthink just like that? If you do not, chases, art objects with pictures of I do, and there are tens of thousands geisha on them. Every true friend of of them, and they are yet, and they Japan should set his face sternly and all whom they can control will against the institution of the geisha. long continue to be, beyond our reach. She is a pernicious, impure, and cor- These men treat our message, this rupting influence in Japanese life. new teaching which is spoken by us, The extent of the misery of which she with the amused contempt with which is the cause is not generally recogthe proud Athenians listened to Paul's nized. Even the Christian teacher will message. sometimes speak of the geisha with a laugh, as if her influence in the life of One more result of the imperfect the nation, tho confessedly evil, were social organization that has persisted a negligible quantity, but thousands of for centuries in this land should be men and boys annually go astray and mentioned. Perverted and unjust are ruined because of this glaring, enideas in regard to woman's place in ticing evil in their midst. Ask the the family and in society have been the wives of middle and upper class Japan cause of much impurity and have per- about the geisha. Take your opinion petuated the evil customs of ancient of this impudent and shameless creatimes even to this day. I shall only ture of man's vice, not from the mention here the unspeakable licensed dilettante writers on the beautv and system, more prevalent in Japan than art of Japan, but from the ht;ndred in any other civilized land, and treated thousand wronged and weeping wives with a respect unknown elsewhere, and mothers of the nation's business and shall pass immediately to a kin- and professional men, officials, polidred evil. I am thinking particularly ticians, officers of army and navy, and of the institution of the geisha, the educators. Our Church in Japan, professional singing- or dancing-girl, small as it is, has had countless scanan institution as old as Herod and the dals because of the geisha. We have ancient Egyptians, not found to-day in every reason to consider the custom civilized countries of the West, but which continues to tolerate the geisha still in full favor in this Japan of the one of the inimical conditions with twentieth century. I wish to say that I never look a geisha in the face, if I which we have to contend. can avoid it. A year and a half ago, This leads me to speak in conclu- I took, at their request, a couple of lady friends from America to see the sion of another social custom which is Miyako-odori in Kyoto-and I have one of the hostile social conditions been angry with myself about it when- which Christianity has to meet. I ever I have thought of it since. The mean the ceremonial and social drink- ing of sake and other intoxicants.
There is a woful lack of temperance especially the amount of drinking is a sentiment as yet in Japan. I like to national disgrace. It has greatly intell the Japanese of the progress of creased since the war with Russia. I the temperance idea in America and have heard the regimental banquetother countries; of many States of the hall on great holidays called "the Union entirely "dry"; of vast reaches drinking-place," and that is what it is of country hundreds of miles in ex- -the banquet is a drinking-bout. Here tent where no liquor can be made or is another of the great enemies of our sold; of that banquet in Cleveland Christian work. when Mr. Taft, now President, sat down with 500 business and profes- To recapitulate: The one great sional men of that city, and not one hindrance to Christian work arising drop of liquor on the table; of that from social conditions in Japan is an magnificent demonstration in Hyde imperfect communalistic social organ- Park subsequently when 300,000 tem- ization, which tho now largely abolperance men and women marched in ished or modified by law, still persists procession through the streets of Lon- in traditional social customs centuries don to their famous park, there to be old. This organization denies indiaddrest from sixty different platforms vidual freedom; crushes spontaneity by many public men of high position, and voluntariness; produces formalincluding at least one member of the ism, and caste; and imperviousness to Cabinet, and uniting finally, to the ac- truth; and injustice to woman and companiment of roo bands of music, corresponding impurity and corruption in the singing of "Onward, Christian among men, and intemperance. All Soldiers," the favorite hymn of the these only Almighty power itself can people of England; and of the more enable the Church to overcome. than r,200 temperance periodicals in Europe, r,ooo of them being published Happily, what I have been picturing on the Continent and indicating how is a passing condition. The old order the continental nations are waking to changeth. Industrialism, commercialthe evils of their social drinking customs of the past. How far behind ism, constitutionalism, and contact and Japan is! I think we make less use competition with other nations are of the Sunday-school and of the compelling the Japanese more and Church in this regard than we might. more to give up their old communaIis- Every church should be an aggressive tic system. The people are still a haIftemperance society, every Sunday- century behind their laws, but they arc school a bright band of hope, with its catching up. We can help them-if temperance roll and at least its verbal we do not become converted to compledge taken from the scholars from munalism ourselves, if we do not give up our priceless heritage of Christian time to time. individualism, if we avoid the danger Our work is hindered, our young to which missionaries of twenty to forty years' life in this land are liable men, even Christians and inquirers, of getting the idea that even we can not do things properly here unless we also are constantly tempted, many of them get clamped in tight into the same rigid ruined, by the drinking customs of ~ystem with the long-suffering J apthis country. For a young man in anese. Our Lord has given us a more business, the sake-cup has a 'ubiquity excellent way. Let us duly esteem that is unknown in the West. Even and cherish the freedom with which school-boys at their class gatherings Christ has made us free, and try more have sake, and some are drunkards at and more to give it to this nation and sixteen or eighteen. And in the army save them from their yoke of bondage.
MISSIONS AS AN INDIAN SEES
BY REV. GILBERT L. WILSON, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
First, put aside any thought that the as a good Catholic's scapulary binds Indian had belief in the Great Spirit. him to his protecting saint. '-IVakan-tanka, Great Spirit-to borrow from the Sioux-is better trans- This may make plainer to you how lated Great Mystery. But wakan an Indian may be deeply moved by means far more to the Indian than mystery does to us. Roll into one the story of Jesus' suffering; may acword the collective meanings of our cept the cardinal principles of New terms supernatural, mysterious, Testament teaching, and yet not give strange, miraculous, holy, sacred, voo- up the philosophy of his people. How dooish, uncanny, lucky and unlucky, can he? He can not read English. and you have pretty nearly what an He knows nothing of physics; never Indian means by 'Wai?an. What can heard of the laws of gravitation. His not be explained by ordinary natural philosophy of natural things may relaw is wakan; but an Indian's knowl- main nearly as was his father's, tho he edge of ordinary natural law is scant may be earnestly trying to mold his indeed. life by what he understands of Jesus' life and teachings. Good Bird thus states Indian belief: "When a child, my father teach me all Inconsistent? In the preface to my things have spirit. Tree have spirit; Oxford Bible is a dedication to the grass have spirit; earth have spirit; "most dread sovereign" James II. animals have spirit. All these our J ames was something of a theologian. gods and we pray to them to help us, He wrote a book to show how witches and make offerings to them so they might be detected; warts and wens not forget us." These spirits spoke were teats to suckle devils. Three to men in dreams and in other ways. thousand witches were hanged in Eng- land during the sitting of the Long Such a philosophy made the medicine- Parliament; and did not our New man of importance in the tribe. With England fathers hang nineteen of drum and chant he called the gods to these unfortunate creatures? Martin listen to his prayers. Fasting and self- Luther, a most excellent man, once torture brought on delirium and threw his ink-bottle at Satan. In my visions-and the gods spake to him. church is a sweet, Christian woman These things were very real to the who will not begin sewing a gown on Indian. Friday.
When a youth went into the hills Perhaps now we can understand and fasted and tortured his body, he why Carlisle students relapse. To bedid not do these things to prove his gin with, no considerable number do courage. He was appealing to the relapse. That some do is hardly surgods. "0 gods, hear me ! You see prizing. The education given an my body painted gray, like a sick man. Indian youth is not always a well- You see how starved and weak I am. grounded one. Language, habits, ra- Pity me! Make my enemies weak- cial feeling count for much. Cen- hearted. Make their gods weak to turies of custom have developed a help them!" Fasting brought on beautiful hospitality among the In-, dream or vision; a spirit animal would dians. When one had food, all had appear to him-a bird or beast or food; when one starved, all starved. other living thing. The youth would The uncertainty of the chase made this not rest until he had killed such an necessary. The elders have always animal as he had seen in his dream; shared with the young-when there and its skin or feathers he would carry was anything to share. Shall not the about his person for the rest of his young couple who plow and keep cows life. This was his medicine. It share also with their elders? To have bound him to his protecting god just to feed all your aunts and uncles is a sad discouragement of thrift.
But there is another cause. Two When a medium by mummery and Mormon youths recently graduated darkness and trance brings messages from Yale. They were still Mormons. from the beyond, he is but the med- An education doesn't always reverse icine-man seeking revelation from the an Indian's way of thinking. To illus- spirits. trate; Minnie Enemy Heart returned from Carlisle with a fair education. There has sprung up a great church Influenced by 1 know not what-am- whose members teach that pain and bition, childhood teachings, tribal sickness are not cured by medicine. patriotism-at any rate she went into Christian Science folk do build betterthe hills, as did her fathers before her, ventilated buildings than we, and they and sought her god. In a vision Jesus teach the sick not to worry, and that appeared to her. One side of his body is good. But when a healer thinks was dark, like an Indian's; the other a patient back into health, he but was white, like a white man's. In cures as the medicine-man cures. To his white hand he held a lamb; in the be sure, the medicine-man knows the other, a little black dog. "Go back," reality of disease; but his chants and He said, "and tell your people that I drumming are prayers, and all the belong to the Indians as well as to the time he is thinking his magical power whites-that I am your Savior as well into the patient's body to drive out the as theirs. White ways are good for sick-making spirits. Also, he gives the white people, as means this lamb. In- patient a good sweat-bath and plenty dian ways are good for Indians, as of clean, cold water, and tells him to means this black dog; for do not the trust the medicine-man's magic and tribes feast upon dogs at the sacred not worry. Often the sick man gets feasts? If white men tell you to for- well. sake your ways and learn theirs, tell them to remember it was they who The old Apache warrior, Geronimo, whose death last year attracted genslew me, not the Indians!" eral attention, joined the Dutch Re- There is no reason to believe that formed Church ~ and was baptized in the summer of 1903. He attended the Minnie Enemy Heart consciously de- services regularly at the Apache Mis- sion, Fort Sill Military Reservation. ceived. The Indian has many gods. While reported as far from an exem- The white man also has his gods, and plary Christian, and still showing that one of them, Jesus, should appear some of the old traits of his wild days, to an Indian is no improbable thing. the evidences of a decided change are Eighteen converts of the Catholic mis- noteworthy. In the book, "Geronimo's sion have left to follow the new Story of His Life," we read, "Since prophetess. Our Protestant converts my life as a prisoner has begun I have are better grounded. Only four have heard the teachings of the white man's left. religion. Credulity you call this? I knew a "Believing that in a wise way it is normal-school teacher in Minnesota- good to go to church, and that in asa teacher so efficient that the school sociating with Christians would imboard of a Western city continued her prove my character, I have adopted salary for a whole year, while she re- the Christian religion. I believe that cruited from illness, just to be able the Church has helped me much during to retain her services-who could re- the short time I have been a member. member her former incarnation as an I am not ashamed to be a Christian. Egyptian. Queer how these Theoso- I have advised all my people, who are phists can remember former births in not Christians, to study that religion, North Africa with never a suggestion because it seems to me the best re- ligion in enabling one to live right." of negro reminiscence! Many white people also evidently re- lapse. It is reported that there are four miIIion Spiritualists in America.
EDITORIALS
MISSIONARY INFLUENCE IN TURKEY The influence of American mission- The work of missionaries in Tur- aries upon Mohammedans has been key, so far as measured by statis- l.nultipl~ed ma?y fold, and has gone on tics, have been chiefly among the mcreasmg m geometrical ratio adherents of the Oriental churches, through the influence of the nativ~ but the beneficent influences of that evangelical Christians that have been work have been as wide-spread and as gathered into churches and well-or- full of promise for the Turks as for ganized evangelical communities. In any other race. recent years the number of well-edu- It is true that the number of Turks cated, consecrated, evangelical preach- who have publicly embraced Chris- ers, teachers, and physicians has in- tianity is small, but the transformation creased rapidly in these communities.
wrought in the lives and surround- The missionaries are numbered by ings of the Turks is marvelous. scores, the native preachers and teach- American missionaries .are found in ers by hundreds, the faithful brethren most of its chief cities, and work out and sisters of the native churches by from these centers into the surround- thousands. Their lives, their preach- ing towns and villages. The Turks ing, in some cases their martyr death, greatly outnumber the other races of have powerfully imprest their Turkish the Empire and American missionaries neighbor~. Our hope of reaching come into close contact with all classes Turks WIth the Gospel has been, is, of the Moslem population, official and will ever be based first on God's Word unofficial. The attitude of these people an~ Spirit, and then on a witneSSing towards Christians has undergone a native church, and a consecrated, mis- marvelous change. sionary, native ministry.
Aside from direct proselytizing ef- The same writer goes on to say: fort, American missionaries have al- "The recent political change and the ways included the Turks among those new era of freedom has influenced for whose welfare they are to work. the relations of missionaries to Mo- They have welcomed Turks to their hammedans in the following important schools, their hospitals, their chapels, ways-(a) The avenues of influence and the welcome has often met with specified above as already open, have a cordial response. A writer in been more freely entered by Turks.
"Blessed be Egypt," says: "The wall There is a large increase in the num- of prejudice which existed eighty ber of Turkish pupils entering the years ago is, for a large and increas- schools and colleges of the mission- ing number of Turks, as flat as the aries. (b) Many more Turks come walls of Jericho at the end of the to public religious services than for- seven days' Israelite march. Mission- mer!y. ( c) Personal religious contac( aries and other Protestants were once with Turks is much more facile. In denounced as without religion. That fact, free religious inquiry exists time is past. Once American mis- among Turks far more than ever be- sionaries were believed to foster sedi- fore. (d) American missionaries use tion among Armenians. That charge every possible influence through the has been lived down." Press, through schools, through per- Turks have taken American schools sonal touch, to stem the tide of revolt and school-books as their models in from all religion, a tide which, among educating their children. Turkish profest Mohammedans, has set in peasants are the grateful recipients of strong in recent years."
relief at the hands of missionaries in Among the foremost influences time of famine, plague, and war. Turks which contribute to make present share the benefit of hospital care in changes in Turkey real progress for- sickness; many thousands of them read ward, and upward, morally, educa- the Christian Bible and other books tionally, socially, and spiritually, the issued from our Press. results of the work of American mis-
sionaries as seen in the institutions use even by the most mature Chris- they have established, and especially tians? They also sang the same in the roo,ooo native evangelical hymns to the same tunes, tho in dif- Christians in the Empire, stand second ferent languages. Verily, "Multi ter- to none. These men, at least, natives ricolis lingui,· celestibus, una." Then and foreigners alike, sincerely and the Hottentots made a voluntary conalways, are champions of liberty, jus- tribution to help pay the costs of their tice, equality, fraternity, and a pure voyage, and knelt on the beach com- Christianity. mending them to God. And these were the Hottentot "dogs" and Malagasy Missionaries may, at times, have "asses t" How soon and strangely been too fearful of persecution and they had developed into Christian men opposition in Turkey, but their wisdom, perseverance, courage and tact and women! have been instrumental in giving them When these fugitives reached Enga wide-spread opportunity for seedsowing in Turkey, and there is prom- land, in May, 1839, they wrote a letise of a rich harvest. ter to their suffering feIlow disciples at home, which for beauty and purity A BIBLE CONVERSATION of Christian sentiment might have graced the pen of Paul, the apostolic Few, if any, incidents in mission his- writer of epistles. For three years tory are in their way more pathetic- they stayed on British shores, winally beautiful than the following, ning universal esteem and love, and which, so f.ar as we know, is unique furnishing an unanswerable proof of and solitary. It is one of the beauti- the reality of the Gospel. When, in ful fragments in the wonderful story r842, they returned to Mauritius, their of Madagascar, and it reads like a mission station at Moka became the romance of apostolic times. asylum for other fugitives from per- secutions at Madagascar. In r839 some fugitives, on their way to England, stopping at Port Eliza- SWEDISH LUTHERANS IN THE beth, in South Africa, met with fel- UNITED STATES low converts. Unable to communicate by a common language with these con- In the June REVIEW (page 469), the verted Hottentots, their Bibles became number of Lutherans in the United actually the vehicles of converse. The States that use the Swedish tongue is Malagasy and Hottentots, turning to given as 150,000. A Lutheran pastor the same passages in their respective thinks a cipher must have been dropt translations of the Word, in this way and this should read 1,500,000, for in made known to each other their senti- the country about 2,000,000 Swedish ments and exchanged thought. For Americans find a home, most of whom example, the Hottentot disciples claim to be Lutherans. One synod pointed to Ephesians 2:2: "Among numbers 250,000, mostly Swedes, and whom we all had our conversation in has celebrated its semi-centennial in time past," etc. The Malagasy dis- Rock Island, Ill. It has a dozen colciples responded by Ephesians 2: 14, leges and one seminary, with over IS: "For He is our peace who hath 3,000 students. Their home-missio.n made both/one, and hath broken down work covers the continent, and their the middle wall of partition"; and by foreign works China, India, Japan, Gal. 3 :28: "Ye are all one in Christ and Porto Rico. Jesus." Again, the Hottentots pointed to John 16 :33: "In the world ye s~al1 THE BIBLE ITS OWN WITNESS have tribulation." The Hovas rephed by opening to Rom. 8 :35: "Who shall The Bible is the great weapon of separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?" etc. When was the Christian worker in his warfare ever the Bible put to a more beautiful against evil. F. Stanley Arnot, of Af- arilcoau,d says that if they r enaadtitvhees:Bi"bIle5 and then a sk th e
it not God's book?" the reply is: "Yes, telling of a personage of whom they that must be God's Word, for no had never before heard. As they read, white man ever knew so much about they had come to the conviction that us." He was Israel's Messiah. From that day, said the rabbi, their prayers to the Not only the blacks in Africa need God of Israel should go up in the name conversion, but there are also the of Messiah]esus. European immigrants. When Mr. Arnot was at a big DutCh trading- THE CLAIMS OF THE PAPAL house at Benguella, thirty or forty Europeans had met for a commercial PRIESTHOOD conference. A Dutchman at the head In a book by St. Alphonsus d~ of the table said: "The Bible is not believed in now. Liguori, doctor of the Roman Church I know all about it." His father was on "Dignity and Duties of the Priest' a worthy minister in the Dutch Re- or Selva," on page 31, is this state~ formed Church. ment: Mr. Arnot replied, "I shall be glad "The power of the priest surpasses to prove to all of you that the Bible is true. Allow me to fetch mine." He that of the blest Virgin Mary, for asked the man to mention what portion was untrue. altho this divine mother can pray fa; "Oh," said he, "it is so long since I us, and by her prayers obtain whatleft home that I don't remember. You read, and I'll tell you." ever she wishes, yet she can not ab- Mr. Arnot began to read the first solve a Christian from even the small- chapter of Romans, solemnly. When est sin! 'The blest virgin was emihe had finished, there were only six men left, and the man at the head of nently more perfect than the apostles !' the table drew his slouched hat from under his chair, and muttering that says Innocent III, 'it was, however, there was a nigger calling him, stole out. There was no nigger. But that not to her but only to the apostles, that was the last of the discussion that was to prove the Bible untrue. the Lord intrusted the keys of the Another striking incident is that of Kingdom of Heaven!' the experience of Rev. Mr. Reichardt, missionary to the Jews at Cairo, who "The priest may, in a certain manalso kept a Bible Society depot. One day he received a visit from .a company ner, be called the creator of his of Jews belonging to a remote Arabian oasis. Their people had heard of the Creator, since by saying the words of shop in Cairo where the Book of God might be obtained, and they came for consecration, he creates, agsiviint gwHeire~ copies of the Hebrew Old Testament. Jesus in the sacrament, by With earnest prayer, but without a word to man, the missionary placed in a sacramental existence, and produces the box also a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew. In a year or two Him as a victim to be offered to the arrived another deputation with a letter from the rabbi of the community, eternal Father. As in creating the expressing thankfulness for the beautiful copies of the Law and the world it was sufficient for God to have Prophets; and adding words of heartfelt gratitude for the other volume, said, 'Let it be made,' and it was which they had never previously seen, created-'He spoke, and they were made'-so it is sufficient for the priest to say, 'Hoc est corpus meum/ and be- hold the bread is no longer bread, but the body of Jesus Christ."
Again, in the same chapter we read: "The priest holds the place of the Savior himself, when, by saying, 'Ego te absolvo,' he absolves from sin. How great should be our wonder if we saw a person invested with the power of changing a negro into a white man; but the priest does what is far more wonderful, for by saying 'Ego te ab- solvo' he changes the sinner from an enemy into the friend of God, and from the slave of hell into an heir of paradise."
Again: "According to St. Am- dipping an oar into the sea, until the brose, a priest, in absolving a sinner, last Sunday service closes at 8.30 P.M. performs the very office of the Holy Here is a community that comes as Ghost in the sanctification of souls. near living a consistent Christian life, St. Clement had reason to say that the loving each other, caring for the poor priest is, as it were, .a God on earth. and nursing the sick, as any other Innocent III has written: 'Indeed, it community anywhere. is not too much to say that in view of the sublimity of their offices the There is one church only, "The priests are so many gods.' Were the Christian Church of Metlakahtla," Redeemer to descend into a church, and it belongs to no sect, strictly unand sit in a confessional to administer denominational, unsectarian, evanthe sacrament of penance, and a priest gelical. But one banner is lifted to sit in another confessional, Jesus there-the banner of Christ. There would say over each penitent, 'Ego te are no divisions among them. Three absolvo,' the priest would likewise say times a day are the Sunday services over each of his penitents, 'Ego te ab- held-always with primitive simplicity, salvo,' and the penitents of each would singing, praying, Biblical preaching, be equally absolved." together making up the whole service of worship, with the least possible ap- The Converted Catholic remarks .proach to ritual, but all reverent and that these utterances of one of the spiritual. Even a closing hymn is highest authorities of the Roman avoided as perhaps tending to dissipate Church show that not only does the impressions made by the Word. Pope arrogate to himself the attributes of the Almighty in claiming to be in- "ALL AT IT" fallible, but that each and every priest is placed by the Church on an equality David Barron, of London, illuswith Jesus Christ-a doctrine taught trates the duty of all Christians to be in the parochial schools of the Roman at work by telling of the levy en masse Catholic Church, in the confessional, in France in 1793, when that country in the administration of the sacraments was invaded by all or nearly all the and in the other relations of priests other nations of Europe. All France and people. was summoned by its rulers to arise, the young men to bear, and the mar- A MODEL MISSIONARY COMMUNITY ried men to forge arms, the old men to utter words of wisdom, the women One needs only to visit William to work on tents and uniforms, the Duncan's MetIakahtla in Alaska to children to scrape lint. realize the possibilities, even in this world of a model state, when men are EVOLUTION AND HUMANITY content to build according to the pattern showed on the Mount. Here The late Prof. Goldwin Smith's repeace and happiness reign supreme. mark to the students of Cornell U ni- Not a glass of intoxicating drink can versity are very significant. be had for love or money. Not even a pipe or cigar is ever seen within its "Let the evolutionists remember limits except as brought by tourists. two things: First, that evolution can One never hears God's name taken in not have evolved itself; second, that vain, nor any profane word. When unlike the brutes, humanity advances, Sunday comes, Sabbath stillness rests and we can not tell what the end will over the village; no unnecessary work be; whether it may not be the final is done, even to lifting an ax to chop ascendency of the spiritual over the kindling or carry a pail of water, or material in man. Man, let the evolu- tionists remember, advances and rises. The beast does not." AMERICA quisite to a successful evangelization of the world. The increase of mis- A Wit on Missionary Giving sionary knowledge and the eagerness for service resulting has been of in- Robert J. Burdette has recently calculable value. Plans are now on said: for a regular graded course that will undoubtedly serve to a still larger "There is about as much reason why comprehension of the great work of the pastor should urge upon the flock spreading the gospel to the uttermost the great importance of cordial and regions. From this period of culture generous support of missions, as there we can confidently look for a greater is for the mother to impress upon the movement into the world of achievefather this week, and next week, and ment. We are in this second stage of the week after that, the fact that the the missionary movement when the children need shoes. A man may subject has been made the theme of have seven children to make him many study circles-when Epworth proud and happy and strong, and yet Leagues, Christian Endeavor Sohe is always astonished when it is an- cieties, Young People's Missionary nounced that one of them needs organizations, and even higher instianother pair of shoes. It is much the tutions of learning have applied themsame with home missions. When the selves to a practical consideration of pastor announces the offering for mis-. the field and its needs. sions for the current year, astonishment answers with its staccato, Outcome of the Laymen's Movement , What! Again!' Then the usual pause, as tho to recover from the The secretary of the Laymen's shock, and then the accusing ques- Missionary Movement in Canada, on tion, 'What did you do with the offer- his return from the Chicago congress, ing I gave you last year?' Well, made a compilation of the gifts for motherlike, I must confess; we spent missions in 1907 and in 1909 by the it for missions. different con1l11unions in Canada as follows: Anglican, $252,910 in 1907, "Now we want more shoes for our $328,387 in I909; Baptist, $206,703, own children. We want 'more' this $262,009; Congregationalist, $10,282, year than we did last, because, thank $15,954; Methodist, $50~M09, $633,- God, there are more children. 'Why 753; Presbyterian, $472 ,075, $665,966. can't the younger children wear the This makes a total of $1.451,079 for outgrown shoes of the elder ones?' 1907, against a total of $1,906,069 for Because-again I thank God-our 1909, or an increase of nearly onemissions do not crawl around and out- third in two years. grow their shoes. A religion that sits still long enough to outgrow its clothes Jewish Revised Yersion of the Bible has also outgrown itself and its life, and has need of nothing but a long, For some time American Jews, esdeep, dark, lonely, unresurrectable pecially the Central Conference of grave. Missions never outgrow any American Rabbis and the Union of of their clothes. They hustle around American Hebrew Congregations (the and wear them out." two representative organizations of reform Jews) have been diligently Young People's Mill8ionary Movement preparing a revised version of the Old Testament in the English language. There are two directions in which The new translation has been almost the Young People's Missionary Move- finished and an appeal for funds has ment has, in the few years it has been been sent out from Cincinnati, the a force, made its influence felt. It has headquarters of Reform Judaism, for gathered the young men and women its publication. The appeal states, of our churches into groups for in- "Christians are expending millions of telligent study of the field of missions, dollars annually for the publication the problems involved, and the intellectual and spiritual equipment reand distribution of the Bible. Surely, Alaska and Labrador vary their mowe Jews, whose ancestors gave man- notonous diet of fish and blubber with kind its greatest Book, should be eager tinned meats from Chicago and Kanto engage in similar work. A large sas City; if the natives of Equatoria sum of money is required to publish insist on buying cotton-sheeting that the new translation of the Bible is stamped 'American' and will take properly. The Jews of the United no other, our merchants and manu- States are being called upon to supply facturers, instead of praising the conthe funds." sul or commercial traveler, may thank the American missionary," An earlier appeal brought a considerable number of responses ranging A Model Wealthy City Church from $5 to $25 each, but the undertaking calls for more liberal support St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episthan it received in answer to it. ,Each copal. parish has completed its $130,- subscriber to the fund will receive a 000 Improvements that were started copy of the new translation. after it was decided that the church should remain in its present location. Home Missions Still Needed Serious consideration was given a year ago to a change. That which The Congregationalist tells of a brought about the decision to stay was Methodist minister who, in making a the need for a place of worship here, journey of 52 miles through eastern where center large hotels and where Tennessee into Kentucky, passed 19 for many years at least will be the towns in which his denomination had heart of the borough. The improveno work, but, more significant still, in ments consist of the new rectory in many of which "there is no church of Thirty-eighth street, already altered any kind," and says: "Add this item and into which the rector has moved, to the similar 133 discovered in Colo- and the change of the old rectory adrado and over 40 in Illinois, and we joining the church on the south into shall begin to think there is actually a parish building. This building has need for some more home mission- on its first floor a chapel that is to be aries." used for Sunday-school purposes, a mortuary chapel, and chofr-rooms. On Jews Flocking to Winnipeg the second are rooms for meetings of parish organizations, and above are There are 13 Jewish synagogs III clergy offices. Winnipeg. This is owing, not so much to the extent of the Jewish popu- Slav Missions in Chical(o lation as to the variety of nationalities represented, each havipg its own place The Chicago Tract Society has its of worship. There are 10,000 Jews largest work among the Slavic immithere, only about one-fourth as many grants and other peoples of foreign as in Montreal, but they have more speech. The field of labor of this desynagogs, Besides those attending partment has expanded far beyond these synagogs, it is said that many Chicago and even out of the State of Jews have lapsed from their own faith. Illinois, and last year reached "from Many bearing Jewish names have no the great Bohemian colonies of Texas religious connection with the Jews. on the south to those of the Swedes and Finlanders of Manitoba and Al- By-products of Missions berta on the north." Of the nearly 80 missionaries who have served the so- Mr. F. A. Powell, late of the United ciety during the twenty years of its States consulate in the Ottoman do- operation, 25 have been employed durminion, in Everybodis Magazine, has ing the past year; and they speak in this to say as to the "by-products" of 23 languages. missionary toil: "If the clatter of American harvesters is heard to-dav from one end of Asia Minor to the other; if the Eskimo of Greenland and Jubilee of Woman's Work ization of about 560,000,000 of peo- ple in the non-Christian world. This The year 19IO is the year of jubi- will require the quadrupling of our lee for organized work in foreign mis- present force of missionaries and a sions. The first women's society in corresponding increase in contributhis country was organized in 1860, tions from approximately $II,OOO,OOO with Mrs. Doremus as president, and last year to about $45,000,000 anentitled "Women's Union Missionary nually. As we spend over $300,000,- Society of America for Heathen 000 annually for religious purposes in Lands." The first woman in all the our own country, one-sixth of this world, fully equipped as medical mis- amount to reach a population equal to sionary to women and children in non- six times that of the United States is Christian lands was Miss Clara Swain, surely a conservative estimate of our of New York, who was sent to India financial responsibility. in 1869.
Our Polyglot Population Bible Study Among Student.
According to the New York Chris- According to The Century: "In tian Advocate, 41 languages are used West Point, tho the cadets have but in church services in America, inclu- forty-five minutes a day to themselves, ding Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Es- yet 260 of them meet weekly for thonian, Gaelic, Modern Syriac, Let- prayer and study of the Word. In the tish, Montenegrin, Wendish and Yid- United States and Canada, in 539 edudish. The Bible societies furnish all cational institutions, 32,259 college Christian communions with the men now belong to voluntary Bible Scriptures in their own tongue; 77 classes." denominations have German-speaking churches, 25 American-Indian, 22 Nor- Mr. Bryan in Brazil wegian, 21 Swedish and 13 Italian. German also leads in membership, A missionary writes horne that "the 3,601,943, followed by I<rench with most interesting thing about Mr. 1,160,420, and Italian with 938,994. Bryan's visit was the brave way in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Pennsyl- which he stood for all that is best in vania have the largest number of positive and aggressive Christianity. churches and other religious organiza- The first thing he did in S. Paulo, aftions using foreign languages exclu- ter getting his dinner late in the evesively. New York reports 27 lan- ning, was to go to the Y. M. C. A. guages used in her churches; Penn- rooms and deliver an address and hold sylvania, 28; Illinois, 26, and Ohio, 24, an informal reception. In Rio, he while three States-South Carolina, made an address at the Y. M. C. A., Georgia and Kentucky-report only spoke at the M. E. Church where 3 languages, and seventeen other there is an English-speaking congre- States less than IO. gation of worshipers, visited the Cen- tral Mis::lOn for the sailors and for the Our Share of Wodd-work poorer classes in a destitute part of the great city, and made it clear to all that It took one hundred years of mod- he was first of all a Christian man, a ern missionary effort to win the first servant of the God of nations. I dare million converts. We passed the mil- say Mr. Bryan would not agree with lion mark in 1896. It only took the lady who, after a residence of twelve years to win the second mil- many months in Rio, had been unable lion. For the past two years we have to find .any results of Protestant misbeen winning them at the rate of a sion work in the city. He had found million in six years. large results of such work before he had been there twenty-four hours, but The fair share of the United States in this, as in many other things, men in the solution of the missionary find what they look for." problem is to provide for the evangel- British Guiana aa a Mission Field Churches planted and prospering among the hundreds of nations, tribes, and com- Seventy years ago British Guiana munities on the world's surface? Where was practically a Christian country. would have been the ten thousand phil- The superstitions of the aborigines re- anthropic institutions of Godlike charmained, as did some of those imported acter? Where would have been those from Africa in the dark days of homes which, with outstretched loving slavery; but the majority of the people arms, embrace every conceivable state of had been Christianized, and Christian- suffering? All this came from the love ity was the only recognized religion. of Christ, who while on earth was in To-day about half the population are earnest to commence and carryon these followers of non-Christian religions. greatest of all triumphs, because they This is due to the system of State im- are eternal. Heaven is still in earnest, migration which was inaugurated af- and responding to the Macedonian cry. ter the abolition of slavery. When the slaves had been emancipated and the o how it stirs the soul to the center traffic in human lives stopt it was found necessary, in order to secure a that while we are enjoying the light of reliable supply of labor for the sugar heaven shining on the eternal regions of plantations to introduce laborers from glory, aye, and of wo, there are daily other countries, and since r845 there thousands perishing for lack of that has been a regular inflow of inden- knowledge. tured coolies from India. Some of these have returned to their native Altho I have been instant in missionland after their term of service has ex- ary work since 1816, I still feel all alive pired, but the majority have elected to to the interests of the Redeemer, and, remain, and to-day the number of had it not been for an overtaxed brain East Indians equals that of all the from giving the natives the Bible in their other races in this many-peopled own language, I should still have been colony combined. Many have become there. landed proprietors. Children of former indentured laborers are found Her Gift Saved Livingstone filling responsible positions in the colonv. Some are wealthy merchants, The Rev. F. B. Meyer, in showing and others have found their way into how life is linked with life in influence the learned professions. With the im- for good in work for the world, said: migration system there were intro- "Vhen Livingstone went to Africa duced into British Guiana the tO there was a Scotch woman named great religions of India, Hinduism an( 1 Mrs. MacRobert, quite advanced in Mohammedanism, and to-day, near by life, who had saved up thirty pounds, the Christian place of worship, stands which she gave to the great missionthe Hindu temple or the Mohammedan ary, saying: 'When you go to Africa, I want you to spare yourself exposure mosque. and needless toil by hiring some com- petent body-servant who will go with EUROPE you wherever you go and share your sacrifices and exposures.' With that Moffat's Estimate of Missions money he hired his faithful servant known as Sebalwe. When the lion The British Weekly has recently had thrown Livingstone down and printed a hitherto unpublished letter crtlsht the bones of his left arm, and of Robe1,"t Moffat, written after his was about to destroy him, this man, final retirement from the Dark Conti- seeing his critical condition, drew off nent, and in r879. In the closing por- the attention of the lion to himself, tion he says: thinking that he would save his mas- ter at the cost of his own life. The I often think what would the world, lion sprang at him, but just at that had as much of it is, have been but for moment the guns of other companions proclamation of the everlasting Gospel. brought him down, and Livingstone's Where would have been the hundreds of life was prolonged for thirty years. cannibal islands in the South Seas, now Surely that noble Scotch woman, as Christianized? Where the thousands of well as the servant, should be credited with some, at least, of the results of the noble devotion of that .great mis- sionary." And the Cale of Spain ia No Better tine have had high ideals as to im- provements. The new government The Bulletin Trimestriel of the was expected to immediately reform French Bible Society calls attention to all abuses and to introduce ameliorated the fact that the Spanish pastor, Rod- conditions of life generally. . . . In riguez, has been in prison for two one direction only have the people months for distributing Bibles and for themselves attempted improvement, having attended the funeral of a little and that is in the line of education. In child whose parents had become Prot- Jerusalem a number of the natives, estant. The High Court upheld the both Moslem and Christian, have decision. With Pastor Rodriguez, his united together to open a non-sectarian brother, a Protestant school-teacher, day-school. The secular subjects are and the mayor of Avinet were also taught from Monday to Friday, Satsent to prison. The jail in which they urday is reserved for the religious inwere incarcerated has been pro- struction, which is to be given by a nounced utterly uninhabitable. Mme. teacher sent by the religious body to Rodriguez writes: which the pupil belongs, and Sunday, not Friday, is the weekly holiday. "Five prisoners are shut up in a Holidays are given for both Christian little room. The heat is tropical. and Moslem feasts."-C. M. S. Ga- Want of air, vermin and evil odors zette. make the place insupportable. Fifteen days before his imprisonment my hus- A Connl on Miuionariea band was in the doctor's hands for rheumatic fever. Pray for us who are Consul Powells is a prominent memsuffering for Christ's cause." ber of the American consular service in the Turkish Empire, a man of af- Salvation Army Still Campaigning fairs, and a traveled and experienced politician, and he is also familiar with The result of the Salvation Army every side and every result of Chrisself-denial week is i69,034. Altho tian missions in different parts of the this represents a failure to "smash the world. A short time ago he pubtarget," the General is quite satisfied lished a remarkable article on "The with it in view of the many difficulties Romance of the Missionary" declaring in the way. The total is iS7 below that "commerce, geography, and civlast year's result. The result in the ilization alike owe the missionary a London area is again encouraging, debt which they can never hope to reshowing an increase on last year of pay." He demands praise for the nearly ir,ooo; and other important ad- American missionaries who have vances are in Manchester, Glasgow, spread our mercantile influence and Newcastle, and. Southampton. South who have marched in the very van of Wales has fallen off considerably, ow- history and gradually raised the physing, no doubt, to the possibility of a ical, social, and moral standards of great coal strike. "But," says the whole countries, doing the work of General, in his message of thanks, education, relief, sanitation, healing, "who cares for a walkover?" and moral reform most widely, rapidly and thoroughly. He affirms ASIA that the hard-headed men doing busi- ness in foreign lands, men with scant Moslems and Christians Study Together sympathy for preachers and the like, welcome the missionary as a power for Mr. F. T. Ellis; headmaster of practical good, and he cites the case of Bishop Gobat School, Jerusalem, says the worldly and irreligious British that it is remarkable to see the friendly lumber-dealer in India who gave the way in which Moslems, Jews and Y. M. C. A. $100,000, because its in- Christians fraternize as compared with fluence had changed the habits of his their former attitude to one another. employees, introduced honesty, so- "On account of important political changes that have taken place in the Turkish Empire the people of Palesbriety, and fidelity, and built up his CHINA business interests. Queer Ways on Chinese Railways Mr. Powells' article is a strong testimony to the secular value of mis- A correspondent of the London sions and to the courage, ability, con- Times recently reported that on one secration, and hard practical sense of railway the trains have not one native the men and women who have conse- conductor, but a band of three-a by crated their lives to the preaching of no means effective protection against the Gospel to the heathen. It con- ·'squeezing." Then the passenger detains a wonderful list of nearly a score siring to purchase a ticket finds every of men whose "prayer-book and Bible difficulty put in his way: while he joins have proved more powerful than the the crowd that is crushing outside the rifle and the machine-gun," and thus booking-office clamorous for tickets, it makes good reading for those who the ticket-clerk is chatting pleasantly are not taking much interest in for- with half a dozen of his friends behind eign missions. the closed window. The greatest diffi- culty the management has to contend The Power of a Parable with is the petty pilfering and the nightly thefts of ring-bolts and plates The parable of the Prodigal Son ap- from the line; no less than 60,000 peals to the Arab mind. Colporteur bolts per month and IO,OOO plates per Bouin, in the province of Constantine, annum are stolen from the Pekingstates that "it is the parable of the Hankow Railway. What is the mo- Prodigal Son that interests them so tive? To make hoes and plowshares, much. When once they have read and even scissors and razors, the steel that parable, they immediately buy the being much superior to the native book." Similar testimony is given by product. And what is the penalty? Colporteur Rolot, who spends most of There is none. No law has been found his time in the province of Algiers. in the ancient archives to meet the "In the market-place I showed the theft of screw-bolts, and therefore parable of the Prodigal Son to an malefactors escape unscathed, tho the Arab, and asked him to read it. He police know where the plunder is did so with great delight, but I could stored! not persuade him to buy a gospel. A little while afterward another group Shanghai, a Miuionary Center of Arabs was examining my books. Turning round I saw this same man, Rev. V. S. Myers writes, of Shangand again offered him a gospel. 'Show hai, that as a business center this city me again the story which I read,' he is probably the second largest in the replied. I did so. He read it once East. Hongkong surpasses it in the more, weighed the gospel in his hands, tonnage of the vessels which enter it, examined it on every side, smelt it, but probably no other port. It is also and then decided to b~y it." the headquarters in China for at least twenty missionary societies, including Colporteur Bouin reports· that in Bible and tract societies, Y. M. C. A., many of the villages he found great Y. W. C. A., etc. The representatives poverty. Some villagers did not even of all these societies are joined in possess the 10 centimes (rd) neces- the Shanghai Missionary Association, sary to purchase a single gospel. In which meets monthly for mental stimseveral instances they paid in small ulus, social intercourse, etc. Tunisian coppers called floos, seven of which make one sou. Despite the The Bible a Cure for Opium lack of money, however, he left no fewer than 450 copies of St. Luke's An agent of the Bible Society Gospel in these remote corners of the writes : "We were coming down on the desert. At one village even those who boat from Canton, and, walking on the could not read purchased themselves Chinese deck, I saw a man smoking copies of the new "colloquial" gospel. opium and reading an English book. As I saw he knew English, I addrest on purpose to buy a New Testament.
him; under the influence of opium he Living in an out-of-the-way place, he was wonderfully communicative. The had never before seen a foreigner or book turned out to be St. John's Gos- heard a preacher; but a copy of the pel, and he was reading about our Gospel of Matthew, bought from a Lord's crucifixion. He had only colporteur two years ago, had come picked it up because he wanted to im- into his hands. He read it time after prove his English, but he was deeply time, and then he longed for an op- imprest by it, and his comments were portunity to learn more of its meaning.
most interesting. He asked me whether He came while I was away itinerating, it was true that when our Lord was but determined to wait for me. When crucified He had stood alone against I returned, he had already read the all the power of the Jews and the Ro- New Testament through twice, and mans, and when he received an answer nearly through the third time. His in the affirmative, he added, 'Then He heart and mouth were simply brim- must have been divine, for no man ming over with the good things he who was not divine could have stood had found. I invited him to my home, alone.' To the Chinese mind, which is and he staved on some time longer, incapable of any separate action, which attending ail the meetings. Before he is powerless unless it has the moral left, he asked for baptism."-The support of the Government, of a gild, Bible in the World.
or even a secret society, the story of A Mi••ion Come to Town the crucifixion appeals most strongly as an example of divine strength of Bishop Molony, of the English purpose." Church Mission writes : "We now have about 4,000 Christians in the The Fruit of Two Live. province of Cheh-Kiang and 20 Chi- Two pioneer missionaries reached nese clergy. They have their own Hankow, June 21, 1861, soon after missionary society, which. works in that city had fallen for the fourth time three divisions of the provtnce, where into the hands of the T'aip'ing rebels. there is no foreign society, and em- These two men were the Rev. Robert ploys a clergyman and two laym.en.
Wilson and the Rev. Griffith John. Several parishes are self-supportmg Both had spent some time in prepara- and others wiII soon be." tion, and looked forward to a life- work in Central China. In a few JAPAN months Robert Wilson fell asleep. Birthday. in Japan Griffith John is still with us, waiting Japanese children do not ha-ye sepafor the call of his Lord. rate birthdays. Instead ther~ 1S a ~es tival in March for all the httIe g~r1s, The new chapel of the Griffith John and another in May for all the httle College was dedicated on December II, 1909, to the glory of God and in boys. .d memory of Robert Wilson. After the If you were a little girl and hve lapse of nearly six decades, two build- there, all your relations a?d friend~ ings stand side by side on the outskirts of busy Hankow; the one in memory would give you presents m March, of a life-work of more than fifty years given for the uplift of China, the other your little sister would have presents in memory of a life lived and laid on the same day, too; and so w~uld down almost ere his work was well begun. your girl cousins and all the !lttle girls you know, ~nd ~ere would be The Power of the Book big birthday partles gomg on every- From Shensi, the Rev. Robert Bergling, of Hanchenghsien, writes: "A where. Then in May the boys would have few months ago a, man came here their turn. Their festival is called ~e "fish festival." Every family havmg a, hoy sets u:8 ~ bi~ fla~staff in the doorway of its house. On the top of pendence Club, and Yi Sang Choi the pole is a gilt ball, and flying from joined it. The doings of the club exthe pole is a whole string of fish made cited the suspicion of the party in of oiled paper or cloth. The golden power and a number of its active memball signifies a treasure which the fish bers were incarcerated. Among them is supposed to be forever trying to was a group of eleven men under the reach. This means that the boy, when leadership of Yi Sang Choi, all but he is a man, will have to battle his way one stanch followers of Confucius. through life in the same way as the The one was a Christian, and he perfish struggle up the river. It is a sort suaded his companions in misery to of little lecture to the Japanese boys make a careful study of the teachings to be ambitious.-Christian Advocate. of Christ. During the day they studied separately, but at night they discust A Wonderful Story from Korea together what they had studied. Many a night they talked even unto day- The following story by Mr. L. H. break. Snyder, of the Y. M. C. A. in Seoul, is one of the most romantic incidents Finally, as if by magic, all became in the history of Christianity in the persuaded that the gospel is the power Far East: of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. All became leaders in Mr. Yi Sang Choi, former secretary the native church of Korea. Several of the Imperial Cabinet, was sent to have died in the faith, and Mr. Yi Washington with the first Korean em- Sang Choi is director of the religious bassy about twenty years ago. While work of the Y. M. C. A. at Seoul. there he received from a Chinese official a copy of the New Testament and AFRICA the Book of Proverbs written in Chinese. Hearing that this was the Book The Romance of the Negro so extensively read by the West and that it was the foundation of Western Writing in the Spirit of Missions civilization, he accepted it and g-ave it upon this theme, Rev. S. H. Bishop careful consideration, expecting that suggests: First, he is one of the three thereby he would become familiar with great branches of mankind which, so the systems of government of the far as present indications go, are Vest, their military and naval achieve- likely to survive; namely, the white, ments, their methods of education, the yellow, and the black. etc. He read a chapter, then threw the book down, only to pick it up The second element of romance beagain, repeating the process through- longing to the negro is the fact, if we out a whole year. Then he was con- may trust some of the most recent vinced that it contained nothing su- scientific investigations, that he first perior or even equal to the teachings exploited the mineral wealth of the of his revered Confucius. Shortly af- world for artistic and commercial purterward he returned to Korea. poses, and that he first wove cotton and other materials into cloth. A A few years later Dr. Jai So Poel, tribe of negroes seems to have made a Korean nobleman, educated and the beautiful cloth in which the Egypnaturalized in the United States, re- tian dead were interred, and is still turned to Korea under special contract making it. with his government. In his numerous addresses to the Koreans he constant- The third element of romance in the ly recommended Christianity to them. negro is that he has a music which is Mr. Yi Sang Choi became aware of peculiarly expressive of that faith this, began to follow him and to argue which carries a people through caagainst him, trying to show the su- lamity worse than death. Every primperiority of Confucius in every point. itive music such as that of the negro has in it the note of final despair; Dr. Jai So Poe1 started the Inde- but the music of the negro has the note of final hope; and therefore it not only helped to carry the ex- dusky lady of his heart will not look patriated negro through slavery, but at him a love charm is his resort.- has charmed the heart and uplifted J. B. MCCORD, of Natal.
the spirit of all mankind. The Baganda at Home Good New. from Egypt C. W. HatterIy has written a book The converts of the United Presby- with this title, which is full of informa- terian Mission in Egypt number tion about Uganda, the land and peo- 20,000, and among them are 43 or- ple. These two paragraphs are espe- dained Egyptians, besides numbers of cially interesting: native helpers, teachers and colpor- The population of Uganda in 1905 teurs. In the town of Asyut there are was 717,535, of whom 376,910 were 2,200 young people in the higher returned as Christians, 300,279 as hea- schools of the mission. Tho the bap- then, and 40,346 as Mohammedans.
tized Mohammedans have not exceed- No member of the Protestant mission ed 160, an influence favorable to the is baptized, unless he be blind or other- gospel is being exercised on the Mo- wise disabled, until he is able to read.
hammedan population through the hos- Almost every village has its school, pitals, the schools, and the visitation in which there are in alI over 32,000 of the harems. It is pleasant to recall scholars. It is doubtless, owing to the the fact that so wisely and thoroughly sleeping sickness, that the death-rate does this company of workers occupy of Uganda is in advance of the birth- the Nile valley, that it has no rival, rate. Since 1901 its ravages have and is known as the American mis- been appalIing, and if the number of sion. deaths from it are decreasing, it is Zulu Fear of Witchcraft only because the people in the area af- fected have almost died out.
The Zulu baby is born into the fear Of the work of the trained native of witchcraft; in the fear of witch- evangelists and of the native clergy, craft he grows up, and when he sickens Mr. Hattersley says, we can not speak and is about to die his one thought too highly The number of is that a spell has been cast upon him these men, including paid and volun- for which the charm can not be dis- tary workers, can not be far short of covered. AlI his life long he dreads 4,000, who devote practically the whole in lonely places to meet the inswela~ of their time to the work of the boya, the beast in human form who Church. The most highly paid only pounces upon and makes medicine of receive i2 a year, less than the wages the unwary traveler. In mature man- of a common laborer. To these men hood he suspects his neighbor, his is due to a very large extent the rapid fri'end, his brother, and even his wife extension of the work, the office of of being or dealing with an umtakati, several Europeans being to teach such a maker of charms and poisons. He and send them forth, and then to visit walks with an uneasy feeling that an them periodically and strengthen their enemy may have put medicine on his hands in the work. Each teacher is path for harm to him unless he is a bookseller, there being no shops, wearing a talisman against it. From with the exception of one or two in every possible source, from earth and the main centers. There can be no from sky, from river and from forest, doubt that it is to the Word of God from friend and from foe, he is con- in their own tongue that the success tinually apprehensive of evil influence of the work is mainly due coming upon him. And witchcraft is There are no closed doors in the heart often his hQpe as well as his fear. It of Africa. All are wide open, arid is his dependence for getting even with the servant of the Lord wilI find the his enemy by throwing a spelI on his Word will have free course and be person, his path, or his food. If the glorified everywhere. Celebrating a Notable Baptism str·mg character and earnest purpose, desiring to lead his people into the Chief Khama, the great Christian light of God. Chief of the Bamangwato tribe in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, arranged OBITUARY NOTES on May 6th to celebrate the jubilee of his baptism, and the directors of the The Gassner Missionary Society of London Missionary Society, at their Berlin has sustained a heavy loss in meeting in April, passed the following the death of Rev. F. P. Hahn, one of resolution in relation to this interest- its oldest and most able missionaries. Mr. Hahn died on the 3d of May, at ing event, in celebration of which Mussourie, in the Himalaya Moun- Khama had planned a great meeting tains, where he had gone for recuperaof the tribe to express thanksgiving tion. He had served in India for 42 for the mercies of the past fifty years, years. In 1884, with the help of the and to testify what Christianity has "Mission to Lepers in India and the done for him and his people: East," he founded a leper asylum in Lohardaga, Chota-Nagpur, and, when "The directors desire to express to later transferred to Purulia, Bengal, their friend, the Chief Khama, their was the means of building up the hearty congratulations on having been model asylum located in that city. This spared in the good providence of God leper asylum is unquestionably the to complete fifty years as a member of largest in India, containing at the the Christian Church. They praise God present time nearly 800 inmates. Mr. for His grace revealed in the conver- Hahn was considered an authority on sion of the Chief Khama in early life leper work. He furthermore distinfrom heathenism, and for enabling guished himself as a linguist in the inhim in the trying days of his early vestigation and publication of several manhood to withstand all the pressure of the aboriginal languages, such as of temptation and persecution, and to the Oraon and Mundari. The British maintain under very difficult condi- Government, recognizing the valuable tions, a consistent Christian life. They services he had rendered as a linguist thank God that during his long life and philanthropist, conferred upon and labor as the ruler of one of the him, in the year of 1906, the golden most powerful tribes in Bechuanaland, medal of the first order of "Kaiser-iamid the many political and social Hind." At home Mr. Hahn was succhanges which have taken place as the cessful in stimulating the organization result of the growing intercourse of of an auxiliary branch for medical misthe Europeans and the native races, sionary work within his own society, the same abounding grace of God has and another branch for what is known enabled the chief to maintain a char- in German missionary societies as the acter and reputation which have com- "Schwestern-Arbeit," or work for femended him to all men as a true Chris- male nurses. His two works: "Sagen tian and a wise ruler. The directors und Miirchen der Kols" and "Einfiihpray that the evening-time of their rung in das Gebiet der Kolsmission" friend's honored life may be long and (published by Bertelsmann, Giitersloh, calm, and that he may see the abun- Germany), are of lasting value to the dant rains of the influence of God's German missionary literature. gracious Spirit descend upon his people and resulting in a great ingather- Miss Sarah H. Woolston, a woman ing to the Christian Church." who was a missionary when it was a sacrifice to be one, and when travel Dr. Wardlaw Thompson, in submit- was a hardship, died in Mount Holly, ting the foregoing resolution, spoke of the bitter hostility of Khama's father, N. J., June 11th, at the age of eighty. and his attempt to kill the son who espoused Christianity. He is a man of With her sister Beulah Woolston, who died twenty-four years ago, she went to China in 1858, and after a voyage of
GENERAL MISSIONARY
one hundred and forty-seven days them at their home and were always around the Cape of Good Hope, landed received with Christian courtesy and at Shanghai, and proceeded to Foo teaching. They also established a num- Chow, where the two sisters estab- ber of day-schools at different and lished a boarding school for Chinese often distant points in our work, which girls. Their pioneer work, which has they visited regularly, and often at grown to extensive proportions, they great inconvenience and exposure to continued for twenty-five years. The themselves. With all this work they author of "Eminent Missionary Wo- found time for literary work-prepamen," the late Mrs. John T. Gracey, ration and translation of school-books says of these two sisters-for their life and the editing of the "Child's Illuswork was ever the same-"In addition trated Paper in Chinese." These sisters to the care of the school they estab- led the van of Methodist women in the lished, hundreds of women visited East.
FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY JOHN FREDERIC OBERLIN and A CRUSADE OF ness. It was a fine example of con- BROTHERHOOD. formity and non-conformity at the These two companion books from same time, and reminds one of the Ital- the pen of Augustus Field Beard, ian peasants who, when forbidden to and published by the Pilgrim exhibit the tri-color, arranged the vege- Press of New York and Chicago, tables in their baskets so as to exhibit make us regret that their gifted the loved colors of their flag.
author has not done more wri- "The Crusade of the Brotherhood" is ting in his not uneventful life. His the story of the American Missionary picture of Oberlin shows the genius of Association, its inception, early efforts, biography. He has caught the }im- its founders, pioneers and patrons, ner's art, and knows how so to touch and its principles and work. Dr.
with skill that every new line tells. He Beard's pen interests us in this noble has given us a charming and living organization as he did in the man of likeness of Pastor Oberlin. His linea- the wild Mount Amour district of ments speak. There is no excess of Alsace. And there is not a little re- praise and no evasion of truth; we see semblance between the pastor and the the man among men, with all his faults organization-the motive and method and virtues-a real, live man, his sim- of the man and the association favora- plicity and sincerity, self-sacrifice and bly compare. We see the same phil- philanthropy, but none the less his anthropy at work, and among similar self-will and a persistence akin to ob- classes of society, teaching the opprest stinacy. We have read many sketches and ignorant and indolent the secrets of the pastor of Walback, but none of self-development and self-direction, that equal Dr. Beard's. His versatility and the same pious loyalty to truth and was noticeable. He turned his hand manhood characterizing both. The to agriculture, road-making, manu~ whims are alike in style and not unlike facture; he founded schools, churches, in contents; and one who reads either a library, and in the days of the revo- will want to read the other. Even in lution a social club, and when forbid- these days when "of making many den to hold church services and or- books there is no end," it pays to pe- dered to glorify "the republic" and ruse carefully such pages as these.
curse the "tyrant," he adroitly turned We hope for more book-making from the club into a religious body, chose the same author.
Sunday as the best day for the club- The secretary of the Home Mission- meetings, and as their chosen orator ary Society of Massachusetts has "downed" the tyrant of sin and selfish- bought thirty-eight copies of Oberlin's
"Life" to distribute among his home The second is an account of a chilmission churches to stimulate the drens' story-club and what they courage and patience of these workers learned of Africa and China and Inin rural communities. We can cor- dia. The third is a short, impressive dially commend his judgment and ex- account of leprosy in the East and ample. Such a book will help anyone what Christianity is doing for lepers. who reads it. STUDIES IN THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF Everyland-A new magazine for boys and OUR LoRD. By Rev. R. A. Torrey. 8vo, girls. Published by the Everyland Pub- 347 pp. $1.50. Bible Institute, Chi- lishing Co., West Medford, Boston, Mass. cago. 1909.
We again commend this new quar- The peculiar feature of these studies terly, edited by Lucy W. Peabody and is its division into 140 lessons based Helen Barrett Montgomery, and can on a harmonized life of Christ, each join in the general chorus of praise lesson taking up in turn the "Disfrom many discriminating readers, not coverv of Facts" dealt with in the sechaving yet seen one word except of tion, ind the classification of the teachhigh appreciation, and withal it is a ings on various subjects. It is a fine missionary magazine, meant to stimu- basis for a doctrinal and devotional late an intelligent and hearty interest study, sending the student to the Bible in children of all lands, as its name im- itself for information. plies. We have seen nothing hitherto that seems to us so admirably fitted to SERVANTS OF THE KING. By Robert E. fill a gap in the literature of our day. Speer. Portraits. 12m0, 216 pp. 60 We had no sooner introduced the first cents. Young People's Missionary number into our family circle than Movement, New York. 1909. there was a demand for subsequent issues. This will be the case with This is a group of brief biographi- cal sketches of the lives of missionmany others. aries-home and foreign. Some are Everyland offers the following well known, like Livingstone, Whip- ple, Verbeck, Isabella Thoburn, Patprizes. Fifty dollars for the best story teson and Falconer, while others are on foreign missions, with twenty-five comparatively little known, but are dollars as a second prize. worth knowing. These are Wm. Tay- lor, Alice Jackson, Eleanor Chestnut, Fifty dollars for the best story of Matthew Yates, and James Roberthome missions or city missions, with son. The life stories are brief and to twenty-five dollars as a second prize. the point. They would form an in- spiring subject for study by any in- They must be stories, true to life, telligent, earnest group of young peonot descriptions or sermons; adapted ple. to young folks between ten and sixteen; must not exceed 4,500 words; BESIDE THE RED MOUNTAIN. By Kingston should be illustrated with sketches or de Gruche. Illustrated. 12mo, 197 pp. photographs, if possible, and must be 2s, 6d. Robert Culley, London. 1909. in the editor's hands not later than Missionary life in a Chinese city is October I, I9IO. full of novelty, but is strenuous and a test of endurance. Read these pic- OTHER PEOPLE'S PRAYERS. By E. Mabel F. turesque sketches if you would see the Major. 16mo, 80 pp. 6d. native as he is and hear him talk with proper names and idioms translated THE TELL-TALE CLUB. G. A. T. Frere. into English. Here are street scenes, 16mo, 80 pp. 6d. medical dispensaries, journeys, con- versations with Buddhist monks, etc., LEPERS SOUGHT HIS FACE. C. Harder. all described in a readable, impressive 16mo, 80 pp. 6d. The Church Mis- way to show the daily life and sur- sionary Society, London. 1909. roundings of the missionaries.
These are three missionary stories for young people. The first tells of how some children became interested in missions through a picture of Africans praying to the unknown god.
THE MISSIONARY
SNAPSHOTS FROM SUNNY AFRICA. By Helen clearly shown in the glimpses of life E. Springer. Illustrated 12mo, 194 pp. that. are gi,:en. It is a simple, unpre- $1.00, net. Fleming H. Revell Co., New tentIOUS bIOgraphy, but one that York. 1909. touches the heartstrings.
These are a series of living pictures from real life in South Africa. Each THE .HOUSE OF CHIMHAM. By Edgar chapter describes some scene or inci- Whltakc:r Work. 12mo, 75 cents. Amerident that is worth reading. They are can Society, New York. 1909.
the things that would interest a trav- This is a little Christmas story of eler and a student of Africa. The na- about fifty pages, very delicately got- tive Dance, the Difficulties of an Un- ten up both as to contents and letterknown Tongue, a Burial Service, an press. It is a sort of historical ro- African Fair, Christmas at Old Um- mance founded on the Bible story of tali, and other chapters, would make Barzellai the Gileadite, who showed excellent reading for missionary meet- such loving hospitality to David in his ings or would illustrate brief talks to flight from Absalom; and to whom, Sunday-schools. when he declined, on account of old MISSIONARY STORY SKETCHES AND FOLK age, the royal offer of a home at court LORE FROM AFRICA. By Alexander P. the king gave indirectly a reward i~ Camphor. Illustrated 12mo, 346 pp. the person of Chimham, his son some $1.50, net. Jennings and Graham, Cin- of his. Bethlehem possession;. (2 cinnati. 1909. Sam. XIX: 37-40.) From the refer- To see Africa through the eyes of ence to J erem. xli: 17 to Chiman African is an interesting oppor- ham, it has been supposed that tunity. Dr. and Mrs. Camphor were on this land in later times stood an the first American negro missionaries inn, Khan, or caravanserai, a wellregularly appointed to Africa by the known stopping-place for travelers Methodist Episcopal Missionary So- from Jerusalem to Egypt. And here, ciety. After some chapters telling the the writer of this little brochure asstory of the Liberia Mission, Dr. Cam- sumes, was the inn where Joseph and • phor gives some short incidents con- the mother of Jesus sought a lodging nected with the work and a number and in the stable of which Christ was of striking native legends that reveal born. The little book is very pathetic the thought and customs of African .and touching in its narrative and well life in Liberia. worth a reading for its ethical and UNDER MARCHING ORDERS. By Ethel Dan- spiritual suggestions, iels Hubbard. Illustrated 12mo, 222 pp. At the same time it is to be feared 60 cents, net. The Young People's Missionary Movement, New York. the historic basis is very slender, and the tradition on which the story rests 1909.
Mary Porter Gamewell, the subject very doubtful. There is some uncer- of this biography for young people, tainty about the name, possibly from was a missionary in Peking during the its not being Hebrew. But there is Boxer riots and siege. The story of more doubt about the facts, when her life is unusually full of novelty J ohanan betook himself with his res- and incident and is well told. Her cued captives to this southern rendez- self-sacrificing service for Chinese vous en route to Egypt. This, accord- women has left its impress on the ing to the Keri, is called the "habita- China that is to be. tion of Chimham." Why did an inn, THE DAYS OF JUNE. By Mary Culler or caravanserai, in the vicinity of White. 12mo, 128 pp. 50 cents. Flem- David's city bear the name of Chim- ing H. Revell Co., New York. 1909. ham? The assumption is because it This meaningless title belongs to a had been built and owned by Bar- brief story of the life of a young zellai's son. This is the Masorite in- woman, June Nicholson, who gave her terpretation upon the authority of life as a missionary in China. Her some Jewish tradition, but the substi- beauty and force of character are tution is incapable now of proof or
disproof, tho Blunt, in his "Unde- THE CHRISTIAN STEWARD. July and Octo- signed Coincidences," argues in its ber, 1909, January, 1910. Issued quarfavor. terly by the Association of Christian One formidable difficulty is found Stewards. 25 cents a year, 10 cents a in the fact that even if David made copy. Rev. R. W. Woodsworth, 105 over to Chimham part of his own Yorkville Avenue, Toronto. patrimony, it would have reverted to David's heirs in the Jubilee year, as MENTAL ASSASSINATION, OR CHRISTIAN possessions were inalienable permanently. But this historic uncer- SCIENCE. A Physical, Intellectual Moral tainty need not seriously impair the and Spiritual Peril. By I. M. 'Haldeinterest of what it, after all, only a delightful little romance meant to en- man, D.D. 40 pp. 10 cents. Charles courage all loving and gracious hospitality as having its ultimate and C. Cook, 150 Nassau Street. New York. often unexpected reward. DESTRUCTIVE CRITICISM VS. CHRISTIANITY.
INDIA'S HURT AND OTHER ADDRESSES. By An Expose of Fosterism. By A. C. W. M. Forrest. 12mo. 171 pp. 50 I!ix~m. 24 pp. Bible Colportage Asso- cents, net. Christian Publishing Co., ciation, 826 La Salle Avenue, Chicago, St. Louis, Mo. 1909. Ill.
Most missionaries who have labored MISSIONARY POSTERS, LETTERS AND PICTURE in a foreign field have something POST-CARDS. Published by the Missionworth saying when they return. This is not always of unique value or in- ary Helps Depot, 13 Croxton Street. terest, but it expresses their views of Liverpool, England. the needs of the people, the progress of the work and the duty of the Chris- BUDDHISM AS A RELIGION: Its Historical tian Church at home. Mr. Forrest, a Development and Its Present Condimissionary of the Christian Church, tions. By H. Hackman. 320 pages. 6s, gives us his views on "India's Hurt net. Probsthain & Co., 14 Great Rusand Need," "India's Mothers and sell St., London, W.C. Daughters," "Student Life," "Religious Ideals and Their Realization," the DAWN IN TODALAND. By C. F. Ling. Is, "Dangers and the Results of Christian Missions." The chapter on the "New 6d, net. Morgan & Scott, Ltd., 12 Pat- Theology and Missions" is worth read- ernoster Bldgs., London, E.C. ing, but the positions taken are more favorable to critical conclusions than THE EVANGELICAL INVAS.JON OF BRAZIL. By many missionaries would accept. Samuel R: Gammon, D.D. 179 pages. Presbyterian Committee of Publication, FAITH AND FACT: As Illustrated in the Richmond, Va. 75 cents. History of the China Inland Mission. By Marshall Broomhall. 8vo. 78 pp. SOME JEWISH WITNESSES FOR CHRIST. By China Inland Mission, London, Phila- Rev. A. Bernstein, B.D. Is, 6d. Opera- delphia and Toronto. 1909. tive Jewish Converts' Institution, Pal- estine Pl., Bodney Rd., London, N.E. Here is a remarkable and inspiring record of answered prayer in the his- SEVEN WORDS OF THE RISEN CHRIST. By tory of the China Inland Mission. The whole history is a rebuke to unbelief Joseph Addison Richards. 12mo, 86 and a stimulus to greater dependence pages. National Bible Institute, 156 on God. Nine hundred missionaries Fifth Ave., New York. 60 cents, net. are now supported in China, in answer LIFE OF MARY LYON. By Beth Bradford to prayer. Gilchrist. 8vo, 462 pages. Illustrated. $1.50, net. Houghton, Mifflin Co., Bos- PAMPHLETS ton. 1910.
IDOLATRY. By William L. Jones. 22 pp. THE CHILD IN THE NORMAL HOME. By A. Wm. L. Jones, 283 Linwood Avenue, L. McCrimmon, LL.D. 31 pages. 10 Buffalo, N. Y. cents, net. American Baptist Pub. So- ciety. Philadelphia.
THE HOME AS THE SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL LIV- ING. By Henry Frederick Cope. 36 pages. 10 cents, net. American Bap- tist Pub. Society, Philadelphia.
THE CITY: As IT Is AND As IT Is TO BE.
By Clinton Rogers Woodruff. 51 pages. 15 cents, net. American Baptist Pub. Society, Philadelphia.
THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE CHURCH. By Alfred Wesley Wishart. 55 pages. 15 cents, net. American Baptist Pub. So- ciety, Philadelphia.
THE CHURCHES OUT&IDE THE CHURCH. By George W. Coleman. 29 pages. 10 c~nt!, ne~. American Baptist Pub. So- cIety, PhIladelphia.
THE CHURCH AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT.
By Charles Stelze. 32 pages. 10 cents net. American Baptist Pub. Society' Philadelphia. '
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1897
VIRGIN OF ANDACOLLA AND HER
(2) THE PILGRIMS IN THE CATHEDRAL PLAZA, (1) THE IMAGE OF THE VIRGIN. (3) THE PRIESTS AND CACIQUE AT THE CEREMONIES. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOL. XX. No. S.-Old 8'erie8.-AUGUST-VoL. X. No. 8.-N6UJ;&rie8.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF-CENTURY.- ORGANIZATIONS OF CHRISTIAN YOUNG PEOPLE.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-OHIEF.
No human progress is either rapid or regular, potent, or permanent for good, which does liot, in sonie way, educate and elevate the youth of the race. The salt that heals the waters must be cast in the springs where the rills rise and whence the rivers flow.
Childhood has been well compared to a mirror, catching and reflecting the images of whatever surrounds it-a reflector as sensitive to impression and injury as the· metallic mirrors of the ancients. .It would be as irrational carelessly to spray water, or,worse still, a corro': sive acid on a polishtsteel surface, and expect to efface the rust to which no scouring will remove, as to expose· childhooil needless contact with evil, and expect to find no lasting injury left upon the delicate susceptible nature. Youth is the time for making deep and wholesome impressions, as well as for guarding character from hijury! What a golden age of opportunity for teaching-for engrafting lessons from that best of books, that unique child's book-the Bible! The German proverb quaintly says that (C what Johnnie does· not learn, John never learns." The mind of youth "receives like wax, but retains like marble."
It is a grand thing, therefore, early to turn the youth of a country to the highest and noblest ideals, to inspire what Schopenhauer would call the will. to live, and what Nietzsche would call tIM will to be a power. To will to live unto God, and to be a power for God and good, that is the mainspring of a great, grand, heroic soul. We can excuse an excess of zeal and jealousy for God, but we can not excuse vicious excesses, or even apathy toward goodness. Better a violent torrent than a stagnant pool, for the torrent, once controlled, is made a force for good,but a pool is always and only a poisonous breeder of malaria. David Brainerd was expelled from college for telling a. tutor that he had no more grace than the chair he sat in, but Brainerd became one of the saintliest missionary heroes of his country.
of • This periodical adopts the Orthography the following Rule, recommended by the joint actlon of the American Philological Association and the Philological Society of Eugland :-Change d or ed 1IDal to , when so PlOAOWlced, except when the e deets a p!'CCediDg IIODnd.-l'wILIIIallM.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
It is obvious that, without some work of God, especially among the young, we should not have had the existing state of intelligence and earnestness in any departments of service to God. A recent writer* says: "With reluctance and sorrow it must be confest that the majority of Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates are without, or profess to be without, any religious beliefs at all. There are, of course, many exceptions. Exceptions, however, they remain; certainly the greater number are Gallios so far as the Church is concerned." Do these two facts-that our modern university life is so largely tinctured with German rationalism, and that so many skeptics and agnostics are issuing from university halls-stand related as cause and effect? If so, then the influence of German thought on our educationa] life is deplorable. But, bless God, there are educators that have been men of faith, and they have raised up children of faith, a faith larger, more intelligent, and more manly than that which was before it. The Scudders, Dwights, Hodges, Uphams, Waylands, Judsons, Osgoods, Stevensons, Spurgeons, Cairns, Flints, Wattses, Storrs, Christliebs, Candlishes, Bernards, Liddons, have not been headmasters of schools of sickly skepticism. "We correctly test the soundness of a system of thought by its unforced tendencies in the minds of studious young men, for a teacher is better known by the beliefs and lives of his pupils than by the manner of man that he himself seems to be. A tree is known by its fruits."
Family life also, before the public-school and college touch the young man or woman, must look well to the child-life and its development. It has been well said that the feeling with which one administers punishment will generally excite in the child a corresponding experience. If you bring anger, anger will be excited; if you bring affection and sorrow, you will find the child responding in sorrowful feelings; if you bring moral feelings, the child's conscience will answer back again.
Here in the household the first impressions for good or evil are received. The absence of discipline is criminal, for it implies an uuformed character; but the spirit in which discipline is admonisht may go far to prevent true benefit from resulting.
And woe be to the church that has no warm bosom for the young! The statistics of conversion have frequently been gathered, and these are the approximate results as taken from one careful report. Out of a thousand Christian people, the following is the classification as to the age at which they were converted: 20 years and under _________ 695 Over 40 and up to 50 ____ ___ 19 Over 20 and up to 30 _______ 208 Over 50 and up to 60 _______ 6 Over 30 and up to 40 _______ 69 Over 60 and up to 70 _______ 2 Over 70 and up to 75_______ 1 These figures show that only 305 of the 1,000 were converted after * The Nineteenth Century, October, 1895, .. The Religion of Undergraduates." the age of 20; only 97 after the age of 30; only 28 after the age of 40; only 9 after the age of 50, and only 3 after the age of 60.
The earliest age at which conversion occurred was four years, as was the case with a noted minister well known over all the world. The most advanced age at which conversion took place, according to this writer's knowledge, was 75, and the longest time spent in the Ohristian life was found to be 80 years.
The average age at conversion is 19t in this thousand list. What an argument against procrastination ~nd in favor of remembering the Oreator in the days of youth.
In view of such facts and considerations, it is quite inconceivable that God could be controlling the stupendous movements of modern history, and yet no arousing and arising of the young men and women of Ohristian lands be included in his plan.
What do we find? A development and organization of the forces of youth never before known or imagined in history. It seems as tho God, foreseeing the last great Armageddon at hand, had brought forward his reserves-the immense batallion of young men and women -never before massed on the battlefield of the ages! And this amazing development has mostly been the product of the last fifty years.
Some of the facts, however familiar, demanded a rehearsal as a part of this striking history.
Let us_begin with the Young Men's Ohristian Association. This we may pass b~iefly in review, as its history is so well known, and is so fresh in mind from the recent Jubilee celebration in 1894. Sir George Williams, its founder and father, still lives, and tells the simple story of its humble beginning. A little more than fifty years ago, he, a young man of about twenty-one, spoke to another young man about his soul; this conversation led to other like approaches; then to a meeting for mutual edification, Bible study, and united prayer; then to an organization of young men for these purposes in what is now the great mercantile house of Hitchcock, Williams & 00., in London; then to other similar organizations in other mercantile houses, and then to a meeting of their representatives, and the formation of a Y. M. O. A. for the city of London. A thought so manifestly of God could not be hid or confined within narrow bounds. It proved contagious-it spread across the sea, it became the seed thought of such associations over all the English-speaking world; it reacht out to the continent of Europe; it sent out its branches round the globe, until now the aggregate membership of the Y. M. O. A. is numbered by millions, and there is not a prominent land or nation, Ohristian or heathen, which has not a representative organization of young men belonging to the world-wide fellowship. Its conventions have past city, state, and national limits, and have become international and cosmopolitan. Here is an astounding modern development. Never before have yonng men been thus brought to the front, united in Bible study and Christian work, magnifying the essentials of Christian faith and fraternizing in forgetfulness of lesser divergencies, aiming specifically at the reclamation of young men.
To this organization may be directly traced the origin of the Young Women's Christian Associatiou, the United States Christian Commission,-so active in the late war for American unity, and especially that college association work which has already given us the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, and started the new crusade in missions. All this and more within the half century! Well may we exclaim, What hath God wrought!
This Student Volunteer movement, which began at Mt. Hermon, Mass., in 1886, now but ten or eleven years old, has enrolled probably nearly 10,000 young men and women in its ranks from the beginning until now, and has sent nearly one-tenth of its recruits to the field. At this date the membership in Great Britain reaches about 1,400, and between 300 and 400 are already engaged in mission work. A memorial from this body of students is now before the missionary secretaries and the ministers of Christ in Britain, praying them to unite in supplication to God that the lack of gifts may not be suffered to hinder their going forth to the field! Surely this is a new development, when the young men and women, who offer for missionary service, entreat the church not to embarrass their work for the lost race of man by withholding money from the treasuries of God.
What shall be said of the Youn.q People's Society of Christian Endeavor'! Rapid as has been the spread of the Y. M. C. A., the Y. P. S. C. E. outruns it. We have held our breath as we have seen this latest boom of the great organizations of youth outstrip all competitors in the race and encircle the world.
Let Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., the President of the United Society, tell his own story of the origin of this movent, now not yet seventeen years old. We give Dr. Clark's words, with a little condensation: In the winter of 1880-81 a revival spirit visited the Williston Church, of Portland, Maine, and many young people gave their hearts to God. The pastor and older church members, naturally anxious concerning these young disciples, felt that great wisdom and care was necessary to keep them true to the Savior during the first critical years of their discipleship. The problem weighed heavily upon their minds, for they felt that neither the Sunday.school, nor the church prayer-meeting, nor the young people's prayer-meeting, tho all well-sustained admirable in their way, were sufficient to hold and mold the Christian character of these young converts. There was a gap between conversion and church membership to be filled, and all these young souls were to be trained and set at work. How should these things be done? These were the pressing problems. After much prayer and thought, the pastor invited the recent converts and young church members to his house, February 2, 1881, and, after an hour of social intercourse, presented a constitution, previously drawn up, of the" Williston Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor." This is essentially the same as that adopted by the great majority of Societies of Christian Endeavor at the present day.
Some three years later, at the request of one of the national conventions, with the aid of Rev. S. W. Adriance, the writer revised the constitution and framed the by-laws, adding various committees as they now appear in the" Model Constitution." But the lJssential features of the work were in the first constitution: the definition of the object, the two classes of members, the" prayer-meeting pledge" (the most important part of the constitution), the consecration or experience meeting, the roll-call, the provision for dropping members, and the three main eommittees, are provisions which are all found in the first constitution.
Thus the Society of Christian Endeavor, born of a revival, was the outcome of a real, felt necessity of tra.ining and guiding aright the young Christians who might otherwise stray away. It was a mere experiment, in the first place, and little credit is due to the originator, except for an effort to train his own young people in the Christian life, an effort always made by every true pastor. To his delight, and somewhat also to his surprise, nearly all the young people who assembled at his house, on the 2d of February, signed the constitution containing the stringent prayer-meeting clause, and they li1J(Jd up to it. The young people's meeting took a fresh start; the spiritual life of the members was intensified; their activities were very greatly enlarged; and, so far as they were concerned, the problem of leading them to confess Christ with their lips, of setting them at work and keeping them at work, seemed to be solved. When that pastor also found that in many other churches the same efforts accomplisht the same results, he began to feel that the hand of the Lord was in it.
The first knowledge of this experiment given to the world was contained in an article publisht in the Oongregationalist, of Boston, in August, 1881, entitled " How One Church Cares for its Young People." This article, and others whicll followed it, at once brought letters from pastors and Christian workers in all parts of the country. First they came singly, then in pairs, and then in scores, almost every day, and they have kept coming, in constantly increasing numbers, ever since. One of the first pastors to introduce this system of Christian nurture among his young people was Rev. C. A. Dickinson, then pastor of the Second Parish Church of Portland, and no small share of the success of the movement has been due ever since to his wisdom and counsel. The first society in Massachusetts was establisht in Newburyport, Mass., by Rev. C. P. Mills, in the same year that the movement originated. He has also ever since been one of the stanch friends of the cause; while another gentleman, who soon threw himself into the movement with characteristic energy, was Rev. James L. Hill, then of Lynn. The first President of the United Society, Mr. W. J. Van Patten, of Burlington, Vt., was one of the first to recognize the potency of the movement. The first man who signed the constitution, at his pastor's house, on that winter evening in 1881, was Mr. W. H. Pennell, teacher in the Williston Sunday-school of a large class of young men. He took this step, perhaps, as much to help his boys as for any other reason. The national convention honored his early devotion to the work by choosing him for three successive years its President.
So far as careful search reTeals. the distinctive features of the Christian Endeavor movement. the strict prayer-meeting pledge, the consecration meeting, the roll-call, the variety of committee work, and the duties of these committees, are characteristic of this organization alone.
Thus, at first, the Society of Christian Endeavor grew apparently as it were by chance. Wherever one of the winged seeds of information was wafted, it usually I struck' and took root, and a little Christian Endeavor plant was the result; or, as some one wittily exprest it, 'The Society was contagious, like the measles; if one churcn had it, the church next to it was pretty sure to catch it also.'
For some years little was done in a systematic or organized way to estab- lish societies. One of the first developments of the new work was naturally in the line of annual conventions. Those interested were not content to work out the problem for themselves, they must come together and tell each other what great things the Lord had done for them. The first of these conferences was held June 2d, 1882, in the Williston Church, Portland, Maine. But six societies were recorded then. In these were 481 members, the Williston SoCiety leading off with 168.
The Second Annual Conference was held in Portland, June 7, 1883. A large growth over the preceding year was noted, tho statistics were obtained from only fifty-three societies with 2,630 members. Of these fifty-three societies the report says five were organized in 1881, twenty-one in 1882, and twenty-seven in the first five months of 1883, showing what an impetus to the work was given by the little convention of the year before. Seventeen of these societies were found in Maine, eleven in Massachusetts, forty-one in all New England; while of the other twelve, five were in New York, and the rest scattered throughout the West, a very large one being found in Oakland, Cal. After this convention the society grew rapidly and steadily, but did not call another national convention until October 22, 1884, when it convened in Lowell. This was a two days' session, and a large, enthusiastic meeting.
By the time the national convention of 1885 met, July 9th and 10th, at Ocean Park, Maine, the society had grown to embrace 253 smaller societies, with 14,892 members in all parts of the country. They had. begun to be reported in foreign lands also, even in Foochow, Honolulu, and other mission fields. From this convention the work received a marvellous impulse, and everywhere the churches began to establish societies. In 1887, at the Saratoga convention, Dr.
Clark was chosen President of the United Society, and editor of Christian Endeavor literature; he, in the following autumn, resigning the pastorate of Phillips Church, Boston, to accept the position. .
Unions existed. by the year 1888, in nearly all the States of the Union, and local unions in hundreds of places; and under the blessing of God, the one society of 1881 has grown to the myriads of the present time, with their hundreds of thousands of members in America, and many added thousands in Great Britain and all missionary lands. _ In his letter of acceptance the president of the United SOCiety formulated certain principles which he presented to the societies as conditions on which he accepted their call. These principles, adopted by many influential State con· ventions and local unions, may fairly be considered the platform on which the society stands, and are therefore here embodied: PLATFORM OF PRINCIPLES.
"1st. The Society of Christian Endeavor is not, and is not to be, an organization independent of the church. It is the CHURCH at work for and with the young, and the young people at work for and with the CHURCH. In all that we do and say let us bear this in mind, and seek for the fullest cooperation of pas· tors and church officers and members in carrying on oUI work. The Society of Christian Endeavor can always afford to wait rather than force itself upon an unwilling church.
"2nd. Since the societies exist in every evangelical denomination, the basis of the union of the societies Is one of common loyalty to Christ, common methods of service for Him, and mutual Christian affection, rather than a doctrinal and ecclesiastical basis. In such a union all evangelical ChristilUlS can unite without repudiating or being disloyal to any denominational custom or tenet.
"3d. The purely RELIGIOUS features of the organization shall always be PARAMOUNT. The Society of Christian Endeavor centers about th~ prayer-meet- ing. The strict 'prayer·meeting pledge,' honestly interpreted, as experience has proved, is essential to the CONTINUED success of a Society of Christian Endeavor.
, '4th. Tho Society of Christian Endeavor sympathizes with temperance and all true moral reforms, with wise philanthropic measures, and especially with missions at home and abroad; yet it is not to be used as a convenience by any organization to further other ends than its own.
"5th., The finances of the Society shall be managed economically, in accord· ance with the past policy of the Board of Trustees, and the raising of funds to support a large number of paid agents or Christian Endeavor missionaries, either in connection with the United Society or the State Unions, is not contemplated. In winning our way, we can best depend in the future, as in the past, upon the abundant dlssemmination of our literature, and on the voluntary and freely given labors of our friends, rather than upon the paid services of local agents.
"The expenses of the central office will be largely for the publication of litera· ture and for the expenses of our General Secretary in the :field. In raising very large sums, and employing many agents for whose work the United Society will be responsible, and yet which it can not to any great extent control, we shall run the risk of losing the sympathy of the churches, There is little danger that the society will not grow with sufficient rapidity, if every member does his best to make known our principles. Let it be our chief concern that our growth shall be as strong and substantial as it is rapid. In all State and local work the society can best rely upon the zeal and generosity of its friends, hundreds of whom, both laymen and ministers, are willing freely to lend their aid to our cause.
"6th. The State nnd local unions and the individual societies and members will hcartily uphold the United Society, its officers and trustees, with their sym· pathies and prayers (and their material support so far as necessary), and hamper. ing and destructive criticism of well·meant efforts are not deemed accordant with Christian Endeavor principles."
As it is important that this historic review should bring the story of this remarkable movement down to present date, we may add a. few brief items that serve to complete the record.
In 1884, the first Junior Endeavor Society was formed. In 1888, Dr. Olark made a journey to Eugland, and planted the Ohristian Endeavor Society in Britain. "Ohristian Endeavor Day," the society's anniversary, first became a fixture during this year. In 1892, the convention was held in New York Oity, and attended by 35,000, with a larg9 representation from foreign lands, Hindus, Ohinese, and native Africans being among the speakers. Within a few weeks after this convention, Dr. Olark, with his wife and son, set out on a round·theworld journey, both to start new branches and to study the conditions to which the Endeavor Society must adapt itself, and its capacity and adaptability to them. This journey covered nearly 40,000 miles. Over 350 addresses were made by Dr. and Mrs. Clark before aggregate a.udiences ,of 100,000. Twelve nations were visited, and, through interpreters, addresses were made in upwards of t,!enty different tongues. This journey was conspicuous, especially for its incidental conneCtion with the foreign mission interest, which it naturally served to create or quicken. It emphasized fellowship among the nations, and the brotherhood of the race in sin, need, and redemption, and ever since then the Ohristian Endeavor Society has been linkt with the world-field in sympathy, prayer, and giving. At Boston, in 1895, 56,000 delegates registered, and about 650,000 attended the 825 difi'erent meetings of the convention. Thirteen different countries or peoples of the world, from England to Japan, and Alaska to Africa, were represented. A World's Christian Endeavor Union was formed at this time, and a "prayer chain" that reaches round the globe.
On March 6, 1897, the following is the official enrolment; it is worth preserving and comparing with the records of sixteen years ago: The total number of societies is 48,305, of which 7,172 are in foreign lands, and a total membership of 2,800,000.
SurelyGod has some great mission for this vast host of united young men and women. If we might venture to suggest to this great army of Christian Endeavorers seven grand things to be kept in the very foreground as secrets of success, we should unhesitating say: 1. First of all, Set the Lord always before you. All life of holiness or power absolutely depends on the supremacy of God in the character and conduct-a real elevation of Him to the first place. Matt. vi. 33. All else is idolatry.
2. Beware ofpride of numbers. Power is not dependent on multitude or even organization. God often works mightily by the few, who do not forget individual duty and responsibility, and depend on the Holy Spirit.
3. Guard the habit of closet prayer. Matt. vi. 6. Nothing else so determines the true character as the vision of God in the secret place (Number(vii. 89) and in His Word.
4. Regard yourselves as stewards of God, in trust with time, talents, money, and opportunity. Use all for him. Aim at a Scriptural standard of giving. 2 Cor. viii. 9.
'5. Abide in your calling with God. Every honest and honorable work is a divine calling, a sphere of Christian Endeavor. Take God as your partner. 1 Cor. vii. 20, 6. Lose Y01tr O1en will in the will of God. Ps. xl. 8. This is the soul of all true Christian Endeavor. Be content to be simply His instruments.
7. Serve your own generation by the will of God. Acts xiii. 36. Wherever you are be a missionary, and set before you to do your utmost to bring the Gospel into contact with every human soul.
THE PIGMIES OR DWARFS OF AFRICA
THE PIGMIES OR DWARFS OF AFRICA.
BY REV. JOHN GILLESPIE, D.D.
One of the most important discoveries made by Henry M. Stanley during his last peTilous expedition in "Darkest Africa" was that of the Wambutti, a tribe of Dwarfs living between the upper Aruwimi and the Nepoko. After describing in detail the first full-grown member of the tribe seen, he writes: That little body of his repreElented the oldest types of primeval man, descended from the outcasts of the earliest ages, the Ishmael of the primitive race, forever shunning the haunts of the workers, deprived of the joy and delight of the home hearth, eternally exiled by their vice to live the life of human beasts in morass and fen, and jungle wild. Think of it! Twenty.six hundred years ago his ancestors captured the five young Nassamonian explorers, and made merry with them at their villages, on the banks of the Niger. Even as long as forty centuries ago they were known as Pygmies, and the famous battle between them and the storks was rendered into song..
It was no less a poet than Homer who immortalized the so-called battle in song. He compares the advance of the Trojans in battle array to " a cloud of birds making their loud cries heard." "So," he continues, "raises itself to heaven the outcry of storks when they flee from winter and the continual rains. They utter shrill cries, they fly over the ocean, they bear carnage and death to the men called Pigmies; and from high in the air they give them dreadful combat." Aristotle speaks of the storks as passing from the plains of Scythia to the marsh of Upper Egypt, toward the source of the Nile, and adds: "This is the district which the Pygmies inhabit, whose existence is not a fable." He makes no reference, however, to the mortal combats between them and the storks, of which Homer sings. Pliny is less careful in his statements, and leaves one in doubt as to what is fable and what is fact. But stripping these early writings of what may be f/Lirly counted fancy, there remains a large residuum of truth, which accords with the discoveries of more recent times in important par~ ticulars-such as the fact of the existence of these Dwarfs, their distinctive characteristics, their location, and their habits. In examining this subject, the questions which press for an answer are such as these: Who are the Dwarfs? whence came they? and what place shall we assign them among the races of mankind? To answer these questions adequately would require a wide range of inquiry into ethnology, history, and geography. A much more modest task is the one proposed in this paper.
In looking up the subject, by far the most comprehensive and apparently reliable authority I have consulted is, "The Pigmies," by the late distinguisht French scientist, A. de Quatrefages. It is translated by Frederick Starr, and is the second volume in the Anthropological Series issued by Appleton. This author asserts confidently that the Pigmies were at one time much more prosperous than now, and occupied a geographical area more vast and much more extended than they do to-day, but that they were gradually driven back and sup- planted by stronger races. Wherever they are met with, they seem to be retreating and dying out. This view is confirmed by the late Rev. A. C. Good, Ph. D., of the Presbyterian Mission in West Africa. In exploring the country behind the coast belt, east of Batanga, in 1893, with a view to opening a new mission station, he unexpectedly came on a village of Dwarfs. He found them exceedingly timid and diffi- cult of access, attacht as a kind of serfs to some stronger tribe, such as the Bulu, or Mabeya. It had not always been thus, however. Dr. Good says: It is not only claimed by the Dwarfs, but f~eely admitted by the other tribes of this region, that the sea was first discovered by the Dwarfs, while the people now on the coaat were still far back in the forest, and did not, as yet, know that there was such a thing as the sea. The first paths in this whole region were opened by them, and, if I am not mistaken, many of the names of localities were first given by them.
Prof. de Quatrefages says that the ancients had information, more or less exact, of five populations of little stature, from whom they have made their pygmies. Two of them are located in Asia, and three in Africa. The author, during the first years of his professorship of Anthropology in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, proposed to unite all black populations of small stature in Asia, Malaysia, and Melanesia into a Negrito branch. Later his colleague, Prof. Henry, showed that, contrary to the common opinion, there were in West Africa negroes distinguisht from the classical type by the shortness of their skulls. He showed that Africa, like Asia, possest a black sub- type, of which one of the most striking characteristics was a remark- ably reduced stature, that the little negroes, African and Asiatic, so widely separated geographically, resembled each other in several other features, either anatomical or external, that these two groups are in reality two corresponding terms geographically and anthropologically. He proposed that these Dwarf African tribes should be named Negril- los. By scientific investigation, such as the measurement of skulls, comparison of color, careful attention to instinct and manners, these Anthropologists have establisht the fact of the existence of a number of groups of Negrillos widely separated in the Dark Continent. This gives color to the belief that these little people were once more numer- ous, that they formea. populations denser and more continuous; and that they have been crowded back, separated, and divided by superior . races. The inference is that these Negrillos occupied a large part of Africa prior to the advent of the negroes properly so called. Thus, the Negrillos of Africa have had experience similar to that of the Negritos in the East, who have been opprest, dispersed, and almost annihilated by stronger races.
This resemblance between these two races of black people of small stature, separated by immense distances, seems to point to a common origin. . Some contend that the negroes, originating in Africa, pene- trated into Asia and Melanesia by a slow infiltration across the sea. Others reverse the process, and hold that the little black race devel- oped in the southern part of India, spread east and west, and peopled Melanesia and Africa. Prof. Seeley holds that the negro race form- erly occupied a belt of land stretching from Africa to Melanesia, which is now submerged, while de Quatrefages contends that the three fundamental, physical, and linguistic types of mankind arose in the central highland of Asia. The black type appeared in the south of Asia between the highland and the sea. Prest between the yellow peoples on the north, and the whites on the west, they escaped by sea, SOUle east, some west. They were the first to people the eastern archipelagoes and the islands of the Bay of Bengal. They arrived in Africa by crossing the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden. "Everywhere the Negritos and the Negrillos pre- ceded the Papuans and the true Negroes."
Whatever view may be adopted as to the origin of the dwarfs, it seems probable that they were.a primitive African race, widely dis- tributed over the Dark Continent, and surviving to-day as the Wam- butti discovered by Stanley in Central Africa, the Akka, of which both Stanley and Emin Pasha speak. and the Batwa under the shadow of the Mountains of the Moon, and the Hottentots and Bushmen of the southwest, referred to quite fully by Robert Moffat, and his dis- tinguisht son-in-law, David Livingstone. It is somewhat puzzling, however, to a layman in Anthropology to find the several branches of this once wide-spread pigmy race so apparently differentiated from each other in characteristic features. Some are described by a writer in the Popular Science Monthly as having eyes very small and out of the right line, cheek-bones very far apart and high, nose flat to the face and disproportionately wide, hair crisp and woolly, and growing in separate patches and thickest on the top of the head. Dr. Moffat describes Hottentots, whom he holds to be identical with the Bush- men in race, as "not swarthy nor black, but rather of a sallow color. They are generally smaller in stature than their neighbors of the in- terior, their visage and form very distinct, and in general the top of the head broad and flat, their faces tapering to the chin, with high cheek-bones, flat nose, and large lips." Stanley, in describing four women and a boy who were captured at a Dwarf village, says, " I saw I in them two distinct types. One evidently belonged to that same race described as the Akka, with small cunning monkey eyes, close and deeply set. The four others possest large, round eyes, full and prominent, round foreheads, sman hands and feet, with slight prog- nathy jaws, figures well formed, tho dimiuutive, and of 8 bricky com- plexion." Emin Pasha describes an Akka who had been brought to him, as about twcnty-five years old, three feet six inches high, the whole body covered with thick stiff hair, almost like felt.. All the Akka he had examined were so covered. Dr. Good, in speaking of those he met with near the Equator, just back of the coast belt, says that they were of a distinctly lighter tint than the Mabeya tribe to which they were attacht, and that he saw nothing of the yellowish or reddish growth of hair, of which some travelers have spoken. Their jaws were much too large, their foreheads low and retreating, and their eyes very large.
Mr. Oscar Roberts and the Rev. F. D. P. Hickman, of the Presby- terian Mission, confirm this statement by what they saw of the Dwarfs among the Mabeya and Ngumba tribes, east of Batanga in the iuterior. Those among the latter had jaws and mouths larger than the Ngumba and head of different shape; while those among the former had their skin lighter, nose flatter, and eyes larger than the Mabeya. One man measured five feet and three inches, and a woman four feet and five inches.
Wha.tever may be said as to the origin, or the original condition of these little people, it is certain that they a.re now not only a deprest class, but in most instances a much opprcst class wherever found. Even the Wambutti, whom Stanley pronounces by far the finest specimens of the Dwarfs, a.re children of the forest, subsisting on game, and performing numerous menial services for the tribes near which they plant their village camps. There are times, however, when they must be reckoned with by the more powerful tribes, and constitute by no means despicable allies or antagonists, when armed with their poisoned arrows. Stanley calls them the" parasites of the Oentral African forest," who glue themselves to the clearings of the larger tribes, and steal to their heart's content. Dr. Koelle, author of "Polyglotta Africana," describes a tribe, called the Betsan, in interior West Africa, of whom he had learnt, whose habits are substantially those of other Dwarf tribes. They do not cultivate the soil, but subsist by hunting, live in low dark huts, and are constantly migrating.
This answers to the mode of life of those discovered by the Presbyterian Missionaries near the West Ooast. They live in sheds constructed rather skillfully of poles, posts, and leaves, and are migratory in their habits, living on game chiefly, but also on vegetables and fruits procured from their more powerful neighbors by bartering the meat caught in the chase. They are for the time the slaves of the tribe to which they have att8cht themselves. When askt by Dr. Good, why they did not come to the coast, the answer was that the Mabeya would not permit them; and when Mr. Roberts tried to get a few boys to accompany him to the coast for education, they replied that they would first have to secure permission from the Mabeya chief.
But, altho far down in the scale of being, these little people are still men, and tho the image of the Oreator is sadly marred, and in instances almost obliterated, it can be readily traced. There is enough in the ruins of the temple to tell of a former glory, and to foretell a possible restoration under the regenerating power of the Gospel. Referring to a little man and woman who had by panto- mime intelligently answered numerous questions, Mr. Stanley adds: "Tho their souls were secreted under abnormally thick folds of ani- malism, and their finer feelings inert and torpid through disuse, they were there for all that." The traveler Moummeri says of the Akka who accompanied him on his expedition: "They are men and know how to fight." The West Ooast llfissionaries have found them able to con- verse intelligently within certain limits, when relieved from fear of the white man, and the few Dwarf boys now in the Mission School among the Mabeya manifest fairly good ability. 'fhe Dwarfs seem at times to have a language of their own, but usually they speak that of the tribe to which they are attacht.
Debased as they are, they have decided musical instincts. Mr. Roberts describes a performance he witnessed, where five rudely constructed instruments were used. A stick, probably an inch and a half in diameter lying on the ground, was a substitute for a piano. On this two women played, using a stick in each hand. For a drum they had a log hollowed out, with a deer skin tightly stretcht over the top, a woman beating it. A metal instrument, answering the purpose of cymbals apparently, was composed of two hollow pieces, the shape of an elongated cow bell. A man struck this with a stick, and the women not otherwise employed clapped their hands and sang. What Livingstone wrote with reference to some of the degraded tribes of Oentral Africa is equally true of these deprest classes: However degraded these peoples may be, there is no need of te11lng them of the existence of God or of a future life. These two truths are universally admitted in Africa. All the phenomena which the natives can not explain by an ordinary cause are attributed to the divinity. If we speak to them of a dead man, they reply, "He is gone to God."
Dr. R. H. Nassau, of the Presbyterian Mission on the West Ooast, after thirty years of close observation, says, he has yet to be askt by the most degraded people, "Who is God?" He writes: "Under the slightly varying form of' Anyambe," Angambe,' 'Njamhi,' 'Nyambi,' 'Anyam,' 'Nyam,' or in other parts as 'Ukuku,' 'Suku,' etc., they know of a being superior to themselves, of whom they themselves inform me, that he is their' Maker' and 'Father.'''
Mr. Roberts, referring to his effort to impress on two Dwarfs the fact of God's love, writes: "They knew that God is, but in all probability had never heard of his love before." In an able article in the Popular Science Monthly of September, 1890, Mr. A. Werner quotes Dr. Krapf, the distinguisht German Missionary, as referring to a Dwarf tribe who believe in a Supreme Being they name Z~r, and to whom they address prayers in moments of sadness and terror.
Yea, if thou dost really exist, why dost thou let us be 8lain? We ask thee not for food or clothing, for we only live on snakes, ants, mice. Thou hast made us, why dost thou let us be trodden down?
How pathetic! A downtrodden, opprest people, obeying the impulse of their darkened hearts, feeling after God to protect them from oppression. Referring to his visit to the Dwarf village, Dr. Good writes: "I tried to learn something of their religious ideas, but could not fiud that they differed from those of the Mabeya." The religious ideas of the Mabeya include a pronounced recognition of a Supreme Being.
Mr. Hahn, who had lived nine years among the Khoi-Khoi, a low tribe of Bushmen and Hottentots, or a cross between, in South Africa, is quoted very fully by de Quatrefages on the religious beliefs of those people. He produces and translates a chant used by the Khoi-Khoi at their public festivals, in which God is addrest as Tsuigoa-" Thou father of the fathers," "Thou our father." Still more surprising is their domestic worship, as thus set forth: "In the morning, at the first streaks of dawn, they leave their huts and go to kneel down behind some bush. There, with face towards the East, they address their prayers to Tsui-goa, the Father of the fathers."
Pl'. Moffat, in his "Southern Africa," refers, with profound regret, to the failure of the mission of the London Missionary Society among the Bushmen-the Dwarfs of the south. The failure was in large part because of the interference of more powerful tribes. In this reference he quotes from the Rev. A. Faure as follows: Some of the Bushmen whom Mr. Smith baptized had acquired very rational ideas of the principles of the Christian religion. and appeared to feel its constraining influence on their habitual conduct. They were zealous in trying to convey the same inestimable blessings to their unhappy countrymen, who live withou' God and without hope in the world. It was delightful to hear the children sing the praises of Jehovah, and to witness the progress they had made in spelling and reading. These facts, which have come under my observation, prove that the conversion of this race of immortal beings is not impossible.
Looking to the future, Dr. Moffat says: " We must continue to look for success in attracting the scattered fragments to the missionary settlement and forming outstations among them, a method which has already received the divine blessing."
It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, more than fifty years later, has, after careful consideration and prolonged correspondence with the Mission,
THE MIRACLE-WOltKING VIRGIN OF ANDACOLLA
resolved to pursue this very method in trying to reach the Dwarfs within its field. The history of the undertaking is briefly this: When Henry M. Stanley emerged from" Darkest Africa," and wrote the thrilling narrative of his expedition, the heart of Miss Margaret MacLean, a consecrated Ohristian woman of Glasgow, Scotland, was deeply touched by his reference to the Dwarfs. She wrote to a number of the English Foreign Missionary Societies without being able to interest them, and finally to Mr. Stanley, himself, inquiring if it would be possible to establish a mission among these little people. His answer was discouraging, because of the immense labor and expense such a mission would involve, requiring no less than a large, wellequipt expedition to proceed up the Kongo, and thence through the dense forest of the interior. A few years later she fell in with a copy of "The Ohurch at Home and Abroad," which contained the late Dr. Good's letter, describing his visit to a village of Dwarfs. This led to a correspondence with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Miss MacLean generously offered to provide the necessary funds for the establishing and maintaining of a mission for twenty years among these Dwarfs, provided the Board would undertake it. As a preliminary step it was agreed to instruct the missionaries in the Kameruns district to make further examination of the whole subject and report, with such recommendations as might be agreed upon. The result was an arrangement with Miss MacLean by which the Board undertakes, in connection with its work among the larger tribes, to do what it can for the Dwarfs attacht to these tribes, preaching to them the Gospel, establishing schools among them wherever possible, training them to industrious habits, and endeavoring to put the more promising youth into the schools establisht among the stronger tribes. Already ample funds have been placed in the hands of the Board for this purpose, and the work has been begun. Let there be much prayer for the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon it!
THE MIRAOLE-WORKING VIRGIN OF ANDAOOLLA.
BY THE REV. EDSON A. LOWE, SANTIAGO, CHILE.
Not long ago I had an opportunity of seeing a prilgrimage to the Virgin of Andacolla, and was imprest anew with tho dense moral darkness of South American Romanism. With a few English com- panions I boarded the train at the seaport-town of Ooquimbo, Ohili, but found the cars so crowded that I was glad to find a place on the outside of the locomotive. After an hour's ride we left the train, and . traveled on horseback for a distance of twenty miles. We pass amid a crowd of weary pilgrims all along the way, travel-stained and burdened. Finally, after climbing over some wild mountain ranges, we came upon the little village of Andacolla, whose few hundred inhabitants suddenly found themselves the hosts of numberless pilgrims. The arrangements for their entertainment were remarkable. The price for a bedroom for two nights, without food, ra.nged anywhere from $30 to $100. Finding a friendly Norwegian, we closed with him for $30 for a room with two single beds. The people who could not pay for accommodations had the privilege of sleeping outdoors, free of charge.
It was an odd sight to see the large public square, or plaza, turned into one large bedroom, in which thousands slept upon their blankets. The good order was remarkable. No one was intoxicated; every face seemed to have an expectant, serious, even sad expression. There were various classes of pilgrims; some had come out of curiosity, some to fulfill a vow, or to present a thank-offering to the virgin, and others to offer a special prayer (usually prepared in rhyme and offered while daneing before the image), and to pay in advance for the blessing they expected to receive. The most striking class were those who had come in fancy dress in a company of their fellow-townsmen from the neighboring villages, each of which had its distinctive costume, the men and boys so dressed numbering about 2,000. These companies come to dance before the virgin, and are all under the management of one chief, called" The Oacique."
Desiring to learn all about the strange festival, we sent for the cacique, who promptly responded to our rather presumptuous request, and came to our room for a brief interview. In the course of our conversation he told us that this image of the virgin was found in a· ravine near here more than four hundred years ago, by a man named OoIlo, of whom he himself was a descendant. Oollo was working in the mine, when suddenly he heard a voice saying, "Anda, 00110." [Spanish for: Go,Oollo.] He went out, thinking that he was going to find a treasure or a gold mine, but instead he discovered this image. The people did not begin to worship her immediately, because they wasted much time trying to get her down from the mountain. They took her one day's journey toward the seaport, but the next morning she was found back in the spot where she was first discovered. When askt how the virgin got there, the cacique simply replied: "Who knows?"
They tried again to take her away to Serena, but could not get her over the hill, because she became so heavy that they could not lift her. After that they concluded that she did not wish to be removed, and so kept her there. When askt if it was true that the virgin workt miracles and cured sick people, the man said: " Yes; but that all depends on the faith of the person who is sick." He said also that the offioo of cacique is hereditary, and that he had held it ever since his father died, thirty-eight years ago. Having no son, he would name his successor when the time came.
Candor compels us to say that our visitor imprest all of us rather favorably. He seemed to have no desire to make any impression or to create any sensation. He had a spirit of frankness and sincerity, and left the impression that no tradition should grow in his telling narration of the story. He freely said: "Many of the things that people say about this virgin can not be believed; they are idle tales."
The next morning we visited the plaza and the church, which had just been completed. In a little side-room was a committee of priests ready to receive the monetary offerings, and the table at times hecame so full of precious metal that they had to put the money away into a large fireproof safe. The offerings are estimated at from $10,000 to $20,000-all contributed by people whose wages do not average more than 40 cents a day. We saw one, a poor man, going through the streets on his knees. He had on clothes which were all tattered and torn, and seven ragged children were walking wearily beside him. He was taking an offering of $50 to the virgin, probably all his hard-earned savings of the year, or rather thievings from the rightful possessions of his family. In the interior of the church numbers of people might be seen going backward on their knees. In the chancel was to be seen the wonderful virgin-in reality a French doll, about a foot and a half high, with another small doll in her arms. Her long dress, extending far below her feet, is of rich white satin, heavily embroidered with gold, and all over her are heavy solid silver ornaments. About two years ago some apostate robbed her of the solid gold crown, set with precious stones, and other costly ornaments, and altho these things were recovered, they have never again been exposed to the danger of robbery. In the gateway of the church we accosted a priest who was painfully polite, and said, among other things: "There are supernatural things occurring here all the time, but it is almost impossible to get at them, because the people are incapable of giving any connected account of their experiences. There was a miraculous cure yesterday, and a few years ago there was a most remarkable case of a woman, who had been living with a man to whom she had not been married, and who promised the virgin that, with her help, she would reform. She then told the man that she would not live any longer with him unless they were married. He became enraged, and shot and mortally wounded her; but she prayed to the virgin and was instantly healed. She brought her clothes stained with blood, and they are preserved as a memorial of the miracle."
In the afternoon of Christmas day the plaza began to fill, and climbing into the belfry of an old church we had an excellent view of the ceremonies. Various companies of dancers could be distinguisht, three classes being called "Chinos," "Dancers," and "Turban-ers." The difference between them seemed to be in their costume and manner of dancing or leaping. The Chinos are the most ancient order, and always consist of miners, and are by far the most numerous. They dress in much the same style as the cacique. The cap, shirt, belt and pantaloons are of a crushed-strawberry color, embroidered with bright colored worsted. These chinos did not dance, properly speaking, but jumpt or leapt. They would leap all at the same time, five or six feet, and drop their bodies to the ground, holding themselves in perfect control, and then, after two seconds or so in a motionless attitude, would give another leap, all springing up at once. The dancers propel' were drest in rather a more fancy costume than the chinos, and had more music in their ranks. The turban-ers, comparatively few in number, but drest in most elaborate costume, usually came from some of the larger towns. They wore lace turbans, usually white, and had quite an elaborate band of musicians, and some dancers. The dancers and turban-ers had the following instruments, tin whistles, triangles, drums, accordions, and an occasional guitar or banjo. These danced in certain places, a half hour at a time, all Christmas day, especially before the priest's palace, the old church, the three entrances to the new church, and, of course, before the virgin, whim she was in the door-way of the church, on Christmas day. Each company had a captain, who held a small flag with which to indicate their orders. About fifty companies, all marching to the sound of bands, leaping like frogs or scuffling before the sacred places, made, as can be imagined, considerable din and confusion. The virgin was brought out of the church and made a tour around the plaza, jf she was well treated by the pilgrims-that is, if she received a sufficient sum of money. She first appeared at sil: o'clock, before the thronging multitudes which filled the square and all the surrounding thoroughfares. The hills overlooking the city were also crowded with people who had waited from three o'clock in the afternoon until six, awaiting to see the wonderful sight of the annual procession of the miraculous virgin, for this is the only day in all the year when she leaves the churoh. The cacique showed his wonderful power at this moment; he walkt through the crowd and cleared a way where none seemed possible. The deep shadows from the mountains made the lighted candles carried in the hands of thousands shine out with striking effect. Several minor saints were brought out, and also an image of Ohrist, but the chief enthusiasm centered in the image of the virgin, this supernatural image! The leaping of the chinos and the dancing of the other companies now became frantic, and the excitement grew intense. The bishop who comes to this little mountain-town each year to be present at the processional, crossed from the palace to the church, and everyone fell on his knees before him as he past. Numbers of young women drest
THE FOOUS OF HEATAENISM IN INDIA
in white, were throwing flowers before the virgin. The procession moved very, very slowly, with dragging solemnity, while the frantic thousands were leaping and dancing. Now and then a man was overcome by the heat or excitement, and was carried from the path of the proceilsion, and one little boy we found dead from having danct too long in the hot sun.
We have not space to speak of the sad, strange superstitious expression on the faces of all, nor of the general bacchanalian feast that followed the night after the feast to the virgin. If anyone who still doubts the wisdom of missions to Roman Catholic countries could have been in the belfry that afternoon, he would no longer question the policy, for he could not have distinguisht between those ceremonies, and those of any oriental pagan country, where missions are assuredly sadly needed.
THE FOCUS OF HEATHENISM IN INDIA.
BY H. GRATTAN GUINNE8S, D.D.
Phantasmagoria, such as it seems; a strange incredible dream, yet it is a reality. Benares! this is India, this is heathenism. In the golden light of the morning sun flows the broad Ganges, past the crowded flights of steps, exteuding inch after inch along the bank, covered with worshiping thousands, men, women, children, in white or colored costumes, or no costumes, undressing, dressing, washing, chatting, praying, pouring the sacred water on their bodies, plunging their bodies into the sacred stream, washing their hands in it, their feet, their legs, their arms, their chests, their faces, their clothes; their wet garments clinging to their bodies, the water streaming off their limbs, their prayers babbling from their lips, washing away, as they imagine, both the filth of the flesh and the sin of the soul, in the self-same sacred stream, holy Ganges, the ever-flowing river of salvation.
The ill-savored drainage of the city pours into the sacred stream; it issues from wide openings on the banks, black and fetid, and mingles with the waters of the river; a corpse floats by, swollen and bloated, face down, or face up, in the mighty flood; the vultures sit on neighboring walls of shrines and temples, or wheel on lazy wing above the wave, or light upon the floating or stranded dead. Side by aide on the shore burn the funeral pyres, great piles of wood blazing and smoking around newly brought corpses, the feet of the dead protruding from the crackling flames, crowds gazing without concern at the daily spectacle. Hundreds of Brahmans sit or stand in ceremonial worship on wooden rafts, built out from the stone steps, on which th~ people of the city, or the pilgrims from distaut places, are performing their religious ablutions. Suniassis, Yogis, or Fakirs, naked, smeared with mud, giving a hideous ashen color to their faces and bodies, with dishevelled locks, gaunt limbs, stiff attitudes, and demoniac aspect, sit on raised platforms, and gaze at you, or stare into emptiness, or worship the stream, or grasp the offerings flung to them by admiring crowds. Above them on the river banks rise the walls, the sculptures, the terraces, the towers, the pinnacles of countless temples, some dark with age, others glowing with color, or glittering with gilded roof and spire against the clear blue sky; while beyond the shriues which line the river bank, stretch the roofs of houses closely packed together in maze-like masses, whose narrow winding streets are filled with swarming thousands, struggling in the crossings, crowding round the shrines, jammed in gateways, or courts, or temples, pouring water on the idols, scattering flowers on them, muttering prayers, chattering or shouting in half a score of tongues, beggars adding to the Babel by imploring bakshish from every passer by, while rich and poor cast food or money at the feet of proud and lazy priests, squatting half naked beside these senseless and abominable idols, idols in many cases too indecent for description, foul objects, on which the priests publicly pour the consecrated libation, or the devotee hangs the garland, or flings the flower, as to a god.
o India, thy darkness is not the darkness of mere ignorance, but the darkness of lies, fantastic lies, foul lies, leprous lies, diabolical lies; thy shame is public, it is thy song and thy boast; thy gods are grovelling, bestial, with swollen bellies, black faces, elephants' snouts, and protruding tougues, they glower on their worshippers from filthy shrines; their name is legion, their legends infamous and monstrous; thy deities are demons, and thy Pantheon a Pandemonium; thy millions made in the image of God prostrate themselves before beasts and devils, as tho they were divine, and this is thy daily habit and thy delight, this has been thy way for ages, never hast thou known the revelation; truth has never been truth to thee, from time immemorial things have been inverted, falsehood has been to thee truth, and truth falsehood. Who shall deliver thee from thy delusions? Who shall break thy adamantine chain? Who shall bring thee forth from thy dark prison-house, from thy horrid chamber of imagery, from the groveling pit of thy perdition, into the sunlight of reality, the fair open day of truth and righteousness? 0, pitiable spectacle! Look at those women, grave, earnest, elderly women, walking in procession round and round that dusty old tree by the roadside, which they are taught to hold sacred, reverently sprinkling it with water from the neighboring Ganges, each carrying a pot of water in her left hand, and a brazen spoon in her right, round and round they go, with weary feet, sprinkling and still sprinkling as sacred the gnarled trunk
SHOULD ITALY BE EVANGELIZED?
and knotted roots of an unsightly tree! And this in the name of religion! Sitting under his umbrella by the wayside, the Pundit reads to the passer-by out of some old Sanskrit book, words which the common people can not comprehend; the language in which he reads has long ceased to be spoken, it is a dead tongue; and this is all they have by way of moral or spiritual instruction. No voice that we could hear was lifted up to protest against idolatry, or to point to the way of righteousness N salvation; and this while Christendom crowds her cities with places of worship, and has pulpits with preachers, scatters her religious books and tract samong her favored children by millions, fights over petty parish rights, and local privileges, oblivious of the great world needs, and of the state of the outlying millions of the race.
Say not there are missionaries in India. There are, but what are the missionaries there to the needs? Who shall waken the Christian church to her duty? Look, 0 ye favored ones on the people of India; they are real men and women, with bodies and spirits, with hearts and consciences, with sins and sorrows like your own. But unlike you they are liv~ng and dying thus as we describe, without the knowledge of God, and without the knowledge of salvation. Who will come in a Christ-like spirit to help them? Who will bring them the message of the Gospel which Christ commanded His disciples to proclaim to every creature of mankind?
SHOULD ITALY BE EVANGELIZED?
REV. PROFESSOR RODIO. TRANSLATED BY REV. J. R. MCDOUGALL, FLORENCE, ITALY.
No Christian would ask such a question in regard to missions among pagans, who are evidently sitting in darkness, and are in ignorance of the way of salvation. But some may doubt the necessity of sending missionaries to Roman Catholic peoples, and wish to have the important inquiry settled, Are Roman Catholics to be considered Christians? The German pastor of the Lutheran Church, of Naples, has maintained, in a valuable book, in which he runs a parallel between the beliefs and rites of Paganism and Roman Catholicism, that the Italian people are still far from Christianity. If Pastor Trede is right, then the duty of evangelizing Italy would be proven. But in lively antagonism to Trede, there has arisen Signor Mariani, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Naples, who, with strong arguments, has greatly weakened, if not entirely overthrown, the too extreme view£: of his opponent.
We believe with Trede, that to all intents and purposes Roman Catholicism retains scarcely a trace of Christianity in individual belief and practice; but we assert the fact of this state of things only of the rural districts, where the ancient divinities, under other names, still retain their altars, and the musty superstitions of Paganism flourish. But for the dwellers in towns it is different. A fact, which often passes unnoticed, but is of great importance, is the existence of a religious feeling, largely emancipated from the Roman Catholic doctrine, in the hearts of many who belong to the educated classes of the land. These persons have unconsciously spiritualized the religious thought of Roman Oatholicism, and, without being aware of it, have adopted the Protestant sentiment.
One instance of this, and a classical one it is, is that of Alexander Marzoni, who, purposing to write a book on Roman Catholic morals, but drawing his inspiration from the Gospels rather than from the decrees of popes or the canons of councils, produced, in fact, a work on Evangelical Morality, as was remarkt to him by Lismondi, the great author of the "History of Italian Republics."
Another instance I take from my own experience. Fifteen years ago I had occasion to converse with a distinguisht advocate on matters pertaining to religion, and particularly on the difference between Roman Oatholicism and Protestantism. When we came to speak of transubstantation, after a great deal of discussion, I said to him, "How can you, who are so intelligent, believe in eating the material body of the Lord, with His hair, teeth, nails, etc. ?" Greatly surprised at such a question, he immediately replied," I never have believed, when joining in communion, in eating the flesh of the Lord Jesus." "What then?" I askt. He replied, "I have always believed in receiving the Lord into my heart, and not into my stomach! " " But that," I replied, "is not Roman Catholic doctrine, but precisely the teaching of Evangelical Ohristianity."
Oases such as these are constantly occurring, and a.n outsider might conclude that an evangelistic work might be needed in the country, but not in the towns. Yet here is what calls for mission work among Italian burghers. Men of heart and intelligence, to whom we have alluded, who unconsciously have spiritualism in their hearts through Roman Catholic doctrine, are found, as the years roll on, ever declining in their spiritual perceptions. The consciousness of the contradiction existing between the external profession of the faith and the inner persuasion of the heart is hurtful, and Roman Catholicism, ever hostile to civilization, progress, and spirituality, does not fail to bring the contradiction to the light of day. Many are the men who have tried in Italy to reconcile the doctrine of the Ohurch, if not with the exigencies of the religious conscience, at least with those of the political. Their names are Andisio, Ourci, Tosti, Bonomelli, etc., but all of them have been forced to yield and retreat. It is not, then, surprising to know that Ruggero Bonghi, earnestly proposing by his
WORK AMONG ITALIAN NAVVIBS
"Life of Jesus" to popularize the truths of the Gospel, should have been put in the Index Expttrgatorius.
Meanwhile this profound difference between the needs of the conscience and the proposed doctrine of the Ohurch has wrought evil consequences in Italy, similar to what Lavaleye fore8aw in Belgium. Oorruption has grown enormously, unlawful appropriations are the order of the day, deeds of blood are on the increase, and over this moral chaos there hangs threateningly the worst misfortune that can befall a people, the invasion of incredulity, and in consequence, the loss of that unspeakable treasure, the religion of Jesus Ohrist. In these last conditions of the Italian people, in whose country districts superstition reigns, and in whose cities indifference and atheism are spreading far and wide, as a resnlt of the conflict of conscience with the profest faith of the nation-in this last spectacle of an entire people wandering from the knowledge of the truth, have not the disciples of Ohrist of every church and language an urgent motive for replying in the affirmative to those who like ourselves cry, "Oome over to help us?"
WORK AMONG ITALIAN NAVVIES.
~renda, a small military station, in the mountains of the Maritime Alps, is picturesquely situated on the slope of a rocky height in the valley of the Roya. Quite a village composed of small low houses, called baracche (barracks), has recently arisen near here, because of the numbers of Italian navvies employed in the construction of a new railway tunnel which is to connect Limone and Ventimigtia, so as to bring Turin and North Italy within easier reach of the Riviera. Three years ago about ~,OOO navvies were employed in this work, so that, with the store-keepers, women and children, it grew to be quite a large community. Since then, owing to great difficulty in working the tunnel, and later to the very small pay, the number of navvies has been very much reduced. Here, three years ago, God opened the way for the Gospel' to be preacht among these poor people living a hard and often dangerous life, with no care for their spiritual interests outside of an occasional mass by a visiting priest.
Men from all parts of Italy and from other lands were gathered here, many of them having left their family and friends in far-away homes, to seek work by which they might earn their daily bread. Not only did men come who had been brought up to heavy work, but the unemployed from a multitude of other trades took up this laboro di miseria, as many called it, and to them, of course, the life seems doubly hard. In baracche, many are often crowded together in one room, for which high rent is paid; in the dark mountain they work for many wearisome hours, where at times it is so wet that the men stand up to their knees in water, or so dry, that the fine dust from the rocks, combined with the smoke arising from the frequent dynamite blasts, interferes with their breathing, and frequently brings on a bad disease. Add to this the constant peril of falling stones, earth, etc., and one can easily imagine how hard is the lot of those who are thus toiling to increase the facilities for commerce and pleasure in the interest of all countries.
No pastor or evangelist was near by at first, but one living six hours away came over on hearing of the need, and with the permission of the Tenda Syndic, an open-air meeting was arranged for. The chief store-keeper offered his bowling ground as a suitable place in the center of the village; a notice was put in his window, and invitations were written on cards with carefully selected Gospel texts, and these were given out. It was quite a new thing for them. « Every one that could, locked their doors and came," it was said afterwards. Hymn-sheets were distributed, and one stout woman, holding one up, quite near to the pastor, called out: « Here is Act 1." At the close she begged the pastor's pardon, saying that she had not at all understood what we were going to do. She was one of the first to invite us into her house, and her son, home for the holiday, from a priest's training-school, helped us by copying out hymns for the meetings. The day after the meeting a man came down to Tenda, asking to see the pastor who had preacht the night before, as he had come in the name of others to ask him to return and speak to them again soon. The pastor had already left, but the message was sent him, and, of course, cheered and encouraged him, and during the months following he returned at repeated intervals.
The good reception given us, and the quiet behavior of these miners, must have surprised many at Tenda, who lookt upon these workmen as such a rough set. " Do not go," said one of the officers of the company quartered there, to a German lady who was· going to the meeting, "they will be sure to stone yoa."
Singing is a great attraction to the Italians, who are naturally fond of music, and special meetings for teaching them the hymns were held two or three times a week. Many men showed their interest by asking for the hours to be changed, so that their work might not prevent them attending. Nearly all who came bought the small hymn books, which were sold at 2d each, and they told us that many of them would gather together in a room at Vievola and sing not only the hymns they had learned, but others also, putting the words to some known tune. One man said to me: "Down in the dark tunnel my companion and I amuse ourselves by trying to remember the words of some hymns, and repeating them to each other." "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," which had been translated, is a great favorite with all.
Many tracts were given and books loaned, and a good number of Bibles and Testaments were sold. Several societies kindly gave grants of books and tracts, and Mrs. Spurgeon sent many copies of her husband's sermons, which have been translated. A Swiss woman, whose husband was an Italian, and who was a barber (a common occupation for women, it seems, in her part of the country), asked us for extra books to put on her table, as the men were often glad to sit and read in her barber-shop. Most of them after all their hard work have nothing but their crowded rooms to go to, or the os/erie (public houses) which are very numerous. Who then can blame them severely if at times they do drink and quarrel? What a blessing it would be if a reading-room and hall could be opened where the men would be free to go at any time.
Some of our singing friends drew up a petition, which was signed by 120 people, asking the pastor to send them some one to live among them, that he might teach them and their children the way of truth. This petition was presented at the Synod of the Waldensian church, and an evangelist was sent up towards the end of October, who took up his abode in Tenda, where meetings had also been held, and where religion was at a very low ebb. The one remaining priest was not respected and there was a strong anticlerical feeling. A French gentleman had interested himself in Tenda and used to send up evangelists or pastors from time to time to hold evangelical meetings. He hoped to build a hall so that a permanent mission could be establisht, but died before this object was accomplisht. He always found a strong supporter up there in the schoolmaster, who, poor man, has had much to contend with, different people doing their utmost to make him lose his position. He has written a pamphlet on the persecutions experienced in these parts by Protestants in times gone by. Far up on the slopes of the rocky mountain above Tenda is the Balma die Protestanti (Oave of the Protestants), a large cavern to which Ohristians in those early days came to worship God. It is a steep climb up to it, especially the last part of the road. Once or twice in these latter years, parties of Ohristians have found their way up there. Bearing in mind those who had gone before, they have held a short service there to worship Him who has done such great things for that land, and has granted to them the liberty of conscience, which was denied to their fathers. The evangelist was much cheered on beginning his work at Tenda by the friendship of the people and the good attendance of men at the meetings; years later, by the efforts of a German lady, sufficient money was collected to buy a house, the lower part of which was formed into a hall, and above were rooms for the evangelist. This was opened in February, 1895, when sixteen or seventeen persons were admitted as members of the little church, five or six being from the mining village, Vrievola. At the latter place a room had been hired, where meetings were held twice a week; these were immediately followed by a school for the children.
THE EVANGELIZA.'fiON OJ!' THE J!'mtNCB CA.NADIAN
The work of the tunnel was stopt for a time, and the navvies disbanded. The work having been begun again, however, the number of navvies has been gradually increasing. A regular pastor has replaced the evangelist, and last summer, open-air meetings were held regularly, and here many heard the pure Gospel for the first time. A poor man, who had been nearly crnsht to death by a very heavy wagon passing over him, told us that he had attended several of the meetings, and now counted the time till he should be well enough to go again. He eagerly took a Testament and afterwards said, "Those are good, true words."
It was a pleasure to talk to one of the members, a poor day-laborer at Tenda, he seemed a man of such strong and simple faith. He told us that the first time he had attended an evangelistic meeting he had said to himself: "This is my religion; the one I have sought so long;" and when he had received the Gospel message, he said it was as tho a weight of lead had been taken off his heart. "Before I was so anxious and full of care; now I have peace." He was the first to have his baby baptized in the little church. The priest came, telling him how wrong he had been, and his father-in-law came in great anger on hearing of it, but the man was firm and decided: "If you offered me all Tenda, from the rock downwards," he told them, "I would not change, I value eternal life more."
A room was rented at Vievola, in which to hold services and a Sunday-school; we had the pleasure of being present at the first meeting, when the room was crowded. It was hoped they would have continued all the season; but since we have heard that, owing to the Waldensian committee not seeing its way to meet the expense involved, the room has been given up.
A maestro-evangelista who had the advantage of spending several months in one of Dr. Gra.ttan Guinness' training colleges, is now working at Tenda. He has his government diploma, and carried on a day-school in the higher standards, a thing which was much needed up there, but, Off course, it has been bitterly opposed by the 'priests. Still a small beginning has been made, and the number attending the school, instead of diminishing, had increast when last we heard.
THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE FRENCH CANADIANS. The need of missionary work amongst the French population of Canada may be questioned by some who are unacquainted with the existing conditions, but it is urgently advocated by those who live in their midst. According to the last census, the population of French origin in the Dominion of Canada, is as follows: British • Most of the facts of this article are taken from the Reports of the Board of French Evan· gelization as quoted in The (Canadian) Presb'/lterian Record. Columbia, 1,181; Manitoba, 11,102; N. W. Territories, 1,543; Ontario, 101,123; Quebec, 1,186,346; New Brunswick, 61,767; Nova Scotia, 30,181; P. E. Island, 11,847. Total, 1,415,090 or 29.4 per cent. of the total population. Several of the counties of Quebec are Roman Catholic almost to a unit. For example, the census of 1891 gives Montmorency 9 Protestants in a total population of 12,309; Bellechasse, 4, in 18,369; Kamouraska, 3 in 20,454; L'Islet, 2 in 13,823. The total number of Protestants in the province at the same date was 198,974, in a population of 1,488,535.
The actual evangelizing agencies at work among the Romanists are: Grande Ligne Mission (Bap.), missions in 15 fields, with 33 workers and an annual expenditure of $23,839.65; Methodist, missions in 7 fields, with 13 workers and an annual expenditure of $11,578.54; Sabrevois Mission (Episcopalian), missions in 5 fields, with 13 workers and an annual expenditure of $12,342.32; Presbyterian missions in 37 fields, with 66 workers and an annual expenditure of *35,011.20.
There is a radical element in the Church of Rome in the Province of .Quebec, determined in its efforts for reform, but with little, if any, sympathy with evangelical truth; it is anti-clerical and destructive, and may become anti-religious. Another element, whose sympathy is on the whole with the cause of truth and liberty, cherishes the hope that in some way all needed reforms may yet be effected from within their Church; it sympathizes with the radical element in its struggle for the emancipation of the people from ecclesiastical despotism. Many are losing faith in the dogmas of their church, who have been educated in the belief that the Church of Rome is the true representative of the religion of Jesus Christ, and consequently prejudiced against every other form of it, yet with little or no knowledge of Scripture, and no religious conviction born of individual responsibility. Unless in some way the principles of the Gospel are brought to bear on the hearts and consciences of the people, history must repeat itself, and these, our fellowmen, sink into religious indifference and infidelity. The work of demolition is going on. Our work is to build up and restore by presenting the Gospel in the spirit of its Author.
The French press is represented by ten daily and fifty-one weekly papers, having each an average subscription list of somewhere about 4,500 and 3,500, respectively; five humorous and illustrated papers, and six recueils and reviews, devoted to literature or religion, issued weekly or monthly. With scarcely an exception these publications, some from conviction, the majority from self-interest, court ecclesiastical authority. Independence is sacrificed for favors and, if asserted, is stricken or slain outright by the all-powerful arm of the Church. Recent events show how difficult a thing it is for even the stoutest to hold up against the ma.ndates of bishops, who are determined to let no voice go forth to the people but that of the Ohurch. Quebec has, also, not yet reacht the era of a free press, but the fact that the people are becoming more of a reading people is full of encourage- ment for the future.
The following is an interesting example of a Romish prayer: I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael, the archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, to all the saints, and to you, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore, I beseech the blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul and all the saints, and you, Father, to pray to the Lord our God for me.
Everybody seems to be duly honored here, except the Lord Jesus Ohrist and the Holy Spirit. Even Judaism can not furnish a parallel to this violation of the teachings of all Scripture on the subject of prayer.
Rev. Principal McVicar, D.D., thus writes on the subject of FRENCH EvANGELlZATION: This means very much the same as Irish, Scottish, English, Ohinese, or Hindu evangelization. It consists chiefly in giving the pure Gospel to those who are without it. In the sight of God they are as much entitled to enjoy the blessings of salvation as we are, and the work of placing the provision of grace within their reach needs no apology or defense. To do this is not to be guilty of proselytism or sectarian bigotry, but to be loyal and obedient to the Savior's command. With us this is a day of good tidings, but if we hold our peace, some mischief will come upon us.
This work is necessary because the people for whose good it is undertaken profess many unscriptural and anti-scriptural beliefs; and the more ignorant and unwise men are, the more need they have of being helpt. Here are some of their errors: Like the men of Athens to whom Paul preacht (A.cts 17-22) they are in all things too religious, and do not limit their worship to "God that made the world and all things therein." They adore the Virgin Mary and the" Host," which is simply a wafer made of flour, but which they believe to be changed by the manipulation and power of a priest into the very body, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. In churches and on the streets they fall upon their knees in profound adoration of this deified wafer.
Our Savior instituted only two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, but this people make use of five more, viz.• Confession, Penance, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. Baptism with them means regeneration; but according to Christ and his apostles we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit alone, and not by any outward ordinance. They regard the Sacraments as the only channels of grace and absolutely necessary to salvation, and inasmuch as they are in the hands of the priest who may grant or withhold them at his pleas· ure, it follows that he has complete control of the eternal dertiny of the souls of men. It is no wonder that all who devoutly accept this dogma are in servile subjection to the priest In things temporal and spiritual. If they are otherwise, it is because they are more or less sceptical.
Scripture teaches that there is but "One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," (1 Tim. 11: 5), but this people appeal to many mediators, to saints and angels, and especially the Virgin Mary, who is represented as even more compassionate and accessible to sinners than Jesus. Divine attributes and honors are freely ascribed to her, and the month of May is consecrated to her service. Scripture teaches that the blood of Christ, shed once for all, cleanseth from all sin (1 John 1 : 7-9), and therefore it is extremely derogatory to the efficacy of His propitiatory and expiatory death to attempt to supplement it in My way. But Romanists believe in purgatory, a place of unutterable torments and of purification, into which souls pass at death and where they are cleansed from the defilement of sins committed after baptism. This process of cleansing is effected through the prayers of priests, the intercession of Mary and the saints, and, above all, the offering of the sacrifice of the mass.
The Romish Church boasts that she has never changed in doctrine or spirit. We may concede the latter part of this claim, but the former, as to doctrine, i8 set aside by the recent authoritative declaration of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin and the InfallI'bility of the Pope. According to these, Mary was born without sin; arid the Pope when he speaks eIt catk«lra, i. 6., officially, can not err. It is held that Peter had supremacy over the rest of the apostles in spite of the fact that Paul .. resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned"
(Gal. 2 : 11; R. V.); and, that, like all his successors in the Popedom, and all cardinals, bishops, and priests, he was an unmarried man, altho we are expressly told in three Gospels that Jesus healed his wife's mother of a fever.
The Pope is the Vicar of Christ, his representative upon earth, and is therefore clothed with supreme divine authority, so that to him as the visible head of the Universal Church, sovereigns, princes, and governors, as well as people of all nations, owe submission. It is not illogical or surprising, therefore, that he and his ecclesiastical subordinates-bishops and priests-presume to meddle with civil government, and to enforce their views and commands by the spiritual penalties they can inflict. In accordance with this high claim, in the Province of Quebec, Romish bishops are invested with legal power, not only to levy tithes upon their people, but also to tax them to any amount they deem requisite for the erection and repairing of churches and dwellings for their priests. These taxes are collected by process of law like any civil assessment or ordinary debt, and are a 1irst lien upon the property of parishioners. This accounts for the comparative poverty of the bulk of them, and the magnificence of numerous churches, convents, colleges, and palaces of bishops and priests.
Do we need to add, as reasons for French evangelization, that idolatry and the manifold superstitions which accompany it, enslave and de~rade. The true spirit of patriotism and Ohristianity bids us give thIS people who are possest of many admirable natural qualities, the best gift we possess-the Gospel of the kingdom. Enlightened by the Gospel they are capable of contributing their quota-a most valuable one-to the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual outfit of the Dominiou; for it is a gross mistake, an offense against good taste and good citizenship, to depreciate them and their lan~age. But left in darkness under the yoke of a medieval ecclesiastIcism, which very many of them feel to be bitterly oppressive, they can only exert an influence detrimental to the unity, the progress, and freedom of the nation. And who are to blame? Not those born in darkness, but those who refuBe or neglect to give them the light. If we decline to repel and remove anti-scrip1mral errors, they will certainly encroach upon our borders and enter our homes and our churches. This is the testimony of all history, and is consonant with our own observation. To those who honestly desire to hold fast and hold forth the word of life we have thus recited more than sufficient reasons for the vigorous prosecution of French evangelization. .
The work is carried on by colporteurs, teachers, evangelists,. aM pastors under the direction of a board annually appointed by the Oanadian General Assembly. Oolporteurs go among the people from house to house, in the spirit of love distributing the Word of God and Biblical literature. Bibles and New Testaments are loaned or sold when possible. They deliver no other message than that of Ohrist and his apostles. They gather children and men and women into mission schools, where they receive the elements of a Ohristian education, the Bible and Shorter Oatechism being the principal text-books. When by innumerable visits, meetings, conferences, and prayers in the hum- ble homes of the people and in little school-rooms, success has been achieved and the Spirit of God has opened the eyes of parents and children, they are gathered into churches under the care of missionary pastors. This unostentatious and apostolic work of faith and labor of love is IOnducted in many rough out-of-the-way places, where the selfdenial, courage, and patience of the workers are far more severely tested than if they ministered to wealthy congregations; and to the honor of devoted colporteurs be it said, some of them have cheerfully persisted in this most useful form of service for thirty and forty years.
Figures very imperfectly represent spiritual influences and results. It is probable that during the last fifty years between twenty and thirty thousand converts have left our country owing to local persecutions and other causes.
. The Presbyterians of Canada have at present, mission fields occupied, 37; preaching stations, 93 ; families of converts, 928 ; church members, 1,179 ; added during the past year, 153; Sunday-school scholars, 1,020 ; mission day-schools, 21, with scholars on the roll, Protestant, 299 ; Roman Catholic, 308 ; at Point- aux-Trembles, Protestants, 77 ; Roman Catholics, 78; total number of pupils in all mission schools, 762. Amount contributed by converts, for salaries, $2,9JD.70 ; for other purposes, $2,918; school fees, at Point-aux-Trembles, about $1,400; other schools, $400 ; total contributions, $7,707.70.
The desire for the unadulterated Gospel and for sound Ohristian education has for many years been widely diffused by all our agencies, and a spirit of freedom and manly independence has been gradually fostered, which of late has unmistakably manifested itself throughout the province in dealing with public matters. This is the outcome of missionary effort, and should stir up all true Ohristians and patriots to more earnest prayer and greater liberality for the extension of our mission. The present and the near future are far more promising than any period during the last half century. There is an intellectual and a spiritual awakening among the French people, which opens the way to greatly increased evangelistic activity, and which can not be neglected without the most serious peril to our Ohurch and country.
The following extracts are translated from private letters written by the young woman officer in charge of the mission carried on by the Salvation Army amongst the French in Montreal. They are addrest to a contributor to its funds. The difficulties of the work are great~
THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR IN INDIA
as the officers themselves have to collect the means with which to carry it forward. But the greatest difficulty is to interest the English-speaking Protestant people in this work of rescuing the Oatholic population from the errors and superstition in which they have been brought up. The same difficulty is experienced by all workers amongst Roman Catholics, and while the need and character of the work varies according to the couutry in which it is carried on, the call for such work nevertheless exists in North as well as in South America: The French corps (Salvation Army) now occupies quarters above our hall, which is a vacant shop, fitted up for meetings, on one of the leading thoroughfares in the French quarter of Montreal. • . . About two-thirds of the rental is contributed by headquarters and the remainder I have to collect as well as the rent of the rooms in which we live. If I could find twelve families who would give $20 each during the year, this would meet the whole balance of the rental.
Our situation is such a good one. Catholics always come in large numbers, especially on Sunday evenings. Weare so glad to give them the opportunity to come out from their errors, in which they are so deeply plunged, and we work with.courage, counting always on the victory. • . . But an audience of two hundred people will only put fifty cents in the collection. And yet we have no other resource except this and what our friends supply in monthly contributions. • . • We walk by faith, not seeking our own interest but the advaneement of our Master's cause, and we are much happier in so doing.
If you could only look in for a few minutes at our hall on a Sunday evening, your heart would be moved to see so many Cat.hollcs face to face with the pure Gospel, with no interruption from anyone. The faces of the most thoughtless change after a few minutes, and they seem to take the truth home to themselves. All is so new to them. The Lord came to open the eyes of the blind, and He still does so in the most unmistakable way.
THE OHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR IN INDIA.
BY REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D.
It is always a source of gratification when a new method of Evangelization aud Ohristian training shows its adaptation to many lands and proves its right to be considered a universal movement. Such a claim, I think, can be maintained for the Ohristian Endeavor movement, which, of late, has been demonstrating that it has the same grasp, and grip, and" staying power" ill Asia and Africa as in America, and Europe, and Australia.
Within a few months the "United Society of India" has been formed on the same lines as the United Society of America; a provincial union has also been formed for South India, and other unions in the Oentral Provinces, in the Northwest Provinces; and in Bengal. In these unions the missionaries of all the societiea of America and England and Scotland lead the way, working together in the most fraternal harmony. The native Christians follow their lead, and bear their part of the labor.
Tho the work among the many English and Eurasian churches of India is important, yet the great work of Christian Endeavor, or any other evangelizing agency, must be to help lift the hundreds of millions of non-Christians from the degradation of their heathenism into the liberty and light of Christ. To accomplish this, the Christian Endeavor pledge and consecration have been translated into languages spoken by scores of millions of Hindus; their languages include Tuarathi, Hindi, Hindustani, Bengali, Canarese, Tamil, Teluga, Cyngalice, and Burmese, while it will soon be put into Punjabi, Muliari, and the languages of Cashmere and Assam.
The most gratifying results have already followed the introduction of Christian Endeavor Societies among the native Christians in many places. In the Arcot mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of America, a holy missionary zeal seems to prevail in many of the societies, and the native Christian Endeavorers go out into the highways and hedges and attempt to compel their heathen comrades to come into the Gospel feast. One of these societies preaches the Gospel every week through its active members to fully a thousand heathens in a score of villages, which lie about the town of Madanapalle, in the Madras Presidency. Many others emulate this example, and have become genuine centers of evangelistic effort.
Perhaps the most markt and fruitful development of Christian Endeavor in India is among the rice-fields of East Bengal, where, within a short radius, there exist more than sixty active and efficient societies in as many different villages of Bengali Christians. These villages are very small, and consequently many of the societies are small, some of them having only three, or four, or half a dozen members; but they have gone far to solve many serious problems of mission work, and to show how a small band of earnest native Christians, nnder adverse circumstances, can maintain the holy fire of zeal and Christlike devotion among themselves, without the aid of a resident missionary, or even a native pastor.
These societies have their weekly meetings, as do the societies at home; their consecration meetings are full of energy and purpose, and they reach ont their hands in many ways to bless those around them. One of the most enthusiastic and spiritual conventions I ever attended was in the little Bengali village of Chhabikhazpar, attended by over a thousand Bengali Christians, many of whom had walkt or paddled in their dingey a whole day or more to reach the meeting.
This most hopeful work is under the charge of Rev. William Oarey, a great-grandson of the great missionary of the same name. In the
THE PROTESTABT MISSION SOCIETIES oJ' GERlIANY
advancement of Christian Endeavor among the native Christians he shows the same zeal and intelligent devotion, as did his famous ances- 'tor, and, through t1Iis society, he is teaching a multitude of native Christians to "expect great things from God, and to attempt great things for God." , THE PROTESTANT MISSION SOCIETIES OF GERMANY.
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH. D., COLUMBUS, O.
In Germany State and Church are united, and the number of State churches is more than forty. There is no such an institution as a National Protestant Church of Germany. Each one of the States, large and small, that enters into the composition of the Empire, has a separate State church of its own, and a number of the States have several Thus, e. g., Prussia has one form of ecclesiastical government for the nine old provinces, and separate consistories for the three new provinces acquired in 1866. As a result there is considerable diversity in trend and character of the various State churches, and a deplorable lack of union and unity, both against the commou foe, Roman Catholicism, as also in the prosecution of Christian work and enterprises. This lack of unity and cooperation is seen too in the mission activity of Protestant Germany, which is by no means what it ought to be and would be, if there was one, and only one, Protestant State church in the whole c9untry. Then, too, the State in its 'management of the affairs of the church payll no attention whatever to the outside interests of the congregation, such as inner and foreign mission work. Everything in this direction is the result of private enterprize, which is all the harder to secure in this case, as the German Christians are not accustomed to take the lead in matters pertaining to the affairs of the chqrch, expecting this to be done by the officials appointed by the State. As a consequence German Protestantism does not, in proportion to its numerical strength, do its share of foreign mission work.
This fact, too, is recognized by the Germans themselves. In the latest edition of the Theologisc7ws Jahrbuch, for 1897, the twenty- ' fourth issue of this excellent and complete church statistic of the Fatherland" the editor, Pastor J. Schneider, of Elberfeld, in commenting on the mission activity of the Germans, after mentioning the progress made in recent years, adds: I' However encouraging this progress bas been, it is nevertheless true that comparatively the work of the evangelical church of Germany in the department of missions stands in no proportion to the population. Inoluding German Switzerland, we represent more than one-fifth of all Protestant Ohristianity, yet we furnish less than onethirteenth of the total mission contributions of Protestantism, and furnish about the seventh part of the missionaries now in the field. Our men work cheaper than the English and the Americans, and our success, when the sums expended in the cause are taken into consideration, is greater than theirs. Then, too, there is found in Germany, not only among the Moravian brethren, who stand head and shoulder above all the others in this regard, but also elsewhere, a pronounced interest in the cause of missions, especially in the South and Western portions of the Empire, but the general percentage is materially decreast by the lack of interest that is almost universal throughout Northern and Eastern Germany."
A birdseye view of what is actually being done by the Germans in this regard can be secnred from the following table, based on the latest reports of the various societies accessible.
NAMES 01' MISSION Mission· Native Income In Expenses in SocIETIES. aries. Christians. marks. marks.
BMaosrealvS iaonclBer~e thr en. ________ 174 93,645 495,789 1,610,420 __ : ___________ 170 30,200 871,224 1,127,285 56,944 490,857 Barmen or emsh________ . 105 27,908 833,291 497,702 Berlin 1 __ . _____ – – __________ 26,157 210,885 856,152 68 14,517 852,456 210,950 Hermannsburg _____________ 59 40,500 180,312 856.225 Leipzig ___________________ . 1,490 148,058 162,954 Berlin 11. __________________ 89 42,418 144,586 Bremen. ___________________ 23 700 104,178 88,415 274 55,580 100,726 Neukirchen ________________ 16 85,111 18 79 89,889 61,501 mo. ________________ Breklum ______ 0 ____________ 10 100 88,000 85,111 208 13,188 35,887 Berlin 10 800 14.906 85,000 8 123 15,298 Neudettelsau ___________ • ___ 8,438,087 14,906 293,142 Protestant Society__________ 6 4,818,118 Jerusalem Society. _________ 8 China Mission Society_______ 1 Oriental Woman's Society___ Total _____________ . _. 705 According to the compilation of Professor Vahl, of Denmark, one of the most reliable missionary statisticians living, the latest full Protestant mission reports for the globe covered the year 1894. It gave the following totals: 5,933 male missionaries, 1904 wives of missionaries, 3,391 unmarried mission women, as also 3,815 ordained and 49,758 unordained native helpers of all kinds, who have taken charge of 1,060,822 communicant converts and about 742,344 children. The total income of all the societies Vahl computes at 56,000,000 marks. Of this total he credits to Germany 587 male missionaries, ~65 wives of missionaries, 149 unmarried women missionaries, together with 79 ordained and 3,736 non-ordained native helpers, in charge of 104,292 communicant converts and 23,244 children, with a total income of 4,500,000 marks. . These two reports substantially cover the same year, altho made independently of each other. In this year, 1894, the German missionaries of all the societies, baptized 21,248 adults and children. The relative growth of this work can be soon from the following comparative list of totals: YEAR. Native MiBsionaries. Expense. Christians 1873. _______________ 500 2.140,000 1883 _______________ 128,000 517 2,707,000 1887 ________________ 194,000 551 2,884,000 210,000 549 8,042,800 11889880 _________________________. ___.__ 215,000 606 8,445,000 1891. _______________ 247,000 687 1892 ________________ 257,000 647 -_ ……… 1894 _____ . __________ 267,000 695 298,142 8,688.700 " 714,521 The chief among the German societies is that of the Mora.vian Brethren, the missionary church of the world, par excellence, which has its workers almost everywhere. The society was establisht in 1732. Its headquarters are at historic Herrenhut, and its organ is the Missionsblatt aus der Brildergemeinde. Its chief fields of operation are Sonthwest Africa, Southeast Africa, South America, Western Africa, Alaska, Jamaica, Greenland, Labrador, British India. The record of the Moravians in this regard is generally well known to readers of mission literature.
The second society in importance among the Germans is that of Basel, where are also found the famous educational institutions of this association. The society was establisht in 1815. Its president is Pastor Minscher. Its organ is the EvangeUsclwr Heidenbote. Not a few of the graduates of the Basel schools enter the services of the British societies. Its chief fields of operation are India, China, the Gold Coast of Africa, and the Cameroons. The Basel society is particularly popular among the South Germans, but its popularity has received a shock in recent years by the fact that one or more of the Basel teachers became infected with the contagion of higher criticism. This was particularly the case with Pastor Kinzler, whose statements in this regard were approved by Director Oehler, of the same institution. In fact, the Moravians had the same trouble with their schools and teachers, and the excitement on this account has not yet died out. The Basel missionary institute of St. Chrishona is an excellent school graduates of which are found in goodly number also in the German Lutheran Church of America, especially among the western synods.
The Berlin I. Society was establisht in 1826, a.nd has now an able president ,in the person of Pastor von Gerlach. Its organ is the Berlin Missionsberichte, edited by the famous mission authority More~sky. This society publishes also a popular illustrated mission journal entitled Der Missions.freund, and it also manages a special mi88ion book concern in the German capital. It is probably the best organized of all German mission societies) having no fewer than 314 branch societies in the various provinces of Prussia. It has in South Africa seven districts in which its men operate. Recently it has begun work also in German East Africa. China is evidently the Schmerzenskind of this society. Altho engaged there for 13 years, it reports only 818 baptisms in all this time.
The Barmen or Rhenish Society publishes three different journals, all of them of a popular character. It labors chiefly iu Southwest Africa, New Guinea, and Sumatra, and is about to begin in China. The Bremen Society was organized in 1836, and has as its inspector the well-known mission writer, Pastor Zahn, publishing as its organ the Missio1tsblatt. What is official1y known as Berlin II. is the famous Gosner Society of Berlin, which recently celebrated the fiftieth year of its existence. It labors chiefly in India. None of the societies have enlisted the interest and cooperation or nniversity men to the same degree that this has been done by the Leipzig Society, of which the venerable and veteran Professor Luthardt has been a leading officer for a. generation. This society is characterized by a positive Lutheran basis, in which respect it agrees ful1y with the Hermannsburg Society, which is the most pronounced of all in its confessionalism and conservatism. The Leipzig Society labors chiefly in India, while the Hermannsburgers go to Africa, India, and China, and until recently also to Australia. Both of them have mission institutes of their own, that at Hermannsburg being in' an especially flourishing condition. Both of these societies are supported also by contributions from the Lutheran Church of the United States, who have selected those two because of their positive standpoint. Some of the contributions also go to the Neudettelsau Society for the same reason. Of the other and smaller societies special interest attaches itself to the Protestant Mission Society, which has been organized by the liberals of Germany in order to show the world that they, too, a.nd not only the conservatives and positive Christians can engage in mission work. As yet little or nothing has been accomplisht, altho an effort has been made to convince the Japanese of the blessings of a liberal Christianity. It is a noteworthy fact that all this mission work of Germany, as also all the enterprize exhibited by the friends of that blessed innovation, "Inner Missions," has emanated from positive and conservative Christian centers. Altho Germany is the headquarters of liberal theological thought, this liberalism has been particularly barren in the field of mission enterprise, both home or foreign.
In conclusion attention yet should be drawn to the fact that a movement, not unlike the Volunteer Student Movement in America and England, has been inaugurated in Germany, too, at the universi-
1897..1- THE SCANDINAVIAN ALLIANCE MISSION 01' AlmmOA
ties, and apparently with fair success. A national 8tudentenbund fur· Mission was organized at Halle, with the following as leading principles: 1. This Society is an association of prayer that solicits help for the cause of missions. 2. Every student can become a member who stands on the basis of the Scriptures and has faith in the realization of the mission command of the Lord. 3. The members try to realize this ideal by either becoming missionaries themselves, or seeking to gain others for this cause. 4. ']'hose who feel that the Lord has called them for this work, promising to follow this call. This society is now represented at the majority of the German universities.
THE SCANDINAVIAN ALLIANCE MISSION OF AMERICA.· BY REV. R. A. JERNBERG, CRICAGO, ILL.
Frederik Franson, the Scandinavian apostle to the Gentiles, was born near Nora in Nerike, Sweden, June 17, 1852. When 17 years of age he emigrated with his parents to America, having previously enjoyed the instruction of the best schools and teachers in hiB native town, and having been a student in the Latin school of Orebro. At the age of twenty, while working on his father's farm in Nebraska, he was converted, aud three years later began his career as an evangelist. He traveled widely among his scattered countrymen in America for five or six years, his year of labor among the Scandinavians in Utah leading him to write a book again!!t Mormonism, which has had a wide reading aud great influence. In Chicago he united with the Chicago Avenue Church, commonly known as Mr. Moody's Church, of which he is still a member.
In 1881 Mr. Franson went to Sweden, .where his eighteen months of labor were greatly blest. In 1883 he commenced work in Norway, beginning at Christiania, where a strong church of more than 400 members still attests his success. During this and part of the following year he visited almost every city in Norway along the entire coast. In the autumn he went to Denmark, and· labored nntil the following year, when he was imprisoned for preaching and praying • The Cong'8gatlonal and Independent BcandinaTian churches In Chicago haTe recently been stirred by the visit of a man whose praise Is In all thelle churches, both In this COUDtry and In Scandinavia, though he Is but a humble, unpretentious lay preacher, whose only purpose IJlllfe seems to be that of doing his Master's will. Brother Franson started from America about four years ago, after bavlng organized the Scandinavian Alliance Mission. He visited Norway and SwedeD, recruiting volunteers for foreign mlll8lonary service. A.bout three years after the first company had sailed, he himself started on a tour of Inspection of the various m1ssfons that had been establlsht, and It was fresh from this tour that this modern apostle to the Gentiles came to the Scandinavians In Chicago and the West. The number of American Christians who have heard his name Is small, but a brief aketch of the maD and his work may be of Interest and value in estimating some of the religious movements among the foreign populations of our country, especially in their relation to those American churches nearest to them in falth and polity. for the sick. His trial lasted seven weeks, and resulted in his banish- ment from Denmark, which has the distinction of being the only country in the world, except Tibet, where this Gospel messenger may not preach the tidings of the cross. In Sweden, also, Mr. Franson was arrested for the" emanation of a doctrine tending to schism in the church." He was fined and imprisoned repeatedly by the lower courts, but was set at liberty on appealing to the king.
After his banishment from Denmark, Mr. Franson visited Germany, where he attended some of Prof. Christlieb's lectures in the University of Bonn, and spent about a year in preaching. He also perfected himself in French, and preacht in that language in Switzerland, France, and to the Waldensian churches in Piedmont.
After a tour to the Levant he returned to Norway and Sweden via Poland and Northem Germany, preaching the Word wherever he went. During this visit to the Scandinavian countries, Mr. Franson went to Finland, and afterwards again to Germany. His interest in missionary work for the heathen, and his special endeavors in their behalf, may be said to have begun with this visit to Germany, where a missionary expe,dition to China was organized by his friend arid colaborer, Emanuel Olson, in 1890. Not long afterwards Mr. Franson sailed for America with the declared purpose of arousing an interest among his countrymen here in behalf of the millions of China.
In three months he had secured fifty volunteers for missionary ser- vice, whose support was pledged by various churches and individuals. Arrangements were made with Rev. J. Hudson Taylor for the recep- tion and care of this first company at one of the stations of the China Inland Mission, with which the Scandinavian Alliance Mission has ever since been in closest sympathy. The first company of thirty-five, which sailed from San Francisco, January 22,1891, was followed a lit- tle later by the remainder of the first fifty. The following year thir- , teen more went to China, ten to India, hoping in time to enter Tibet, twenty to Japan, and eight to South Africa. In 1893 and 1894 these were reinforced by five sent to China, two to Japan, two to South Africa, and thirteen were sent to establish a new mission among the Gallas in East Africa. In 1895 a new mission was begun in Mongolia which has two missionaries. Several of those here enumerated have since connected themselves with other societies, a few have returned or died, so that the total number now on the societies' roll is only eighty-six. But the working force is much greater, including the na- tive helpers employed by the missionaries.
This force has been placed in the field and supported during the five years of the society's existence at an aggregate cost of *110,000, an average of *22,000 per year. While this sum is small enough to be divided between eighty or ninety laborers, it still is a cause of great surprise, when we consider that it comes from the poor dis- senting or free Scandinavian churches in America, the majority of them struggling hard to support themselves, many of them receiving home missionary aid, and all of them making heroic sacrifices to support their representatives on the foreign field.
While the success of this movement has certainly been remark- able, there were yet some conditions which favored it from the be- ginning, and which expJain, at least in part, how it was possible for Mr. Franson to send out a party of fifty missionaries, whose whole support was pledged, only four months after he undertook the work.
There are in this country a.bout 350 Scandina.vian free churches, e., i. either Independent, Congregational, or Swedish Mission Friends.
UntH the organization of this new missionary society the Independent and Congregational Churches had not assumed the responsibility of any foreign missionary work at all, neither had the Swedish Mission Friends, tho they had arranged with their brethren in Sweden to care for the mission among the Indians in Alaska, begun by them some years ago. Mr. Franson, therefore, found an open field, and it can not be denied that he has made it yield almost to the limit of its capacity. It is certain, moreover, that no other society could have united these Scandinavian Christians in work for the heathen world, as has the Scandinavian Alliance Mission. ,If these churches had simply been askt to contribute to the general fund for Con- gregational foreign missions, they would only have done so in a half-hearted, uninterested way, very different from the enthusialltic spirit which marks their giving to a society which in every respect they can call their own. Differences of creed, polity, and nationality are swept away before a force like this, and the incoming of Cltrist's kingdom is felt not only here, but to the ends of the earth in con- sequence. The Christiau people represented by the Scandinavian Alliance Mission are not generally in favor of "numbering Israel," and it has not therefore been easy to obtain statistics showing the results of the five years' work. From the statistics of other societies, however, we learn that in Japan the Scandinavian Alliance Mission at the close of 1895 had ten foreign missionaries, eight native helpers, eight main ,stations with twenty-one branch stations, and the membership of the churches numbered ninety-five adults.
Mr. Franson says that if the workers in the other missions of the society have been as successful as the missionaries in Japan, then it is safe to say, that about 1,000 adults have already been converted through their instrumentality, tho until now the work has been almost entirely one of preparation.
In China, the society has thirty stations of its own, and mans ten stations of the China Island MiSSIOn.
But the impression made by the missionaries on the field may per-
WALDBNBIAN )[J8810N8 IN ITALY
haps be gathered even better from a letter received last year from Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, dated Shanghai, Jan. 11, 1895. He says in- t81' alia: We have recently had an all too short visit from our earnest friend, Rev. F. Franson, and I gather from him that you are likely to be interested in hearing of my visit to the Scandinavian missionaries who are working in Central Chin8 in 888oclation with the China Inland Mission. In the course of this visit I met with most of the Scandinavian workers of Central China, and my intercourse with all these friends WBlj most pleasant and profitable. . • .
I had been in Si·gan eight years before, and found one of our missionaries living in an inn; after years of persistent eftort our attempt to obtain a residence in the' city failed, and had to be abandoned, but now "He who opens and no man shuts .. had 80 thoroughly opened the doors that we met a band of twenty missionaries for conference and fellowship for more than a week without molestation or one unkind word.
The missionary brethren were living inside the west gate of the city in a comfortable house rented by our late brother P. E. Holmen (of the Scandinavian Alliance Mission). Here we were most hospitably entertained for eight or nine days, and were very thankful for all we saw. At some little distance outside the walls In the western suburb was the sisters' d welling. I was Imprest with the good progress both brothers and sisters had made in the knowledge of the language, and by the practical experience they had gained. They had evidently won confidence and respect among the people and had favor with the authorities. • • I will not refer in detail to our visits to Ping-Yang. Hoh-Chan. and other pIeces, where we met Scandinavian workers; for all whom we met, without exception. we give hearty praise to God and can not but feel that they are God-sent mISSionaries. who have already been used by Him. and are qualified for still more Important service In the future. Those whose contributions have 888isted in sending them out and in supporting them, have good cause to thank God for the privilege of shBrlllg in 80 blessed a work.
WALDENSIAN MISSIONS IN ITALY.
BY REV. G. C. MAUGERI, SICILY.
Who does not know something of the marvelous history of that wonderful people, "the Israel of the Alps," living high up in the recesses of the Cottian mountains? The thrilling story of the noble Waldenses may be traced far back into the early Christian centuries. For a thousand years they alone remained faithful to the teachings of the pure Gospel of Christ; and they can show many evidences of the fierce persecutions which they endured at the hands of the Catholic Church and her emissaries for six hundred years.
In the dark a~es, when the hateful tyranny of priest-power held sway over all ChrIStendom, the Waldenses stilI held high the banner of the Gospel and were ready to die for truth's sake. Century after century they continued to protest against the innovations; apostasy, and abominations of the adulterous Church. They shone as a pure light in the midst of the darkness which surround them; their lamp was not under a bushel, but on a lamp-stand. Their most earnest, powerful, and promising men were sent two by two throughout Europe as missionaries of the cross, and many of them paid for their zeal with their lives. The German, French and Swiss reformers of the fifteenth century were 8stonisht when they discovered this small body of Christians living in seclusion in the fastnesses of the Alps, and learned that for centuries they had held the faith which now was gaining new adherents. After this heroic band of believers had undergone thirty-three persecutions, had suffered confiscations of property, imprisonment, privation, banishment, and death, they were at last emancipated by Oarlo Alberto on the 17th of February, 1848. After this righteous act, worthy of a just 'king, the Waldenses exerted all their energy in strengthening their churches in the valleys, and in sending miSSIOnaries wherever there was an open door to organize new churches and open schools. These pioneers met with many difficulties, and were compelled to fight for their advance inch by inch. But many vic- tories were won, and from the land of the dead many dry bones arose to life and usefulness; from Alpine ranges to Sicilian shores, and from sea to sea, they have now forty-nine organized churches, forty~four stations, and 5 circuits, with 5,419 church members, 684 catechumens.. and 3,272 Sunday-school children. The work is carried on by fortyfive pastors, seventeen evangelists, sixty-two teachers, and twelve colporteurs or Bible readers. A number of Young Men's Ohristian Associations have also been started allover Italy, besides various benevolent societies, orphanages, dispensaries, hospitals, soup-kitchens, day and evening schools, colleges, and one Theological Seminary.
After havin~ thus briefly glanced at the history and present .extent of the Waldenslan work. we propose to answer some of the qnestions which have beenaskt by those who have been askt to contribute toward the extension and support of the work throughout Italy.
1. Wl~y do not the Italians support the Waldensian work! Of course, the vast majority of Italians are Roman Oatholics, and are thus antagonistic to all forms of Protestantism, which, in their minds, comprises all that is heretical, and therefore infamous.
As to the Italian Protestant Ohristians, they are, in the first place, very lew in comparison with the magnitude of the work. How could five thousand members carryon, unaided, a work among over thirty millions of people? It would be as tho one or two large congregations were to undertake the evaugelization of the whole of South America. These Protestants are also very poor, and are already doing more than should be expected of them. In every new field the first converts are, for the most part, from among the poorer classes. Strong working peopJe, faithful members of our church in Sicily, could not afford more than two scanty meals of their brown bread a day. Some of them said, with tears in their eyes, that they had not attended church for some time, because they felt ashamed that they were unable to contribute a single cent for the Lord's work. God alone knows how much of the pastor's and missionary's scanty salary is spent to relieve the needy ones. No sooner does a man profess belief 1D the pure Gospel than he suffers grievous persecution, and is often deprived of all means of support. But, notwithstanding their povertY' and heavy taxes, the five thousand church members last year, a very hard vear, contributed 81,000 lire (tl6,OOO). This was only accomplisht by true self-denial, such as has, perhaps, few parallels in the history of the church. At the time of the sulphur ore crisis in Sicily, last year, many of our brethren, after they had sold all their household goods, could not obtain work for even five cents a day.
2. Wl~JI do not the WaldenslJs support their own work! In the first place, they are but a small community, mainly of the peasant class, numbering about 25,000 people. Up to the tIme of their emancipation they were, by law, restricted to compulsory poverty, being not allowed to own an inch of land outside of their own little valley. They were a.lso excluded from the practice of law, medicine, or any of. the liberal arts, except among themselves. Their taxes were much heavier than those of the Roman Oatholic subjects. Their pastors were not allowed, under pain of imprisonment, to sleep, even for a single night, in a papal parish.
But, in spite of the difficulties, these people are giving nobly. The eighteen churches of the Waldensian Valleys, with their 14,528 church members, 1,015 catechumens, and 22 pastors, are carrying on effective work in their own district, ani, in addition, send generous contributions to the missionary board of the church. 1'hey have organized 86 Sunday-schools, with 376 Sunday-school teachers and 3,761 pupils; also 206 primary schools, with 4,750 pupils. To carryon the present mission work, our Board of Evangelization needs from sixty to seventy thousand dollars y'early. How could these few poor peasants be expected to contribute that amount, besides what they are giving toward the support of their own work at home? By faith they have planted the blessed banner of Ohrist throughout the land of the Pope, and believe that the Lord will not desert them, but that Italy shall, at last, be won for God.
3. Why does not Europe care for Italy'! We must remember that Europe is not a Protestant continent. Papal Spain, Portugal, and Austria, sceptical France, or orthodox Russia and Greece can not be expected to assist in purifying Italy. Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland and Holland, are already keenly interested in the evangelization of Europe and are also sending missionaries to North America and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
If the Waldensian received as much aid from America as from Europe,* the working force could be doubled and Italy might soon be evangelized. But what has come from America has been thankfully received and has aided materially in the work. The American brethren of the Methodist Episcopal and North and South Baptist Ohurches are doing something for Italy under the direction of their own Boards. The Presbyterian and Reformed Ohurches say that the W0.1denses can accomplish better work among the Italians than any foreigner could be expected to do, and yet these denominations, who leave work of reformation in the hands of their Waldensian brethren, fail to come to their support with sufficient funds to enable then:.. to carryon effective work.
More than one has refused aid for the evangelization of Italy on the ground that Italians have already had the Gospel preacht to them have rejected it while the heathen have never had an opportunity, and therefore deserve all our attention.
We affirm, and believe that the affirmation is unquestionably supported by history, that tho Italians did not reject the Gospel, but that they were led into error, step by step, by the Ohurch of Rome, who buried the truth, as it is in Ohrist, deep down beneath a mass of superstitions and false doctrines, until the misguided masses can no longer distinguish the true from the false. The Jesus whom they know is only a helpless babe in the arms of a gentle vir~n, or, at most, is but a dead Ohrist on the cross.
Not long ago, a stranger was invited by the local scholastic author- -Europe contributed last year $68,112.68 for the Waldenslan work in Italy, while America .contributed $1,588.12 for the same.
THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH OP ITALY. 6()S
ities of a small town in Southern Italy to visit their schools. Before leaving the girl school, the visitor askt a bright girl, "TeU me, dear, whom do you love most, the ;Lord or the Madonna?" After some hesitation, she answered, "I love the Madonna the most." "Why?" " Because the Madonna sends me in Paradise, while the. Lord drives me down to hell or purgatory !,,* This is a good illustration of the thought concerning the virgin and Christ in the minds of the papists of Italy. Will not our Christian brethren put more of the money intrusted to them into the much neglected work of the Master in sunny Italy, that they may, at His coming, return unto the Lord His own with interest? t THE E V AN GEL I CAL C H U R C H 0 FIT A L Y.
BY REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, D.D., VENICE.
The great need of Italy is the Gospel. Twenty or twenty-five millions of its thirty mijlions of inhabitants have long ago ceased to believe in the Papal Church, and their connection with it is merely a matter of birth and name. Not only have they ceased to believe in it as a Christian Church, but they have come to regard it as an institution hostile to Ohrist and to the Gospel. "Egli porta troppo l'evangelo" (He carries too much of the Gospel) was the judgment a theological canon in St. Mark's Ohurch, Venice, pronounced upon a friend of mine who was in trainillg to become a prIest, and accordingly he was cast aside as an unfit instrument. And yet the Papal Ohurch stands sorely in need of Italian priests. Her native priesthood is dying out. Enough priests can not be obtained to fill the churches, and so they have to import them in large numbers from other countries, and especially from Protestant England. But, say the Papal authorities, better an empty parish than a priest who knows the Gospel. Such an one is utterly disqualified for the priestly office, and, indeed, I have never known nor read of a priest becoming a Christian who did not suffer persecution at the hands of his Ohurch.
But it is the Gospel, and only the Gospel, that brings real and lasting blessings to men and to natiom. It is the reception of the glad tidings of a free and full salvation in Jesus Christ that recreates unto good works the children of men. The Papacy rretends to give salvation in sin, and wherever it goes it destroys 0.1 right thinking and obliterates all morar distinctions. The Pope claims and exercises the power of making right wrong and wrong right; hence the Government of Italy has had to make marriage a civil rite, as the priests would sanction any kind of marriages, if only they were paid enough. I was once askt by an Italian young lady if a thing could be right and wrong at the same time; for, she said," My priest has offered to make wrong right for me." What Italy needs, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who saves not in sin but from it. The. Italians to a • From" Dis e Popolo." t Subsciiptlons may be forwarded to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 156 Fifth 'Ave., New York. Those who wish to send money directly to Italy, may do 80 by a check on any American hank, endorsed to Messrs. Nast-Kolb and Schumacher, Bankers,9 Via Mercade, Rome; or, to Comm. Matteo Prochet, D.D., 101 Via NazlontUe, Rome. $125 wUl support 180 laborers and their families for one day; $25 will support an evangelist or a teacher for a whole month; $20 a colporteur tor a month; '15a lady teacher tor a month. large extent realize this and want something to make them better, not worse. They have cast off the Papal lie, and now they want to know the truth. Hence the remarkable and annually inoreasing sale of Scriptures, both those produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society and those printed and publisht by native publishers, like the illustrated family Bible of Sonzogno, of Milan. Hence the number of religious books, like Bovio's "Christ at the Feast of Purim" and" St. Paul," which are having an extraordinary circulation. Hence, too, the recognition by Italians in general of Protestants as Christians, whilst Clerioals are put in opposition to both, and hence, too, the . readiness with whioh they attend Protestant services.
Every Church, then, that has for its objeot the evangelization of Italy ought to receive our cordial sympathy and support. It is a matter of thankfulness that there are many such. Some lament that this is the case, and wish that there were only one. There ought to be only one so far as aim and spirit are concerned, but we must remember that differences of belief and of government and operation are the necessary accompaniments of life. There can be no growth where there are no diversities. Outward nnity, about which we hear so much at the present time, would be for the Church of Christ, I believe, a great calamity, ending in torpitude and death. The Papal Church is one, but it is a dead church-spiritually dead, utterly without faith and without life. As Professor Bovio, himself within its pale, has described it, " It is a rotten bough on the tree of Chris- tianity." The fact, then, that there are several evangelical Chnrches in Italy is not to be regretted, so long as they are occupied, not in advancing their own party ends, but that of the evangelization of Italy. One of these, which keeps steadily in view the good of Italy, is the Evangelical Church of Italy. Its very name declares the evan~ gelization of the country to be its aim and object; but its name tells more-it tells of self-denial and self-sacrifice for the general good. Self-denial, manifested in the giving up of names, entered into the making of the kingdom of Italy. Piedmont, Lombardy, Venetia, Tuscany-all merged themselves in the one United Kingdom of Italy, and so in 1889 this churoh gave up the special name it re- ceived at its birth and had borne for nearly twenty years, namel" "The Free Italian Church," for the more general one it now bears, III the hope that other churches would do the same, and so put an end to provincialism in evangelistic as well as in political matters.
On the 20th of September, 1870, a breach was made in the walls of Rome at the Porta Pia, and the temporal power of the Pope was taken away for ever. The year of young Italy's birth was also that of this Evangelioal Churoh. They oame into being together and were both the offspring of the refusal of the Italians longer to be enslaved materially, intelleotually, and spiritually by the Papal power. Thus the Evangelioal Churoh has perhaps more than any other been in full sympathy with Italy's rise and progress. It oame into being unhampered with traditions, with no historio past to bind it to a oonservative polioy" It was not a foreign oorporation introduced into the country; It was of Italy, and was free to run its course. If it obtained pastors and teachers, members and adherents, they had to be Italians. It could not call in help from without; it had to go down into the depths of Papal ignorance and superstition, vice and crime, and bring up into truth and purity those who were to be its clergy and its laity. All its members were to be found within the pale of Popery.
In its mission it has succeeded. It has abundantly justified its existence and its name. It has at the present time twenty-nine lead- ing congregations, forty-seven smaller groups of believers, and 132 other preaching stations, where evangelistic work is carried on. Ex- priests and monks as well as young civilians are offering themselves for training in its theological hall at Florence, and whole villages, like Roccapietra, are desirous of being formed into new congregations.
On the 20th of September, 1895, the Kingdom of Italy celebrated its semi-jubilee. It was then twenty-five years old, and could boast of having done not a little in the work of undoing the mischief wrought by the Papacy. Roads had been made, cities lighted, schools and colleges opened, life and property made safe, public confidence restored, commerce increased, dishonesty, fraud, brigandage, murder, and all similar fruits of the Papacy lessened, if not banisht from the realm. The government could even point to the church of the Pope itself as having been purified by the strong arm of the law. On that same day the Evangelical Church of Italy celebrated its semijubilee. .
Since then both Italy and the Evangelical Church have had trials to endure. The Papal party, backed by Englishmen, has put forth all its cunning and power to destroy the kingdom. Its efforts were doomed to failure, altho by bribery and corruption exercised amongst the lowest of the I!eople, it has been able to do what Englishmen at home soom to do WIth their eyes open-put clericals into positions of trust and power in certain municipalities and in the government, where all local and imperial interests are made subservient to the advancement of the ends of the Papacy. Already, however, in Italy a reaction has set in, and the time is not far distant when every Papist will be swept from office and power as a disloyal subject.
In the same way a hostile force made war last winter upon the Evangelical Church of Italy. Some, of.whom better things were to be expected, boasted that they would destroy it. Their efforts were also futile, and in God's providence their very hostility has been over- ruled for good. They have brought t6 the Evangelical Church the blessings that a struggle for life never fails to bring to those who hava to face it. Its pastors and people, forced to stand shoulder to shoulder ill the fight, have let drop secondary interests, and now more than ever" stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel." And to the example it manifested of patience and meekness under persecution may be attributed in part the acces- sions that have lately taken place to its ranks. Many, seeing that to it had been given" in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for His sake," joined themselves to its com- munion.
The Evangelical Church well deserves the sympathy and support of the Christian public. The young church is entering upon a new epoch of its life and history, and it is for those interested in the cause of Jesus Christ aud in its advancement in Italy, so long cursed by the Papacy and now free and united, to so befriend and help it that its record at the close of caonnocltuhdeerdt.w* enty-five years may be even more splendid than that just • The Bev. Dr. MacDougall's address Is tl1e Scottish Church. Florence, Italy.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. , (Aug1.lst
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Interna.tional :r.fisaiOna.ry UniOn. this REVIEW, by giving this long list.
FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. It will be read with intense interest in The International Missionary Union every mission, field of the world, and convened for its fourteenth Annual Session, June 9-15, inclusive, at Cllfton those of our readers not finding it en- Springs, N. Y., being the eighth ses- sion held at this place, as the guest of tertaining will bear in mind that not all the founder of the Sanitarium, Dr. Henry Foster., The largest attendance readers are equally intQreSted in any of its history was recorded, there being one hundred and fifty-five missionaries part of a great cyclopedic volume, such present. These were from the several countries as follows: Africa: Abyssinia, as this becomes In the course of each 1 ; Egypt, 2; West Central and South Africa, 9 ; total 12. Austria, 1; Bul- year. The figures show the years of garia, 1; Italy, 1; Spain, 1. India: Assam, 1; Burma, 8; other parts of service of the person whose name they India, 29; total, S8; Egypt, 2; Syria, 3; Turkey, 12; Laos, 2; Siam, 2; precede, the country following the China, 43; Japan, 27; Korea, 4; Malaysia, 2 ; North American Indians, 2 ; name, the field of labor. Mexico, 3; West Indies, 1; South America: Brazil and Chile, 3; Micro- 1874-78, Mrs. Sarah C. Adams, (Janesia, 2 ; New Zealand, 1. pan); 1892–94, Miss Hester Alway, (India); 1865-97, Mrs. Marj J. Ander- The several missionary organizations son, (China, N, Zealand); 1887-95, were represented numerically as fol- Rev. J. O. Ashenhurst, (Egypt); 1886lows: The American Board, 46; 95, Mrs. J. O. Ashenhwst, (Egypt); Methodist Episcopal, 28 ; Canada 1892– ,Miss Louise A. Babe, (Africa); Methodists, 3; Methodist Protestant, 2; 18~, Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., Free Methodist, 1; Presbyterians, 23 ; (China); 1890- ,Rev. W. S. Banner- United Presbyterians, 2; Baptist: Am- man, (Africa); 1890- , Mrs. W. 8. erican Baptist Missionary Union, 13; Bannerman, (Africa); 1867- , Rev. Seventh Day Baptist, 1 ; rCanada Bap- Lyman Bartlett, (Turkey); 1884- , tist. 8; Reformed Church (Dutch), 9; Mi88 Cornelia S. Bartlett, (Turkey); Protestant Episcopal, 1, London Mis- 1883-89, Mrs. Harlan P. Beach, (Chisionary Society, 1; Established Church, na); 1879-81, Mrs. W. H. Belden, Scotland, 2; Woman's Union Mission- (Bul~aria); 1897-, Woo. C. Bell, ary S,ociety, 4; China Inland Mission, (AfrIca) ; 1'888- ,Miss Florence E. S; Friends, 2; Phil.-African League, Ben-Oliel, (SYI1a); 1891-96, ~iss Ag- 1 ; Canada Colleges' Mission, 1; Inde- nes M. Bigelow, (Africa); 1867-85, pendent, 2: total 155. Mrs. J. T. Booker, (India); 1887- , Rev. Woo. B. Boomer, (Chile); 1879- As for nine years past the names, , Rev. Eugene S. Booth, (Japan) ; years of service, and country of those in 1879- ,Mrs. Eugene S. Booth, (Jaattendance on these meetings has been pan); 1887-96, H. J. Bostwick, (Chipreserved in the. reports of this maga- na); 1887-96, Mrs. H. J. Bostwick, zine and in no other, we venture once (China) j 1889-, Miss Emma F. more to add to the historical value of Boughton, (China); 1897- ,Mr. F. S. Brockman, China); 1897- ,Mrs. F. S. Brockman,(China) j 1853-88, Mrs. A Bushnell, (Africa); 1882- , Miss M. J. Cartmell, (Japan); 1878, Mrs. Ben- jamin Chappell, (Japan); 1887- , Rev. C. A. Clark, (Japan); 1893- , Mrs. W. J. Clark, (India); 1883-94, Rev. J. T. Cole, (Japan) j 1890- ,Mrs. W. H. Cossum, (China) j 1877- ,Rev. John Craig, (India); 1885- , Mrs. John Craig, (India); 1892– ,. Rev. Horace A. Crane, (India):; 1892- ',Mrs. Horace A. Crane, (India); 1886- ,Miss E. T. Cros]:>y, Micronesia; 1878-79, Rev. Chas. W. Cu~hing, (Italy); 1869- 79, Rev. J. A. Davis, D. D., (China); 1869-70, Mrs. J. A. Davis, (China); 188{)- , Rev. F, W. Davis, (China); 1887- , Rev. John E. Davis, (India); ton, (India); 1876- ,Mrs. F. Ohlinger, 1897- ,Mrs. John E. Davis, India); (China, Korea); 1863- ,Rev. M. P. 1876-90, Mrs. A. D'Ouseley, (India, Parmelee, M.1>., (Turkey); 1871- • China); 1893-96, Misa Marie A. Dowl- Mrs. Moses P. Parmelee, (Turkey); ing, (Ohina); 1891- ,Miss Effa Dun- 1888- , Rev. Lyman P. Peet, (China); more, (Mexico); 1886-96, Miss SUl'llln 1888- ,Mrs. Lyman P. Peet, (China); Easton, (India); 1882- , Rev. James 1878- ,Mrs. James H. Pettee, (Japan); D. Eaton, !.¥exico); 1882, Mrs. James 1897- , Miss Nellie Pierce, (Korea); D. Eaton, (Mexico) ; 1872- , Mrs. C.H. 1889- , Rev. C. W. Price, (China); R.Elwell, (Burma); 1890- , Mi88 S. A. 1889- , Mrs. C. W. Price, (China); Esterbrooks, (W. Indies, S. Amer.); 1878-80, Miss Mary Priest, (Japan); 1852, Rev. W. A. Farnsworth, D.D., 1879- ,Mrs. W. H. Roberts, (Burma); (Turkey); 1852- , Mrs. W. A. Farns- 1889- ,Rev. James B. Rodgers, (Braworth, (Turkey); – – – , Miss Celia zll); 1889- , Mi88 Martha Rogers, J. Fames, (India); 1887- , MiBB M. (India) ; 1865-81, Rev. H. A. Schauffier, EsteJ.le Files, (Burma); 1891- , Ed- D.D.. (Turkey, Austria); 1897- , ward. A. Ford. (Africa); 1853-58, Mrs. Mrs. J. W. Schenck, (Japan) ;'1890- , O. M. Ford, M. D., (Mrica); 1880- , Rev. Henry J. Scudder, (India); Mi88 Elsie M. Garretson, (China); 1897- , Rev. Frank S. Scudder, (Ja. 1881- , Mrs. W. C. Gault, (Mrica); pan) ; 1897- ,Mrs. Frank S. Scudder, 1861-68. Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., (In- (Japan); 1897- ,Mi88 Clara G. Seydia); 1861-68. Mrs. J. T. Gracey, (In- mour, (China); 1888- • Mi88 Sarah dia); 1889- , Mi88 Fanny E. Gris- Simpson, (India); 1861-95, Mrs. Nathwold, (Japan); 1897- , Rev. Adam F. an Sites, (China); 1890-96, Miss Ruth Gl'Ol8beck, (China); 1897- , Mrs. Marie Sites, (China); 1886- , Mrs. Adam F. Grresbeck, (China); 1872-93, Arthur W. Stanford, (Japan); 1884- Rev. T. L. Gulick, D.D., (Spain); 1887 , Mi88 Eva C. Stark, (Burma); 1881- – ,Rev. Sidney L. Gulick, (Japan); 90, Rev. M. L. Stimson, (China); 1881- 1887-77, Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., 90, Mrs. M. L, Stimson, (China); (Turkey); 1890- ,Dr. R. A. Hardie, 1889-94, Miss Cora A. Stone, (Japan); (Korea); 1889- , Rev. W. V. Hig- 1879- , Rev. G. I. Stone, (India); gi~, (India); 1889- , Mrs. W. V. 1883- • Ella F., Swinney, M.D., Higgins. (India); 1890-96, Mrs. A. T. (China); 1888- " 1tliBB Ella J. Taylor, HUt (Japan); 1881- , Mary A. (Burma); 1854-64, Rev. Robert Tel- Holbrook. M.D.. (Japan) ; 1884- ford, (Siam, China); 1890-96, MI88 92, Rev. T. E. Inglis. (India); 1884- Caroline M. Telford, (Japan); 1868-73, 92, !!rs. T. E. Inglis, (India); Rev. C. C., Thayer, M.D, (Turkey); 1890- , Rev. Robert Irwin, (Laos); 1868-73, Mrs. C. C. Thayer, (Turkey); 1887- , Rev. Herbert B. Johnson. 1869-72, Miss Mary A. Thompson, (Japan); 1878- ,Adeline D. H., Kel- (China); 1888- , Rev. E. Tribolet, sey, M.D., (Japan); 1892- ,Rev. Chas. (Burma); 1888- , Mrs. E. Tribolet, C. Kelso, (Malaysia); 1892- , Mrs. (Burma); 1890- • Rev. E. H. Van Chas. C. Kelso, (Malaysia); 1879-81, Dyke, (Japan); 1890- , Mrs. E. H.
Rev. Albert A. Kidder, (India); 1889- Van Dyke. (Japan); 1871-88, Mrs.Le- , Rev. Chas. A. KiIlie, (China); roy M. Vernon. (Italy); 1858- ,Rev. 1889- ,Mrs. Chas. A. KiIlle, (China); Theophilus Waldmeier, (AbY88inia, 1887- , Rev. Wm. H. Lacy, (China) ; Syria); 1858- ,Mrs. Theophilus Wald- 1870- , MI88 Martha C. Lathrop, meier, (Syria); 1872- , Rev. JOBeJ?h (India); 1873- ,Miss Elizabeth Law- E. Walker, (China); 1870- , Miss rence, (Burma); 1888-95, Mi88 Alice C. Grace R. Ward, (India); 1891- ,MI88 Little, (Micronesia); 1880-90, Mrs.Ll.S. Laura White, (China); 1880-91, Mrs. Long, (Japan); 1867- , Rev. Hiram H. Wellington White, (China); 1848-57, Lowry, (China) ; 1897- , Rev. Henry Rev. J. K. Wight, (China); 1856- , W. Luce, (Ch~na); 1897- ,Mrs. Henry Rev. Jonathan Wilson, (Slam, Laos); W. Luce. (Chma); 1877- ,Mrs. J. M. 1885-88, Mrs. W. E. Witter, (ABBam) ; McCauley, (Japan); 1870-97. Mrs. S. D. 1838-86, Rev. Geo. W. Wood, D.D., McMahon, (India); 1885-95. Rev. C. W. (Tllrkey);1871-86. Mrs. Geo. W. Wood, P.,Merritt, M.D., (China); 1885-95. Mrs. (Turkey); 1868-77, Rev. Egerton R. C. W. P. Merritt, (China); 1892- , Young, (Hudson Bay Indians); 1868- 77, Mrs. Egerton R. Young, (Hudson !Irs. S. F. Moore, (Korea); John R. Mott; 1887- , E. Murray, Bay Indians). (China); 1887- , Mrs. E. Murray, The officers of the Union for the next (China); 1887- , Rev. Horatio B. year, arePre8UUnt, J. T. Gracey, D.D.; Newell, (Japan); 1888- ,Mrs. Horatio VICe Pr68ident, S. L. Baldwin. D.D. ; B. Newell, (Japan); 1872-89, Rev. A. Secretary, Mrs. C. C. Thayer; Tr~ur Norton, (India); 1874.-00, Mrs. A. Nor- cr, Rev. C. C. Thayer, M.D.; LilYrarian, Mrs. Rev. W. H. Belden, and a The German College Christian AlH. Board Df Oontrol, consisting of twenty ance exercised a quickening interest in other members besides the above Bible reading, in temperance and purity, and now they have taken up the sub. offi~rs.
WORLD'S FEDERATION OF CHRISTIAN ject of missions. The vanguard ot STUDENTS. this movement numbers twenty.seven students. ~ext Mr. Mott visited Scan. MR. J. R. MOTT. dinavia, organizing the colleges of Mr. Mott occupied an hour narrating Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Nor- the work done in connection with a way in a National Christian Students'
round.the-world tour among the col- Association. Mr. Mott proceeded to leges. He spoke of the importance of Robert College, Constantinople, thence the student class in their infiuence on to Egypt and Syria. During the visit society: "Asgo the universities, so goes to Scandinavia the suggestion was made the nation." He recounted the history of the organization of a "World's of the organization of students in the Federation of Christian StUdents."
world. In America, the Young Men's In India Mr. Mott found the largest Christian Association was organized body of students, numbering one hun.
twenty-six years ago. They have been dred thousand. .. As go these students, cemented together by the Intercollegiate so will go India." There were twenty· Christian Associations, which now num- two Young Men's Christian .Associa- ber over five hundred. These associa- tions in di1ferent parts of India, but tions have been the means of leading they were not united. It was proposed over thirty thousand young men to to assemble them in Students' Confer- Christ. There has been a great increase ences, and six such conferences were in voluntary Bible c1l11!ses in the col- held, attended by over fifteen thousand leges. Over four thousand have been delegates, twelve thousand students, led to enter the ministry. One of the five hundred Christians, and one hun- indirect effects of this association was dred missionaries. One hundred and'
the organization of the Students' Vol- thirty-five students came forth out of unteer Movement, which 'enrolls over these conventions having a determina- four thousand, over eight hundred of tion to preach the Gospel in their own whom have reacht the. foreign field. land, and now five men are engaged In During the past three years more have furthering this interest.
gone abroad than in the preceding six Proceeding to Australia, which Mr.
years. Mott said has a homogeneous popula.
In commencing his tour of visitation tisn and a good climate, they found of the colleges of the world, the first only five societies; but, among the field visited by Mr. Mott was Great young men, many became interested in Britain. The British College Christian the movement for closer union amongst Association numbers one hundred aux- the students. Twenty.five branches of iliaries, embracing all the leading col- the college organization were formed.
leges and universities in England, Scot- They found only one voluntary Blble- land, Ireland, and Wales. More young class in the institutions of learning, and men have beeome Christians in Edin· very little missionary interest among burgh University during the past two the students. but it was not long before years through the inlluence of the they were awakened into a greataggres.
British College Christian movement, slve spirit.
than in the whole experience of the Reaching China, they found the professors of that institution, some of greatest combination of difficulties of whom have been there twenty.:iive any country. The Chinese are indus· years. It has led to a great revival of trious, patient, and have many other mllsionary interest. virtues, but as a nation they have been kept back chiefly by the IItudent class, the war with Japan. The government the old conservative literati of the land. was made to realize its own weakness But they found a fringe of Christian by that war, and aIso to understand colleges skirting the coast of China, that Japan's strength came from her and they attempted the organization of progress during the last twenty-five a National Christian Students' Society, years along the line of Western educa- holding four conferences for that pur- tion. Recently the foreign office in pose, in which over three thousand Pekin has made a recommendation to delegates were present. From amongst the government to establish a university these about one hundred young men in each of the eighteen provinces, with came out from the clutches of Con- smaller schools in the chief cities, fucianism, and seventy young men gave where the Chinese can study English, up preferment and business opportuni- chemistry, physics, and metaphysics.
ties to engage in Christian work. Stu- The important thought in connection dents from eighteen colleges covenanted with this movement is that the Chris- to keep the "watch hour." tian churches awake to the importance Proceeding to Japan, they were im- of recommending Christian scholars as prest by the keenness of the intellect professors and teachers in these institu- of the people, and with the fact that tions, and thus aim to tum this modem there they confronted the largest stu- educational movement in sympathy dent class in the Orient. Here were with Christianity. It also emphasizes thirtY·five hundred teachers, among the importance of renewed attention to whom were very few Christians. They our Christian schools of high grade found, however, eight societies which, that young men may be trained in them following their arrival, were au~ented for positions in these government insti- to twenty-eight, and a national move- tutions."
ment was organized. The Japanese Rev. Hunter Corbett, D.D., of Che- leaders have come out straight on the foo, China, was prevented being pres- evangelical basis of Christian truth. ent, and Rev. Charles A. KUlie gave The most remarkable feature of the an abstract of the paper sent by Dr.
student life here has been the confedera- Corbett, from which we select the fol- tion of the Christian colleges in this lowing passages: student movement. "The war had a beneficial effect on The subject of the organization of a China. It has awakened as never be- World's Federation of Christian Stu- fore a desire to receive instruction from dents was brought before each of these missionaries. During the war, the National organizations, and they were papers and magazines publisht by mis- invited to send delegates to a conven- sionaries were eagerly BOught by all tion to be held in Northfield, Mass., classes, because they knew they would July. 1897; and have responded get reliable information. One Chinese thereto. firm printed the editorials from a mis- sionary magazine in book form to CroNA. supply the demand for such informa- In the several sessions of the week tion. The scholarship and intellectual interesting and important statements power of Western men is now recog- were made concerning China. nized. Many non-Christian parents Dr. H. H. Lowry, of North China, are pleading to have their children said: educated in mission schools, for they "There is one feature of education say these schools teach reverence to in China that I wish to call attention to, parents, and loveof honesty and virtue.
as it is very important just at this pres- ChrisUanity and education are coming ent time. You are all aware of the new to be regarded as inseparable. It is impetus that has come to China since said when C. D. Tenny started to secure the most promising students for the during the past quarter of a century newly-establisht college at Tientsin, has been at the head of the Chinese with the view of educating men for customs. Railroads are being built, government service, the late viceroy, mines opened and operated by foreign Ll Hung Chang, told him to secure all machinery under foreign direction. he could from the Christian schools, as Presses and dies have been shipt from there he would find the best material. Bridgeton, New Jersey, so that here- Duringthe past year there has been a after China will have a silver as well growing demand for all the books mis- as copper coin. The number of com- sionaries have written or tranSlated, municants has about doubled in the such as historics, works on science, past five years." political economy, natural and moral philosophy, and all text-books for MISSIONS IN TURKEY. IlChools and colleges, as well as relig- iousbooks. Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., read a " China is a land of great possibilities. paper on "The five great periods of She has nearly three thousand miles of American Mission work in Turkey." I coast-line, and numerous rivers and We cannot summarize it, but select a lakes abounding in fish. Mines of gold, few paragraphs. silver, iron, coal, and primeval wealth of almost every kind abound. There The work of American Christians is an intense desire to learn the English began in 1879. The work for twentylanguage, and wherever it is taught, seven years was only educational. Not the schools and colleges are over- till 1848 was there a formation of any crowded, and many are offering to pay native churches in connection with the well for such instruction. Physici6ns American Mission. The Americans are frequently called to treat men hold- sought to preach the Gospel, especially ing high official positions. Lady phy- to Armenians and other Oriental Chrissicians are allowed to enter the homes tians. It gave offense to the Czar of the wealthy, and are treated with the Nicholas that members of the Greek deepest respect and kindness. Mission National Church of Russia should be hospitals and dispensaries are crowded attending the meetings of the American by suffering people, and last year in missionaries, and he commanded the one station in North China over nine- Russian patriarch at Constantinople to teen thousand received medical care. anathematize all members of the Greek Church who attended the meetings of "The Emperor of China has conferred the American missionaries. When Lord the 'Imperial Order of the Double Stratford, the British Ambassador, was Dragon' upon Rev. B. C. Atterbury, applied to, he said to Goodell, "Now, M.D., of the Presbyterian Mission. you Americans go to work and organize This honor was in recognition of ser- a Presbyterian church." Then churches vices in connection with the Red Cross were organized in various cities and Society during the late war. Not a towns, and an era of church extension few of the hospitals lately erected have took place in the American Mission in received liberal subscriptioIl8 from Turkey. Christian converts, and from officials and merchants not yet Christian. However the Crimean War may have affected the nations, it greatly opened "The Chinese are asking, what is the way for the American missionaries the secret of the power, wealth, and in Turkey. At about this time, the influence of Western nations. China, great Secretary of the American Board, like a great sleeping giant, is slowly Dr. Anderson, made a rule that all misbut surely awaking. The organization sionaries of that society must cease givof a complete postal-system has been ing instruction in English, or be cut off from the society. I was cut off, and intrusted to Sir Robert Hart, whO then went to work to found Robert College. It took seven years to obtain (Lord Canning), was British Amb8l8apermission to put up the buildings of dor in Constantinople, and gave his Robert College. Then it came as by great infiuence to securing religious miracle, the Sultan giving an imperial liberty for nominal Christians. Dr. irad6, the highest form of permission. Schauffler told me that the great Mah- mood would have banisht the first mis- The present Sultan, Abdul Hamid, sionaries from Turkey but for the power has had a reign of blood for the twenty- of diplomacy• one years of his occupancy of the Turkish throne. But we should not be too .. Once the Rev. Mr. Bartlett and I hard on the Sultan. He has been the were together in the hands of a mob, tool of the Czar, and able to do only and, for a time, the mob conquered, but what the Czar allows him. through diplomacy we finally gained a complete victory, and it was very help_ In regard to the massacres, it has Dot ful to missionary work in all that rebeen known to what extent the Russian gion. We received a bell from America Armenians, belonging to the Armenian for our church building in Tales, a revolu'ionary secret society, the Hun- suburb of Cesarea. The Turks hate a chagist, have contributed to bring them bell. When U came, we were made on. God, in His mercy, has brought aware that the raising of it would be some good out of these massacres. The offensive to them. But we could learn old middle wall of partition between of no law against our use of the bell. the Gregorians and the Evangelical Ar- The local government wisht us to secure menians has been thrown down by an order from the governor-general for those massacres. And in this, Hamid, its use, but we knew that was impos- II the Assassin," has done a work which sible, so, one fine day, we took the bell, it would have taken the missionaries a intending to raise it, but a crowd gathhalf a century to have accomplisht, ered, and we found ourselves at their tho no thanks to the" Assassin." mercy. In the rush, one of our number got a pretty hard blow, the mark Dr. Farnsworth, for forty-five years of which he carried for some time. in Turkey, spoke on this subject. and Through the efforts of our minister in said in part: .. What is the relation of Constantinople, backed by the British the tea merchant and the tea trade to Ambassador, after a few months' delay, diplomacy and protection? An Amer- the local government sent Its own repican, or an Englishman, by becoming a resentative and raised the bell for us. tea merchant in China or Japan, does Thus was a victory gained for religious not cease to be a citizen of his country. liberty." He has a perfect right to appeal to diplomacy for all his rights as a citizen, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin said it was an but has absolutely no right to ask diplo- old question, as to whether a missionary macy to help on his business. Just so should be protected by his government. the missionary. A right may be denied At one time, 1839, the Sultan intended to either of them that will injure his to banish all missionaries from Turkey. business, or the granting of which will They appealed to CommOdore Porter, help it• who said they must go. but they con- sulted together, and decided they had a .. Diplomacy has had much to do in right to stay. but if they were banisht, the work of missions. The organization said they would return. Commodore of the Turkish government and of the Porter said that the treaty of the United non-Mohammedan peoples under that States with the Sublime Porte had refergovernment, a wheel within a wheel, is ence only to commerce, and he could such, that without the aid of diplomacy do nothing, but would protect them it would have been an absolute impos- until they could write home to the Secsibility to have prosecuted missionary retary of State. The,. did 80, and tC)- work. Just lilt a critical time that wonderful man, Sir Stratford RadclUfe teived a reply that missionaries had full cal, each in charge ofa competent and equality with the rights of merchants. devoted expert. Such towns will radi- Several speeches were made on the ate good influences, will be practical subject, all deploring the lack of proper object-lessons to all the dark regions and able diplomatic relations. England around, will strongly tend to hinder protects her citizens everywhere, but both slavery and the slave-trade, and Americans are compelled to hang their will be a barrier to the foreign forces heads in shame, because our diplomatic of evil. The white workers, while imservice is so limp and ineffective. They proving in many ways the material hoped much in Turkey from Mr. An- condition of the natives, will live in a gell's appointment. The intluence of manner so frugal and simple that their the former minister had been against examples can be easily and directly folmissionaries, and that feeling was shared lowed. This plan has been approved somewhat in Washington, and a better by the African departments of the diplomatic service was needed. In European colonial government, and is England it mattered not whether Glad- pronounced by leading Africanists to stone or Salisbury was in power, her be "the best plan ever devised for the policy was to look after her citizens. purpose in view." Mr. Hell Chater- Mr. Ding, the Chinese delegate to the lain, the well-known Africanist, ex- Northfield Conference of World's Fede- plorer, linguist and missionary, who ration of Christian Students, spoke on labored for years In Angola, and who the subject. is familiar with the proposed field of operations, will himself found the first THE PBIL-AMERICAN LEAGUE. of the towns, as soon as the needed funds are secured. Mr. Webb represented a new movement which is receiving considerable Mr. Webb said that there were six attention. The detlnite object of the persons connected with this league that league is to oppose by peaceful means were ready and expected to sail early the domestic slavery and slave-trade of in July to inaugurate the work as thus the Dark Continent. The slaves of sketched out. The first town is to be Africa are estimated at fifty millions, about five hundred miles from the west and the annual deaths caused by slav- coast. The headquarters are in the ery are believed to be not less than five United Charities building on Fourth hundred thousand. The horrors of the avenue and Twenty-second street, New servitude and the traffic are beyond de- York city. scription or imagination. Polygamy and witchcraft, together with rum and RESOLUTIONS AnOPTEDBYTHE INTERunprincipled white men, perpetuate and intensify the woe. NATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION.
The plan of the league is as follows: POLITICAL PROTECTION OF MISSION- First. To acquire fertile lands, by ces- ARIES AS CITIZENS. sion from E~ropean governments and by purchase from native chiefs, exclud- "In view of recent religious persecuing from the acquired territory all evil tions and atrocities, whereby the lives in1luences. Secondly. The settlement, and work of Christian Protestant misin towns of freed clans and natives, sionaries have been imperiled in China, and then education in unsectarian Turkey, and some other countries, this Christianity. As a town becomes con- International Missionary Union mainfirmed in civilized and Christian ways, tains the sacred obligation of Christian the freed slaves can be safely adopted nations to protect by treaty-rights and in larger numbers. Third. The great consular intervention the person and divisions of town life will be agricul- property of their citizens engaged in tural, industrial, educational, and medi- extending the benefits of Christian truth and education equally with those engaged in commercial enterprise, .. We commend the prompt action of its domination, and also in the legal and the American and British consuls in peaceful abolition of terrible iniquities China, whereby the dignity of the na- and abominable customs which had ex- tion was vindicated, and every possible isted in India, sanctioned by tho not an indemnity obtained for the outrages per- essential part of the religions of its peo- petrated there_ And we equally con- ples. Wherever the British flag floats, demn the failure hitherto of the Chris- it affords equal protection to professors tian powers to prevent the continued and propagators of all religious faiths.
murder of thousands of our co-religion- American and other non-British mis- ists in Turkey, and the destruction of sionaries also now have in cases of need valuable missionary property and pro- often occurring in some regions assist- spects in that affiicted land. ance as readily and fully extended to SYMPATHY AND COMMENDATION. them by British officials, as if they were loyal English subjects. The aI- "Resolved, That we deeply sym- most ubiquitous protection of the Britpathize with the persecuted and op- ish flag in missionary fields in which it prest for conscience sake under what- is of greatesL value. deserves thankful acever form in whatever land such per- knowledgment, which we gladly give, secution is practiced; that we praise as specially due at this time of felicita- G'od for his grace abundantly bestowed tions to her majesty, whose personal on those who in such great numbers character and influence during the sixty have recently in a spirit of Christian years of her reign have done so much to forgiveness submitted to suffering even secure this happy condition and other unto death, rather than to accept de- great benefits to mankind." liverance and worldly gain in return for denying Christ. Proposed Home for the Insane in " That we honor and commend mis- Syria.
sionaries in Turkey, China, and else- where. who exhibit an example of BY MR. THEOPRILUS WALDMEIBR.
Christian courage and self-abnegation AJ3 I have been for thirty-eight years truly apostolic in maintaining their a missionary in the East, first in Abysposition and carrying on their work as sinia and afterwards in Syria, I have heralds of the Gospel amid great dis- had abundant opportunities for studycouragements and perils, and we pray ing the needs of these countries. I for all such, and for the distrest peo- speak especially now about the urgent ples among whom they labor, that their need of Syria, and feel constrained to strength may be equal to their day, and bring it before the public. I am sure their afflictions may be to the glory of that this pressing need will find many God. helping hands and hearts for poor suf- THE VICTORIA REIGN HELPFUL TO fering humanity.
MISSIONS. The urgent need which I desire to "Resolved, that we recognize with bring before Christians and lovers of devout gratitude to God the gain which down-trodden humanity is a home for has accrued to religious freedom in the the insane. I think I am right in say- world during the period of the reign of ing that since our Lord Jesus Christ her majel'ty. the Queen Empress Vic- had pity on the poor lunatics and healed toria. AJ3 missionaries of various na- their diseases, nothing more has been tionalities we rejoice in the liberty of done for this class of sufferers in that speech and the press secured to all per- country. I therefore believe it is right 80ns in the United Kingdom and to follow also in this respect our Divine throughout the colonies of the British Master's example, and do what we can empire, and among the vast heathen and in order to bring help and relief to these Mohammedan populations subject to afflicted people of Bible lands. American and European missionaries mania (devil-possession), and in conse- have done a great deal for Syria and quence of this we find that the only Palestine. Schools have been built, treatment of the insane is exorcism, ooUeges opened, churches and hospitals which has been kept in the hands of erected; the Holy Scriptures have been the priests from.the oldest time until translated, printed and circulated, and the present day. other good books have been printed, and various means have been employed I cannot now enter upOn the cruelty to elevate and enlighten the people. All with which the poor lunatics are treated honor and praise is due to those noble and tortured to death in these places, missionaries who have done their ut- but I will just explain what should be most for the social and religious eleva- done for them in order to ameliorate tion of the country; but there is still their deplorable condition. one great need to be supplied, and this need is that of the totally forsaken suf- The first step in this direction is to ferers from mental diseases. build a home for about forty men and forty women. This establishment should During the last seven years I have be erected in a healthy locality on Mt. been greatly interested in the insane, Lebanon, where we enjoy a Christian and have sympathized deeply with government, good laws, great liberty, them, but I could not do anything for and many other privileges. It should them, as I had on my hands the super- be built according to a well-devised intendence of the large mission station plan by a European architect for this which I organized twenty·three years special purpose, including the most ago in Brumana, on Mt. Lebanon, for modern equipments, in a locality where the Society of Friends. AB the Lord there is plenty of good water, not far has now sent seventeen native and from Beyrout. twelve European helpers for this work, I feel that I can leave the work in their The cost of such a construction achands, ~ and give myself entirely to the cording to the cottage system, would great and pressing need of helping the be about £10,000, including the land on poor insane in the East. which it is built, which should be large enough to occupy the patients in garden I had no idea of the large number of work. A well-qualified doctor (speclunatics who are in Syria, but, when I ialist) should be engaged as a resident began to study their deplorable condi- physician at the asylum, supported by tion, I found that there were more of a staff of well-qualified and experienced these unfortunate sufferers than I ever men and women nurses. anticipated. The governor of the District of El Metn told me that he found The general management of this estwenty insane in his district alone, who tablishment should rest in the hands of are bound hand and foot in iron chains, the business superintendent, who would and ~ the Lebanon is divided into be supported by the needful overseers seven districts, we may count about one and servants. The doctor of the asylum hundred and forty of these, not includ- and the business superintendent should ing the milder cases. In the rest of be guided by a local committee of Syria and other places in the Orient, prominent gentlemen at Beyrout, who where there is no proper accommoda- would meet every three months for the tion for them, the only refuges for these consideration of the general welfare of poor lunatics lU"e dark, damp, and filthy the home. places, caves or vaults, in some convents, where they are fettered in heavy Those patients who are able to pay Iron chains. must defray their full e:r;penses during their stay in the retreat, 8lld those who The only acknowledged form of in- are too poor to pay anything ought to sanity in the Orient is the demono- be maintained and cared for gratis. One part of the asylum should be ap- propriated for ~mbecile and epileptic patients, who have likewfse a great book " Strategic Points in the WorId'. claim to be cared for by medical help and Christian pity and kindness. . Conquest; The Universities and Col- The home should be bunt by col- leges as related to the progress of Christ- lections and donations specially made In different parts 01 Europe and Amer- ianity " with map of his journey ica, In addition to the funds raised in Syria itself. The current expenses (Fleming H. Revell Company, New should be met by annual Bubscriptions. Committees In various parts of Europe York, Chicago, Toronto), which gives and America should be organized, and ll.nked together by their respective sec- a lucid, simple, Itraightforward narr~ retaries, In order to keep up the interest In the establishment. Sir Richard tive of this entire journey with the Tangye, F.R.G.S., 55 Queen Victoria Street, London, B.C., has kindly con- facts observed and the experience ac· sented to be the treasurer for Great Britain and Ireland, and will be glad quired, together with a logical discus- to receive funds from individuals and from the local treasurers for the Home. sion incidentally introduced on the Annual reports and accounts will be overwhelming importance of this given by the executive committee at wonderful .. movement," for such it is. Beyrout. As regards religion, no spe- The Introduction consists of "Opin. cial creed or sect should guide this ions concerning the Federation of the establishment, but the simple Gospel Students of the World," by Ex·Presi- Truth ahould be taught, and Jesus dent Harrison, the Earl of Aberdeen, Christ should be preacht as the power the Right. Hon. William E. Gladstone, of God unto salvation. All those who Prince Oscar, of Sweden, and Count are engaged in the home should feel Andreas von Bernstorff, of Berlin. the call from God and be constrained by the love of Christ to bring relief to There are nineteen chapt.ers devoted the su1Ierers from mental diseases. respectively to the World's Student The institution should be undenomina- Christian Federation, Student movetional In its character, and receive pa· ments (}f the Occident, Papal Europe, tients from all creeds and sects, from Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, Syria, and different nationalities and religions, Palestine, Egypt, Ceylon; Indian without the slightest preference to the Student Conferences and Movements, one or to the other, as its support Australasian Student Movement, Conshould not be restricted to one nation· ferences and Students of China, of alityalone, as Dr. Clouston says, but Japan, and of the Hawaiian Islands; a all nations and denominations should lIummary of the tour, and a. table of have a share in this noble work in Bible " Itinerary." lands. The Constitution and By-Laws of the Lebanon Home for the Insane Weare much mistaken If this is not have already been drawn up and an epochal movement, and the book to printed at Beyrout. be one of the factors in augmenting its force. It is tastefully gotten up, the II Strategio POintB in the Werld'B Oon. price is $1.00, and if a hundred thous- queBt-" and copies could be distributed by purchase or Jdft, the profit to the cause Since the imperfect report of Mr. J. of the world's salvation would be R. Mott's address at the International advanced thereby. Missionary Union was put in type, there has come to OUI table, Mr. Mott'. The book is not cumbered with over- much detailed statement. In fact, it awakens a desire for more informa- tion, and fuller discussion with every chapter. But that would spoil the ideal of the volume. Those who already know much about the incidents of the tour, and important features of the Oriental movement, not even re- ferred to in this volume, may feel a shade of disappointment, that the book does not include much that is of 80 novel interest. But Mr. Mott has shown a master's reserve and skill in what has been given. It is a modest outline of a great uprising of the younger educated men of Christendom and of nascent Christendom the world over, and Ex-President Benjamin Har- rison justly says: "the work and ob- servations of Mr. Mott are full of interest, and his book ought to be widely read."
FIELD OF HONTBLY SUBVBY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Papal Europe,* The PapacY" t :BY DBLATAlIf L. PIERSON.
RBLIGIOUS LIFB m SPAll!. dollars by the government to a porce· Spain Is not only the land of sunny lain manufacturer. skies, under which the palm, the pomegranate, the aloe, and the orange grow Throughout Spain the Virgin Is rein luxuriance, but a country which awakens countless recollections of chiv- garded with very special sanctity. Picalryand romance. Not only so, but in historical and ecclesiastical interest she tures and images of the "Mother of ranks next to Italy. The gothic cathedrals of Spain are amongst the oldest God " surmount the altar. Many of the and finest in the world. Their exteriors are picturesque, magnificent, and im- very ancient images are regarded as posing, The f&98des are in many cases elaborate works of art, and contain in- the patron saints of provinces and cities, numerable statues, medallions, and other ornamentation. The chapter and worshiped as such. Volumes ho1U!e8 contain many valuable manuscripts and illuminated missals. The have been written upon the miracles interior of the churches contain noted works of art, but are generally dark wrought by them. The most remarkand gloomy, without seats or hassocks. The worshipers, mostly ladies, kneel able are the " heaven-descended " on the paved fioor. Convents were once everywhere, and many of them black virgins, which occupy silver were like feudal castles for size and solidity. They were, in most cases, thrones and wear crowns studded with simply nurseries of superstition and indolence, and fatal to the social prog- jewels. These images have special atreu of the country. The suppression of the convents by the government in tendants, who take in charge their 1886 left most of them in ruin. Many have been converted into civil and mili- pearl·embroidered mantos, rings, necktary hospitals, schools, colleges, courts of justice, prisons, and barracks. Others laces, and endless trinkets. Many of have been turned into poorhouses, jails, lunatic asylums, warehouses, and pub- the images are most offensive to taste lic factories. A very fine old Dominican convent was turned into a theater, and hideous in .their attire, but are and another was sold for forty thousand brought out on festival occasions and • See also pp. 38S (May); 581, 583, roo, 603, (present Issue). borne on men's shoulders throughout NJIW Boou: .. Life of Robert Whittaker the streets, thronged by reverent spec- McCall," by Mrs. McCall; "Christian Life In Germany," E. F. Williams. tators.
t See also pp. 58 (January); 575,586 (pres- Holy days, festivals, and religious entlssue). fairs are great occasions amongst the NJIW Boon: .. History of the Papacy," Spaniards, and in honor of them they CreIghton. turn out in thousands and in their pro- vincial costumes. The peasantry still adhere closely to ancient rites and cere.
monies, and are fond of pilgrimages.
They crowd to popular shrines with votive offerings of beef and corn, and on 3t. James's Day go off in procession with their cows and heifers gay with ribbons, and never fail to make a highly picturesque display. On the feast of San Isidro-the countryman's favorite saint-the peasants crowd rteoohofisvisnhgritnhe~ kiss his image, and after blessing of the priest in charge, each devotee drops a farthing at bis feet.
At another festival given in honor of a.
tutelar saint, each devotee is expected to give to the priest as much com as the individual weighs, and the weighing Is carried out on scales before the shrine. Another very ancient festival say to a Spaniard, "Have you Spanis "the blessing of the sea," when a iards any conscience? .. In a jocular, church dignitary goes out to sea with jaunty way the Spaniard rep~ed, images and relics, accompanied by a "There is no such thing in Spain." long procession of gaily – decorated The want of conscience and sanctified boats, to invoke a blesaing upon the common-sense, like the want of educaavocation of the fisherman and for tion, energy, and enterprise, is at the those who go down to the sea in ships. root of many of the clamant social, High ceremonial times are invariably political, and administrative wrongs in accompanied by a round of bull-fights. this otherwise beautiful and romantic It is never diftlcult to get a crowd of ten thousand people at least within the country.-Re1I. W. M. inglis, M. A. amphitheater; altho many churches are closed for the lack of worshippers. The difficulties which impede the progress of the Gospel in 'Spain, says Spain has still the reputation of being Mr. Armstrong, of Barcelona, seem the most ultra-Roman-Catholic country to be increasing; the Romish priestin the world, and that is not to be hood, controlled by the Jesuita and wondered at. since two-thirds of the other orders, are again more or less the people can neither read nor write. Prior governing power, and the civil authorto the suppression of the convents in ities bend to their influence. These 1836, about one·fifth of the people were are hard times for Spanish converts, engaged in the services of the Church. especially in the villages. Contrary to For a long time religious toleration the wish of the majority of the Spanish was unknown; however, at present people, Spain has lost the God-given non-Catholics are allowed freedom of right of liberty for every man's conworship-but in private. No heretic science; at present there is a bare is allowed burial in the national ceme- toleration, and which is ever becoming teries or catacombs. barer.
In certain districts the masses have To add to the poverty, misery, and broken entirely with the Church and sufferings of the people has come this have drifted in thousands into infidelity, Cuban war, the horrors of which are ultra-socialism, and anarchy. Many hidden by the military authorities. of the great towns once conspicuous for Alas I for the tens of thousands of zeal, are now hot-beds of sedition. young men, conscripts, forced to go to Fulminatory letters are unheeded, relics Cuba, a large proportion of whom will and images are moldering away, pro- never return I Alas I for the desolate cessions are rarely seen, shrines and homes left behind in Spain, where are churches are deserted, and popish sym- broken hearts, poverty, and starvation, bols have vanisht from the streets and since the bread-winners are gone I highways. It seems to be a great opportunity for Protestantism; but the What will the end be for Spain? austere, haughty, taciturn Spaniard is The cup of her national sins is rapidly slow to yield to a faith which his fore- fi1lingup. fathers fought to the death and left stronger than ever. It is true he has Writing from Linares Rev. J. P. lost much of his old fanaticism, but he Wigstone says: has not yet parted with his pride. When once he has seen the futility of "We preach salvation through his wild socialistic experiments, then Christ. salvation for the lost sinner, he will learn that Spain can only escape salvation which includes repentance, from utter wreck through the intluence pardon, justification, holiness. help for of a pure and enlightened Christianity. this life and glory by and by; and We once heard an old Scottish captain that this salvation iii revealed in the Holy Scriptures, which are the Word of God.
"My experience of twenty-three and a half years in this country, where Rome has had all her own way, is that she is what she professes to be, 'always the same! She is this In the sense of Protestants that the Romanista dare bein~ the bitter enemy of God's Word, not enforce the law. God. salvation"and God's people. In England, Rome shows the sheep's A most promising feature of the clothing, and appears, in the Pope's work in Portugal is the success of the letter, for instance, to be desirous of promoting Bible reading; here she is primary schools, in the face of much in favor of Bible burning I In Eng· opposition. In Oporto, tho the Roman· ist schools are free, and a penny a week land, she speaks of her 'Noncom· formi&t brethren; , here she persecutes is charged at the Protestant schools unmercifully, and says that a thief, an (accommodating 180), sixty.tl.ve are 81188S8in, an adulterer, is to be preferred to an Evangelical Christian. waiting for admission to the latter. In another, which acc9mmodates eighty• .. It is next to impossible to get permission to erect the plainest build- nine, there are 109 applicants. ings for the preaching of the Gospel. I have seen the priests accompany the In Lisbon the work is chiedy divided authorities when entering by force the. between the Lusitanian and Presby· houses of Evangelicals; I have seen terian churches. There are also two or them, in spite of the protests of the three independent workers here and in father, take the dead body of a child, and bury it in the Roman Catholic neighboring towns. Among the native cemetery. .0 England, where would pastors there are several who were once your Uberty be if Rome ruled I Romish priests, one of whom continues "Our meetings here are better in his old parish. All these agencies attended than they have been for a pull well together, and denominational long time, and within the last month walls are overlookt, even to the extent two new villages have invited us to of both using the same hymn book. take the Gospel to them. We have more on hand than we can well man· A peculiarly promising branch of the age; but what we are most thankful for is that from among the converted 1Vork, with a strongly unifying tenmen some are being raised up to carry dency, is the circle of Young Men's Christian Associations establisht some the Gospel to their fellow-countrymen. In Morgandanes a man was converted two yesrs ago, in connection with the through seeing the priests stone us. That was in 1878; he is now at all Swiss center. In Oporto, where they times ready to take the meeting. At were first establisht, there are three Marin, one who was converted in branches, in connection with 88 many 1877, works at his trade, but is ever churches. ready to preach the Gospel." Priestcraft stands in but poor repute in Portugal, where its representatives The Needs of Portugal. lack the respect of most, tho in the villages they still hold sway over the As yet there are only two centers of minds of the women. In place of faith, Evangelical work in Portugal-Lisbon tho side by side with hard-dying super.
and Oporto-for, tho there is a grow- IItitioDSI there is a growing spirit of ing desire all over the land for more indifference. which must inevitably Gospel teachers, the supply is almost absorb the majority of the half-enlight- nil. Very little is known abroad of the ened young if more is not done to bring needs and opportunities there. Even before them the truth.
Coimbra, the University town, is yet One hopeful sign is an increasing unoccupied, notwithstanding all the readiness to purchase Bibles, altho their advantages of work amqng the students, circulation without authorized ,. notes"
and numerous applications received is prohibited. There are several small from residents there. In the country evangelical publications in Portuguese, districts work is still difficult, as there some of which come across the Atlantic fa not yet legal liberty to convert from Brazil A Portuguese merchant Romanists, to attempt which is a returning from Brazil has offered to .criminal offence. But in the cities build a new Protestant church in LiB- public opinion is so far with the bon. In Lisbon and Oporto there are Epis- land, which the Paris Evangelicalllfl-"
copal and Nonconformist services for sion has made its own. The genius of the considera.ble colonies of English to the French tends naturally to centralbe found there, and at both places Bea- ization, and it is an immense boon that men's missions exist, doing excellent instead of a variety of rival societies, work. At Oporto, too, there is a small these two great ones divide the Home German service conducted by a.layman;· and Foreign Mission-field, and are supbut except at Portalagre, where Mr. ported by members of all denomina- Robinson conducts evangelistic services tions. !
at the cloth factory, there is practically NudI.-The pure Gospel; intelligent nothing done as yet to spread the Gos- study of God's Word; the awakening pel in Portugal•..:..J. E. Budgett Meakin. of a missionary spirit.
Some of the things we should pray Religious Oonditions in Prance. for most in regard to France are that every believer may be led to feel his or her personal responsibility for bringing In Franu, as elsewhere, the great the Gospel to the unsaved; that young . need is that the Church, through each men and women, especially of the edu- individual member, be restored to love cated and wealthy class, may be led to and faithfulness to the Church's Head offer themselves for mission work-at present only a few missionaries of the and full communion with Him. We Paris Evangelical Mission are actual can not estimate our indebtedness to French citizens; that their fathers, and the Huguenots of France. especially their mothers, may be willing A writer in The Chriatian (London) to let them go; and, that all believers calls attention to the fo~owin~ special may be drawn more and more to the religious condition, opportumties, and Lord "to 861'N the living and true God, and to wait lor his Bon .from heaven, needs in France just now: even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come." Conditions.-Great material prosperity; seCular education. An increase in drinking habits and depraved literature in the lowest classes. A decided reaction The following societies are at work from infidelity towards reli~on (espe- in France to teach the truth of the cially among the educatea classes), Gospel: which is turning almost exclusively to "The Societe Centrale d'Evangelfza- the profit of Roman Catholicism. This tion supports 140 agents, has 800 places is attributed by some to the low spirit- of worship, and visits 195 localities. It ual state of Protestantism and its divi- records the conversion of 387 Catholics, sions, but is probably due to •• Modern- and the opening of four new stations ism" in Protestant pulpits, especially during the year. doubts cast on the deity of Christ, and .. The Mission Interieur has been at the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures work for a quarter of a century. It (hafpily by no means universal, but conducts evangelistic meetings in difstil too prevalent). Aspirit of patriot- ferent districts, leaving to the care of ism, so Intense that, when it does not the nearest churches those gathered in. take the place of a religion in itself, This work is being prosecuted with re- exalts Roman Catholicism as the na- vived activit'y' tional religion of France, as opposed to "The SOCIete de Missions des France the Protestantism of her traditional has enjoyed financial prosperity, all the foes, England and Germany, and excites expenditure having been. met. The opposition to foreigners, especially Eng- operations of the society in Africa andlish, evangelizing either in France or Tahiti are extending, and much blessher colonies. This feeling is shared ing has been received. Other agencies even by Protestants, tho, of course, not in France are carrying on their lVork with success in a noble spirit of· selfbvall. – Opportunitie8.-Many devoted and sacrifice, and with great hopefulneSB. thoroughly orthodox pastors, preach- In all directions the outlook is bright. ers, and other Christian workers. The .. The McAll Mission still holds on whole machinery of the McAll Missi( 1, its way. Tho several stations have had which only needs to be extended aud to be abandoned for lack of funds, workt more and more by the French there has been much success. In par- themselves to become a universal bless- ticular the work done by the Mission ing. The immense colonies of France, Boat on the Oise, the progress of temsecond only to those of Great Britain, perance work, and the steady ingather- besides the vast mission-fields of Mada ing of converts from Catholicism give gascar, and of Basutoland and Barotse cause for thanksgiving." "
EDITomAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
Kisaionary Achievements of the Victor- in the Coronation year, 1838, that Dr. ian Era. David Abeel returned to Canton, after his noble appeal to the Christian women Alexandrina Victoria came bto the of Britain in behalf of their Oriental succession to the throne in 1837, and sisters who were shut up in zenanas, was crowned June 28th, 1838. During harems and seraglios, and unreachable these sixty years greater changes have by existing missionary methods. taken place than in all the previous centuries of written history; and par- BURMAH'S first convert was gathered ticularly on the Mission field of the ten years before Victoria's reign began; world the change has been more than but it was when she had been on the an evolutlon-a revolution. No brief throne for just forty years that the Ju- treatment of such a stupendous theme bilee gathering of 1878 consecrated the can do it justice. Volumes have been Kho-Thah-Byu Memorial Hall, which written, and will yet be, on the sub- represented forty thousand Karen dillci- ject. All we can do is to indicate a pIes, half of whom were still living. few of the directions in which this And, now, at the close of these sixty amazing development has taken place, years, the transformation of these constituting the Miracle of the Ages. Karen villages is one of the miracles of missions, reproducing the wonders of It is scarcely too much to say that apostolic times. nearly all the great openings of the world :field have been providentially made SIAM has had Protestant missions within this period. More than this, since the same year as Kho-Thah·Byu's and most amazing of all, within the conversion; but, again, we must look short period of two years (1856-1858) further on for any real rooting of mis- most of these wide doors were thrown sions there. It was when Victoria open. began her reign that the ji1'St Ohurch 01 Chinese disciples in all A8ia had been INDIA.-The Gibraltar of heathen- formed under Dr. Dean among the res- Ism-had been nominally unlocked to ident Chinese in Bangkok; and it was missionary labor for many years when in 1851 that the death of the then Queen Victoria took her sceptre, but reigning king, who bitterly opposed the British East India Company was missions, and the succession of Maha- by no means friendly to missions; and Yong-Kut, their friend and patron, the not until 1858, when its powers and most progressive and liberal sovereign possessions passed over to the English in all Asia, turned the scale. Crown, did the real epoch of Indian missions begin. But what a marvel of Turning to the •• Walled Kingdom," Providence, that the foremost Protest- we must fix 1842 and 1858 as the con- ant power of all Europe, the Christian spicuous years of breaches in CHINA'S empire of the world. should have be- wall of exclusion. In the former year come the King's forerunner, to prepare five treaty ports were opened to for- His way in that Hindu peninsula eignera, and the island of Hongkong which is a world in itself I Think of was ceded to the British; but sixteen Britain, strangely introduced there to years later four more ports were literally build roads, set up courts of opened to foreign ships, foreign travel justice, erect Christian colleges, plant was permitted, and Christianity was printing presses, and arrange and adjust tolerated by imperial decree. All these all the complicated machinery of prep- developments, of course, belong to aration for India's evangelization! the Victorian era. . The era of woman'8 emancipation in the East Indies appropriately synchro- JAPAN'S long-closed sea-gates were nizes with the Victorian Era. It was unbarred in 1853-4 to An,lerica, and soon after to Britain, RU88ia, and Hol- great developments of African occupaland. The rapidity of the revolutions tion, civilization, evangelization. in the sunrise kingdom distance anything else in the past ages, or even in These are a few only of the doors, our own epoch of marvels. A people, wide and effectual, opened before the before almost unknown, has sprung at messenger of the crOSB during the sixty a leap into a formidable military and years of this memorable reign. But naval power, and taken rank amongst who shall tell how obstacles have subthe most progressiTe nations of the sided, as tho the continents had sudworld; and in all these changes Chris- denly sunk below the sea-level, and so tianity has been the dominant factor, let in the Gospel flood I Read Dr. and all are triumphs of the Victorian Wilson's "Memoir," and learn how, era. under British rule in India, the mon- strous suttee, child murder, and three KOREA remained the hermit nation score more of cruelties and outrages until, in 1882, God used medical mis- have been abolisht or essentially consions as the key to unlock its doors to trolledl "Oahu's idols are no more." the Gospel. Dr. Allen, by a strange Fiji's cannibals have been transformed accident-to human eyes, a strange into Christian disciples. Western Poly- Providence, as disciples see it-became nesia is evangelized, and is nowevangeinstalled as court physician, and the lizing unenlightened territory. king built a " house of civilized virtue" -a government hospital under the STATISTICs.-But it is impossible to care of this Presbyterian missionary. form any real conception of the advance And now Korea's valleys are being of Christian missions without a resort penetrated by Gospel messengers. to numbers. The latest authoritative statistics give us the following approxi- The OTTOMAN EMPIRE issued the mate estimates. famous Hatti-theris, or edict of toleration, in 1856. In 1878 Asiatic Turkey The total expenditure for foreign came under a British protectorate, and missions during 1896 was, from reported a "defensive alliance" was formed be- gifts, about .£3,000,000 sterling. The tween the two nations. Turkey is whole number of ordained missionaries treacherous and tricky, and Christian is about 4,300; of layman, 2,500; marmissions have had no real encourage- ried women, 4,200; and unmarried, ment or even recognition. Even the 3,300; this gives a total missionary edict of toleration has been a dead let- force, from Christian lands, of 14,800. ter. But missions have gone on not- Mission churches have themselves given withstanding, conquering and to con- to the work 3,350 ordained natives, quer. and over 51,700 native helpers, making a grand summary of nearly 70,000 As to the DARK CONTINENT, it has actually engaged ,"n a 'tCO'l'ld's e'l!angel-tmbeen unuiled within the limits of the tion, in some 21,000 mission stations, Victorian era. To that period belongs and sustained by a body of 1,115,000 the career of that missionary general native communicants, that stand for and explorer, David Livingstone. who five times as many adherents; 62,000 went to Africa in 1841, and died in communicants were added in 1896. 1878. To this period belong the thou- And there are 18,000 schools with a sand days of Stanley's trans-continental total of about 700,000 pupils. Now, if march, from the Zanzibar to the mouth we remember that nearly aU this aggreof the Kongo; and the whole establish- gate represents a creation out of nothing, ment of the major part of missions in during these sixty years, we can get that continent. To this period belongs some idea of the missionary advance of the Kongo Free State, organized in the Victorian era. 1884, and, in fact, every one of the Much that pertains to this era defies.
August
alike description and detection. There Christian Brahmans In the pews of a are changes, quite as stupendous as native church in Ahmednagar? Have I any we have chronicled, which have not Bat for an hour in Poona with a no history, and can not have. The Brahman who told me the story of his restraints of persecution or social ostra· c8nversion to Christ? And have I not cism hinder many from eor.f688ing listened to addresses from native Chris. Christ, who really believe in Him. The tians in India, addresses so able and undermining is going on, and the very vigorous that I longed to have such ground is being honeycombed, where men and women stand before our no surface indications exist. But we churches in America? " feel persuaded that God's time may be much nearer than we think, when, Dr. Barrows al(lo bears stron~ testi· lIS with a sudden explosion or upheaval, mony to the effectiveness of miSSIOnary the kingdom of darkness shall give work in India and the assured triumph way, and He whose right it is ftrsL to of Christianity. He says: overrule and then to rule, shall take the scepter into His own hands. Would II It is well known that American that His Church could see her glorious and European travelers, bent on seeing opportunity and prove herself in gifts Hindu temples, Moslem mosques, and of men and money, in service and the varied and brilliant life of the sacrifice, equal to her responsibility! bazars, usually miss a sight of what after all is most hopeful and most im- Among the many matters which portant to the present life in India-the ought to be treated in such a record as homes, schools, churches, hospitals, and this, is the marvelous change which printing houses of the Christian mishas taken place in the Okurch itselJ' sionaries. The forces which make for during this era. Indifference and ignor. Christianity in India are growingly ance as to missions largely prevailed strong. I do not remember meeting a in 1837; now behold the Church as a missionary doubtfUl of the lInal result. body, aroused, largely familiar with The failure of Hinduism to furnish the story of missions and systematically peace and moral healing to the individorganized for the promotion of this ual and regeneration to its millions of divine enterprise. Again, consider that votaries is becoming apparent to Hindus the Literat'Ur~ of Miasions is almost themselves. The reforming sects are exclusively the creation of the Victorian an emphatic announcement of this era. There are, it is safe to say, a social and religious failure. Of course, thousand times as many books on mis- I heard many criticisms of missionaries, sions in 1897 as in 1837; in fact, more but I never heard a Hindu, Brahman are now produced in ten years than or Moslem say what ignorant and were in existence sixty years ago. prejudiced Europeans have. sometimes said in my hearing out of India, that .Rev. John Henry Barrows, D.D., the missionaries were doing no good. 'Nho has recently returned from India, I shall never forget how the famous in writing of his observations, makes Hindu ascetic, the Holy Man of Beapecial note of the fact that the harsh· nares, said to me: 'I think Jesus Christ est criticisms of missionary results come was a very good man. He must have not from natives, but from Europeans been something like Mr. Hewlett,' a and Americans. He says: deceased veteran of the London Mis. sion SocietY."' Missionaries are often II How ridiculous appears the claim foolishly cnticlzed by natives, but they sometimes made in America that men of are trusted by them, and this is the intelligence, that members of the BraL highest fraise which a Hindu can pay mlln caste are never converted to Chris- to morta man." tianity. Have I not seen a Brahman After many years of comparatively uares' preaching Christ in the bazars of Be· fruitless toil the patient faith of the Have I not seen a whole row of Moravian Brethren is beginning to re- ceive its reward. Brother Schreve thus writes from Poo, near the Tibetan border, under date of March 27 : " A1)plicat.ons for baptism continue 1.0..,,, :eceived. Up to the present time the number is twntg jiu.
" The man who formerly gave ocular responses in connection with the heathen festivals through the aid of an evil spirit, together with his wife, attendance. Of the llfty-three who affords us much joy in the hours of in- claimed to be members already in good struction. People in the village have standing it was evident that lIome, at said to him, that if all the rest permit least, had been greatly quickened and themselves to be baptized, it will be of revived by the services. no consequence; but that he must not, for they can not spare him. He has Now to tabulate these results, if replied, that even tho they should put those names we have investigated are him to death for it, he will never again representative of all, the following serve as the mouthpiece of the oracle. things are evident: Later they offered him the use of a field, on condition of his not submitting First-That 47 per cent. of those to baptism ; but he remained firm and whom Mr. Moody reaches belong to we hope to be able to baptize him at the unchurcht masses of the city- Easter." those who have been lost overboard from tht churches. Every Christian For several years the Thibetan mis- ought to thank God that there are in- fluences which can reach those whom sion was fruitless; for many succeed- the churches fail utterly to touch.
ing years the fngatheringwas markt by Second-That 53 per cent. are mem- bers of the churches, manr of whom its paucity in contrast to the returns in greatly need the quickenmg which these services bring to them. In our other fields. A few years ago the call own church many members have testi- fied to receiving real help and blessing went forth for persistent pleading with from Mr. Moody's meetings.
the Lord in behalf of this particular As to the lasting effect of such ser- vices there is much to be said. Two mission, and the Thibetan Prayer Union converts from these meetings have already united with our church; there was formed. Now the Lord in His are a number of others whom we expect to receive. But let it be granted that goodness is rewarding the prayers and there are few accessions to the churches from such a work. The reason prithe faith of His people. maril;v lies in the fact that the churches critiCIze instead of cooperating. We There has been criticism from some should remember that Paul, the young quarters in regard to Mr. Moody's convert, needed Ananias, and he needed evangelistic work in great cities-a work which has been undeniably also the work of Barnabas, who introacknowledged by God. Rev. Wilton duced him to the warm circle of the Merle Smith, whose church is nearest Apostles. This is just the work which to Carnegie Hall, where the New York the church fails to do. These inquirers Sunday services were held last winter, thus writes to the New York Tribune: and converts can be gathered into the churches when the church, instead of The church I am privileged to serve criticizing, cooperates with Mr. Moody took 265 names of those who had signed and by earnest, personal work, "comthe inquirers' cards in the Carnegie pels them to come in." • • . Men Hall meetings, and who lived in our who will never enter a church will go neighborhood, for the purpose of calling upon them. Up to this date (May to Carnewe Hall. I. for one, am more 11th) 124 have been reported upon to than willmg to sacrifice a little in my the committee having this work in Sunday evening services in order that charge. Of this number 24 gave wrong some who are accustomed to hear me addresses and can not be found, 53 may hear what may prove to be more profest to be members of some church helpful preaching, and especially in in good standing, some of whom had order that those whom we pastors of put their names down for the purpose Fifty-seventh Street can never reach, of getting one of Mr. Moody's books, may hear the inspiring message from a while 47 had no church home whatever. man so thoroughly owned of God 81 Out of this 47, 22 once had been mem- Dwight L. Moody. bers of the church, but had drifted away and rarely attended now, while Fifty per cent. of the popUlation of 25 were absolutely non-attendants. this city is practically unchurcht, be- yond the reach of the churches as they In almost every instance it was found are now constituted, or with their presthat real, oftentimes deep, religious im- ent methods of work. Let us be most pressions had been made. In every in- thankful for any work which reaches stance the callers were gladly welcomed. this portion of our population, and These inquirers seemed to be in earn- which also is so truly quickening and est. Many of them testified to new habits of Bible reading and church stimulative to the Church of God.
GENERAL HISBIONARY INTELLIGENOlil
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extracts and. Translations from Foreign vice in the Wesleyan Chapel that even- Periodicals. ing, and he sent a letter to the command- ing officer, requesting that such matches . BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, should not be held on the Lord's Day. The commanding officer treated the MASS. matter as a joke, and advised Mr. Brown to follow the example of the INDIA. Roman Catholic priest, and have the service at a time that would suit the – " A minister at home told me once, convenience of the footballers. Mr. 'What a jolly life you have in IndiaI Brown could not let the matter rest No work and no study, for you repeat there, and made a representation to the same things over and over again.' the Commander-in-chief, who gave , Well,' I said, 'in the first place, I re- his very careful consideration, and gard no work and no study as the in his reply stated that while he height of misery and not of jollity; and does not approve of matches on Sun- in the second place, if I were to repeat day, he is not prepared to prohibit them the same thipgs over and over again in altogether, yet these amusements will be the same words, I should have to do so entirely prohibited when they are liable to the wind, for certainly the Hindus to disturb congregations during the would not listen."'-REv. MAURICE hours of public worship."-HaN1e8' PmLLIPS in HOI1'1!eI!t Field. Field.
-Archdeacon Caley, in the H(JIf'f)(J8t -DR. GRUNDEMANN, comparing the Field, gives a reason against the reten- wide leavening force of Christianity on tion of heathen names in the Indian Hindu Society with the comparatively churches, which puts the matter in a scant visible results yet achieved in the new light. He does not object to their way of church formation, remarks that being often names of gods, any more the latter may be likened to those geothan to using "Thursday, Friday," logical adumbrations of higher animal etc., which certainly do not lead us types which often precede the almost back into worshiping Thor and Freid. sudden introduction and universal pre- His reason is that Hindu names differ valence of these thus anticipated forms. according to caste, and that to retain them is to keep caste distinctions con- – " In view of the Unitarian missiontinually in the minds of the Christians. ary being sent out from America for The Syrian Church of India, which is work in India, the Brahma-Samaj has some fifteen hundred years old, seems declared that it is not anxious to have from the beginning to have forbidden one who has dispenst with Jesus heathen names, and is wholly un- Christ."-REv. T. E. SLATER, in TluJ troubled by caste. Ohronic~. -"There is great laxity in the observance of the Sabbath amongst Euro- -The Hindus, it appears from the peans in this country, but it seldom Bombay Guardian, have a somewhat goes so far as it did one Sunday in peculiar appellation for a masonic lodge. August last, when a football match was They call it, .. Satan's bungalow." played between a team of the Royal Munsters and a team of the Calcutta AFmCA. Club at the time of evening service in the balT8ck-squ~re, Dum Dum. The – " The story of our political connec- Rev. J. Brown was conducting the ser- tion with Bechwanaland is to many of
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
us a very humbling chapter of Imperial the best- intentioned financial corporapolitics. But for the past ten years the tion. The matter seems to them to be tribes have been under an Imperial of such vital importance that they protectorate, which has been adminis- have undertaken the long journey to tered on lines, on the whole, most fair England to place the cause of their to the natives. They have been left in people before the Colonial Office, the possession of their territory; they have British public, and Her Majesty, the their own tribal government, European Queen. With all our hearts we wish commissioners being appointed to ad- them success."-DR. R. WARDLAW minister justice in all cases in which THOMPSON, in The Chronicle. It seems white men are involved; the sale or that while in London, they were pergift of intoxicating drink to natives is suaded into consenting to the nCrw arprohibited under heavy penalties, and rangement. is only permitted at all under special restrictions. The Protectorate was -"Far away, at Ugogwe, in the establisht not 1 day too soon. During province of Kyagwe, Uganda, a sound the past ten years, the tide of European of weeping and wailing rises on the air. immigration to the interior of South But the missionary, the Rev. G. K. Africa has flowed with swift and resist- Barkerville, hastening to the place less force. The gleam of gold is as whence the wailing comes, tells the attractive to the British pioneer as a mourning women how greatly out of bunch of carrots is to a donkey. Bech- place it is, since the departed one, the wanaland has been overrun by eager old chief Nikodemo Sebwato, has exprospectors, and mineral concessions on changed the work and the trials of a gigantic scale have been secured by earth for the rest and the glories of speculative syndicates. That remark- heaven. Nikodemo was one of the able combination of dukes and stock- early converts of Uganda; yet, when jobbers, the British South Africa Com- Raj. Kristo Rose was ordained a deapany, which was so largely the product con of the church in India, Nikodemo of the genius and enterprise of Mr. was still in heathen darkness, for it Rhodes, has acquired enormous terri- was not until seven years later, 1877, tory in the interior, partly by negotia- that the first rays of light broke upon tion and partIy by force of arms. By Uganda. Sebwato, a sub·chief of King virtue of its charter from the Imperial Mtesa and afterwards of Mwanga, Government, the company now exer- soon felt himself attracted to the light, cises sovereign control over Mashona- and after his baptism he was a faithful land, Matabeleland, and a vast tract of friend to the missionaries through country north of the Zambesi. Now it many dangers and trials. He past transpires that Lord Knutsford, when safely through the time of persecution, Colonial Secretary, promist the com- though not without enduring sufferings pany that in due time the Bechwana- for Christ's sake. When, after the revland Protectorate should be added to olution, Mwanga was restored to the their dominions. Lord Ripon in turn throne by his Christian subjects, Nikode. confirmed this promise, and now Mr. moSebwato became chief of Budu, and Rhodes is agitating for the realization later of one of the still more important of the compact. The chiefs and people provinces of Kyagwe. He was ordained of Bechwanaland object to the change. to the office of deacon by Bishop Baker, They have no complaint to make but was persuaded not to give up his against the company, but they see that chieftainship, as it afforded him such it is a company with the interests of its large opportunities of using his Christown shareholders to care for. They ian influence. He had just returned think that Imperial rule is likely to be from the expedition to Ungoro, bright, more impartial and unbiassed than even cheery, and affectionate as ever, when
GENERAL mBSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
he was seized with fever and pleurisy, me that he would see to it that religious and quickly taken home. 'Dear old liberty was scrupulously respected, and man,' writes Mr. Barkerville, 'where in a proclamation about the teaching of shall we see your equalagaln ?' There, French in the schools, he has distinctly beside the house where the dead body affirmed the principles of tolerance and lay, the missionaries and a few Christ- of liberty in religious matters. But, as ians gathered together under the mid- if they were sure of being henceforth night sky, and thankt God for the fin- masters, and of being able to proceed isht course of this brave and loving with impunity, the Jesuits are engagservant of Christ."-O. M. Gl4ane7". ing, along the whole line, in an open campaign of menaces against the popu- MADAGASCAR. lations which shall not be willing to be- come Catholics, denouncing as rebels or It seems as if Mr. Harold Frederic's friends of rebels those who refuse, and gleeful anticipations of the suppression finding only too often the support and of the English missions (not to say all concurrence of the chiefs of the milithe Protestant missions) in Madagascar tary posts." would not be disappointed through any lack of zeal or unscrupulousness on the October 18th. " The situation is part of the sons of Loyola. M. Lauga grave, very grave; and if we have not (not Langa, as it is often misprinted), faith in God, who will know how to deunder date of October 16th, 1896, fend his work, it would be easy to fall writes: into Elijah's discouragement. This is a temptation that sometimes besets the L. "The Jesuits, triumphing in the de- S. missionaries. But to yield to it would parture of M. Laroche, are engaging pn be to prove disloyal to duty, and to renall sides in a desperate and disloyal der themselves accomplices of the Jestruggle against everything Protestant. suits. They know, in fact, that we have These men without country, whose not a sufficiently assured grasp of the true country is Rome, cover themselves reins to be able to take their place. They with the French mantle, and seek to will have to suffer, no doubt, like us, persuade the military authorities, which many local wrongs, and to be witnesses just now are sovereign, that they alone of crying abuses which will come to and their adherents defend and propa- pass in spite of General Gallieni. But to gate the French influence, while, say suffer, to be misapprehended, even to be they, the Protestants combat it in the in- persecuted, is it not the lot of every terest of the English influence. And, Christian? • • • which is stranger and sadder still, altho the most superficial observation is " Time fails me to recount the recent enough to refute this, yet they are be- enterprises of the Jesuits against which lieved, they are upheld, and, of course, we have to defend ourselves at this mothe Protestants are mistrusted, or worse. ment. What men I without heart and without conscience I No regard for "It is not yet eight days since M. the most elementary dictates of moral- Laroche has quitted the capital, and ity I No regard to the honor of their from all sides news comes to us of the country! As they only know how to most. audacious enterprises of the J e- fish in troubled waters, they do not suits against the Prote~tant churches. hesitate themselves to trouble the popu- General Gallieni, I hope, will not let lations which had remained pellceable, them have their way; he has been thus in order to be able to carry on their far, in all that I have seen and heard of work of darkness among them; far him personally, perfectly irreprehensi- from being the agents of pacification, ble. At the very first interview which they sow everywhere division and hate, I had with him, the morning after my and by their violent proceedings will arrival, and in which he received me wind up, I believe, by stirring up a genwith the greatest kindness, he assured uine religious war, in which, of course, Sm.UTRA. those who are roused against (hem will be regarded as rebels against our The Rhenish Mu,iom-BM"ichi8 re- France, which they demand nothing mark: "If we do not err, the work in better than to love and serve faithfully." Padang Boleck "-where Mohammed- anism is powerful-" has, in the last When Pope Clement XIV., at the month, assumed a somewhat different demand of the Catholic courts, had aspect, inasmuch as the opposing dissolved the Society of Jesus, some strength of Islam has been mightily high ecclesiastic. greatly devoted to it. fortified. Moreover, this growing exclaimed: •• There is nothing will strength stands in manifest connection help us now but the revolution." It with the general course of events in the is known that between the revolution world. Often, already, have we been of 1773 and the revolution of 1793, the able to observe that secret threads of Freemasons, and all manner of secret connection traverse the whole Mohamsocieties of the Continent, were indefat- medan world, and that a defeat sufigably active in working for a general fered by Islam at anyone point of the overturn. Professor Nippold's sugges- world, or a triumph, real or seeming, tion, that much of the subteranean which It celebrates anywhere. has its plotting was carried out by disbanded reflex working even on the work of our Jesuits, is at least worthy of attention. missionaries in the Mohammedan part It is true, Nlppold's. fourth volume is of Sumatra. That was the case in the pervaded by such an unremitting and Russo-Turkish war; that is now again unscrupulous animosity against the the case. Besides the war of the Dutch Roman Catholics, turning every possi- against Achin, there is a deeper reason ble thing to an evil interpretation, that for the present insolent arrogance of we might well hesitate to trust a sug- our Moslems, namely, the fearful atrogestion of his, yet this is by no means cities in Armenia. We wish to point without a certain force of its own. this out especially to those who still in- The Jesuits have so completely identi- sist that these horrors have, in reality, fied the interests of Rome with the nothing to do with religion. It is most interests of right, and the interests of significant, that Missionary Simon retheir Society with the interests of lates that, on his journey to his field of Rome, that, however scrupulous any labor, he had remarkt the anxieties one of them may be in his private be- which these occurrences had awakened havior, the organic action of the order among many Christians. while they had seems to have been in numberless aroused the boldest hopes in the Moc!Ses wholly divorced from the moral hammedans. The latter would say: law. Gioberti remarks that in Ireland •Do you see? The Rajah Stamboul and America the Jesuits behave as (i. e. the Sultan of Constantinople) is, good neighbors, good Christians, and after all, the one that on whom a man good citizens, because, he significantly can put some dependence, and he will adds, the pressure of public opinion is soon come and liberate Sumatra also, too strong for anything else. Unhap- and then we will deal with the Chrispily, in France national hatred of every- tians as the Turks are dealing with the thing English and religious hatred of A.rmenians.' Allowing that these are everything Protestant seem to work to- idle clashes, which have no effect on gether in encouraging the Jesuits of reflecting Christians, it is nevertheless a Madagascar to bring out the very fact, as Missionary Irle informs us, that worst features of their corporate nature. a large number of Mohammedans, who were in training as catechumens, have One good thing has come to pass fallen away again." through the French seizure, the total abolition of slavery.
BNGLISH NOTES
English Notes. A most helpful conference for native Christians has been recently conducted BY REV. JAMES DOUGLASS, M. A. at Sin-ch'ang, lasting three days. Over a hundred and twenty native Chris- Regions Beyond.-Dr. H. Grattan tians partook of the Lord's Supper Guinness writes with regard to Burma: together at the conclusion of the con- "God has used the strong arm of ference. England to open Burma to modern civilization, and America to send it the Five candidates from this district light of the Gospel. The spectacle is have recently been received into church most impressive. I hardly know any- membership. thing quite equal to it in modern times. A few years ago Burma threw the Mr. Hudson Taylor, in writing to solitary pioneer missionary into the "China's Millions," impresses the im- dark prison house, and loaded his limbs portance of supporting and upholding with galling fetters. Now God hus the work of tlie C. I. M. by prayer. brought Burma itself out of its prison, He shows how very clearly the Lord and has struck the fetters from its manifests Himself in t.he weekly prayer limbs." meetings at Mildmay, and asks that the many interested in and feeling Good news is continually sent home for the people of China and their teachfrom the Congo Balow Mission, report- ers, will remember them at the throne ing progress in the various stations, and of grace. that the health of the workers has, on the whole, been good. The daily work The London Missionary Society held is begun betimes, for there is a preach- its annual gatherings in the second ing service at 6 A. M. in several stations, week in May. These were encouragand the work continues in varied form ing, both as regards numbers and the throughout the day. A new worker- spirit permeating the meeting. The Mr. Sidney K. Woollings-has just report was satisfactory, stating progress started for this sphere of service for the in most directions, altho there is still a Master in the great African field. May slight balance against the society, pro- God abundantly prosper his efforts to bably due to the special efforts made in bring those who sit in darkness into the behalf of the Indian Famine Fund. marvellous light of the Gospel. Mallagascar.-"The elemen tary 1M China Inland Mission.-This schools of the society in Imerina have mission has sustained a loss in the been recently handed over to the death of Miss Gambell, who has for Rev. B. Escombe, and are now under four years labored in China. She re- the care of the Paris Missionary turned to England in December, 1896, Society. Educational work has been and God called her to be with Him in much interfered with during the recent April, 1897. rebellion, and many schools have not yet been reopened. But it is cheering Filial Piety, as regarded by the Chi- to note that the total number of schools nese, is a great hindrance to Chris- transferred to the Paris. Society was tianity, in that it is diametrically op- 438, containing 30, 955 scholars. Before posed to it. It not only allows poly- the war the society's schools numbered theism, since each and all of the dead 712." are worshiped and, therefore, become gods, but it also sanctions atheism, as The Church Miasionary &ciety.-The there is no reference to the Supreme retrospective view taken at the anni- Being. All gratitude, fear, or re- versary meeting, in Exeter Hall, of the spect is for earthly parents only-the past ten years of mission work of the thought of a Heavenly Father is utterly Church Missionary Society, showed foreign to it. many markt signs of progress-in fact, almost as much has been done in these
GENERAL HISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
ten years as in fifty gone before them. s. The consideration of the duties of The decision arrived at after much prayer by the committee-namely not II. preacher. to ref;use any candidate for mission 4. For the increase of personal fidelwork because of financial difllcultieshas been attended with most evident ity to the Lord Jesus Christ and the proofs of divine approbation, nearly firm maintenance of Baptist principles. 700 missionaries have been added to the roll which numbered 900 before. "The The convention lasted two days, the Lord hath done great things for us evening meeting of the second day whereof we are glad," expresses the lasted till 11 P. H.; the people seemed feeling of all interested in the well- inclined to still go on and listen. being of the Ohurch Missionary Society. " The brethren returned to their The Rev. W. G. Peel, writing from homes next day, declaring that they Weatern India, says with reference to had been greatly refreshed, instructed, the plague prevailing there: "We have and uplifted by the meetings." still thirty 01" forty cases daily. It remains to be seen how far the disease The Rev. William Carey, of Dacca, has really been conquered. Our hearts writes hopefully concerning the Chrisoverflow with gratitude to God for His tian Endeavor Movement in India, wonderful preservation of all the mis- showing the hold it is taking in many sionaries in Bombay; indeed, it is most parts. He speaks of the work as being markt how He has kept Christians gen- stimulating and encouraging. erally from becoming victims of the pestilence." Preab1Jterian Ohurch of England.- The Swatow Mission is extending its &uth (Jhina.-A sad telegram has sphere of operations, and their equipbeen received from Archdeacon Wolfe, ment for. Christian work has been instating that the Rev. Jas. Stratford creast, better accommodation havi:r;tg Oollins has lost his life through drown- been provided for the native Christians ing. No details have been received as scattered up and down all over the yet. Mr. Oollins was the first mission- land. Nine old stations have been enary sent out by the Dublin University larged and renovated, and nine new Fau-Kien Mission in 1887. His loss ones opened. will be very much felt by the Fuh- Kien workers, as well as by the natives. The baptisms during the last six years have averaged ninety per annum, TM Baptist MiBBionary &ciet1/.- more than ever before. Increast liber- A native evangelists' convention has ality also marks the native Christians. recently been held at Serampore Col- The press is II. most powerful auxiliary, lege. This has for some years been and now the greater part of the New customary in some parts of the country, Testament is in the vernacular, and but in Western Bengal there have been also the "Pilgrim's Progress." no meetings of the kind. Invitations were therefore sent out to all parts, and There are now six ministers entirely II. very good response was made. supported by the natives.
The objects of the convention were The Japaneae Gournor of Formosa.- defined as follows: During Dr. Ferguson's recent visit to Dr. Mackay, in the north of Formosa, 1. Ohristian fellowship for the Bap- the two missionaries called on the tist Missionary Society's preachers. Japanese Governor, Mr. Nogi, and had II. most kindly reception. In the course 2. Prayer for the outpouring of the of conversation Dr. Mackay told the Holy Spirit upon the workers of our governor how the rebels had sorely society. persecuted the North Formosan Chris- tians, because they refused to take up arms against the Japanese; while on the other hand, "Japanese petty offici- als and soldiers had failed to distinguish between friends and foes, and to a barbarian people deserve a vote of had insulted, abused, and even killed thanks from the commercial world." Christians in more than one locality." Before the interpreter had finisht trans- -The one bright spot in all the darklating Dr. Mackay's story, the governor ness that has covered Asiatic Turkey .. sprang to his feet," says the doctor, has been the heroism and the common .. graspt my hand tighter and tighter, sense of the American missionaries.- Whilst he told the interpreter to say Sir Philip OU'rI'i8. that he was determined to protect the Christians. Turning to Ferguson, he -Sir George Harvey, the Scotch arsaid, 'And you in the South have tist, when askt by Dr. Cuyler if he had suffered in the same way. I will pro- seen the best American paintings, retect your Christians aIBo.'" plied: "No, I have not; but the grand- est American productions I have seen .Medical MisazOnI.-Medical work are some of your missionaries-they are bulks largely in our mission. We have noble characters." three medical mission centers in the Amoy district, ~ight mission hospitals -The government of India can not in all, whilst Mrs. Ferguson, our only but acknowledge the great obligation lady medical missionary, often accom- under which it is laid by the benevolent panies her husband in his itinerant exertions made by missionaries, whose work. blameless example and self-denying labors are infusing new vigor into the Ohinehew Oiell.-After the preachers' stereotyped life of the great population conference, held in Siong-si, Mr. Camp- placed under English rule.-.8ecretarg bell Brown spent the following Sunday for India. in Chinchew City. He writes: .. We had grand congregations. After the -Neill Livingstone and his family morning service, a young man came to rise at 4 o'clock, make a cup of coffee, me with a basket in his hand in which read Psalms 121 and 185, and pray were his idols, which he wanted to put together for the last time. Then the away. He is a very interesting young father walks with David from Blantyre fellow, a silversmith, full of intelli- to Glasgow, parts with him on top of gence. We had prayer together, after the hill, bids him a quiet, but heartfelt which he went away rejoicing." farewell, and never sees again the son whom three continents honor. The P(UJ' and Present.-We are told that father was dying as the great African of late years throughout Formosa the explorer came home to be honored by heathen have much changed; they do the queen, but he said in glorious faith: not crowd as formerly to the idolatrous "I shall know whatever is worth knowprocessions. "For now in many a ing of him, yonder where I go." Wortown there is a handful of people who thy father of a worthy son. worship Jesus Christ, and the heathen have heard so much of the Gospel on -We should not call our giving the street and elsewhere that, altho " missionary benevolence"; we should they worship idols still, they worship call it God's business. less earnestly than heretofore." -Many seem to think that because a THE KINGDOM. missionary is one sent, our contributions should be one cent. Truly, a gross mis- -Dr. Blackburn likens the legacies apprehension. received by missionary societies to ammunition taken from the cartridge boxes -" There is a widespread feeling that of dead soldiers. the modern successors of Judson, Moil:- att, Bridgman, Perkins, Eli Smith, -Said Robert Moffat: "Missionaries Carey, Martyn, are not quite up to the standard set by those heroes. Is this correct? We think not. A century ago furnisht no instances of greater Benares? Have I not seen a whole row heroism than this present generation. of Christian Brahmans in the pews of a Mackay and Hannington in Uganda, native church in Ahmednagar? Have Good and Marling on the West Coast, I not sat for an hour in Poona with a not to mention many less widely known Brahman who told me the story of his but not less heroic along the Kongo, conversion to Christ? And have I not will stand close beside the bravest of the listened to addresses from native Chrisearly pioneers of Africa. That band of tians in India, addresses so able and missionaries at Harput, Miss Shattuck vigorous that I longed to have such men at Urfa, showed no falling off from the and women stand before our churches record of the early days in Turkey. in America? Of course, I heard !nany Are these exceptions? No; they rep- criticisIns of missionaries, but I never resent the average of missionary char- heard a Hindu, Brahman, or Moslem acter, and, were there equal need or say, what ignorant and prejudiced equal opportunity, their record would Europeans have sometimes said in my be repeated in every mission field of hearing out of India, that the missionthe world."-Ind8pendent. aries were doing no good. Frequently the chairman at my lectures, or the -The Ohurch Missionary InteZU- Hindu gentleman who moved the vote genar, of England, in allusion to a of thanks, spoke with grateful appremissionary in the Arctic Circle, says: ciation of the work which missionary Mr. Peck's journal appears opportunely educators are doing. I shall never forjust now when the public are being get how the famous Hindu ascetic, thrilled with the story of courage and the Holy Man of Benares, said to me: endurance of Dr. Nansen. It reminds " I think Jesus Christ was a very good . us that for Christ's sake our brothers- man. He must have been something aye, and, we may add, our sisters too like Mr. Hewlett," a deceased veteran -are not merely traveling for a few of the London Missionary Society. months, but dwelling, year after year, Missionaries are often foolishly critiamid the rigors and privations of the cized by natives, but they are trusted Arctic regions. The world, so gener- by them, and this is the highest praise ously ready to acknowledge with its which a Hindu can pay to mortal man. due meed of praise the plodding and I know a missionary of the American undaunted heroism of the man of Board in southern India who was askt science, is singularly unimprest by simi- to take charge of the funds of one of the lar qualities when displayed for the greatest of Hindu temples.-.Re-v. J. H. sake of precious souls. We do not ask Barrow,. or desire for our Arctic laborers such !narks of interest as are the reward of -We often hear, but not so much, I the explorer; they would only embar- believe, as formerly, of the craving of rass them; but let not the church's the heathen for God, of the heathen prayers fail them. Bompas, and Reeve, fiying as the doves to their windows to and McDonald, and Stringer, and Loft- hear that Gospel which is for the healhouse, and Peck, and Sampson, whose ing of the nations. It is really no such faces are so seldom seen in the home thing at all. The craving of the Orilands, let them not be forgotten in their ental mind is for money, for wealth, for frigid and lonely stations! the things of this earth, and not for God. The longing which is represented -How ridiculous, appears the claim to exist has, I believe, no existence at . sometimes made in America that men all. And it is this discovery which often of intelligence and that members of the tends to disappoint and crush the spirit Brahman caste are never converted to of some young enthusiast who has come Christianity. Have I not seen a Brah- out thinking that he has only to preach JnaD, preaching Christ ill the bazars of and that he will gather hundreds intothe Kaiserswerth Union, and the fields oc- fold of Christ.-I8abella Bird Bialwp. cupied by them, in the years men- -The American Board pays its mis- sionaries who have families from $850 tioned: Deaconesses. Fields. to $1050 annually, to single men from $440 to $675, to single women from Years. '7,080 2,768 $390 to $575. The Presbyterians pay 8,469 3,641 to married men from $1080 to $1250, to 1888 10,412 4,250 single men $720 to $833, to single 1891 12,150 women from $540 to $628. The Meth- 1894 odists pay in A.sia, including China, 1896 Japan, Korea and India, to married men the first five years $950, single These figures show a total increase of $680; the next ten years, to married 72 per cent. in eight years. A. few men $1000, single $700; the next ten deaconess houses in Europe and in Am- years, to married men $1100, single $800; after twenty-five years, $900 to erica never have connected themselves $1200. with the Kaiserswerth Union, which are -One of the most instructive ad- estimated to have 900 sisters. It fol- dresses of the year is one by Dr. N. E. Wood, preacht at Pittsburg before the lows, then, that 13,000 deaconesses to- Baptist MissioJl8.ry Union on }Ii~sions and Victory, urging that plans and day are busy in evangelical circles methods should be such as to make world-wide success most certain, and among the needy, the distrest, the sick, most speedy. One passage on "Missionary Statesmanship," was particular- the erring, in the four veat quarters of ly :tine. The thought was for substance, the globe. And in these figures are take and hold strategic points, and expend the bulk of labor upon races which not included those who have been are likely to possess an aggressive piety. trained specially for service in the Or- WOMAN'S WORK. der of St. John, in the Red Cross soci- -For centuries it has been thought, ety, or in local deaconess societies. both by men and women in India, that a woman walking abroad in God's day- -Since the beginning in 1837, Mt. Ught and sunlight, in the streets of city Holyoke has sent 217 of its graduates or village, was either a low-caste or a into foreign mission work, while durbad woman. But since the missionary ing its 21 years Wellesley has sent out . ladies have come to India, and are seen 31, of whom 4 have taught in the Huand known to be not only good and guenot seminaries of South Africa. pure, but the most highly respected among women, this idea has been mod- -Mrs. Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburg, ified, and the native women are begin- recently notified the Board of Foreign ning to ask, "If European women Missions of the Episcopal Church that may go abroad unveiled and meet men, she was anxious to do something for and yet be respected, why should we the lepers of China, and if the Board be cooped up in the zenana prisons?" would look over the ground and indi- cate where they wisht a hospital located -The growth of the deaconess work she would build and endow it. Mrs. in the Lutheran church may be inferred Brunot is the wealthiest woman in her from the appended tables, which show part of the country, and it is said she the number of sisters belonging to the will spend not less than half a million on the lepers. Mrs. Brunot believes that with proper care leprosy can be kept down, if not stampt out entirely.
-Lady Henry Somerset is to spend the summer with Miss Frances Willard. One of her chief appointments on this side is the preaching of the sermon be- fore the National W. C. T. U. Conven- tion, which meets in the autumn at Buffalo.
-The' Church of England Zenana Missionary Society has 84 centers of work, and 898 workers were employed Christian Union, United Presbyterian, during last year; 129 of them being 85,146; Young People's Christian European missionaries and assistants, Union, Associate .Reformed, 2,228; 191 native Christian teachers and Young People's Christian Alliance, nurses, and 78 biblewomen. The mis- Evangelical Association, 30,407; total, sionaries and biblewomen have access 4,414, 776. The Westminster League to 7,988 zenanas and houses, with 2,923 would swell the total to 4,500,000. regular pupils under instruction, while the biblewomen have visited 2845 vil- -The Endeavorers of New York lages. At the society's hospitals at City have organized the Tenth Legion. Lucknow, Benares, and Patna there It has no constitution or officials. The were 17,594 patients, and 54,924 at- names of the members are not made tendances at the dispensaries. The in- public. But each of them agrees to set come reacht a total of £18,067, not apart one-tenth of his income to good reckoning receipts for famine relief. works. Their motto is .. Unto God what is God's." The United Society YOUNG PEOPLE. has adopted the idea, and the next gen- eration will have a better tra.ini:ag in -The Ohri8tian Observer has a sug- this direction. gestionfor the Y. M. C. A. which seems worth attention. "One main object," -A library containing 200 volumes it says, "is to get a firm hold on young has been placed in the United States men from the country when first they Marine Hospital, at Detroit, Mic)!., by come to the city." For this purpose it a few Endeavor societies. A libtarian suggests that membership should be has also been supplied. These Endeafree to any young man from the country vorers regularly conduct services in the during the first year after he comes to hospital, and perform other noble minthe city, and that a notice to this effect istrations. should be posted in the railroad stations from ten to a hundred miles distant, so -The Texas Epworth Leagues raised that the young men would feel sure of $3,000 for miisions last year, and thus a welcome. At Springfield, Mass., there kept 3 missionaries in the foreigu field. is some apparent confession of present failure in attractiveness, if not of effici- -Mexico now contains 100 Christian ency, in the proposal to add billiard Endeavor societies, with 2,047 memand pool tables to the equipment of the bers. Twenty-eight of these are J unlor building. societies, with 469 members. Last year there were only 7 Junior societies in the -A proposition started in the Inde- country. :IJ61UUnt, by Dr. Carroll, for a federation of the young people's societies of the -In Yu-yiao, a city forty miles west different churches, should find ready of Ningpo, in China, a place in the cenresponse with the various organizations. ter of the dozen or more churches rep- The suggestion is not to consolidate, resented in the union, the Nmgpo Presbut to federate, nn arrangement by byterian Christian Endeavor Union which each organization will preserve held, for two days, its second annual its autonomy. He gives the following convention. The question of entertainstatistics of these societies: Christian En- ment of the delegates, which might deavor, 40churches, 2,162,000; Epworth otherwise have proved an insurmount- League, M. E. Church, 1,500,000; Ep- able obstacle, was overcome by the deleworth League, M. E. Church, South, gates coming in house-boats. 150,000; Baptist Young People's Union, 400,000; Young People's Christian -A bright young girl, a student of Union, United Brethren, 75,000; Luth- the Boston University, who is a Chris- tian Endeavorer, was recently askt the eran. League, 60,000; Young People's question: "What kind of work do you think the missionary does in the foreign field 1" She replied: "I don't know; American Baptists. North, 20; and the I have never thought about it, but I Church Missionary Society, 48. suppose that after breakfast a mission· ary lady takes her Bible, goes out and -In most cases the pioneer mission- sits down under a tree, and if people ary finds the Scriptures ready for his come to her she reads to them." I askt: use. The young men in charge of the "And is this all that you think she Arabian Mission are not called oil. does?" She replied: "I suppose that to spend long years in reducing the would be all; I·can't think of anything Arabic language to writing; the Pres- more." byterian missionaries, pushing steadily up the valley of the Nile, avail them- AMERICA. selves of supplies of Bibles readily obtained from the Bible rooms at -United States. The deaths in Beirut; and the representatives of va- New York City from diarrheal dis- rious societies, who are entering through ease, in 1892, were 1,635; and year by open gates into Venezuela, Peru, aBd year there has been a steady decline Ecuador, find that in advance of their till, in 1896, there were but 973. Presi- coming much good seed has already dent Wilson, of the Board of Health, been sown by the agents and colporteurs attributes this happy result to "clean of the American Bible Society. streets, asphalt pavements in the tenement·house districts, an improved milk -FredJ. Barny, just graduated from supply, and the increased use of steril- New Brunswick, goes soon to the Araized milk for infants." Thls improve- bian Mission as a much needed and ment has taken place while the popula- welcome addition to the force at work tion of the city has been constantly in that rapidly opening field. He is growing, and the incessant influx of sent and supported for five years by unwasht, underfed, and unintelligent the pledged donations made by the immigrants has kept up its neutralizing young people of the Marble Collegiate effect on all efforts for better hygienic Church of New York City. conditions. -The Southern Presbyterians are -What a fine spectacle it was the doing well for foreign missions. Durother day when 2,300 men in white ing the last ten years they have inuniform, each with a flower in his but- creast their contributions from $84,- tonhole, accompanied by dumpcarts, 000 to $144,000 and their force from rotary brushes, and hose-carts to the 54 to 150 workers. They gave more number of 750, with a multitude of money last year than ever before, and auxiliaries, marcht in procession, and sent out all the workers that applied. were reviewed by the mayor of New York in the annual parade of Colonel -The Cumberland Presbyterians re- Waring's street-cleaning brigade. The joice that 4 new missionaries are soon men are proud of their uniform, of to be sent out, with their support their service, of their chief, and of the already secured by special pledges. reputation for cleanliness which they have won for their city. -The Mormons are said to have no less than 2,300 elders scattered all the o -The" Medical Missionary Record" land over, busy making converts for for April has ten pages covered with the " religion" invented by J 08eph the names of 487 medical missionaries Smith, Jr. sent out by nearly 60 societies, American (267) and European, to 25 coun- -San Francisco, with 18,000 Chinese tries. Of these 116 are women. The population, 15 pagan temples, 96 houses Presbyterian Church, North, has sent of ill-fame, 89 opium dens, 13 high- 57 of these. The M. E. Church, binder camps, gambling dens innumer- able, and underground recesses, black North, 82; the American Board, 28; as Tartarus and full of misery, criule, and squalor, continues to be the great A solemn protest has been sent home center for missionary operations on signed by aU the brethren but one. this continent. Never before have we seen in San Francisco's Chinatown such EUROPE. an interest in the Gospel as during the past year. About 20 young men of our -Great Britain. The Church school and 6 of the women and girls of Army reports that the number of trained the Home were converted, and many lay-agents employed during the year of the members were quickened into a amounted to 504, an increase of' 86. new life.-G08p6l in AU Lands. Some of the men had given up salaries of from 30s. to £7 a week to join in Church -A singularly noble and generous Army work for 248. a week and less. giver was Mr. Roland Mather, of Hart- The mission vans had carried on a most ford, Conn., who died in that city May successful work, and 17 new ones had 10th, at the ripe age of 88. He was a been presented by various friends. Of descendant of Rev. Richard Mather, those who past through the labor well known in Puritan annals. lie homes, over 50 per cent. had made a began business as a boy in Boston, but fresh start in life, and 47 homes were has lived in Hartford nearly seventy in operation. About 100 pass through years. His career has been remarkably each home annually, after an average prosperous, and he has been in the stay of 13 weeks, and it is to the credit habit of dispensing his money quietly of the outcasts that no less a sum than and unostentatiously, where it would £11,000 was paid to them in wages last do the best service. His gifts to edu- year. The various agencies include, a. cational institutions have been large. market garden and farm, laundries, Last year he gave to the Education dispensaries, boarding-houses, and Society $80,000, and his benefactions clothing depots. The income amountetl while he was living aggregated more to £77,257. than half a. million dolllrs. His main bequests to benevolent societies are, to -At the annual meeting of the Misthe American Board and to the Home sions to Seamen Society in London, t.b.e Missionary Society $15,000 each, to annual report showed that the income the A. M. A. and to Hampton Institute was £38,294 last year, and that 7,300 $10,000.- Oongregationalist. seamen took the total abstaining pledge. Besides what sailors contributed more -Canada. It is pleasing to learn directly to the funds in 1896, £1,477 that the contributions for foreign mis- were given in 30 of the mission sions in the Presbyterian Church in churches and institutes. At the present Canada. this year are $25,000 in excess time 69 mission vessels, steam and sailof those of any previous year. A debt ing, 87 missions to seamen, churches, of $30,000 has been reduced to less and institutes, classes for course of inthan $10,000, and this in spite of finan- struction in first aid to the injured, cial depression, the fact that receipts savings banks, and the supply of books from legacies are smaller than usual, and magazines to forecastle libraries, and that about $15,000 have been speci- are among the efforts of the society. ally contributed to the Indian Famine There is a staff of 178 men. Fnnd. -This statement conveys not un- -The Presbyterian missionaries in pleasant intelligence, coming, as it does, India are in trouble because the Mission from a Roman Catholic organ: "His Board at home have ordered that Eminence, Cardinal Vaughan, when women, who outnumber the men two Bishop of Salford, calculated the annual to one, shall be allowed to vote on all loss to the faith in Manchester and questions, and so can control affairs. Salford, through proselyting agencies and through the workhouse system, as 258; those in danger of apostasy £850,000 for religious purposes. A large through ragged schools, soup kitchens, part of this sum will be expended on an city missions, etc., numbered 573, mak- orphanage for children of Reformed inga total for one year under these two parents. A considerable sum will be heads of 831. A Catholic census of reserved as a fund for the widows and Manchester and Salford shows, as the orphans of Reformed ministers, and Cardinal says, the following appalling another part be invested for the benefit statistics of young persons of both sexes of students attending Erlangen Uni- under twenty-one: In extreme danger versity, while about £200,000 will be of loss of faith, or practically lost to devoted to building and endowing an the faith, 5,420; in great danger, 2,341; evangelical hospital at Ratisbon.
in danger, 1,912; total 9,673." Truly ASIA. such .. danger" is better than safety. -India. Spurgeon, tho dead, is yet -Continent. A movement similar speaking. Very lately one of his ser- in character to that initiated among the mons, translated into the Hindustani students of England, America. France, tongue, was sent forth to preach to the and Scandinavia has recently been millions of India. Others are to follow.
announced as the outcome of a con- -George Smith writes: This is not ference held in Halle, in March, 1896. the place to describe what was perhaps Its committee have issued an appeal to the most remarkable of our many expethe Kommilitonen of all universities, riences in the East-the drive, under and we are fain to believe that, despite armed escort, up the Khyber Pass, from its small beginning, IJer deutsche Stu- Jumrood Fort to that of Ali Musjid. denl6nbundfitr Mission has a great and More appropriate here is a reference to noble future before it. A recent meet- the operations of the Church Missionary ing at Halle, held since the above state- Society in the fanatical city of Pesha· ment was written, was of very remark- war, and along the warlike frontier able interest. Seldom has there been right down to Karachi. To great solsuch a time of refreshing and awaken- diers like Herbert Edwardes and Lake, ing. It seems as if this movement Nicholson and Abbott, Hutchison and were about to help to deliver the Ger- George Lawrence, while yet subalterns man universities from the death-like on little pay, the Church of England inftuence which has spread over them, owes its line of Christian forts, from chiefiythrough rationalistic theological each of which the banner of the Cross professors.-Mi8sion World. invites Mussulman and stranger of every -The rapid extension of the Rhenish creed to find rest. I do not know more Missionary Society within the last de- unconscious courage than that of the cade has exceeded that of all other 5 English girls who, with Miss (Dr.) German bodies. Its European agents Mitclleson, spend the hot season and in 1885 numbered 68, in 1895 this had cold alone within the walls of Pesha- reacht a total of 111; the stations and war, the only resident missionary being out-stations from 122 have grown to the aged Imam Shah, pastor of the 230; the native adherents from 27,974 pretty church at some distance from to 60,144. King William's Land, New their settlement. The few unspiritual Guinea, and Ovampo, South Africa, enemies of missions on the spot admire have fallen to its care, and its agents that.
are working among 10 different peoples. . -In a Hindu bazaar. We turn first' Especial attention is bestowed upon the to the right, where a number of fakirs medical department, and upon woman's are sitting in an open veranda, almost work. without clothing. The most distin- -Count Ernest of Dornberg. who guisht among them announces to us died lately at Ratisbon, bequeathed with great pomp and infinite condescen-. sion that he is a priest of Siva (spouse rupees have recently been received, in of Ram); he is a bearded man of middle addition to 10,000 previously given.
age, smeared allover with ashes and The Zemindars, or native princes, of ochre. His hair, woven into an infini- the district, have contributed over tude of intricate plaits, towers above 11,000 rupees, and enough more is his head like a turban; when he lets it expected to complete the hospital build- down, it trails on the ground for about ing, costing not far from $12,000, with- a yard. When askt about his religious out drawing a single rupee of mission- belief, he becomes quite confused, and ary money. That Hindus should con- we have to help him out and explain to tribute this large sum for the building him the differences between his numer- of a distinctively Christian hospital is ous gods and goddesses. But when we certainly a remarkable testimony to the begin to talk of God and divine things, impression which medical missions he turns away contemptuously and have made upon the people of south- spits on the ground. A Gussein-fakir western India.-MisBionarll Herald.
and a Tuma·fakir are also present; -A permanent memorial in honor of these have a curious history. They are the fifty years of service of Rev. Dr. S. now a small and dwindling sect among B. Fairbank, of the Marathi Mission, Hindu fakirs, but they wear the cross has been determined upon. It is a as their symbol, and many things make well at Wadale, the community with it probable that they are the remains which he was identified, thirty-two of a Christian community which was feet deep and which will supply water -founded eighteen centuries ago on the for both drinking and irrigation. N. W. coast of India by the apostle There is a certain special fitness in such Thomas. There were also two women a memorial of such a man. fakirs; one a very graceful Panjabi woman, the other an old withered hag China.-In Mr. Wardlaw Thompson's in salmon· colored robes; this is the uni- opinion the greatest missionaryachieve- versal color of the Vishnu fakirs. The ment is to be found in India and China Panjabi woman has gold in her teeth. The work at these centers, in spite of It is good when you die to have gold in caste and custom, is being singularly your mouth, and for this reason many blessed and a great in-gathering of people have holes bored in their teeth souls is expected. India. and China, and filled up with gold, in order to be however, differ greatly in their accept- always ready.-Allgemeine Mis8ion8 ance of Christianity. Each interprets Zeitschrift. it according to their national character.
The Chinese are an essentially practical -A practical illustration of the con- people, and accept Christiauity as a fidence shown in our missionaries in India, even by those who do not accept practical thing, making it the guide of their faith, is seen in the large gifts of their life and shaping their character thereby. '
money for the erection of a mission -Almost 300 miles of railroad have been completed in China, and construchospital at Madura, in care of Dr. Van tion work goes on steadily. It seems Allen. These gifts come from traders . clear that the beginning of a really or merchants in the cities and villages. great Chinese railway system has been Dr. Van Allen reports that, as a rule, witnessed, and the Chinese Government these men are wealthy and belong to shows no disposition to grow weary of one caste, and that they are" thorough- its work in providing modern means of going, enthusiastic heathen," and it transportation in its empire. was not expected that they would contribute largely. To the surprise of every one, they have contributed most -The Rev. J. C. Hoare, of Ningpo, liberally. Dr. Van Allen says 5,000 in setting forth the progresa of the Mid-China Mission during the last 20 churches and many widely scattered years, draws particular attention to one groups of Christians. curious feature, viz., that the work seems to go forward in wa'l168; first a -The Rev. Isaac T. Headland writes wave, and then a period of compara- from Peking, North China, as follows: tive slackness, and then another wave; "Two weeks ago I wrote that our but each one higher than any preced- heathen Sunday-school had increast to ing. 800. To-day it· has just been dismist, and numbered 1,024. How I wish you -The British and Foreign Bible could see it! How it inspires the Society distributes throughout the Chi- schoolboys and girls who teach it: nese Empire the Bible in classical 1,024 heathen men, women, and chilmandarin, 10 colloquial, Kalmuck, dren studying the life of the blessed Mongolian and Tibetan languages. Savior in one congregation! Last year some 540,000 books were printed; 866,000 books were put into -Bishop Schereschewsky is about circulation, of which 358,000 were removing for a time to Japan in order sold, and 8,000 given away. The to supervise on behalf of the American books are nearly always sold at a price Bible Society the printing of a large to pay for the paper, and it was an in- edition of his revised version of the dication of the remarkable progress of Mandarin Old Testament, originally Christianity that last year no fewer publisht in Peking about 1874. He will than 11,000 were New Testaments in avail himself of the same opportunity excellent binding. Some 210 colpor- to print his Wen-li version. It is said teurs were at work, giving either a that such work is done better, more part or the whole of their time, and cheaply, and mOle quickly in Japan. they made very effective means for the evangelization of the people. -Japan. In a census of Christian charities in Japan issued in February, -Here is a group of paragraphs 1897, the Protestant report shows 12 which exhibit in strong light the busy theological seminaries, with 163 stulife the missionary leads and the vast dents; 29 boys' schools, with 1,980 variety of agencies which he must keep students; 10 women's training schools, in operation. First comes an exhibit with 238 students; 46 girls' schools, of the machinery for building up the with 2,491 students; 14 kindergartens, kingdom of Christ in Shantung: One with 526 students; 56 day or night college of about 100 young men; 1 schools, mostly for the poor, with 2,788 theological class, a fine company of 20 students; 10 orphan asylums, with 664 young men who promise to become a inmates; 13 homes for various classes, body of able and devoted pastors; 5 with 235 inmates; 15 hospitals and disclasses of native preachers and teachers, pensaries. one of these containing 30 evangelists; 1 normal class, preparing young men -A British resident in Peking forfor teaching and lay preaching; 4 wards the following from the Japan classes in medicine and surgery, with Mail: "The Boyeki Shimbun says total membership of 24; 2 boys' board- judgment in the case of Tei Keiki, a ing-schools ; 3 city girls' boarding- Chinese, and Misawa Hatsugord, a schools and 1 in the country; a widely nationalized Japanese of Chinese birth, extended and growing system of day- who were arrested the other day while schools in city and country, comprising indulging in the use of opium at the about 1,500 pupils; and about 20 residence of another Chinaman, was classes of inquirers and Christians out- given by the Yokohama local court. side of the regular school and college Ryo-zei was sentenced to hard labor work. There are about 25 organized for six years for having sold the opium, and the 2 others to major ccnnnement for two years." This is what Japan thinks of the verdict of the Royal Com- ment. It would be indignant at being mission on Opium_ If these poor Chi- called anything else. But in Mada- nese had been aware, they might have gascar religious toleration is refused, quoted the decisions arrived at by the the French officials appropriating for commission in extenuation of their the Jesuits not only the churches but offense."-Regions Beyond. even the schools and hospitals of the Protestants, and in Tunis and Algeria -A period of mourning in Japan Christianity itself is being crusht out, affects all the people. The emperor's as far and as fast as possible, lest the mother having died, all schools were susceptibilities of the Moslems be inclosed for 5 days and the theaters and jured. It looks very much as though places of amusement for 15 days. British "tyranny" was far preferable Even instrumental music in private to Gallic "freedom." houses was interdicted for 30 days. Dr. Atkinson reports that the church at -West. Says Work and Worker. Kobe in holding its prayer-meetings (English Wesleyan): We would call could have no singing and no use of attention to the importance of our misthe organ. sions on the west coast of Africa. For various reasons, they do not appeal so -A Japanese photographer who had powerfully to the imagination as do the been very succel:!8ful in business died missions in the East, or in the portions at Kobe, at the close of last year, after of Africa to which recent events have a residence there of more than twenty given prominence. But Westeru Africa. years. He had become gradually en- is a great field of this society's opera.- lightened in the Gospel, afterwards tions. Judged by such tests as the personally interested, and was received number of converts, the development to the church shortly before his death. of a native ministry, and the growth of One item of his property, a life insur- the spirit of self-support, our missions ance policy for $3,000, he bequeathed there take important rank in our hisentirely to benevolent purposes, two- tory. The number of members in the thirds of it to distinctively Christian 3 Districts of Sierra. Leone, Gold Coast, enterprises. and Lagos is 16,945, more than one- third of the total membership directly AFRICA. connected with the society. There are, moreover, 54 native ministers, to a large -North. In a recent Church MilI- extent supported by the churches, .ionarll Intellig~ncer Rev. W. G. Pope, which are also contributing on an inof Tunisia, appeals for prayer in be- creasing scale towards the extension of half of missionaries in Moslem lands. the Gospel into regions beyond them. Not only are Mohammedans probably the most difficult unbelievers to be im- -In one respect Africa may be called prest by the Gospel, but also a deter- the hardest of all the mission fields. mined effort is being made just now by This is not because the hearts of the the French authorities to check and natives are worse than those of other break up missionary work among them. continents, for all men have the carnal All doors of opportunity are being mind which is enmity against God, and closed. and the evident purpose is to the Holy Spirit can regenerate the chief drive away the missionaries. One mis- of sinners. But it is in many parts the sionary in Tunisia already has been hardest of all the fields on account of fined six times in the courts for having the climate. A missionary says in a given away copies of the Scriptures in recent letter: "Ill-health is our great his own shop. Two lady missionaries drawback. We are not only ofteR also were just about to be tried, when quite sick in this climate, but are he )"rote, for distributing copies in the scarcely ever well. Since September streets. The French Government is, at least nominally, a Christian governthere has been a great deal of fever of the poor things woke me up. Then among the older members of our family. Not the least evil in the clUle is the the next day or so they went for the great quantity of quinine that we have to take, making a disease of itself, boys, and were in swarms, so at 1.80 affecting the head, hearing, and the whole being.It A.M. I had to turn out and tind sleep- -I had my Sabbath·school girls up .ing places for the lot. Sims also, one yesterday. They arrived at 10.80 A. M •• tho I had told them to wait till after- night, had to clear out. Their last at- noon. Of course they grew hungry, so I put some eank and bananas on the tack was on the goats, and so for two table and invited them to sit down. It was the tirst time any of them had ever nights we had to have them up in the eaten at a table in their lives, and be- fore I knew what they were doing, chicken yard." they had thrown refuse pieces on the 1l00r under the table. I told them to -In German ElUlt Africa an advance leave them on their plates, but most were left on the table-cloth until they step has been taken by the United tinisht eating and were then pickt up and put on the plates. The bananas Brethren in their assumption of respon- were piled on a large platter in the center of the table and when the girls sibilities relinquisht to them by the had tinisht their eank, I told them to help themselves to bananas. Immedi- London Missionary Society, which has, ately, each girl began reaching for . them with both hands, some getting as since the year 1879, been at work in many as seven or eight. I told them to put them all back and take one at a the heart of the Protectorate. The so- time, explaining that "people" did not cieties of Berlin I., II., and III. grab things. I have not yet decided whether I helpt matters by my inter- already engaged in this portion of ference, for the way those bananas dis- appeared was a marvel. Two bites to Africa, being unable or unwilling to ex- a banana. Two dozen bananas to a Bulu is only a taste, such is their tend their efforts to Urambo, the capacity. If we could only give them M.oravians have, after anxious consid- the Gospel in like doses I But a very eration, acceded to the request pre- little is all that can be understood at a ferred to them by the L. M. S. Com· time. But I have hopes of my girls, mittee. To Urambo, as a. mission appetites and all. Some day they will center, attaches a very real importance want things different.-Mary HaYB in its position as the only Gospel fort- John80n. ress in the heart of German East Africa, excepting, of course, such light -East. Mr. Bishop of the Univer- as is offered by the Roman Catholic sities Mission writes from Newala: station of Tabora hard by. The near- "We have been having quite a plague est evangelical stations, those of Uten· of siaj'l£ (biting ants) of late, and a few gule and Rungue, north of Lake nights ago I suffered agonies by hav- Nr.assa, lie at a distance of 80 German ing to face millions of them to rescue mIles. the poor donkey and chickens, which they were devouring alive. The cries ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
-Madagascar. The latest news from Madagascar is of a decidedly more favorable kind than has been received for a long time. Thanks no doubt to the earnest exertions of French Protes- tants, the lIinister for the Colonies has given such instructions as have resulted in the restoration of more than 90 places of worship to the native Christians from whom the Jesuits had wrongfully taken them. This action has caused great joy to the congrega· tions, which have thus entered once more into their own heritage; it will also do not a little to bind the Christ· ians to French rule, and to give abiding peace. The French Minister of the Colonies has given a signal proof of the desire of his Government for religious equality to be a reality wherever the French tiag tiies; and he has also rebuked that false patriotism which doubts all patriotism that is not identical with subservience to the Church of Rome.-London Oli.rl8tian.
The Missionary Review of the World — March 1891
THE REGIONS BEYOND. .[March
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIV. No. S.-OldSeries.–MARCH.–VoL. IV. No. S.-New Seria.
THE REGIONS BEYOND.-PART II.
[EDITORIAL. ] Beside the literal ground unoccupied for Christ, there is the unclaimed, untrodden, territory of Divine promises. What did God say to Joshua in chap. i., v. 3 1 "Every place that t~e sole of your foot shall tread upon, . that have I given unto you," and then "He draws the outlines of the Land of Promise-'-all theirs, on one condition: that they shall march through the length and breadth of it, and measure it off by their own feet. They never did that to more .than one third of the property, an'd consequently they never had more than one third; they had just what they measured off, and no more. Now, if we turn to the New Testament, in the Second Epistle of Peter we read about that other" Land of Promise" that is opened up to us, " Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be "partakers of the Divine nature, having es- caped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Mark the close analogy between those two passages. Here is God's true Land of Promise, "exceeding great," " exceeding precious j" and it is God's will that we should, as it were, mtlasure off that territory by the feet of obedient faith and believing obedience, thus claiming and appropriating it for our own, becoming partakers of the Divine nature, and escaping the corruption which is in the world through lust and which was typified by the Canaanites that had to be expelled before the Land of Promise could be possessed.
Now, let us look at these promises. They are marvellous I How many of us have ever imagined the wealth and the extent of that land 1 And how many of us have ever taken possession of the promises of God in the Name of Jesus Christ? It is a territory for faith to lay hold on and march through the length and breadth of, and faith has never yet done it. The faith of the Church has, thus far, taken possession only of a very small portion of this exceeding great and precious land, and the rest lies in " the regions beyond." .
We are limited by sight; sight makes a great deal of the visible and temporal, and unbelieving disciples prefer that which iil tangiblQ tQ that which is unseen and eternal. Sight emphasizes numbers. Hear what God says: "One of you shall chase a thousand, ~nd two put ten thoueand to flight." That is God's arithmetic. Twice one thousand is two thousand, but in God's arithmetic twice one thousand is ten thousand. God is sublimely indifferent to numbers. It is not quantity but quality for which God cares; He would rather have one consecrated Ulan or woman than a thousand who are halfhearted in His service; so He keeps sifting down, and down. and down, just as He did Gideon's great multitude, till He gets the choice "three hundred" with whom He can do mighty works.
Sight emphasizes power. See how'sublimely indifferent God is to power. While we are seeking the patr(mage of great, or rich, or mighty men, God is taking up the poor and the weak, and the despised and the base, and the things that are nothing, and with them bringing to nought the things that are something.
Fellow-believers, we have to take possession of this region of unclaimed promises; and, inasmuch as we are applying this truth especially in the interest of missions, let us give onrattention to a most important distinction. Christ says, in Matthew: "Go, . • . make disciples of all nations. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." That is His promise. Then, in Luke, He says: "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry yc in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high."
THE PROMISE OF CHRIST AND THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER are not the same thing. Christ's promis~ is the promise of His personal presence, and the exercise of His omnipotent power in behalf of His missionary band. The promise of the Father is 'the promise of a descending Holy Spirit to break down internal barriers in the minds and the hearts of men, and to endue His own disciples with the wondrous unction from above. Now, these are two promises–not to speak of any others. Think of them in their bearing on Christian missions.
When Joshua saw a man standing in the neighborhood of the city of Jericho, he said, challenging him, " Art thou for us or against us~" This strange personage said, " Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come;" and Joshua perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord, and took off his own shoes in reverence, and waited for His commands; and, in accordance with the precise directions that He gave, Joshua moved round that city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day; and then, without a blow being struck, the walls fell, and they went into Jericho and took captive all that were within it. What is that but an historic allegory in the Old Testament illustrating the facts of the New 1 When. the Acts of the Apostles opens, which corresponds, in the New- Testament, to the book of Joshua in the Old, we have there the hosts of God on the Day of Pentecost simply surrounding the fortress of Jewish prejudice, superstition, and alienation from God, with the trumpet· blast, the preaching of the Gospel, and on that day also without a carnal blow being struck, without any human philosophy to account for it, three thousand were pricked in their hearts, and said, " What shall we do 1" and were taken captive for God. What is all this bnt. the Captain of the Lord's host going before the missionary band, and repeating the miracle of Jericho ¥ Walls fall at once that might have stood for a thousand years but for His presence. All human calculation is disappointed when the Captain of the Lord's host appears on the scene.
The promise of the Holy Ghost is one of special grace from above on teachers and preachers; and then also on those that hear the vVord j as, in the house of Cornelius, it becomes converting grace to the hearers as it has been anointing grace to those that speak.
Look at this territory of promise. Suppose that the Church should pass all that has been attained, overleap all barriers, disregard the measure· of past human attainment, and simply march over the length and breadth of these promises, claim the presence of the Captain of the Lord's host, claim His intervention, the fulfilment of His word, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age," claim the prostration of barriers that no man could prostrate without the power of His presence and influence! Suppose that the Christian Church should get down on her face before God to-day, and pray the Captain of the Lord's host to remove the obstacles that prevent our going into Thibet, that has stood there on her heights, walled about by her mountains, and thus far defied even the Moravians to obtain access to the shrine of the grand Lama worship,-what might we not see in the year 1891, if we believed that this Jericho that could not be taken by the power of man could be taken by the simple fiat of the Captain of the Lord's host I And suppose that there was this believing appropriation of the Promised Spirit in anointing power on teachers and preachers, and in converting power on audiences that hear the Word in the communities in the midst of which these men are laboring, vhat new things we might see! It is vety noticeable that Peter did not say, on the Day of Pentecost, that this was the fulfilment of what had been spoken by the prophet Joel. TiLe more minutely we study the Scriptures the more we shall believe in the inspiration of the very words of Holy Scripture. Thore is no mistaking the words Peter uses here. He does not say, "This is the fulfilment of what Joel said." He simply says, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. This is not spirituous intoxication, but spiritual exhilaration. It is not new wine, but it is the new wine of the kingdom, even as Joel foretold." This wa~ a foretaste; the fulfilment of Joel's word is yet to come. There is to be a greater Pentecost, to which that was only like the first few drops that indicate the mighty rain that is to come down on the mown grass and refresh the earth j and we ought to pray to-day for, and claim from God, a Pentecost so much greater than the first Pentecost, that it should at last begin to fill up to the full the language that Joel uses in that remarkable prophecy. III.-REGIONS BEYOND OF PRAYER.
is This suggests regions beyond even the promises that faith has not taken possession of,-namely, those regions beyond that prayer yet to tread. Faith and prayer are so intimately associated that we cannot speak of one without at least implying the other. But let us mark that there are different levels of pmyer. As we follow our blessed Lord, as He teaches His disciples, He goes from one rung in the ladder to [mother, and lifts them with Him, higher and higher, to a sublimer level of prayer.
Our Lord's first lesson on prayer was, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." But then, as we go on in Matthew and come to chaps. xvii. and xxi., a new element is empltasized: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shan receive." Now, it is not simply asking, but asking in faith and receiving according to faith. But when we come to the Gospel of John, we read, in chap. xvi., the most marv:ellous words our Lord ever spoke on prayer, in the New Testament: «Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name He will give it you." Now, this is beyond simple asking; beyond even asking in faith. This is asking by virtue of, and because of, our identification with the Lord Jesus Ghrist. His Name is His person. To ask in His Name is to ask by virtue of our identity with Him, our individuality being merged into His personality in the sight of God, so that God does not look on us as we are, in ourselves, but looks on us as we are in Ghrist Jesus. Here is a " region beyond," in the matter of prayer, that one man or woman in a thousand has scarce dreamt of. When I go to the Father in Jesus' Name-reverently let me say it-Ghrist is the suppliant rather than myself; and because th·e Father can deny the Son nothing that He wants, it is certain that what I ask in His Name I shall receive-nay, I have already received it; and it is my privilege to believe that I have received that which I ask.
Now, suppose the Christian Church should get hold of this power of prayer, and get above the level of simply asking, or even of asking in faith, and realize her identity with her Lord and the privilege of praying in the Name of Jesus; then, keeping in fellowship with Christ, nourishing and cherishing this daily walk with Him, and therefore having, within, the motions that His Spirit creates, the groanings unutterable awakened by the Holy Ghost-.these, presented in the golden censer of Christ before the throne, shall certainly be heard and heeded by the Father. And so I believe that the greatest need of missions to-day is NEW PRAYER-prayer on the highest level of prayer.
IV.-REGIONS BEYOND OF GIVING.
There is yet another" region beyond" that has not been taken possession of, and that is the region of sanctified giving. We are coming now to a very practical matter. There is a whole world of promise and of power to be 'taken possession of in the matter of consecrated means. The Church of God is doing nothing to-day in comparison to what she might do and ought to do. We feel ashamed, however, to speak of giving as a duty, because it grows on our convictions more and more that we ought to lose sight of it as a duty, and only think of it as a transcendent privilege. There is something in love that takes off the asperities of duty. "I delight to do thy will, 0 my God." That is the atmosphere of service-not the law atmosphere-" I ought to do this thing," but the love atmosphere, " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." Now, in this unclaimed and untroddcn region with regard to giving, there are three or four things to which we want to call especial attention.
In the first place, individual giving is a region beyond, yet to be reached by the Church of God. "Let everyone of you lay by him in store." God's principle is not that the rich should give, nor that the poor should give, but that rich and poor should alike give j and every man, woman, and child thus have part in this consecration of substance.
Then we need systematic giving. ".Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by in store j" at stated times, with regularity, as a matter of habit, so that, just as regularly as the week comes round, there should be an account with God that is audited, corrected, adjusted, to see that there be no failure in this part of our duty. Just as we are to bring a certain portion of our time and set it entirely apart to God, so we are to bring a certain portion of our substance, statedly and habitually offering it to the Lord.
Then there must be proportionate giving. We must give, first, according to our ability, and, secondly, " as God hath prospered us." And this law of proportion must never be overlooked. The difficulty with the Church to-day is that, too often, we are calculating how little we can give to satisfy the claims of conscience, whereas we ought to ask, " How much can I give to God ¥ and how little can I reserve for myself, and yet satisfy the absolute necessities of my own reasonable wants ~" Vv'e ought to turn the rule of our giving entirely round. Give to the Lord the first portion, not the last. Give to the Lord the largest portion, not the least.
Then there ought to be self-denying giving, which lies still further beyond in this untrodden territory. A woman went round in a church to get offerings from the women of the congregation for foreign missions, and her uniform plea was, "You can give this, and you will not feel it a bl:t." That was the damaging recommendation. Here is the trouble in the Church of Christ: we give and we do not feel it j neither does the world feel it very much! 'We cannot conceive how God can take much pleasure in a gift that costs us nothing j and let us pray God never to let us use such an argument as that. Rather give until you do feel it.
Much is said from time to time about the generous giving of disciples. There are thirty millions of Protestant Church-members to-day, and twelve millions of dollars is the aggregate sum that is given to foreign missions by these Christians; whereas, if everyone of them gave one cent a day, it would amount to over one hundred millions, and if everyone of them gave three cents a day, it would give us over three hundred and twenty-fh'e millions a year! There is something wrong when, in the coffers of American and British Christians, there lie twenty-live thousand millions of dollars, and God cannot get for the whole work of foreign evangelization more than twelve millions of that immense sum!
At the same time, individual examples show us what giving is possible. There was Sarah Hosmer, of Lowell, Mass., a poor woman living in an attic, and working with her needle. She saved, on six different occasions, fifty dollars, and sent it to educate a native preacher in Oriental countries j and, when she was borne to her rest, six men were preaching in foreign lands whom she had helped into the ministry.
Travellers pass by, in Scotland, the estates formerly owned by Robert Haldane, in the neighborhood of the Bridge of Allan, and one feels a degree of reverence that inclines him to take off his shoes, for it seems that he is standing on holy ground. The fragrance of the act of that godly man who sold those estates, and offered the $175,000 that they yielded to establish in Benares, the centre of Hindu idolatry, a mission for the Lord Jesus Christ, is still shed abroad all through that country, and people pass those estates not without a reverent thought of Robert Haldane, and a grateful recognition of the power of a consecrated life.
Then, in Alloa, when the writer of these lines was delivering the closing words of one of his addresses, he saw an old man there, leaning on his staff. He was nearly ninety years of age, and the chairman whispered, " That is David Paton. He has given his entire fortune-$l,OOO,OOO-to missions, and he is living now on a little annuity which has been reserved that he may not come to absolute want." And yet, when that man heard my plea for missions, he managed to get out of the little that was left him $1250 more, which he gave the next day, and subsequently sent yet another $2000.
There was Mr. Hamilton, a mere clerk in a surveyor's office in Glasgow, and all the income that he had was perhaps $350 a year-yet he annually gave to the U. P. Church $100, nearly one third of his entire income. And when, in 1887, there was a special call made by the Synod for $100,- 000 for missions, that man furnished one-hundredth part of the amount. He sent $1000, one hal£ of the savings that he had made all through his lifetime. And after his death his cash account was found, with the Lord's offering indicated there, and it was discovered that he spent only one shilling a day on his own needs, besides the three shillings a week for lodging -ten shillings sterling a week in all-that he might give the more to the cause of the Lord J csus Christ.
Well may we feel that we have never denied ourselves anything for our Master when we read the story of such a man as that, living seventy-one years with slender income, and in that frugal fashion, that he might be one of the noblest givers in all Scotland, giving~unobtrusively and quietly" as to the Lord, and not unto men. "
God showed the church in that annus mirabilis, 1878, to which we have referred, what could be done by a few consecrated givers. In that one year there was given to the Lord, on the altar of missions, by less than twenty individuals in the United States and in Great Britain, nearly one million pounds sterling, or $5,000,000! Thus God first showed ns, in 1858, what wonders He can do in opening the way before His Church. And then, in 1878, lie showed both what wonders He can do in giving la1'ge harvests from the seed sown, and what other wonders He can do in moving His people to come forward, like Barnabas at Cyprus, to lay the proceeds of their estates on the altars of Christian missions.
V.-THE REGION BEYOND OF HOLY LIVING.
We notice one more region that lies beyond-namely, the region of holy living. That is the most important region of all. We must not measure onrselves by ourselves, or compare ourselves among ourselves, or stop where others have stopped, or where we have now attained; but we must go on, if this world is to be evangelized, to a life of which very few know much. We compress all that we would say on this point in one maxim: ".A holy life is a life in a supernatural realm-a walle with God." That is strong language, but the New Testament is stronger: "He that dwelleth in love d welleth in God, and God in him. " Notice the expression that Jude uses – " praying in the Holy Ghost"-as though the Holy Ghost were a divine atmosphere in which the praying disciple moves, which he breathes, which exhilarates him, which nerves him to duty, which vitalizes him, which strengthens him 1 And that is exactly the truth. A man that is a truly holy man is breathing the Holy Ghost as a sacred atmosphere. And that is the atmosphere of missions.
The thing that, more than anything else, has led the writer to devote hims.elf to the advocacy of missions has been that he has recognized in the working of missions the nearest approach to the repetition of all the supernatural occurrences of the Old Testament and of the period of the Acts of the Apostles. There is the Pillar of cloud and fire, going before God's people,' causing Red Seas to present a passage on dry ground, causing fortress walls to fall instantaneously without a blow being struck, causing the enemy, like Amalek, to be defeated as long as the arm of faith and prayer is extended. When Christ says, "I am with you," He means omnipotent power; He means guidance, guardianship, government. Jesus Christ is with us in even sense that is most precious, when we seek to proclaim the Gospel to a dying world.
We must learn to look for DIVINE INTERPOSITION. In Psalm ii. the kings of the earth are represented as conspiring together to break the bands of Jehovah, and cast away the cords of His dear Son. Wh~t does Godeay,to them 1 "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion j" and He says to His King, •• Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. " That text has been preached from a great many times asa missionary text, as though it meant that the whole world is to be converted. But the next verse addR: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This Psalm is the encouragement of the Church of God, but not in the direction of the harvests that are to come from the sowing. There are abundant such encouragements elsewhere; but here the encouragement given is that, although the kings of the earth conspire and rulers take counsel to obstruct the work of missions, to defeat the plans of the great King Himself, He who has even His enemies as His inheritance, and the hostile territories of conspiring kings with which to do as He wills, shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and break them with the iron rod of His just rnle.
Missionaries of the Cross have seen many such interpositions of God. We refer again to two as examples of many.
In Turkey, in 1839, at the crisis of missions, the Sultan Mahmoud said, "There shall not a representative of the Christian religion remain in the empire. " And Dr. Hamlin came into the house to Dr. Goodell, and said, " Doctor, it is all over with us-we have to leave; the American Consul and the British Ambassador both say that 1t is no use to meet, with antagonism, this violent and vindictive monarch.!' Dr. Goodell, sitting in his chair, rocked to and fro with undisturbed serenity. Dr. Hamlin said, " Well, you do not seem to give yourself much anxiety." That devout and godly man looked up to heaven and said, " Dr. Hamlin, the Sultan of the Universe, in answer to prayer, can change that decree." And they, gave themselves to prayer, and the next day the Sultan Mahmoud died, and the decree has never since been mentioned, save as a matter of history. There a ruler conspired against the King of Zion to defeat the plan of evangelizing His empire, and to expel His missionaries; but He stretched forth His rod of iron and instantly " dashed him in pieces, like a potter's vessel. "
And in Siam, in the crisis of missions, in 1851, when another hostile king would not even allow the missionaries to get premises in which to live, or ground upon which to build, and would scarcely lIuffer them to obtain a lodging; and when they were only waiting for a vessel to bear them away from the harbor of Bangkok, believing that their work was all in vain ; meanwhile they called upon Almighty God to interpose, and again the King of Zion stretched forth His rod and smote that monarch, and broke him likewise in pieces, "like a potter's vessel." And when his corpse was borne to burial, the question came up, " Who is to be his successor 1" and again God was besought to interpose. The man that was selected was the only man in the empire that had ever been trained by a Christian missionary. Though not himself a Christian, in studying language and philosophy and history and political economy with the missionaries, he had imbibed tolerant and catholic principles and impulses, and he inaugurated in the Empire of Siam the n;l.Ost aggressive and the most liberal policy in all Asia j and his successor, Chulalangkorn, is to-day the most enlightened sovereign on that continent. He and his wife are nursing father and nursing mother of Christian missions. Only two years ago they made munificent presents to our American missionaries to enlarge the borders of their hospital and dispensary work, as they have again done more recently.
Verily, A NEW STANDARD OF HOLY LIVING IS NEEDED. These" regions beyond" must be entere,d. Faith must enter the unclaimed territory of promise. Prayer must enter the unclaimed territory of divine power in the diviue presence. We must get a new standard of giving, that shall be individual, that shall be systematic, that shall be proportionate, that shall be cheerful, and that shall be self-denying. And we must get a new standard of living, that shall dare to invade the supernatural, that shall walk with God, and dwell in God, and pray in the Holy Ghost, and shall recognize the word of our Master, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," and the word of the Father that the Holy Ghost shall come down to anoint disciples, and bring the unconverted to the knowledge of Christ. Oh! we must enter this nnclaimed and untrodden territory, and then it may be permitted to some of us to see the glorious day come, when the Gospel, having been preached as a witness among all nations, the King himself shall come in His beauty, and those that have looked long for Him, with fainting desire, shall be permitted to share in the glory of His enthronement and coronation !
A very dear friend of the Editor, Miss Agnes E. Henderson, M.D., daughter of ex-Provost Henderson, of Aberdeen (for many years a director of this society), goes out to. India as a medical missionary in connection with the Free Church of Scotland. At a large and deeply interesting farewell meeting held in Aberdeen, Professor Salmond, who was in the chair, stated that Miss Henderson had with high distinction completed her curriculum as a tnedical student, obtained her degree, and dedicated herself to the service of Christ. She was about to go first to Bombay, there to stay for a year, to learn the language, and acquire a knowledge of the peculiar character of Indian diseases. After that she would proceed to Nagpore to labor as a medical missionary. Her services would cost the Church nothing, as provision had been made by the liberality of her father for carrying on the whole work of this post of which she was to be the first occupant without any charge to the Church.
That was not the only instance of It missionary going out at her own cost, because,. as Professor Salmond said, another missionary was present who occupied precisely the same position. How is it that there is not far more of this kind of thing? Many a Christian family might with ease support one of its number in foreign service, and thereby show allegiance to the Master, take a noble share in evangelizing the heathen, and bring a rich blessing upon themselves.
THE MISSION' OUTLOOK
THE MISSION OUTLOOK.-III.
BY REV. J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.
Let us now glance at the Asiatic countries in which Mohammedanism is the ruling religion. There has been, in varIOUS quarters, a disposition to think well of Mohammedanism. Its one merit is its discouragement of intemperance. It may raise savage races up to the Arabian civilization of the seventh century, but it fixes them there; and further progIess is attainable only by rejecti ng it. But how difficult to make it relax its grasp! Mackay of Uganda speaks of the" strange venom" in Islam which makes it almost impossible to Christianize any race that has accepted it, however imperfectly. Still, when Mackay speaks of "the universal failure of missions to Moslems," his language is much too strong. In fact, he admits so himself when, at a later date, he writes of " the work already accomplished among Mohammedans in Persia and India" as having proved "a decided success" (Memoir, p. 419).
Throughout the Turkish Empire work among Mohammedans is exceedingly difficult. After the Crimean War it seemed as if the door was opened for work among the Turks; and good Dr. Schauffier said to us in Constantinople, in October, 1859, that the prospects were most cheering. But from about 1864 Islam has wakened up as from deep lethargic sleep; and the command has evidently gone forth from high quarters that mission work among Mohammedans must be suppressed if possible, and in all cases opposed. This is what is called" the new departure of Islam." Theconcessions of the Hatti Humayoon of 1856 are ignored. Mission schools are closed, and when representatives of foreign powers are able to compel their reopening, Moslem children are forbidden to attend. Mohammedan schools and mosques are provided with a zeal formerly unknown.
In Persia the repression is not so strong. The missionaries believe that the Shah's three visits to Europe have considerably liberalized his views; and although the persecution of the Babis shows that fanaticism is not dead, yet the Bible can be circulated to some extent among Mohammedans, and religious inquiry goes on in private.
In Arabia, so far a~ it is under Turkish dominion, the public preaching of the Gospel would be at present impossible. But a majority of the Arabs do not acknowledge Turkish sway; and a definite effort ought to be made, on their behalf. Medical'missionaries at least would be safe, perhaps, even where the blighting shadow of the Turk has faUen. The Scriptures can be circulated-from Aden especially. On the whole, Arahia has been unreasonably overlooked in the distribution of the missionary force.
We come now to speak of Africa. Every portion of the field at which we have glanced has interested us deeply; but as he names Africa one feels his heart swell in his breast. The Dark Continent! Dark as Erebus it has been for generations without number. One of the latest testimonies regarding its religion is that of Mackay. He tells us that the Africans aCknowledge God, but worship only devils. They are "guilty of every form of uncleanness, and robbery, and tyranny, and murder." Yet we must not despond. The possessing demon can be cast out. Mackay de- clares it indisputable that" the African is capable of Christianization, and of rising to take his place among the foremost races of men.' , We ask anxiously, as the prophet did of old, 'What of th'e night 1 that is, how much of it is past ¥ Thank God, the midnight is gone j yes, there are streaks of light on the eastern sky.
Let us glance first at North Africa. Time was when all North Africa, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, was Christian j and not a few of the men who stand high in the records of the Church were born and flour- ished there. But the sword of the Moslem swept the professors of the faith away, all except a small, oppressed remnant in Egypt. It is a Rolemn question why this was permitted by Him who has the hearts of all men in I1is hand j and the answer is equally solemn which good men have given- namely, that the civilized people of North Africa took little or no interest in the extension of the Gospel among the aboriginal inhabitants, and that the lamp-stand was removed because the lamp gave little or no light. Steadily Islam has advanced in all North Africa to within six or perhaps * four degrees of the equator, almost exclusively by war and conquest j and the Arabs have ruined many fair provinces to the south of the line. But we believe that the wave of devastation ,has stopped in its onward march, and in the goodness of God will henceforth steadily recede. Stanley has spoken of an early date, when he hopes that Islam will no longer be seen to the south of the equator.
But let us begin with Egypt. Much toleration prevails j conversions from Islam take place from time to time; the circulation of the Holy Scrip- tures is considerable; and more than 800 Mohammedans attend the mission schools.
Then, as to the rest of North Africa, under which designation we include Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and the Sahara, more than forty agents are at work exclusive of those connected with the Bible societies.t The people generally are not hostile j but the priestly and 'political authorities are strong in their opposition. Yet conversions take place. Travelling south, we come to the Soudan-a region more than three thousand miles by fifteen hundred, and containing perhaps fifty millions of people. Here reigns the Mahdi with his fixed belief in his commission to conquer the world. The Moslem in this region have set up schools for the blacks-schools which succeed in proseletyzing. Protestants are doing next to nothing. A young Englishman, Wilmot Brooke, is working his .. So said Mr. Joseph Thomson some years ago. But now that Emin Pasha's power in the equatorial parts has fallen, we must say the sway of I.lam reaches the Equator.
t Mr. C, F. Baldwin mentions that there are more than thirty in Morocco and Mogador. See MISSIONARY lbrvlBw, Oct., 1890, p. 776. way to the Soudan by the Niger. Several young men from America bad chosen this sphere of labor, but alas! they all perished on the way.
Then comes Central Africa-between the Soudan and the Zambesicontaining the mighty Congo, with its innumerable tributaries, and the region of the Tanganika, Victoria, and Nyassa lakes. The churches have not been regardless of the claims of. Central Africa; in the Congo Free Statc alone eight missionary bodies are laboring, the London Missionary Society on Tanganika among them; the C. M. S. has done admirable work at Lake Victoria; the Universities Mission and the two Scottish Missions are diligent in Nyassa land. Here, then, is an excellent beginning.
To the south of the Zambesi there are older missions, all of them doing admirable service. How eagerly the great European Powers have partitioned nearly all Africa among themselves! We trust it is well; for at least the hideous slave-trade will be retarded and gradually extinguished; but while we rejoice that Divine Providence will overrule for good the earth-hung.er that infects the European races, and while we acquiesce in this part being for Germany, and that for France, and this other for Britain, and so on, let the desire and determination of the Church be-all, God helping us, for Christ !
Our remarks are lengthening out too much ; yet we dare not' conclude without a reference to the work among Eastern Christians. Under this name we include the Nestorians, the Armenians, the Jacobite Syrians and the Syrians in South India, the Copts and Abyssinians, and the members belonging to various nationalities of the Greek or " Orthodox" Church. The work among these venerable communities is carried on-chiefly, though not solely-by the American Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is of immense consequence for the Eastern churches themselves. It is hardly less so for the Mohammedans among whom the Christians live, inasmuch as the spiritual life of the churches has been low and languid, and their ritualistic worship appears, to the followers of the Koran, to be absolutely idolatrous. Unhappily it is believed, in many influential quarters in England, that the Americans desire to break up the constitution of the ancient churches among which they labor. This the missionaries very earnestly deny. In faet, they began by endeavoring to spread light among the clergy, and turned, only when the attempt was unsuccessful. to the ordinary members of the churches. And new communities have been formed only when those who receive scriptural truth and seek to walk in accordance with it are persecuted and excommunicated. One of the most statesman-like acts of the" great Elchee" (" the great ambassador," as the Turks called Sir Stratford Canning, afterward Lord Stratford de Redcliffe) was the securing of the recognition of the Protestant Armenians as an independent community with guaranteed rights. This was in 1846. Since then the Protestant Christians in the Turkish Empire, including Egypt, have increased to fully 70,000. Their teachings among the Nestorians in Persia and the Bulgarians in Europe have also been greatly blessed. Bulgaria has wonderfully sprung all at once into national life j but had it not been for Robert College on the Bosphorus, such an.,awaken- ing would have been impossi?le.
The influence exerted on the old churches of the East by these new communities is by no means small. In some cases the missionaries, or the pastors of the reformed churches, are invited to preach in the pulpits of the older. The priests, as a rule, oppose the reformation j but the people are often friendly to it, or at least not unfriendly.
. We dwell on these things all the more earnestly because of the scant justice that is done in certain quarters in England to these important missions.
We must now hasten to conclude. We do so, as we promised, with a few remarks suggested by the survey we have taken.
We have expressed our·admiration of the feeling which prompts the Shanghai Conference to make the demand for a thousand missionaries. Mr. Hudson Taylor asks as many for the" China Inland Mission." But these things unavoidably suggest the question, What are the claims of China as compared with those of other mission fields ~ Missionaries in India will be slow to admit that the necessities of that great continent are inferior to those of China j they .will probably maintain that, in its present sorrowful unrest, the claims of India are paramount. Then, not to speak of Japan, Korea, and Siam-each, it may be urged, in a condition that may rightly be called critical-what are we to say of Africa? As now so won- derfully revealed, its demands are overwhelming. Its hideous superstitions, its fetich-worship, its demon-worship, its human sacrifices, its cannibalism, its inter-tribal wars, its slave-trade-yes, we now see the heart of Africa, and we see that it is bleeding at every pore. Then, let us remem- 'ber what fearful mischief the Christian nations of the West have done to unhappy Africa by the drink traffic. Oh, that it were possible to be as great a blessing as we have been a curse I The population, perhaps, ex- ceeds three hundred millions. What is to be done for the vast Dark Continent' It seems to us that, when God Himself has opened a dooraye, doors-which were closed from the beginning of the world, He is distinctly calling on His people to enter. But further, there are the Mohammedan kingdoms, both in Asia and Africa, and the battle with Islam is barely begun.
The question then occurs, Is it not needful that a survey be taken of the entire heathen world, and an estimate formed of the relative claims of each portion ~ It is a difficult task, and would require the co-operation of many men to do this with any approach to accuracy. Yet the Romish Propaganda attempts a solution of the problem j and the comprehensive mind of Cromwell contemplated the formation of a similar institution.
It might, perhaps, be possible to form an international commmittee, representing all Protestant missions, to map out the great battle.field and suggest a plan Qf campaign i at present, each mission, each regiment chooses its own field and fights its own battle, with little or no reference to others.
But, in the mean time, the topic should be taken up in such magazines as the MISSIONARY REVIEw,and suggestio~s offered, out of which some orderly scheme might erelong be evolved. Unless something of this kind is done,. there will be increasing collision, however unintentional, in the foreign field. Connected with this is the question of what is called mission comity, which is of vast importance and no small complexity.
In the earnest call for European missionaries, in which we heartily rejoice, let not the Church forget that the evangelization of each land must be conducted mainly through its own believing children. When conversions take place churches must be formed and, after the example of Paul and Barnabas, elders" ordained in every church" (Acts. xiv. 23). Next, the raising up of native preachers and teachers is a matter of primary im- * portance. We say teachers-i.e., schoolmasters, as well as preachers.
At the present time a large body of Christian teachers would be of unspeakable value in India and Japan. This matter has been far too much overlooked. In recent discussions we have heard much about the necessity of self-denial. But we have not heard enough. The principle is both deeper and wider than many think. We have been told that it is binding on all missionaries-" Missions arc 80 expensive j" but is there any reason for saying that it is more binding on missionaries than on other Christians? Ministers at home j all office.bearers in the Church j all members of the Church; every man that professes himself a Christian-is not self-denial the imperative duty of all such? Yet how much luxury among multitudes who, in the judgment of charity, mnst be held to be real Christians!, Has any Christian a right to try to be a millionaire? If he has become so, has he a right to remain so? For meanwhile the outlay of the Church by no means keeps pace with the increase of the wealth of the nation or, as we believe, of the Christian portion of it j and all our missions languish for lack of funds. A trumpet-blast is needed to rouse the slumbering Church. Fields are white to the harvest j the laborers are ready to go forth; but means to send them are a-wanting. "Well," says a ~elf-complacent church, " let us have cheap or even self-supporting missionaries. " Self-support, in many places, would be easy j for example, in India a well-educated man could readily find Government employment, and have three or four times the salary of an ordinary missionary. Is that desirable, seeing that very little time would remain for evangelistic work 1 Many seem to think it is. Yes; these are enlightened days j many have got far beyond the standpoint of St. Paul, and they think it well to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
As we have glanced over the recent history of missions, we have been greatly saddened by the many deaths that have met our eye; and the .. In a paper read before the Decennial Conference at Calcutta in 1882, the writer had occasion to dwell on this snbject at considerable length. question has repeatedly arisen, Was this a necessary sacrifice 1 We gaze with tearful admiration on the men who go forth in entire devotedness to meet, in Christ's name, almost certain death j but how awfully accountable are they that send them forth if they do not, with much prayer and forethought, take every possible precaution against danger! It is certain that, in the ardor of their souls, the young warriors, eager to. be in the high places of the field, will themselves seldom do so j it must be done for them. And we must give a word of waUling to the young warriors too. Is there no danger that sometimes they may take the suggestions, of their own fallible minds for an impulse from on high 1 do they prayerfully seek to distinguish between these things 1 We have been led into this train of thought espccially by what has happened in the case of the young American missionaries whom we referred to as having lately sought to reach the Soudan. All have perished. * Their precious lives were simply thrown away. So has it been in other cases. 0' est magnifique; mais ce n'est pas la guerre. Of old the enthusiasm of martyrdom became in many cases the fanaticism of martyrdom j and the Church had to put forth her most strenuous efforts to repress the evil. Something of the same kind may rise up in modern days. Weare aware that these remarks may be thought to savor of cold, worldly prudence. "Ve are willing to bear the imputation, if we can only help to save very precious lives which ought to be dedicated to the Master's cause on earth. Heaven, we believe, can afford to wait for these men. Earth cannot afford to lose them.
Already there are cheering examples, not a fcw, of men and women possessed of means who have dedicated themselves and their possessions to the work of God abroad. Such cases will multiply as the pulse of the Church beats higher. Let rich parents encourage their children to go forth, and supply them with sufficient means to do so. We must not rest satisfied till the noblest of the land shall count it their highest distinction to become missionaries of the Cross. So was it in former days. Columba and many of the Celtic missionaries were of noble jf not princely descent. Raymond Lull was a nobleman of Majorca. Xavier was a Portuguese of position. And in our own day Keith Falconer, so early snatched away, was an earl's son. If such examples awaken any snrprise, it only shows how deplorably defective is the conception which the modern church has formed of the" grace" of being called to "preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. "
There are not quite three hundred medical Il!issionaries, men and women, in the foreign field at present. Why should there not be as many medical missionaries, whether ordained or unoruained, as there are ordinary missionaries 1 Why not more 1 Such Mohammedan countries * See the MU8Wnary Herald, Oct., 1890, p. 394. They were three young men and the wile of one of them. They arrived at Sierra Leone at the beginning oC the rains. They were implored to wait till the dry seasou before penetrating into the interior. But they refused. .. It was the Lord's work, and He would surely protect them I" Here was beautiful zeal, but not according to knowledge. ' are Turkey and Arabia, which will hardly tolerate preaching missionaries, will pay high respect to medical men. We believe that medical ladies also 'Vould be welcome. Assuredly there is much need of them! What a glorious sphere of usefulness would be opened up to lady doctors among the inmates of the Harems, accessible only to women, throughout all Mohammedan lands! But now we really must conclude. May God grant that the heart of the Church may glow with a warmer and warmer mis- sionary spirit-not mainly the excitement aroused by passionate appeals from pulpit or platform or press, but with the deep and holy zeal which springs from a clear perception, imparted by the spirit of truth, of the supreme glory of the enterprise; yea, may we all drink more and more deeply of the missionary spirit of the great Master Himself-a spirit that combined the most perfect devotedness, the most perfect calm, and the most perfect assurance of full and final and eternal victory I [P.S.-Since the above was in type, Dr. Mitchell sends the following additional notes.-ED.] I.-MOHAMMEDANISM IN CRINA.
There is great diversity among the estimates that have been given of the number of Mohammedans in China. In the last issue of the Nordi8k Missionstidsskrijt they are reckoned as 20,000,000. In the reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society they are said to be 30,000,000. Some years ago inWestern China-especially in Yunnan and Kashgar- the Mohammedans were active in proselytizing. In these provinces, however, they were entirely crushed; the cruelty they had shown being far exceeded by the retaliations of the Chinese.
From 'the beginning of Islam efforts were made to win over the Chinese. An uncle of Mohammed visited the Chinese Emperor Tai Tsong in the year 628. In 755 about 4000 Arabs were sent to the assistance of the Emperor Song Tsong, and for centuries thereafter there was a close con- nection between the Chinese and the Arabs. * H.-SCANDINAVIAN MISSIONS.
As the readers of the MISSIONARY REVIEW are probably not so well lOformed about these missions as about many others, we may give one or two notices in addition to what we have mentioned above.
In Zululand the Norwegian missions have 9 stations. In Natal they have 3, and the Swedish Mission, 4.
In Madagascar the Norwegian missionaries, in 1888, baptized 4393 persons. The attendance at church was 49,069, being about 10,000 more than in 1887. Among the Sakalavas, on the west coast of Madagascar, they have in Morondava (which is under the Hova Government) a church of 140 souls. On the south coast there are 2 Norwegian missionaries and 7 native teachers.
In the Congo Free State there are about 20 Swedish missionaries. ~<bout two years ago Dean Vahl, writing in the Allgemeine Missions Zeitscnrijt, said : "Including teachers in Lapland, there are 57 Swedish missionaries' of these 16 are ordained, 18 are women, and 31 are native helpers.
ANSWERED PRAYERS
ANSWERED PRAYERS.
BY MISS LAURA M. LATIMER.
The 16th of September is the great day when the Mexicans celebrate their independence. I was living in the city of Guanajuato–a strange, quaint city, where the streets are veritable stairways, and the houses are so built into the rocks and the rocks so encroach into the houses that onp. can hardly tell where rocks end and dwellings begin. Because of its rich silver-mines, it is one of the first cities taken in revolutions. Its towering crags that. surround the city afford a safe hiding-place for the attacking army. This national festival was my holiday, and for a little rest I went to Silao, a city thirteen miles away. When I reached the mission house I found the portera and his wife alone, and greatly alarmed. He told me that a thousand robbers had entered the city of Guanajuato to commence a revolution, in order to sack the city. The Governor of the State had telegraphed to the President of Mexico for fresh troops, and they were just beginning to arrive. The mob was already gathering in the streets of Silao. To quiet their fears, I reminded them of the Sabbath-school lesson that week. I opened the Bible and read to them-" And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the. Lord opened the eyes of the young man i and he saw: and, behold, the moulltain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." All that day I could hear him reading aloud to his wife from the book of Kings; Sev- eral members of our little church came and stood with them all night by a little grated window, watching the street. With an earnest prayer for protection I went to bed and slept soundly all night, although the streets were filled with a mob, who broke every window in the great hotel, with yells of, "Death to the Americans." The next day the stones began to come into the mission house, but I securely locked the great street door, and the crowd passed by, and we were not molested. When I returned to Guanajuato the portera oiold me that at the time of greatest danger the surgeon of the hospital called at my house. He said that he was very tired, for he had been dressing wounds all day, but he could not rest until he knew that I was safe. He stood by the door, on the street, until all danger was passed, and his presence there was a protection. He was a Catholic, and a stranger. But I always felt that a kind Providence had in this way, in answer to prayer, protected my home. The mayor of the city sent two policemen to guard the street door. The daughter of my cook heard one policeman say to the other, " Why were we sent here ~" " To protect a lady," was the reply. " But who is the lady 1" he still questioned. "She is a Protestant i" and that satisfied him. The soldiers quelled all disturbances, and the robbers fied.
In this same city, several years before, the missionary heard the mob coming down the street with yells of " Huerte a los Protestantes /"-death , to the Protestants. He ran in haste to the street door to close it, but it was too late. He could see the flash of the knives with which they were to kill him and his family, and with an agonized prayer to God for help, he turned to face death, when suddenly peal after peal of thunder shook the house; the rain began to fall in torrents; and the terrible lightning so terrified the mob, just as they had reached the threshold, that everyone of them fled affrighted to their homes. And thus the lives of the missionaries were saved, and the mission church was not destroyed.
At the time of the last revolution in Mexico, the army marched upon Pachnea, and from the hills that overlook the city they threw their bombshells upon the defenceless inhabitants. The mission church had just been completed, and the congregation had assembled for the first time in this new chapel to worship God.· Mr. Ludlow, the pastor, knelt down to pray, and he commenced by thanking God that now they were able to worship under their own vine and fig-tree, with none to molest or make them afraid, when suddenly, without any warning, the bomb-shells came crashing into the city. He opened his eyes and discovered that everyone had left the church in haste, and he was alone. The bomb-shells fell thick and fast. First one part of t.he mission house went crashing in, then another. The pastor and,his family took refuge in a little passage-way be~ tween the school-room and house. He opened his Bible and read to them the promises of God, promises of protection in hours of peril, and they sang" Jesus, I rest in Thee," and then they knelt in prayer. When they rose from their knees the danger was over and they were safe, but their beautiful church was in ruins. There were cannon-balls everywhere in the school-rooms, fresh and hot. The doors and chairs and benches were riddled with bullets. The streets were filled with the moans of the wounded. Death and ruin was everywhere, except in the little passage-way where they prayed.
One of the most unmistakable interpositions of God in answer to prayer was the way that Mexico was opened for the Gospel. It took an army of soldiers to carry the Bible into Mexico. The Americans won every battle. They were in a strange country unknown to them. They had only a few thousand men to battle with the vast hosts of the enemy. It was not nqmbers that won the victory. It was God. Our invading army changed the future of Mexico. The Bible agents and chaplains who accompanied the United States Army scattered Bibles everywhere along their route, and the Word of God broke the power of papal Rome in that oppressed country. Those who have carefully studied the marvellous results of the Mexican War have been amazed at what God has wrought.
AFRICA.
In the depths of a dark African forest, Henry M. Stanley was obliged to wait for a company of his men who were missing. It was midnight. He was hemmed in by hostile savllges on all sides. The terrible shadowhaunted, pathless wilderness lay dark and dismal before him. All his plans had been brought to naught by une~pected obstacles. He was sick with fever. " Death and disaster, disaster and death," encompassed him. He feared that his brave followers had been massacred, and he prayed earnestly to God to protect those brave men who were in peril. Alone with God in his tent at that midnight hour, reaHzing his utter helplessness to accomplish what he had 80 bra~'ely undertaken, conscious that the issues of every effort were in other hands, he made a vow that if the lives of his heroic men were spared, and his own efforts crowned with success, he would acknowledge to the world that all the way through that perilous journey it was God who had led him and brought him safely, iu answer to prayer, when all his own plans had failed. The following day the missing ones arrived, and they soon emerged upon the plains, and the deadly, gloomy forest was behind them. The marvellous success of that expedition has given to the world one of the most inspiring examples of the power of prayer. One day Dr. Livingstone, in the heart of that Dark Continent, became disheartened. He was surrounded by the cannibals, sick with fever, and his men were about to desert him to return to their homes. He says : " The prospect of being obliged to return distressed me exceedingly, and I went into my little tent with the mind directed to Him who hears the sighing of the soul j but soon the men entered, and with the most artless simplicity of manner told me to be comforted, they would not forsake me, thcy were all my children and would die for me." Dr. Livingstone was 'greatly oppressed with the vastness of the " Dark Continent," and his constant question was, ""Vho will penetrate Africa~" The weeks that Stanley remained at Ujiji with Dr. Livingstone were a time of preparation and inspiration for future work. Was it chance, or was it God in answer to prayer, that led the most successful of all explorers of Africa through so many dangers to find Livingstone 1 During the recent cruel persecutions of the Christians in the kingdom of Uganda, the missionaries, driven from their homes, found refuge near the lake, and there they waited, praying to God to interpose and put an end to the cruelties of the brutal king l'Iwanga, for their mission was broken up, the native Christians were clubbed to death, burned alive, and torn to pieces. Their prayers were soon answered, for just as Mwanga was meditating a general massacre of all the Christians, he was dethroned, pursued, and hunted by his enemies. ,This bloodthirsty, savage king fied to the Christians for safety. One of the French missionaries took him into his house, fed him, clothed him, and King Mwanga became a Chris- tian. And he wrote this letter to Mr. Mackay : June 25, 1889.
I, Mwanga, beg of you to help me. Do not remember bygone matters. We _are now in a miserable plight; but if you, my fathers, are willing to come and help to restore me to my kingdom, you will be at liberty to do whatever you like. Formerly I did not know God, but now I know the religion of Jesus Christ. Consider how Ka1ema has killed all my brothers and sisters; he has killed my children too. Mr. Mackay, do help me; I have no strength, but if you are with me I shall be strong.
I am your friend, MWANGA.
The scattered, persecuted native Christians placed the penitent king again upon his throne, and restored to him his kingdom.
Every year the river Nile overflows its banks and floods the country. The natives go out in little boats and sow their seed by casting it upon the waters. The rice sinks down into the mud, takes root, and when the flood is over they gather a rich harvest. For many years the brave missionaries in Africa have been sowing the seed of the kingdom upon the water in floods of persecution, and now the harvest has commenced.
At Banzameteke a missionary had labored six years with no success, when suddenly he was astonished at the pentecostal answer to his prayers j for one Sabbath morning the people collected all their fetiches and gin bottles and burned them in the public square, and nine hundred men, women, and children were baptized that day.
The saddest of all stories is the story of the graves in Africa. The heroic Bishop Taylor, on foot, going from station to station, and at each mission finding new graves of his missionaries j passing on his weary way, leaving the silent dead in their lonely graves, to " wait till Jesus comes j" passing missions where the carefully built houses are vacant, the churches deserted, the school-rooms silent, and only a missionary's grave to tell the sad story.
Slavery and rum have so desolated Africa that a cry, piteous and awful, ascends from that country, " How long, 0 Lord, how long~" "Home after home is made desolate, region after region is ravished, State after State is demolished, nation after nation is mowed down like grass."
I attended the Women's National Temperance Convention which met in Chicago. I sat in Battery D, and watched the ladies as they came pouring in at the door by hundreds. There were ladies from, California, from Oregon, and from every State all the way across this continent to Maine-earnest Christian women, who had come from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, to plan together how they could put down intemperance. They were reaching out their hands to help remove this evil from every country on the globe. .
That same month across the sea there was a remarkable conference in session at Brussels, a congress unique in history. The representatives of seve~teen great nations-Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Congo Free State, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, and the United States-the nations that rule the world, had come together to put down slavery in Africa, to save a land that had no claim upon them but its utter helplessness.
While the great Christian powers were convened in Europe to devise means to ,overthrow the horrible slave-trade in Africa, the slave-dealers were having a remarkable congress on the Nile-200 delegates, Moham- medan Arabs, met to suppress the traffic in liquors; for the rum-trade, which destroys so many lives, diminishes the number of their victims. The action taken by them is " to surround the entire coast of Africa with a cordon of armed dhows, and confiscate every European vessel containing liquors, and sell the crew into slavery." It seemed to me that God had rallied all the great religious forces of the world, Christian and Mohamme- dan, to help those patient, suffering, praying missionaries in Africa.
The whole history of missions is made up of remarkable answers to prayer. The beginning of the great work in Japan was traced to a little room where the missionaries met every day to pray.
In the State of New York is a little village nestling among the hills. , Near by is a river, where the high ruggeq rocks and rainbow falls have a wildness of beauty unsurpassed. In this little village a minister once lived in a parsonage which was much too small for his increasing family. His salary was hardly sufficient to feed and clothe the six little children. He had been for several years principal of one of the public schools in Brooklyn, and his oldest son, who was sixteen years of age, was ready for college. He was eager and impatient to continue his studies, and the father found it hard to control the impetuous boy, who would not brook delay. He was at work in a store, but complaints came constantly fro.m the merchant that he was more interested in his books, which he concealed behind the counter, than in selling goods; and finally the boy declared that he would run away to sea if he could not go to college. It was a time of great anxiety to the father and mother. They could never expect to feed and clothe and educate six children on a preacher's salary in those days. After much worry and planning and anxious thought they could see no way out of the perplexity, and so they dropped the burden that , they could not carry, and gave their children to the Lord for special work in His service, with earnest prayer and as careful training as the mother of Moses gave her little one, though she knew that he was no longer hers, but the king's. The children grew to realize more and more that the prayers of their par3nts followed them constantly.
In those days people knew but little about misi>ions. -A few years be- fore Lee, with one of the flat-headed Indians from Oregon, had visited them, and after t.hat there was a new interest in the cause of the heathen in the minister's family. The pastor carefully scattered the Missionary Advocate among the children Of the Sabbath-school. There was one little girl in his congregation into whose heart the preacher's words sank deeply. She eagerly listened, and stndied with intense interest the missionary paper, with its strange pictures of lands and people be- yond the sea, and always as she gazed upon those dark pictures of heathen cruelty a feeling came to her, a dim foreshadowing of the future, that sometime she herself would sit under those palm-trees in India. As the years passed by, and there seemed no way to realize the dreams of her childhood, she forgot her early resolve to. be a missionary. But one day, years afterward, just a few weeks before she graduated in the medical college, suddenly the forgotten VOWI3 of her childhood came to her. The rush of recollections came like a revelation, and in a flash she realized what all the training of years had been for, and she was so overcome that she burst into tears. She was the first lady physician sent to heathen lands from America as a medical missionary. The daughter of her early pastor said to her, "How were you led to become a missionary 1" She replied, " It was your father who did it j the result of his labor and prayers."
The faithful minister lived to see his prayers answered also in a remarkable way in his own family. His sons became ministers of the Gospel, and his youngest daughter a missionary. His eldest son was the late Dean of the Theological Seminary of the Boston University, a school which has sent scores of missionaries to foreign lands-to China, India, Japan, Mexico, South America, and to the islands of the sea.
Captain Hore, F.R.C.S., is returning to England via United States, after a successful mission tour in A~stralia, New Zealand, and Tasmania. To the regret of his co·workers and admirers, he is forbidden to return to the region of Lake Tanganyika, where he has for thirteen years done such ser- vice to missions. The doctors prohibit such return. He built a steamer there, made valuable explorations, surveyed Tanganyika, for which he re- ceived the Royal Geographical Society's Award, and for two years lived at the famous slave and ivory mart of Ujiji, where he was much in contact with Tippoo Tib. American friends who know of his journey through the States will doubtless avail themselves of his presence to get him engaged in lectures describing the Central African missions, native tribes, and customs, and the development of civilization. Mr. S. E. Bridgman, College Rook Store in Northampton, Mass., will act as his medium of communication. . Here is a rare chance for those who wish missionary lectures.
Dr. G. F. Pentecost seems to have met a cordial reception in India. He held his first meeting with the educated natives of Calcutta on December 24th, and the Albert Hall was full to overflowing. The Opera House was then engaged for a fortnight miEsion to the higher classes of residents, and 'great expectations are indulged. We hope they may not be disappointed. Nevertheless, we believe that our brother has taken on his hands what Lincoln would call a " big job," and nothing will make thiR mission a true success but the power of prayer. We know personally that many, both here and on the other side of the sea, are engaged in earnest supplication to God that this errand may prove to be guided by God's good Spirit. The Engtish residents of India are very difficult to reach. They are mostly of two classes, either very High ChurchAnglicans-mere formalists and rituaIistsor else absolutely indifferent and often infidel. Such walls are of adamant, and only the power of God can break them down.
1891·1 THE GREAT COMMISSION
THE GREAT COMMISSION [EDITORIAL. ] The four Go~pel narratives, at the close of each, and the Acts of the Apostles, which has been well called the "Fifth Gospel," has at its beginning words which are intended to instruct and guide disciples as to the great mission and commission entrusted to the Church. Each differs from the other, yet each presents something essential to the full and complete knowledge of the Lord's will and our duty. And as in a composite photograph we get various facial forms and features blended in one portrait which combines individual peculiarities in a collective result, so, if we carefully project these five forms of the commission upon one sensitive plate and get a composite picture, we shall see at a glance the mutual relations of each special word of instruction, and the completeness of the grand total. While we reverently seek to combine these five fragments, we do not mean to imply that they were all thus blended in our Lord's own teaching, nor to assume to settle either their logical or chronological order; our aim is simply to present a summary from which nothing shall be omitted which belongs to anyone narrative, and to group together words of instruction or promise which seem to belong together by closer affinity. The attempt so to arrange and combine has been attended with such profit to the writer that he hopes it may prove no less a blessing to the reader. The obvious parallelism of the thought we seek also to represent.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying: •• Peace be unto you!"
And, when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again: "Peace be unto you !"
All power is given unto Me In heaven and in earth.
As My Father hath sent Me Even so send I you."
Then opened He their understanding That they might understand the Scriptures; And said unto them, " Thus it is written, And thus it behooved Christ to suffer, And to rise from the dead the third day; And that repentance and remission of sins Should be preached in His name Among all nations, Beginning at Jerusalem: And ye are witnesses of these things.
Go ye, therefore, into all the world, Make disciples of all nations, And preach the Gospel to every creature : Baptizing them in the name of the Father And of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Teaching them to observe all things Whatsoever I have commanded you: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; But he that believeth not shall be damned.
And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you. Depart not from Jerusalem But wait for the promise of the Father, Which ye have heard of Me.
For John truly baptized with water, But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, Not many days hence. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem Until ye be endued with power from on high. Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost Coming upon you; And ye shall be witnesses unto Me, Both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, And in Samaria And unto the uttermost parts of the earth." And when He had said this, He brElathed on them And saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost !"
., And 10 I am with you alway Even unto the end of the age.
And these signs shall follow them that believe : In My name shall they cast out demons ; They shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; And if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; They shall lay hands on the sick And they shall recover. "
So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He led them out as far as to Bethany; And He lifted up His hands and blessed them, And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them ; And while they beheld, He was taken up And a cloud received Him out of their sight And He was carried up and received up into heaven, And they worshipped him And returned to Jerusalem with great joy And were continually in the temple Praising and blessing God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, The Lord working with them And confirming the word With signs following, Amen.
1891.J JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, AS DEVELOPED BY BUDDHISM IN JAPAN.
BY HENRY C. MABIE, D.D.
Among the objects of most striking interest which the traveller sees in the ancient city of Kioto, Japan, are the temples of Hon-gwan-ji- " Eastern" and "Western," so called. One of these temples is quite new, in fact it is yet building. To those sanguine souls who are inclined to think that the force of idolatry in Japan is spent, that idolatrous shrines generally are in the last stages of decay, and that no more will be built, we commend a few facts concerning the present building of this new Hongwan-ji structure. It is built entirely from the free-will offerings of the people of the Buddhist sect which it represents, from all parts of the empire. These contributions are of costly jewels, metals, woods for the building, human hair, and money without stint.
On one of the platforms of the temple are twenty-four coils of rope from three to four inches in diameter made of this human hair. Attached to one of the coils is a placard with this inscription: " Since the thirteenth year of Meiji (1880), when the rebuilding of the two halls of the Eastern Hon-gwan-ji was 'begun, the faithful laymen and laywomen of every place have been unanimous in presenting to the principal temple, Hon-gwan-ji, strong ropes made of their own hair, to be used for the work of erection. The number of these ropes reached fiftythree. Twenty-nine of them became worthless from use. The total length of the remaining twenty-four is 4528 feet, and the total weight 11,567 pounds. "
Besides these ropes were several large coils of hair, several of them gray, the gifts of the aged, which came in too late to admit of being used. The total cost of this temple is to reach the enormous sum of $11,000,000. The offerings of devotees in Kioto, apart from gifts for erecting the temple, ' to these two shrines, during the year 1889 amounted to the sum of $367,000, Mexican. And yet most of the contributions were from people who are extremely poor. Out of Kioto's population of nearly half a million less than five hundred people pay a tax amounting to $15, so poor are they.
Magnificent, however, as the temple is, and regal as the offerings were, the peculiarities of the sect whose primal shrine is here are of far more interest to me. Specially so, on account of the characteristic worship and belief of the sect.
These people are a sect of the Buddhists, but they represent a departure from pure ancient Buddhism of rare significance. They worship Buddha, indeed, but him only in the character of Amita, or Amit,abha, whom they conceive to be the idealization and glorification of highest discipleship to the primitive Buddha; they eschew all works of merit; they depend on the absolute unconditioned mercy of Amita j they have a doctrine of justification by faith only, apart from meritorious deeds; their priests are not celibates nor ascetics; they carryon active and aggressive missionary operations, and to this end they highly educate their young priests,send- ing some of them to the Doshisha Congregational College in· Kioto, and even to Oxford, England. Three hundred of these neophytes are gathered in one school near their chief Kioto temples.
They base their doctrine on that portion of the Buddhist Scripture known as the" Sam-bu-Kio," in which is recorded the peculiar vow made by Amitabha that he would ., accept Buddhaship, but under the condition that salvation was made attainable by all who should sincerely desire to be born into Buddha's kingdom, and should signify their desire by invoking his name ten times." This vow is called the "Former, or Real V ow," and hence the name given to the two great temples in Kioto, " Hon-gwan-ji," meaning" Temple of the Real Vow," referring to their basal doctrine.
This sect is now divided really into two, the one known asthe "Jodo" sect and the other as the " Shin Shin."
Originally they were one, taking their rise in the beginning of the· twelfth century under a great teacher, known as Honen Shonin. This man was enough in earnest to break with earlier Buddhists, and to outline a doctrine far in advance of Buddha's in some respects. He taught the worship of Amita, and also the doctrine of justification by faith in Amita's boundless mercy; but he also urged the value of meritorious deeds, and insisted on the cardinal idea of Buddhism, that no help can be expected in the conquest of passions outside of one's self. It was at this point that there sprang up early in the thirteenth century a departure from the teaching of the Jodo sect. The man to inaugurate the departure was Shinran Shonin, a disciple of Honen.
This Shinran is described as a sort of Luther of his time, and presenting a striking parallel in his teachings and in his martyr-like devotion to their maintenance. He was determined enough to submit unflinchingly to banishment for conscience' sake, and to bravely maintain his school in a monastery among the mountains at Takate in Shimo-tsuke. He is buried at Otani, on the mountain-side above Kioto. To his grave myriads of his disciples make annual pilgrimages from all parts of Japan. The Shin Shin sect is the outgrowth of his influence, and the new Hon.gwan-ji temple is specially to his honor. The Shin Shin sect differs from the J odo sect in its teaching at the following points: first, it holds that salvation is due to faith only in the power and willingness of Amita to save mankind, and that the invocation implied in the Real Vow is to be used only as an act 'oj thanksgiving, and not .as an act of merit, for mercy received; secondly, that this Elalvation is received at once, and not at death, and that the believer is taken thenceforth under Amita' s merciful protection; thirdly, that morality is of equal importance with faith; fourthly, that while Nirvana, or eternal happiness, is to be attained (as all Buddhists teach) by the extinction of the passions through many deaths and re- births, yet this extinction of passions (contrary to the usual Buddhist teaching) may be reached through help from another-that is, from Amitabha, he being the chi~f of the Buddhas. The name Amitabha signifies "boundless life" or "im- measurable light."
The Shin Shins maintain that their rival sect, the Jodos, have departcd from the former and true teaching at these several points. The Shin Shins have undertaken to restore the true teaching respecting the" Former Vow." Hence they are sometimes called the Protestants of Japanese Buddhism. The proportions to which this sect of reformers has grown is remarkable. They have in all Japan 18,000 temples and shrines, and are accounted the wealthiest and most powerful of all the sects. They possess no fixed properties which might be considered endowments, but depend entirely on the offerings of the people for support and for purposes of propagandism. They actively undertake missions abroad, especially in Corea and China.
In support of these general statements respecting their belief, I quote a short creed prepared by one of their later apostles, Rennio Shonin, and given by Murray in his " Handbook of Japan. " The creed runs as follows: " Rejecting all religious austerities and other action, givi~g up all idea of self-power, we rely npon Amita Buddha with the whole heart for our salvation in the future life, which is the most important thing, believing that at the moment of putting our faith in Amita Buddha our salvation is settled. From that moment invocation of his name is observed as an expression of gratitude and thankfulness for Buddha's mercy. Moreover, being thankful for the reception of this doctrine from the founder and succeeding chief priests, whose teachings were so benevolent, and as welcome as light in a dark night, we must also keep the laws which are fixed for our duty during our whole life." A most extraordinary statement this to proceed from men presumably destitute of revelation. Substitute for Amita Buddha, here conceived of as the chief of the Buddhas, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you have substantially the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith as amplified by Paul in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians.
A still more modern statement of the belief of this remarkable sect is given by Mr. Akamatsu, a distinguished member of the sect in Kioto, and published in the April number, for 1881, of the Ohrysanthemum, now discontinued.
Says Mr. Akamatsu: " Amita Buddha always exercises his boundless mercy upon all creatures, and shows a great desire to help and influence all people who rely upon him to complete all merits, and to be re-born into Paradise. Our sect pays no attention to other Buddhas, but putting faith only in the great desire of Amita Buddha, expect to escape from the miserable world, and to enter into Paradise in the next life. From the time of putting faith in the saving power of Buddha we do not need any power of self·help, but need only to keep his mercy in heart, and invoke his name in order to remember him. These doings we call I thanksgiving for salvation.' "
I Is this an uninstructed groping for" the grace of God which bringeth salvation," which is accurately and specifically met in Paul's great exposi· tions ~ Is this an ignorant worshIp of the essential Christ under the phrase of Amita Buddha r We would not dare say that these doctrinal conceptions, purely considered, are generally entertained by the adherents of the sect, much less that they have popular power to bring spiritual rest and the sense of salvation to the mass of q,evotees! But who shall say that, where so explicit ideas of mercy, grace of some sort, justification through belief of some sort, and hence salvation, however inadequately conceived, are formulated and taught, that they have redeeming power over none ~ How shall we account for the existence of the conceptions at all in any measure, by even a single mind, except on the ground that " He hath not left himself without a witness among any nation" 1 Be all this as it may, what a prepared soil is here, in the providence of God, for such missionary endeavor as shall be able. to go in among such a people and explain to them the real way of God more perfectly! What an evangelizing oracle the Epistle of Paul to the Romans would prove in meeting this unique state of heathen mind! May God raise up and bring some man to the Kingdom of the Sunrise for such a time as this !
KIOTO, JAPAN, Oct. 15, 1890.
How MISSIONARIES ARE MADE.-Dr. Cyrus Hamlin has told in a fiveminute speech how it was he came to be a missionary. He said: "In the vast majority of cases missionaries are made by the influence of the family. My widowed mother made me a missionary. She had me read every Sunday out of the Panoplist, and then later out of the Missionary Herald. We had in those days in our town a missionary contribution box, a cent box, and we were enoouraged to earn some special cents for that box. I remember well one occasion which was, I think, a turning-point in my experience. When the fall muster came every boy had a pocketful of cents to spend. My mother gave me seven cents, saying, as she gave them, I Perhaps you will put a cent or two in the contribution box in Mrs. Farrar's porch on the common.' So I began to think as I went along, Shall I put in one or shall it be two ~ Then I thought two cents was pretty small, and I came up to three-three cents for the heathen and four cents for gingerbread ; but that did not sound right, did not satisfy me, so I turned it the other way, and said four cents shall go for the heathen. Then I thought the boys will ask me how much I have to spend, and three cents is rather too small a sum to talk about. I Hang it all,' I said, I I'll put the whole in.' So in it all went. When I told my mother some years after that I was going to be a missiollllry, she broke down and said, I I have always expected it.' "
lIIISSIONARY GEOGRAPHY
MISSIONARY GEOGRAPHY-COMPARATIVE OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS.
BY REV. DR. J. H. SHEDD, OROOMIAH, PERSIA.
In glancing at the fi~ld which our Lord says" is the worIel," one thing is clear now which was not so clear one hundred or even fifty years agonamely, the actual condition of the inhabitants of our world. The maps and globes have changed. Vast tracts of Asia, Africa, America, 2nd the islands of the sea, that were a terra incognita or laid down as unknown deserts, have been explored and now are delineated j and the names of lakes and riverll and nations, and their populations and resources, and their political and religious condition are known. The missionaries have usually been the pioneer explorers. In crossing China, in describing the tribes and haunts of the Himalayas and all Western Asia j in first setting foot on the cannibal islands of the sea j in penetrating the thousandll of miles of interior Africa, the constraining motive has been the same which led the great Apostle to preach the Gospel not where Ohrist was named, but carried him from Jerusalem to Philippi and Athens, to Rome and to Spain. This exploring work has been done, and few places upon the surface of our globe -from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand or to Africa's sunny fountains-remain unrevealed. We know the actual state of the unevangelized world in all its terrible depravity, suffering, and need.
This vast increase of knowledge is acting and reacting on the Christian Church and Christian nations. The parable of the Good Samaritan is better understood. The question, Who is my neighbor ~ is answered from the seven hundred millions of Asia, and the two hundred millions of Africa, who are our fellow-men, fallen among thieves, wounded by sin, and robbed of their birthright by the vices and superstitions and errors of their false religions. Certainly there is a growing interest and sympathy. The dense mist of passive neglect that hung over the Protestant world has lifted. A great and happy change has taken place since Carey, the shoemaker, in England, began to plead for the heathen a century ago, and was told by the wise old fathers, "Young man, mind your own business. When God wishes to convert the heathen He will do it without your help j" or since the young men by the hay-stack at Williams College began to pray eighty years ago, and only. two or three of them dared to offer themselves to the cause lest the Church would take alarm, and refuse to have any part in so fanatical a movement. Now the volunteer missionary students in this country number nearly 5000 since the Northfield meeting in 1886., and some 200 of these have already sailed for the foreign work.
This increase of knowledge also awakens a deeper sense of responsibility for those with whom we are brought into relation and contact. The world is brought together by commerce and easy and rapid travel. The prophetic words are fulfilled, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. " Every day the telegraphic wires flash the news from distant lands-so often the echo of the woes and miseries of mankind without the Gospel. To the ear that is open, what sounds of sorrow and cruelty and suffering come from the dark places of the earth! Now it is the .horrors of Siberian prisons; next, famine, with several millions of famished and dying in.en in China; then the cholera, starting up from the hot-bed of Hindu or Mohammedan shrines, and the sacred festival and holy pilgrimage carrying the seeds of death to myriads of victims; or it is the open sore of the world in the awful slave-trade of Africa. Surely the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of cruelty even to the bodies and earthly life of our fellow-men, such as we, in the comfort and ease and security of this happy land, little understand. Yet here is the responsibility, not only for the temporal welfare, but for the immortal souls of onr fellowmen. Here is the fact that the world is daily growing smaller, that a young lady in seventy-three days can travel around the globe.- In no time in all the Christian centuries has the providence of God been so plainly p'ointing to momentous events and changes. The present century has cleared the way for rapid movement.
Another fact stares us in the face, that whithersoever we turn the people are fast awakening from the mental and moral apathy of centuries. The Bible and the missionary have set the world to thinkmg. The crisis is confronting us of a world awake and alert for action. The current of intellectual activity is very sluggish in Oriental and tropical lands; but there is not a nation, nor tribe, nor island but has been touched by the awakening from afar; and every year the breeze is fresher and stronger. The calico and sheeting, the sewing-machine, the telegraph or other wonders of science, :ind the missionary tract and testament are everywhere; and men are wondering what will come next. As in the host of Midian, when Gideon and his little band were encamped against them, men are telling their dreams to their fellows, and expecting conflict and change.
Another very significant fact is that in the van of this ceaseless and onward impulse of progress is the English-speaking race. Says a recent writer: " 'We stand at the dawn of a new epoch, which from the point of view of universal history is quite as momentous as that in which the Northern tribes broke in upon and destroyed the fabric of the moribund Empire of Rome. It is a revolution vaster and more rapid than that which founded the modern European world on the wreck and ruin of the Roman Empire. The world is passing into the hands of the English-speaking races. Already the English tongue is becoming the lingua franca of the planet. Already the territories over which the laws are made and justice administered, in the language of Shakespeare and Bacon, exceed in wealth, in extent, in the number of their populations and in the limitless latent possibilities of their development, all other lands ruled by all other nations of the earth. In a hundred years, unless the progress be checked, Englishspe3king people will outnumber all the men of other tongues in the world. English, ideas, English laws, English civilization are becoming as universal as English speech. The future of the world is English."
The young Greek who marched with Alexander across Asia to the waters of the Ganges and back saw a most wonderful expansion of human knowl- edge, and was filled with expanded views of human destiny. The man who could say Romanus sum considered the world his tributary, and his heart dilated at the extent and power of his empire. The young Christian soldier. who marched with Constantine under the luminous symbol of the cross to the overthrow of Paganism saw a brighter vision-Christianity ruling the world in equity and love. The young reformer who was thrilled by the religious fervor of Luther's age was lifted to a higher elevation still. The heroes of the Elizabethan era, with their legend, "Westward ho I" and the new world and new seas to be explored and delivered from the Spaniard, were inspired with a still nobler purpose and wider vision. What shall the young man to-day diseern? Have the romanee and adventure and high purpose of life all faded out? Or is there an inspiring vision} The Christian young man to-day leads the progress of a raee of exhaustless resourees and energies that is re-making the whole world. How great must be the responsibilities of living at sueh a time, at the threshold of such momentous changes I Reverently we may say: .. We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an' age on ages telling- To be living is sublime."
Add one more fact : it is the rapid and great increase in the resources of the Church in connection .with the openings and changes in the world. In the century past Christian population has more than doubled, and the Protestant population has quadrupled. It is not now a little company of despised Galileans who hear the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," but it is the mighty Christian Church of the foremost nations of the earth, with means and men and women in exhaustless abundance. It is especially to the generation noW' coming forward to whom God intrusts the great commission to take possession of all nations not for worldly gain or honor, but for Christ's kingdom and glory.
It were pertinent..to ask the question here, How far our so-called Christian nations shall yield to the spirit and law of Christ in their dealing with ignorant and heathen people ~ Vice is more easily planted than virtue. Shall drink and opium and fire-arms and social immorality go to the ends of the earth in every ship? Shall purely selfish and mereenary counsels rule in our intereourse with China ~ What profit if Africa is saved from Arab slave-traders to be ruined by European rumsellers ~ How far the nations of the earth are open to Christian influenee depends largely on the treatment they reeeive from Christians. But this broad subjeet I pass, calling attention simply to the great work yet to be done before Christian nations and rulers shall love their neighbors as themselves, doing justly and loving mercy toward the weaker and inferior races.
We turn now to the outlook in unevangelized lands. To what extent can true Christians work in faith that all other religions and systems shall yield and fall before the religion of Christ F We can see that the influence of steam, electricity, science, education, commerce, and civilization-the mingled good and evil-is permeating all lands. Row far can the true religion conquer?
Let us not overlook the difficulties. The cry, " On to Richmond," in the great Civil War was a sad illusion. There is no mistake worse than to under-estimate the stubborn resistance and mighty power of evil in the world. When we review the forces of Christianity, go about Zion and count her towers and weapons, think of Providence and truth and enlighten- ment and the Divine Spirit and grace, all on the Christian's side, it may seem easy to many missionary volunteers to go out into the heathen world, or to gather in the ignorant souls and teach them and see their conversion.
But in reality the spies who have gone and examined can truly say, "The cities are walled and very gteat, and we saw the children of Anak there. "
Let us notice some of these strongbolds that are walled and thoroughly entrenched in opposition to true Christianity. Geographically we fiud : , 1. Buddhism, and the allied systems connected with it, holds sway over a full third of the human race in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. Thibet, China, Japan, Siam, and Burmah contain nearly 500,000,000 souls.
2. Hinduism, in Southern Asia, in India with nearly 200,000,000 votaries.
3. Mohammedanism, from India westward over Asia and Northern Africa, with nearly 200,000,000 adherents.
4. The corrupt forms of the true religion, Judaism and the Russian and Roman power in so many parts of Christendom, might be mentioned.
These are the Religions of the Books, entrenched by ages of dominion and tradition, and defended by organized systems of worship, education, and priesthood. Then beyond the Religions of the Books are the outlying regions of barbaric heathenism-all Africa to the west and south, the islands of the sea, the primitive tribes of Asia and America, a mighty host of nearly 200,000,000 of lost and dying men. – A fact of great significance is that in all phases of this great conflict there are, with special difficulties, also special features of encouragement.
Let us turn our faces to the two hundred millions of heathen without sacred books. They are the lowest in the scale and the most repulsive, requiring for their redemption that the messengers of Christ follow them in patient sacrifice of comfort and of life to the habitations of cruelty and the abodes of cannibalism in the jungles of Asia, the islands of the sea, the forests of America, and the recesses of the Dark Continent. These, it might be thought, are the most hopeless and the last to be elevated; certainly they are not the races that human wisdom would select for mission work. Let us remember that our ancestors were such barbarous heathen till Christian missionaries planted their schools and stations of beneficence in the forests of Europe and Britain. The colored population of this country is but one hundred or two hundred years removed from savage ancestors. The Indians of our country and of Mexico and South America are not yet fully Christianized.
But we should notice that in the last eighty years wonderful changes have taken place through missions for these lowest heathen. We see the Hawaiian, Fijian, Samoan, and other groups of islands as truly Christian- ized as any of the higher races. Thirty years ago cannibals in Fiji were eating missionaries and their converts j now 100,000 out of a population of 110,000 are found in places of Christian worship. We see Madagascar turning from the bloody work of martyring Christians only thirty years ago, now to ask admi.ssion into the family of Christian nations. Heathen- ism is virtually ended in the islands of the Southern Ocean. The greatest island in the world, New Gui.nea, is waiting for God's law. A greater Bririn is rising in Australia and New Zealand and South Africa, and the Southern cross is fast becoming the brightest constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. .
In Africa we see changes quite as wonderful. April 29th, 1873, Liv- ingstone died. Alone, upon his knees, in the heart of Africa he died. He thought himself a defeated man, a failure! But he had travelled 29,000 miles on foot to explore that continent j and instead of .failure his life thrilled the world and converted Stanley, and his death opened the very heart j)f the Dark Continent. There is that heart of Africa to-day, throb- bing with savage humanity, and waiting for the touch of divine compassion and sympathy. Shall the disciples of Christ go and teach the savages by the slow and sure ministries and the loving words of the Gospel, or shall the cruel trade in rum and fire-arms destroy them q The King of Uganda is a case in point. He is seeking a religion-at least a change j a year or two ago accepting the Arabs and murdering native Christians and such men as Bishop Hannington j this year turning from the Arabs and begging Stanley to come and help him Christianize his whole nation.
Here is certainly in Africa an immense missionary field, among millions of men too degraded and ignorant to have any learned systems to set against the Gospel. Their very ignorance and barbarism is an encourage- . ment not for one Bishop Taylor only and his mission to strive for self- support j but a field so ripe and perishing that it will be strange indeed if the next half century does not witness laborers by the thousand, foreign and native, braving all the difficulties, and gathering in the souls by the million.
In Asia, too, this class of heathen is the most hopeful of all mission fields. The Karens are such. Among them the Baptists have hundreds of churches, and thirty thousand strong are marching on to conquest. The lnlooloos, of whom thousands were baptized in a few j1j.01).tps, ~re of the same class. In fact, according to Sir William Hunter there are fifty millions of indigenous races in the confines of India that in the near future must succumb to one or another of the stronger religions. The query is, Shall it be the holy religion of Christ ~ It is well to distinguish this most inviting and open field in all parts of the world. It is well to know that among our Indians and Africans, and among all this class in Asia aud Australasia, there is no organized obstacle to the pure and loving faith of Christ. The only obstacle is the wicked heart, full of sin and superstition, on the one hand, and the lukewarmness of the disciples of Christ on the other. It is well to know that thus far the greatest successes of missions have been gained among these ignorant and barbarous races.
But do you say that these are only the outworks, and, if captured completely, beyond them are the mightier systems rearing their walls in defiance and scorn at the soldiers of the cross?
What of Buddhism in China and the East? The answer comes back again of special difficulties and special encouragements. The difficulties certainly are great. The conquest of China will be a greater event in the Christian annals than when the religion of the Nazarene ascended the throne of the Cresars ; yet though so far off I can remember when Neander, the historian, wrote words like these: "It will be a great epoch in the history of the Church when the Gospel enters China, and Chinese converts truly accept of Christ." At that time Japan was entirely closed. There is still one isolated land from which Christian teachers are entirely "excluded. This is Thibet, the home of the high-priest of Buddhism.
But look on the other side. The barriers have given way. The Christian religion is well established to-day in China and Japan. The native brethren and the missionaries also consider that the thirty years before us will suffice to plant the Church in Japan, and to cast the mould for all future time of a natIOn of forty millions to be on the east of Asia a Christian power, as the British Isles are such a power on the west of Europe. It is not impossible, for now is the hour of opportunity for Japan. Later will follow Siam, where the prime-minister says, "My country was not opened to the West by cannon nor by fleets, but by the American missionaries."
Then also comes China, where the way is open to Christian missions on a scale never before seen. The China Inland Mission sent out over one hundred men and women in a year. The advance is clear, and America, with Christian influence and intelligence, is in the van. Every town in our land. could as well as not send a missionary to China, and support him or her in that land. It is nothing chimerical nor improper, with the cheap means of travel and the love of Christ constraining us, and the awful condition of China's millions, that we make the same efforts we would to rescue men and women from famine and death or from fire and earthquake ill our own land, Let us tum to Hindustan. The same might be said of Hinduism ih India that I have just said of Buddhism and China; except that Brahmanism is more firmly entrenched, is the very citadel of heathenism; and the key of the citadel is Ca8te. The encouragement to mis~ionary labor in India is constantly increasing. The field is completely open surely, and the' opinion of Sir John Lawrence, the wise statesman and thoughtful observer, may be taken as correct: " It seems to me that year by year and cycle by cycle the influence of these missionaries must increase, and that in God's good will the time may be expected to come when large masses of the people, having lost all faith in their own, and feeling the want of a religion which is pure and true and holy, will be converted and profess the Christian religion, and having professed it, live in accordance with its precepts."
The contest must be more difficult and longer against such a system than among the savage heathen, but the results are just as certain. Already a church of more than 150,000 members is gathered, and this church is doubled every ten years.
But what of the still more difficult system of Islam 1 I can only allude to this field and to our work in Western Asia, the Bible Lands, the lands where our Saviour lived and the Apostles preached. The centre of the enemy's camp is stm there.
There meets the missionary in those lands first a false or corrupt Christianity that blunts the conscience and hardens the heart by its selfrighteousness and formalism. Back of this confronts us the religion of the false Prophet, aspiring to rule the world, and hence the bitter supplanter and enemy of the cross of Christ. How is this stronghold of specious error and half-truth, of blind fanaticism and pride, to be pulled down 1 Where is the weak place that invites assault and promises victory? Let me answer in a word: Fifty years ago Islam would allow no Christian missionaries to labor for Mohammedans, and by its organic law will allow none to-day. Every apostate is an outlaw, and is exposed to the death penalty. But in India under the British Government this penalty cannot be executed. In Persia the government is weak and the system is divided against itself, and the rulers are not disposed to aid the ecclesiastics in religious matters. In Turkey the pressure of Christian powers is also felt, and Christian missions cannot be entirely destroyed. In Egypt the revolutions of the past few years give practical toleration to Christian work. In all North Africa there is as much toleration as existed in the Roman Empire in the days of the Apostles and early Church. This may be said of all Moslem lands, even of the Soudan and Afghanistan. Consider, also, that over against this mighty system of intolerance is another advancing power, the Englishspeaking races, pouring into every Moslem land an increasing volume of capital and commerce and influence. This is true of Egypt and the Upper Nile, Arabia, India and Afghanistan, Turkey and Persia; and we can see that the chances of Islam making head as a rival power are indeed small.
Then we should reckon another factor still more important. The old churches of the East, by their unfaithfulness, were the occasion of the great heresy or apostasy of Islam. Their revival is the pledge of its downfall. There is now an evangelical church of 2500 members in Persia, a similar church in Egypt, a similar church in Syria, and another of over 12,000 active members in other parts of Turke,y. These are bodies of living Christians in the midst of Moslem conquerors; the scattered leaven to leaven the whole lump, inwardly; the materials for the spiritual assault, outwardly. They and the missionaries are at work with the Bible, the press, the power of prayer and of the daily life. The Moslem is now on the defensive, with no hope of converting the Ohristian to this faith, while the Ohristian is on the aggressive, full of faith in the ultimate triumphs of the truth. The converted Moslems all along the line, from the Ganges to the Straits of Gibraltar, are the pledge of many more. Great events may transpire suddenly to change the face of the East, and when such events come we know they wiIl be guided by the pierced Hand that rules the world. Thus the very difficulties of the problem invite to greater achievements. There is no more inspiring work in the world than to labor for the overthrow of Islam. The conflict may. be a long one before the last Moslem yields to Jesus, but the irresistible influences are at work, the motives of the cross are sufficient, and the end is as sure as the promises of God.
I cannot pursue the subject further, and will only add: Happy is that young man of education and "Ohristian experience and consecration who shall enlist for his life work in some one or other of the divisions of the great conquest of the world for Christ!
"ON Sabbath, January lIth, 100 ministers in Edinburgh and Leith preached, by common consent, on the divine authority and permanent obligation of the Sabbath Day. The preachers included ministers of all evangelical denominations, mauy of them prominent men in the three great Presbyterian churches, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Wesleyans. The evidence of unanimity in conviction and feeling in defence of a divin(> institution which is at prtlsent the object of continual assault, it cannot be doubted made a good impression on all the churches, as well as on the general community.') So writes that prince among men, Dr. Andrew Thomson. May we not suggest that if, on the same Sabbath, at a future day, all pastors conld similarly agree to present the great facts of modern missions with especial reference to the increased obligations resting upon God's people both to occupy the whole world field and to multiply very largely their gifts, the effect would be like a thunderstorm all around the sky.
FAITH HALL, LERADO, MEXICAN BORDER MISSION
FAITH HALL, LERADO, MEXICAN BORDER MISSION.
BY MISS JENNIE BROWN, TUSCALOOSA, ALA.
Faith Hall, of Lerado, stands as a proof of Miss Holding's descent from Israel, "who as a prince had power with God, and prevailed"-a witness to the world of God's power and willingness, in answer to believing prayer, not only to open the windows of heaven in spiritual blessings, but when the material interests of His kingdom must have pecuniary aid; in proof that the gold and the silver are His, and that His stewards, solillited only by the influence of the Holy Spirit, will respond to the prayer of faith, and send their gold from afar to build the" waste places of Zion.", When the recipients of God's bounties will not give even the crumbs that fall from their children's tables for the Master's use, the disbursers of the impoverished treasuries of the house of the Lord are obliged to protest many drafts written in love, and signed by the blood of perishing souls. When this Christian heroine's petition was refused on earth, with inspiration high as heaven she turned from the limited treasuries of earth to the limitless pledges of heaven, and made request, "The heathen, thino inheritance," are in want, and "man shutteth his bowels of compassion against them. " The fixed and eternal laws of the kingdom were fulfilledknock, ask, receive.
In the year 1887 Miss Holding attended the Woman's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which met at Catlettsburg, Ky., to requestthe society to grant her $7000 with which to build a house containing a hall that could be used as a school-room and chur~h. None who heard her will ever forget her earnest pleadings. Such words could only come from a heart where human love had touched the Divine, and gone forth reflecting the Christ-like compassion for the multitudes" in • error's chains." She drew a strong contrast between Mexican darkness, defilement, alld falsehood, and Christian light, purity, and truth. The mission buildings were so small they could not receive those who were longing to learn to read the message of life. They had no room to accommodate those who would see Jesus.
"For months they had not been able to take those who crowd their doors. None but a missionary who stands in the midst of a down-trodden and poverty-stricken people can comprehend the anguish of spirit when compelled to turn away from their pleading 100K;S and words, and leave them in their helpless misery."
"Can't you, won't you, my dear sisters, give us $7000 for this building? God's work demands it; we must have it this year. " As that saintly woman resumed her seat, she must have felt, Surely my petition will be given me.
When the Executive Committee had made the appropriations for the obligations of the society, it was found impossible to give a grant of $7000 to the Lerado Mission. None but those who have assisted in distributing missionary funds know how the heart aches as they look at the discrepancy between the demand and the supply j how the soul cries out, " 0 Lord! how long shall those who are clothed at the expense of Thy love, and called by Thy name, shut their ears to the cry of a perishing world ~"
The president sorrowfully told Miss Holding of the inability of the society to grant her request, assured her of their continued sympathy and prayers, commending her to the care of the God of Jacob; who would de- fend and" send her help out of Zion."
What seemed disappointmeut proved to be love most true. Christ would lead His chosen one into a richer experience, a broader faith j into extremity, that she might prove the exceeding greatness of His promises.
Miss Holding rose to bid the society farewell, preparatory to leaving for her mission at Lerado. With a voice full of tears, she said, "My dear sisters, we must have that building this year." With inspiration she said, " I have asked for that building j God's work demands it j we shall have it." Every heart present, touched by sympathetic faith, repeated the as- surance-" shall have it." Heaven echoed back to earth-" shall have it." A triune Deity ratified the promise of incarnate God, " according to thy faith be it unto thee."
On Miss Holding's return to Lerado she was greeted by many anxious and expectant faces j because of the tumult of hope and fear, all hesitated to ask the question so near to their hearts.
As soon as possible, Miss Holding assembled the whole household. She did not wish to give them disappointment without sharing with them her hope and expectation that" deliverance should arise from another place."
After explaining to them that it was impossible for the Woman's Mis- sionary Society to give them the building that year, she asked them if they would all join her in a day of fasting and prayer, asking the Lord to supply the means for building. All heartily joined their beloved teacher in. calling upon the Lord, who had promised to deliver in the day of trouble.
Three public prayer-meetings were appointed for the fast day. As Miss Rolding was stepping out of the door at the close of the evening prayermeeting, a little girl-the youngest pupil in the school-took her by the hand and said: " Will we commence to build to-morrow 1" Miss Holding said, " The child's faith had gone beyond mine. " I hesitated just a moment, and replied, ., No, dear, we will not commence to build to-morrow, but we will get the lot ready.' " Miss Holding requested that the pupils, and all that could help. be in the orchard at six o'clock in the morning to transplant the trees and prepare the lot for the building of the house. . Promptly at six o'clock they were on the ground to show their faith .by their works. Accounting Him faithful who had promised, they made ready the ground. As soon as the orchard was cleared the first pledge of a covenantrkeeping God arrived-a letter containing money for the buildings.
Miss Holding, surely gathering that God intended that she should com- mence to build, without gainsaying began the work, knowing that He who had begun the work would also finish it.
Miss Holding said, " I knew God had heard our prayers, and would give us the building; but I thought in my heart, surely our Heavenly Father will move on the heart of some rich man or woman to send us the $7000 ; but it came in small sums, just as it was needed. I had to pray and believe all year." .
The bountiful Giver of all kept the dire~tor of His building, the con- servator of His funds, asking at the door of mercy, tarrying at heaven'i!
gates with thanksgiving; not that he would weary His beloved, but that in the audience chamber of heaven, beholding His glory, she might" be changed into the same image from glory to glory," and become to this people a living expression of the graces of thc Holy Spirit.
This sanctuary, which is of the Lord's own right hand planting, is an inspiration to the faith of the donors from almost every State in the Union, and those which hear of it will rejoice to know that justification by faith alone will be preached to a people" where superstition usurps the place of the Gospel, and priestly absolution supplants a divine forgiveness; where baptism is synonymous wit~ regeneration, lying wonders of relics are put in the place of the work of the Holy Spirit."
At the next meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1888, at Nashville, Tenn., Miss Holding presented the fOllowing report : " , This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.' As I come to my fourth annual report, I find in my heart only a feeling of praise and thanksgiving. So manifestly hath the Lord been with us our cup runneth over; prosperity in every part of the work, health and happiness maketh the soul glad. We would not rejoice so much in these outward things if we did not look upon them as the manifestation of , the good hand of our God upon us.'
"Last year we realized the necessity of enlarging our buildings. We asked for an appropriation for that p,urpose. / You did not have it in your power to grant our request j we remember how sorrowfully you refused us j we turned to Him 'who holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands,' and whose spirit' moveth upon the hearts of men,' and He gave us the thing which we asked.
" The new building or, as we call it, the house we prayed for, and which you have christened' Hall of Faith,' is completed and occupied, and free of debt. It is a large two-story building, containing nine rooms. How eagerly we have watched it grow into its present fair proportions, becom- ing, indeed, ' a thing of beauty!! There it stands, a blessed reality- a tangible evidence of direct answer to the prayer of faith. "
" So great has been the increase in numbers that we have found it necessary to become an organized church. To meet the exigencies of the case, by my request Brother Sutherland preaches twice a month at the seminary, both in English and Spanish. We have a membership of twenty-four. The Sunday-school numbers seventy-nine.
" Our missionary society-Lerado Band-has a membership of seventytwo. The year's contributions, $59.60. The baby of the school-Maria Villareal, six years of age-is supported by the Band. All things stand out as beautiful tints. upon the dark background. When we take into consideration the sloth and utter carelessness of the Mexican character, we can more perfectly approximate the advancement of our pupils. Our souls are encouraged by drawing comparative lines, present and past. From one flashes rays of light which give promise of the full life ; the other, only a dark line of simple existence, into which no glimmer of light had ever entered. The three natures of the household have in a measure kept pacephysical, intellectual, and spiritual. This one school upon the border can no more meet the demand of this people tban one drop of water can quench the thirst of famishing millions. We have pleaded, 'and we plead again, and will continue to plead as long as strength and life remain, for the establishment of Christian schools in every city of Mexico. The rapid growth and unrivalled prosperity of this border mission lead us to hope that th-e Board, and through the Board the women of the Southern Methodist Church, will be encouraged to enter the numerous doors now standing invitingly open."
Weare told of an Irishman who, when his opinion was asked as to the comparative merits of the sun and the moon, replied that he preferred the moon, because the moon shone by night and the suu shone by day when there was no need of shining. He reminds us of some Christians, who, in their comparative estimates of Christianity and morality, give morality the preference, on the ground of the Irishman, that Christianity is an unnecessary luminary in the presence of nineteenth-century ascetics, forgetting that nineteenth-century ascetics are the reflection and product of Christianity.
The Presbyterian churches of Great Britain and Ireland held their annual season of prayer for foreign missions during the week beginning November 30th. The Presbyterian churches in the United States, in accordance with the direction of the General Assembly, held" simultaneous meetings" for the same purpose during the week following December 6th to 13th.
A native Japanese, in Bethany Church, Philadelphia, gave a fine definition of prayer and its answer. He said: "They remind me of two buckets in an old-fashioned well, while one was going up the other was coming down."
'tHE WALDEN'SIAN' CHURCH
THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH AND ITS EVANGELICAL MIS- SION IN ITALY.
BY PASTOR J. P. PONS, TORRE PELLICE, ITALY.
[Last April I had the pleasure and honor of a visit to the Vaudois Valleys, as the guest of that rare man of God, Rev. J. P. Pons, President of the Synod. and author of the paper which follows. I spent the whole day- Saturday-in" walking over the hills and valleys of Angrognia, and visiting the beautiful and historic scenes connected with the Waldensian history. I went to the Rock Simon, where one saint, bound about with cords, was" hurled one hundred and fifty feet on to the rock below. I went to the Church of the Cavern, where for centuries the little body of believers escaped persecution, hiding from their implacable foes in the merciful shelter of a cave. I had to get down on hands and knees, crawl through a narrow opening, and then I found myself in an apartment cut out of solid rock by some convulsion of nature, and where hundreds of people could be comfortably accommodated; and I went also to the neat little chapel of Pra de Tour, and saw the very pool that the persecutors threatened to make flow red with the blood of the martyrs. On Sunday I preached four times at successive services in the valley, from 9 A.M. to 8 P.M., to attentive and decorous audiences, Rev. M. Peyrot, Bonnet, Meille, and Pons being my courteous hosts and attendants. The impression left on my mind by these experiences was that God has a great work to do for these descendants of His precious witnesses who counted not their lives dear for His sake. The young men studying in the college at Torre Pellice on a few francs a week, that they may get into the sacred calling; the self-sacrificing pastors, accomplished men as they are, who are living on a pittance that they may serve these poor saints; the whole aspect of affairs in these valleys, where a baptism of blood made every spot a Golgotha, impressed me with a peculiar solemnity, and seemed to say that before this martyr people a great future lies, in the evangelization of Free Italy. Think of a people, poor and few, who since Apostolic days have steadily and steadfastly kept the flag of the cross at masthead even in the stormiest seas, and when the little ship of their ecclesiastical organization seemed to be sinking, and would have sunk had not Christ been in it-think of all the marvels and miracles of deliverance God wrought for them, of which the siege of La Basille is only the most prominent and historic-and then say, whether a people so preserved and so persevering for Christ must not, like the Saviour, have been made perfect through suffering, in order to become Captains of Salvation to the poor, down-trodden, priest-ridden people of Italy. Let us help the Waldenses by prayers and by money, and make up for their poverty by our liberality.
The Waldenses in Piedmont, Italy, have recently held festivals in various places, celebrating "the remembrance of the return of their forefathers to the paternal firesides, where they learned to pray to God, where their fathers fell asleep in peace, where they struggled and suffered for liberty." Although the persecution of the Waldenses did not wholly cease until about the middle of the eighteenth century, an event of much importance in their history occurred in 1689-the permission then granted them to return to their mountain homes from the various parts of Europe to which they had been driven. Here they have since remained. In 1848 the Sardinian Government granted them full religious and c~vil liberty. They are now also permitted to establish congregations elsewhere in Sardinia besides the three retired valleys of the Cottian Alps to which they had before been obliged to confine themselves.-EDlToR.] The Waldenses both are and always have been" a peculiar people," not only of Italy, but of Europe j and the place where they live and have lived for more than seven centuries is also totally different from the country which surrounds them j and the valleys of the Cottian Alps, near Pinerolo, seem to have been especially provided by God for their preservation. If they had not been hidden from their enemies behind a rampart of mountains, they would have perished as a nation long ago.
I.
As to the origin of the Waldensians, my confined limits do not allow me to speak about such a controverted question. There certainly is a great interest in knowing whether they werQ a pure, primitive church, which never went wrong nor needed reformation, or whether their religious principles were due to Peter Valdo, the merchant of Lyons. After all, we would better leave this question to the historians as a matter of no consequence in the present state and to the present duties of our people.
For ages every man's hand has been against them, though their own has been against nobody except in self-defence. Nor can we wonder at this, because they have ever been, since the twelfth century, a thorn in the side of the Church of Rome, a perpetual witness against the errors of the papacy, a light, greater or smaller, shining in darkness, as the Waldenses' motto says, " Lux lucet in tenebris. •, But though thus preserved from destruction, the Church of the Valleys was not shielded from great and numerous persecutions, nor guarded from cruelties such as have been seldom equalled, and never surpassed j and all that during not less than five centuries. That such things should have been allowed may seem mysterious, but we know that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church, and that seed is even now bearing fruit, and will, we trust, do so henceforth.
When God prepares a suitable instrument for His will and purpose, before everything He breaks it! The last of this series of persecutions has been the most atrocious and dangerous for the existence itself of the little flock. It took place in the year 1686, the year in which all the people were imprisoned-viz., 14,000. The following year about 3000 emaciated
1S91.J TlrE WALl>ENSlAN Cnu1WJt
beings crossed the Alps and took refuge in Switzerland; but alas! about 10,000 had perished in loathsome dungeons! The remnant of the exiled were hospitably received, housed, and fed by the generous inhabitants of Geneva and other cities of that generous country, or in Germany.
But after living some time in foreign countries, the poor Vaudois were seized with an unconquerable home-sickness, and resolved to return to their native land, to kindle again their lamp. After much prayer and consultation a party of 800 men, led by the heroic Henri Arnaud, succeeded in entering their valleys, on Sunday, August 27th, 1689.
That glorious return was solemnly celebrated by the Waldenses in the year 1889, and we had the honor of seeing our king partake of our joy, who was there represented by Count Lovera, Prefect of Turin.
The worst days were over, but still the Waldenses had troubles from the Church of Rome, till the beginning of this century living in constant dread of bad edicts. They received moral and temporal aid from their brethren from England and Holland, which enabled them to keep up their schools and their worship.
In the early part of this century three noble men of England-Dr. W. S. Gilly, General Beckwith, and the Rev. Dr. Stewart-were providentially sent into the valleys to help us in the foundation of the College of La Tour and in the improvement of the instruction of youth, as in the foundation of a theological seminary. We said, providentially, because the 17th of February, 1848, the King of Piedmont, Charles Albert, emancipated the Waldensian Church from the oppressive disabilities and restraints under which she had so long suffered and labored, and that event found us ready to occupy the field open to the truth of the Gospel.
The barriers were removed, and the Waldenses, under the impulse of their newly acquired freedom and revived spiritual life, were prompt to undertake the great work for which God had certainly preserved and prepared them. If their " Barbes" had not feared, in the past centuries, to go through all Italy preaching the Gospel, despite the danger their life ran, their descendants were quite decided to continue the interrupted mission-" Woe is unto Me, if I preaoh not the Gospel !"
II.
The first mission to the Italians was' begun by the W aldEmsian Church in Turin, and after some years it had congregations in that city, in Genoa, Alexandria, and many other places in Piedmont.
When, in 1859 and 1860, all the Dukes of Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the King of Naples were driven from their thrones, and their States annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia, the largest part of Italy was so opened to the Gospel, that the ancient Church of the Valleys sent its evangelists, teachers, and colporteurs everywhere, including the distant island of Sicily.
To prepare fit men for that great work of evangelization, the Theolog- . ieal Seminary of La Tour was removed from there to Florenae, as hetter adapted, that city being the Athens of Italy. In the same year,. 1860, the Synod appointed a special Committee of Evangelization, as the Table could not provide for the wants of the native churches in the valleys, and the new congregations spread throughout Italy, which were increasing every day.
Some years later the provinces of Lombardo-Venitia were liberated from Austrian power, and immediately the principal cities, as Venice, Mantua, Verona, were visited by one or more of our evangelists. At last Rome was opened, and our Church, availing itself of this liberty, sent the first pastor who has preached the Gospel to the Romans in modern times, after the fall of its walls. He was the actual president of our committee, the Rev. Dr. Matteo Prochet.
The mission has been gradually extended, and its progress will appear, looking at the following statement: Forty years ago the Waldenses had 15 native churches in the valleys and 18 ministers (15 pastors and 3 professors). Now the ministers are 81, and the settled churches more than 60.
I give here the statistics of the Waldensian missionary field : Settled congregations.. • • •. . . . . . . . . • . . • • •. . .• 44 Missionary stations…••.••….•..••……… 53 Ordained ministers……………………. . I41 ) . . Lay evangelists …•…•••……•…, …….. . 9 Teacher evangelists……………………. . 588 ( II Teachers or schoolmasters……………… . 8I I all 132 workers Colporteurs ……….•••••. , ………….. . Bible-readers and Bible-women………….. . 8J The regular attendants at the church amount to …..•. " …… . 6,536 The occasional hearers of the Gospel to ………………….. . 49,929 The number of communicants (members) ……. _…………. . 4,428 Members admitted last year ……•……… , .•…••…. , .••.. 586 Catechumens last year…..•••••••..•…….•………••• " •.• 618 The day-schools last year…………………………….. .. 67 The attendance of pupils last year………………• " ..•….. 2,560 The Sabbath schools last year. . . .. . . .. . . .. . … …… .. …. .. 57 Attendance of pupils last year………………………….. . 2,866 There are also 17 evening schools, with 582 young people or adults. The present expense of the mission is about $60,000 per annum, of which about $16,000 are contributed by the Waldensian churches, the offspring of the mission. For the remnant we seek the help of other churches. As our missionary congregations in Italy "four times exceed in number the native congregations in the valleys, our agents in the field of evangelization are 132, and they are doing a great work j some of them having many places to visit in a week, we need aid. We say to all our brethren in faith, in the words of Carey to Pierce and Fuller, " We will go down into the pit, if you will hold the rope !" The progress made by the evangelical movement is not completely indicated if we look only at the figures. As they stand they represent, no doubt, a gain; but it is quite impossible to show by them the general impression produced by the preaching on the many thousands of occasional hearers.
We have ascertained that a general improvement of the public opinion has been the happy result of our labors.
It was evident last year, when the prefects, senators, and many members of Italian Parliament assured their sympathy to our church, coming to La Tour to assist at the Second Centenary of the Glorious Return of our forefathers. They spoke cordially to the descendants of the martyrs, and we felt how imp?rtant is the change of the opinion and attitude of our countrymen toward us. The daily press also gave to us many precious tokens of this great and real improvement.
All this awakens rejoicing, but it is not yet the conversion of the multitudes, which we long for so much. Our evangelists have done their best to attract and retain the hearers, bq.t we know that all the country is under the spirit of indifference, unbelief, and the deepest superstitions. The more we approach Rome the greater the darkness and errors are. Your Catholicism in America is a great deal less intolerant and superstitious, because the influence of Protestantism forces the Papacy to adapt its practices to the milieu in which it lives and works.
When I read, in this REVIEW, an account of the Roman Catholic Lay Congress of 1889, held in Baltimore, I felt more than ever the necessity of evangelizing Italy. Here is the head of that universal army, here is the " man of sin who exalteth himself against all that is called God, . . . setting himself forth as God." England and the United States mnst keep their ground, but all evangelical Christians share the duty to unite their efforts to hasten that day when we shall hear the mighty voice saying, " Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great."
Now, in that hope, " we beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with us in your prayers to God for us."
A Methodist Episcopal bishop of this country boasts that in the last ten years the gifts of the churches for missions had increased steadily by the sum of $50,000 a year. For the coming year the missionary committee has appropriated the following sums: Foreign Missions, $566,352 ; Home Missions, $459, t348. This seems a small sum for so large a body. The United Societies of Methodism, under J ohn Wesley, now !ncludes about six and a third millions of ministers and members, and a domestic and personal affiliation of about thirty millions of adherents. The Methodist Episcopal branch alone has 2,252,621 ministers and members, 26,200 Sunday-schools, and 2,554,000 teachers and pupils.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-M. Saillens, in a pleasant little tract entitled L'.Age d' 01' (" The Age of Gold"), occasioned by a discourse of the noted female anarchist, Louise Michel, whom a good nun has well described as une sainte egaree, " a saint that has lost her way," remarks, after speaking of the many points which anarchists and Christians have in common, that nevertheless they are exactly opposed as to two points. the cause and the cure of present ills. "The revolutionists say, Change societYI and men will be good. Christians say, Change man, and society will be good." "Anarchism," he remarks further, "is merely Jesuitism reversed. The same fanaticism, the same blindness, the same implicit obedience to secret chiefs, the same contempt of morality, of justice, of the rights of others."
-The report rendered to the Synod of the W aldensian Church, September 1st, 1890, by the Table, or Executive Commission, which is chosen annually to govern the Church ad interim, is interesting. in view of the recent celebration, so interesting to .the whole Protestant world, of the Glorious Return, when, two centuries ago, the expatriated Waldenses forced their way back to their native valleys, in which they have since maintained themselves. It was hoped that this great celebration might issue in a great spiritual reawakening. But patriotic celebrations, with all their benefits, do not always give much room to the" still, small voice" of the Divine Spirit. It is the general testimony of the parishes that no fruits of revival have been seen. In some the crust of religious indifference seems to be growing thicker and thicker. The catechumens, once confirmed, partake of the Holy Supper once or twice, and then remain absolutely indifferent to it. But in most of the parishes attendance is good, great interest is manifested in the services, even to tears, but there is a noted unwillingness to do. The pastor, elders, and deacons seem to be regarded as charged with the sole responsibility of all the administration of the means of salvation. To overcome this paralyzing misconception of a private Christian's duty seems to be the point toward which all the endeavors of the leading brethren are bent. And it is plain, notwithstanding the dead weight of old habit, aggravated by that of modern unbelief, good progress is making in the right direction. In many pariAhes a large number of the brethren are becoming active in prayer, in Bible study, visitation of the sick, and other offices of piety and charity. The old confusion between "the Vaudois people and the Vaudois Church" is giving way to a more spiritual discrimination. There, as. elsewhere in Europe, the national or quasinational crust may break away altogether; for" all are not Israel which are of Israel." But the living nucleus, the true inheritrix of the traditions and the· promises, will be set free for unencumbered energy in the works of conversion.
-In a very interesting essay by the Rev. Arthur H. Smith, of the North China Mission of the American Board, on "The Natural History of the Chinese Boy and of the Chinese Girl," the author quotes a description which, he says, sums up the whole system of Chinese education- "gnawing a wooden pear. " A very small proportion of boys and next to no girls enjoy this dismal privilege. "The great majority of pupils, when they leave school, cast aside all their little store of learning as a wornout pair of shoes." There seems to be the same difference between the Chinese and us as that which some French journal declares to exist between Catholic and Protestant countries. In the former countries, parents are as fond of their children as in the latter, but have but a glimmering conception that childhood has a world of its own, which must be divined, entered into, and provided for. In Protestant countries alone, says this journal, is there (fairy stories apart) a children's literature. The full significance of the Saviour's blessing on the little ones seems to have been reserved for the lands of the Reformation.
In China, Mr. Smith remarks, a youth learns two excellent lessons which do much to make amends for the dreariness of his biting on the " wooden pear"-if he has done so. He learns obedience and he learns industry. " But of intellectual independence he has not the faintest conception or eVlln a capacity of comprehension." An uneducated Chinese youth " knows that he knows nothing, that he never did, never shall, never can know anything, and also that it makes very little difference what he knows. He has a blind respect for learning, but no idea of gathering any crumbs thereof for himself. The long, broad, black, and hopeless shadow of Confucianism is over him. It means a high degree of intellectual cultivation for the few, who are necessarily narrow and often bigoted, and for the many it means a lifetime of intellectual stagnation. Measured by what it has totally failed to do, when it might and should have done it. we charge Confucianism with being intellectually one of the most elaborate, compendious, and far-reaching failures which has ever wrought out its ultimate results upon this distracted earth !"
As to daughters, the Chinese say, "A daughter with the virtues of the eighteen Lo-hans"-whatever they may be-" is not equal to a splayfooted son." Why ~ Because a daughter cannot offer the ancestral sacrifices, without which a family is given over to ignominy and, as is supposed, to every conceivable evil. The reason also why girls are as good as never educated is, that after marriage they are (not socially, -but legally) no longer the children of their parents. To educate them " is like putting a gold chain around the neck of some one else's puppy." If the puppy is whistled away, what becomes of the chain ~ Neither man nor woman being recognized by Confucianism as having any eternal and therefore individual value, the selfishness of mere Socialism has full sway.
" One of the weakest parts of the Chinese social fabric is the insecurity of the life and happiness of woman. But no structure is stronger than its weakest part, and Chinese society is no exception to this law. Every year thousands upon thousands of Chinese wives commit suicide, tens of thousands of other persons are thereby involved in serious trouble, hundreds of thousands of yet others are dragged in as co-partners in the difficulty, and millions of dollars are expended in extravagant funerals and ruinous lawsuits. And all this is the outcome of the Confucian theory that a wife has no rights which a husband is bound to respect."
-The Rev. George Ensor, in the Church Missionary Intelligencer for November, 1890, makes an important remark respecting heathen systemsnamely, that usually in them the moral and the religious elements are in inverse proportion to each other. Thus the highest morality· is perhaps found in Confucianism. Yet Confucianism is very nearly atheistic. On the other hand, an extraordinary depth of religious feeling appears in Hinduism; yet morally it is worse than worthless, it is foul and cruel. This may well remind us of what Dr. Dorner so justly says of our Lord, that in Him we cannot separate ethics from religion. There is no saying of His of which we can declare that it respects man without equally respecting God, or God without equally respecting man. . But, says Mr. Ensor, the much-lauded Islam, in its Paradise of lust, • displays a moral corruption of which the foulest Tantras of Hinduism, the most immoral votaries of Krishna, are simply incapable. They cannot even comprehend it. Our own Mormonism alone approaches it.
-The Rev. Henry Rice, writing in the Harvest Field for November, 1890, on " British Influence in India," remarks: "We may point with just satisfaction to the improved state of the country, to communication by land and water, to railways, electric telegraphs, etc. This is unde- niable. But all the while religion has been largely shuffled off or almost entirely left to missionaries. Little or nothing has been done as a com- munity to let our light shine before the heathen. We have feared that we might acknowledge Christ too openly, and that the natives of the country would imagine that we wished to enrol them forcibly among the number of His disciples. We have, perhaps, feared their numbers. and practised a cautious timidity, until it has come to pass that goodness has been left to itself, and greatness made the foundation and support of our authority. There has been an endeavor to rule by power, and make a display of what may be called great works, tacitly trusting that the Hindus would be awed by wonder, and render the obedience due to superior knowledge and energy. The most subtle and the most formidable forces of heat and electricity have appeared alike obedient to our will and subservient to our convenience. The effect has been very great upon a people who believe in sorcery, whose jugglers and snake-charmers perform feats which at first sight can hardly be accounted .for by anything short of Satanic agency. But we may. say without hesitation that the higher means of spreading the true religion in this country have been largely wanting. Living example in ordinary men has been the exception, not the rule. All has been too much confined to externals. The influence held by the British is an in- fluence derived from wonder at the visible greatness of their power and energy. It excites awe, perhaps, but it does not create the feeling of reverence which internal goodness of principle alone can call into being. Where there is no reverence there can be no love."
The Harvest Field remarks, speaking especially of female agency, and of India as " weirdly fascinating" to cultivated women, " In the divine enterprises to which India invites the V{est, America· is aiready doing an almost equal share with Britain. Could anything be more admirabJe? Divided there, and disposed sometimes to emphasize division, the two nations join here."
The same article speaks at length of the broad and fruitful efforts mak- ing by our countrywoman, Mrs. Brainerd·Ryder, M.D., to advance general and also technical education among the women of Bombay.. These efforts are not specifically religious, but they allow full discussion of religion, and are of course underlaid by Christian motives. The Society for Technical Education of Women has, as its president, the Hon. Justice K. T. Telang, C.LE. The Vice-Presidents are Khan Bahadur, M.C., Murzbun, a Parsi, and Pundita Ramabai j on the Advisory Board are the Bishop of Bom- bay, Bishop Thoburn, of our M. E. Church, and the Vicar-General of the Jesuits.
-The Rev. W. J. Chamberlain, of Mandanapelle, says: "We baptized here a young Brahmin of twenty-five years. He came to us a year ago, entered into full and earnest converse with us, and left with a promise to return in eight days. He did not appear, nor, after the most diligent inquiries, could we find him, He came to town a month ago, and walked directly to the mission compound, as he said, 'driven by God.' He was baptized on the following day, and soon after accompanied me on a tour into the region of his home. "
-The Rev. F. Hahn, of Gossner's Mission among the Kols, quoted in the Harvest Field, says: " How is it that Roman Catholic/! are permitted to break the marriage law with impunity, .•• while Protestant minillters are liable to punishment for doing so?" Protestant Christians should com· bine, not to persecute the Roman Catholics, but to insist that there shall be one manner of law for all Christians in India. Otherwise, without any intention of the Government, of which Mr. Hahn acquits it, it may be throwing the mighty weight of " Cresar in India" (as the empress is officially called) into the scale of the sacerdotal Cresar of the Tiber.
-A non-Christian graduate of a Christian college in India remarks, in a Christian magazine, quoted in the Missions-Blad for October, 1890, that one hostile European of high place can counteract the work of ten. missionaries. He refers to one who used to tell the people that if any applicant for an appointment was recommended by missionaries, he would reject him without any further inquiry. The writer, however, remarks that so desperate a hostility to missions as this on the part of Europeans is very rare. But," before the missionaries rises a strong and gigantic fortification, whose garrison are by no means despicable soldiers in intellectual wars. Behind they are assailed by a Bradlaugh and an Ingersoll. And to render the situation yet more perplexing, there sometimes come flank attacks from hostile local officials of their own nationality."
"The missionaries are not likely in the near future," continues this non-Christian adviser, "to advance the banners of victory very widely in any direction. But they may and ought to accustom the Hindus to look upon them as assailants worthy of their steel. And this is what educational missions are in a fair way to accomplish." '" A patriotic feeling,' many say, 'is awakening among the people of India, and their resistance is about to become more energetic.' This is the exact truth ; and let me say to the educational missionary, You have no occasion to be ashamed when you are declared to be largely responsible for this state of things. Hitherto the lion has been couching in serene disdain of you. Now he feels that, after all, you are not so much to ·be despised, and he is rousing himself for defence and for a counter attack."
" There was a time, " says this Christian]y educated but not Christian theist, "when the inner world was almost the exclusive object of human study, while men looked down upon the physical world with contempt. We are now veering to the opposite extreme. Weare so completely taken up with the visible and palpable, that we act as if everything invisible was chimerical." Tillthe tide changes, he thinks that conversions in India will be few.
" True it is," he remarks, "that often, when by a Christian education one devil has been driven out of the young Hindus, seven devils worse than he come in his stead. But he who believes that Christ is mighty to drive out every devil must believe that sooner or later his power and lordship will be acknowledged by all."
He says in conclusion, in reference to the contemptuous criticisms of the missionary work, " As the Chinese say, a tower is measured by its shadow, and greatness by its slanderers."
Mr. Herman Jensen, who comments on this article, remarks that we lllust. not exaggerate the present position of the Brahmins in India. A poor Brahmin will feel honored to stand side by side with a wealthy and educated Sudra.
He remarks also that missionaries formerly were too much in the way of recommending their converts, simply as such, to the Government, which has given a handle to those who wished to discredit their recommendations altogether.
"This writer also," says Mr. Jensen, " has learned that missionaries are too willing to exaggerate. Till the severity of absolute truth is exacted of all missionary reports, every missionary society will end its days with sorrow, if not with shame."
There are as yet many more "free-livers" than" free-thinkers" in India. The latter tendency is as yet a mere rootless result of the former. -It is known that the English Universities' Mission in Central Mrica ill very distinctly of the Anglo-Catholic type. But happily it is absolutely free from that arrogant and encroaching temper which sometimes renders the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel hardly less uncomfortable neighbors than the most encroaching Roman Catholi~ orders. In particular, remarks the Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Record, the relations between the Universities' Mission and the Scottish Mission in Nyassaland have always been of the friendliest. Archdeacon Maples, of the former mission, writes of the latter: "The hospitality and friendliness of the Blantyre Mission to ourselves are so well known that I will not dilate on them here, but will content myself with remarking that if there is a place on the face of the globe where the Church in occupation of the field extends the entente cordiale to missionary visitors from another, that place is Blantyre. The mission buildings, with the beautifully laid out' square,' with its home-like looking lawn, its deodoras, and the noble church seen at the end through a vista of greenery, form a coup d'a!il which surpasses anything I have ever seen at any missionary station in Africa. " The Record quotes the following from Vaughan's standard work, "The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross:" "Thousands with slender faith and scanty knowledge have embraced the name of Christ. Among these were many hundreds of Mohammedans. One of the Mohammedan converts, with a simple and ingenuous candor, said' he hoped God would be more favorable to him when he worshipped Jesus Christ than when ho worshipped Mohammed, for then they had nothing but trouble, but with the Christians they found pity, as also money and rice [largely bestowed also on those outside] which they did not obtain from the Zemindars' [Mohammedan landlords]_ He might have been the spokesman of the majority [of these , famine' or 'rico ' Christians] thus gathered within the Christian fold.
, We find pity and help' was really the voice of converted thousands. It was a voice which fell far short of the agonizing cry, , Men and brethren, what shall we do ~' (Acts ii. 37.) And yet it was a natural voice, and it was true. They began, no doubt, at a very low level; yet, commingled with the selfish aim was a certain vague impression that Chdstianity rested upon a basis of truth and justice. Many a pleasing story might be told of those who, star~ing on such a defective principle, have rapidly advanced in light and knowledge and faith, until at length they have become burning and shining lights. . . . But there is another picture, and one which charms the eye with its glowing and beauteous tints. Numbered among the Christians of India are multitudes of persons, the narrative of whose conversion would grace the fairest page in the history of the Church of Christ. • • , If deep repentance, earnest faith, and burning love, if complete self-sacrifice, if a fearless confession of Christ at any cost, be marks of genuine conversion, then has the Church of India multitudes within her pale distinguished by these marks. . . . Try them by whatever test we may, we find them approved as the regenerated children of the Most High. It has been our privilege to mix with many such, and we have uo hesita_ tion in saying that among them are Christians so advanced in the life of grace that we have, as it were, sat at their feet and learned the deep things of God."
Much is made by many of the fact that by far the most of the converts in India are from the lower classes. As to this, the Indian Witness, Calcutta (as quoted in the Record), says: "It is very true that four fifths of the converts are from the lower castes-many of them, indeed, from the lowest; but those who reject the idea of such people becoming the successors to the Brahmins have not probably given much attention to the rapidity with which many of them rise in the social scale. A youth of eighteen, perhaps the son of a sweeper, becomes a Christian, and begins to study. Three years later he is a student in a high school, and at twentyfive he is the most intelligent and cultured man in the village where he lives. His wife is so superior to all the other women in the village, and is able to help them all in so many ways, that the young couple are everywhere received with honor. Already their sweeper origin is nearly forgotten." How much more in two or three generations !
-The Rev. George Cockburn, M.A., writing in the Record from Ichang, China, says that the Mandarins, who are apt to have a smattering of Western culture, show a disheartening readiness to truckle to the JUost puerile superstitions of the people, and that since the young Kwang-su has come to the throne, the hands of the clock have gone backward. It is rumored, we may remark, that the young emperor seems sullenly resolved not to appear too much under the influence of his father, who has become a decided advocate of Vvestern progress.
-Whatever may be thought of the West African, or Negro proper, the East African Bantu (of which race the Caffres and Zulus are a branch) is, says the Record, "sharp and clever, and although a spirit of levity does seem to rule the African, it does not make him, as Major Wissmann contends, impervious to spiritual truth." Of two East African boys at school' in Edinburgh, one took the highest place in his class, " and both showed themselves not in the least degree inferior."
-Mr. Frederiek WellsWiIliams, a native of Macao, China, and the son of the author of " The Middle Kingdom," says of the Chinese civilization "that, with such a cast-iron system, any change must come from outside. • • • Almost inevitably the great tonic of new life and aims must be from Europe and America. Chinese statesmen recognize the radieal nature of the change to come, one of whom declares it a greater change for China to find herself face to face with the nations of the far West than anything that has occurred in her history. How to adapt herself to this imminent transformation is the problem for years to come. The next two or three generations will be best employed in observing and applying the institutions of other lands. As a cat watches a mouse, China watches Japan, whose rapid progress irritates the Celestial and shocks his pride. Japan may be to China the hyphen, the copula, between the old life and the new. But we shall see no more than the beginning, for Asiatic civilization moves slowly, by centuries j yet some day a great destiny wiIl be realized."
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
Korea.'s Political Relation with Ohina. be 80 gracious as to give me to take back to my master. For, if the Throne It is a matter of no small interest to sends envoys, we will not be able to ac· the missionary world to know the exact commodate them properly. Then measure of the independence of Korea would we be sinners evermore. '" e as a kingdom. A late occurrence throws beg your Celestial Graciousness, our a good deal of light upon the subject. most affectionate parents, to treat us Being strictly official, it shows China's like a red child (i.e., a new-born babe), claim to sovereignty over Chosen, and and not inflict any penalty upon us for Chosen's evident disposition to secure expressing this desire. If your Heavthe recognition of at least a little larger enly Majesty bestows the letters of conautonomy, possibly as testing the tem· dolence upon me to take back, so as to per of the Court at Peking as to Chosen's save the trouble of the envoys, my tendency to secure acknowledgment of Prince and my country will ever bathe her independence. in thankfulness."
The immeditate occasion of this reo To this, however, the Government of assertion by China of her Imperial con· China declined to accede; but seizing trol of the little peninSUla was as fol. the only argmuent in the petition based lows: The Queen Dowager of Korea on Korea's poverty, adapted the former died. It has been the custom hitherto custom merely to a more economical for the Government at Peking on such base, but reaffirming the sovereignty occasions to send an embassy of con. of China over Korea. The reply was: as dolence to Korea, as to a vassal. Korea follows: sought to reduce this to an ordinary let. ter of official sympathy as between "RESCBl:PT FBOM THE THBONE-MEfriendly and equal sovereigns. Accord. MOBIAL NOTED.-That Kingdom for ceningly, the Korean First Envoy at Peking turies past having been the Eastern was instructed to solicit a modification vassal and reaped Our Graciousness of ullage, and addressed to the " Board always, on occasions of any death of of Rites" at Peking the following com. that Kingdom's household, We have munication : always sent Envoys to convey Our Sym- pathies. Such Missions have hitherto II This small kingdom, a vassal to the gone overland, making many halts on Throne which has from time immemo. the way. But this time, not having the rial reaped the benefits of Imperial slightest doubt but what that Kingdom favor, even as late as 1882 and 188!;< is in poverty, We will depart from the notably during the two rebellions when old rule and make slight changes. the Throne raised us from the earth and Therefore the Mission shall proceed by saved our ancestors' ashes, we thank water [sea] with the Pei-Yang squadron again and again for having given us new to land at that Kingdom's port of life. But this small kingdom has Jeuchuan [Chemulpol. When the cersuffered grievously from these two reo emonial shall have been performed. the bellions, and the people being in pov. Mission shall return by the same route. erty d1j.ring the past six or seven years, By such a temporary change that Kingthe condition has been getting worse dom will incur no heavy expenses. and worse. This unfortunate year the When the Prince of that Kingdom premother of my Prince died, and the sents you both with presents, you are funeral expenses are such that we must not allowed to accept anything. That economize. Most humbly prostrating Prince, hearing this Heavenly Declaraourselves, we beg the Great Emperor to tion, will forever be grateful. But you give us the instructions and the letter will see that all rites are strictly obof condolence which the Throne would
2:13
served. Let this Decree of Mine be at not take in the Gospel. All atonce obeyed by the Superintendent of Pei-Yang (of the Northern Seas, Li-Hung tempts to bring them to a knowledge Chang, the Viceroy of Chihli). Let the Board of Rites at once instruct that of the true God have as yet failed ut- King to obey." terly… ' Poor brutes in human shape, We ha7e no room to recount the exact manner in which this edict was executed . . . they must perish off the face of on the one part, and accepted on the other. These were, of course, religious the earth like brute beasts." (" Serproceedings, and might appear as if the relation was similar to that of some mons on National Subjects," p. 234.) Europeansovereign recognizing the Pope as religious emperor in his dominions. The article we now present on this But there can be no mistaking the recognition of the political relatiQl1s involved people has been translated and conin Korea saying" This small Kingdom" is a "vassal to the Throne," and the densed for our columns at our request by authoritative utterance of China that " that Kingdom for centuries past Rev A. Hartmann, from the German having been the Eastern vassal, ..• let the Board of Rites instruct that King of Rev. H. G. Schneider, a missionary to obey." This indirectly and directly involves serious political questions. among these aborigines. Mr. Hart- Korea has existing treaties with European nations, and receives minis- mann was himself a missionary of the ters from the same, such as are accredited only to sovereign States. But if she Moravian Church among these Black recognizes and China asserts her vassalage, what then? Fellows of Australia from 1864 to 1873, , This is diplomatic correspondence incidental to religious rites, but Korea and is now a missionary to North Amermay not alone have the decision of her fate. Japan may have something to say ican IndiansatMoraviantown, Bothwell, when the issue is pushed into practical politics, and 80 may western powers; Ontario, Canada. It strikes us that nevertheless it must be said in the face of Korea's confessed vassalage to China. Mr. Kingsley would have found a bet- J. T. G. ter specimen to put in evidence of the The :Black Pellows of Australia. bottomless pit of original depravity, on FmsT PAPER-PBs-MORAVIAN MISSIONS. the other side of the court room. The PREPARED llY REV. A. HARTMANN. " Settler" and the Colonist might toss It is a no less brilliant and benevolent dice with the poor Papuan for front rank, author than the Rev. Charles Kingsley who, taking the position that man might in the lowest depth of submerged actually fall by original sin too low to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ and humanity. Read and judge. be recovered again, points his proposition by the illustration worn threadbare J. T.G. by saints, sinners and scientists, of the poor Papuan of Australia. He says: The continent of Australia was taken " The black people of Australia, exactly possession of by Captain Cook in the the same race as the African negro, can- name of the English Crown. It was taken, not bought, from the original pos- I sessors of the country. The first settlers were convicts. They, and alas! too many of the emigrants who followed, treated the aborigines as they thought fit, robbing them and abusing their wives, and killing them if resistance was offered. Colonial history gives no rec- ord of an organized war with the na- tives; the latter must have been few and weak, and the severities and cruelties practised upon them were therefore unwarrantable. Their thefts and attacks were in many cases incited by want, or by revenge for wrongs suffered by them. By the introduction of intoxicants, the low became the lowest of the low. A disgusting sickness, of which many of the blacks suffered and perished, as a consequence of vice, was also introduced among them. Of the cruelties inflicted on some of them in individual cases we would rather not speak. Just think of a cowboy glorying before his master that with his own hand he had killed six or seven blacks, and that for the mere sport the chase of human beings afforded him! Dismissal from service piled up the dead bodies and kindled was the only punishment for this mur. over them a large fire to destroy every derer. It is not too much to say that trace of their awful murder. Through the majority of European inhabitants a combination of peculiar circumstances looked with contempt on the blacks, the crime was discovered, and the murconsidering them little if any better derers condemned to suffer the extreme than dangerous animals, for whose ex- penalty of the law. During the trial tirpation any measures were justifiable. the whole population of the colony was in a great excitement. Many, and even So matters went on for fifty years. But men of influence, were full of sympathy in 1838 II society was formed for the pro. for the murderers. All possible means tection of the aborigines. In 1839 a law were employed to have the murderers was passed appointing land commission. acquitted. Large Bums of money were ers with full power to put a stop to the raised to employ the most skilful lawcruelties perpetrated on the natives by yers in their defence, and witnesses reo the settlers beyond the colonial boun. ceived terrible threatenings, and even daries. At the same time, the following the chief witness, one of the most honnoble proclamation was made by the orable men of the district, hardly ven- Governor: ., As human beings, who tured to return to his home. The govpartake of the same nature as ourselves; ernor himself, a brave man, occupying as the original possessors of this terri- the most difficult position in this catastory, from which we derive much of our trophe, nevertheless signed the deathwealth and prosperity; and as subjects warrant of these murderers. Although of the Queen, whose power extends over the blacks now enjoyed the protection every part of New Holland, the abodg. of the law, yet slow progress was made ines of this country have the same right in the improvement of their condition. as Europeans to the protection and as- Still, during the last thirty years the sistance of the law. His Excellency be. moral obligations toward the natives lieves it his duty to inform every inhab- have been fully acknowledged. Efforts itant of this colony that each new de. have been made by the government and spatch from the Secretary of State in by private individuals to better thei~ England speaks of the increasing stress condition by supplying them with food, laid by Her Majesty's Government, the clothing, schools, churches, and mission- Parliament, and the whole people, on aries. But alas! much that was well the proper and humane treatment of the meant came too late to save them as a natives of this land. His Excellency race. Too long these unhappy beings also most urgently and solemnly de- had been treated as animals; too long clares that it is their conviction that had there been no place on earth where nothing whatsoever is so essential to they were suffered, cared for, or loved. the honor and welfare (or interests) of Only at the throne of God, the Just and the colony as humane care and consid- the Merciful, was compassion shown eration of the aborigines. " for them; but the poor blacks did not know Him, and it was long before As one result of this Proclamation, those whites who did know it showed and the laws put in force with it, mur· them the way to Him. derers were punished. Seven convicts who, by the Government, had been ap. EFFORTS TO IMPIOVE THE NATIVES. pointed shepherds to some of the squatters, went out on horseback to hunt There is no rule without exception, blacks. They discovered a small tribe and in this case the rule was bad and of about thirty, men, women, and chil- the exception good. Among the many dren. They surrounded them, tied who looked down and trampled on the them together with a long rope, and natives of Australia there were found then butchered them in cold blood in some noble souls, whose hearts were full the dell th of the wilderness. They then
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
of love and sympathy for them. For in. poor parsonage at Paramatta, a few stance, since the beginning of this cen· miles from Sydney. Mr. Marsden tury there have been noble, humane gov· preached to the convicts and to all the ernors, who did everything in their colonists" Jesus Christ and Him cruci. power to ameliorate and improve their fied" with undaunted courage and un· condition. These efforts sometimes met tiring love. With the blacks, however, with resistance and ingratitude on the he pursued another plan. With the help part of those whom they sought to ben- of Governor Macquarie he established a efit. The blacks would stay for a week model farm, in which several families or two in the paradise prepared for of natives were placed under the guidthem, and then suddenly disappear and ance of a qualified overseer to be trained return to their wandering life. Too to farm work. much was expected of them; the most beautiful palace would have been a pris- Besides this, a boarding-school was on for them. Instead of being grad. commenced for native children, in which ually accustomed to order and a civilized they should be taught reading, writing, life, a degree of liberty being allowed arithmetic, and the elements of the them, they were expected to settle down Christian religion. The whole undertakat once. Many such efforts· were made ing was a failure, and after a few years' and proved failures. The hearts of the trial had to be given up. The children natives were difficult to reach, and the were not to be confined within walls, love of a wandering life was not to be nor were the minds of these ignorant eradicated in a hurry. Even the friends heathen to be prepared by the disci. and benefactors of the race were dis_ pline of civilization for Christianity. couraged, and came again and again to The idea was to teach them first to be the conclusion that for this race there men, then Christians. People forgot .was no hope of deliverance. As, on the that though a missionary is a civilizing one hand, too much was expected from agent, yet that civilization must be the them, so, on the other, too little was giv. fruit, not the root of Christianity. Mr. en them, causing again failure. Marsden in his old age acknowledged this mistake, and spoke thus concern. We are reminded here of the noble ing it : "The Bible," said he, "pro- Governor Macquarie and the chaplain claims free sovereign grace for poor sin- Rev. Samuel Marsden. Thelatter, born ners. No self.righteous person can enat Leeds in 1764, was the son of a poor ter heaven; he would rather hunger and artisan. He attended first the parish perish than accept this free gift. Civschool and then the grammar school at ilization is not necessary before Chris- Hull. His father, being unable to sup· tianity. Let both go hand in hand, if port him any longer, and needing his you will ; but you will find that civilizahelp at home, desired his return. But tion rather follows than precedes Chris· Joseph Milner, the author of a well. tianity. Speak to the heathen of the known Church History, desired that the living God and the Saviour who died talented boy might remain, and procured for them. That will come home to for him the assistance of a company of their hearts !" pious and wealthy men, who made it a point to support poor and talented the· Further efforts were made by pious ological students. After completing his and zealous Methodists. The first, studies preparatory to the ministry, who was sent exclusively for work Marsden, after repeated requests, at among the natives, was Walker, of whose length accepted the position as chaplain work, however, nothing is known. Tho to the convict colony at Sydney, Aus- missionaries Leigh, who commenced tralia, and started thither with his ex- work in 1815, and Cartwright, who folcellent wife in August, 1793. On March lowed in 1820, began at once to speak 2d, 1794, they arrived and entered the of the main point, but the natives did not then understand English, and their teachers did not learn Papuan, forgetting of the work to the pouring in of unprinthat the Word of God reaches the heart cipled colonists and the absence of of the heathen only when translated into such law protection as would have prehis native tongue, and that the first and vented desolating wars between the most important work of a missionary is native tribes and guarded the latter to make the language of the heathen against the outrages of the whites. tribe among whom he labors his own. Herein he touches indisputably the sore point in the condition of New Holland; In the year 1828 they relinquished and sad as his conclusion is, it in notheir work for the time, justifying their wise represents the natives as beyond step by the unsteadiness of the abo- improvement. rigines and the great expense of the mission caused by journeys and repeated Another recorded failure in the hisattempts at founding stations. tory of Australian missions is that of the Church Missionary Society of London, Meanwhile, Missionary Threlkeld, of England. Marsden, who died in 1838, the London Missionary Society (prop- had already prevailed upon this society erly intended for the mission in the to send out missionaries. Watson and South Sea Islands), came to New South Handt were appointed to Wellingtondale, Wales, and was desired by the governor north of Sydney,and were joined later on to remain and devote himself to the in the station they had formed by Gun. work among the natives. The society ther. But after eleven years of faithful approved of the plan, and Threlkeld re- and self-sacrificing labor they were ceived from the Government 10,000 obliged to leave, for the shepherds and acres of land at Lake Macquarie for a workingmen of the district (it was the settlement of natives. With firm faith, old story of liberated convicts) exercised unwearied perseverance, and holy love the most baneful influence on the na· he set to work. After laboring for six tives; and to this came drought and years without visible results, the Lon- grasshoppers, which drove the natives don Society, which had spent £3000 on from the district. The missionaries, the work, thought it right to use their therefore, devoteq their energies to work funds in more promising fields. Threl- among the colonists. keld, however, could not leave his Papuans. He carried on the work, The Methodists had again established partly from his own means and partly mission stations in different places in by the assistance of friends and the 1838 and 1840, and met with some de. government. He learned the native gree of success. In the saIDe year mis. language, prepared a grammar, trans- sionaries were sent out by the Lutheran lated parts of the Bible, as well as a Missionary Society at Dresden (now number of hymns. Leipzig), and a number also by Gossner, at the request of a Scottish Presbyterian Generally three or four tribes lived on minister in New South Wales. The the reserve, but their stay was never of a Lutherans, after a few years of fruitless long duration. The news of a corroboree labor, left the natives and became pas. (er dance) or oftener the information that tors to various congregations of Euroa hostile tribe was approaching was suffi- peans. A few years Jater the Gossner cient to scatter them,in spite of all Threl- missionaries followed their example. keld's efforts to keep them. All the ef- The natives had, indeed, begun to dis. forts,sacrifices,and pains of this excellent tinguish between these whites and those man remained fruttless, and as the con- whom they had known hilherto. They tributions of friends flowed more scan- put confidence in the missionaries and tily, and the support of the Government showed at times a desire to work, but was stopped, this champion of the Gos- soon tired of it, and rewarded the kind· pel found himself compelled to leave the ness and patience of the messengers of station. That was a bitter pill! Yet peace by continual thefts. At length still the noble man attributes the failure all the tribes of the district formed tive, is it to be expected that he will themselves into robber-bands, who at- make a distinction in favor of those few tacked and robbed the neighboring sta- who giT8 themselves out as his friends; tions in broad daylight wherever the that he will put full confidence in them, objects of their plunder were not pro- and accept their word, their advice, their tected by revolver and gun. But, in the message? Will he not rather take admean time, the missionaries had the joy vantage of their kindness and, by stealof seeing two of the natives converted. ing their goods, recompense himself for Still the results were, on the whole, so what has been taken from him? Sad sad and unsatisfactory that some of the to say, that in Australia it is not the obmissionaries left the place, with a view duracy of the aborigines but the hardto Illbor among the settlers. Those who heartedness of professing Christians remained directed their efforts to the which has been the greatest stumbling- Bame object, without losing sight of the block in the way of the Gospel. poor natives; and Missionary Gerler wrote, in 1855, "I llm convinced that The Glad Tidings in Morocco. the time is not far distant when the blacks will cry out, ' What must I do to BY JAMES EDWARD BUDGETT MEAKIN. be saved?'" Further efforts made by the English Church, under the direction (For some years editor of the Times of Moroc()/).) of the energetic Archdellcon Hale, of Adelaide, were put an end to by the It is only of late years that any sysdying out of the natives. Of later trials tematic attempt has been made to bring and successes experienced in connection the Gospel before the people of Morocwith different churches and societies we co, though they live, as it were, at the will not now speak, but notice them as very doors of Europe. A small body cotemporary with the missions of the of missionaries are laboring among the Renewed Brethren's Church (Mora- Moors. So far, however, only' a very vians), of which it is our intention to small number have sufficiently surspeak in the next paper. mounted the initial difficulty of the language-Arabic-to be able to do T,he enumeration of aU these failures much in the way of direct teaching or is very discouraging, yet it shows the controversy. But there are other ways difficulties attending the work of evan- in which the people may be reached, gelizing this spoiled and degrllded race. such as by medical treatment of the sick. Let us weigh these well, not forgetting that by the grace of God they may be The benighted condition of Morocco surmounted, and we have a strong proof is such that the aims and objects of misof 'the necessity and duty of carrying sionary laborers are not yet realized, and on mission work. The faith and love the Mohammedans cannot imagine that of Christendom and of its messengers anyone of their number could prove can llnd should overcome, in spite of all himself, weak enough in their faith to the opposition of the servants of sin seriously entertain any other. Once and Satan. Still, in considering what they become fully alive to the,facts of has been and may still be said regard- the case trouble and fierce opposition ing the work in Australia, we must take may be expected. into account not only the sad state of the natives, but also the bllneful influ- The initial difficulty in dealing with ence which has been exercised upon the Moors is their utter self-satisfiedthem by thousands of ungodly whites ness and indifference to outside influduring the last century. If contempt, ences. What was good for their fathers bad treatment, robbery. violence, and is good for them ; and they are brought murder are connected with the idea of up so sure of a heaven of material bliss, the white man in the mind of the na- even after a life of sin, provided that they comply with certain forms, that they see no reason even to listen to the emissaries of Christianity. But, thank God! there are many who have listened, with certain religious duties which are and some among them who have obeyed carefully defined in the' Book to be Read' and been baptized, but these are few (the Quran), we are sure of eternal bliss I"~ and weak, needing much instruction. We who have lived in Morocco can The next ob,stacle to the work is the testify with one accord that this empire utterly erroneous ideas possessed by the is too steeped in sin to allow us to lay Moors concerning Christianity and bare the truth. Crime and misery Christians. They believe, to begin abound, and justice is all but unknown. with, and often tell us so, that we wor- Possessed of a beautiful country, the ship a woman as equal with God-a Moors drag out an almost torpid existmost awful idea to such strict Unita- ence without enjoying one tithe of the rians as Muslims are. They say then blessings within their grasp. Such is that we worship bread and wine as Morocco to-day, and I do not hesitate God; that we have introduced the to give as the reason that it is a victim greater part of the history of Christ into to the spell of Islam. the Gospel, and that we have eradicated every prophecy about Mohammed ex- The difficulties to be met with are not cept John 14 : 26, which they declare small nor few. The fear of the" powrefers to that teacher. It is easy to see ers that be," and the feeling that the whence these ideas come, but still more acknowledged convert must become an Bad to note what they judge from the outcast, cut off from his dearest friends; specimens of nominal Christians with and subject to bitter persecution in whom they have had to deal, to be proportion to his boldness in his new equally tenets of our religion. They faith, is a very serious matter, and s have no doubt that every good Chris- man's change of heart must be real and tian gets drunk once a week or more thorough before he can be expected to often if he can, and that it is their in- make an open profession with such revariable rule to make up for only being_ sults. Even when he has the example allowed one wife by supplies from the before him of others who have stood streets. The wearing of a hat and the and suffered it is easier for him. Neveating of pork are looked upon as ertheless, thousands of Moors have equally essential to the Ohristian life, learned the difference between nominal and it ill generally considel."ed that dis- and real Christians, so much so, that honesty, venalism, and every abuse of while the name Nazarene is still applied power are matters of course with the fol- to all, the names MaseeaM and Kitab~ lowers of the Messiah. (Christian and Biblical) are now given by them to the missionaries and their "The difference between your way few sympathizers to distinguish them and my way," said an intelligent Moor from the others. Medical work among one day to a lady missionary, "is that them and the kindness shown to them yours is hemmea in on either side by re- in many ways are steadily taking effect; strictions which must make your life and although few have come forward miserable, and you have nothing to from among them, and after careful hope for, after all, for your heaven has teaching and examination have been no earthly joys. My way, on the other baptized, there is a pleasurable certainty hand, leaves me room to do much as that a far greater number have the truth I like in this world, and in the next the planted in their hearts, that they know pleasantest sins of this will be our law- the way of salvation, and that but for ful and continual pleasures. Think of fear of man they would acknowledge it. that! Then, too, our lord l'rlohammed, We must not think hardly of these weak the messenger of God-the prayers of ones. God be on him, and peace I-is so good and powerful that, however we may sin BISHOP HANNINGTON'S BONES.-It was against God now, so long as we comply a remarkable Providence that enabled the Church of England Missionary So- ed that he would get rid of the bones by ciety to recover the body of their mar- taking them to the white man. He tyr-Bishop Hannington, who was mur- passed the place twice, and I fancy it dered in Oentral Africa, under circum- was on the second journey that he took stances that would have seemed to the bones to Mr. Jackson. forever preclude the possibility of his receiving Christian burial at all, much "The above is in substance what less the return of the remains to Chris- Marko says. Some of the details may tian England. The story has been most be incorrect." vividly told, but now we have the de- tails of the way in which God's provi- -The American Board has rightfully dence kept ., all his bones." applied to Mr. Blaine for the protection of American property interests in con- It was with peculiar interest that we nection with the newest outrages of the read the communication made by Rev. Spanish authorities on the American R. H. Walker to the Church of England missions in the Caroline Islands. We Missionary Society, in explanation of the trust our Government will speak with manner of the recovery of Bishop Han- some vigor to that anachronism in modnington's body. A strange interest will ern civilization known as the Governhang around this story for a long time to ment of Spain. It is little worth while come. Little wonder that it has recalled allowing this representative of an effete the story of the Ark of the Lord turned civilization to be strutting with misused loose under divine supervision alone. authority in a remote corner of the Mr_ Walker wrote: .. When Bishop globe. At best, Spain is out of joint Hannington was murdered, the same with the times. She feeds on memories day his body was carried to another and mumbles beads; her battles are place, because the people feared that the bull-fights and her victories autos-daje, dead body of a white man might bring and she might as well be relegated to evil on them. But the people of the some museum of political antiquities. next place refused to have it ; and so it Has Mr. Blaine ever secured any indemwas carried from place to place, each nity for Mr. Doane, and will he now refusing to alJow it to remain in their call Spain into court for protection not country. A coast man, who we under- of missicnary, but of American interstand was one of Bishop Hannington's ests? porters, accompanied the corpse. At last it reached a place on the boundary -There is a tract entitled" Christian of Busoga, or in the country of the Women of North China to the Christian Bakeddi. Here they agreed to build a Women of England upon the Opium Inhouse for it, and on a framework or bed- iquity." In this these Chinese Christian stead, such as they make for smoking women declare to all Europe, and to all meat and fish on, the body was laid, and mankind, that" foreign opium in Chinais left to decay. An agreement was made a greater scourge than war or pestilence." with the coast man to live at this house These China Christians are taunted with and to take care of it, and in return the having adopted the l'eIigion of "the people would give him food. foreign devils, who are making China into a hell by their opium ;" and what " To this place Marko, the messenger is worse, the poor weak little Christian from Mwanga to Mr. Jackson of the Church in the Celestial Empire is well- Imperial British East Africa Company, nigh decimated by the use of the drug. came on his way with letters. He seems to have heard that the people -A collector of Bombay has among there had experienced bad harvests and his curiosities a Chinese god marked drought of late years, and that they at- "Heathen Idol," and next to it is a tributed this to the fact of their having gold piece marked " Christian Idol." the white man'~ bones; and he suggest-
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
RUSSIA is exciting no little criticism special attention to the instruction of and animadversion by her course toward mISSIonaries. Miss Swain, M.D., was the Jews and the exiles' in Siberia. the first woman medical miSSionary to Lately the details have been published Asia. of a horrible outrage upon a Jewish lad named Rutenberg, at Bialystok, about The EpOCH OF ORGANIZATION seems to one hundred miles from Warsaw, by a have come. Certainly in Christian work Russian medical man, Dr. Gravonsky. the organizations are both multiplying The boy, with some schoolmates, had and extending their bounds. Some of plucked some apples off a tree and, being them have overleaped the limits of caught in the act, was carried into a stable States, denominatIOns and even conti- where he was brutally branded with nents. For instance, "The Young lunar caustic on the forehead, chin, and Men's Christian Association," "The both cheeks with the words" Jew" and Young Women's Christian Temperance "thief" in Russian, Polish, and Hebrew. Union," "The Society of Christian A photograph has been circulated show- Endeavor," now enrolling one hundred ing the horrible branding of this lad's thousand members, "The White Rib- countenance, and has awakened snch in- bon Army," "The Boys' Brigade," dignation that the authorities have " The King's Daughters," "The Shut· prohibited its sale or circulation. in Society," "Kitchen Gardens," "Guilds," "Christian Workers' Train- THE HONOR ROLL of Wesleyan Meth- ing Classes," "Bible Corresponding odist and Methodist Episcopal mission- Schools, .. "Parochial Associations," ~ aries is a very long and illustrious one. "Chautauqua Classes," "Working- Among Wesleyan Methodists the name men's Clubs," and others. of Thomas Coke stands pre-eminent. He had a hold upon both continents, being Our only apprehension is that these the first bishop of the Methodist Epis- forms of Christian effort and organiza- copal Church under Wesley's commis- tion may wean away from the churches sion. He died on the way to India. those whom they should attract to them, He poured his private fortune into the may fail to acknowledge the supervision cause of missions. The Rev. John of pastors and church officers, and es- Hunt will always have front rank for pecially may, in the pride of numbers, work among the Fiji people. The Rev. commit that fatal mistake of overlook- Elijah Hoole was fifty years in India. ing quality in quantity Samuel Leigh won undying fame in New Zealand, and John Thomas in the There are many Christian parents, Friendly Islands. says the Ohurch Missionary InteUigencer, who are leading people in the Christian From the Methodist Episcopal world, who claim reserved seats at Church, Melville Cox died in Africa. crowded missionary meetings, and join George Bowen, of Bombay, was known in congratulations over the increasing as " Good George Bowen." Among the number of candidates for missionary ser- living missionaries, William •Butler, vice, but who will not bear of their own founder of twenty missions of this sons and daughters offering for that ser- church in India and Mexico, Bishop vice. What a rare jewel is consistency! Thobum, of India, and Bishop William Taylor, of Africa, are perhaps the best Among missionary books we feel con· known generally. Dr. Maclay, who strained especially to recommend " Mis- spent forty years in China and Japan, sionary Enterprises in the South Sea now in his old age is professor in a the- Islands," by John Williams, an edition ological seminary in California, giving of which is published by the Presbyte. rian Board, 1334 Chestnut Street, Phil- dially to every reader who is interested adelphia. It was this remarkable bopk in missions. which led the Bishop of Ripon to ex- claim, when he laid it down, "This is We have received from the publish. the 29th chapter in the Book of the Acts ers, James Nesbit & Co., London, a copy of the Apostles." It is the story of a of a little work known as " Once Hindu triumphal progress. John Williams -Now Christian," edited by Dr. J. Mur- moved in every direction, 2000 miles ray MHchell, our esteemed correspond. from the shores of Tahiti, and within 22 ent. It is the autobiography of a very years, from 1817 to 1839, carried the admirable man, one of the ablest and Gospel to all the islands within that inost devoted Christians in India, Baba radius, and saw not only some of those Padmanji. It is intensely interesting, islands, but whole groups of them, turn- and gives us a remarkable insight into ing from idolatry to the living God. the difficulties of a native convert in India, and it shows how remarkably Perhaps the most compendious ency- useful a man may be who is brought clopredia of missions which has yet ap. out of East India society into a thorough peared is that entitled" Conquestsof the espousal of the Gospel. Mr. Padmanji Cross," by Edwin Hodder. It is pub. has been the author of about seventy. lished by subscription, Cassell & Co. five books and tracts published by the being the publishers. Only two vol- Book and Tract Society of Bombay, umes have as yet reached my table, but Christian Vernacular Education Society, those two volumes far surpass anything and others. If there be any profits from else in the line of comprehensive mis- the book they are to go to Mr. Padmanji sionary biography and history which I himself. We wish the book might be have seen. thoroughly circulated.
The Editor would again call attention In March, 1887, certain papers ap. to "Alden's Manifold Cyclopredia," peared in the Ohristian (London) on which has now reached volume No. 25. the subject of "Unemployed Native Though not a distinctly missionary Agencies in Heathen Lands." They book, we have found the articles in it were by Hudson Taylor, Reginald Rad. which pertain to missions to be exceed- cliffe, and James E. Mathieson, some of ingly helpful and excellent in every re- the most devoted students of missions spect, and we are coming to regard this to be found in the world. These cheap and handy cyc10predia as an brethren regard the raising up of a vast authority. host of native converts, who shall take up this 'Gospel mission for their fellow· Dr. S. A. Mutchmore, editor of the countrymen, as the only practical way Presbyterian, has already published a of reaching the nearly four hundred volume describing his travels in Eastern millions of native Chinese. They con· Europe and Asia Minor. The second tend that a few hundred European mis· volume has now been issued, "The 110. sionaries, not exceeding six hundred, gul, the Mongol, the Mikado and the do very little toward the evangelization Missionary." These letters have of this great empire, and they quote Dr. already appeared to a large extent in Nevius, who has been very successful the Presbyterian, and for raciness, read. in the employment of such unpaid ability, originality, and power to grasp, agents. Rev. Donald MacIver, of South. and present the most interesting mat· ern China, says that the rapid increase ters of foreign travel, we know of noth. of converts has been accomplished, 110t , ing published in modem times that sur· by Dr. Nevius's sermons, or those of , passes them. We commend them cor- his assistants, but by the simple wit· ness of the converts. Eight agencies are at work in China to accomplish its was presiding officer. It was a fit choice. Mr. Field's" Draft Outlines of evangelization. (1) Bible distribution; an International Code" is regarded as an (2) tract distribut,ion ; (3) chapel preach- authority. In it he favors arbitration 'ing; (4) translation and literary work; as to the dispntes between nations by a (5) schools; (6) itinerations; (7) med- reference to disinterested parties. If ical missions ; (8) work among women. we may judge from appearances, the Dr. Nevius says, "I am disposed to time of Universal Peace is not very think that the number of conversions near. All Europe seems rather prepardue to each of them would be found to ing for war. increase about in the order in which they are mentioned above; arid that An Anti-Slave·Trade Conference sat the number traceable to them all to- at Brussels from November 18th, 1889, gether would be but a small fraction of to July 2d, 1890. The beneficial results the whole, and that by far the greater seemed liable to be frustrated by the reproportion is to be referred to private fusalof the Netherlands for a time to social intercourse. That is (lertainly sign the stipulations. The Congo Free our experience in the South of China. State must have a revenue if it is to re- Probably seven eighths of our member- press the slave-trade, and this revenue ship have been brought in, not directly must come from a tariff on imports. All as the result of the preaching, either of the other powers and now also the the European missionary or of the ap- Netherlands have consented to this. pointed Chinese evangelist, but simply The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce at from private Christians telling to their first protested to the Government of friends and neighbors about the Baviour Great Britain against the signing of the they have found. This state of matters stipulations, but the Government nobly is, on the one hand, cause for thankful- replied that these duties were levied ness, for the evidence it gives of the only in the interest of human rights. reality of the religion of these Chinese Every year it is said that four hundred Christians ; and it also is full of hope thousand human beings are carried into as to the future of Christ's kingdom in abject slavery from the Congo region. China. If every individual member of 'he 30,000 Christians in China were a A Hebrew-Christian Conference was true missionary, then the Middle King- held in Chicago on November 24th and dom would soon be evangelized. 25th last. This gathering has excited a lively and extensive interest, as well it •• But it seems to me that this state of might. The Conference seems to have matters is full of important lessons for been called mainly through the efforts all interested in the progress of the Gos. of William E. Blackstone, Esq., whose pel in that land. We are to give most interest in the Jews is known everyattention to the method God's Spirit uses where. We have heard of no other conmost. We are not to give up our preach- ference in modern times where Chrising tours, nor our distribution of Scrip- tianA and Jews have met together for tures and tracts ; we are not to close the friendly discussion of points of hIour hospitals and schools; but we, as terest and matters of difference. The foreign missionaries,should give most audiences were very large, and some of attention to the work of training our the Jewish rabbi were present and took converts in the knowledge of Scripture, part. It is very noticeable that in the developing their gifts and graces, and present time the attention of all Chrissuperintending and guiding their efforts tendom seems to be drawn to God's anto bring to the truth their friends and cient people. Our attention has been kindred." called to the fact that a somewhat sim- ilar gathering was held two hundred and At the Universal Peace Congress, held in London, David Dudley Field forty yeBl'S ago in the Plain of Ageda, in upon the part of persons not accustomed Hungary. Some three hundred rabbis to such surroundings. We think that met in this Council in a large tent, and this}s the only charitable if not the the discussion lasted seven days. We only possible explanation, and we pre- anticipate only good results from a gath- fer to dismiss this horrible story with- ering of this character. In all our ap_ out further comment. proaches to the Jew, we have this great advantage, that he is familiar with the It seems now to be generally admitted prophesies of the Old Testament con- that the position taken by Dr. Lunn and cerning Christ, the Messiah, which have Rev. Hugh Price Hughes as to Wesleyan been so remarkably fulfilled in Chris- missions in India was a mistake. Dr. tian history. Lunn had been less than two years in India, and wrote impulsively and indis- We have purposely abstained hereto- creetly. As to Mr. Hughes, he did not fore from any reference to the startling know of the facts, except as obtained stories concerning Stanley's rear gnard. through Dr. Lunn ; but as it was in his pa- The terrible revelation with regard to per that Dr. Lunn's strictures were pub- the brutality of Barttelot and the cruelty lished, Mr. Hughes acted as his sDcond. of Jameson have caused to be applied A competent committee has examined to this history the appropriate title of the whole matter, and thrown consider "The African Chamber of Horrors." able discredit upon Dr. Lunn's testi- The scheme for poisoning the nephew mony. This is another example of the of Tippoo Tib, the statement that Ma- fact that foreign missionary work will jor Barttelot actually fastened his teeth bear even the severe and searching crit· into the :flesh of a woman, and even icisms to which :it ~has been lately exinto her face, his fatal kick upon the posed. boy Soudi, his fatal flogging of the lad John Henry, whose ears he threatened We regret to learn that M. Saillens, to cut off, and to whom he administered who has been one of Dr. McAll's printhree hundred lashes, his stabbing of cipal helpers in his French work, has the chief Ungunga, etc., might easily resigned connection with the McAll account for the shooting of such a missions, with which he has been conhuman fiend as he showed himself. nected for seventeen years. This will be a great loss to the mission, but the The story of Jameson's cruelty, buy- separation has been made in an entirely ing. a little girl with six cotton handker- friendly spirit on both sides, though it chiefs, causing her to be murdered, was caused by some little differences of cooked and eaten, that he might have a opllllOn. From personal acquaintance practical illustration of cannibalism, with M. Saillens we can testify that a and calmly taking six sketches with his more accomplished and perfect gentle- Kodak to represent the stages of the pro- man we have not met, even among the ceedings-all these things defy descrip- polite French people. Although he will tion and almost credence. It is our no longer be a director or agent of the judgment that all these were acts of per- mission, he will speak in the Salles from sons virtually insane __ that there is no time to time. possibility of otherwise accounting for such atrocious cruelty and barbarity on Dr. McAll writes, .. Our work gives the part of the representatives of a us much encouragement, both as to Christian nation; we cannot believe numbers and evident seriousness. We they were in their right mind; and it cannot enlarge; our resources do not is a well·known fact that climatical in- allow that, to our great regret. No an- :fluenge, together with prolonged expo- swer has yet been received from Dr. sure and privation. som etimes brings on Loba, of Kalamazoo,-Mich., who was ina peculiar type of insanity or monomania vited to join the, work, and who seems especially adapted to it from the fact congregation, but all this served as grathat he is a native of France." tuitous advertisement, and saved us all outlay on this head. One paper, La We perhaps owe it to Dr. McAll to Rappel, suggested that as soon as the say, with reference to an article which ship would be towed away from Paris, appeared in this REVIlIlw in July last, in we should hire a balloon, and so have which the Editor indulged in some our hearers part way to heaven to begin friendly strictures on the mission, that with." Dr. McAll remarks that he is" not prepared to express an absolute agree- The announcement has been made at ment with what is there said respecting the Wesleyan Mission House, in Lonthe overtaxing of the workers. With a don, that the Rev. Alexander McAulay few exceptions of voluntary painstaking, has suddenly died at Sumerset East, the requirements laid upon our mission- Cape Colony. He was an ex-President aries are not at all extreme. In the of the Wesleyan Conference, on an evancase of some of them, they undertake gelistic tour among the Wesleyan other and collateral engagements, good churches in South Africa. He was in in themselves, but not favorable to full his seventy-third year. More than activity in the mission, and liable, to- thirty years ago he began work in the gether with its duties, to bring on over- East End of London, where he spent fatigue. Mr. Greig is a tremendously fourteen years, beginning with a congre-· hard worker, but does his work with gation of eighteen persons; in ten years peculiar facility, and in a way quite vol- he built four large chapels, each seating untary." Dr. McAll confesses the over- 1000 persons, besides organizing other taxing of himself, especially since losing enterprises. He had also during the two of his most valued helpers, but past ten years visited the West Indies, hopes for relief when an assistant is where he exercised a most helpful reobtained. Dr. McAll says that David vival influence. Such a man cannot be Paton, .Esq., to whom we have already other than missed in the great mission referred, had given more than any other work of the world. contributor to the McAll work, probably nearly if not quite six thousand pounds, In the Ghristian (London) for Decemand that he left no money behind him, ber, Mrs. Grattan Guinness gives a long but gave it all away during his lifetime. and critical examination of General Booth's book, "In Darkest England." Dr. McAllfurther says, " The' Bateau She especially calls attention to many Missionaire '-' Le Bon Messager,' we existing agencies which in his book brought to Paris for about seven weeks, ending in July. Certainly it was a great a are entirely overlooked, and the hrissuccess-moored at the Pont de la Concorde. On Bome Sundays we had four tian adds that Mrs. Meredith, with her meetings on board, the people waiting Prison Mission to Women, aud Mr. anxiously to be admitted. It would George Hatton, with his coadjutor, Mr. hold 160 or 180 in the cabin. I think William Wheatley, long before led the that about eight hundred were there in way into this philanthropy, and that the one day. To the close we kep t up four Salvation Army is indebted for its methmeetings daily in all. I think the at- ods to the plans which they have been tendance was about twenty-five thou- following. The Ohristian mentions sand. Never did I have or see greater George Holland, of Georgeyard, whose attention and respect-very many were work is like the waters of Siloah, that intelligent,and many young Frenchmen. flow softly; then there comes to mind Almost all never heard the Gospel be- a multitude of names, each of which fore. The infidel and worldly news- awakens memories of orphans housed papers tried to write the affair down, and homed, or girls rescued, or, still beteven inserted pictures of the ship and ter, prevented ; of work of every conceivable kind for the glory of God and Mr. Silas Farmer, of Detroit, Mich., for the good of men. Miss Macpherson, gives the following reasons why we Archibald Brown, F. N. Charrington, should be specially interested in mis. Henry Hill, William Cuff, Dr. Stephen- sions to the Chinese. First, the an· son, Peter Thompson, Miss Steer, Miss tiquity of the nation and the interesting Child, Evans Hurndall, J. W. Atkinson, peculiarities of the people and the coun. Christian Community, Strangers' Rest, try. Secondly, the peculiar and friend- Seamen's Missions, Mrs. Birt in Liver- ly feeling toward America and Ameri. pool, William Quarrier in Scotland, and cans. Third, the debt which America innumerable others all through the owes to Chinamen for labor in this coun· land. Positively one's heart aches to try, notwithstanding the persecution to think of the noble army of God's ser- which they have been subjected. vants who serve Him and slle His face in Fourth, women especially should be in· the squalid parts of our great cities, who terested because of what the Chinese are, for the moment at least, forgotten women are, and because of what we obby lllany of the churches, and by indi- tain from China. Fifth, the unusually vidual donors accustomed to contribute favorable conditions for missionary to their funds. effort. Sixth, the unusually large field which China presents for missionary Notwithstanding these statements, it labor. seems to us that General Booth's scheme ought to have a full and fair trial. We Lord Wolseley believes that the believe that if it be not entirely success- Chinese are the coming nation, that the ful, it may at least lead the way to a great battle of Armageddon will take larger and more prominent work for the place between the Chinese and the Eng. poor not only of London, but of all our lish.speaking people; that a general is great cities. to arise among them who will train them in the science of arms and prepare them A young man's guild has been formed for a great assault upon the Russian in connection ~ith the Church of Scot- Empire. The Chinese are capable :of land, and the ninth annual convention wonderful endurance, have a stolid in. of delegates met in Hamilton, Scot. difference to death, and he prophesies land, from the 5th to the 7th of October that before them Russia will fall; that last. Delegates were present from all then they will overrun India, sweeping parts of the country, even from the Ork. the British into the sea, and at last Eng. neys. The membership of the Guild lish, Americans, etc., will rally for a desembraces about twenty thousand, with perate conflict. Lord Wolseley is an over five hundred branches, extending authority on military matters in Britain. from Montreal to Ceylon. This Guild Whether or not he is a prophet remains is marked with peculiar missionary zeal; to be seen. no less than eleven of the Church's mis. sionaries have gone through this Guild. The compression of ladies' feet in We have seldom read with greater in· China is merely a mark of gentility. terest the account of any similar meet- Various accounts are given of the origin ing. The Town Hall on October 7th of this custom. One is that an emperor was crowded to overflowing. Mr. Camp- was jealous of his wife, and to prevent bell, M.P., presided, and among the her from gadding abroad put her feet speakers were Professor Charteris, Dr. into iron stocks. Another is that a cer- Marshall Lang, Mr. Hoxier, M.P., Mr. tain empress, Tan-ke (B.C. 100), was Parker Smith, M.P., Mr. Somerville, born with club feet, and that she caused M.P., and Rev. Archibald Turnbull, the emperor to issue an edict adopting . B.D., Darjeeling. Five Guildsmen her foot as the model of beauty, and rehave, during the past year, gone into quiring the compressing of female inthe mission field. fants' feet so as to conform to the imperio untarily chosen as a permanent order of al standard; while a third account is that things implies either a very imperative the Emperor Leyuh (A.D. 961) was amus- call of duty or a great lack of prudence. ing himself one day in his palace, when The duty may and very often does exhe thought he might improve the ap- ist, and then the course adopted canpearance of the .feet of a favorite concu- not be too highly commended. But bine. He caused her feet to be so bent economics have a place in missionary as to raise the instep into an arch, to life as well as elsewhere, and· there is resemble the new moon. The figure certainly a very terrible waste of vital was much admired by the courtiers, energy in this mode of life. Men may who soon began to introduce it into endure it, as soldiers endure the hardtheir families. It is said that another ships of the camp or the march, but it emperor, two hundred years later, is cruelly hard for the ladies. One has placed a stamp of the lotus flower but to look at many of the ladies at the (water-lily) on the sole of the small shoe Conference to see that they were mere of his favorite concubine, so that at shadows of their former selves, their every step she took she left on the ground heroic spirits not being proof against the print of the flower; hence girls with the physical and mental trials of such a small feet are complimented at the pres· life. The statistics of the great society, ent day as "the golden lilies." The whose name is synonymous with the operation of bandaging and compress- highest consecration and self-abnegaing the feet is very painful; children tion, show a terrible sacrifice of precious cry very much under it. Mortification material. It is said that one half of of the feet has been known to result those who enter China under its ausfrom the cruel practice. Cnstom, how· pices return within two years, either to ever, imposes it as a necessary attrac- their homeland on earth or to the home tion in a woman. An old gentJeman at above, and that the average term of ser- Canton being asked the reason why he vice for the whole body is only three bandaged his daughter's feet, replied and a half years. The policy which that if she had large feet she could not leads to this alarming sacrifice must be make a good marriage. backed by the strongest arguments of necessity before it. can be fully justified." A " Heavenly Foot Society" has been formed by Chinese women at Amhoy. The Habitations of Ornelty. Rev. John Macgowen, missionary at Amhoy, now in England on a visit, in a Bishop Crowther, speaking of the speech delivered at Manchesterrecently Niger xegion, says; "About four days stated that the Society was the result of before our arrival at Ohambele, an old his persistent teaching that the Chinese rich woman died and was buried. The custom of binding the feet was in open proceedings of the burial were stated as – violation of the precepts of the Gospel. follows; When the grave was dug, two It is his belief that the example will be female slaves were taken, whose limbs extensively imitated, and that the final were smashed with clubs. Being unresult will be a death·blow to the bar- able to stir, they were let down into the barous practice. grave, yet alive, on the mat or bed on which the corpse of the mistress was laid, Rev. B. C. Henry says, with regard to and screened from sight for a time. Two the wearing of nati ve Chinese costumes other female slaves were laid hold on by the missionaries in China : " Chinese and dressed up with best clothes and dress too often means a Chinese house, coral beads. This being done, they pure and simple, and native furniture, were led and paraded about the town native utensils, native food. These, to show the public the servants of the when necessity requires, may be cheer- fich dead miatresl! whom they would fully eqdllred tor a time, but to be volattend in the world of spirits. This foreign missions, addressing requests to was done for two days, when the un- ministers in different parts of the fortunate victims were taken to the edge Church to write briefly on some aspect of the grave, and their limbs were also of foreign missions and the Church's re- smashed with clubs, and their bodies sponsibility. The first series in the laid on the corpse of their mistress, and symposium appeared on December 10th, covered up with earth while yet alive. discussing the supreme motive of mis- We can only imagine what would be the sions-the _prayer, " Thy Kingdom feelings of these unfortunate victims. Come" -the Missionary-the Mission- Some of the Bonny oonverts attempted ary obligations-the need of consecra- to rescue these last two females by a tion-the debt to missions, and the large offer of ransom to buy bullocks for necessity for a full presentation of the the occasion, but it was refused them. facts. The idea is a good one, -and Can there be any doubt as to the urgent might be well imitated in other quar- necessity of sending Christian teachers ters. We must not only strike while the among this poor ignorant people, who iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. are slaves to Satan, and yet glory in their shame? After these atrooious deeds It is no smaIl gratification to the ed_ were performed, volleys of trade oan- itor to have received from France a copy nons were fired for days in honor of the of "La Crise des Missions," which is dead. I counted ten of these cannons a translation into the French language in the street opposite the house of the of the " Crisis of Missions." The ed- dead, about four or six pounders eaoh." itor supposes himself to be desoended from the Huguenots, his original name From Bolobo, Congo Free State, having been Pierre, the Frenoh for an English Baptist missionary writes: Peter; after the expulsion of the Hugue- " Our neighbor's wife died; a man and nots and their arrival in England, it bewoman were killed, so that she might came very natural that the next generanot go alone into the spirit world. Her tion should be known as Pierre-son, or spouse was then wound up in oloth, and Pierson, Peterson being another form of wrapped round and round with piece the same name. Having his little book after piece until it made a big barrel translated into the Frenoh language at shaped bundle two yards long and one this orisis of foreign missions, he feels in diameter. Hearing that two more as though he were like a son, bringing victims were to be sacrificed on the day to his old mother a tribute of filial love. of the funeral, I determined at least to put in a protest, and, together with An aged clergyman met a man who Miss Silvey, arrived on the scene just was declaiming against foreign misas the executioner was carrying the sions. " Why," asked the objector, young woman to the grave, at the mouth "doesn't the Church look after the of which the young man who was to be heathen at home?" "Oh, we do, ' , her companion in misery was bound and said the olergyman, qllietly, handing the ready for the last act-that of being man himself a tract. placed in the grave in a sitting position and bnri~d alive, with the corpse sup- One of the singular revenges of hisported on their knees. It was, indeed, tory is noted in the fact that the first a sad sight to see a couple of well-built stone of fhe monument erected to the young people, with fine, intelligent memory of the missionary John Willfaces, weeping bitterly at the prospect iams, who was oruelly killed in the of a cruel death and making their mute South Sea Islands, was Jaid by the son appeals for help." of the man who slew him.
The Ohristian Intelligencer of New York has started a symposium on
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
[EDITOBIAL. ] The Land of the Aztecs.
-Between the southern limits of in either direction may be found all the California, New Mexico, Arizona and featnres of a continent.
Texas, on the one side, and the conti- Historically, this country is equally nent of South America on the other, interesting. Here is the colossal there stretches an irregular triangle of museum of American antiquities.
land which, from a breadth of eighteen Cortes' conquest of Mexico dates back hundred miles, gradually tapers down- neaxly four centuries; yet this era is com.
ward to a narrow isthmus less than fifty paratively modern. Far back beyond the miles from sea to sea. Spanish invasion, into the dim distance The upper and much the larger part of of prehistoric times, stretches Mexican this triangular country is Mexico, which civilization, the monum(mts of whose dips down into the great waters of the unique, antique grandeur even now are Gulf like the arched head and neck of a among the wonders of the world. For camel. Below it lies Central America, example, there is the Teoccali of Cho- in shape somewhat like a half square, luba, its four stories coinciding with the bisected at its diagonal and resting its cardinal points of the compass, its balle base line on the Pacific. more than fourteen hundred feet square, This country of Mexico is, from every its summit rising to a height of one point of view, one of the most interest- hundred and sixty.four feet. Though ing in the world. In physical features undoubtedly built as a temple or grand it is very l'emarkable, having the capac- altax, it was also, like the Pyramid of ities and possibilities of an occidental, Cheops, a sepulchre; and a square sep- tropical paxadise. The Tropic of Can- ulchral chamber has been found with- cer divides Mexico into two nearly in, having no egress, and supported by equal parts, one of which lies on the cypress wood. In it were idols of Temperate, the otheron the TorridZone. basalt, curious vases and two skeletons.
On the western coast is the long, narrow At Mitla, in Oaxaca, have been discov- gulf of California, seven hundred miles ered very unique ruins, palaces with in length, famous for its pearls, and quaint, arabesque ornaments; a vast once known as the Vermilion Sea, from hall. whose ceiling is borne up by six its reddish hue; on the eastern side the porphyry columns, the like of whicli are Gulf Stream has its mysterious fountain. not elsewhere to be found in this hem- The configuration of the country is isphere, and which bear the marks of peculiar. A vast plateau, with a series the primitive days of art.
of table-lands varying in elevation from Politically, the country of Mexico six thousand to eight thousand feet, wields a peculiar fascination over the dotted with volcanic cones, forms the student of political history. In a double great bulk of the interior; and this sense this is a land of earthquakes and plateau abruptly descends toward the volcanoes. Frequent and violent social Pacific, while it gently sbpes to the upheavals characterize its annals. From broad lowlands which border the Gulf. the conquest, about 1522, until now, it Such a country must present all varie- has enjoyed little respite from these po- ties of climate. A few hours' journey litical eruptions and revolutions. After enables the traveller to pass from torrid exactly three centuries of Splnish dom- heats to the frigid realms of ice and ination, in 1822, it became for a short snow. There are three distinct and time an independent State under an well-defined climatic zones, with cor- emperor; in 1824 it was constituted a responding varieties of fiora and fauna. Federal Republic, but afterward came Within a range of five hundred ·miles under military dictatorship. In 1862, by French intervention, it became sub- twenty thousand victims were slaugh- ject to the sovereignty of an Austrian tered upon it. The papal religion has prince, and then again became a Repub- been forced upon the people, but it has lic. There is no social stability; quiet scarcely lifted them above the level of is but the interval between eruptions these old rites and superstitions. To and explosions. keep them down and keep them under, it was necessary to leave them in that The population is of a mixed hetero- ignorance which is the mother of super- geneous character, composed of every- Btition and to cater to their vices. thing, but compacted into nothing; and Hence to-day seven eighths of the pop- this is one secret of social disquiet. ulation cannot read or write. Marriage The whites of Spanish descent, called has sunk into concubinage. The Bible creoles, constitute at once an oligarchy is almost an unknown book, and the and a landed aristocracy. There is a name of Jesus is inseparable from that much larger body of mixed Spanish and of Jesuit. With a drunken and disso- Indian blood who count themselves lute priesthood for teachers and exem- among the whites, but are not of pure plars, with the very churches and con- lineage. Indians form the bulk of the vents identified with extortion and population, and their abject poverty re- licentiousness, the drift of society has .duces them to practical sl.:.very. With been toward atheism on the one hand this mixed mass are further mingled a and the indifference of religious apathy few negroes, and everywhere may be on the other; while the more abject poor found the mestizos, with their varieties, and oppressed lower·clas~es, pulverized the zambos, mulattoes, terzerons, and beneath the millstone of social tyranny quadroons. Add to all these the numer- and slavery, are only waiting for oppor- ous foreigners, especially French and tunity to feed their resentment. The German, and you have the body politic, only power that can remould such a pop- which throughout, like the feet of Neb- uIation is the pure Gospel of Christ. uchadnezzar's image, is of elements that Notwithstanding the sway of a nominal refuse to assimilate and combine, out- Christianity, Mexico is as much a field for wardly mixed but not mingled. Protestant missions as China or Africa.
The Mexican religion is well symbol- This popuIation of over ten millions, ized by the Teoccali, to which we have with a score of cities having each over already referred. The elevated summit- 20,000 inhabitants, lies on our borders, platform once sacred to the Aztec our next-door neighbor. Contact there deities now bears aloft a chapel to the must be, and it must be more close and Virgin. Another race has succeeded it frequent, as modern enterprise is so rapand supplanted the Aztec; so another idly annihilating space and time, and religion, with its new deities, saints, and pushing railways and telegraphs through sacrifices has reared its very shrine on the heart of the land of the Aztecs. the temple platform of a more ancient Lacking a river system and good harbors, superstition. Yet down beneath the Mexican commerce naturally Hoats to corrupt Romanism of Mexico, we find our ports. Awaking to the superiority the old relics of an abandoned faith. of our civilization, Mexican society be- gins to court closer fellowship with our That ancient Aztec religion was a institutions. Now is the tum of tide strange mixture of countless deities and in the affairs of this neighboring nation. deified passions and cannibal cruel- Whether avarice and ambition shall ties. That huge round block of red conquer Mexico in the interests of trade porphyry in the museum of the City of and traffic, or the spirit of the Gospel Mexico, once the capstone of the great shall impel laborers to till these opening pyramidal temple, was once the bloodi- fields for Christ, is the pivotal issue of est stone of sacrifice known on earth. the hour. Its side bears graven records of horrible cruelties, and it is said that every year Forty.four years ago, in 1847, in con- still in the State of Guerrero, until Manection with an unjustifiable war, the thilde Rodriquez went with her Bibles United States troops invaded Mexico, and tracts and anointed tongue to the but they bore in their knapsacks that homes of the people. Eight years ago, blessed book of God, which thus by the Rev. J. Milton Greene went with Rev_ strange fate of war found its way into Procopio Diaz, and found a welcome the Aztec land. The furrows ploughed again in Guerrero. Within seven weeks by cannon were strange furrows in they held thirty-two services, estabwhich to sow the seed of the Kingdom. lished six churches and thirteen congre- Yet so it was. Then seven years later, gations, and baptized two hundred and Miss Melinda Rankin, in Brownsville, eighty converts. Texas, just across the border, a few miles from Matamoras, set up her sem- There were similar signs, elsewhere inary. The revolution of 1857-8 open- in Mexico, of a breaking down of the ing Mexico to Protestant missions, Mr_ barriers of ages. When Mr. Forcada Thompson, agent of the Bible Society, entered Zilacuaro twenty.four years ago, crossed the Rio Grande to Matamoras he found that for six years Bibles and in 1860 ; and that heroic woman, Miss tracts had been making ready the paths Rankin, followed in 1864, and in 1865 of the Lord. A Mexican had opened a personally raised in our country the bookstore and taken with him four hun- $15,000 to push on her pioneer work, dred Bibles and a large lot of tracts, and herself training and sending out native had sold or given away the entire stock_ colporteurs. In 1866 she began work The circulation of the blessed word of at Monterey, and six years later the God had proved a similar John the Presbyterian General Assembly formally Baptist in Tabasco, preparing the way took up Mexico as a mission field. In of the Lord. September of that year a pioneer band of seven, Rev. Messrs. Pitkin, Phillips, The true policy of missions in Mexico Thompson, with their wives, and Miss is to raise up an efficient native ministry Ellen P. Allen, took ship from New to whose charge the churches may be York and went straight to the Mexican entrusted. In the theological seminary capital. There they found a large body at San Luis Potosi, this training work of people prepared for organization into is carried on. The girls' boarding- Protestant communities, and in J an- school, in charge of Miss Snow for five nary, 1873, Rev. M. N. Hutchinson and years, passed into the hands of Miss wife took charge of the work. During Bartlett, when Miss Snow became Mrs. the same year Zacatecas became to the Hamilton. Twenty-five pupils were here northern what Mexico city was to the gathered. southern States, the evangelical and evangelizing centre, and from these The fact that even figures sometimes points evangelism radiated. lie is illustrated in the reports of the statistics of the Mexican field. The re- The methods of work were simple duction in the number of converts and and effective. Protestant worship, with church-members reported by the Pres- Scriptural ordinances and sacraments, byterians, for example, led some to de- Christian schools, Bible teaching, evan- preciate the work and even to affirm gelical hymnology and the education of that it was going backward. But at first a native ministry were the seven-fold all baptized persons were classed with secrets of success. Of course these de- communicants, and so reported; but voted men and women had to breast according to Presbyterian usage elseopposition and sometimes dare and bear where, the lists of baptized children persecution. In the outbreak in Aca- haye been separated from those of compulco in 1875, several persons lost their muning members, and the latter only lives, and the work for a while stood reported. The fact is that, instead of a large loss, there has been a total gain of ten per cent over and above all reductions and losses by death, and the work made Juarez Governor of Oajaca. Revois growing both in interest and promise. lution having broken out there, his position was very difficult, but he not It is very difficult to give any fairly only reduced chaos to order, but sent accurate photograph of the present con· out armed forces to effect pacification dition of missions in Mexico. Before elsewhere in the Republic. In 1857 he what is written can be put in type, the was made Constitutional Governor of whole condition may have undergone Oajaca ; then in November, 1857, Presisuch change as to demand a revision if dent Comonfort made him . Secretary not reconstruction of the report. At of State, and afterward he became Presithe time of the Jubilee Report of the dent of the Supreme Court of Justice. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, In January, 1858, he became ell-officio they had a total force of eighty.nine Constitutional President of Mexico, by laborers, of whom fifty.six were native the withdrawal of Comonfort. To him preachers, teachers or helpers, twenty· Mexico owes a great debt. He secured one licentiates, and four women. There recognition from the United States. were ninety churches, with 4314 com- In 1860 he drove Miramon, his rival, municants, and a gain of one sixth dur- from Mexico ; then, entering the capital ing the year. Over six hundred pupils in 1861, he was formally elected Presiwere gathered in schools. This repre- dent for four years, and executed with sents but one denomination. great severity the decrees against the clergy, by the confiscation of church Some reference ought to be added as estates. He was governor when France to Benito Juarez, the Mexican Presi- invaded the country and put Maximilian dent, and the descendant of the Toltec into power. In 1865 this ill-fated prince race.· Educated by a wealthy family, he issued his fatal decree declaring the rebecame distinguished in the law, and public extinct, and sentencing to death afterward, as a politician of most liberal all J uarists taken in :arms. Though ideas, went from the position of justice the term of Juarez had expired, the bold of the peace to presiding judge. In Toltec issued a proclamation that he 1846, at the age of 39, he was made should hold office until the driving out deputy to the Constitutional Congress of invaders should make possible a new in Mexico City. He was prominent in election. The United States now inthe administration of the famous manos terposed, our own Civil War being at an muerias, whereby the clergy had to end, and in 1866 Napoleon withdrew furnish a loan to pay war expenses in his troops, and Maximilian was shot in the conflict with the United States. 1867. Juarez probably would have been Then for four years he was Governor unable to prevent his sad end, as it was of Oajaca. During the period of peace judged by court-martial a justreprisalfor he opened roads, built up schools, re- his guerilla mode of warfare on Mexico. formed finances, and left the public treasury enriched when he retired from After a ten yeo.rs' struggle, in which the government. After being banished Juarez had held up the standard of the under Santa Anna, in 1853, he spent republic against treason at home and time in Havana and New Orleans, and armed intervention from abroad, he WIlS in 1855 joined Alvarez, whom he ac- again elected President, and died still companied to Cuernavaca, where he rep- in office, June 18th, 1872. He was an resented his native State in the choice of honest reformer and a man of statesa temporary President for the Republic. manlike ability. He is believed to have Alvarez being selected, Juarez was made done more than any other man of his Minister of Justice. To him was due generation to deliver Mexioo from tIle the Ley Juarez, the law abolishing the despotism of a corrupt papal church privileges of the clergy and the army. and open the way for the Protestant re- General Comonfort, who became Al- ligion and repUblican freedom. varez's substitute in December, 1855,
GE:NERAL MISSIO:NARY I:NTELLIGE:NCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
The Scandinavia.n Mission in Liverpool, by Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, England.
No lack of encouragement is sup- Kjaldstrom, of Hull, and Pastor Snellplied by the pUblication of the nine- man, of London, who have conducted teenth annual report of the Scandi- services in the Finnish tongue. This navian Mission in Liverpool, to sailors, brief record of what is being accom- ~migrants, and others who chiefly hail plished yearly for thousands in the great from Northwestern Europe. Last year port of Liverpool, who would otherwise marked the fifth anniversary of the be spiritually destitute, constitutes the opening of Gustaf Adolf's Church in most eloquent appeal for assistance. the famous English shipping port. The organization has the cordial aid of sev- Organized Missionary Work and Statiseral prominent Li veTpool citizens. Its tics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, committee further includes the Swedish Bellevne, O. and Norwegian, Danish and Russian Consuls, and the most influential mem- -The China Inland Mission sent out bers of the resident Scandinavians. As no less than 59 missionaries in 1890, of in previous years, the work has been whom 32 were unmarried women. The continued among the mariners and number sent the year before was 55. American-bound emigrants without in- These toilers represent various societies, terruption. The services of the year such as the Swedish, the Norwegian, the 1889 number 331-averaging from six to German Alliance, and the Bible Chrisnine services weekly-and the attend- tian missions. ance in the aggregate to 31,000. Day by day the pastors and laymen have vis- -The number of missionary stations ited the ships, boarding-houses, Sailors' in Africa now exceeds 500. There are Home, emigrant houses, and hospitals, 400,000 converts, and the number is ininviting the wayfarers to the services, creasing at the rate of about 25,000 a comforting the sick, and distributing year. Within five years more than 200 religious books and tracts. During the natives have suffered martyrdom for year the British and Foreign Bible So- their faith. ciety presented the society with 2500 Gospels. The spacious reading-room -It is stated that not one in 10,000 in the basement of the church, which is of the Chinese have yet heard of the provided with admirable supplies of Saviour of mankind. The province of newspapers and religious literature, has Shen-si, which possesses 88 walled cities, become an appreciated quarter for rest, has 86 without 8. missionary. Another conversation, and general knowledge. province has 56 such cities, and 54 ut- When it is repprted that 549 Scandi- terly unreached by the true Light. Nine navian vessels dropped anchor last year other provinces of the empire are equalill the Mersey no greater proof of the ly destitute. need of the mission is required. For the maintenance of this remarkably suc- –The Free Church of Scotland had cessful undertaking the Hon. Treasurer, last year 181 branch stations; 51 or- Mr. C. Brodersen, 10 South Castle dained European missionaries; 14 or- Street, Liverpool, will gratefully ac- dained natives; 10 licentiates; 8 medknowledge the donations of friends ical missionaries ; 3 nati ve physicians; whether in Europe or America. Pastor 23 male and 35 female teachers; 15 lay O. Heden has been assisted in his min- evangelists and mast~rs of industrial istrations by Pastor J. A. Axelson and departments; 625 native helpers; 42 Mr. A. Andersen Hetland. Occasionally native churches; 6620 communicants; help has been volunteered by Pastor 26,826 pupils in schools of all grades.
-The Y. M. C. A. is spreading all over the world. There are now formed upward of 4000 associations, and of these 1000 are in papal lands, and nearly To which add Brazil Mission, 365 ; Cen- 300 in Mohammedan and heathen coun- tral Mexican Mission, 1650 ; China Mistries. There are 21 in India and Ceylon, sion, 348; Mexican Border Mission, 12 in Turkey, 6 in Syria, 12 in Africa, 5 1838 ; bishops, 8 ; travelling preachers, in China, 7 in Persia, and 200 in Japan. 4862 ; grand total, 1,177,150. There are going to be openings in every quarter for the young men who have a -Though the Salvation Army has fitness for secretaries and evangelists In Great Britain as its principal work-field, connection with these associations. and finds its chief. task in ministering to the poor and degraded of the great -Statistics of the Lutheran Church, cities, aggressive operations are also gathered by the Rev. J. N. Lenker, of pushed continually and with vigor in Leadville, Col., show in Europe a total heathen lands. Thus a few weeks since of 22,980 ministers, 29,644 churches, and a detachment of fifty young men and 43,133,696 baptized members; in North women sailed for India to reinforce the America, 4710 ministers, 7964 churches, members of the order already there. and 6,511,500 baptized members. In. These new recruits volunteered for this eluding the statistics of Oceanica, South particular service largely as an affec- America, Africa, and Asia with those tionate tribute to the memory of the already given, he makes the grand total late Mrs. Booth. As showing the in the world of 28,406 ministers, 38,381 financial strength of the Army, it is credchurches, and 50,061,280 baptized memo ited with owning property in various bers. countries to the amount of $3,250,000.
-Methodism in this country has over -The Methodist Episcopal Church, four and a half million members, led by North, with its 2,236,000 members, conover 30,000 preachers; Baptists nearly tributed last year for home, foreign, and four million followers, led by over 28,000 freedmen's missions, $1,799,000. But ministers; Presbyterianism, a million though this sum is large it yet repreand a half, led by a ministry of 11,500 ; sents an average of but eighty cents per besides a host of smaller denominations, member, while the Congregationalists, and a band of Sabbath·schools scholars with a membership of only 492,000, gave numbering over nine millions. In the to similar objects $1,877,000, or at the whole country there is a gain to the rate of $3.81. In all its foreign work Christian churches the past year of this great and active church reports a 1,089,853 members, 4867 ministers, and gratifying growth. The largest gains 8494 churches. were mads in North India, where in a single district last year 2677 were bap- -Statistics of the entire membership tized of whom 1020 were adults. The of the Methodist Episcopal Church, total increase in all the fields was 5553, South, are given as follows: Georgia, or nine per cent. The Methodist Epis- 132,606; Texas, 126,884; Tennessee, copal Epworth League, though but two 114,351 ; North Carolina, 111,630 ; Vir. years old, has 300,000 members. ginia, 108,341; Alabama, 88,702; Missouri, ~2, 933; Kentucky, 80,685 ; Mis- -Madagascar, with its 230,000 square SISSIppi, 72,203; Arkansas, 69,378; miles and population of 3,500,000, is South Carolina, 67,094; West Virginia, one of the wonder-lands for missionary 24,779 ; Louisiana, 23,269 ; Florida, 23,- success. The Church Missionary So- 044 ; l:[aryland, 10,866; Indian Terri- ciety has 12 representatives at work tory, 8130; California, 7491; Illinois, upon the island, and has gathered 6361; Kansas, 2803; Oregon, 1569; 10,000 adherents, and the Society of Colorado, 1138 ; Indiana, 1104 ; District Friends, with a force of 15, has gained of Columbia, 772; New Mexico, 542; 32,000. But the London Missionary Montana, 456; Washington, 342; Ne· Society, first in the fiel d, and called to braska, 300; Arizona, 225; Idaho, 80. bear the heat and burden of the day, can easily reckon up by far the largest are 6271, and the expenditures for the results. To her 30 English toilers are year were $lJ4,742.42. The Japan Mis- joined as auxiliaries 827 native ordained sion was opened in 1873. and has 1686 ministers and 3459 other nati ve helpers. church-members, an increase for the In the churches are found 40,000 mem- year of 211, and the cost was $27,503.50. bers, while 160,000 adherents listen to the Gospel. The local contributions Christian Church (Disciple).-Secamounted last year to $18,340. retary, Rev. A. McLean, Cincinnati, O.
Arabian Mission.-Treasurer, Prof. Report for the year closing October J. G. Lansing, New Brunswick, N. J. 18th, 1890.
Report for the year closing October This church has a membership of over 1st, 1890. seven hundred thousand, and sustains missions in India, China, Japan, and This Society was formed in August of Turkey, in addition to work in England 1889, and the field chosen for its first and Denmark. It has in heathen lands operations is likely to be Southern 32 stations and 33 missionaries from Arabia and the Aden region. Two America (of whom 16 are women) and missionaries are already there or on 25 native helpers, a total of 58. The their way thither, and making prepara- church-members number 1418, a gain tion for their work by studying the for the year of 158, a net gain of 135. language. Its receipts for the first year In day-schools 817 pupils are found, ani 'were $4738.47 with a bequest of $5000 2063 in Sunday-schools. The receipts in addition, and the expenditures were were $67,750.49,8 gain of $5820.34, but $3144.64. $12,000 came froll} a single bequest. An earnest call is issued for $100,000 in Evangelical Association. – Secre- 1891. tary, Rev. S. Heininger, Cleveland, O. Reformed Church in the United Report for the year olosing Sept., 1890_ States.-Secretary, Rev. Allen R. Bar- This society has a mission conference tholomew, Harrisburg, Pa. in Germany and another in Switzerland, but its work for the heathen is wholly Report for the year closing May 6th, confined to Japan, where 5 missionaries, 1890. with 10 native itinerant preachers and 3 local preachers, sustain 31 appoint- Until 1865 this church contributE1d ments. A theological seminary gives through the American Board in all training to 13 students. The number about twenty eight thousand dollars, of church-members is 378. of whom 115 and had its representatives in Asia were received last year. In 1888-89 Minor and among the American Indians. the receipts for the Japan missions were In 1878 a mission was opened in Japan, $9513.03. to which 7 missionaries have since been sent. The number of native preachers Methodist Church (Canada).-Sec- is 17. The churches are 12, with a retary, Rev. Alexander Sutherland, D.D., membership of 1656, and the contribu- Toronto. tions for nine months 'of 1889-90 were $2835.15. The number of converts was Report for the year closing June 1st, 218. A girls' school is sustained, and a 1890. theological school with 26 students. The cost of the mission for three years is This church has a membership of $59,209.64. 233,868, and has increased by 36,399 in four years. It sustains missi;;ns among North Africa Mission.-Secretary, the French, Indians, and Chinese in Edward H. Glenny, 21 Linton Road, Canada, Manitoba, and British Colum- Barking. bia. Its foreign work is confined to Japan. In aU fields the missionaries The figures are from the Monthly number 67, with 44 native assistants Record, December, 1890. and 46 teachers. The church-members This society was organized in 1881, is undenominationol, and has its work Income. sundry funds ..•……•.••• $10.172.35 among the Mohammedans, Jews, and Tuition and public funds. •…….• 40,066.75 Europeans in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, U. S. Gov't, on account of tuition Tripoli, and Northern Arabia, with a 24.700.08 population of 14,000,000. It has 53 mis- and subsistence for Indians. _… . 8,900.00 sionaries in the field, of whom'31 are lo- Slater Fund, paid to Institutions.. . cated in Morocco and Algeria, 2 are physicians, 36 are women and 28 are Total …………………. $408,038.97 unmarried. In November 7 were sent Balance in hand September 30th, out, and 4 others have been accepted. 1889…….. …. ……………. 4.471.67 Canadian Church (Episcopal).- Secretary, Rev. Charles H. Mockbridge, Total….. ……. ……… $412,510.64 D.D., Toronto. DANI1IL H.um Fmm. INcoHlI: ACCOUNT. Report for the year closing July 31st, Income collected 1889-90……….. ~,686.76 1890. Balance in hand September 30th.
Hitherto this church had contributed 1889…………………… …. .. 16,688.56 through the Church of England, but last year sent out its first missionary, Total……… …. ……… $51,375.32 and to Japan. The total expenditures Amount expended in the South….. $47,482.27 were $14,785, of which these are the Balance in hand and appropriated… 3,893.05 principal items: Total. … ………………. $51.375.32 S. P. G………………………….. $1,880.59 REC1tIl'TS J'OR THlI: WORK OJ' THE YEAR. C. M. S…………………………. 1,410.44 S. P. C. K……………………….. 470.15 For current work • •. •. …..•..•.••• $408.038.97 Income from Daniel Hand Fund…. 34.686.76 Colonial and Con. Church Society. . •• . 470.15 Proportion of General Expenses.. . . . •• 245.00 Total …………………. $442,725.73 Appropriat~d Contributions. American Board.-Secretaries, No.1 S. P. G…………………………. $3,301.73 Somerset Street, Boston, Mass. C. M. S…… _…. ……….. ••• •••••• 275.71 Bishop of Madras ……………….. 305.00 Report for the year closing August Zenana Missions…. . .. .. . .• •••• ••• •• 1,289.53 31st. 1890. Parochial Missions to Jews………… 1,424.06 London Society, Jews …………….. 2,321.81 No. of missions………………… . 22 Rev. J. Cooper Robinson, Japen Fund. 1,227.06 Stations and out-ltatiOns •••••••.•••• 1,053 American Missionary. Association. -The main work of this society is in Ordained missionaries.••••••.•••.•.• 183 the Southern States among the freedmen and the" Mountain whites," with large Lay …………. .. 17 emphasis given to education. but missions are !Llso sustained among the Ind- Women (wives. 181) .. .. 333 ians and the Chinese in this country. Whole No. from America.••.•••….. 533 The Treasurer's Report (October 1st, 1889-September 30th, 1890) gives a grati- Native pastors………………… .. 174 fying exhibit. showing a credit balance of $2,089.24, an increase of receipts over Total native helpers…………….. . 2,417 last year of $31,820.09, a total of $408,- 038.97, and if the income be added from Total American and native •..•.•.••. 2.950 the Daniel Hand Fund, $34,086.76, the aggregate amounts to $442.725.73. the No. of churches……………….. .. 387 largest ever received by the Association. No. of church-members…….. _…. . 36,256 RECEIl'TS. Added during the year…………. .. 4,554 From churches. Sabbath schools. missionary societies and Individ- No. of adherents……………… .. 127,000 nals…………… ………… ••• 8186,470.61 No. of church-members from the be- Estates and legacies.:…. • •••••• 137.739.18 ginning……………… …….. .. 115,000 Average congregations….. ………. 62.200 Under theological training.. . .. . . . . .. 247 In 66 colleges and high schools.. . . . . . 4,600 In 56 girls' boarding schools. . •..• .•• 3,180 In 889 common schools…. .. .. .. .. .. 33,114 Whole number under Instruction…. 47.329 Native contributions….. …. ……. $117,494 Total receipt…………………….. $763,434.07 Protestant Episcopa.l. – Secretary. Rev. WilliamS. Langford, D.D., 22 Bible House, New York.
Report for the year closing December 31st, 1890. According to the Living Chu.rch Alma- Nonconformists in this total is thus nac for 1891, this church has 4163 stated: clergy, 299 candidates for orders, 2330 parishes and missions, and 508,292 com- Wesleyan Missiouary Society……….£124,883 municants. The number of baptisms Londou Missionary Society…. . . .• . . . . . 98,830 IMt year was 61,665, of which nearly Baptist Missionary Society. . . . . .. . •… . 63,470 47,000 were of infants. The contribu- English Presbyterian Foreign Missions. 14,492 tions for the year are $12,754,767. .. Friends" Foreign Mission Association. 13,156 Wesleyan Ladies' Auxiliary for Female In addition to work carried on in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Education…….. …. ……… ……. 7,661 Greece, and Hayti, missions are BUS- United Methodist l!"'ree Churches' Fortained among the Indians and freedmen, and in West Africa, China, and eign Missions.. .. . …. …………… 6,283 Japan. These are the figures for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists Foreign three fields last named : Missionary Society.. . …………… 7,195 Bishops….. .. ….•. …. …. •… 4 Eight smaller societies and value of Presbyters (of whom native, 14)…….. 32 needlework….. …. … …. ………. 33,682 Deacons (native).. .. •. … ..•. . .. . . . . . .. 18 Total. ……………………….£364,652 Candidates for holy orders……… •••• 22 Scottish and Irish Presbyterian soci. eties contributed £185,646, aud Roman Catechists, readers, etc. (native)……. 'J7 Catholio societies £9819. The amount for 1888 was £1,334,491, and for 1887 Stations……………. …. …. ……. 196 was £1,228,759.
Baptisms……………. …………. 585 United Presbyterian Church, Scot- land.-These figures set forth the growth Adult baptisms…………………… 331 witnessed by this society in thirty years, and in six important and decisive par- Confirmations……… …. …… ….. 265 ticulars. As will be noticed, the de- velopment of both causative forces and Communicants ……….. " …. .. .. … 2,242 of results has been steady, and the two have kept pace in a remarkable manner. Increa.e……………. …… ……… 305 The first column includes ordained na- tive pastors, Zenana missionaries and Scholars in day schools …..• …….. 2,434 European teachers, but excludes all native evangelists and teachers. Scholars in Sunday·schools…….. .. 8,247 Native contributions………….. : …. $5,527.79 The appropriations for work among the American Indians and freedmen is $85,007.50, and for foreign missions $162,504, or a total of $247,511.50.
British Contributions to Foreign ~! "'"Q)~ ..d~ 1>,' Missions.-Canon Scott Robertson has ~lS ~~ "[;Q ;.0) prepared with great care the following .~+::.£ ,>:IS -"il ~,g summary of the gifts of British Chris- ~~ j~ ~~ tians to foreign missions in 1889. Os .s :9~ Though somewhat smaller than in 1888, ~~ ~t. it is yet larger than for any previous -bS year. Of the grand total, £1,301,306, ~ ° – – " — – he estimates that £670.000 came from – § 8"t0d 0 members of the Church of England. The channels of contributions were: – — – -0 – 1859…. 30 1 85 4,552 £16,900 £2,090 Church of England Societies•…•….. £523,226 1869…. 63 7 48 5,740 29,100 8,020 Joint Societies of Churchmen and 1879 …. 81 12 68 9,187 32,300 6,500 1889 …. 117 l!3 96 14,899 40,500 10,470 Nonconformists ……………… .. 217,963 English and Welsh Nonconformist 1 Societies ……………………. . 364,652 Missionary Failure.-The cry about Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Socie- the failure of the modern mission sug- gests a close study of the following statis- ties ………………………….. . 185,646 tical table, compiled to show the growth Roman Catholic Societies. . …..•…• 9,819 at intervals of five years during the past thirty years, or from the beginning of Total contrihutions…….. . … £1,301,306 missionary work in the Methodist mis- sion of North India. The number of The share of 'English and Welsh communicants given is, with the ex- ception of 217 Europeans and Eurasians, native membership. ~~!~ln=~:~~:::':':::':::::.:':::::::.::::~:::::: 1858~ 186~ 1:~ 1::~11 '~I'~I ':; Number of Sunday..schoo!s ……………. , ……. 9 31 104 164 4-30 703 " "school scholars…… …………. 397 860 4,540 6,~ 17,366 26,585 " ~1 :~~~f~~~:::::::: ::::::::::::::::~:::. 4~ 1,Jll 3,~ 6,~,1 7,~7 t2j~ 16,~~ Christian boys in schooL……………. 4 130 257 296, 442 t,243 2,027 " girls in school. .. " …… .., 126 168 350 715 971 1,327 Baptisms during past year……………… …….. .. 115 289 5701 7B9 1,169 1,959 Christian community.. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. 11 .. . . 11,000 " men teachers and evangelists………….. …. women teachers and Bible readers. ,…. .. …• 320 300 The number of children in schools tive Christians live. Christian con. includes only 260 pupils other than verts reside in more than 600 towns and pure natives. Twenty missionaries direct work in 225 centres where na· villages, where they BUpport their own work.
AMERICAN MISSION IN EGYPT. A COMPARISoN SHOWING THE lIHSSlON'S GROWTH AND STATUS, DEC. 31, 1889. 1854-1889.
PERIODS: FmST, 5; OTHERS, 10 YEARS. 1859. 1869. 1879. 1889.
Number stations and churches. . ……………….. .. 3 8 48 112 ~. organized congregations, Christians. . …. . 2 11 29 1 5 12 pastors (native) ………………………. .. 1 6 7 licentiates" . .. ……………. …. . .. . 13 . 8 *14 theqloglcal students …………………… . 180 9B5 2,971 communicante, Dec. 81. ……………….. ' 48B 2,088 5,654 4 $566 $4,726 " of attendants, Sabbath A.M'……………… . 100 5 39 $6,495 Amonnt contributions for church purposes……….. . 118 1,575 9B Number Sabbath schools ……………………… '. 2 (1) 100 4,427 h school pupils…. .. . . . . . . . . .. . .. , .. . 20 $829 H 400 1,200 50 300 83 Amouut contributions Sabbath·school pupils…. , …. . 2,150 Number harem workers ……………………… . "i4 44 " women taught in harems. …. .. ………… .. 'iii 2,218 4,557 females hearing word in churches, harems, 633 1,537 1,156 schools, etc…. ………………….. . .. . 60 352 female ~om!ll~nicant8, ~ec: 31. . ………….. . 281 681 4 women s mISSIOnary SocIetIes …….. ……. . 12 61 159 members women's missionary societies. . . . .. . 10 29 $273 $596 $2.723 100 Amount contributions women's missionary societies .. 6,446 20,720 2,100 6,350 6,304 Number day and training schools……………….. .. 4 $2,051 $4,694 4,386 $3,213 $12,148 1,918 :: pURils, enrollmeutt ……………………. .. 100 51 199 boys ………………………….. .. 45 31 117 100 20 35 " H girls., ………………………… . 55 25 13 $13,872 Teachers {Males…. ………………………. .. 3 B 31,067 Females…………………………. .. .23 10,184 Amount paid by natives for school purposes………. . 3 883 $6,384 Book department: Total volumes sold …. …….. . 600 '(f)' $860 $27,358 250 Scriptures …………………………………….. . (?) 75 Total receipts…. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. . .. … .. …. .. (?) 50 Total paid by natives for all purposes……………. . (?) 68 Training college: Pupils…….. .. ……………. .. 25 NUl;'!-ber of gra?ustes… .. '.' …… _. ………. …. ..- ~11 III servIce of Chnst.. . ……… . teachers trained and workiug. ' ……….. ' .. . 64 2,981 pastors. preachere, etc., trained …….. , ….. . 1,315 college pupils in theological class. .. .. …. .. . $2,123 " sch~ols.-outgrowth.. . .. . .•• .. .. …. .. ….. .. . puplls III same………………………… . Total enrollment, college …………………….. .. Amount fees paid by pupils ………………….. ..
* In 1890, theological students, 19.
t Sects, 1889: Protestants, 1,822; Copts, 3,718 ; Mohammedans, 831 ; others, 433. ~ Seventeen in 1890. Monthly Bulletin. steamer. The annual drink bill of Japan is $86,000,000, an average of -Wo hive Bishop Walker's church $2.40 for every individual in the Emon wheels, and now the Free.Will Bap. pire. It is encouraging, however, to tists have built a floating ohuroh, whioh learn that a total abstinence society has was launched recently at St. Louis. It been organized in that country, and that iii intended to 0lrry the Gospel along many are uniting with it. the Mississippi from St. Paul to New OrleanEl. -The missionaries in Africa deem the work of one woman equal to that of -TJie Presbyterian Church has now twelve men, since the women can go in Alaska seven missions and fOllr anywhere, even among the fiercest ohurches, with seventy to eighty com· tribes, unmolested. The female mismunicants each. Besides the Presby- sionaries are held in high esteem; their terian. the Moravian, the Protestant motives are never questioned, and they Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal, the are listened to with greatest respect. Roman Catholio, and the Anglioan ohurches have missions in Alaska. -From the recent report of the Jap- -The Church Missionary Society of anese Minister of Education it appears England proposes to send out one thousand new missionaries during the next that education is now offered to all the fi ve or six years. A much larger proportion than heretofore will be laymen. children in Japan, and that there are -It was recently reported from the nearly three millions of pupils in the Presbyterian Mission at Wei Hien. China, that there were 650 inquirers, pllblic schools of the Empire. There and that 150 had been baptized. This is most gratifying news. is a remarkable growth of intelligence -The spirit of intolerance seems to among the people. The standard of rule unmitigated in Russia. It is stated that the procurator of the Holy education is advancing, as is shown in Synod has advised the Czar to banish all foreign missionaries, and to suppress the fact that many new studies have foreign worship except in the Baltic provinces, where the Lutheran religion been introduced in the Imperial U~:liis barely tolerated. versity of Tokyo. ' -The working of the marriage laws of India is illustrated in a recent inci- -A congress of French Protestants dent. A marriage was arranged between was recently held in Paris, having in an edllcated young girl of twelve and a view new consecration and practical lawyer of twenty.three who was suffer· study. The meetings were very earnest. ing from white leprosy. The girl was The subjects considered were such as ,kept in ignorance of the disease of her the relation of the evangelist to the paspurchasing husband. and learned it only tors and churches, difficulties in the way when she met him at the marriage ser- of evangelization in Roman Catholic vice. She merely looked up with tearful countries, and the getting of converts eyes to her father, and then submitted into the church, especially where differto her lot with a resignation character- ent denominations are represented in istic of the Hindu maiden. the same place. A resolution was adopted asking the French Evangelical -American enterprise is now sending Alliance to study means for promoting :r;um to Japan, as well as to Africa. It a confederation of French Protestant is carried over the Union Pacific Rail- churches. way an4 forwarded to Yokohama by -Another mission is to be established in Alaska by the Reformed Episoopal Church. The government having prom- ised $1000 for buildings and $1000 toward expenses, Miss Benson, of Phil. adelphia, offered to contribute one half of the remaining expenses on condition that the Church would raise the remain- der. These propOSitions bave been 00cepted, and an appeal has been made tions on the confines and books prepared for funds. in Thibetan to equip the missionary as . Boon as the wall is broken down. A -The interesting fact is stated that prayer union has been formed among while the number of Christians in Japan the Moravians to pray for the opening is only about one in one thou~and, and of Thibet. in no province do Christians even' approach to a majority, yet there have -Dr. B. H. Badley, 'President of been eleven members of the House of Lucknow Christian College, writes to Representatives chosen from their num- the Independent of the North Indian ber. There are also three professed Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Christians in tho House of Peers. A Church. Its foundations were laid in Christian has been ohosen President of the dark days of the mutiny of 1857, by the new House of Representatives. A Dr. Butler. In August, 1858, the statisformer vice-president of the liberal tics were: Missionaries, 3 ; helpers, 7 ; party is an active Presbyterian elder. church members, 1; probationers, 4; After his ~lection he was advised to give orphans, 6; day scholars, 41 ; native up his office in the church, as it might congregations, 35. In 1889 the figures create prejudice against him, but he re- were: Missionaries, 30,; Zenana and plied that he regarded his office in a native, 72 ; helpers, 389 ; church-mem- Christian church as more important bers, 4989; probationers, 4793 ; than his seat in the Diet. It was then orphans, 617; day scholars, 17,241; suggested that he absent himself from Sunday-school scholars, 28,400 ; native the meetings, but he answered that he congregations, 13,529. The mission has rega.rded attendance at Christian wor- its own publication house, a theological ship as a greater privilege, as well as a seminary, a college, and 8 woman's colhigher duty than any other. This shows lege, and is in all respects splendidly sturdy Christianity in Japan. equipped for work.
-It is said that Hebrew is rapidly -In the year 1800 only one twentybecoming again a Iiving tongue in Pales- fifth of our population was in towns of tine. Jews driven by persecution from more than 8000 inhabitants. Now more other countries are gathering in the land than one fourth of our population is of Israel. They do not know each massed in cities. Thill fact is startling. other's language, but all of them under- It has its great lesson for the Church. stand something of Hebrew, and the Here is where the work of evangelizaconsequence ia that Hebrew is becoming tion must be pressed. While we are the medium of communication among sending missionaries to fOl,eign lands, them. Two weekly newspapers are now God is sending thousands of foreigners published in Jerusalem in Hebrew. It to us, that we may Christianize them would seem expedient that missionaries right at our own doors. The problem of to the Jews in Palestine should be able city evangelization is one of the great to speak in the Hebrew language. problems of Christian missions to-day.
-Thibet is one of the few countries -Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Secretary of where the preaching of the Gospel is the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Misprohibited. Very little is known of the sions, was greatly impressed in his repeople. The population is set down as cent visit, with the vast unoccupied 6,000,000. They have two forms of re- fields in Central China. He found cities ligion, one of which is a type of Buddh- of from 75,000 to 300,000 with not one ism. Various attempts have been missionary of any denomination. These made to carry the Gospel into the coun- fields are open, too. "There is as littry, but they have all been practically tle excuse," he says, " forIeaving a city unsuccessful. The Moravians have long of 100,000 on the New York Central Railwaited to enter the field, having sta- roe.d without 8 single ~reaqber of the GOIl_ pel, as for leaving cities of that size and Miss Frances E. Willard, "no steamer double that size utterly neglected with- could revolve its wheels fast enough to in twenty-four hours of Shanghai." convey me to the Dark Continent. I should go where my color was the cor- -The Rev. J. A. MacDonald, a Wes- rect thing, and leave these pale faces to leyan missionary in Bengal, says that in work out their own destiny." India idolatrous practices are coming into disrepute. He thinks that the -Along the West Africa coast thirtyreign of false gods is drawing to a close. five languages, or dialects, have been mastered, and portions of the Scripture -The Foreign Mission Board of the and various religious and educational Reformed Church has sent out an ear- books and tracts have been translated nest appeal for special contributions to and printed, reaching thus about eight meet the needs of the work. It makes million people. these suggestions: "One cent a day from every member of the Reformed -This is woman's age. Even in Church in this country, 90,878, would slow-moving China, women are coming give $331,707 a year for this blessed ser- to the front. The Amhoy MontMy Ohurch vice. Five cents a week (a single car- Magazine contains a prize essay by a fare) saved and given to it would yield young woman on " How Shall Christian $236,283. Women Lead their Heathen Sisters to Worship God." -An ignorant Hindu woman became a Christian. Her husband told Dr. -The Moravians, at the close of a Murray Mitchell that his wife was century of missionary work, show a realways singing. Dr. Mitchell asked the markable record. The total number of man to write down some of the words their members at home is but one-third she sang and bring them to him. He of those in the mission fields. One in did so, and the following is the transla- every sixty-five of their adult members tion: has gone to labor as a missionary.
" To my poor house there came a lofty strauger- -Reginald Radcliffe says that the Oh, it was Jesus, the darling of heaven. sooner we understand that the New I ran to bid Him welcome. Testament does not ask nor expect the evangelization of the world to be done " With gods of stone what have I now to do ? by ministers, any more than a general I clasp my Saviour's feet; expects the fighting to be done by him- My whole soul clings to Jesus. self and his officers, but in far greater part by the rank and file, the sooner " Since to my breast I clasped those blessed feet, will the day of missionary advance be- Rich, rich am I, 0 Jesus I gin. The apostles did not send to And Thou wilt never leave:' Jerusalem for foreign pastors, but out of the converts in each town found na- -Sometimes converts in heathen tive overseers which they placed over countries may teach us older Christians the flock. lessons in systematic beneficence. It is said that the Christians in Ceylon -The Young Men's Christian Assohave four methods of giving for the sup- ciations are spreading all over the port of the Gospel. First, the tithes of world. There are now above four thoutheir earnings. Second, the offering of sand associations. Of these there are, trees-the setting apart by each family in India and Ceylon, 21; in Turkey, of a cocoa· nut tree, the produce of which 12; in Syria, 6; in Africa, 12; in they sacredly devote to benevolent pur- China, 5 ; in Persia, 7 ; in Japan, 200. poses. Third, the offering of labor-de- There will be openings in all parts of voting a certain amount of time to work the world for young men who are fitted in the interest of the church. Fourth, to be secretaries and eyangelists in conthey reserve a handful of rice from neotion with these associations. every day's meal.
-" If I were black and young," says