The Missionary Review of the World — April 1891

A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

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

A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA.

BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MI~SIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED

MISSIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED.

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

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

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

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

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

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

CELIBATE MISSIONARIES.

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

LAY EVANGELISTIC MISSIONARIES.

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

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

NATIVE AGENCY.

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

EDUCATION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES.

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

THE EXPLANATION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER

LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHY MISSIONS ARE SO ,MODERN

WHY MISSIONS ARE SO MODERN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN

THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN.

BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WOMAN'S WORK

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

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

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

WOMAN'S WORK.

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND

THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND.

BY FRANCIS EDWARD SMILEY, EVANGELIST.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KRASI TRADITIONS

THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KHASI TRADITIONS.

BY REV. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, ASSAM, INDIA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LETTERS FROM EUROPE

LETTERS FROM EUROPE.-I.

MISSION WORK IN THE SCOTCH ATHENS.

BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

. EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, January 17, 1891.

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

THE TELUGU MISSION

THE TELUGU MISSION.

BY C. B. WARD.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A. B. C. F. M•

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

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

A. B. C. F. M.

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

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

THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES

THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

EXTRACTS ANlJ TRANSLATIONS FROM: FOltElGN PERIOlnCALS

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

tNTERNATtONAL DEPARTMENT

II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

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

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

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

EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS

III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why not give Palestine back to them?

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

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

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

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

THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Missionary Review of the World — November 1890

THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO THE JEWS

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

VOL. XIII. No. ll.-Old Series.– NOVEMBER. –VOL. ill. No. 11.-New Series.

I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.

THE DUTY OF CHRISTENDOM TO 'I'HE .JEWS.

BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.

That most intelligent and devoted friend of missions, Robert N. Cust, LL. D., of London, has published recently in the Church Missionary Intelligencer, an able article on the changing phases of the non-Christian religions, in which occurs an interesting monograph on "Neo Judaism." Dr. Cust is a member, not only of the Administrative Committee of the Church Missionary Society, but also of the London Missionary Society to the Jews, and he is equally qualified to speak of the operations and the successes of both. More than this, he is a man who thoroughly acquaints himself with the character of those systems which he hopes to see displaced by the Gospel of Christ. He confesses that great success has not as yet crowned the efforts of Christian missionaries among the Jews, either in London or in the cities of the Continent and of northern Africa. But he is none the less certain as to the duty of the Christian Church. He states that the Jews now number not less than 7,000,000, and are, therefore, a much more numerous people than were ruled over by David or Solomon-more numerous, in fact, than Palestine could possibly have supported.

If Dr. Custis correct in this estimate-and he seldom errs in matters of fact-the return to the Holy Land must be hastened, or it can only be re-occupied by representation. For what race, unless it be the American Negro, increases so rapidly as the Hebrew? Wherever the environment is favorable, and he has an equal chance with others, the Jew is the most thrifty of men, not only in money-getting but in the number and healthfulness of his children. Where the native American imagines that he cannot afford to marry, and must be satisfied with the" club" instead of a home, the Jew rears a prosperous family, and in the end endows them with wealth.

That the Hebrew race have suffered great persecution during the past centuries, must be confessed to the shame of the Christian Church. They have found in Europe as well as Africa and western Asia, another and much longer Babylonish captivity. But that this has been wholly due to religious prejudice cannot be affirmed. The tone and implication of Shakespeare's" Merchant of Venice" must rest on a basis which, even in his time, was historic. Probably the prejudice and contempt entertained toward the race by their Roman conquerors was fully as strong as has ever been exercised by the most bigoted of Christian nations. Nay, the latter .prejudice may have been in part an heirloom of the former.

The strangest prejudice and the greatest injustice and oppression now visited upon the Jews, so far as the Christian powers are concerned, are found in eastern Europe, where the doctrines of Christianity have the slightest hold, and where governmental policy and the bitterness of industrial competition must be held responsible for the entire crusade. One million of Jews are now being banished from Russian territory, not because of their faith but because the Government does not regard them as desirable subjects.

One thing is certain, whatever prejudice exists against the Hebrew population in the United States, does not arise from differences of .faith. Their best friends, both in this country and in Great Britain, are found in the Christian Church-certainly in the Protestant Church.

Some months since, the question was sent out to different men of prominent positions among us, "What is the occasion of the prevailing prejudice against the Hebrews ?" , Generally the re.sponse given was, "We are not aware of any prejudice." . Several clergymen disavowed any feeling of the kind. But Rev. Edward Everett Hale was cre~ited with charging the hostile feeling to a difference of religious faith.

As the implication was that of a prejudice now existing on the part of the American churches, we must earnestly protest against it. Mr. Hale cannot be aware-possibly he has forgotten-that four or five years ago, U. S. Minister Strauss was chosen to represent our Government at Constantinople on the recommendation of the missionary boards, and that petitions from the missionaries in the Turkish Empire were sent to Washington asking that he might be appointed for a second term.

The hostile feeling against the Jews in this country grows out of business relations. It is not cherished by Christians as such, but by those who have had to do with them in trade, or by those who have been employed by them in manufacturing. The trades unions, largely composed of infidels and Nihilists, would probably be found to represent the most bitter of all the animosities that they encounter. Whether it be just or not, there exists a feeling that the chief oppressors of poor needle-women are Jews. The industries in which unfortunate and starving females engage, as a last resort, are mostly in the hands of this class of men, and when the ruinous rates at which manufactured garments are produced in the attics and tenement houses of desperate poverty corne to be known, it must not be thought strange if popular sympathy and indignation are aroused. Some Americans join in the same extortion, but their miserable plea is that .competition compels them to do what others do. As a rule, women do not "strike." They suffer on and die, and their employers prosper .and live on Fifth Avenue.

There are among our Hebrew citizens thousands of worthy and honorable business men who suffer unjustly from the prejudice which .other thousands of their race have brought upon them, and it is to be hoped, that on the one hand, public opinion will become more discrimjnating, while on the other, the example of the nobler Hebrew tradesmen will raise the standard of honor and humanity among all their race.

Another thing which creates prejudice against the Jews may be regarded as a mere accident of their phenomenal thrift. At the summer resorts they are deemed undesirable guests on account of rough and disagreeable manners. This is no proof that the average of the race is more clownish or swinish than other races. Quite as disagree- ,able companionship might be found among the Irish, or some classes of native-bom Americans, but the difference is, that these are not found at first-class hotels; with them, there is a different relation between manners and money. Financial competency reaches a lower stratum in Jewish society than in any other. It extends to classes among whom the gentle amenities of life are unknown, and even good grammar is wanting. And the same habit of overreaching, which has made the money, is carried into all the contacts and experiences of hotel life.

Now, it is quite time that the common notion that Jews are suffering from any narrow religious prejudice of the Christian Church were laid aside.

How is it in Mohammedan countries where a common rejection of Christianity might be supposed to draw both classes of rigid Monothists together in full sympathy? In no Christian country-not even in Russia-is there so bitter a hatred, so degrading a bondage for the ~ews as in northern Africa-particularly in Morocco. They are thrifty in money matters, even there. It is impossible to impoverish them by any ordinary measures of oppression. On some accounts it is for the interest of impecunious Moors, and even of the officials, to have such a class from whom to borrow money, and by whose energy business shall be kept from stagnation, but as to indignitIes of every kind, the treatment meted out to them is almost incredible. They must wear a prescribed attire, and dwell in a certain quarter, and submit to many special police regulations; while in taxation, the only question is how far the life blood can be drawn with safety.

It seems strange that in their wide range among the nations, these people who are not a nation, cling to the Mohammedans and the Christians. Though the world is open before them, and they do not seem bound by local attachments, they are never found among the heathen. Opportunities for money-getting have been great in the East; almost every other race of Europe and western Asia-ancient and modern-has been lured by the wealth of India or China or the southern Archipelago, but never the Jew. His financial counterpart, the Parsee, is everywhere found in the East, driving bargains with Jewish sagacity, in opium or in spices and coffee, but the Hebrew has never crossed their track. Even in those centuries where he has suffered the greatest disabilities in the proscribed "Jew quarters" of European or Levantine cities, it seems never to have occurred to him to join the rush of Persians, Pathans, Macedonians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, after the wealth of the heathen Orient. He preferred to be snubbed and crushed by Christian and Moslem nations, and to find solace in that money-getting passion which, in the course of centuries, has become a nature.

Hertzog alludes to the fact that the Jew confines himself mostly to temperate latitudes; he is not found in the tropics of either hemisphere. And our readers hardly need to be reminded that he is always found in the cities. Who ever heard of a Hebrew farmer ?-at least this side of Bible times. The Nomadic character has forsaken him. He is no longer a keeper of sheep. Yet, no other race except the Hindu or the Mongolian has shown such tenacity of life and such unimpaired vigor. The Romans who crushed the national life of Israel, on the one hand, and t].}e Assyrians who enslaved and scattered the chosen tribes, on the other, have alike perished, while the seed of Abraham, driven everywhither, have survived and are more numerous and a hundredfold more thrifty than in the days of Solomon and his glory.

The financial power of Jewish bankers on the Continent of Europe has become proverbial. The author of La France Juive claims that French politics, as well as finance, are largely controlled by the same race. We have, in our day, seen a D'Israeli climb to the heights of power in England, and wield a magician's wand over Queen and Parliament, and finally win for himself a statue in the consecrated shrine of national heroes and statesmen.

On this side of the Atlantic, the main business thoroughfare of our great metropolis is exchanging the names of its old American firms for the names of German Jews. 'l'hey are sure to become not only a great financial power but a strong social and political element in this country. The logic of their twofold increase-by natural generation and by immigration-renders certain a great future development.

Meanwhile, there is reason to believe that a better state of feeling is springing up. If the Jew has been rather Ishmaelitish than Israelitish it is not wholly his fault, though it is in part. On both sides, there should be confidence, and among business men of the highest grade there is already a clasping of hands over the old "wall of partition.'" Dr. Cust quotes from an address, delivered this very year, by Dr. Adler (not Felix), in the great synagogue in Aldgate, in the presence -of the Lord-Mayor, himself a Jew, in which the Rabbi alluded to the influence exerted by that synagogue. "Many a soul-stirring service," said the speaker, "has been witnessed within its venerable walls. Whatever the event that moved the hearts of England's sons-when a great victory evoked national rejoicing; when a sovereign had been _stricken down by illness, and when it pleased the Lord to send him healing; when a joyous jubilee was kept, and when death had entered -the palace-every event was commemorated in the great synagogue with the voice of prayer and supplication, of praise and thanksgiving, proving that the Israelite then, as always, was steeped to the very lips with loyalty. Nor were the administrators of the synagogue unmindful of the needs of their fellow-men-though of other lands and -creeds. Whether the appeal came to relieve a famine in Sweden, or to diminish the sufferings of English prisoners in France, or a plaint reached these shores from the hunger-stricken children of Ireland- the authorities of the great synagogue were ever ready to aid and to succor."

The benefactions as well as the exalted character of a Moses Montifiore are fresh in the mind of every reader. And that love of fair play which is so strong in the character of Englishmen, is welcoming :such men as he to their confidence, and is appreciating the philanthropic efforts of the great synagogue.

Instead of clinging to an old religious grudge against the race, Christian London is the focal centre of interest ih their welfare. Mis- -sions to the Jews at home and abroad are multiplied, and the strong :prayer of faith is offered up by thousands of devout Christians that God 'Will redeem His own chosen people by the blood of an accepted Christ!

It must be confessed that the Christian Church at large has seemed to be apathetic in regard to Jewish missions, but it has been rather the apathy of despair than of indifference. There has been too great .a readiness to "turn unto the Gentiles" and to consider the engrafted "wild olive" the real tree. At the London Missionary Conference of 1888, Mr. James E. Mathieson quoted the late Dr. Schwartz as saying, '''You Gentile Christians take all the sweet promises to yourselves, out you leave all the curses to the poor Jews." And in continuing, Mr. MathieRon alluded to a custom of the Scotch ecclesiastical bodies .()f rising at the close of their sessions (though they usually sit in prayer), and singing with marked solemnity: "Pray for the 'peace .()f Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee," etc. "But they do not mean Jerusalem," he added, "and they do not mean the Jews: they mean the Established Church and the Free Church of Scotland." 18 Dot this something like "robbery for burnt offering ?"

But, however, the Church, a8 a whole, may have negleeted her duty, there have always been those who have God's chosen people in their hearts. Count Zinzendoof, the founder of the Moravian Mis- sions, took a warm interest in the Jews, and he had the great joy, in 1735, of seeing a prominent Jewish rabbi become a member of the' Moravian Church, and a successful missionary among his people. "Everywhere," says Dr. Fleming, Secretary of the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, "he won the esteem of the Jews, and not long since, a gift was sent to the Moravian Church at Herrnhut by a Jewish family who cherished the traditions of bless- ing through Rabbi Lieberkiihn."

The London Society, above named, has been at work for over eighty years. Nor is it alone. There are altogether eight Jewish missionary societies in England, five in Scotland, and one in Ireland. Together, these employ 312 agents. On the Continent of Europe, the societies number 27. America has seven, with 34 agents. Thus 48 societies with 377 agents are striving to win God's ancient people to· tlileir own Messiah. That their labors have not been wholly in vain is shown by the estimated fact that 100,000 Jews have been baptized in the last seventy-five years, and that with their children the number' of believers may be set down at 250,000. Among these have been many distinguished men.

Though these numbers are not relatively great, yet it is believed that the breaking down on both sides of an unrelenting prejudice, has been a far greater result and one which opens the way for blessed in-gatherings in the time to come.

There are certainly some valid grounds of hope for the Jews, even aside from the Divine promises. They are less tenacious of their old faith than they were formerly. Though still more or less clannish, yet they are more than ever disposed to break down barriers and be like other people. They are getting tired of the real or imagined stigma and reproach attached to their name. Each successive generation cares less for the old shibboleths and more for the privileges of social life without distinction of race.

It is seen that the prophetic situation is awkward. If the Messiah has come, who, and what was He? If He has not come, when will He appear? If sacrifice symbolized a promised Redeemer why is it not 'kept up? Why is the Moslem permitted to hold century after century, the only place of sacrifice, unless to show that its meaning is done away and its necessity gone? Perhaps it is in despair over such questions as these that multitudes of Jews are driven to Agnosticism., More and more Jews observe our Sabbath as a day of rest, and their Sabbath-schools inevitably tend toward Christian ways. It is well-nigh impossible to prevent their children from coming intosympathy with the Christian institutions and customs which prevaiL around them. Two or three years ago a liberal-minded and philanthropio Jew in Italy offered an immense sum of money to be devoted to the edu- oation of children in Russia, and recommended that Jews and Chris- tians be educated together. His idea was that the race distinction should be ignored, and that the young of his people should be allowed to become absorbed in the national life wherever they might be, and that gradually the distinction between Jew and Gentile should dis- appear. It may be, that social abs!)rption, intermarriage, the assimi- lating influence of the common school, the fading out of the Jewish pride and prejudice of race are to be factots in God's plan of recovery. Doubtless, they will have a part to act, but God's express will is that the Gospel shall be ,faithfully preached meanwhile, and that prayer be .offered for His people. '

Surely the Christian Church owes it to itself to present no higher consideration to promote the spiritual enlightenment of the Jews. We ourselves need this effort, if only tt> remind us continually how much we owe to the race that ga,ve us the Saviour of mankind-if only to keep fresh in memory the great missionary whom the Jewish race gave as the Apostle to us Gentiles. Our indebtedness for the Chief of the apostles will never be paid. The Gentile world, with its Christian institutions, is a monument of the great fact that it is possible to overcome the most inveterate Jewish prejudice, and to win the stoutest Pharasaic heart to Christ. If Paul could be converted and could convert thousands of others of his own faith, the Christian Church has no right to despair. Jew:ish synagogues were the first cradles of the nascent church in all lands. They opened their doors to the apostles for the planting of the first germs of truth, and Jewish converts everywhere gave character and steadiness to the ignorant Gentile church.

But, how shall the Jews of our time be reached? The London Society, as the result of eighty years of experience, answers this question under the following heads: (1.) By striving to win their confidence by removing prejudice: (a.) Never speak sneeringly or disparagingly of them; overcome the habit in ourselves and others. (b.) Manifest sympathy with them as a nation and as individuals. (c.) Win confidence by medical missions.

(2.) By preaching the Gospel as the apostles preached it-proving from their own Scriptures that Christ is the promised Messiah.

(3.) By encouraging a diligent, oandid, and prayerful study of the whole Bible-the Old and the New Testament in their connection.

(4.) By educating Jewish children. In a school supported by the Society, in Palestine Place, London, where 595 Jewish boys have been educated, the master, after 28 years of service, does not know of one pupil, who, after pursuing a full course, has relapsed into Judaism.

(5.) By assisting poor Jewish youth to obtain positions and Imcouraging them in seeking a subsistence.

(6.) By training promising young men as missionaries. tt should not be forgotten, as an encouragement, that the Jews are worshippers of our God, have a large portion of our Bible, are sharers of our civilization, speak our language, and are-or ought to be-our friends as well as neighbors, and are even before us, heirs of the covenant of promise !

THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS

THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF MADAGASCAR. [EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] To an English boy, Robert Drury, wrecked near Port Dauphine, the Southeastern cape of Madagascar, we owe the first full account of the savages on this great island. He saw the captain and crew, who escaped with him from the angry sea, pierced with the lances of the inhospitable natives, till out of over a hundred only a dozen survived, and he himself was saved only to be enslaved. This was early in this century. He found the country divided among many warring tribes; might the only right, women and children carried off like cattle and made slaves; woman, so degraded that even the King's daughter, wife or mother, cringed before him and licked his feet. Heathen ceremonies of the most absurd and degrading kind were matters of daily occurrence. A wooden charm called an owZey, borne up by forked sticks, was worshiped with incense. Fortune tellers, or umossees, held the people in the bondage of superstition, and lived upon their ignorance and credulity. The Malagasy were the victims of magicians, and constantly fought and plundered one another, The arrival of a European vessel was the signal for wholesale crimes of lust and trading in human bodies and: souls. All who had slaves drove them to the seaside.

Half a century ago the Hovas held the interior portion of the island, and their King or chief, who was called Radama, had come to the throne in 1808. With these Hovas and their sovereigns the modern history of Madagascar is mainly concerned, Morally and spiritually the picture is very dark. From three to four thousand natives were sold, it is said, every year, and the spot where they caught the last glimpse of home, and the first glimpse of the sea that was to bear them into hopeless exile, is even now called the''weeping pZace ofthe Hovas." Though they had courts of law, bribery was so common that trial was a form and a farce. Honesty was scarce known, and children were trained to falsehood and deception as a virtue. Punishments were savagely cruel, devised to give long, lingering pain-burning by slow fires, drowning in boiiing water, poisoning by tangena, beating, starving, hurling over precipices, crucifying. 'fhe tangena was a substitute for trial, and thousands died every year from this poison, while those who proved their innocence by outliving the dose were wrecked in health.

The people were a nation of thieves as well as liars. Madame Pfeiffer's property was stolen while at the house of the Chief Justice, but }'ecovery was impossible, where even high officers stole. Even graves were robbed, bodies stripped, and every article of value buried with the dead was an object of ruthless plunder. The nation was so wedded to lying and thieving that Christianity was objected to because it taught people to be true and honest. They were so far lost to all virtue that they resisted any influence that promised moral improvement. .As to the homes of Madagascar, there were none. A native never I:lpoke ,of family or family ties. Madame Pfeiffer's travels had brought t.o her knowledge no people so immoral, and her pen refused to chronicle what her eyes and ears were compelled to see and hear. The worst vices were so universal as to seem natural. A man might put away his wife for no cause and take a fresh one as often as his caprice or passion led him; female virtue was of so little account that it did not ·even affect the legitimacy of offspring. Children born on unlucky days it was no crime to strangle, drown or expose to the trampling feet of cattle.

The Hovas were not an irreligious people-idols filled the land. ·Gods were so plenty that anything new, which they did not compre- hend, though it were a machine or a photograph, they deified. Their idols were conceived as having all power, but neither knowledge nor .goodness, virtue nor love; they were simply human greed, cruelty,mean- ness and malice, invested with almightiness! monsters of lies and lusts.

Among such a people-of whom the French governor of the Isle of Bourbon said, "You might as well attempt to convert sheep, oxen or -asses, as to make the Malagasy Christians "-among such a people the gospel has gone to win some of its mightiest triumphs.

The first obvious step that God took was one of preparation. He -gave Madagascar political unity. King Radama in his reign of twenty years"proved himself the Cresar or Napoleon" of his realm, making him- self master of the whole island except two districts in the South,and this rendered easier the spread of a new faith, as the unification of the Roman Empire had done eighteen centuries before. Radama was at ·once a general, a ruler and a reformer. He had with all his faults and vices a patriotic spirit. Contact with European civilization had becn sufficient to satisfy him of its superior type, and he first opened the -door to civilization and Christianity that he might secure the progress .and prosperity of his people. He made a treaty with Britain, abolishing the slave trade, though domestic slavery still prevailed in his own ,dominions; and seeing t~e benefits accruing to even heathen lands from the gospel of Ohrist, he welcomed the pioneer English mission- -ary, in 1820, to his capital Antananarivo, and kept his word, which pledged to him and others who might join him royal protection.

The missionaries reduced the language of the people to writing, and in teaching and preaching had all their time and strength employed. -God gave them the king's patronage; an adult sch,ool was opened in the palace court yard, and by his favor a central model school was -opened for training native teachers for the villages round about; and when murmurs arose against the missionaries, because their teachings lessened respect for the native religion, Radama had the independence ;and the indifference to go on with the work of education, at heart -caring nothing for the idols that the Hovas worshipped. In 1826 the first printing press was set up in the i.sland, and a new literature began to be created. The people were slowly waking from the sleep of ages. But at the death of Radama, in June, 1828, not'om~' convert had yet made a confession of Christ. The king himself was a progressive sovereign, but he was led simply by worldly wisdom. It was civilization and not Christianity, as such, that he encouraged. He was too intelligent to have faith in priestcraft and witchcraft, but too carnally minded to embrace Christianity or even attend preaching services.

And now opens the era of a most bloody and cruel persecution. One of Radama's wives, Ranavalona, took forcible possession of the throne, mounting it by murdering all rivals. If Radama was the Cresar, she was the" Bloody Mary," of Madagascar. From twenty to thirty thousand victims fell annually a prey to her cruelty. She was as reckless as Nero, as treacherous as Judas, and as selfish as Cleopatra. Her chief amusement was a bull-fight, her imperial journeys were·· destructive raids that left famine in their track, and her whole rule was that of a despot that cared neither for the liberty nor life of her subjects. She would waste tears over the death of a favorite bull, and lavish honors on its burial, such as not even the decease of her whole· family would have drawn forth. Had her reign been long, the island would have been a depopulated desert; and as it was, it has been calculated that half of the population perished under her. bloody sceptre. We purposely draw her hideous portrait that it may be seen what wasthe natural flower of the Madagascar society, and under what a deadly influence the infant church of Christ there struck down its tender' roots and unfolded its stalk.

There was everything, humanly speaking, to prevent the gospel from getting any hold in Madagascar. The soil was thick with the awful growths of a paganism of the lowest type; and a queen who had neither justice nor mercy was ready to pluck up the first plant of godliness, 01' burn over any field where the seed of the gospel might spring up. Among her first acts was the prohibition of all preaching and the breaking up o~ the schools. 4fterward, probably from motives of policy, she permitted the missionaries not only to make converts, but to organize native Christian churches, and, in 1831, twenty were baptized, among them "Paul," who had been a famous heathen diviner, but who had become a humble learner in the school of Christ.

As soon as the work of conversion thus began in earnest, the queen Bet herself resolutely against it. Her hatred and cruelty were so satanic' that a pall seemed to have fallen upon the whole people. The preaching went forward, and the queen was besought not to persecute the· new disciples. But it was all in vain. In March, 1834, a royal proc– lamation was made in the ears of a hundred thousand people drawn. up on the plain, Imahamasina, declaring war against the new faith•.. Converts were branded as criminals, and required to accuse themselves within one week on pain of death. Astonishing as it may seem, the, great body of these native disciples stood firm. Praying for help, trusting in God, they appeared before the judges and confessed their faith in Jesus. In these days of peril these Malagasy Christians spent whole nights in prayer, by their fidelity to an unseen Saviour exciting the astonishment of their very enemies. The queen contented herself in this case with degrading four hundred officers and fining two thou~ sand others. A week httor she demanded all books to be delivered up. As all literature on the island was the creation of the mission press, this edict was aimed against the Bible. But the brave Malagasy would not give up the Scriptures, which some of them had walked a hundred miles to procure.

The strong hold of the gospel upon the native J,J:ovas could be ac- counted for on no philosophy that excludps the power of God. Al~ ready twenty~four hundred of the queen's officers were among the con~ verts, and in the army the best and bravest soldiers were also soldiers of Christ. In vain were they placed in the most exposed positions in the battle: they still routed the foe. Thirty~thousand Hovas could read the Scriptures. Many cast away idols and superstitious charms.

Large congregations met at the capital and the influence reached hundreds of miles in every direction. No fault could be found in the Chi-istians of Madagascar, except that founl! with Daniel in Baby~ lon-they believed in their God. Wheu compelled to cease public labor, the missionaries worked privately, and besides teaching the people, published the complete Old Testament and" Pilgrim'S Progress." Then, driven from the island, they left the young church of Christ without a foreign mi~sionary among them, in July, 1836; and for twenty-five long years, persecution which had bared her red right arm continued to make it a crime to confess Jesus as Saviour aud Lord. .

Ranavalona 1., ather coronation in June, 1829, took two of the na- tional idols in her hands and said, "From my ancestors I received you; in you I put my trust, therefore support me.. " And, robed in scarlet.

and gold, those idols were held at the front of the platform to overawe the multitude while the ceremonies went forward. Here was a throne literally pillared on idols, as her reign abundantly proved.

There .were four eras of persecution, lasting respectively for fourr seven, three and. two years, together reaching from 1835 to 1860, with intervals of comparative quiet. The third was the most severe.

Christians met secretly in each other's houses, and traveled sometimes twenty miles to mountain tops, to praise and pray and read the word of God.

A woman of high family, Rafaravavy, became a sincere disciple and opened one of the largest houses in the capital for Christian worship. Despite the queen's hostile attitude, she continued to hold Sunday .evening meetings. She refused to reveal the names of her fellowworshipers, and the queen in a rage ordered her put to death. While -expecting cruel tortures, she retained her serene composure; the peacc {)f God filled her soul. Her life was spared, but her property in part ~onfiscated. She continued to meet believers, however, and the number of converts constantly increased. These persecuted disciples, bereft of human teachers, looked only to the Holy Spirit as teacher, and became themselves instructors of others who could not read. Their .quick sensibilities made them weep at the bare mention of Jesus. Rafaravavy's house was assaulted by a mob, and she was led away, as ~he snpposed, to execution, and put in irons; but a terrible conflagration that same night was snpposed to have alarmed the queen and .aroused her supe;stitious fears, and the penalty was delayed. At last .sentence of perpetual slavery was inflicted on all who had been seized in Rafaravavy's house, and Rasalama, another of the women, was speared while kneeling in prayer. Thus, on August 14, 1837, the first Mada- .gascar martyr died witnessing for Jesus. Two hundred converts were .enslaved for Jesus' sake at this time. Some of those thus enslaved to traders, afterwards escaped, but astonished their masters by returning to them accounts of their goods, with money obtained from sales. Fugitives hid three months at a time in forests. Wanderers often 'came into contact with lonely dwellings, where little congregations hitherto unknown gathered for Christian worship.

These are fragments of this remarkable story of Madagascar which read like the highest romance of Christian chivalry.

In 1839 some fugitives, on their way to England, stopping at Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, met with fellow-converts. Unable to communicate freely with these converted Hottentots, their Bibles be- -l'ame actually vehicles of converse. The Malagasy and Hottentots turning to the same passages in their respective translations of the Word, in this way made known to each other their sentiments. For .example, the Hottentot disciples pointed to Ephesians ii : 2 : "Among whom we all had our cop,versation in time past," etc. The Malagasy disciples responded by Eph. ii : 14, 15: "For He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition." Also Gal. iii: 28: "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Again, the Hottentots pointed to John xvi: 33: "In the world ye .shall have tribnlation." The Hovas replied by Rom. viii: 35: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?" etc. When was e'Ver the Bible put to a more beautiful use even by the most mature Christians? Then they sang the same hymns to the Bame tunes in different languages. Verily, "Multm terricolis lin~um; celestibus una." Then the Hottentots made them a voluntary contribution to help pay costs of their voyage, and knelt on the beach commending them to God. And these were Hottentot" dogs" and Malagasy "asses!" How soon and strangely they had developed into Christian men!

When these fugitives reached England, in May, 1839, they wrote a letter to their suffering fellow-disciples at home, which for beauty and purity of Christian sentiment might have graced the fame of Paul, theapostle and writer of epistles. For three years they stayed on British shores, winning universal esteem and love, and furnishing an unanswerable proof of the reality of the gospel. When, in 1842, they returned to Mauritius, their mission station at Moka became the asylum for other fugitives from persecutions at Madagascar. The queen was only enraged by the escape of her victims. She became the more bloodthirsty. She ordered her soldiers, when they found any Christians, 4J;0 dig a pit, cast them into it, pour boiling water on them and then fill up the pit, and go in search of others on whom to wreak similar vengeance.

Meanwhile, the patience and fidelity of these poor disciples confounded their very enemies, and constrained them to admire and wonder at a power so mysterious that could take away the fear of death, even in forms so horrible. In July, 1840, nine perilons, recaptured out of sixteen who had fied, were put to death by the spear of the executioner, and among them PauZ the Aged, the converted conjurer and preacher. And still the Gospel made conquests in these, the darkest days.

Two years of respite from persecution passed by, and a second era of cruelty began about June 19, 1842. Two converts were seized while returning from a missionary tour among the Salaklava tribes, and tortured to induce them to reveal the names of their fellow-disciples, but in vain. These lambs went to the slaughter without opening their mouths to betray other believers.

A few months later the queen was wrought to fury by the act of some imprudent person who affixed to the wall of a house in the capital a leaf of the New Testament, underlining Matthew xxiii, 13, "Woe unto you," etc. Construing this as a personal insult, she required the unknown offender to confess in four days, under penalty of being cut into pieces as small as musket balls. As no confession followed, the queen arrested several Christians and selected two, whose bodies wereliterally chopped as fine as mincemeat, and then burned to ashes! And the only ground for attaching to these disciples the guilt of this offence was that they knew enough to read and write!

Strange to say, it pleased God that the only son and heir of this atrocious Jezebel should, at the age of sixteen, become interested in the very Christians who were the,objects of his mother's persecuting rage! Rakatond.-Radama was one ofthat illustrations of that paradox of heredity, that a lamb should be born of a hyena. His gentle spirit was the exact reverse of his mother's ferocity. Where she delighted in cruelty, he delighted in kindness; he hated blood-shedding even as she thirsted for it. Of course, the people soon found out where to go for sympathy and succor. He cut the cords of those who were bound, and released those appointed to death; and yet the natural affection existing between the son and mother prevented a rupture between them.

About tliis time, 1847, Ramaka, called Rasalasala, or the BoZd One, arose, a mighty preacher, the first in the Madagascar church. Prince Rakatond was drawn to hear him, and was so impressed that he had Christian teachers come to the palace to instruct him in the Scriptures and pray with him. So far as he could he prevented all executions, .or, at least, modified and mollified the severity of the sentence against accused disciples. Though he never seems to have become a convert himself, he often attended OhrIstian worship and befriended the converts in every possible way. His cousin, Prince Ramonja, older than he, yet singularly like him, and also a favorite of the queen, joined him in the chivalrous defence of the persecuted followers of Jesus. The nephew of the prime minister went further than these two royal princes, and openly declared himself a disciple, and so the gospel once more invaded "Ooosar's household." His uncle threatened him with the loss of his head, but he calmly answered, I l( am a Ohristian, and if you will, you may put me to death, but I must and will pray." He might be assassinated, but could not be in- timidated, as Ourran said of himself when conducting the defense of Bond.

To recount all the fascinating story of the Malagasy's sufferings would require a volume. But we seek rather to portray in outline the main features of this romance of missions. One of the most affecting memorials of this persecution may be found in the fragments of Holy Scripture afterwards brought home by Mr. Ellis. During this famine .of the written word, the more educated converts copiAd out portions .of the blessed book, and these were found, worn, soiled and rent, with the toru edges carefully drawn together and sewed with fibres of bark, .or repaired with pieces of stronger paper; and giving evidence that they had been buried in the earth or hidden in smoky thatches, to conceal them from the eyes of the malignant persecutors.

In 1849 a third era of persecution began with the a~sault upon Prince Ramonja. A kabar or business meeting was summoned at Andahalo. rrhe queen addressed a message to her subjects, asking «why it was that they did not give up praying," in view of the :severe penalties affixed to the crime of apostasy from the gods of Madagascar.

The Ohristians made mild but firm answer, refusing to recognize idols. Rainitraho, a noble of royal blood, was among Ohrist's conlessors, and his heroism was so contagious that the officers stopped the -examinations lest the whole people should be carried away with his example. Four nobles were burned alive, and f.ourteen others hurled from a precipice 150 feet high, and their families sold as slaves; 117 were publicly flogged and compelled to labor for life in chains; 1,700 were fined, and Prince Ramonja was degraded from his rank. The -prince royal was accused of being a Christian, but the queen was too indulgent to her only son to take notice of the charge.

No acts of violence could sway these simple Malagasy converts from Jesus. They calmly replied, "None of these things move me." They sang a hymn of "going home to God," as they were borne to ~,x:ecution, and prayers and praises ascended in the very flames that wrapped the stakes. Once, indeed, the flames were extinguished by a sudden rain, and a bow appeared, one end of which seemed to rest on the very posts to which the martyrs were tied. The spectators were overwhelmed with awe, but the fires were relit, and the martyrs gave up the ghost.

To the precipice near the palace, .JI.mpamarinana, fourteen prisoners were then led and hurled over its awful edge, bounding from ledge to ledge until they were broken on the granite rocks below, and one of them was heard singing as he fell. One timid woman, Ranivo, who was kept to the last, compelled to look over the edge of the cliff upon the mangled bodies below, in answer to the '6ntreaties of friends that she would save her life by apostasy from Dhrist, only begged to be hurled from the precipice too. And yet the word of the Lord had free course and was glorified. Converts was still gathered. Believers numbered thousands. In at least seven places in the capital secret meetings were held.

Rainiharo, one of the ministers who had placed Ranavalona on the throne and propped her persecuting policy by his influence, died, and this period of relentless persecution came to a close. The prince royal, Rakatond, now became associated with his mother in the government: The time now seemed to have come for the return of the expelled mIsSIOnaries. The London Missionary Society, to whose planting the gospel owed Its harvest in Madagascar, sent a deputation, composed of the veteran missionary, Rev. William Ellis, and the Rev. Mr. Cameron, to prepare the way for re-establishing the mission which for about eighteen years had been broken np.

Mr. Ellis found two parties on the island, led respectively by Prince Rakatond and by his cousin, Ramboasalama, the former favoring Christ~anity and all its noble institutions; the latterin league with idolatry and all its vicious associations. But Mr. Ellis found the church of Christ in the island stronger than before persecution began, and the knowledge of the gospel spread to the remote parts of the island. Not until his third visit, in 1856, did he reach the capital. But when he did, he found that just the fruits which the blessed gospel had produced in the most enlightened communities, it had borne in Madagascar. Disciples had there fought the same fight of faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, and burning with zeal for God and passion for souls. Closet and la:mily prayer were more common than among disciples in London; the word of God was daily searched as for hid treasure, and the meetings for worship were attended at all risk. . The fourth and last persecution may be traced to a plot to depose the wicked queen. June, 1857, was fixed as the time for carrying out the design. Mr. Lambert, a Frenchman, first sought aid from Louis Napoleon and the English prime minister, Lord Clarendon, in relieving the misery of the Malagasy. When the hope of foreign interference failed, he is said to have enlisted the co-operation of Prince Rakatond with some of the nobles and soldiers, in' the plan of revolutionizing the government by native aid alone. No violence was to be done to the queen's person; she was simply to be removed from the throne, and her son to be proclaimed king. But ou the eve of accomplishment the plot failed, and when the knowledge of the conspiracy came to Queen Ranavalona's ears, she refused to allow anyone to hint a suspicion against her son, and like Nero when Rome burned, fixed the guilt of the whole plot upon the poor innocent disciples of Christ. A traitor who had professed conversion gave the queen a list of seventy whom he charged with a share in the conspiracy. Prince Rakatond got hold of this list and tore it in pieces. But the bloody queen must have some victims for her new fever of rage, and so another kabar was called. Not more than three hundred Christians were found, as they had fled in bands so numerous as to put to flight the detachments of soldiers sent to capture them. The infuriated queen declared that her search should extend to the bowels of the earth and the very beds of lakes and rivers; but the more she raved the more calm and cautious were the followers of Jesus; only Prince Rakatond's energy and interposition prevented the destruction not only of hundreds of natives bUl of the six Europeans who were on the island, including Madame Pfeiffer, the traveler. They were, however, banished and barely escaped from the island with their lives.

Christians were pierced and tortured with spears and then beheaded. More than two hundred suffered punishment, most of them men of mark, and stoning was now for the first time employed as a new and cruel mode of execution. Iron necklaces were attached to the necks of others and they were thus linked together and compelled to constant companionship until death ended their sufferings; if one died the rest had to drag about this body of death-a revival of the hideous forms of ancient torture. Fifty-seven Christians were thus chained together and banished to a distant province. This was the last triumph of persecuting hatred against the little church in Madagascar. For thirty-two years Ranavalona had held her red sceptre. She had sought to trample upon and stamp out with iron heel the humble plant of renown that was growIng in the soil of this great island. But God used all this rage of this modern Jezebel to test and develop the faith and love of disciples. The tan.gena draught, the boiling caldron, the rice-pit, the awful precipice, the chain, the spear, the stone, the stake-all united in vain to compel these poor~ ignorant, persecuted disciples to disown their newly-found Saviour. For the first time iu the history of modern missions God permitted a. feeble church, just planted and scarcely rooted on pagan soil, to undergo It quarter of a century of persecution, having scarcely a parallel in violence and cruelty. That church was literally anu emphatically isolated; not only on an island, but cut off from sympathetic contact and communication with the Ohristian church in otber lands, and yet it more than survived; for a,t the end of that twenty-five years, when, if not plucked up by the roots, it might have been expected to be found feeble and half dead, it was strong and firmly rooted, and among its precious fruits were many of the soldiers, the nobles and even the royal household. Many thousand persons had been sentenced to various punishments by the" Bloody Mary" of Madagascar, for theirfaith; and yet when, in 1861, persecution ceased, the Christian popUlation was fivefold greater than before she began to exterminate them; and more than this-this Plant of Renown had spread its roots through the very soil of society, and its branches reached afar; the perfume of its golden blooms pervaded the very atmosphere; its fruits were to be found in every home. The whole community was undergoing transformation. The name of Christian had become the sign and synonym, the pledge and promise of truth, purity, fidelity, integrity-new virtues were growing, where vice had sprung up rank as weeds. A miracle had been wrought. A Supernatural Power had been at work. The Spirit of God had breathed new life into Malagasy hearts.

July, 1861, came and the queen died~ and Rakatond, as Radama II., became king. His first act was to proclaim his policy of toleration. The era of religious liberty had dawned for Madagascar. He proclaimed deliverance to the captives and the opening of prison doors to them that were bound. Exiles returned home, slaves were set free; it was a year of jubilee. Idols were banished from the palace, and to show his contempt he sent some Christians to burn the very shrine of one of the national gods, while he looked on to witness the impotency of the so-called" deity." Radama was a reformer, but not a Christian. He was tolerant of the gospel, and so he was of rum, and 60,000 gallons flooded the island in a week and debauched whole villages.

It was now safe for Mr. Ellis to come again and resume missionary work, and in November. 1861, he sailed for Madagascar. On his arrival, with Radama's permission, he secured the sites made sacred by the blood and ashes of the martyrs, for the building of churches; and so the houses of worship in Madagascar to-day are monmilents and memorials of the faith and faithfulness of those who there s~ered for Jesus.

!;Ir. Ellis's arrival was the signal for a triumphal march through the island. Delegations of disciples met him, and processions went ont to welcome the veteran missionary. Throngs of worshippers assembled. at early dawn. .A second service would begin by 8 o'clock in the morning. Every encouragement was now given to the devoted missionary from the hut of the poor to the palace of the king.

Radama II. fell a victim to a conspiracy within a twelvemonth. :ge who had never shed blood was strangled by assassins, in May, 1863, and his widow, under the title of Queen Rasoherina, ascended the vacant throne, the first constitutional ruler of the Malagasy. She reigned five years, and her subjects enjoyed full liberty of conscience. 'rhe work of evangelization went rapidly forward. Nevertheless the government was not Christian, and at her coronation, which was on Sunday, the priests and idols were conspicuously in the foreground.

Congregations multiplied and converts increased, and a native ministry was trained up, and a native Christian literature created. The thirst of the native Christians for the word of God was insatiable, and every mark of a Christian home was to be found in their domestic life. Marriage was honored and divorce discouraged. Contributions were liberal, aud the missionary spirit led to abundant labors to spread the gospel by both home and foreign missions.

The queen's health was failing, and before she died, it is believed, her mind turned from her old idols, which she had placed in her court and carried on her journeys. She died in April, 1868. Her youngest sister took the throne as Ranavalona II. And now, for the first time, Madagascar had a Christian as well as a constitutional ruler.

He who would see the marvelous change in Madagascar, need only contrast the coronation of the two queens-Ranavalona I. and Ranavalona II. One took place June 12, 1829. Then the Bloody Mary of Madagascar took two of the national idols in her hands, and declared: " I received you from my ancestors. I put my trust in you, therefore support me." And then the scarlet-clad images were held at the front corners of the platform to awe the superstitious multitude. On September 3, 1868, a Christian queen was crowned, and the ceremony befitted such a monarch. 'I'he symbols of pagan faith were nowhere to be seen. In their place lay a beautiful copy of the Bible, side by side with the laws of Madagascar. A canopy was stretched above the queen, and on its four sides were four Scripture mottoes: "Glory to God"; "Peace on earth"; "Good-will to man"; "God with us." Her inaugural address was interwoven with Scripture dialect, and instead of Ohristianity it was now idolatry which became a suppliant for toleration. And all this took place seven years after Ranavalona I. expired! Astrologers and diviners were no longer to be found at court; Rasoherina's idol was cast out of the palace. Government work ceased on Sunday, and the Sunday markets were closed. In the palace court services of divine worship were instituted, which are kept up to this date. Ohurches now grow rapidly, sometimes fivefold in a year. The Madagascar New Year, formerly an idolatrous festival, now became a Ohristian holy day; and the queen's address declared, "I have brought my kingdom to lean upon God, and I expect you, one and all, to be wise and just, and to walk in His ways." Just one month later Ranavalona II. and her prime minister were publicly baptized by one of the native preachers, in the very courtyard where, a few years before, the bloodiest edicts had been issued.

In the queen's examination by the native ministers, it transpired that her first serious impressions were traceable to a native Ohristian who, when she was a mere child, sought to impress her with the truth as it is in Jesus. It was Andriantoiamba, one of the four noblemen who were afterward burned as martyrs, who thus sowed the seed in that young heart that afterward ripened into the first Ohristian queen of the island. Two days before their baptism the queen and the prime minister, were wedded, and shortly after both publicly joined in the Lord's Supper, thus magnifying the Ohristian family and the Sacraments of the church of God.

Such an example was likely to be followed. Almost all the government·officers of high rank, and among them the chief idol-keeper, the astrologer of Rasoherina, came forward to receive baptism. Oongregations multiplied beyond all means of accommodation. One hundred new buildings were in demand; 37,000 persons attended worship, an increase of 16,000 in a year! On July 20 the cornerstone of a chapel, designed for the use of the queen and court, was laid in the very courtyard of the palace.

To-day in that palace courtyard the traveler may see a beautiful house of prayer. In gilded letters upon two large stone tablets forming part of the surbase of the structure, appears engraven the following royal statement, read at the laying of the corner-stone in 1869 : "By the power of God and grace of our Lord Jesus, I, Ranavalomanjaka, Queen of Madagascar, founded the House of Prayer, on the thirteenth Adimizana, in the year of our Lord Jesus Ohrist, 1869, as a house of prayer for the service of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, according to the word in the Sacred Scriptures, by Jesus Ohrist the Lord, who died for the sons of all men. and rose

THE INHERITANCES OF NATIONS ALLOTTED BY GOD

again for the justification and salvation of all who believe in and love- Him. ":For these reasons this stone house, founded by me as a house of prayer, cannot be destroyed by any one, whoever may be king of this my land, forever and forever; but if he shall destroy this house of prayer to God which I have founded, then is he not king of my land, Madagascar. Wherefore I have signed my name with my hand and the· seal of the kingdom.

" RANAVALOMANJAKA, "Queen of Madagascar.

" This word is genuine, and the signature by the hand of Rana- valomanjaka is genuine.

"RAINILAIARIVONY, "Prime Minister and Commander-in-Ohief of Madagascar."

If you should visit this island to-day, you would find four sacred sites occupied by memorial ehurches. .I1.mpamannana, the summit of the martyrs' precipice; .I1.mhohipotsy, where Rasalama, the first martyr, w~s speared; .I1.mhatonakan,ta, where so many were kept in prison; and Faravohitra, where the rainbow rested over the burning pile, and where the first stone of the church was laid exactly beneath the spot where the remains of the martyrs were found.

Is it possible to account for changes such as these, wrought within the space of sixty years by the simple preaChing and teaching of the gospel, unless the power of God is indeed behind the Bible? If there ever was a wonder that compelled even the sceptical and the unbelieving to exclaim, "What hath God wrought I" it is to be found in the story of Madagascar.

THE INHERITANOES OF NATIONS ALLOTTED BY GOD.

BY REV. A. W. PITZER, D.D., WASHINGTON, D. c.

"God's works of Providence are His most holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures, ordering them and all their actions to His own glory."

Individual life cannot be detached from God and His overruling Providence; and nations rise, flourish, decay and die in accordance not merely with natural law and second causes, but also, in accordance with His eternal purposes and plans. Before man was created, or human history had begun, God had a fixed place for every nation and a definite phm for every man's life. Nor has this Divine decree· and Providence ever impaired the freedom and responsibility of the individual or the nation, nor is God the author of man~s sin, nor is the efficiency of second causes diminished.

The nations of the earth come to their separate places of inheritance on the globe, moved by various motives and impelled by different forces. Restless for change, greedy for gain, envious of their neighbors, ambitious for fame, filled with cruelty and thirsting for blood, the nations of the past and the present have freely worked ()ut the problem of national destiny. And yet, it was the Most High God, whose Providence divided to these nations their inheritance, and who decreed and settled the bounds of all kindreds, tribes and peoples; and to each and to all He said, "Thus far shalt thou go and no farther, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." There is a philosophJt of history, but the Godless historian has never seen it-a philosophy of history human, yet divine-that m"akes full estimate of all human forces at work in the world, but fails not at the same time to see the mighty Providence of God in the onward march of all earthly things.

The Most High God located the nations of the old world and the new. He planted the Egyptian by the waters of the Nile, ,flowing from the ever-living lakes of equatorial Africa; He gave to the sons ()f Ham the "dark continent" teeming with life and filled with food; from central Asia His hand led out the people after the confusion of tongues at Babel to the Euphrates and Tigris; to India, to China, and to the islands of the great seas that wash the coasts of the Asiatic -continent. To the sons of J apheth, the Cimbri, the Tartars, the Medes, the Greeks, the Muscovites, He gave northern Asia, Asia Minor and Europe.

The ethnology of the lOth chapter of Genesis remains an unchallenged chart of the nations to this day. Fifteen hundred years after Moses incorporated in his writings this chart, and after he had sung this song, another descendant from the family of Shem, stood in the midst of Mars Hill and declared to the wisdom-seeking sons of Javan that God had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath deterniined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him.

God, then, has a purpose concerning this race and world of ours, and His overruling providence is silently, but irresistibly, conducting the races and nations along the great highway of human history. He plants and He plucks up dynasties, kingdoms, nations and empires, and orders, controls and governs all things according to the counsels ()f His own will.

What, then, is that supreme purpose of God, to the development and accomplishment of which, all agents and agencies, all forces and events, all kings and empires are made subservient and tributary? Surely it must be an object worthy of God Himself, and commensurate with His all-embracing and resistless providence. It is nothingless than the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth, in visible sovereignty and glory. Devout worshippers of the true and living God in all ages and lands have cried in prayer to -Him, "Thy Kingdom Come." In his last song, Moses tells the children of Israel encamped on the plains of Moab and in sight of the promised land, why it was that God had divided to the nations their inheritance and fixed the bound- aries of the peoples. He had taken Israel, the seed of His friend Abraham, as his possession and portion, and, in relation to their number and location on the globe, He had arranged all other nations and peoples.

The Kingdom of God is to come on earth through Israel; for sal- vation is of the Jews; and David's greater soil' is yet to sit on David's throne, and hence God's people, His portion must be the centre around which and for the sake of which, all national movements, great and small, shall revolve.

The little strip of land on the western border of the continent of Asia, not 200 miles from north to south, by less than 100 miles from east to west, washed by the Mediterranean Sea, almost in sight of the life-giving waters of Africa's great river, and touching to the west- ward, the isles and lands of the Gentiles, is the divinely ordained home of the chosen people, and the geographical centre of all human history until the Kingdom of God shall come in power and glory.

Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia, Greece, Rome, all the nations of modern Europe have gazed with greedy eyes on this historic spot of earth.

Canon Farrar, in deAcribing this land, as it spread out in beauty before the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, says, "Pharaohs and Ptolemies, Emins and Arsacids, judges and consuls, have all contended for the mastery of this smiling tract. It had glittered with the lances of the Amalekites; it had trembled under the chariot wheels of Serostris; it had echoed the twanging bow strings of Sennacharib; it had clashed with the broadswords of Rome; it was destined to ring with the battle-cry of the Crusaders, and thunder with the artillery of England and France. Here, Europe and 'Asia, Judaism and Heathenism, Barbarism and civilization had met and struggled for supremacy."

The careful student of history cannot fail to see that the destinies of the empires of the Old World were determined by their relations to this land and its wondrous people whom the living God had chosen for portion and possession.

If he in<iuired why this land and people were so important in the history of the race, the answer is easily given. From Abraham to Moses, from Moses to Malachi, by words and acts, God made Himself known to this people. He came into this earthly realm, and became a factor in human history. Israel received from God the truth unto salvation in trust for all the nations of the earth. They are the divinely appointed trustees of this sacred deposit-to hold this in trust and preserve it pure, for all the families of man, is their high calling and providential mission to all tribes and races and nations. The history of Israel, therefore, will have relations that reach out and embrace all lands and all peoples.

To the Egyptians, God gave the fertile valley of the Nile, that, here in the midst of this ancient civilization, the !!Qns of .Jacob, His chosen, might be developed from a clan into a nation, and be taught and trained in all the wisdoms and arts of this mighty and marvelous people.

To the Assyrians he gave the lands along the Euphrates and the Tigris, t.hat here might be founded an empire that should, as His minister of justice and judgment, at the appointed time, sweep the kingdom of the ten tribes from the land of their fathers.

He, too, ordained that Assyria should be wasted by Babylon, and that Babylon should become the hammer of the whole earth, and should carry His people, Judah, captives to that far-off land, that in the horrors of the seventy years' captivity they might forsake idolatry forever. And when God has accomplished His purposes concerning Israel with Babylon, then He raised up the Medes, who broke down her broad walls, and burned her high gates with fire, and Babylon became heaps of ruins, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and an hissing without inhabitant_ The Hebrew pi'ophets depict with the utmost minuteness and clearness the relations of the nations to Israel, their providential places in history, and how God used them to extend on the earth the knowledge of that truth given to His chosen and covenanted people. Isaiah foretells the fate of Moab, of Damascus, of Egypt, of Tyre, of Assyria, and of Babylon. Daniel in vision, and under the symbol of a beast, beholds in succession, the empires of Babylonia, the Medo- Persian, the Greek and the Roman, and even the destruction of the old Roman empire, and the ten kingdoms of modern Europe, that continue until the return of Jesus our Lord, from the heavens.

God divided to all these nations their inheritance; He fixed their boundaries; He appointed their providential mission; He determined the days of their dominion, and the day of their destruction; their highest use and chief end were what service they rendered in the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. Egypt furnishad the tempOl'ary home of the Israelites; the Babylonish captivity cured them of idolatry; the Persians restored them to their own land; the Grecians prepared the language to contain the Gospel of the son of David; and Rome builded the great highways whereon the apostles of our Lord carried the glad tidings to the ends of the earth.

Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of God, was the climax and culmination of the revelations of God to the Hebrew people; and when He died upon the Cross, the inscription over His head, testifying to His kingship, was written in the world's historic language!;l, the Hebrew, tIle Greek and the Roman. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, did whatsoever God's hand and counsel had determined before to be done. To this great central and germinal event all the ages had looked, and all nations had oontributed. The wise men from the east spake not for themselves merely, but for others, when they said: " Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen His 'star in the east, and have come to worship Him." God's kingdom must come on earth through Him, who is both David's son and David's Lord.

The Risen Christ, from His father's throne in heaven, exercises now an invisible, but resistless, dominion over all nations, kingdoms and empires, and the nations still come to their inheritance according to the divine appointment, and as they serve to make known on earth the sacred truth given in trust to the Jews, they prepare the way for the coming. Lord, by proclaiming the glad tidings of that kingdom that shall never end.

God still determines the appointed times of the nations and the bounds of their habitations, with reference to their relations to His son, Jesus Christ, and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Many nations shall yet say: "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths;' for the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

So far as nations have had any history, since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that history has been connected with and tributary to the extension and establishment of the Gospel of that Risen Lord among all the peoples of the earth: for that Gospel must be preached to all nations, as God's witness, before the Kingdom of Heaven can come in power and glory on this earth.

The movements of men and nations through eighteen Christian centuries have been guided by the divine eye, and controlled by the divine hand. 'fhe dismemberment of the old Roman empire, the rise of the kingdoms of modern l£urope, the growth of the Papacy, the career 'of Mohammed, the wars of the Crusaders, the darkness of the Middle Ages, the 'revival of learning, the persecutions of the Church by Rome-Pagan and Papal-the invention of printing, the translations of the Scriptures, the reformation of the sixteenth century, the exile of Christians for conscience sake, the use of the mariner's compass, and the opening up of new and unknown lands, were not less directed by the Almighty God of heaven, than Israel's march from Egypt to Canaan, and the times and bounds of the nations of the Old World.

Nowhere is the overruling providence of God more clearly seen than in this our land, and in the history of the people of these United States. Israel's God and our father's God divided to us this rich inheritance; and He has appointed our time and fixed our bounds, that we might not only seek the Lord ourselves, but should give His -Gospel, committed in trust to our custody, to all the nations. Morde- ~ai's question to Queen Esther comes with fearful emphasis to the rulers and people of this republic: "If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whe'ther thou art come to the king- ·dom for such a time as this?"

Our forefathers brought with them to this new world that fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom, that liberty of conscience to worship God that could not be enjoyed at home. With them came, too, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the inspired and infallible Word of God; the family as the basis and unit of all true life in both Church and State; the sanctity of the oath unto God as the hope of a pure administration of justice in our courts; the divinely .ordained rest of the Lord's Day, not for a holiday but for a holy day -in short, they brought with them, not monarchy, nor anarchy, not .communism, nor atheism, not infidelity, nor materialism, nor papacy, but God-fearing piety and customs founded on the Word of God.

We have come to the Kingdom at such a time as this-a time when there are no longer any hermit nations, nor Chinese walls of ·exclusion; in a wider and deeper sense than ever before, every man may now say, "The world is my parish." Steamships supersede sail vessels, the engine does the work of a thousand men and horses, the :Bun paints our pictures, electricity illumines our cities and sends our words with lightning speed around the globe. All the ends of the .-earth are brought face to face in the great struggle for existence; .and all races and nations jostle each other on the broad highway .of life. Surely the Anglo-Saxon Christianity of America must have .a mission from the God of Heaven to all the races and nations of the .-earth. "The wheels of history are the chariot wheels of the Almighty, .a.nd with every revolution there is an onward movement toward the goal of His eternal purposes," to establish here on earth the Kingdom .of God in supernal splendor. .

The providential mission of this nation is to give the blessed Gos- ]>el of the Son of God to all peoples of the earth. The weary and :sin-stricken children of Adam, of every continent and island, of every tribe and tongue, in their darkness and degradation, look, with long- ing eyes to us for light and help and healing. "Come over into Mace- .donia and help us," is the despairing cry borne on every breeze and from every land beneath the skies-from China and Korea, from In- .dia and Japan, from Persia and Papal Europe, from the South Ameri- .can Republic and Mexico, from the islands of the oceans and the "'dark continent" of Livingstone and Stanley.

We hold the Gospel, not merely for ourselves but in trust for a

THE CONGO MISSIONS

lost world. We have the men and the money, the missionaries and the agencies, methods of transit and transportation, in more than abundance, to give the Gospel in ten years, as God's witness, to every nation under heaven. The supreme duty of this nation is to realize her sublime providential mission, and bear the blessed light of the Gospel to all the dark places of the earth, to the habitations of men now filled with cruelty. There is no second C~lumbus to be born~ noi' any new continent to be discovered. This is the "last days," and this "the ends of the earth," the light that shines across the' Pacific from San Francisco and Portland reaches to the very lands where first that light was kindled "Now or never," is the world to be eV2..ngelized by us.

THE CONGO :MISSIONS.

BY MISS HELEN F. CLARK, NEW YORK.

[Mr. C. J. Laffin went out to Africa llilder Bishop Taylor, but when his Congo Mission failed, he worked independently, though unofficially associated with the A. B. M. U. He sent us various notes from the Congo. He has just returned to take a medical course, then goes back to Central Africa. He has furnished Miss Clark with the facts and experiences of his three years' mission tour, which she here puts into form, under his supervision. The paper, being reliable and fresh from the Congo, cannot fail to be of special interest at the- present juncture.-J. M. S.] The question of evangelizing Central Africa is one that now en- grosses the attention of aggressive Christianity in both England and America. The best plan of work, and the character of the workers, is largely discussed among the various boards and missionary com- mittees; consequently any light that can be thrown upon these topics by missionaries who have been upon the field, and are, therefore, best qualified to give an opinion, is gratefully received.

Mr. Laffin spent his iiz-st few months in Africa in the vicinity of Vivi and Isangila, but afterwards pushed on up the Congo river 800' miles to the equator, stopping at Equatol'ville station, forming theacquaintance of various tribes along the banks of the Congo and lesser streams.

From the first he was keenly interested in the methods of work followed in the various mission stations which he visited, and carefully studied their every detail. Then followed much practical work Qn his o,*n part among the natives as he traveled throngh the country and mingled with them.

As an independent missionary, Mr. Laffin founded no station, nor reported his work to any superior, but to the great Master Himself, but wisely spent his time in examining the country and the conditions under which he must work, and in forming his own opinion as to the wisest and most effective way to prosecute that work.

The Africans he came in contact with are a peculiar people, and must· be dealt with in the utmost candor and with straightforward simplicity. With them no half-hearted work is possible; no clouded testimony in word or life will receive the 81ightest regard from them.

Nothing but sterling Christianity in word or deed will convince them that the Gospel you preach is true; but the testimony clearly borne, and the life that will bear the sharpest scrutiny, will bring a multitude of hungry hearts to God. Perhaps the work done is more satisfactory in Africa than in any other country, for the man or woman who is converted is converted in deed and in truth, and becomes at once as aggressive for the truth as the missionary himself. Mr. Laffin has vouchsafed the following interesting facts under the heads of "What has been done in Africa;" "What is being done," and" What can be done," which we give, as nearly as possible, in his own words.

FIRST-WHAT HAS BEEN DONE.

There are, at the present time, four societies prosecuting active work in Central Africa: the American Baptists, the English Baptists. the Swedish Society, and the Congo Balolo Society, who have a combined working force of about 80 missionaries in all, occupying 20 mission stations. Of these stations 13 are situated on the lower Congo and Cataract region, below Stanley Pool, and the remaining 'l are on the upper Congo and in the Balolo district. Thus far 'l churches have been organized-all among the Bakongo people-which aggregate about 1,500 communicants, with half as many more who profess conversion, but whom the missionaries are keeping on probation for a short time. Besides these regular stations, there are in this vicinity from 15 to 20 out-stations and preaching-posts, all manned by able native evangelists. It is but thirteen years since the first missionaries penetrated the Congo districts, and but ten of these have been spent in actually publishing the Gospel, for the first three were spent by the little band of sturdy English Christians in fighting fevers, and in trying to conciliate the hostile natives. Since that time, one tribe only has been, to a large extent, evangelized-that is to say, the Gospel has been preached the length of the land upon which this numerous and powerful tribe of Bakongo people live. The difficulties experienced by these indomitable pioneers seem almost beyond belief. During those first three perilous years the missionaries were driven from place to place and were not able to settle anywhere. They found it difficult to establish any communication with the natives~ since the black men regarded them with the utmost suspicion and distrust, and gave them almost no opportunity to acquire the native language. In the course of time, seeing that the strange whites were neither slave traders nor state officials, the suspicion of the natives finally gave way to confidence, and their would-be friends were allowed to found their station in peace, and to begin the publication of those good tidings which afterwards brought peace to so many troubled souls among them.

The greatest difficulty in reaching the interior has ever been in getting above the falls in the great river, about 100 miles above its mouth. To navigate the stream at this point is impossible. Therefore, all stores and baggage for the interior must be conveyed a distance ·of 250 miles around in sixty-pound packages, which the lithe and .agile natives bear upon their heads. The steamboats for the upper .congo were taken apart and packed in this manner, and rebuilded upon the upper side.

There are thirty-one steamers now running upon the upper Congo, three of which are missionary boats, the others belonging either to the Government or to the traders. Two more mission steamers are now in process of construction for the lower Congo, and one for the upper.

Stations have been established among three other tribes, but as yet only one convert has crowned their labors. Here the difficulty <>f acquiring the language hinders the missionaries. There is no written language, and the tongue must be acquired slowly and unsatisfactorily by mingling with the people as often as they will permit, and there is no missionary upon the field to-day who has mastered it sufficiently to talk intelligently, without having frequent recourse to an interpreter: In these distant stations on the upper river, isolated from @ne another, it has required a long time to gain the confidence of the natives, but the past few years have sufficed at last to convince these distrustful people that the white man really came to them from an unselfish motive, and he has now won their hearts, so that to-day these perse:vering workers have a firm footing in the three tribes, and are ready to branch out into large work as soon as their numbers are re-inforced by the arrival of new missionaries.

WHAT IS BEING DONE.

As to what is being done, perhaps the most successful of all the ~fforts put forth, is that of the native evangelists. This, of course, brings us back to the Bakongo people along the Lower Congo.

Of the members of these churches, a very large percentage-considerably more than half-are persevering, energetic, aggressive Christian workers-such workers as put to shame the feeble and childish efforts of many Christians in our own land.

To them, black man or white man, State official, of however high degree, or slave, of ever so mean a degradation, is either a "son of God" or a "son of the Devil." They know but two classes, and if you are not avowedly of the first, they immediately pronounce you in the second, and proceed to give you the Gospel on the spot. They fear no man, soldier or government-official, trader or traveler, brother African' or slave, and one of the first questions asked, upon formingone's acquaintance, will be, "Kanzi, ngeye mUJana' nzambi?" (are you a son of God?) If the -answer is in the negative, they very frequently respond, "B08i mUJana' mbungi /" (Then you are a child of the Devil.) After which they present the Gospel to you with all the eloquence and clearness of which their incomparable language is capable.

These workers are continually organizing themselves into bands of twenty or thirty, and with neither scrip nor staves, they go from village to village, preaching the Gospel, and often remaining away for weeks at a time.

The missionaries freely acknowledge that one native is worth threeor four white men as an evangelist. They speak with marvellous oratorical effect; indeed, they are said to be born orators. "A sermon that I heard from one of them," says Mr. Laffin, "waf> as fi,ne as ever I heard in either Europe or America, not only in point of delivery, but in its clearness of reasoning, and in its profound perception of spiritual truth."

These bands of workers go out invariably at their own expense. Besides these unpaid volunteers there are some 25 native evangelists who go individually to out-posts and preaching-stations, and who are nearly all self-supporting or are maintained by the native churches. The natives believe the Gospel at the mouths of their own people far more readily than they do from the missionary himself; consequently their work is of vastly more value in the general evangelization of a tribe than is that of the white man.

But the simplicity of the native evangelist is, as a rule, altogether spoiled by transportation to America or England.. A taste of European life robs him of his unconsciousness of self, and, thereafter, he looks down upon his kindred and will no longer associate with them, but must live as we live, and wants more luxuries than any missionary would allow himself. These people frequently travel half a day's journey, bringing their food with them, in order to attend divine service.

The loyalty of the native Christian to God's Word is marvellous. While the people are perfectly obedient to the Supreme Being, they will bear no dictation from us whatever. If we insist upon their conforming their lives to any precept or principle which we may lay down, they immediately begin to reason the matter with us. If therule be a scriptural one, they insist upon our finding the text, when we must read it to them and translate it into their own language. But if the scripture bears out our words, that is an end of all controversy; thereafter, it becomes a law to them, or as they style it in their own beautiful native tongue, "The Lord hath said it, and we must obey." On this account we are obliged to discriminate accurately in our teaching against what is purely a matter of custom with us, since they will learn nothing from us save that which is scriptural. But when they are told not to lie, or cheat in business, or to steal, seeing it in Scripture, they immediately desist.

As an illustration of this, I will give you· an incident in my own experience. Traveling through strange villages one day, I saw a woman by the roadside with a pawpaw beside her. I asked what she would sell it for, and she named a price; I bade the boy who was with me take it away for our noon-day meal. "No, no," she cried, "the pawpaw will not be ripe enough until to-morrow; go on down the road, sir, and you will find plenty more that are ripe enough to eat now." I then learned that she was a Christian. She had heard the Gospel from a native evangelist who had ollce come to her village to preach, and she had received the truth, and, although untaught in the principles of Christian living, yet by the Holy Spirit's help, had instinctively perceived the right.

When the surveyors for the Congo railroad, which is now being built, were laying out the road through a certain tract, one of them approached the chief of the neighboring tribe, and, as is customary, offered him a glass of rum. The chief thanked him for the courtesy, but declined the rum with these words: "That is what destroys the bodies alld souls of my people. As a Christian I cannot take it."

I come now to our last proposition:.

WHAT CAN BE DONE }N CENTRAL AFRICA.

The whole of the Congo Free State is now open to mIssIonaries. This district contains about 1,680,000 square miles of country, all of which is accessible through the Congo and ,its tributaries. This immense system of rivers affords at least, according to explorations up to date, 10,000 miles of navigable waterway above Stanley Pool. This district contains from fifteen to twenty different tribes, speaking as many different languages, and numbering in the aggregate, as near as may be estimated, from thirty to eighty millions of souls. The best known of these tribes, the Balolo, is calculated to number ten millions of itself. Many parts of the interior are said to be particularly healthy and free from malaria and fevers. Dr. Summers, in speaking of Luluaburg, calls it a very healthy place, and states that at night the thermometer will sometimes fall to the freezing point.

There is not known to be a single town in the interior, or Central Africa, that will refuse to receive a missionary, if once satisfied that he is a missionary. To them the yoke of a foreign government is so galling that the very sight of the men in its employ, as a rule, arouses all their enmity.

The Congo Free State obliges all vessels to fly its flag, and wherever the missionary goes he is marked as a State man, and only undeniable proof will suffice to convince them that the missionary is lIot an enemy in disguise. To them, words prove nothing, and deeds purporting to flow from an unselfish motive are an unsolvable .enigma; hence, it is only the" heroes," who can persevere without the slightest show of fear or alarm, and endure the suspicion and the consequent tribulations until their identity is established. This some- times takes a long time. In the case of the first missionaries on the lower Congo it required three years, and it has required almost as long a time for the faithful pioneers on the upper river to gain an .entrance and a footing.

In Africa, the women missionaries are the happier. Nothing is feared from them, and they are allowed to go in and out at their pleasure without molestation. Their presence in a party has more than once spared valuable lives to the Congo work. At one time a small party, including two ladies, sailed up an unexplored river, and at night-time they attempted to land and camp for the night. The natives immediately assembled, and ordered them off. They expostu- lated in vain, insisting that they were not foes, but missionaries de- siring to be their friends, but they refused to believe them, and they were forced to take refuge on a sand-bar for the night. In the morn- ing their men came out, and examining their boat carefully, and find- ing no arms or weapons such as the State men carried, finally permitted them to land and make friends with them, but averred that it was only the presence of the ladies that had kept them from killing them immediately on their approach.

At one time, in company with two blacks from a village where I had been working, I rowed up another river a distance of probably .eigM or ten miles, when, coming within sight of a strange village, We were surprised to hear a hasty alarm sounded, and instantly a multitude of the brown-skinned fellows rushed to the banks of the creek, armed with bows and arrows. Then, with a peculiar beating of drums, a message was telegraphed down the creek to the adjoining village, and from there the alarm was sounded on to the next, and the next, till at last the hoarse din died away to a faint sound, and finally hushed to our ears altogether, while up and down the river-bank were gathered the wild people eager to wreak their vengeance on our defenceless heads.

I surely thought it was all over with me, and the blacks by my side had settled themselves stoically to meet their fate, when far off came the hurried tang-tang-tang of a message swiftly sent back. The word had gone even to the village I had left, and instantly came the response: "Let him alone! He is a missionary!" Then the assembled blacks apologized, and treated us with the utmost cordiality and friendliness, saying: "We have no complaint againt the ambassadors of God." Weare always called by them "ambassadors of God," and native Christians are called" witnesses of Jesus Christ." The mIssIonaries in Africa, as a rule, count the work of onEl' woman worth that of twelve men, since they can go anywhere, even among the fiercest tribes. Their motives are never qnestioned, and they are invariably listened to with the greatest respect. Miss Silvey went about among the Bayansi tribe with perfect freedom, althongh they are by far the most formidable of all the tribes yet known. They are also the most inveterate of the cannibals, since they buy slave- children and slaughter them for the markets, as we do cattle. Miss Silvey spoke to them only through interpreters, since their speech. has not yet been reduced to language. Miss de Hailes and Mra. McKittrick work quite as freely among the Balolo people.

These inland tribes are, as a rule, a fine, powerful people. They are not Negroes but Bantus, and are of a choclate brown color, with thin, well-curved lips and fine features. They are wonderfully energetic, pushing and business-like, and, if converted, will make princely evangelists, since they fear nothing, and will make long journeys from home, remaining away many mouths at a time. While they are suspicious of the white men, they have no hatred for them unless they have done them an injury. Government representatives they count their mortal enemies, but the missionaries, when they are once known to be such, are invariably welcomed.

The missionary's first step is to gain the confidence of the people,. and then it is easy to win their affections, and his opportunity to preach the Gospel is unlimited. When they believe in you they believe your gospel, and are quickly won to God and to abide by His. Word.

At first they will give you two motives for not believing yC!u: 1st, The improbability of people doing anything from a purely unselfish motive. 2d, The impossibility of it. Therefore, they are not willing in the beginning to believe that Jesus could possibly have loved and died for them. But the life of a missionary among them, self-sacrificing and exhibiting unfeigned love for their souls, becomes at last incontrovertible proof of the truth of the Gospel, and they accept it gladly and fully.

But one· great question troubles them, that has troubled many Christians before, "If it is all true and Christ's unselfish love begets a, like love in your souls, why is it that you never came to us before, why do not more come now?" Christian reader, can you answer it ?'

One of these men said to me one day, "White man, my heart is hungry for something, and I don't know what it is." After he was converted I said to him, "Well, have you found out now what it was that your heart was hungering for?" "Yes," he answered, quickly; " It was hungry for salvation !"

, My advice to every missionary coming here, would be, not to try to educate the people, not even to make the civilization of these tribes

THE RO~IANCE OF GOEDVERWACHT

their initiatory effort, but to make their one effort, first and last and all the time, to PREACH THE GOSPEL !

Any child or adult will refuse to come to school after the novelty wears off unless paid for it, but when converted, they Clamor at once to be taught to read, that they may search the Scriptures for themselves.

It is most unwise to attempt to Europeanize them. It is far better to leave them Africans still, since the Word teaches them all that is required for purity and wholesomeness of life and morals, and customs are only galling and useless to a people so differently situated from us.

It would require, probably from twenty to thirty missionaries per tribe to equip Central Africa; after which, the work of the native evangelist becomes the main factor in the gospelizingof this darkened land.

The Jesuits, backed by the government of the Congo Free State, are coming into this region like a flood, from the west, and the Mo- hammedans are coming in almost equal numbers, from the east. Hence, whatever is done for the spreading of the Gospel here must be done quickly.

THE ROMANCE OF GOEDVERWACHT. BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ, NAZARETH, PA. Goedverwacht is a Moravian mission station among the Hottentots in South Africa, almost a huudred miles due north from Cape Town. The Moravians began missionary operations, both in Guinea and in the Cape Colony, in 1737, but this particular station was not founded until 1858. Like many tales of fiction, so, too, the veritable romance of Goedverwacht is founded upon a most peculiar and very complicated testament, which became intricately involved with the history of the mission, and upon which for a time its very existence depended. In 1810, a certain wealthy Dutch farmer, by the name of Buergers, purchased a beautiful, well-watered, fertile valley, of some 900 acres, in the Piquet mouutains, and, by means of his Hottentot slaves, transformed it into a prosperous little colony, which now bears the name of Goedverwacht. Here Mr. Buergers lived most contentedly uutil the year 1838, when the emancipation of all slaves should take place. To his great displeasure he noticed that his slaves had become filled with spiritual desires, and, as soon as they became free, would forsake him and move to a mission station. In order to prevent this, Mr. Buergers chose six of his slaves whom he valued most highly, and told them, that if they would remain with him and care for him up to his death, he would will them his entire estate. He drew up his will accordingly, decreeing that these six slaves should hold the estate in common, but that it could not be sold until the last of the six slaves died, and then it must be sold and the proceeds divided equally among the living children of these six slaves.

This will was considered an insult to his white neighbors and relatives, but it was drawn up so skillfully, that all attempts to upset it proved utterly futile.

Thus, in 1843, six poor, despised Hottentot men and women, having faitlfully fulfilled all the conditions of the will, suddenly became wealthy real-estate owners. The property did not fall into unworthy hands. These six gathered to- gether their friends and relatives, and soon had a colony of over 500 souls, and they at once _proceeded to take measures to have their spiritual wants sup- plied. For this purpose, they applied to the Moravians for missionaries.

The Moravians in their work among these peoples, have always found it best to gather their converts into little villages around the mission-houses, which, for this purpose must, of course, stand upon ground owned by the Church. Owing to the peculiar conditions of the will, they could purchase no land there, and so had to serve these Hottentots as best they could from a neighboring station. However, a flourishing congregation of Christian con- verts was gradually gathered. – In the meantime, the six owners began to die off. It became apparent that the time when the estate must be sold, was fast approaching. If the Moravian Church could not purchase the estate, the flourishing mission-work would be destroyed. The surrounding white farmers could scarcely await the time when tJtey could avenge the imagined insult of making Hottentots equal landowners with themselves. They openly boasted of the sums they would pay, and de- clared they would resell the land to the highest bidders. The Mora-vians, with their scanty means, could not compete with the fat purses of these hostile farmers. The future looked very dark. The survivors of the six would gladly have secured the possession to the Church, but the courts had decided that, under the will they were powerless.

In this extremity, the good brethren put in motion the mightiest force of which the Kingdom of God knows. They and their converts prayed-prayed unceasingly, prayed in Africa and prayed at home, prayed constantly-for the roofs over their heads, and the ground under their feet seemed to totter and tremble. It was an invisible power, but it was silently at work.

In the meantime, the courts had decided that, according to the letter of the will, only the actually living children of the original six, and not their grandchildren, would be thp heirs of the estate. Further, that unless all the heirs were of age the estate must be sold at auction to the highest bidder.

Further, that even if all were of age, if there was a single one who refused to agree upon a price, it would again have to be sold at auction to the highest bidder. In either of those two cases the estate would be lost to the Moravians, and their faithfulla bor of years scattered to the winds, and the scene of their prayers, and tears and triumphs for Christ become the abode and property of godless men. On the other hand, the courts had decided that, if all the heirs were of age, and if all were unanimously agreed, then they could sell the estate at private sale for any price they chose, no matter how low, and to whomsoever they chose.

:::'inally the fate -of the entire mission depended upon the life of one old womaa, the last survivor of the original six slaves. At length, on December 28, 1J) j, old Christine, who for thirty-eight years had lived the life of a true Chri~tian, died in her ninety-third year.

At once the hostile-minded neighbors began to tempt the poor Hottentot heirs with fancy prices. What would be the fate of the mission? After thorough investigation, the court decided that there were thirteen heirs ac- cording to the letter of Buerger's will, and as one of these thirteen died after Christine, the three children of that one were also heirs. By the merciful overruling of Providence the life of old Christine had been preserved just long enough to permit the youngest of these heirs to become of age. The power of prayer began to be evident. But were these all willing to sell their valuable estate to the 'Moravian mission, and not only to sell it to the mission, but also

HIDDEN SPRINGS-oR HOW MISSIONARIES ARE MADE

for a price the church could afford to pay-which must be one far below its value? Upon this now hung the fate of this flourishing mission. The count- less prayers of the believers had not been in vain. The numberless difficulties and delicate negotiations cannot be detailed here. Suffice it, therefore, to say that a prayer-hearing God so ruled the hearts of these fifteen heirs that they voluntarily adopted the unanimous resolution to sell their estate to the Mora- vian Church for the moderate sum of £750 on Jme 30, 1889. Each heir re- ·ceived £51 and 15 shillings, of which nearly everyone at once returned £1 as a gift towards a church building, and some more. However, there is still a need for much more before all the expenses of the transactions can be paid ;;'nd th!" necessary church buildings erected. But the Lord, who won the hearts of the self-sacrificing heirs, will also move the hearts of Christians to give of their' means to upbuild this noble mission.

What is the" moral" of this tale? A prayer-hearing God can overrule the testament of one who cared not for the Church, can guide the decisions of {)ourts, can defeat the machinations of malicious men, can guide the hearts of poor Hottentots.

And further, when Christians at home are earnestly, and non-Christians are sneeringly, seeking for permanent results of missionary work among debased people, here is again a shining example of the precepts of Christ entering into and controling the practical life of converts. Imagine fifteen Ameri- {)an nominal Christians of all ages and conditions, not rich, but really poor, deliberately refusing a fancy price for real estate, when it could be honestly gained, and being satisfied with a very moderate figure, out of love for the Lord Jesus and pure loyalty to the Church. It would have been so easy to have simply put the estate up at auction and taken the highest bid, and no one could have acpused them of the slightest crime, as the world goes. But higher, more Christlike principles controlled these poor South Africans. See how Christ has transformed these poor, degraded, down-trodden, despised Hottentots! God bless their self-sacrifice to them and their children!

HIDDEN SPRINGS-OR HOW MISSIONARIES ARE MADE.

BY MARIA A. WEST, SARATOGA, N. Y.

In the deep recesses of the forest and mountain solitudes, far away from human sight and pen, God prepares the hidden fountains which send their pure, perennial streams down to.the valleys below, causing life and beauty, verdure and fruitfulness, to spring up on every side, and filling the rivers which flow onward to the great sea, to carry its blessings to the distant places of the earth, till the desert shall revive and blossom as the garden of the Lord.

And, as in the economy of nature, so, also, in the Kingdom of Grace, the most powerful and· permeating forces are often those that are secretly, silently working, nnheralded and often unknown, but set in motion by the Divine Hand which keeps the heavenly record, and marks the onward flow and fruitage, through time and through eternity!

A remarkable instance of this hidden spring of far-reaching influence, l}as recently been brought to light, and is especially worthy of mention at this time, when its power is strikingly illustrated.

In the year 1837, Mrs. Francis G. Clewe-born in the year 1801-and living at Genville, a village four miles from Schenectady, listened to the preaching of a missionary sermon, at Hudson, which, as she said, "Converted her tQ missions, as much as she was ever converted to Christ!" Her first query was, "What can I do? " The result was the formation by her, of a Woman's For-

TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS

eign Missionary Aid Society. Perhaps the first one of the kind in these United States of America.

At the first meeting of this new-born society. she pledged one dollar, as her free-will offering to the cause. To obtain that sum, she walked four miles to Schenectady, secured some vests to make at one of the shops, and then walked home again with her work. And, at every meeting of the society, she never failed to bring an offering for herself and for each of her children, while they were still ~mall. One of her daughters died, but the gift in her name was still continued, with the words, "And this is for Ann." Her yearly offering sometimes amounted to $20,00, and was sent, now to the American Board, and then to another foreign missionary society, in which she was also interested. For this sacred purpose, Mrs. Clewesometimes reared "missionary chickens,'

sometimes planted a piece of land, or set apart a portion of her butter and eggs. And, during all those fifty or more years of her consecrated life, this "mother in Israel" continued to hold the missionary meeting of the society she had originated in her own home; even if none were present but herself and one of her children, a chapter was read, a hymn sung, and prayer offered-and this, not monthly, but every week! One of the original members of that little society is still living and testified that when Mrs. Clewe was too ill to rise from her bed, the same order was observed; and that she would "turn herself," and offer a fervent prayer for missions and missionaries throughout the world, and pleading that some of her descendants might thus be used of God.

September 9, 1889, she was called from the earth to the heavenly Kingdom, being 88 years of age, and, like a shock of corn, fully ripe. Her last earthly home was with a daughter in Schenectady. And now, a grandson of this noble Christian woman, of whom the world never heard, is appointed as a missionary of the American Board for West Central Africa; soon to depart with his young wife and little child for that "dark continent." To some in that city, where this young physician, in the opening of his career with all of earth's allurements before him, had every prospect of success, this decision seems the height of folly-like the throwing away of a life and all that makes life worth the living. They have not seen the silent working of the sacred leaven in divine preparation for this culmination. They little think that it will have its fullest manifestation and justificationon theday when' 'all the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and when Christ shall reign over all, for ever and ever."

The consecration of any life, in fellowship with Christ, receives added dignity and grandeur from partnership with Him, "who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, that He might bring many sons unto glory," and "see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied," When they shall come from the east and the west, the north and the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God-"A great multitude, whom no man could number-of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues." The glorious harvest-time of souls, when the "new song" shall arise: "Unto Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood-to HIM be glory and dominion, for ever and ever, Amen !"

TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY PERIODICALS.

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

M. Alfred Casalis, speaking of the Basutos, to whom he, like his father be- fore him, has now become a missionary, says: -''How can we fail to experience a closesense of unity with this little nation, so desirous of maintaining its unity and independence? It is undoubtedly, the influence of the Gospel which has alone protected it from partition and complete annexation to the invading neighbors who covet its land so greedily. .Are we sure that God may not have a great destiny in store for this pettv people? Whence shall come the missionaries capable of resisting the terrible climate of the Zambesi, ifnot from Lessuto-from that school oftheology modestly founded at Morija, and which, perhaps, in the near future, will give us a chosen band ()f native pastors? On the day when these 200,000 Basutos shall be Christians, we shall have at our disposal an incalculable force, a veritable Christian army, ready to carry afar into the interior of this Africa, still buried undera darkness so deep-the blazing light of the Gospel."

Pastor Schneller, of Bethlehem, writing, in the Allgemeine Mission3chrijt, says: "Talking lately with a priest of the Greek Church, I quoted something from the Acts. He retorted, 'You Protestants always make so much of the Old Testament and its Acts of the Apostles. Only quote some books of the New Testament, I know all of them.' The same priest, wishing to convince the people of the unsoundness of our doctrine of Jesus Christ as the only Redeemer, proved his point as follows: 'These poor Protestants! Why, they are for be- mg saved through Jesus Christ alone. DQYou believe that Jesus is able to save anybody whatever, without the help of saints? If He could, why must Judas Iscariot perish by the very side of the Lord? Why did He not save him? Why must the impenitent thief be lost by the very side of the much-praised atoning Cross? Why? Because they had not the saints! And the poor Protestants have not a single saint to help them, they have only Jesus and cqnsequently they are bound for hell.' "

Before our Anglican Church, to strengthen hersel'f against Rome, becomes too earnest for union with the Greek Church, she had better counsel her to re- vise her teachings of her clergy a little. Profe~sor Mahaffy says, that he can understand proposals to unite with the Roman Catholics, on one hand, or with the Protestant Dissenters, on the other, but, after traveling in the East, proposals to unite with the Greek Church, are, to him, an inexplicable marvel, uuleas, of course, as some parts of the Greek Church are said to have shown a disposition to do, she maintaining her own distinctiveness, welcomes the vivifying stream ()f Protestant warmth and enlightenment. At least she is not pre-committcd by an assumption of infallibility.

-"When, often, on the spot where Jesus did his greatest works, one sees how the Lord, together with his .Gospel, has become a stranger here; how, in the home of Christ, faith in Christ has been distorted into an unrecognizable caricature, it must come into the consciousness of every evangelical Christian, that, if anywhere in the world, our evangelical church has a great and momentous task to accomplish in the home of the Gospel, however great the difnculties may be."

"Almost every one in these lands," says Herr Schmeller, 'lknows only himself and his own interests, without regard to others, were they even members of his own family. His cold indifference represses the development of men that might have a benevolent interest in promoting the common weal, whether in village, city, or province of their native country. Where here are friends of the people, friends of the fatherland? The people have not even the idea of such a thing. The inhabitants of one quarter of a village or town only too often regard those of another quarter not only as utterly foreign to them but as hostile, which gives rise to perpetual feuds. To bring about unity or to carry through any unanimous purpose, is no more possible in a city or village than in the country at large. Yet, it is in just this state of disintegration that the Turkish government finds a strengthening of its own security, and it favors this accordingly."

-January 1,1888, the following were the missionary statistics of the Nor- wegian Miasionary Society.

Ordained missionaries, 41, (1 being a physician); 6 unmarried ladies, 1 layman, 16,555 church members, 87,500 school children, 44,000 adherents, 16 native pastors, 900 native teachers and evangelists, $81,050 contributions from Norway, and $12,000 from America. The fields of labor are Natal and Madagascar. The Schruder Mission in Natal, has 2 missionaries, 1 single lady, 352 bapt,ized members, 130 communicants, and 124 school children. Income, $1,505. The Santal mission h India, has 3 or4 Norwegian missionaries, and a revenue of $8,918. It now works independently of the Gossner Mission.

The sum totAll of Norwegian missionary contributions for 1887 (omitting the $12,000 from America), amounted to $91,841.76. The population being 1,913,000, this average, about 20 cents ahead.

-Herr Nather, of the Leipsic Society in South India, speaking of some famous- of bathing festivals on the banks the southern Ganges, the Kaweri remarks; "They avail for the cleansing away of ceremonial sins; for other than cere- monial sins the heathen do not really know."

-M. Teisseres and M. Allegret, missionaries of the Paris Society, after a stay of about a year with the American Presbyterian missionaries, on the Gaboon, were. in April, about leaving for the Congo, under a convoy furnished by the French government.

'-The Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift for June, 1890, in a detailed article treating of the present condition of Protestant missions in South Africa, says, that the Cape Colony is growing poorer. Much of it is incapable of sustaining ths growing population. Moreover, the almost entil'e withdrawal of imperial control has given the colonists opportunity to repel the laws restricting the manufacture and sale of brandy. This is one of the many ways in which England has done immense harm by being too eager to throw responsibility off her shoulders before the tid. She staggers "Under the too vast orb of her fate." The latest statistics of the Cape Colony, (1888-9), give: Christians of European descent,. belonging to established congregations, 267,817. Colored Christians, 234,329. Chureh sittings, 287,825. Average church attendance,172,428. Sunday scholars, 57,678. Nearlya quarter of thecolored people are baptized. Twenty different Protestant denominations are laboring in the country with 547 clergymen. The different churches receive from the colonial government, £190,432, yearly. Of this, about $150,000 may be counted for proper missionary work. The Boer (pronounced Boor) party, however, now in the ascendant, is unfriendly to these grants. Cape Town has 41,704 inhabitants, of whom 8,000 or 10,000 are Mohammedan Malays. Among the half-breeds of the west of Cape Colony, the Rhenish, the Berlin SOCieties, and the Unitas Fratrum are the principal laborers. The Berlin Society has 11 stations, 13 ordained European missionaries; 87 native helpers, 11,138 baptized adherents,' 3,918 communicants, 2,378 scholars. Contributions, $9,300. The Berlin Society (in the west), has 7 stations, 8 missionaries, 74 helpers, 4,335 baptized adherents, 1,843 communicants, 614 scholars. Contributions, $4,688. The Moravians have (in the west) 11 stations, 20 brethren, 2 native ordained missionaries, 239 helpers, 9,145 adherents, 2,218 communicants, 2,154 scholars.

The Brethren's Church, on July 9, 1887, celebrated the 150th anniversary of its first arrival in South Africa, 'Its work is still important and fruitful, but suffers under a growing difficulty. Not laboring in colonial villages, but in distinct stations, it finds its people sinking more and more into poverty, because of the scarcity of arable land. Their people are therefore widely scattered, many being in the diamond fields, whither they are followed by colored 'Diaspora laborers.' "

The Dutch Reformed Church of Cape Colony, which has 175,555 baptized white members, is coming, under Scottish and English stimulus, to show a much more animated missionary zeal. "Stellenbosch, with its theological institute, is very especially a focus of missionary zeal."

Among the others, the Wesleyan Missionary Society is most prominent. It has (in the west): 9 stations, 6 missionariE'S, 96 native helpers, 1,476 communicants, 1,467 scholars The South African Wesleyans are quite indepepdent of the British Conference. In the whole Colony, they have 71 stations, 156 churches and chapels, 55 clergymen, 1,198 native helpers, 16,840 communicants, 88,000 baptized adherents, 218 schOQls, 310 teachers, 13,803 scholars.

"But no other British society laboring in South Africa compares with the Scottish societies as respects capability, sobriety and diligence, combined with true evangelical piety."

The Free Church of Scotland haa9 stations, 10 ordained Europeans, 2 ordained natives,23 native helpers, 4,214 commnnicants, 12,113 baptized adherents, 3,510 scholars. Their institute of Lovedale (largely assisted by the colonial government) is a great force for education and indus· trial training.

The United Presbyterians have 11 stations, 12 missionaries, 60 native helpers, 2,307 communicants, 8,080 baptized adherents, 43 schools, 1,735 scholars.

-Of the 500,000 or more of Protestant Christians in India, 7,000 live in the city of Madras ~tself. South India is still the great seat of Christianity, its in- habitants being not Aryans but Dravidians, and, therefore, being related to Hinduism somewhat as the Turks are to Mohammedanism, which they have accepted, but which is not native to them, as it is to the Arabs.

-Missionary Lazarus says of the moral condition of the people of Madras an admirable example of south India at large), that, like Greece in Paul's day, the things that they do "are a shame even to speak of." But whereas Paul's admonitions show plainly that his converts had but imperfectly extricated themselves from "the moral chaos surrounding them," "it may be confidently said," declares Mr. Lazarus, himself a native of India, "that the native church of Madras has raised itself above the abominations of the encompassing hea- thenism. Devil-dances, drinking-bouts, quarrels and tumults, unchastity, prac- tised under the cloak of religion, and similar abominations, are absolutely foreign to the native Christians. Such exhibitions of godlessness as are common among the lower classes in Europe, are unknown to them. The Hindus have an immeasurable vocabulary of vituperation, but I do not remember to have ever met with a native Christian that made any use of it. No native Christian has been sent to the gallows, or convicted of crime before the courts." Mr. Laza- rus, it should be remembered, is here speaking only for the Protestants; cases of crime, among the native Christiahs, it would seem, are mostly of Roman Catholics, though among these also, it is rare. The Mohammedans in M&dras, though vastly less disposed to crime than the Hindus, make but a poor show compared with the Christians generally, and seem to sink out of sight, com- pared with the Protestants.

This great superiority of the Protestants, is, however, rather an inference of my own than a distinct statement of Mr. Lazarus, and may bean exaggeration.

"The native Christians, moreover, are as good as wholly emancipated from faith in astrology and palmistry, from child-marriages and compulsory widowhood, from neglect of the education of their children, from the foolish marriage-system involved in caste, from polyandry and polygamy, from perjury and prostitution, and other violations of the moral law, which are so general among the Hindus, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Even if no wider results had been reached, this alone would have been a great achievement, which must be ascribed to the steadfastness and faithfulness with which the missionary pioneers have administered their difficult trust.

"The more positive virtues are less satisfactorily developed, yet, I may venture to say, that for family virtue the Christians have established a solid reputation. Hypocrisy, however, suspiciousness, mutual detraction and backbiting, hardness toward the poor, prodigality, fickleness, pride of birth, are faults only too common among them. . . . If 'cleanliness is next to godliness,' our people have not yet discovered it, or at Ip,ast have not yet applied their discovery. In this respect they are inferior to the Hindus of the same social level. As to the English standard of moral obligation, there is much of it to which their apprehensions are not yet at all awakened." It should be remembered, however, that the English are by nature, a much higher development of mankind. "As respects the higher, active virtues, which our Lord pronounces blessed, poverty of spirit, sorrow for sin, forbearance, hunger and thirst after righteousness, compassion, purity of heart, willingness to suffer for righteousness sake, the whole moral scale, the highest that humanity can attain, of these we find in the native Christians only the first feeble shoots. There are, of course, honorable exceptions, which, in reference to deve~opment of character and Christian virtues, may easily stand comparison with European Christians, hut they are not man:r." "But when we consider the infection which lies in the air of India, together with the dullness and inertness of the people, and all the various forces, which join to work against the development of the moral sense, and also consider that the mass of the native Christians comefrom the most deeply sunken social stratum of the Hindus, there is certainly occasion for surprise and thankfulness, that the moral standing of the native church is so much higher than that of the Hindus. Thus, the last are higher than the first, as compared with the most of those who stand outside of Christianity."

"Docility, tractability, respectfulness, sobriety and meekness, trust in Providence, and careful discharge of religious duties, are, indeed, traits of our converts; but they are not peculiar to them. They were traits of the Indian character long before Christianity came hither. And it seems surprising that so eminent and learned a man as Bishop Caldwell should have described them as distinguishing traits of our Christians. They are genuine Indian traits, just as courage and capacity, sincerity and manliness, vehemence and violence and energy are genuine European, or, if you will, specific Anglo-Saxon qualities."

Mr. Lazarus thinks, that until pains are taken to secure a higher grade of catechists, we must make up our minds to a comparatively low grade of native Christians. He tells his fellow-missionaries some plain truths: "If the missionaries are to raise the native standard, they must take pains to learn how to speak elegant and accurate Tamil, a thing which, I am sorry to say, receives less attention here in Madras than in old days. Clergymen must not be content with their Sunday services. They ought to establish Bible classes for youth and grown people, as well as for children, and make these entertaining, so that they can mspire native Christians with a taste for an intelligent and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures, and in particular, of the life and work of our Lord. By these, and like means, there will !3pring up a clearer, purer and more thorough conception of what Christianity is, and this will thus exercise a growing influence upon the moral condition of the native church."

• Mr. Lazarus severely criticises the mission1l.ry schools of south India: "These schools are often Christian in name, but heathen in effect. Their main element is made up of heathen boys, and there is only a little fraction of Christian children. Most of the teachers are heathen, the rector is often a Brahmin. The director of the mission prefers heathen to Christian teachers; the former are 'wiser towards their generation than the children of light.' They are more creeping and busy; this is taken by the easily-believing director as humility and zeal; Oll the other hand, he cannot bear with the faults of 'the own children of the family.' What makes matters worse is, that the instruction in br Christianity is committed to the 'Bible teacher,' who is often a poor native Christian of the catechist class, who is nothing accounted of either his pupils or his fellow-teachers. Thus, the whole is under strong heathen mfluence; the Christian element is as a drop in the bucket. Think what it means to be eight hours daily, year out and year in, in contact with a hundred heathen lads and teachers, whose mouths overflow with abominations, and whose hearts are leavened with heathen rottenness. Such a contact cannot otherwise than strikingly infect and corrupt the young Christian's soul before he comes under the missionary's immediate influence. I speak from sad experi- ence.."

Mr. Lazarus is utterly opposed to the appointment of heathen teachers in Christian schools, in any case whatever. He also uses some plain speaking toward the English missionaries in South India: "The fault lies with the native Christians as well as with the whites, that there is so little mutual affection between them. Yet, the latter, as belonging to an older and more developed church, which is renowned not less for piety and philanthropy than for zeal and learning might be expected to be first to lay plans of love toward their weaker brethren. . . Impelled by the Saviour's self-sacrificing love, a messenger of God ought to be able to lay aside his pride of race, to overcome his prejudices, to condescend to the native level, and by free and familiar intercourse, to endeavor to lift the native Christians up to l1imself, and thus, with his Lord, to strive to develop the native church into a glorious church, not havin~ spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.' Only by the exercise of love can the mISSIOnary lead the church on and up. He ought, at least, to show himself as often in the homes oofort he native Christian s as at the dinner-tables of his c~untrymen. It is bettoc !"-:m to exercise his influence

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER

in modest native civility, than by a presence at games of ball or on croquetgrounds. It is pleasanterto see him befriending the poor, than doing homage. to the rich. In brief, all his works, all his walk, ought to be such as to call back into living remembrance the days when the Lord of heaven lived and walked in intimate converse with His own disciples."

Mr. Lazarus bears emphatic testimony to the inestimable good wrought by missionary labors in South India. But he desires, speaking the truth in love, to lay home to the hearts of some of the missionaries, considerations which they have great occasion to weigh, if they would see established in India a stable and richly developed native church.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.

Tke New World of Central Africa; With a History of the First Christian Mission on the Congo. By Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. London: Hodder & Stoughton. New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell. $2.00. Central Africa, by means of God's wonder·working Providence, is in- deed, become a "new world," to us. And the great Powers of Europe have hastened to improve their opportunity to extend "the spheres of their ir:tluence" and establish their "protectorates" over its vast areas. This is well. This is a part of God's wise and comprehensive plan for Africa's enlightenment and regeneration. This secures the rapid introduction of civilizing agencies, the development of its immense resources, the protection of life, the extinction of slavery and civil and religious liberty to all its teeming millions. The Church of Christ, also, is astir to enter this new world with the missionary, the Bible and the school, and conquer it for One greater than Cresar. And this book is just what the exigency calls for. It tells just what we want to know. It shows, briefly and intelligently, what has been done and attempted for the evangel- ization of Africa. It is well written-written with a purpose; written by one whose whole heart, as well as that of her husband and family, is given to the missionary cause. It is pro- fusely illustrated. It gives us vivid pictures of the "dark continent." It gives facts of momen· 100us interest. Take this: "The Congo and its tributaries have been already explored to a length of 11,000 miles, giving 22,000 miles of river bank, peopled with native villages. In his journey across Africa, Stanley gazed on the representatives of tribes numbering at least 50,000,000, and to none of them has the message of mercy ever been proclaimed." And this: "From the last mission station on the Upper Congo, a journey of 1,000 miles would be needed to reach the near- .est stations on the east-those on the great lakes. Seventeen hundred miles to the northeast, lies the Red Sea, and there is no mission station between. Two thousand, two hundred miles due north is the Mediterranean, and no mission station between; while 2,500 miles to the northwest are the .stations of the North African nUssion, but no single centre of light between I Seven hundred miles to the west is the Cameroons Station, but the whole intervening country is unvisited; and in the south-west, the American Mission at Bihe, is fully a thousand miles distant. "-J. M. S.

Daybreak in North Africa. By Mrs. F. T. Haig. London: Partridge & Company. This is An account of missionary work in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli. Our readers have heard from time to time from this region, from one of our correspondents, Rev.E. F. Baldwin, of Tangiers, Morocco. The mission here is but a few years old, and is but little known and feebly supported. 'The North African Mission had no child's play before it when it sought to carry the 'Gospel to Mohammedans in that part of the world where Mohammedanism had most completely triumphed over Christianity, and had, for more than a thousand years, held undisputed sway over Berbers and Arabs alike. The success of the Gospel even against such fearful odds is proof that Islam is not invincible. Here, as elsewhere, the testimony is that Mohammedan power is passing away. But eight years have passed since the effort began, and what hath God wrought I Mrs. Haig says, "At the present time there are 51 missionaries occupying 12 dilferent statious, in connection with the North Americar: Mission. beside a nnmber of in- .dependent workers [Mr. Baldwin, for one, who has been quite successful], several of whom be· gan work with the help of the Society, but afterwards preferred working on separate lines." The book is modestly and pleasantly written and well illustrated. It encourages hope and labor for Africa.-J. M. S.

A Friend of Missions in India. The journal of Rev. Henry S. Lunn. London: James Clarke & Company. Our readers will remember that a flerce and prolonged controversy has agitated the missionaries and friends of the London Missionary Society (Wesleyan,) for a year or two past,growing out of serions criticisms,which appeared in the Methodist Times (London), respecting the administration of the Society and the habits of living on the part of it. missionaries in India, etc. The anthor of this work, and the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, editor of the Methodist Times, were chiefly responsible for stirring up this severe controversy. In the last number of the REVIEW we gave the report of the Special Committee appointed by the Society to investigate :this whole matter.

GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

The chief interest which attaches to this book is the fact that It consists of "The Cyclo- • styled Indian Journal," in the form of twelve letters, which Mr. Lunn wrote while in India as a. missionary, "thirty copies of which he sent to thirty circles of friends in England." These letters of course, laid the foundation for the discussion and warfare which followed. And when, after his return to London, he wrote a series of anonymous articles to the Methodist Times on "A New Missionary Policy," which the editor strongly 'endorsed, the writer's identity with the letters sent home from India was seen by all who had read the Journal. Bitterness of feeling, at home and abroad, and angry discussion was the result. The missionaries demanded a thorough investigation and persisted in their demand, and, at length got it, and got a vindication. Hap- pily the war Is now ended, and, apparently, all parties are snbstantially satisfied. The lesson from It all isobvions, and should be laid to heart-Young missionaries are too apt to criticise those of age and long experience.-J. M. S.

A ThousandMiles on an Elephant. By Holt S. Hallett. Dedicated by the author to the Ameri- can missionaries in Burmah and Siam. Blackwood & Sons: Edinburgh and London. This book is the record of a tour of exploration by Messrs. Colquhoun and Hallett for a railway from Bur- mah to China, through the Shan States of Northern Siam. Dr. J. N. Cushing, whom the author designated as the most learned Shan scholar, accompanied the exploring party as interpreter. They met a cordial welcome and much helpful information from Dr. McGilvary and associates of the Preshyterian Mission to the Laos of Chiang-Mal. They there enjoyed a refreshing rest after their tedious jungle-travel from Burmah. Thence onward through unexplored regions of unwasted resources of commercial wealth, and opening an easy access to the hoards of superstitious spirit-worshippers of the Shan tribes in northern Slam, and leading to the unharvested fields of commerce in China, and giving to the disciples of Christ an open door to the uncounted myriads of her inhabitants when these explorations shall result in a living railway from India to, the middle kingdom.

The book is Wllitten in an attractive style, presenting a clear picture of the dwellings, character and customs of the people, the forests of teak timber and other wood that shelter herds of elephants and buffaloes, poniesand cattle, tigers and monkeys, chickens and peacocks,with rich fiE-Ids of rice, sugar, tobacco and tropical fruits. which include pineapple, pumelo, plantin, orange, lemon, mango, mangosteen, durean, custard-apple, and in great variety and rich fiavor the fruits generally found in the tropics. Extensive plains of fertile soil still remain uncultivated for want of facilities for the transportation of the productions. It has been intimated that the Burmah·Siam-China railway, for the extension of British trade and the civilization of" south-eastern Asia, may be classed with the Slez canal and tbe American Pacific railway as one of the grand works of tbe century. We think it in harmony with the call for a thousand missionaries for China, and the Christ-command to preach the Gospel to every creature.-W. D.

Personal Life of David Lit,lngstone. By William G. Biackie, D.D. London: John Murray. This is one of the hest worth reading of all missionary hooks. I am now reading it a second time aloud to my family. For fullness of detail, intense interest, graphic portraiture of character and freedom from exaggeration, it stands very high. And I would recommend all readers· ol the REVIEW to get it.-A. T. P.

Life of John Hunt: Missionary to Fiji. By G. Stringer Rowe, London. This Is one of the most kindling books I ever read. Mr. Hunt was a pioneer, and hurned .out his life's fiame in his holy zeal for God. He died October 4, 1848, at the age of 36, but he had lived a century, judged by the standard of effective work. This hook is full of the rarest inspirlition. It is one of the finest evidences of Christianity it has fallen to my lot to examine. He, who has any doubt of the Divine Power unto salvation, should read this book; and yet. valuahle, as it is, we have seldom seen a copy of It in any missionary library.-A. T. P..

H.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.

A leaflet lies before me setting forth with personal and peculiar interest· the Students' Foreign MissionaryUnion because of its origin. of Great Britain, not yet one year old. Some facts concerning this organi- "It began in one Howard Taylor's zation will be of interest to the read- study, on his return from Northfield, ers of this REVIEW, because of the Massachusetts, and in the hearts and tremendous significance of a new prayers of a group of missionary men student movement abroad, and vol- at the hospital, shortly before he sailed unteers will regard the movement for China." A London correspondent goes on to say "Two large and influential meetings were lished volume of letters edited by her held in connection with its foundation: one at sister, under the title "In the Far' Spurgeon's Tabernacle, when he (Spurgeon) East." Miss Wilder's name is familiar delivered a grand missionary sermon on Mark to readers of THE REVIEW by reason xvi: 15, to as many London students as could of her occasional letters to that peribe gotten together (and the great building was odical, and to young women in our full to doors and roof), and one at Exeter colleges and connected with Y. W. C. Hall." A. She is known through her mes- sage to them, entitled, "Shall I Go?" The Union numbers 165 members, which has already reached its Fifth all men. London has 74 members, edition. Miss Wilder's pamphlet, "An Cambridge 6, Oxford 5, Edinburgh 32, Appeal from India," should be read Aberdeen 3, Bangor 1. Besides these with very great care in order to be there are some scattered members and understood rightly, and not' read merely, but pondered on-not because some fu. Ireland, making the total of of any obscurity on the writer's part, but rather by reason of the meaning 165 men. of statements-which meaning does The membership consists of all not lie readily on the surface.

students who accept and sign the fol- "The fact that our Saviour is using us in the lowing declaration: salvation of souls, and for hastening the day of His coming-that is certainly the reason "It is my earnest hope, if God per- for our staying in India. So we who are here mit, to engage in Foreign mission would say to you in America and Canada, this work." is the strongest appeal we can send you for coming to India. The presence of the moving The objects of the Union shall be: cloud was sufficient reason for the Israelites 1. To band together students who to follow. Does not the presence of God's feel called to Foreign missionary work. Spirit, as now felt in India, convince us that 2. To urge the claims of the Foreign He is calling a large portion of our volunteer Mission field upon Christian students band to work for Him here I" everywhere, and to advocate the formation of missionary associations in In refutation of the popular notion connection with the various universi- that Africa presents the greatest need ties and colleges where they do not al- for missionary workers, the writer ready exist. says, "Do you say there are large 3. For the furtherance of its objects tracts in Africa unoccupied? True. the Union shall use the following Yet, relative to its population, India agencies: Meetings of members, meet- must have some 119 more missionaries ings in universities and colleges, de- to equal the missionary force of putations, correspondence and indi- Africa." vidual effort, and the pUblication of an occasional paper. Miss Wilder has corresponded with On the ground of respect for and ap- missionary agencies of the Protestant preciation of the work of the authors denominations in India, and in brief of these appeals from different coun- extracts which she gives from letters tties, the appeals, though without any from various districts, a very adequate pretence to literary merit, should be. and true picture of India's needs is read with undivided attention, and in a receptive and prayerful spirit. presented~ Mr. Forman's views on Foreign missions are familiar to us through his From the Central Provinces one addresses delivered in our colleges, in 1886-87. Miss Geraldine Guinness, writes: author of "An Appeal from China," "I am persuaded in my own mind noticed in the last number of THE RE- VIEW, has already shown herenthusi- that the most eventful period in the asm for, and consideration to her history of missionary effort in this work in China, as disclosed in the pub- country is rapi~ly approa?hing. Th.e Lord is preparmg for a time of gI01:1- ous in-gathering. These souls will need the care of his children." Arcot Mission of the Reformed the answer to every difficulty, hin- drance or disappointment." Church: "Never, in my somewhat long ex- Unoccupied fields: "The Nizam's dominions are now perience, were the claims of India ap- open; population 10,000,000. Only a parently so urgent as now. A restless, beginning has been made in the Conaalmost feverish spirit of inquiry per- rese portion on the west. Much of vades the community." India is but nominally occupied. The region about Jhonsi and Bhopal is Madura Mission, American Board: said to have 10,000,000 unprovided for, "To-day, one brother has four sta- except for the mission at Jhonsi, and tions, another three, and two others a native worker of the American two each. How can they do justice . Board at Lalitpun. to the work? They are all driven to "In closing: To you who have finthe verge of desperation and ill-health. ished your course of study, and waver We thank God that we have recently not at the question of ultimate comreceived into our mission-circle one of ing, but of coming this year, I would· that large band of consecrated stu- say, Satan is taking advantage of our dents. How we long, and pray, and delays. Our aboriginal tribes, numwrite, and implore, that more be bered at some 50,000,000, now very acsent !" cessible, are said to be getting rapidly absorbed into Hinduism. In large Marathi Mission, American Pres- cities, where for years there has been much undermining of old faiths, inbyterian Board: fidelity, materialism, and theosophy "An earnest request has been sent are being pressed u1>0n the attention of the people, and there is danger of for sixteen new workers. In Kolha- seven unclean spirits coming in place pur State alone there are 1,097 vil- of one. lages; it would take a missionary a "We need you now. We pray God whole year to preach once around to to send you to us, filled with the Holy the village population of that single Spirit. It is useless to preach Christ State." to minds steeped in ignorance and idolatry, in any other way than in the From the Akola Field, Mrs. Fuller power of the Spirit."

writes: "The greater need is the quality of the men. We need anointed menmen who know Christ, who find in God Africa.-Progress. Letters from gether for the good of the country. the missionaries in Uganda say that There is still considerable bad feeling King Mwanga has been almost wholly and jealousy, but there seems to be no stripped of the despotic power which prospect now of the open rupture that he and his fathers for centuries have recently threatened. The parties have exercised. He is now of little import- taken an oath, signed by their leaderll. ance in his own country-white influ- agreeing that whatever their disputes ences are in ascendancy. The King may be they will not spill one another's can get nothing that he does not ask blood, but will depend upon sober for from his chiefs, who are under the arguments and arbitration to settle all control of the Protestant or Catholic their quarrels. religion. This is a great change for the young King, who awhile ago killed The Mohammedan party seems to a bishop, imprisoned white mission- be entirely defeated. Thus a remarkaries, and slaughtered native Chris- able change has been wrought in tians by the score. No heathen are Uganda, where a while ago the allowed to hold any office in the new Mohammedans ruled everything, and Government. Many of them are per- by their influence upon Mwanga and mitted to remain in the land, but there his successor, Karema, drove the is not a chief among them. The great whites out of the country and threatoffices, of which there are about six ened to retard the progress of white very important ones, have been enterprises and of all civilization in equally divided between the two Central Africa for half a century to Christian parties. come. Now the Mohammedans have been driven from power in a series of There has been great danger of bloody battles, their influence is enserious clashing between the Protestant tirely gone and the Arabs are fugitives, and Catholic sects. By the advice of Uganda is a British J?rotectorate, and both Catholic and Protestant mission- the white missionarIes, recently peraries they have, however, decided to secuted, are the power in the country. bury their differences and work to- Never before was the prospect so bright for the rapid extension of European of the most valuable concessions' influence and commercial enterprise granted her by Germany. The history in the African lake region.-N. Y. of English rule in India shows how Sun. adroit she is in turning the office of protector to her own advantage. [Uganda is the field where Bishop Hanning- The situation of Zanzibar was not ton was murdered by Mwanga, and where the likely to escape the attention of the- slave-stealers. Their interest lay in lamented Mackay spent his brief but heroic making the road from the villages which they depopulated to the coast as life. Stanley speaks in warmest terms of this short as possible. On the journey, however short it may be, many of mission, declaring it "a most remarkable suc- their victims died from fatigue and exposure to the sun. Zanzibar was cess." Of Mackay, in whose house at the near, and it was also convenient. There the dealers came from Europe sonthern end of Victoria Nyanza, he took who had commissions from the Turks and Egyptians to supply them with grateful rest, "sipping real coffee and eating slaves. There, too, vessels might be chartered to carry away the living home-made bread and butter for the first time booty to other ports. So Zanzibar early became a mart of commerce in the in thirty months," he says: "He has no awful traffic. The efforts of Germany and England have largely suppressed time' to fret and groan and weep, and God this trade in Zanzibar, and under the protectorate of England we may be knows, if ever man had reason to think of sure it will not be revived. The mar- kets will now be better occupied by 'graves and worms and oblivion,' and to be the trade in ivory.-African News.

dolefuland lonely and sad, Mackay had, when, Chi n a. – A great evan~elizing after murdering his Bishop, and burning his agency. – The Chinese, especially pupils, and strangling his converts, and those in the southern part of the em- clubbing to death his dark friends, Mwanga pire, are going out from China in all turned his eye of death on him. And yet the directions. They are not only going little man met it with calm, blue eyes that to many adjacent islands and those never winked. To see one man of this kind, more remote in the Pacific, but they working day after day for twelve years, are settling upon all the coasts of bravely, and without a syllable of complaint south-eastern Asia, pushing up an the or a moan, among the 'wilderness,' and to rivers, and in every place holding hear him lead his little flock to show forth tenaciously the ground on which they God's loving kindness in the morning and His settle. They are a great colonizing faithfnlness every night, is worth going a people, and, if only the Gospel is long journey for the moral courage and con- given to them, they will assist greatly tentment that one derives from it."-J. M. S.] in the redemption of the lands to Zanzibar.-The importance of which they go from sin and darkness. Zanzibar, as a key to Central Africa, was recognized early in the era of ex- They seem to be destined, in the good ploration. What New York is to the United States, what Liverpool is to providence of God, to become a pow- Great Britain, Zanzibar is to Equatorial Africa. In his first expedition erful evangelizing agency, and a great Stanley made it the base of operations, and he went there again, in 1879, to blessing to humanity. . organize his second expedition. It lies on the east coast of Africa, seven Bishop Thoburn, writing from Sindegrees south of the equator. Its chief markets and the seat of the govern- gapore, says of these Chinese colonment are on the island of Zanzibar, but the adjacent country on the main- ists: land is also under the Sultan's domin- "'fhe more I see of our mission work ion, and is also called Zanzibar. It is at this point that the caravans from the in this part of the world, the more do interior strike the coast, and from I bQcome confirmed in the conviction there the explorers, Burton, Grant, which I received the first time I Stanley, Cameron and others, hired visited Rangoon and saw the Chinese their carriers and set out on their ex- there; mingling as they were with the peditions, and to that place they re- Burmese, that God would use them as turned, and came once more into com- a great evangelizing agency all up and munication with civilization. It was Stanley's first business, in organizing the Congo Free State, to establish a chain of stations extending from Zanzibar to Nyangwe and the lakes. Under the new arrangement with Germany and England, the latter country has acquired the right of "protecting" the Sultan of Zanzibar, which is one down these coasts. They are not only converts are mostly gathered from the most energetic people to be found in this region, but, strangely enough, the poor, he argued that it was better they seem more accessible to the Gos- pel than any others; and those of them so. When a house is to be lifted, jackwho are born in Malaysia will be able to speak the vernacular of the coun- screws are put in at the bottom. If try in which they live, and this, added to their knowledge of English and the roof was grappled it would be only Chinese, will qualify them for usefulness on the widest jossible scale. the top that would be lifted. Strange are the ways 0 Providence!" -Spirit of Missions. Hawaii.-Rev. W. A. Essery, in a recent address in London, said: England.-There is much in the "The gospel has won the victory English papers of the increasing flow over heathenism in the Sandwich Islands. It was a peculiar joy to me of converts from the ritualistic section when I found myself in Honolulu. On a certain sunny Easter Sunday of the Anglican Church to the Church morning I wended my way to the old stone church, a large square sanctuof Rome. The activity of the priests of ary, built of blocks of reef coral that had been cut out of the sea for. this Rome is very great, and their boastful- purpose by the early converts. I ness is greater. But the Pall Mall Ga- stood in the pulpit and spoke to an zette concedes that the tide sets rapidly eager audience of the purpose of {lne way. In a recent issue it says: Christ's gospel, the many triumphs thereof I had seen in all parts of the " The conversion to Catholicity is recorded world, and exhorted them to cleave of Rev. Dr. Townsend, superior of a mission to the Lord. Where are the idols the house of Oxford University at Calcutta, and people worshipped a hundred years this so soon after a similar step taken by Dr. ago? More of them are preserved in Rivington, principal of a similar institution at the museum cases of the London Mis- Bombay. Itis also given upon good authority sionary Society than I could hear of that Drs. Tatlock, Beasley and Clarke, sta- in the islands to-day. All around me tioned respectively at Christ Church, Clap- were proofs of how the gospel had ham, Helmsley, Yorkshire and St. James', raised and civilized the community. Liverpool, will shortly enter the Catholic The entire money cost of converting Church. Since the beginning of the Lenten these islanders, which was done by season no less than 100 Anglicans have em- American missionaries, was less than braced Catholicity, and this in one parish the cost of one first-class British ironalone. At Brighton, a centre of ritualistic clad. Christ's gospel has been wafted activity, the number of converts is reckoned to New Zealand. Last Good Friday at 500 persons." twelve months I landed at Gisborne, in Poverty Bay; it was about three India.-Bishop Thoburn's picture o'clock in the afternoon. Going up over the same beach where Captain of the poverty of the people of Asia, Cook had landed a hundred years before I heard the music of a churchespecially of India, where families going bell; turning in its direction I came upon a wooden, weather-boarded live on five cents a day, and thousands church; stepping inside I saw a con- gregation of Maoris, the natives of of growing children go to bed hungry New Zealand. The clergyman had just started the service, men and every night, drew forth a chorus of women had their Bibles and prayer- books, and all were taking part in the groans and sighs as well as generous worship of Him whose sorrows are remembered on Good Friday. It was gifts. He mentioned, as a sample: a a simple sight but it gladdened the heart to find Christ's name honored in man who was paid $2.50 per month, the ends of the world. And so from these illustrations we learn that the whose wife, by hard work, added 28 missionary spirit is once more a power of life in the earth, and that the work cents per month to it. This had to of Christianizing the nations has actually commenced, and is making be divided among a family of five, real progress."

none of whom could have enough even Japan.-The new Constitutional of their own coarse food (rice mixed Government assumes control of affairs with weeds). "Five hundred millions of the people of this world," said the Bishop, "will go to bed hungry to- night. The tramps of this country would be 'swell' in any part of India." Speaking of the fact that missionary in November. The Parliament will a considerable interval, iinds the <Jontain many liberal-minded men. changes that have recently occurred There will be manifest in it four dis- so marked and suggestive that he is tinct parties: the Conservatives, the induced to indicate some of the most Conservative-Radicals, the Moderates, prominent. He writes as follows: and the Radicals. All of them, " On approaching the city from the west, in former years, there were however, have more or less ad- scarcely any buildings except the Russian convent and the Monteiiore vanced notions, and have no desire to Almshouses to intercept the ·…iew of the city walls; now the whole plain is go back exclusively to the old order covered with private residences and colonies of Jews, whilst near to the ()f things. The Moderate party is Jaffa Gate· are large numbers of shops called Kaishinto. It took its rise in already tenanted and numerous others in course of construction. This ex- 1882, and has been very active in the tension beyond the walls has become necessary on account of the rapid agitation for and adoption of the increase of the population. I am in- formed by Mr. Moore, British consul present Constitution. It is very pro- here, that within the last three or four years about 20,000 Jews have come to gressive in its aims, and favors "gov- Jerusalem for permanent residence in and around the city, and that of the €rnment by party, treaty-revision and entire population of about 70,000 it is estimated that nearly 40,000 are Jews. the reform of almost all departments of He also stated that the influx of Jews into other parts of Palestine during the government." The Conservative- recent years has been entirely without precedent. The principal streets,which Radicals came into recognition in 1888 but a few years since were almost impassable in rainy weather, have and have adopted as their motto, been paved with stone, a new wide street has been opened up through a "United in great things-differing in densely-populated quarter, and five hotels are now open for the reception small." They are, as yet,few in num- 6f the annually-increasing number of visitors and traders from all lands. bers, and not very influential. The " Public works of importance have Jihu-to is the real Radical Party. been executed, and others are in pro- gress. The road from Jaffa to Jerusa- I lem, at one time all but impracticable, has been reconstructed by an eminent -Appeal from Baptist missionaries. engineer-over it our own and other "At a conference of the missionaries carriage services are in full operation ()f the American Baptist Missionary -a good road has been formed from Union, held at Yokohama, June 11, Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and another 1890, it was resolved, in view of the from Jerusalem to Hebron; several great needs of this iield and the en- others are rapidly approaching comlarged opportunities for work in this pletion-from Jaffa to Nablous (She- <Jountry, to beseech God, and, under chern), 40 miles; Jerusalem to Jericho, Him, the missionary union and the 20 miles; Caipha to Nazareth, 20 Baptists of the north, for a speedy re- miles, and Nazareth to Tiberias, 18 inforcement of twenty-three men. miles. Jerusalem has hitherto been almost wholly dependent for its water "That there has been a crisis in Ja- supply upon its large underground pan is admitted by all, and this crisis cisterns for the reception of rain water, has not passed away in the late revul- which, after a summer's drouth, often sion of feeling against foreigners, al- proves insufficient in quantity and though, we believe, it has changed in almost unfit for use. The Governsome of its phases. The situation is ment is now about to introduce an more urgent and pressing than ever. unfailing supply from a spring of pure There remain as many souls to be water beyond Solomon's Pools-about reached; the work has been increased nine miles distant. A large flour mill, in difficulty, and our time for its ac- established by the Messrs. Bergheim, complishmentis diminishing.

[This appeal is urged by many "very startling and solemn facts."-Ens.] Palestine. – Anything indicative of an awakening and a revival of energy in the Holy Land, especially at Jerusalem, must prove of especial interest to every Christian who is watching "the signs of the times."

A correspondent of the London Christian World, now on a visit to the Holy City for the seventh time, after having proved both a great benefit try to commerce, are without preceand a financial success, others, with dent in modern times. Viewed in large steam power, are in progress of connection with the numerous and erection; soap factories have com- active efforts being made by various· menced operations, and at Jaffa steam religious agencies throughout the saw-mills have been established. conntry for the evangelization of the Colonies of Jews following agricul- people, and the conversion of the' tural pursuits, stated to be successful, Jews, these facts must encourage are located, one about five miles from every lover of God's ancient people to Jaffa, and a larger one at Limerin, hope that His set time to favor Zion is near Cresarea, originated and assisted fast approaching."-Exchange. by the Rothschild family. The beforenamed rmid to Jericho is being con- The Silver Law's effect on misstructed by the Government, who sions.-Strange as it may seem, the have taken up all the land available in Silver law seriously affects Christian the best parts of the valley for the de- missions. Weallknowwhatithasdone velopment of an extensive scheme of for the silver barons. It has made a agricultural operations, which, with fine market for their ore, and lined such a temperature, so fertile a soil, their pockets, not with their own coin, and well watered by the copious but with good, merchantable money. stream from Elisha's fountain, should stamped with the seal of the United promise abundant and remunerative States Treasury. It has raised the crops. Grapes, bananas, sugar-cane, price of silver, and therefore accomcotton, and various fruits and vege- plished the purpose for which it was tables have for some time past been forced through the two Houses at cultivated here with much success. Washington, It has enriched mine- The increased amount of rain which owners; has it blessed anybody else? has fallen the last few years in Pales- We will wait to see. Meantime, it is tine has had a most marked effect in having a disastrous effect on the mislarger and more abundant harvests sionary societies which make largeexthan hitherto known. penditures in foreign lands. By rais- lUg the price of silver it has so ad- "The most important results, how- vanced the rates of exchange for all ever, of all may be anticipated from those countries which have a silver the railway about to be constructed standard that a large percentage of between Jaffa and Jerusalem. As every dollar transmitted to the various rumors in former years have pre- fields is lost in discount. vailed which have never been realized, I called upon Mr. Frutiger, the banker, The dealings of the societies, it to whom the concession has been should be explained, with Mexico, granted by the Turkish Government, Brazil and other American countries, and was assured by him that the with India, China, Japan, Syria, Pernecessary capital had been subscribed, sia, and other Asiatic fields, are all and that the works would commence conducted on the silver basis. In makimmediately npon the close of the ing appropriations for the year, the sorainy season in the early spring, and cieties make them on the basis of an pushed on urgently to completion. exchange rate, averaged on the rates of The influence such a line of communi- the previous years. -While this rate difcation between Jerusalem and the' fers in different countries, it has avercoast may be expected to exert is in- aged less, the treasurer of the Presbycalculable, for as a natural sequence terian Board, Mr. Dulles, informs us, the harbor, which is now inaccessible "than 80 cents to the dollar for all to Mediterranean steamers, must be countries. " deepened and enlarged, and the rocky barrier which prevents ingress re- Now for the effect of the Silver Bill moved. on exchange. Mr. Dulles writes us: " It is contemplated to snbsequently "I find, by reference to my records, that on extend this line via Gaza and EI-Arish over the Short desert to Port Said and April 9th, our bills sold in Chiua at 77~ (this Ismalia on the Maritime Canal, thus connecting with the railway system is discount on the Mexican silver dollar); on of Lower Egypt for Cairo, Alexandria April 21st it had risen to 79~; May 28 to 82li; and Suez, and to the Fayoum and Upper Egypt. Such important action July 15th to 86jf; July 28th to 88.03, which is for the improvement of the Holy City and the development of the resources thelast date at which I had advices of actual of Palestine, and opening up the coun- sales; or a rise of 15 per cent. This will serve as an example. In fact, our estimates were made below 77, the first price above given; but assuming the variation as above, it means that when we contract to pay a native helper or incur any other form of expense for a given number of Mexican silver dollars, we must now, in order to meet our accounts, add 15 per the Church's history has recorded' a cent. to our disbursements of American gold. similar advance, although that ad- This is not a simple illustration, but the state- vance is relativelv small in the light ment of an actual fact." of the unexampled growth of popu- lation, even in non-Christian lands. The rise in India is somewhat less. The ten missionary organizations of On April 15th £500 yielded 6,832 the United Kingdom have become 65; rupees; on May 14th, 6,357: on July the 27 of all evangelical Christendom 21st, 6,140. The last· advices, says have increased to 185. The sum of Mr. Dulles, show that the rate is still half a million sterling raised to evanrising. Withal, the market is so gelize the world has grown fivefold uncertain, that 60-day bills cannot be -to two millions and a half. The sold at all. The rates in Mexico are living converts, then under 400,000, higher, even, than in China and India, now form native Christian communivarying from 15 to 20 per cent. ties three millions strong. The mis- sionary band, ordained and unor- What is true of the Presbyterian dained, was then 760 strong, and Board is also true of the American not 12 of these were women or Board and other societies. A note natives; now it is a host of nearly to us from one of the 'secretaries of 40,000, of whom 2,000 are women, bethe American Board says its expen- sides missionaries' wives: 33,000 are ditures are affected, "not only in India natives, and of these, 3,000 are orand China, but in Japan and Mexico dained. Besides all that Carey and as well-fields in which fully one-half his imitators had done to translate the of our total expenditures are made." Word of God, we see now in other 41 The Western Christian Advocate says languages the Old Testament, and in a "special appropriation of about other 64 languages the New Testa- $20,000 to meet the increased cost of ment. Our empire has grown till we exchange" in India will have to be have become responsible for a fourth made by the Methodist Missionary So- of mankind. The English speaking ciety at its meeting in November. race were only 22 millions when Carey The cost of the Silver Bill to the So- made his survey; we have increased ciety will be, the Advocate estimates, at the rate of nearly a million a year, fully $40,000. till in and outside of Christendom we are 113 millions. Our wealth has The outlook is a serious one for all swollen even more rapidly. Our the societies. A large increase in the mother-tongue, the Queen's English, incomes of the societies will be neces- has become the Christianizing and saryto pay the same bills as informer civilizing speech of earth, carrying to years. Says Mr. Dulles, speaking for the thousand millions who are still barthe Presbyterian Board: barians in the Hellenic sense, even as Greek influenced the hundred millions "It is early to calculate the etl'ects of a of the Roman Empire, that Divine revelation which, to all who believe it, change of 15 to 20 per cent. upon appropri- is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. Save in the ations of $900,000. Without entering into the very heart of Asia-Mohammedan, Buddhist and Russian-The Spirit of merits of the silver-question or venturing God has opened every door, as our fathers prayed.-Free Church (Scotprophecies as to the results, it certainly is un- land) Annual Report.

likely that silver will fall much below its pres· Farewell Meeting in Boston under ent value, and those who are considering the the direction of the secretaries of the American Board, in view of the early obligations of the Church to foreign work departure of missionaries for the several fields under the care of the must bear in mind the unavoidable demand Board. The missionaries were intro- duced by Dr. Clark and Dr. Smith, acupon them this year, and indeed in subsequent cording to the fields to which they were destined, and addresses were years, on account of the special change in the made by Dr. Herrick and Mr. Bartlett, for the Western Turkey Mission; by rise of silver. " Messrs. Hill and White for the Japan Mission; by Messrs. Lay and Jeffery Upon the churches the burden must for the missions in India, and by Mr. fall. It will not do to cut down former Ransom for the Zulu Mission. When appropriations by 15 or 20 per cent.; therefore, it will be necessary for them to increase their contributions by that amount. If last year a society appropriated $500,000, it must appropriate this year, to keep up its work, $575,000 or $600,000.

What a pity the extra percentage cannot be assessed on the silver barons! -The Independent.

The Missionary Age. The Victorian has been emphatically the missionary era. Since the immediately post-apostolic days, no half century of

MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS

the name of Mrs. Ransom was read, Dr. sent to the field since the last annual Alden stated that she was a daughter report is now 54, a greater number of Rev. Simeon H. Calhoun, formerly than has been sent out by the of the Mission to Svria. The Rev. Board during anyone year for the past James D.Tracy, of theMadura Mission, 50 years. The number of missiontemporarily in tIns country, extended aries appointed since the last annual the right hand of welcome to Mr. Jef- meeting of the Board is 63, 22 of fery, who goes to the same mission. whom are men, representing all the The exercises occupied two hours, Congregational theological seminaries and were listened to with the closest of the country, excepting Bangor and attention and deepest interest by a Oakland. These facts, taken with the large audience. Thirty-four mission- very handsome increase in the receipts aries were named at this farewell meet- of the Board during the past year, and ing, either now on the way or soon to the good reports of work. from all go to their respective fields; going out parts of the mission field, give abunfor the first time. The total number dant occasion for thanksgiving and of new missionaries that have been good courage for the future.

III.':"'-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.

Madagascar. where we hope shortly to build a dwelling- house, leaving the town of Ambatondrazaka to Antsihanaka, May 1, 1890. our friend and colleague, the Rev. E. H. Strib- DEAR EDITons:-Herewith I enclose a copy ling, thus extending the mission. We are of circular on the subject of a Cottage Hos- already about 100 miles, or four days' journey, pital, which it is proposed togo on with imme- from any other missionary, and a new hospital diately here iu the heathen province of Antsi- has become an absolute necessity. We intend hanaka. You will note that this mission is to to build a suitable structure to accommodate be extended by our removing a day's journey about sixteen patients, and this comparafurther north, where we hope to have much tively small effort will cost about £250. It is blessing on the work in future years. I need our earnest desire to build it without assishardly trouble you with details, other than to tance from the society, if possible, and so we say that the Christian public at home should are making known the present position of not be allowed to run off with the generally- affairs to personal friends, and to the friends accepted idea, which is false, of the "ad- of missions in general. To the former, we vanced religious and social condition of the would suggest this as a fitting opportunity for island," referred to in a letter received yester- affording encouragement to lonely workers in day from a Christian friend at home. The a far country, which, added to the far higher fact is that Madagascar is about one-third consideration of helping on the work of God, simply evangelized, and that one-third -about we hope will prove a sufficient inducement to three-fonrths-civilized. The work of deepen- help forward this particular object. Almost ing and spreading the spiritual life is only the whole of the working expenses (except now beginning in the above one-third of the the very important items of medicines and island. The work of evangelization and estab- medical appliances) have been obtained for lishment of new missions is being carried out the last two years without any help from the in about half of the remaining two-thirds, society, our patients paying more than twowhich, like here in Antsihanaka, is heathen, thirds of the expense of board and nursing; without missionary agencies at all; and the many of our native friends, too, having conrest is in "gross darkness." tributed to this object." The above is only a very general way of looking at it as a whole, but still it will give a LETTER FROM DR. BROCKETT. good idea of how things really are here. Brooklyn, July 28, 1890. With kindest regards, DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-I was very much in- JAMES G. MACKAY. terested in that part of Dr. Pierson's letter, in your August number, which treated of the [We regret that space permits only important questions of education and evan- gelization in the mission fields, and the coman extract or two from the printed parative success of the two methods, education first, and then evangelization, or evangeliztlr circular accompanying this letter.- tion first, followed by Ohristian education. EnS.] As I have been for many years studying these questions carefully, with reference to the , .. And now to come to the point of our re- missions of most evangelical denominations, I port. Our present hospital served well for a beg leave to offer a few thoughts, which Inay beginning, .but is now too small for us. Further, the directors of the L. M. S. have agreed to our removing to a more healthy spot at Imerimandroso, a day's journey to the north, be of service in the settlement of the difficult who had the privilege of hearing Rev. Dr. J. problem. E. Clongh, the Apostle to the Telugns, tell of his experience in endeavoring to carry the 1st. I find in our Lord's missionary tours in Gospel to that [,,,ople, will ever forget how Palestine that He devoted His instruction this matter presented itself to him. The mis- and preaching to .. the common people, who sion to the Telugns was founded in 1836, and heard Him gladly"-to" publicansand sinners, in 1866, thirty years later, when Mr. Clough who thronged to hear Him, and almost trode reached Ongola, there had not been a hun· upon one another to listen to the gracious dred native Telugns converted. There were words which He spake." He opened no about fifty members of the single church there, sChools, rabbinical or other, for Pharisees and but some of them were Tamils, English sol- Sadducees, practised no asceticism like the diers or sailors, or men of other nationalities, Essenes, but the burden of his discourses was and not to exceed 25 or 30 were Telugns. concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. There was one native assistant, and sChools had been maintained for instructing the chil- I cannot find that the Apostles opened any dren of Brahmins. The missionaries were ex. school to instruct or propagate the Gospel cellent men, men of deep piety and learning, which they preached. Paul tells us that it and thoroughly in earnest in their efforts to pleased God that by the foolishness of preach- win souls. But, somehow, they did not sucing mlln might believe, and that not many wise, ceed. The Brahmins were very friendly, ana not many learned were brought to the knowl- often called on them to discuss questions of edge of the truth-that" He had hidden these science, and if pressed on the subject of perthings from the wise and prudent, and revealed sonal religion, would reply that they were exthem unto babes." Throughout the Acts and amining the Christian doctrines, and were the Epistles, whether they were preaching to very favorably impressed with them, but Greeks, Romans or Barbarians, the theme desired time to consider. They did not wish was Christ, as the Saviour and Redeemer from to mingle with the lower castes, but thought sin, and no time was spent in endeavoring to they should, in time, come over to Chriscivilize or educate the people before convert- tianity. ingthem. When Mr. Clough came to Ongola, in 1866, 2d. I think it will be found in all modern they pursued the same course with him, and missions that the great snccesses have been at first deceived him; but his faithful assistachieved by following in the line of Christ's ant had preached the Gospel to the poor outexample. In almost every Asiatic mission casts (pariahs) at one of the out stations, and field there will be found two distinct classes, had sent some of the converts in one Saturday often of different origin, the one aristocratic to Mr. Clough for examination and baptism. and lordly, generally the ruling race, educated The Brahmins heard of it, and sent a message after their fashion, and looking down with to him, begging him not to disgrace himself contempt upon their ignorant inferiors. In and them by having anything to do with these India, this class are the Brahmins, proud, in- low and degraded people. The Brahmins telligent, in some respects the superioI'S in could not visit him Or hold any intercourse inteliectual culture of even the best European with him if he thus polluted himself. Mr. a,pd races. Their inferiors, who are gi-ound down Mrs. Clough devoted themselves to the study to the lowest degradation, are the men of low of the Word of God and prayer that night. caste or no caste at all. the pariahs or out- They found that they had erred in respecting casts. persons; they humbly confessed and repented of their sins, and the next day openly went to Many of our missionaries and missionary one of the large tanks in the city, baptized societies have made the mistake of trying to these converts, and preached the Gospel to convert the Brahmins first. They were so re- the poor, who had gathered by thousands to fined and cultured, so polite, and took so witness the ordinance. The Brahmins were much pleasure in discussing-religious ques- furious: they showed tHeir displeasure by tions with the missionaries, and sometimes cutting his acquaintance and reviling him confounding them with their dialectic skill, publicly, but the common people heard him that the poormissionaries indulged high hopes gladly, and received the word with joy. Bapof gathering a church whose members should tisms were constant, and in the ten years all be converied Brahmins, and through whom (1867-1877) preceding the famine, the church the whole nation should ere long Le brought at Ongola alone had received 4,394 members to Christ. It has now been about a hundred by baptism. After the famine, and Mr. (now years since missionary labor was commenced Dr.) Clough's noble and self-sacrificing efforts in India. Has anybody ever seen or heard of to relieve the sufferingcaused by it, the people a church there composed wholly of converted began to press into the kingdom of God, and Brahmins, who, as being all of. the highest to take it by violence. In 1Si'8, 8,691 were caste, did not need to break its bonds and defile baptized in six weeks-2,222 of them in one themselves by associating with Sudras or day-and during the 13 years since the ,,-ork Pariahs? Converied Brahmins there have certainly been, but never those who came in cempanies and retained their caste. Those has gone forward steadily, till on the first of was the only God to be worshipped. Now, January, IS90, there had been during the pre- contrast with this the Karen Missions in Burvious year, in the thirteen stations of that mah. Beginning in 1828 with the baptism of mission, 3,340 baptisms, and the number of a single convert brought to Christ by Dr. Judliving members at that date was 33,838. A son's efforts, it spread through Tavoy, Moullarge majority of these are people of low caste, mein, Rangoon, Bassein and Henzada within or of no caste, but of late the higher castes a dozen years, and has now extended wherehave begun to come in, and some Brahmins ever there are Karens. These people were among them. Of course, schools were neces- very poor; they were cruelly oppressed by sary after this rapid evangelization, and they their Burmese rulers; they were illiterate; have been provided liberally. There are sem- had no written language, till the misinaries for training native preachers (many of sionari.,s reduced their languages to writing; these poor people have developed remarkable they were not idolaters, and while they had abflities, both asscholars and preachers); there some:ideas of a Supreme Being they had never are high schools for girls and boys, and sta- heard of Christ, yet they came to Him at once tion-schools for instruction in the vernacular. when they did hear of Him, and in such num- In some of the stations there are caste schools bers, that for three years and more, under the for girls, in which ·the Bible is tanght, and fierce Burmese persecution, the thOllsands very soon the bonds of caste give way. The who were willing to die for Christ could not girls in these caste schools do not seem to be receive Christian baptism. They have in sixty superior in intellect or ability to their outcast years become an intelligent and powerful peosisters. There are connected with the mission ple, advancing from semi-barbarism to civilinow 47 missionaries, f!7 of them women-IS are zation, education and administrative ability, in America or Enrope. There is pressing need till the Government of British India, whose of at least 20 more missionaries. The number subjects they are, are putting them into places of native helpers is 421, of whom 204 (67 01'- of honor and trust in the place of the Burmese, .dained and 137 unordained) are preachers. whom they have found dishonest and untrust- The appropriations of the Missionary Union worthy. This wonderful change has come for all departments of the work in 1889-'90 solely by the preaching of the Gospel of ,yere $67,972, of which about one-half was for Christ, and in their case evangelization preschools. Here, out of 54 years of mission ceded education. They have had comparawork, only 24 have been productive of large tively few American missionaries (they have visible results. now 57, of whom only 20 are men). They have 560 native helpers, of whom 125 are or- Take another instance, which illustrates my dained pastors and evangelists, many of them point still more fully-the Baptist missions in the peers of our pastors in city or country, Burmah. Dr. Judson entered upon his mis- 492 churches, with a membership of 28,000, and sion to the Burmese in 1813. No abler or more an adherent population of about 175,000. Over· devoted missionaries have been connected 40,000 have died in these sixty years. They with any missions in the world than Dr. Jud- carryon Home and Foreign Missions with son and some of his associates; they were great success. Of course they have schoolslaborious, patient and persevering to a degree over 400 of them, with 11,000 pupils, all receivalmost beyond belief, yet six years elapsed ing an elementary Christian education; ten or before the baptism of the first convert. At twelve academies-some teaching English, but the close of the first Burmese war (1824-'26) all giving instruction in the Scriptures; a theothere were not more than 30 converted Bur- logical seminary, a college, and two highmese living, and now after 75 years of very grade high schools (boarding}-one of them earnest labor, with a large force of mission- with over 400 students. Their native preachers aries constantly in the field, and 63 (20 men are well educated, and their schools have reand 43 women) now at work, there are only ceived the highest praise from the Govern- 29 Burmese churches, with about 2,000 mem- ment Commissioners and inspectors for their bers (probably 4,000 or 5,000 have gone to thorough and critical scholarship. They are heaven in these 75 y£>-&rs). The reasons of growing spiritually; aboU:t 1,850 were bapthis scanty return are not far to seek. The tized the past year. Three·fourths of missionaries are not in fault; they have done their native pastors and four-fifths of the their work faithfully and well. They relied schools, including the costly high schools and to some extent on schools, in many of which college, are supported by the native churches, English was taught. The Burmese were and every church has a chapel of its own, proud, intelligent, imperious, and cruel in built by native Christians. Their contributions temper, bigoted in their Buddhism, and looked to church and benevolent purposes, taking all down with contempt on all other nations, es- their churches together, average $1.75 per peeially upon the Karen tribes, whom they member, while in the missions, where they held in a sort of peonage. They were glad of have plans of systematic beneficence, they the schools, because their children coul~ learn come up to $3.25 per member, and this where English, though they hated the English peo- $50 a year is considered a liberal salary. Here" ple, but they insisted that the Lord Buddha most certainly, education followed evangeli· missionary life does not allow of much time zation. for writing, but I am going to do better in the I might go on to speak of the Mallegassy, who certainly were evangelized before they future. In the meantime I send you an article had anything more than the most meagre education, but are now rejoicing in many good written by my husband, Rev. F. E. Hoskins. schools; of the Kohls, of Central India, Goss· ner's converts*-in this mission, also, evangel- On.him has fallen Mr. Dale's mantle, and it ization preceded education, and indeed educa· tion has not proceeded very far yet; and of is a heavy one, eombined with the study of many other missions of a like character, did space permit, but the points I want to make Arabic. We are feeling especiaJIy burdened are these: at this tillIe, as word has COme to retrench 1. That among the nations who profess and maintain the systematized false faiths- Zahleh station ($554). Buddhism, Brahmanism, Tauism, Moham- medanism – and even, in a somewhat less If we ask which of the out stations we will .degree, the doctrines of the Greek and Roman Cathoftc churches, and who have' a written close, it is like asking a man which of his chil- langnage and literature defending and ex- pounding their respective faiths,. progress in dren he can spare best. With the present evangelization will be slow by any method, and education will help very little, if at all. state of the Government, if we close we will Comparatively little impression has been made in Siam, in the Buddhist portion of not get permission to open again. It is hard China, and in Burmah, upon the Buddhists, .and general scientific education, however com- fighting to hold what we have, and no pros- plete it may have convinced the intellect, has not touched the heart. The same is pect o~ getting more. Turks and Jesuits make equally true of the educational assaults which have been made upon Islamism among the a trying combination. Three girls' schools Turks and other Mohammedan nations. That system of faith has too strong a hold upon have been closed; each one had over seventy the weakness of human nature to be readily relinquished. It does not seem that either the pupils; $40 each would run them to the end adherents of the Greek or the Roman Church have been often educated into Protestant of the year. Can yon not stir some heart to Christianity. Indeed, the results of the educative process have very often found to enure help us? Think of the large sums that were to these religions, e. g., Cardinals Manning, 'Wiseman and Newman, and many bishops raised at Northfield. and other perverts. We have church buildings that need repair; 2. It seems easily demonstrable that our Lord'S plan was to begin missionary work. we do not see how they can stand another with the poor, the lowly, the illiterate and the sinful; to present the dying, risen and glori- winter. fied Saviour to those who are conscious of t.heir You must pray that we may have patience need of such a Saviour from sin; and when the Gospel has lifted them up to Christian under discouragements, wisdom in' facing manhood and brought them to work for the salvation of others, then Christian education many vexing questions, and a great outpoursteps in, and prepares them to lead the hardened idolaters, by the force of a holy example, ing of God's Spirit. to Him who alone can save them. In my sister's absence I have the little organ L. P. BROCKETT. you sent her.* • Syria. During the last ten days I have had a guest Zahleh, Aug. 19, 1890. who formerly lived in Zahleh, so we have had DEAR DR. PIERSON:-YOu asked me to be one of your" Editorial Correspondents." My over a hundred callers, everyone has had a.

* I think the missionaries of the Society for glass of sherbet, about half have been fed; the Propagation of the Gospel, who have ab- with a little maid (Jeannette) to look after, sorbed tbis mission, overrate the conversions among the Kohls. They took over only 7,000, do you wonder that I do not write more? But and their latest report gives only 11,954 communicants. The 32,000 were only adherents. notwithstanding all, I have read the REVIEW for July and retailed its contents to my caIlers.

How we wish you could have extended your mission tour to Syria! You mustspend some time with us when you do come. Our home is near to the grand old ruins of Baalbec.

For some years I have been gathering suo perstitioI!s of these people. Very odd, and of course have their infiuence; and if sueb articles would be acceptable to you, will send one.

Mr. Hoskins is away for the day. Since Jan. 1st he has traveled more than 1,500 miles, 1,200 of these in the saddle, in all weathers and all hours of the day. Yours sincerely, Mas. F. E, HOSKINS.

Moravians not Lutherans.

Nazareth, Pa., Aug. 20, 1890. In the August number of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW (page 634), in the "Table of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Foreign Missionary Work," we find as the 27th Society (sic) the Moravian Church included among the Lutheran Mission- ary Societies, with the foot-note: .. The 110- * This little parlor organ was sent as a help in carrying on Sunday-school and prayer ser- vices. It was given by Bethany Church, Phila- delphia.~A. T. P.

INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

ravians have the same confession of faith as stuecke des christlichen Glaubens klar und the Lutherans." einfach ausgesprochen sind. Die Freiheit der " Gewissen unsrer Geschwister wird dadurch This is a very inaccurate and misleading in keiner Weise gebunden, insonderheit in statement. The official statement of the doc· solchen Laendern, wo die Augsburgische Kon· trine of the Brethren's or Moravian Church, fession nicht dieselbe Geltung hat, als in as determined by her General Synod, contains, Deutschland. ") among many other statements, this paragraph (freely "trausJated): "In common with all The peculiar position which the Moravian Christendom, the Moravian Church subscribes Church holds among the continental churches to the doctrines enunciated in the so-called makes it necessary for her to take some Apostles' Creed, and acknowledges further notice of the Augustana in order to retain her that in the 21 doctrinal articles of the Augs· legal standing and to carry on her work un· burg Confession the chief points of Christian trammelled. As a matter of fact the Moravian belief are clearly and simply defined. The Church technically has no "confession" of freedom of conscience of our memhers, how· her own, and binds herself to no confessioR of ever, is in no wise infiuenced by this state· any other church, while in all essential p<>ints ment, especially not in those countries where she agrees with the creeds of all Protestant the Augsburg COnfession is not of SO much Churches. She gladly co·operates with any importance, as in Germany." Results of the Protestant Church that will work with her. General Eiynod of 1889 : However, Moravians, as such, are in no sense of the word Lutherans, and Moravian mission (" Die Bruederkirche bekennt slch daher mit work has nothing whatsoever to do with the der gesammten Christenheit zu den im apo· Lutheran Church, although the Moravians stolischen Glaubensbekenntniose enthaltenen gladly and thankfully acknowledge that they Lehrsaetzen, und erkennt weiter, dasz in den have frequently received aid both from Ger· 21 Lehrartikeln der Augsburgischen Konfes· man and American Lutherans sion als dem ersten und allgemeinsten Be· kenntnis der evangelischen Kirche, die Haupt- PAUL DE ScHWEINITZ.

IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

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

The Kingdom of God in the Land of planet on which changes of most sig- its Origin. nificance in the tife of races of men, have, in recent years, taken place most [Condensed from an address of Rev. George rapidly, you must leave behind the F. Herrick, D. D., of Auatolia College and great cities of this land and of Europe, Marsovan Theological Seminary, at the 7th and pass over into Asia. Annual Meeting of the InternatIOnal Mission· ary Union, June 12, 1890.] I. GLANCE AT RECENT OTTOMAN mSTORY. Occidental life is proverbiaIlyrapid; Oriental life, we are all sure, is ex- Reference is not now made to tke ceedingly slow. We travel by ex- press a thousand miles a day. The restless and aspiring empire on the Asiatic still plods on horseback along ememe margin of Asia. I do not a bridle path, or, more recently, in assume to tell of India, where, accord- a springless wagon, over his twenty- ing to those best informed, the English four miles in twenty-four hours. He language has already become the lan- smokes his nargileh, and takes no note guage of all arms of the Government of time. He scratches the ground service, of travel, of all schools; the instead of plowing it; he threshes one vehicle of a progress whose silent his grain as his ancestors did 3,000 and bloodless revolutions are in happy years ago; he puts off his shoes contrast to the numberless revolutions and wears his hat when he enters a that have characterized the life of dwelling; he pulls a saw instead of India for thousands of years.

pushing it, he builds a city with mole I point to the fact that, twenty-nve tracks through it, and if he makes years ago, the Ottoman Empire posstreets at all, it is an after-thought, sessed a territory fully as large in and he burns out the needful spaces; Europe as in Asia, and almost equally by his watch it is always twelve o'clock as large in Africa. The dismember- when the sun sets. And with all this, ment of the empire in respect of terri- if you would find the portion of our tory and its depletion in respect of population, within a qnarter of a hopeful indication of possible entercentury, has been with a rapidity that prise seen in Turkey in modern times. would be startling if we could be Meantime Russia – that essentially startled with anything which is at Oriental Power illy domesticated as once distant and Oriental. yet in Europe-has played her game with singular fatuity in South-eastern Roumania and Servia are inde- Europe. There is no Power, great pendent kingdoms, Montenegro and or small, Slavic or Greek, German, Bulgaria are independent princedoms. French, Italian or English, that will Greeceis enriched by some of Turkey's consent to see Constantinople in the fairest provinces in Thessaly and control of Russia. We should not de- Epirus. Egypt is as much under spise those smaller States, anyone British control as India. Syria is of four can mass a trained army under European protection. England of a 100,000 men, and little Greece holds Cyprus, Austria dominates Her- can launch a fleet that would rival zegovina and Bosnia, Russia has ac- our own navy. But there is one quired Batoum, the most important Power, viz: Austro-Hungary, to which Black Sea port, and Kars, the key it is a question of life or death to keep fortress of Asia Minor. Russia out of Constantinople. The great northern Power may count on In place of 44,000,000 of pop- Austria's opposing her march southulation, the Ottoman Empire now ward and westward by the full force has about 23,000,000; the proportion of her army and her navy. It is of Moslems to Christians has greatly almost equally impossible for Russia changed. They were about equally to push far into Asia Minor on the divided; ?ww the Chritsian population east. She may take and hold Erzroom is but little more than one-fourth of easily enough. She may, perhaps, pass the entire number. Van and even Harpoot, where the Christian population is proportionally The seeming strength of Turkey large, and she may, if she will, push on during the years which followed the to the Euphrates, but she may not Crimean war was fictitious and de- pass on into the heart of Asia Minor. lusive. The semblance of prosperity There, from the Black Sea to the was kept up by immense loans at ruin- Arabian Desert, and from the Euphous rates. "Let the evil come when it rates to the Mediterranean, the Ottowill, so it be not in my day." So runs man people will live, and an Ottoman the Oriental proverb. Turkey was Power will rule for long years to come. rushing on to bankruptcy, at the very Nor is it easy, in the light of history, moment when she was constructing or on principles of justice, to see how an iron-clad fleet, and building palaces the Turks can be driven from Constanon every eligible site at and near Con- tinople, where they outnumber all stantinople. She did not build roads other races put together, or from nor develop her mines, nor undertake Adrianople, their ancient capital and commerce or manufactures, nor es- a Moslem City. tablish schools, except on paper. For two years after the commence- The record of the last disastrous war ment of the present Sultan's reign of twelve years ago is well known. Turkey exhibited the farce of Consti- Strangely enough, ever since then, the tutional Government, played at a policy of the Government of Turkey Parliament with representation from has been studiously cold toward Eng- the different races. But all this was, land, and friendly toward Russia. in the expressive language of one of the ablest mi.nisters our Government We must not fail to give the Turks ever had at the Sublime Porte-HoN. the credit of covering Asia Minor, within the last ten years, with a net work of carriage roads, built without the aid of foreign capital-the most Horace Maynard, "for EUl"opean con- and acknowledge the obligations of sumption." friendly European powers ?"

II.- TURKISH PATRIOISM. "That is all very well for you to There has, under the present Sultan, say," replied my friend, "but for us been a reaction against the liberal the problem is not to be solved in that ideas that prevailed during the years way."

following the Crimean war. Many "Do you mean to tell me," I asked good things can, with truth, be said of again, "that you would prefer to per- the reigning Sultan. He certainly de- ish, as an independent people, rather sires to secure justice and the welfare than owe your continued existence of all his subjects, but he is not a and your future prosperity, with what- liberal man, as we use the term. He ever that would necessarily imply of does not see that the traditions and European influence, to th,e aid of responsibilities of his House, with all Christian nations ?"

that these imply, constitute the load ,'Yes," he promptly answered,"that of lead which leaves him hopelessly is precisely what I-what all faithful weighted in the race with the rulers Mussulmans-mean."

of his age, even with the rulers of Can any true American fail to feel States which have been erected out of a thrill of responsive sympathy with what was just now his own domin- the patriotism, the devotion to ances- ions. If he would but cultivate a tral faith, which underlies that an- relation of real friendship toward swer? And does not such a spirit fur- Christian and especially Protestant nish a new incentive to bring the bless- and English-speaking' nations, the ings of our own civilization within Ottoman State might yet justify its the reach of every race in western place on' the arena of material, com- Asia-not to impatiently force a Chris- mercial, and even of intellectual and tianity, weighted with the gravest e),- moral progress, in western Asia. rors of teaching and of example, upon One chief reason why the Ottoman Moslem races, but, watchfully keep- Turks have been so greatly misunder- ing step with the unfoldings of God's stood and maligned is that we, of the providence, to exhibit before Moslem 'Vest, in defiance of a wise maxim, eyes, at all points, the winning graces none too often quoted, have never of truly Christian example?

taken the pains to see and consider We should never forget that when the Turkish problem from the stand- Islam rose, in the first half of the sev- point of the Turks themselves. Less enth century, it was confronted by, vituperation and wholesale, and really and was a protest against, some of the unjust, condemnation, and more con- most corrupt forms of Christian doc- siderateness would greatly benefit trine and worship, some of the worst every party in interest. caricatures of Christian living, in Some time since, in conversation Arabia and northern Africa, that the with an enlightened Turkish official, world has ever seen.

on the Bosphorus, I criticised the un- Those reckless raids from Europe wisdom of his government in deliber- into Asia, called, in bitter irony, "holy ately keeping foreign capital from en- wars," in the eleventh and following tering Turkey, to construct railroads centuries, violently repelled Moham- and develop her mineral resources. medans from Christianity. How could "But," he replied, "if foreign capital they do otherwise? The expulsion of be welcomed the interference of the Moors from Spain, early in the foreign powers must be accepted sixteenth century, under the greatly too." over-praised Queen Isabella-is any "What harm can it do to govern- 'right or justice discoverable in that ment or people," I asked, "to receive movement on the Christian side, ex- ,eept the right of might? The author worldly men; examples-that is, more read, some years ago, in Turkish, cer- . than 10,000 members of evangelical tain trenchant articles of historic cri- churches in Asia Minor now–of his- ticism, from the pen of an enlightened fellow country~en who are true, liv- and acute Turk, which presented a ing disciples of their master. Evan- long array of facts from the history of gelical worship attracts, it does not Christian Europe, in a fashion not repel the Moslem. Protestant Chris- likely to win Moslem minds to an ac- tian doctrine does not, like the bald eeptance of Christianity. "orthodoxy" of the Eastern Church, And not only in the earlier years, set his reason continually at defiance.

but all down through the later centu- We must not, however, suppose that l"ies, in all western Asia, the Moslem, the Turks officially recognize the right with his clear-cut doctrine of God, or contemplate the contingency of and his sharp recoil from every sem- Mohammedans becoming Christians.

blance of idolatry in worship, with his To this degree, religious liberty is not sobriety and his generous hospitality, yet a fact. Still, in the face of dif- has pointed, with a certain contempt, ficulty and opposition, scarcely con- to the Christians around him, as less ceivable by us, some Mohammedans sober, less truthful, less hospitable, have become Christians, have lived less manly than himself, with a form and died as shining examples of Chris- of religious worship redolent of idola- tian confessors as the early ages ex- try, while his own is simple and pure, hibited. To-day there is, in a town even if it be exposed to the charge of of Asia Minor, a young Turkishwoman lifeless formality. who witnesses a good confession in the We do not say the Moslems' charge house where she was born, enduring against Christil¥lity and Christians is repeated beatings and living down cal- true. Clearly it is not true, but it is umny by Christian gentleness-who not strange the charge is made. The told her Christian sisters, only in ans- vitality and the vigor of the. Christian wer to their inquiry one day in meet- races, their better morality, their men- ing, why her arm was in a sling, that tal and moral elasticity under centu- her brother's last beating broke it.

ries of oppression, is one of the marvels Once, in conversation with one ~f of God's government of Asia. Why the most liberal and best educated do the Christian races remain in kindly Turks of the present age, a man who neighborhood to the Moslem races, has, at one time or another, filled all through western Asia, but to be to nearly all the highest offices of the them in the coming years, the means ~tate, I referred to a well-known of the largest blessing? And who are case of religious persecution that had to be theagents, and what theagencies, recently occurred. He drew me up for which those races have silently sharp on the expression, "religious and sullenly waited for so many gen- persecution," and said, "No religious ,erations? persecution is possible under our Gov- m.-OUR GRAND OPPORTUNITY. ernment. A man's faith is his own, It was, in God's providence, com- between himself and God only, and mitted to American Christians, to re- Government cannot interfere with it."

~stablish vital Christianity in the land "What, then, shall we call the ~f its origin. Call it duty, call it high case?" I asked.

privilege, thEl responsibility, the un- "Why," he replied, "it is perfectly "dertaking, is ours, to put the Bible into plain. The man renounced his ances- Moslem hands and then set before his tral, the national, faith, in which he ~yes living examples of a true and a owes duties to the State. All right, so pure Christianity by which alone the far. But he has publicly avowed his Bible is illustrated to the conviction of renunciation, and declared himself a Christian. In so doing he has com- we that we should withstand God!" mitted a civil offence, and it is, for this The Church of Christ sends out her alone, that he is arrested and pnt un- challenge, "You can do nothi-.g der discipline." against the Truth but for the Truth !"

That is, being a Christian is all right Nearly sixty years ago the Turkish for a born Moslem, if only he will never Government demanded that those say he is above a whisper. pioneer missionaries, Goodell, Schauf- fler and Dwight, be sent out of the In the meantime, as the years have country. Our ambassador, Commo- passed, the Christian races have reo dorePorter, communicated the order. sponded, more and more widely, to evangelical influence. It has pene- "Do you order us to go ?" they asked: traLed all parts of the country. Ameri- "No, I only notify you of the de- can Christian philanthropy has, mand of the Government, and of my through the several departments of inability to protect you," the work, planted the Christian home, "Then we notify you that we de- the evangelical church, developed cide to stay," they replied. Christian education, created through Political events, which shook the the press a periodical and permanent throne and resulted in the destruction Christian literature in the several lan- of the Janizaries and the introductiou guages, begun to establish Christian of European forms of law, hastened philanthropic institutions, and every- on and the missionaries were forgot- where fostered, together with loyalty ten. During all that crisis, and up till to the' existing Government, ideas of the close of the Crimean war, the freedom and of justice. American cit- leading mind, the most imperial presizens have established institutions, an ence at the Turkish capital, was that extensive Bible-house, churches, high- Christian Statesman, Lord Stratford' schools, colleges and seminaries. They de Redcliffe, of England. have acquired property in a hundred As evangelical influence extended different places all over the country. among Armenians, Greeks and Syri- These business interests have become ans, the persecuted Protestants found the care of our Government through aid and comfort from the Turks, as its-official representatives. The power the Jews who rebuilt the temple found of the United States flag is second to aid and protection from Cyrus. none. The Turks have no reason for Twenty years ago, in the Koordislt jealousy of the great republic across mountains, above the city of Mosul, a the sea. Illiberal men, in the govern- young Arab Koord, a born Moslem. ment and out of it, are jealous of was dipping deep into Mohammedan evangelical progress, and wish it had lore, at the feet of a famous teacher, not gained so strong a foothold in the his total wardrobe, a shirt; his food, land. But many Turks see that ,they the coarse bread of the tribe; his bed, also may profit by those ideas that the ground. He committed the Koran Protestant Christianity everywhere to memory, he acquired a most involves and develops, viz: The su- thorough knowledge of' Arabic, of premacy of truth and justice, the in- Moslem law, tradition, history, sciviolability of the individual consci- ence, and interpretation. He found" ence, and individual and social edu- one day, the binding of an Arabic cation and elevation. Bible which had been destroyed. Afterwards, when a teacher at Mozul, IV.-DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. he sought, found, bought a Bible in Arabic, read and studied it, was in- The modern history of western Asia structed in it by Deacon Michah, as is a history of divine interpositions, Apollos by Aquilla, accepted Christi- These have been so accentuated, that anity as true, accepted Christ as his. men of the world, however highplaced, may well exclaim, "Who are Slaviour, was obliged to flee his part come, found him interested in anti- of the country, came to the Bible trans- quities, of which there are specially lators'room,in the.Constantinople Bible fine relics near where he had lived.

House, and aided in giving the Bible to In fine, we made ourselves as agree- the Ottoman race, a special aid very able as we knew how, not forgetting few men living could have given; to give His Excellency a cordial invi- found of God, led of God, and taken tation to visit our college and other home-to God when,the work was done. schools. "I was just about to mount Permission was asked to print the my horse to do that wnen you called,"

Biblein the Osmanly, and was refused. he said. "Ah, indeed," we replied, After long months of argument, of "then, our call and invitation are propositions and counter-propositions, quite opportune!" They were indeed.

the Board of Censors unwittingly did Thus forewarned, all was in readi- the greatest possible service to the ness at the college to receive the Gov- spread of God's Word, by condition- ernor with all respect. We showed ing the permission on the placing of him all through the buildings; he ex- the statement of the fact of Govern- amined classes, asked to see our text- ment permission on the title-page of books. Among our books he found every copy; and the time when the one of his own composition, and, nat- final version was launched was fixed urally, was not displeased with the by the Author of the Word Himself. It delicate compliment. He visited the was just as the last war closed, just as girls' boarding-school, enjoyed the the last sharp crisis of the Eastern choral singing, and, as he mounted question was attracting all eyes, that his horse at my door, he leaned over, God, by his Word, in the language of and said, "I have been greatly pleased all the people, sent forth His challenge with all I have seen; you may rely on to the Cabinets of Europe, set His wis- me for a report every way favorable.

dom face to face with their folly. And I wish we had such schools in every between that time and this, inquiry city."

concerning the Bible has become as And he meant what he said, as after common among TUl:ks, as before it echoes clearly showed. God's special was rare. They inquire from curiosity, guidance was conspicuous at every it may be, but many do buy and read point of this incident.

God's Word. V.-THE OPPORTUNITY MET.

Four years ago, just as Anatolia The evangelical centres in Turkey College was organized under that now number more than 300. These name, a demand was made through are the centres of influence, extending the local government that we procure from the extreme western border to· from the central government at Con- the farthest east, and from the Black stantinople a formal recognition of Sea to the Arabian desert. The in- our college. Meantime, one morning fluence of the evangelical press is the we learned that the Governor-General leading influence in the department of had come to town over night. We literature. The newly established, hastened to call upon His Excellency, and rapidly growing girls' boarding and invite him to visit our schools- schools, have already revolutionized all the difference in the world from the country in respect of female ectu- which side the invitation comes. In cation.

the court-yard of the house where the But there, as everywhere, the col- governor was entertained were horses, lege is the leader; and Robert College saddled and ready for mounting. We on the Bosphorns, and Syria Protest- were received in audience, praised the ant College at Beirout, and Euphra- public-spirit he had shown in the tes College at Harpoot, and Central province from which he had recently Turkey College at Aintab; and now. the last four years, Anatolia College at guiding all in the interest of His Jllarsovan, in the heart of Anatolia- church, is, by our hands, re-estab- these are the challenges of Christian lishing His Kingdom in the lands of America to the darkness of Asia. Its origin.

Once the comparative importance of The work will not stop for discus- educational and evangelistic agencies sion and criticism. The army of God was a subject of animated discussion will march right onward, and with in missions and missionary societies, accelerated step; and the legacy we .and among the churches of this coun- will commit to those who come after try and of Great Britain. This dis- us will be to hand on our Lord's com- -cussion is a thing of the past. Edu- mission, "Go, make disciples of all the cational work, as represented and led nations," and the testimony and as- by Christian colleges–colleges in- surance we will offer to the diffident tensely Christian and Biblical-is shall be, that the Master ever fulfills His promise to be with His chosen, pressed, and to be pressed to the ut- amid all toil and conflict. Great will most possible-that is, just as far as be the multitude, who, with no alloy resource.9 can be obtained with which of sin, will chant the Hallelujahs of to carry on the work. On this all are the heavenly choir. . agreed. There is no consensus of The Brussels Anti-Slavery Oonference. those interested in the evangelization -of the world which is more perfect; The Christian world has occasion to .and the economy of administration of rejoice in the late Brussels Conference these institutions may be shown by the of signatory Congo powers, and to statement that the actual sum used to carefully study its proceedings. Per- run Anatolia College is one per cent. haps it is not too late-it is rather ·of the cost of running Yale or Cornell doubtful if it may not be too early-to University. The American Christian pass in review what it did. College-these three words are used .advisedly-The American Christian King Leopold of Belgium was the college is the hope and light of Asia. official source of the Convention; but This institution, with its Biblical in- delegates from Great Britain, Austriastruction, with its thorough culture, Hungary, Belgiuin, Congo Free State, with its pervasive Christian spirit, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, with its development of manly, self- Italy, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Spain, reliant Christian character; this in- Sweden and Norway, Turkey, the stitution, in which the preachers and United States and Zanzibar, were the teachers are prepared for their present. work, in which men of affairs are trained for the responsibilities that are The object of the Conference was coming upon them in all eastern lands plainly as possible stated in the circuin this fl.nd the next generation: this lar of invitation issued by Leopold, American Christian college is the which was "the necessity of effectively pledge of a Christian home, of a per- preventing the slave-trade in the inmanent and self-propagating church, terior of Africa, the capture of slaves of all true progress and harmony of destined for sale, and their transport races, of the gradual realization of by sea, which can Qnly be stopped by free and just government in those the organized display of force greater lands of Asia, for ages and centuries than that at the disposal of those who oppressed and groping amid the dark- take part " in the traffic. ness which has enveloped them. This was not the first Convention of Seen or unseen by our eyes, God, the great Powers held to consider the by His Word in every language, by main question. What is known as the Christian example, by education, Berlin General Act had already pro- vided that "All the Powers exercising rights of sovereignty, or any influence 6, ThQ Liquor traffic. 7, General Proin the territories in question,undertake visions, and 8, The Custom's regulato watch over the preservation of the tions of the Congo Valley. native races, and the improvement of their moral and material conditions THE SLAVE TRAFFIC. of existence, and to co-operate in the suppression of Slavery, and especially 1. The maritime trade in slaves was in the negro traffic; they will protect first considered as the part where and favor, without distinction of na- united action could be made most ef-· tionalities or worship, all religious fective if agreement could be come to. The sensitive point here was on the· scientific or charitable institutions and "right of search," whether on the high seas, or in territorial waters, over all undertakings, created and organized sailing vessels,under any Hag, suspect-· ed of being engaged in the slave-trade. for this object or tending to instruct France was specially sensitive on this· point. She, after a month, suggested the natives and make them under- a series of new measures for the pre- vention of the abuse of the French stand and appreciate the advantages Hag, and for checking the crew and passenger-lists at places of departure, of civilization." call and destination. The British government proposed a compromise, It had been fUrther provided that, subjecting only vessels of 500 tons, and under, to the right of supervision and "In accordance with the principles of detention on the high seas, which was agreed to, unless slavers of over 500 the law of nations as recognized by tons shall hereafter be discovered.

the signatory Powers, the slave-trade 2. The suppression of the foreign market was also a delicate and difficult being forbidden, and the operation part of the general question. It is the existence of slavery in foreign counwhich on land and on sea furnish tries which keeps alive the maritime traffic. Abolish that in countries outslaves for the traffic also being consid- side of Africa and the motive for the slave traffic on the high seas is extinered as forbidden, the Powers which guished. The eastern market for exercise, or shall exercise, rights of slaves must be broken down, as a part sovereignty or any influence in the of the general plan to destroy the territories forming the conventional African traffic in slaves. basin of the Congo, declare that these territories cannot serve either as a It is readily seen that this touched market or as a means of transit of most delicate lines of diplomatic slaves, of whatsoever race they may courtesy. Had Turkey been invited be. Each of these Powers undertakes to this general council, to learn that to employ all the means in its power the combined European Powers would to put an end to this traffic and to interfere here and thus with her terpunish those who take part in it." ritorial authority ? Was anyone of these Powers to find in this Congress a It was, however, recognized that dictator domineering its independence as a State? This was, indeed, a delithese most excellent provisions and cate matter. The Conference could do no less, however, than deprecate the understandings were too inoperative, influence of such domestic slavery, and it thus brought the force of Euroand the British House of Commons, in pean public opinion to bear directly March 1889, said so. In August of that year the Queen of Great Britain said in her speech that the King of Belgium had consented to call the Conference of which we now write, and it convened in Brussels November 18,1889.

The three great topics which it traversed were the slave-traffic and the means to suppress it, the importa- tion of fire-arms and the liquor traffic.

The chapters of the work as completed deal with-1, Places of capture of Slaves. 2, The Caravan routes. 3, The Maritime traffic in slaves. 4, The Countries of destination. 5, Institu- tions created for the purpose of insur- ing the execution of the general act.

THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

()n Turkey and Persia in the matter l.-The territory to be regulated ()f slavery in those lands. The rash- in the matter of fire-arms extends n€ss of this influence is manifest. through 42 degrees of latitude (from 20 degrees north to 22 degrees south), An effort was made to provide for from coast to coast, and a hundred the regulations of caravans for the miles seaward. prevention of slave-trading expeditions. It was sought to exact security 2.-The principle of prohibition is from the chiefs and organizers of laid down, with exceptions. The ~aravans, and for the examination of arms are to be deposited in Govern- ~aravans at their places of destination ment warehouses and taken out only inland, as well as on the coast. No se- on permission, and are not to include curity from caravan organizers, how- the most improved weapons. €ver, was feasible, as these caravans seldom return to their starting points THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. with the same elements. They are renewed from place to place among the If the rights of humanity are to be tribes they pass, remain long at the conciliated with the interests of trade, ~entre, and return to the coast at dif- so far as such interests are legitimate, ferent points. The security, how- as the Conference proposed to attempt, ever, it was agreed, is to be demanded the liquor question had to be dealt ()f those who had already been con- with. The Conference distinguished demned for slave-trade.offenses. between regions where no traffic in liquors had begun and those where it FIRE-ARMS. already existed. For the first of these, the British delegates proposed absolute But slavery was only one feature of prohibition, and for the second, a the great task to which the Powers heavy duty on the importation of had pledged themselves to each other, liquor. The Conference agreed to the when they undertook "to watch over prohibition in the cage of races with the preservation of the native races, whom at present no trade exists; but and the improvement of their moral it was not so easy to reach a concluand material conditions." sion on the other cases. The powers had themselves agreed to Free Trade in From 80,000 to 100,000 muskets and the Congo Basin; how could they then rifles, mainly the disused arms of Eu- now agree to a duty on liquor in that ropean standing armies, are imported districr, and yet, how could they keep annually into Zanzibar alone, and this great channel into the interior of these fire-arms are bartered to Arab Africa from becoming contaminated traders for ivory and other inland with the liquor traffic, unless they products. If the negro is to be pro- prohibited or restricted by the impotected from the slave hunter this slave sition of a duty? The races of the hunter must be disarmed. That was second class, or those among whom a the argument. But there are great traffic in liquors is already established, trade interests which require arms it was agreed that there should be al!l for their conduct and defence. France impost of l~d. or 3 cents per quart, here, was zealous for total prohibition this duty to be subject to advance at throughout Africa. Others would the expiration of three years. limit the territory. Two things seem to have been decided upon: V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

BY SECRETARY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.

Brazil. to a republican form of government The year 1890 is the most eventful without bloodshed, renders it proper of all years in Brazilian history. The that the November concert of prayer fact that an empire has given place for Brazil should be largely an occasion for thanksgiving. Civil liberty is fol- standpoint. Whoever will examine lowed as it always has been by liberty our constitution will there read that ()f conscience. There is now perfect the Apostolic Roman Catholic religion ~ualityofreligious privileges among is the religion of the State; that the Emperor, Senators, Deputies, and all all sects. the public officers, are obliged by pub- The following outline of the pro- lic and solemn oath to maintain and defend it, and that the criminal code clamation of religious freedom issued establishes punishments for any of- after the establishment of repub- fence against it.

lican order will show how completely " A people that, by its fundamental the new authorities have overthrown law, gives special privileges to Roman the assumptions of the Papacy. Catholicism, and seeks by oath to "The text of a decree of the Provisional . guarantee it; that requires its profes- Government of the United States of Brazil of .January 7, 1890, states in substance: sion as a condition of holding office; 1. That Federal and State authorities alike that considers penal all offences against it, ought to be regarded as profoundly religious, eminently Cathare prohibited to expedite laws, regulations, olic. But an observer, looking only or administrative acts establishingor prohibit- at our political Constitution and penal ing any religion, or to create distinctions code, would infer that Brazil is a dis- between inhabitantsof that country on account sonant chord in the infernal chorus of ofreligious and philosophicbeliefsor opinions. imprecations against the Catholic 2. That all religious denominations have Church.

equal rights ~o liberty of worship, and to gov- "But," continues the writer, "let .em themselves in accordance with their us look on the other side of the picture.

respective creeds without being constrained in Whoever reads the history Qf Brazil the acts, private or public, which pertain to in these latter times will learn that the the exercise of this right. Government destroyed, by an edict, 3. The liberty hereby instituted shall em- the religious orders, J?rohibiting the brace not only individuals in their personal receiving of any nOVItiates; that no .acts, but also churches, associations, and insti- country pays such insignificant sal- tutes in which they may be Joined; to all of aries to its church officials; that two which belongs the right to organize and main- bishops were shamefully imprisoned tain their corporate existence in conformity for observing faithfully the Pontifical with their creeds and policy, without the Bull; that the priests are hindered on interference of the Government. every hand in the fulfillment of their duties; that any act directed against 4. That patronage with all its Institutions the Church is applauded; that a .and prerogatives is hereby abolished. bishop, respected even in Protestant countries, here has not the privileges 5. That the legal capacity of churches and of the most humble citizen. As to religious denominations to acquire and admin- the churches, some are already fallister property is recoguized within the limit ing into ruin, while others are comof the laws concerning mortmain, securing pletely stripped of their parapherto each their possession of their present nalia." properties, as well as their houses of worship. The writer goes on to show that the Over against this full and complete guaranty of freedom, the following attitude of the press is no more favorquotation from a Brazilian Catholic paper of ten years ago will show what able to the Church than the Governthe ideal empire was supposed to be in those bygone days. It is a jere- ment. With the exception of five or miad uttered by a bigoted Catholic editor over the inroads which had al- six Catholic papers in the whole em- Ieady been made upon the old regime • f intolerance and oppression, even pire (there is the difficulty) the press under the mild and progressive sceptre of Dom Pedro II. of the country is either indifferent or . "What is the religion of the Brazilian people?" says the writer. openly hostile to the Apostolic Roman " At present, this country (Brazil) is Catholic Church• in an abnormal and contradictory Yet, bad as the case seems for the Catholic, the writer spurns the idea that Brazil is, or is to be, a Protestant country. "Here and there a Protest- ant Church, frequented by a few dozen souls, is all that we see of Pro- position, viewed from a religious testantism. It is clear that with such a state of affairs soon there will be no ernment. This fact doubtless pre- religion at all in Brazil." vented Brazil from becoming a repub- Well, the evil has not mended, as lic during that series of revolutions in seen from the writer's standpoint, and the Spanish States of Central and to an enlightened American reader it South America which followed as a seems that just such specimens of result of Napoleon's usurpation of narrow bigotry as this must have power in th(l Spanish Peninsula.

been the very means of bringing about The home revolution, which oc- the fulfillment of all dark prophe- curred in Portugal in 1820, led the cyings. people of Brazil to demand a govern- More than-was predicted has been ment quite distinct from that of the fulfilled. Doubtless, it is in the mother country, and in 1822 it was power of the priesthood to obstruct declared an independent sovereignty, the extension of Protestant freedom under the heir-apparent, Dom Pedro L and enlightenment to a greater or less A year later the Portuguese court em- extent, but the civil authorities are on barked for Portugal, no more to re- the side of equality, the press willcast turn, and in 1825 Dom John formally its influence in the same direction, abdicated in favor of Dom Pedro I., and the whole spirit and drift of the and the independence of Brazil was age are against the hierarchical as- acknowledged by Portugal.

sumptions which have so long cursed In 1831, Dom Pedro I., alarmed by the country. another movement toward republi- Now that Brazil has joined the large canism, as he thought, abdicated in group of American republics, with favor of his son, Dom Pedro IL, then all the religious freedom enjoyed by five years old, and embarked for the most highly favored, a glance at Europe. Some injudicious republican its eventful history will be in place. agitations which occurred during the The country was discovered in 1499 regency prepared the country for an- by the Spaniard, Vincent Yonez Pin- other trial of monarchy, and on the con, though it was first settled by the 23d of July, 1840, Dom Pedro II. was Portuguese under Alvarez Cabral in proclaimed emperor.

1500. Other small Portuguese settle- This remarkable man, thus pro- ments were made between 1500 and claimed the sovereign of a vast empire 1550. of 3,288,000 square miles, or nearly as Rio de Janeiro was settled in 1558 large as Europe, doubtless owed his by the French as an asylum and a long reIgn to the enlightened and mission field for the Huguenots. By liberal policy which he was wise the adverse influences of shipwreck enough to adopt.

and the treachery of Villegagnon, the While the Spanish-American repub- leader of the colony, it was utterly lics were tossed with political convul- broken up, and Protestantism, as well sions, Mexico alone having experienced as French influence, was swept out of over fifty between the years 1821 and the country. 1867, Brazil, with quite as much real Brazil came under the power of political freedom as they, held on her Spain in 1578 by the assumption of peaceful way. Dom Pedro became em.

the crown of Portugal, but was re- peror at the age of fourteen, and con.

stored in 1648 on the accession of the tinued to reign for nearly fifty years.

Braganzas to the Portuguese throne. Few sovereigns have been able to In 1807, upon the invasion of Portu- maintain a sceptre so long in the gal by Napoleon's army, King Dom midst of a mercurial people, and sur· John VI., appointing a regent at Lis- rounded on every side by nations with bon, fled to Brazil and established which revolution seemed to be the- there the seat of the Portuguese Gov- normal condition of political existence._ But in late years the more advanced priesthood has so long been associated of the Spanish republics have attained with habits of profligacy and vice. and to greater stability; the increase of the hollow sham of mere official sancwealth, and the multiplication of tity, that the intelligent classes have manufacturing and commercial il;l- become infidel, while every form of vestments have rendered the ruling error-8piritualism, Theosophy, Nihilclasses more conservative, and their ism, and even Mohammedanismrapid and prosperous development have been imported; and a paralysis has spurred the aspirations of Bra- of general indifference has settled upzilians for complete freedom. At the on the country. same time, the gloomy outlook. of a possible reaction toward It tyranni- Yet, there are not wanting many incal absolutism under the probable stances of encouragement, especially successors to Dom Pedro's throne, led in the country districts, where the in- Brazilian statesmen to the conclusion fluence of foreign contact has been that the opportune moment had al- little felt. In the last reports of the ready come for a Republic. Brazilian Mission of the Presbyterian Board (North). there is evidence that The world was, therefore, suddenly the most fruitful source of results is startled by a peaceful revolution, the native ministry. The chief inwhich had been precipitated in the gatherings of converts into the quiet evening of Dom Pedro's reign. churches during the last year were in rather than wait for the dubious congregations ministered to by native morning of a bigoted and impracti- pastors. And the argument thus furcable sovereignty in the hands of his nished for the education of young nafanatical daughter. tives for this important field is strong and significant. Thus, under the pressure of an irrepressible longing for liberty, on the The Northern Presbyterian Mission part of the people, there have been reports at the close of 1889, 9 churches three notable embarkations of royalty and 5 ordained missionaries, -8 nativQ for Europe. First, in 1825, when Dom preachers and 22 teachers. The num- John VI. acknowledged the indepen- ber of communicants is 1,009-153, or dence of the Brazilian Monarchy under about 11 per cent., having been added his son, Dom Pedro 1. Second, in 1831, during the year. when Dom Pedro I., alarmed at the appearance of republican tendencies, The great educational centre of this abdicated in favor of his five-year old mission is at Sao Paulo, where 395 puson, Dom Pedro II., and, with what pils of all grades are under instruction. seems a cowardly desertion, left him Under the efficient management of alone and returned to Europe. And, Dr. Lane and his associates a noble last of all, when Dom Pedro, nearly work has been accomplished during 60 years later, was obliged to renounce the year. Dr. Chamberlain, who has a sceptre which he had swayed with labored in connection with the Sao rare moderation for half a century, Paulo institution for many years, is and sail away an exile to the land of now in this country raising funds his fathers, to find there so soon a to endow it as a college for the traingrave for his empress as well as for ing of native ministers and teachers. his life-long hopes. The success gained by the few native pastors during the year is too instruc- Brazil enjoys now perfect freedom tive to need enforcement. of opinion, but it is rather late to reap the harvest which might have been A NATIVE MINISTRY. gained years ago. Other things being equal, a native The cause of religion has so long preacher familiar with the idiom of suffered discredit, the idea of the his mother-tongue, and at one with the people in all his habits of thought, can reach his countrymen far more ons mission in the Argentine republic, effectively than a foreigner. Besides, at with five ordained missionaries and least three natives can be supported as 15 native preachers. Eight stations cheaplyas one missionary. If we add are occupied,.of which Buenos Ayres to this, the fact shown in the Brazilian is the chief. I reports, that four-fifths of the con- In Uruguay there is but 1 ordained verts have been won in the out-stations missionary, but 8 native preachers are under native preachprs, we have a at work; 7 stations are occupied, the pretty strong argument for the educa- largest of which is Montevideo.

tion of more Brazilians and for the Paraguay, Brazil and Peru are also building up of a strong and efficient occupied by the Methodist Episcopal college and theological seminary. Church, each with OIie station. In While at Sao Paulo a given number all these South American missions, a of men shall be trained for the first total membership of 882 is reported, rank of preachers and leaders, it is also 688 probationers. The total num- felt that an institution of a different ber of adherents is reported at 8,935.

grade and, perhaps, having something The missions are apparently charac- of the industrial element, should be terized by remarkable vigor, and all opened for the practical preparation friends of the cause will rejoice that of a clsss of men of lower grade of an influence so directly opposite to the scholarship to be employed in evangel- droning and stagnation of the Rom- istic work in the interior districts. ish church for nearly three centuries Probably this diversity of education past is now awakening these south- should be observed in all the South ern races.

American republics. The enterprise with which the mis- The old order of things is every- sions are carried on is shown by the where passing away. The days when fact that the mission reports $222,290 ignorance was the safe cover for in church property-viz: in churches, religious oppression have gone. Under $190,290, and in parsonages and or- the new impulse imparted by republi- phanages, $32,800, can institutions, schools and colleges The contributions reported in the will be multiplied by Government, and missions in 1889-90 are reported at they will be indifferent in religion ex- $11,205 for self-support, and $13,666 cept so far as they are infidel. for other purposes-a total of $24,871.

The Roman Catholic Church, by a Of conversions 89 were reported, and radical and politic change, will either 335 baptisms of infants. These vigor- compete on the ground, or will im_ ous missions are represented by only port well educated 'priests from Eu- 6 ordained missionaries. " . rope, and Protestantism must not be THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH open to contempt as the repreSenta- (SOUTH).

tive of an ignorant ministry. Some Missions in Brazil begun in 1875. The men must be well prepared, others first Conference was held in 1887, at must not be out of relation and sym- Sao Paulo. There are 7 local preach- pathy with the rural masses-all ers, and 288 church members. Eleven should be filled with a devoted.spirit. Sunday-schools with 33 teachers OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONS. and 339 pupils are reported. Three Of the flourishing mission of the church buildings at Rio, Piracicaba Southern Presbyterian Church in Bra- and Juiz de Fora are valued at $52,938.

zil and the missions of the Northern Contributions dur-ing the year amount- Presbyterian Church in U.S. Columbia ed to $2,221. Bishop Granberry's re- and Chili, there is not space to write port credits the Woman's Missionary in the present article. The Methodist Society for all the educational insti- Episcopal Church (North) has a vigor- tutions of the mission, viz•• 2 colleges,

EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS

with'4 missionary teachers, and 13 as- the inhospitable shores of Terra del sistants and 143 pupils. Fuego, grew the South American Mission. His heroism roused all the MORAVIAN MISSION IN SURINAM, DUTCH best manhood, as well as the most de- voted Christian sentimentof England. GUIANA. It was resolved that, by the grace of God, so noble an attempt should not In this interesting Mission 17 sta- fail. It was another of the many in- tions are reported with 71 "mission- stances in which sacrifice and death ary agents," and 377 native helpers. have brought forth more abundant The communicants are 8,313, baptized fruit than a long and laborious life adults, 7,408; baptized children, 8,901; could have accomplished. By the re- candidates, new people, etc., 1,640. port of 1888, the South American S0- Total, 26,262. The missions carried on ciety received contributions, amount- by all Protestant societies in the three ing, with legacies, to $70,000. They Guianas are all attended by peculiar came generally in the form of indivi- hardships. These hot and malarious dual gifts. and from every land in countries have been settled from time which Englishmen wide. to time by the captives rescued from slave-ships. In fact, they were, in It will be remembered that the the early days, regarded as rendezvous late Charles Darwin, after actually for all refuse and castaway classes of seeing the work done in Terra ael humanity, and the population consists Fuego, became a supporter of the S0- -of colonies of English, Dutch, French, ciety. and Spanish, with every cross and grade, with bush-~egroes (the larger The work takes on a wide variety. -class), Indians and Asiatic Coolies. It is directed largely to the Indians in Terra del Fuego, Patagonia, and Para- The susceptible and half-savage guay, but also to chaplaincies in the bush-Negro, on the banks of the low ports and for the seamen of all nations. .and marshy rivers, affords the hope- It embraces the Falkland Islands, ful, because fruitful, field of labor for Terra del Fuego, Wollaston Islands, 1he self-denying Moravian. the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Chili. Of almost equal interest with the mission in Surinam, is that of the Mo- The Earl of Aberdeen is its presiravians on the Mosquitoe Coast. It dent, and many eminent names of reports 12 missionaries, and 490 com- England, both clerical and lay, are municants. among its vice-presidents. It has 1 field superintendent, 29 clergymen, THE SOUTH AMERICAN MISSION. and 5 native helpers.

The romance of missions will not' The annual reports of the society, esdie out till the name of Allen Gardner pecially those relating to work among shall' be fotgotten. Out of the melan- the Indians, are deeply interesting. choly circumstance of his death with that of six associates, from starvation, while trying to found a mission on VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

.Important Official Documents From from Downing Street, London, under Sierra Leone, West Africa. date of August 28, 1890. We have not space to give the documents entire, The Editors of this REVIEW have but quote the main facts which conbeen both surprised and shocked to cern the Christian public, and espereceive a copy of sundry official com- cially all the friends of missions. One munications "relating to some Ameri- of these documents is from Dr. Ross, ('an missionaries who have latelyar- Colonial Surgeon at Freetown, and rived" at Freetown, specially directed another from Sir J. G. Hay, Governor to us by order of Lord Kuntsford of Sierra Leone, transmitting Dr. Furthermore Dr. Ross states that he understands these "missionaries. Ross's lengthy report to Lord Kunts- intend going due east into the interior, guided only by a compass;" that they ford, of the home Government, Lon- have been "living as the natives, in the hope that by so doing they will don, and one from him through his sec- gain the confidence of the people;" that they "have been eating native· retary, transmitting the whole corres- food, cooking and washing for them- selves and even collecting their own pondence to the editors of the MISSION- fuel, in this rainy weather." Of course· that they should expose themselves to ARY REVIEW, calling special attention fatal fever and should actually court death by such manner of proceeding to their contents, and "to a notice, is not strange.

headed the 'Soudan Missionary Move- Such is the purport of the commu- ment,' which appeared at page 555, of nications referred to; and the Editors of this REVIEW feel compelled to say the REVIEW for July, 1890." in this connection, that up to this time These documents inform us that sun- they had never had the least intima- dry "American missionaries .have lately arrived at Freetown with a tion that this "Soudan Movement" view of proceeding due east into the was characterized by any such fanat- interior for evangelizing purposes;" that "three of their number have al- icism. We felt that, like other move- ready died," and that "the first inti- ments originating among well meali- mation Dr. Ross had of their being ill was by receipt of a letter ing but inexperienced persons who from Mr. Kingman, reporting that are young in years, it needed a head, two deaths had occurred in the 'Mis- wise counsel and sound discretion. sion House' that afternoon," (July 9th). Even now we see no reason to recall a.. "On Inquiry," continues Dr. Ross, "I gathered that no medical man had word of commendation of the singubeen asked to attend the deceased, the lar unselfishness and heroic consecrawhole party being staunch believers in the 'faith-healing' doctrine, nor had tion that appear to have marked these any medicine been taken." Further- pioneers, but we confess to being asmore Dr. Ross "remonstrated with tounded at the statementscontained in Mr. Helmick, another member of the this correspondence. Itis a sad affair, p~rty," but could not obtain from little less than wanton suicide. To him any satisfactory promise that they persist in such a policy would not would in future depart from the course they were adopting, nor did he only ruin this whole movement but' mention that there were any more inflict a lasting damage onall missionpersons suffering in the house. To ary enterprises and compel sensible prevent this. neglected tropical fever from assuming a virulent and con- people to wash their hands clean of tagious form, the bodies were at once buried by his order and the sanitary all abetting such supreme folly and policeman sent to disinfect the house, practical madness. Certainly the destroy all infected bedding, clothing, editors of the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF etc. On the 10th of July Mrs. King- THE WORLD, have not the slightest man was found in the last stages of exhaustion from neglected fever, sympathy with such disregard of all which had then assumed a malignant proper precautions, not to say defiance type, she having been ill nine days before; and in spite of all that could be of all sanitary and social laws. done Mrs. Kingman died on the even- From the inception of this moveing of the 11th.' "Mr. Kingman was ill also and visited by Dr. Ross, who ment we have said to these western strongly urged him to take medicine. Finding Mr. Trice ill, Dr. Ross re- brethren, "move slowly; gel compemoved him to the hospital, and at last tent medical advisers, and experienced prevailed on Mr. Kingman to be treated, on the ground that his "action explorers, .that you may not risk endangered the whole coummunity." health and life by needless exposure." Dr. Ross felt "compelled to keep the God not only gives a "spirit of power missionaries from going into any other house than their own, and stopped and of love, but of a 80und mind 1'" all communication with other white poeple." We repeat the advice. Call a halt! their own lives dear unto themselves, bui and let it be fully understood that no have obediently gone forth to proclaim the man or woman goes to Tropical Africa joyful Message. to throwaway life on a theory, and -endanger the lives of others by pro- "Our beloved friends believed that nothing moting infectious disease. was too precious for their Saviour, and have made the supreme offering of their lives, and, A. T. PIERSON. standing to-day, where we may again see the J. M. SHERWOOD. broken body of the Christ and hear His words 'As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I On receiving these communications you, ' we are confident that there are -many the Editors felt bound to transmit a who will gladly offer themselves and take the (lOPY to the brethern in Kansas, who place of these messengers who have been are more closely connected with this called home, and, by His grace, plant the ban- movement, expressing also our sorrow ner of the Cross in -darkest Africa. -and apprehension as to the disastrous effect of such a course as that pursued "Asking that continual prayermay be made in Africa, not only upon this, but all to our Lord so that indeed He may speedily other mission enterprises. We have a send His messengers to the uttermost parts of reply from Geo. S. Fisher, Esq., dis- the world, I am, claiming all responsibility for these peculiar views, and saying that these "In the hope of His coming, sincerely thine, pioneers had no such views when they "GEORGE S. FISHER." left the west, but on their way a certain well known advocate of " faith heal- The National Missionary Convention ing" in New York City got hold of them and infused into them his views which met at Indianapolis Septem- <If the subject. We mention this in ber 3d to 9th, inclusive, was, in some ·order to attach responsibility to those respects, a remarkable gathering; not -to whom it 'belongs; and that responsi- in point of numbers, for but a few hundred visitors were there, and resibility, in our judgment, is a very grave dents of _the town were largely kept out of the city by the excessive heat. <lne. But there were signs of the Holy In response to our inquiry, Mr. Spirit's presence and power. Mr. Robert E. Speer, traveling secretary Fisher sends us also the following more of the Students' Volunteer Movement, -cheerful news concerning the surviv- and GeorgeS. Fisher, Esq., of Kansas, as well as Augustus Nash, of Neors.-3. M. S. braska, and Rev. T. C. Horton, of St. Paul, were among the leading spirits. "Ourvery latest Information is to the effect that, Mr. Kingman and Mr. Trice, the colored After watching the Convention with man, have both recovered, and that the others a careful eye, and noting the addresses have had no sickness whatever. They are now made and the tone of general feeling, waiting until the arrangements can be ef- we were constrained to acknowledge :fected so that they can leave Freetown, cross that there were signs of a Higher the Kong Mountains, and enter upon their Hand than man's in the whole miswork, if the Lord will, and enter among the sionary movement of which this is one Mandingo tribes." expression.

Also the following, which we read The band of intending missionaries with many "falling tears:" that we found there, were nearly all young-under thirty years. Moved "The enclosed letter is sent out with some by the awful destitution of a hundred :faIling of tears, but with much peace of heart, millions who, in Africa, are utterly for none who are conversant with the history without the Gospel, they have felt of the spreading of the Gospel in the dark more needed there than here, and have lands, will be surprised orcast down by reason practically offered thelllseives to go ~f these words: abroad to the Regions Beyond-most of them to the Soudan, some to China "'Except a corn of wheat fall into the and other lands of the Orient. No ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it <iie, it bringeth forth much fruit.' This scripture has indeed been fulfilled many times in the history of the early church, among the lllartyrs, and those who have not counted doubt there is some zeal that needs to so that this snall be a gift to the be tempered with knowledge-no Lord's cause for His servants' use doubt a good deal of imprudence that when at home for a season to gather experience will correct and chasten. new strength for further toils. Dr. A.

There is excess of enthusiasm that J. Gordon, of Boston; D. L. Moody, should be restrained, and impulsive Esq., S. P. Harbison, of Pittsburgh; activity that must be wisely guarded. Dr. Munhall, and a few others, will But there seems to be also a passion for be asked to act as counsellors in the souls, a self-surrender to God's work, completion of the plan; and it is not a certain abandon of confidence in his designed to ask any help from a~yone Word and guidance, that we would but leave to those of ~he Lord's people gladly feel were more general in dis- who may feel so inclined to assist in ciples of more mature years. We rearing the cottages. The ground is· should say that not less than fifty already paid for, mostly by one indi- young men and women were present, vidual; and already unsolicited con- whose faces are set toward the deso- tributions have been made to the ex- late regions of the earth, and who are tent of $650. Any who are so disPosed only waiting for the door to open. may send contributions to the editors of There were present several of these this REVIEW and they will be promptly young men who have been traveling acknowledged. Ultimately, after the through the States, mainly o( the cottages are built, a report of the work West, presenting the needs of the per- will be printed and sent to the par- ishing millions, and urging consecra- ties contributing, with pictures of the tion of men and of money to supply houses erected. A. T. P.

their need of the Gospel. These "trav- A Remonstranoe that Should be Heard. elling secretaries" have gone like primitive disciples, carrying nothing "Pardon me, if I seem presump- in their purses, and their unanimous tuous, but do you think the' Presby- testimony was that they ~ave lacked terian Church is moving in the right nothing. Some who heard them wit- direction in its efforts to remove the ness, publicly confessed that, though heavy indebtedness of the two Boards? they had been prejudiced against the Does it not seem that a curse, rather movement, they felt constrained to than a blessing, will follow one form say this is the Finger of GOd. A. T. P. adopted, viz. : cutting down the meagre' salarie.s of our missionaries, and leav- The Home Rest for Missianaries at ing them with no escape from this. Northfield, Mass. iron rule? Is not this 'muzzling the ox which treadeth out the corn?' I By a strange fatality a part of our do not know when anything has so editorial note on this topic in our last burdened me as this mismanagem!'nt issue was left out. We said further on the part of the Assembly. Surely, that these 15 acres of land are to be some better plan could have been laid out in a sort of park, to be named adopted there. This is something like Livingstone Park, in honor of. David 'making bricks without straw.' Livingstone, and it is proposed to erect a few economical and conven- "In my own mind it is clear that ient cottages on these grounds, to be this great debt could have been made furnished rent free to returned mis- the means of rousing the Church to sionaries who are at home for rest and a sense of its responsibility as nothing recuperation. It is desired to have else could have done. It would have these cottages free to those who oc- called out a special day of preaching cupy them without reference to de- on the subject of missions-humili- 1'I.0mination; and to enlist various ation and prayer-aday of collections. benevolent people in their erection, for the debt alone, making at least two Sundays of the fifty-two to be de- voted to the great work of the church. The letters one reads from missiona- ries on the frontier a,re pitiful; and if the church does not hear will not God avenge II "Pardon me, but I feel I am only saying what many must feel. I do awakening in this country. His 00- not like to seem to criticise over-much, dresSB evinced considerable familiarity but it makes me sick at heart to be at with the present situation of things in ease in our luxurious churches and India, and appreciation of the diffi- notice the indifference, the want of culty and importance of the mUwion reference to this, the most, crying evil he had undertaken. I have known; for it is from thosepoor missionaries that part of the money Among other things he said: already collected (?) is wrested–not voluntary offerings, but oppressive "There are 5,000,000 Hindus, young men, taxation, in a sense. " who speak English. We aregoing to reach them. They have never been evangelized. Oc- The above letter is from one -of the casionallya lecturer like the Rev. Joseph Cook largest and best known givers in the will drop in among them; but he is gone in a denomination, and we publish it, first, week. What they want is preaching every because such a munificent giver has a day for six months. All has been touch and right to be heard; and again, because go sofar. We go to preach and not to prove the this church and other denominations Gospel. Disabuse your minds of one thought. ought to know how their principal We don't propose to convert India. Weonly benefactors look on such a mistaken policy as retrenchment; -and thirdly, intend to do our share. It we come back because we feel in absolute accord with these sentiments. God will never without having made any visible impression, bless any policy which is practically we won't feel disappointed. Fifty blows may robbery both of Him and His poor be necessary before the rock of heathenism is and faithful servants, It cannot be split. We hope to strike one of those blows. our duty to do wrong, and we believe The Hindus say that as the English go to this course, whenever and wherever India they drop their religion in the Red Sea, adopted, is dishonoring to both the hoping to lind it there as they go back. The church and to God. There must be people of India are profoundly religious in some way of meeting a crisis like this their way. They look on our missionaries as beside doing an' aditional wrong. being merely men who are hired to conquer This policy reminds us of the man who their religion with our own, just as they were borrowed money to pay a debt! and politically conquered by the English. They the fact that at this time of the judge our religion not by our missionaries but world's history a great denomination by the English people among them, sevencan Bound the cry, Retrench! while tenths of whom are there to trade and not to every call of God says Advance! is it- set a religious example. Belf a melancholy sign of the times. We know one city where a craze for "We will go first to Calcutta., where we will expensive church-buildings has led to open an evangelistic mission and begin on the the abandonment of large and com- English themselves. From them-having by modious edifices for others that cost the help of God brought them to a condition enough more than the old to pay thill where they can exemplify and reflect the debt by the excess on each building. Gospel-we will proceed to evangelize the Eng, lish-speaking Hindus. After them, Provi- EDITORS. dence permitting, we will evangelize the half- breeds. We hope to make a break among the Dr. Pentecost's Farewell Words. high castes. Don't think we are pl"oud be- cause we are going to work among the high We were present at the farewell castes. We have chosen them because nQ service in Dr. Meredith's church in work of evangelization has ever been done Brooklyn, of which he was formerly among them. Finally, we are doing this work pastor. He gave an outline of his strictly at our own expense. If anybody feels plan of evangelistic work in India. He moved to chip in and help us pay our current is sanguine that a great break in expenses, all right. But we are not begging. heathenism will begin there, which Persoually I will pay my own expenses. We will be followed by a wide-spread are a voluutary mission, repreaenting no society and no fuud."

May he not be disappointed in this bold undertaking! May India be moved as never before! He needs and asks and deserves the earnest prayers of Christendom. He remains a month in England and then sails for India. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, who have aided him in his €vangelistic Alloa, Scotland, has recently gone to his reward, in his eighty-seventh work, will accompany him in this year. He set an example of benefi- cence which will be fra~ant in Scotforeign tour. J. M. S. land and in all the Christian church for many years to come. His liberal- The Tribune (New York), in a re- ity toward foreign missions is very cent editorial entitled, "Why Foreign conspicuous; but scarcely less so to- Missions Languish," exhibits the most ward all home missionaryschemes also. surprising ignorance of the subject. AUoa, where he built up his fortune, The very reverse is true. Instead of witnessed its dispensing in all good being in a languishing condition the works. He supported missions in the cause of foreign missions was never destitute neighborhoods, provided for so active, so promising, so full of en- the free entertainment of infirm minterprise, so far-reaching and world- isters at Criefi' Hydropathic; and gave, wide in its scope and plans. The great as few men since apostolic days have English societies in 1889 expended given, great sums to God's cause. He $13,000,000 in the work; and our has spent a vast fortune of $1,000,000 American societies full $6,000,000! on missions; and, out of the small anmore than in any former year! Does nuity reserved to keep him from acthis look like languishing? tual want, he managed to give, at the time of my visit to AUoa, another Quite as false is the reason assigned 250 pounds sterling; and, as a letter for the decline of missions. It argues from Dr. McAll informs me, his last they "languish" because the Gospel if! act of giving was the sending of $500 presented so as to repel rather than more to the same great work of French attract, by men not properlytrained. evangelization. He was an office- It is sure that the prevailing methods bearer in the United Presbyterian of mission work are radically wrong. Church, and one of the brightest orna- Now thousands of the ripest scholars, ments of that beautiful body of breththe broadest culture, the most distin- ren, of whom we may say on personal guished gifts, the noblest educators, knowledge that it contains some of the and the most eminent and useful men noblest examples both of piety and of in the Church to-day, are found in the generosity which the United Kingdom foreign field! Methods radically wrong furnishes. That dear old saint gave that have civilized and evangelized not grudgingly nor of necessity, but whole nations, converted millions of cheerfully. Self· denial became to him souls in heathendom, established a habit and a delight for Christ's sake. schools and colleges, and hospitals, To press his hand and look in his eyes and Y. M. C. A.'s all over the world! was one of the rare privileges of that Does not the Trtbune know these recent tour of missions in Scotland. facts? Such stupendous ignorance is He was the patriarch of givers, and, enough to bring Horace Greeley up we trust will have a numerous spiritfrom the grave to weep over the pa- ual progeny who shall emulate an per he made so grand a power for good. example that has few rivals since the This attack on missions is a very feeble days of Barnabas of Cyprus. echo of Canon Taylor's charges two years ago, the falsity and grossness of A. T. P. which were abundantly shown by testimony that could not be set aside. Bishop William Tay:or seems to be The Tribune is late in reviving a man of great common sense. He these exploded charges.-J. M. S. says that on the dead level of heath- enism all genius is excluded; any in- A Princely Giver's Death. ventor is liable to the charge of witch- craft, and the poison draught is the David Paton, Esq., of Tillicoutry, inevitable doom of one who im- Canada, and for years residing in proves upon the crude implements of his ancestors. In the South of Africa the men wear two coats, one of red paint, the other of grease well-rubbed in; and women dig, hoe, gather crops, carry burdens and do other hard work. To educate an African without chris- tianizing him is to train a polite loafer. He instanced the educated native known as "Hodge," who, with a tine culture, turned to Paganism, put on

ORGANIZED lIIISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS

the breech-clout and took six wives tian church, he will again let loose this and set up a harem. The educational system of false religion to drive out plan must include all industries that an infernal rum traffic let in by prepare for a life of self-support. The Christian nations! Already are 300,- short and sure cut is to be found in 000 mounted followers of the False rearing in Africa Christian industrial Prophet said to be overrunning th{l homes, adopting about 12 children Dark Continent. under five years of age. Young chil- A. T. P.

dren are not yet heathen and must be The India Sunday-school Union, prevented from becoming such. It is having secured the hearty' co-opereasy to get boys but not girls, to adopt. Girls are a marketable commodity for ation of the British Sunday-school polygamous purposes. The only way Union, has been planning a large ex- tension of its work. Dr. James L. at present is to redeem them from this Phillips, 17 years medical and educapolygamous slavery by a virtual pur- tional missionary in Bengal, has been {lhase. They are sold in infancy for appointed general-secretary of the the future harem of these polygamists, India Sunday-school Union, and sailed and if not redeemed will be claimed ~ven after adoption and education. from New York for Europe. He will A young and pretty girl was thus speak in behalf of this promising movement in the chief citIes of the adopted by a missionary's family and United Kingdom during September iirained as a converted woman, and and October, and then embark for -one day claimed as the betrothed wife Bombay, where he will enter upon his -of a rich polygamist. She was al- work, attend the Punjab Sundayready pledged to a converted young school Convention at Lahore in Thr man connected with the mission cember, and reach Calcutta for the .and presents were freely given to annual meeting of the India Sunday- -secure her release from the prior con- School Union in December. All India iiract. Apparently she was released seems ripe for Sunday-school exten- sion at this time. and the marriage consented to. But afterward under pretext of a visit to It has been our privilege to make the her parents was, with her husband, acquaintance of this beloved brother induced to go to their home, and -on entering the village her young while home on a furlough. Failing husband was literally hewn to pieces, to find us at the office, where he called and she was tied to a tree and whipped to say good-bye, he left us a very kind every two hours till she consented letter from which we make an extract: to go and live with this wretched pagan. That is a glimpse of woman's "Now I go back to my dear India, condition in the dark continent. where I was born, as general-secretary Meanwhile all the work of missions of the India Sunday-school Union, is threatened by the awful flooding of with headquarters at Calcutta. For Africa with rum. Hamburg alone two or three years I shall be on the -exports by two companies annually move constantly all over India, organ- .200,000 tuns of liquor, not to speak of izing and pushing Sunday-school what France, Spain, Portugal, Eng- work. My post is a new one. I am land and New England are doing to called back to India by my brethren ]lOur into that land an Amazon river of all the churches. Our Sunday- -of rum. If Mohammedanism were let school Union there, as here and in Eu- loose, it would soon put an end to this rope, is international and inter-debusiness, for Islam's banner is the nominational, like the evangelical banner of total abstinence and pro- alliance work in the U. S. A., with hibition. It may be that as God at the which I have been connected as gen- beginning let loose Mohammedanism eral-secretary at Philadelphia for a as the scourge of idolatry in the Ohris- year." J. M. S.

VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.

SPecIAL'l'IELDS. square miles, including 30 towns and 3,579 vil· lages, and containing a population of 3,286,889, INDIA. of whom 2, 835,382 are Hindus and 284,889 are American Marathi Mission. Mussulmans. (A. B. C. F. M.) Stations, 5; outstations, 107; missionaries, REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1889. 27 (of whom 11 ordained, 1 lay, 9 missionaries' Stations at Bombay, Ahmednagal', etc. wives, 6 other ladies); n~tive helpers, 302 (of This mission covers a territory of 16,9i4 whom 18 pastors, 21 preachers); churches, 33; ordained); churches, 22; communicants,. communicants, 2,115 (1,197 male, 918 female); 2,466; additions not reported fully, about 300: added on profession, 192; schools, 127; pupils, schools, 40; average attendance, 583; Sunday- 8,280,(2,461 male, 819 female); Sunday-schools, schools, 19; average attendance, 626. 124; pupils, 4,718 (of whom 1,688 Christian); Jlatients treated at dispensary in Raburi, new, Malayalan Mission of the London Mis- 5,052; old, 9,428; total, 14,480 (of these, 12,045 sionary Society, South Travancore. Hindus, 2,059 Mussulmans, 76 Parsees, 41 R0- man Catholics, 259 Protestants). The report for this mission comes to us in four parts: the Trevandrum, Quilon and Ne- PROGREIlS IN TWENTY YEARs. yoor districts and the mission seminary.

Number of churches, 1869, 22; 1889, 33; net In the six stations there are 9 ordained mis- gain in twenty years, 11. Received on pro- sionaries; 18 ordained native ministers; 22S fession of faith, 1869, 53; 1889, 192; net gain in other native helpers; 273 congregations; twenty years, 139. Number of communicants 5,659 church members; 521 admissions; 718- at close of the year, 1869, 677; 1889,2,115; net candidates; 311 schools; 10,560 boys under in- gain in twenty years, 1,438. Contributions by struction, 3,504 girls-total scholars, 14,064; native Christians, 1869, 1,651 rupees; 1889, patients registered iu mission hospital anddi&' 4,630, rupees; net gain in twenty years, 2,979 pensaries-Protestant Christians, 13,874; Ro- rupees. Number of schools, 1869, 35; 1889, 127; man Catholics, 1,698; heathen, 12,116; Moham- net gain in twenty years, 92. Number of medans, 676-total, 28,SfU. Publications, by pupils, 1869,667; 1889,8,280; net gain in twenty London mission press, periodicals, 52 numbers, years, 2,613. 116,600 pages; tracts, 33, S23,100 pages. South Travancore Tract and Book Society has. From this it will be evident that the number published since 1833, when it was formed by of communicants on the church rolls, the con- the union of tract societies long existing at tributions of native Christians, and the num- Nagercoil and Neyoor,442,549 monthly maga- ber of schools, have trebled in the last twenty zines, 181,200 tracts, 28,500 catechisms, 13,500' years. The number of pupils is five times as books, 3,146,900 handbills, and 260,000 Glad IDany as then attended our schools. News for Children, in Tamil-4,072,649 publi- cations. American Madura Mission, South India. Basel German Evangelical Missionary- Population of district, 1,775,000. Stations Society in Southwestern India. at Madura, Pasumaleli, Battalagundi, etc. Canara, Coorg, South Mahratta, Malabar. Stations, 7; out-stations, 25; missionaries, 36 Stations, 24; European miSSionaries, male, (of whom 13 'ordained, 1 lay, 13 missionaries' 66, female, 40; native agency, pastors, 15" wives, 9 other ladies); native helpers, 448 evangelists, 106; other helpers, 27; teachers,. (of whom 17 ordained pastors); organized 27'8; communicants, 5,160; additions, 1M;: churches, 35; communicants, 3,562; added on schools, 121; pupils, 6,707. .profession, 272; schqols, 156; pupils, 5,410; Sabbath-schools, 146; average attendance Mackay Mission Hospital, Formosa. 4,151; patients treated at dispensary, new fi,066; old, 6,504; total, 15,570 (of these 4,775 Connected with the Presbyterian Board of' Hindus, 3,272 native Christians, including Ro- Missions, Canada. manists, 815 Mussulmans. New patients, 3,055; old patients returned American Free Baptist Mission, for medicines, etc., 7,224. The number is less. Southern Bengal, than the last year by 225, due to the fact that there has been less sickness and that fewer Population, 3.817,65.~. Stations at Balasore, soldiers have been admitted. J ellltSOre, Midnapore, etc. Methodist Episcopal Church, (North)t. Stations, 11; missionarles,25 (of whom 9 are North China Mission. ordained, 1 lay, 9 missionaries' wives, and 6 other ladies); native preachers, 17 (of whom Peking, Tientsin, Shantung, etc. 5 are ordained, 12 lay); other native helpers Stations or circuits, 20; ordained missionanot enumerated; organized churches, 11; ries, 15; missionaries' wives, 14; other ladies, communicants, 646; added, 55; schools, 105; 9; native ordained preachers, 6; unordained,. pupils, 3,619. Considerable medical work 10; teachers, 20: other helpers, 22; members, seems to hav" been done, but no statistics are 782; probationers, 517; averagtl atten<jancegiven. Sunday worship, 931; Sunday-schools, 10; scholars, 746; Theological schools, 3; st.udents, Canadian Baptist Telugu Mission. 40; other schools, 27; scholars, 529, Population reached 3,000,000. Stations: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- Akidu, Cocanada, Bimlipatam, Bobbili, etc. terian Church, (South).

Stations, 9; missionaries, 30 (of whom 11 Secretary: REV. M. H. HOUSTON, D.D., Nashare ordained, 10 missionaries' wives, 7 other ville, Tenn. ladies); native helpers, 74 (of whom 8 are [By some error the statistics reported for municants, 625;' additions, 100; schoQls, 37, pnpils, 916; medical work, out-patients (at-· this society in the September number of the tendances), 59,311; in-patients, 1,459; visits at homes, 647; surgical operations, 2,868. REVIEW were drawn from the report of 1889,in- stead of from that of 1890. Dr. Houston has kindly called our notice to the error, alld sent corrected ftgures.-EDs.] General Baptist Missionary Society.

REPORT FOR YII:AIl ENDING APRIL 1, 1800. Secretary: REV.WILLIAHHILL, Mission House. 60 Wilson St., Derby, England. Receipts. . REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING HAY 31, 1890. Balance on hand ..••••••..•••… $ 8,457 59 Receipts.

From churches……………….. 49,812 90 Collections, etc …………….. . £3,257 4 5· Legacies …………………. .. 1,497 4 11 Sabbath·schools….. .•.•• •••••••••. 8,673 50 Miscellaneous ………………. . 693 17 10 Missionary societies ••••……••.• 27,258 80 Legacies……… ..•••••••• ••••.•• 14,927 02 Miscellaneous… ••••.•••••••• •••.• 8,652 88 Total for general purposes … ,£5,448 7 2· Speclalfunds……… ………… 225 17 6 Total ••••••••….••••.••.•••••• $117,782 69 In India…. ………………… 2,929 9 6 In Rome……. … . .. . .. .. . ..• … . 149 0 11 Expenditures.

Three Brazil Missions•..•.•••••..•• 5 36,100 32 China llissions.• '" . • . •. • . •. • ••.• •• 24,701 71 Total. ………………….. , £8.752 15 1 Japan •••••••••.•.. ••••. .• 12,814 31 Pavments.

Congo . •.. .••• . • …. . . . . . . 4,000 00 Balance due May 81, 1889…….. .. £20 12 11 Greek • •• ••••• ••••• •• • . . .. 3,453 70 Orissa Mission ……………… .. 3,27013 2- Italian . . . . ••.• •• . . . •.••• •• 1,200 00 Agency…………………….. . 31517 7 Indian •••• • • ••• • •••• ••.. . • 6,490 00 Publications………………… . 171 12 0- Mexican U •• ,. • • • • ••• • •••• •••• 7,870,29 Incidentals. .. • • . .. .. …. .. …. . .. 144 5 7 Totalfor Missions. •••••.••.•••• $ 96,680 33 Assurance, Annuities, and Capi· General Expenses. . . • . . . . ..••. . … • 8,663 02 Balance on hand (including Relief tal, etc ……. " …………… . 1,441 0 4- Fund)….. • •. .. • . .. • ••.• .•••• •••• 12,489 34 In India, (see ahove) ………… . 2,929 9 9 In Rome, ……… "… .. 449 011 Total…. • • •• . .. •••••…•••••• $117,782 69 Balance to new account •••••••••• 10 3 STATISTIcs. Total……………………. £8,75215 .; STATISTICS OF ORISSA MISSION. ~ .,; -d .,; ..:=:l Stations, 4; 15 out·stations, 8 missionaries,. g 0 4 missionaries wives, 4 other female mission· s:l .'"~ -d aries, 21 native preachers, 18 chapels, 1,376 ..= ~ ~'>" church members; 1 orphanage, 122 members; '" :0;:~. '" ~ 12 schools, 641 scholars; 12 Sunday·schools, 751> • oji o[ '" '" " ] '" .$8 ..0= Z members. Local contributions, 8,411 rupees. ~~ '".." ~ » UjUj..~'Si"~1II-5..:.l..r9 ~ '" .9 f/1 ~ s:l ,Q s:l oj Baptist Missionary Society. '~I'~ ~ oj oj ~O A Secretary: ALFREn H. BAYNES, ESQ.,F. R.A.S•• 1 gl§ ~ g! Baptist Mission House, 19 Furnival St., j ~::: Holborn, London, E. C. ~ <I .S .S ~ REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890 ::l8 Receipts. !,! ~ ! ~ — 8 – – zz 8 oj oj ::l Balance from last year, on Special — – ._- -~ Fund, and Widows" etc., 00· count…………………….. £4,894 14 9 Brazil… 3011 10 510 670 126 224 165 $1,400 China .. 1113 16 .. 15 158 12 245'260 165 For debt……….. ………….. 2,405 2 ;;. Japan •. 19 8 8 5 2 766 151 305 130 651 General Fund . . . …. …. .. • . 68,331 0 1 41111 Special, etc., account…. ……. 3,978 9 6 Greece. "c:' ~'" Total receipts…………… £74,714 12 0 28 ~ 15 … Balance over·drawn on General Italy .•. 1 .. ~ 0 Fund……………………… 2,472 3 1() Mexico. 51 2 Africa •. Z Total …………………. £82,081 10 7 2· ·8 40 …… Expenditures. 4 '3 450 71 ··~~r~ 635 Balances. Debton General Fund. £2,862 3 6 2 .. General Fund. … .. £70,346 2 10 Special, etc., account 6,761 10 3 Total. 116 3741 1931 2,072 360 1,207 845 $2,851' £77,107 13 1 1 Total expenditure……….. £79,969 16 7 American Presbyterian, (North), Mission Balance on hand on Special,etc., in Oanton, Ohina. account ……………..•.••. 2,111 14 () Stations, 2; out-stations, 28. Foreign missionaries, ordained, 8; lay, 6; mediC'.a.l, 4; mis- Total. ………………… £82,081 10 '7 sionaries' wives, 11; other ladies, 6 (1 medical); total, 31. Native 'ordained ministers, 3; other native assistants, 84; churches, 8; com- STATISTICS. Income of Funds ••..••..•••••• " 21,796 51 Government Grants-in-aid, etc…. 8,017 47 I 15 J,'"<ll i1 ~ " oj0;oj "" O.:goj $440,788 07 0; • <ll ~ U-"0=l -UC"=l Balance due April, 1890…… …… 7,942 06 ., 1=:1=l'd …. ~~.[~ ) .0 Total. …………………….. $448,730 13 """'Iaj.9 ~;;<;ll In addition there has been added to the Per- ~ ~1ii S manent Fund, $118,739.68, making the gross ! I~"' ""E"" O~~w";";d''§''~ receipts for the year $559,527.75. …. O·S ."E.:~~ -~= Expenditures. t'l Burmah ………………………. $151,290 85 z~ Assam ……………….. _…….. 22,31258 – – – – — – — — 38 Telugu…. ….. . ….. ……. …… • 64,778 India .,. 147, 57 94 9 4,129 231 15 4,027 Ceylon .• 104 4! 25 868 160342.0..3.,.1.9.0 Siam ………………. ………. 1,373 95 ,China..• 60 21 10 60 1,049 China…. …. …………. …….. 31,605 25 ~!fe~~ine 157 8 1 58 Japan ……………………… , 39,122 72 20 15 75 2 2 69 Africa…….. ……………. ….. 43,780 42 3 1 ••. Europe …………………. …… 32,984 57 Enrope •• 60 W.Indies 111 641143.73 18 1,860 210 .. 409 $381.248 72 12 6,135 423 5 Home expenses. .. …………….. 39,71387 – – – – – – – ,Africa.•• – 10 25 5 .' Publications…. ……………… 1,671 40 43 12 4 143 Annuities…….. ……….. ….. 11,92';) 58 — S440,55657 – – – 515 119319 99 14,316 1,053 47 7,896 Balance due April 1, 1839………. 8,173 56 American Baptist Missionary Union. Total. . •. …. .. . • . . . … •.. • . .. $448,730 13 Secretary: REV. J. N. MURDOCH, D.D., Tre- mont Temple, Boston, Mass. REpORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, lR90. Receipts.

Donations ………… _………… $212,96294 Legacies……….. … ………… 91,935 49 Woman'sBoards…. … …….. ..•. 93,94922 Miscellaneous ……………….. 12,126 44 STATISTICS.

Mission· Natives. .,. ! j aries ~ ~o0~ joj~o~i ~1~~p~;1~"1'.~~jjoi ~ r/.lo)i:j~il<OO 0 ~ a.: 00 Z '21-593 45li7 116 "Bn~-rm-a':'h-..-.-..-.-.-..-.- ..-.-..-.- .•-.-..-.-.. 021 520 29,689 2,039 444 12,669 – $52,633 I Assam .. …… … ….. .. .. 7 64 11 14 22 54 30 1,937 185 87 1,900 740 381 Telugu ………. …………. 13 635 21 26 204 217 72 33,838 3,340 460 4,934 564 China (inch!ding Siam)………. ' 8 59 18 23 25 17 1,535 61 23 325 521 Japan …•… …….. ……… 8 27 15 26 29 17 10 lO5 158 6 216 311 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Africa……. ….. …… …….. 7 4 23 16 5 8 5 386 156 10 471 75 Total…………………… 64 1382 133 192 8191437 654 68,290 5,939 1030 20,515 $54,844 ,Europe …………………. 917 707 70,003 5,638 169,425 TotaL ………………….. 64 ii2 133 100 i7a6 4a7.WtI38,29311.57711OOO 2O,5i5J~ Ohurch Missionary Society. Collection 0 f Funds…….. 13,739 13 2 The Secretaries, Church Missonary House, Administration. 10,596 11 5 Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London,E. C. £215,222 11 0 REPORT FOR' THE YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890. Deduct, charged Receipts. to Special Fonds.. …. 8,193 6 7 Through Associations.. £146,771 6 10 Total Ordinary……. '" .. £207,029 4 5 Direct to the Society, including Special Funds…………….. 17,556 8 1 Legacies23,862 7 9……… . 56,046 4 8 Disabled Missionaries' Funds 1,646 10 ..

Rent and Interest …………. 4,05215 9 Total Ordinary….. ……. £208,516 17 10 Total Payments……….. £224,585 12 6 Special Funds… …………. 51,765 13 7 Balance carried to Contin- 35,696 18 11 Total Receipts…………. £26a,282 11 5 gency Fund: OrdinaryRe- Expenditures. ForMissions…..£I82,845 3 2 ceipts……… £1,487 13 5 Disabled M i s- Special Funds.. 34,209 5 6 sionaries, etc.. 7,941 3 3 —– Total…… ……………. £260,282 11 I:>

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN

STATISTICS.

Natives, Eurasians, Missionaries, etc, ~ ~ ~..$.~; , g i 'I 3 __________________I§~ ~ ~ i~ ~ h ~ ~j~;. ~ _~_~_§__~_~____ ~ ~ @ ~ Africa ……………. ,…………. 5 59 30 17 15 48 293 9,826 445 108 8,8U Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Persia.. 3 13 16 6 9 9 107 597 4 50 2,575 India…………… …… ………… 8 96 128 14 15 144 2150 26,942 1,577 1191 47,184 21 Ceylon.,……………… ………… 1 14 18…. 2 15 446 2,363 172 229 11,345 Mauritius…… …… .. …. .. . …. . 1 7 81 3 51 542 108 25 1,562 S!~':t~:::: .. ·:::::.~:::::::::::::::·::: ~ ~ 171 …. 19 1~ ~ 2,~~ .~ Iii 2,~ 1 38 151 2 27 378 2,631 5 1 18 2Q 65 2,455 109 58 1,424 3.835149;016 3,llo i700 ,= 59 286 75:"'581 New Zealand ……… ".. N. W, America and North Pacific .. " 6 55 321 4"..

-~L====·.~: ;iii 3t5 "286152 VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS MONTHLY BULLETIN.

Africa-It is said that the annexations of Their professed object is to convert the Afri- Great Britain in Africa amount to over cans to their faith; and their modus oper- 2,000,000 squa.re miles, "Spheres of influ- andi is to civilize them first, and then to make ence" they are termed, not annexations. We Trappists of them. Their largest monastery care not what they are called; we are glad is at l'IIarianhill, in Natal. At present it con- to know that under the flag of Great Britain tains 170 monks, and in a convent, half a mile the slave trade cannot live. Under that flag, away, are 135 nuns. There are 300 native boys the Bible may be printed and scattered with· and girls under tuition, and the knowledge im- out "let or hindrance," Under that flag, parted is almost entirely industrial. The rear- missionaries of the cross will be safe, and can ing of bees is one of the important industries, go about their work unmolested, Ambitious Papers are published in four languages. They and grasping England, men may call her, but have a church capable of holding 2,000 people, she carries into her colonies, all over the world, the light of civilization, to brighten -Harvest Field. the faces of their ignorant and degraded. -The grant of an immense territory -Rapid progress all along the line is being along tbe Zambesi river has been made to the made in the opening up of the new world of Duke of Fife and some English colleagues, Central Africa. Europe has 'such vast re- The region embraces nearly 300,000 .square sources of power and wealth to bring to bear miles and is very rich both in soil and mines, on the enterprise that the rate at which civili- The company has power to abolish slavery zation is advancing on barbarism is surpris- and restrict the liquor traffic in its domains, ing. and missionary work will be as free there as in India. -To explore Central Africa.-The Siecle says that a French expedition to explore Cen· – The Portuguese have released the British tral Africa is being organized. It will be African Lakes Company's steamer, which divided into three sections, which will start was seized by Lieutenant Continho, Thecrew simultaneously from Algeria and the Niger of the steamer have also been released, and Congo rivers, and converge at Lake Tchad, -The Roman Catholic missions at Uganda will be strengthened by a new party of priests, -The Universities' Mission in Central who were ordained in the cathedral of Car· Africa employs seventy Europeans at four thage, June 29th, According to Roman Cathoprincipal centres in Africa and on Lake Nyassa, where a church steamer is maintained, lic usage, the feet of these 20 "messengers of Bishop Smithers is the leader of this mission, which extends over 25,000 square miles, peace" were devoutly kissed by all priests present, including high dignitaries. Cardinal -The Trappists, an order of Jesuits, have Lavigerie even kissed the feet of two black lately begun work in South Africa on a large surgeons, formerly slave·boys, purchased by scale, In Natal they have an estate of 2Q,OOO white monks on the Nile. acres, and in Griqualand of 500,000 acres, Belgium.-The Government has voted a loan of $5,000,000 to the Congo Free State. The expense of the founding of this State, and introduction into-the-familyof nations, has been Catholic Church has moved against the here- borne chiefly by the king, at an expense of tic, and suppressed his services by the power $~,OOO to $300,000 a year_ In return for this of the civil law. During the present year Diaz grant, King Leopold makes Belgium the heir, and his helpers have been arrested,sent to jail, ten years hence, of his African possessions, and harassed in all possible ways. Diaz is ont which it is believed will one day prove a great on bail, but the courts hesitate and keep him source of revenue_ and his friends in suspense. The intervention of the American Government has been in- -Pastor Anet's Christian Missionary voked. Church of Belgium, added to its members last year 500 converts from Romanism and infidel- England.-The report of the Bible Car- ity. It employs 4 evangelists, 7 Bible-readers, riage Mission in England, shows tbat this so- ,and 5 colporteurs. ciety is doing an important work in the rural parts of the country. Over 49,000 Bibles and Canada.-The Presbyterian Church in Testaments, and about 367,000 books, tracts, -canada has, in all, 326 distinct fields of home etc., were circulated in 270 villages and towns. mission work, and 990 preaching places. The In these places the Gospel was preached, number of missionaries employed last year with many conversions as the result. was 329, of whom 121 were ordained ministers and liceL. iates,and 208 students an.d catechists. -Another new missionary band of special 'The average Sabbath attendance at all the interest is about to go forth in connection stations was 43,065, the number of families with the Church Missionary Society. Rev. Bar- connected with them, 11,701, and of communi- clay F. Buxton, son of Mr. T. Fowell Buxton, cants, 13,907. The progress made in the Pres- has offered to go to Japan with a smaIl party bytery of Manitoba may be given as a speci- of missionaries, undertaking both the direction men of the result.q. It was formed 19 years and entire charges himself. Mr. Barclay is an ago. Winnipeg had tben a popUlation of 421, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge. It is pro- now it has 22,892. Manitoba had then 19,000, posed that Mr. Buxton's party should occupy now it has 150,000. Then Presbyterianism stood the town and district of Matsupe, an import- third relative to other denominations, now it ant place at the west end of the maIn island heads the list. In meeting the expenses in- of Japan. volved in this vast home mission undertaking, the church acknowledges grants from the ~Mra. Hannington, widow of Bishop Han- Presbyterian Church of Ireland, the Church nington, who was murdered in 1885, near <>f Scotland and the Free Church. Uganda, conducts a weekly missionary prayer meeting, in Brighton. -The Toronto medical students' Y. M. C. A., which has 179 members, has just sent one France.-Cardinal Lavigerie opened the <>f their number, Dr. Hardie and his wife, as a Anti-Slavery Congress, in Paris, with an admissionary to Korea, and have agreed to sup- dress, in the Church of St. SuIpice. He highly port him"for a period of at least eight years." praised the enthusiasm of England in the anti- His destination is "Fusan, where he is to co- slavery work, although it was headed by <>perate with Mr. Gale, of University College Catholics. He said he, did not desire the im-, Y. M. C. A." $1,800 is requisite for outfit and mediate abolition of slavery, as that would support for the first year. entail starvation of slaves, but that man-hunt- ing must be immediately suppressed. China.-TheChina Inland Mission hasestablished in China, 16 opium refuges, 3 hospi- Germany.-According to Bisho» Warren tals, and 5 dispensaries. The churches num- the members of the Methodist Church in Gerber 66 and chapels 110. many average, in their contributions, $4.40 per member annually, while the largest incomes -Dr Douthwaite, of the China Inland Mis- among them do not exceed $1.25 per day." sion, Che-Foo, says, that in the late famine district in Shan·Tung, there are now over a. India.-Some of our missionaries in India thousand applicants for baptism. have been caIled on to stand at the bar of the civil courts. Rev. J. J. Lucas and Rev. -The government has indemnified the Henry Forman were summoned before the Presbyterian Board to tbe extent of over a High Court in Allahabad, to answer for the thousand dollars for property destroyed by a baptism of a youth of eighteen, who had promob, in 1885, in the province of Kwong-Sai, fessed to be a convert to Christianity, and China. It has taken our United States lIIin- who had acted throughout of his own free ister a long while to securethis justreimhurse- will, and with intelligent comprehension of ment, but the final action is encouraging, in what his act meant. The judge was a Mothat it recognizes the right of foreigners to hammedan, but so clearly arrayed before him hold property in interior cities. were the facts in the case, and so explicit was the law, that the decision rendered was Cuba.-The Rev. A. J. Diaz, an evangelist that the missionaries had violated no law of her Majesty's empire, and the yonng convert <>f the Southern Baptists, in the Island of was his own master in religious affairs and Cuba, has been wonderfully successful in at liberty to dwell and worship where he preaching and organizing churches. He is a pleased. The case was regarded as an Ironative of Cuba, and preaches with great ease and freedom in his own tongue. The Roman portant one, and the judgment rendered years that the Chinese have been able makes the work of evangelizing the youth of to plant themselves in the country he India much easier and less dangerous. traveled through, so hostile have the na- tives always shown themselves, It is said -The Woman's Christian Temperance that in Thibet nearly every crime is pun- Union of Singapore has organized 'a mission ished by the imposition of a fine, and tha~ for the benefit of European sailors that visit murder is by no means an expensive luxury. tht.t port. This, of course, greatly increases the danger of travel in that remarkable land. Ireland.-The Irish Church Mission So- <:iety seeks to give a pllre gospel to the Irish United States.-The Presbyterian Wo- Roman Catholics. A good work has been done man's Mission Society received for last year through this instrumentality. Fresh impetus $337,842. The society was able to support the has been given to it by the munificent be- following missions: Indians:–ll3 schools, 164 ,quest of $150,000 by Mrs. Susan Hopper. teachers, 2,264 pupils. Mormons:–37 schools, 99 teachers, 2,374 pupils. Mexicans :-32 Korea.-A missionary, Mr. Appenzeller, schools, 67 teachers, 1,627 pupils. South:-16 in the Fndependent, says, that when mission schools, 48 teachers, 1,213 pupils. Total. 118 work began in Korea, the missionaries pre- schools, 361 teachers, 7,47'8 pupils.-Mid·Consented a Bible to the king. The prime minis- tinent. ter took the Bible to the palace, showed it to the king, and then, with the klng's approval, -The Universalists, after an existence of tore it in pieces. Years afterwards, a Ken- more than a hundred years, send out their tucky man presented the Korean minister at first missionary. Washington with a bottle of the best Bourbon whiskey for the king. This was accepted. -The Annual Report of the International 'Then the Christians of Kentuckyresolved to Medical Missionary Society, shows that 7,356 show the king, at as early a period as possible, new cases of disease and injury were treated that the country produced something better during the past Society's year; 14,717 attendthan whiskey. Recently they sent, through ances were given at the dispensaries, of which the Korean minister, three Bibles, one for the there are 7 in New York and 2 in Brooklyn; king, one for the prime minister, and one for 1,641 visits were paid to the sick in their own the foreign secretary. The present has been homes. DuriIig the eight and a half years of 4Ccepted. the Society's existence, over 32,000 cases were treated, about 70,000 attendances were given -Roman Catholic missionaI'ies have at dispensaries, and over 14;000 visits were been in Korea 200 years, yet have never Is- made to sick at their homes. This Society sued the Bible In the native language. They co·operates with all existing Christian agenhave translated the New Testament but have cies, as far as possible, and establishes medinot put it into print, and the only copies, cal missions at Gospel missions, or mission made by hand, cost from $10 to $20 each. churches, wherever practicable. The presi- dent is Boudinot C. Atterbury, M. D.; the -Sad News.-Dr. John W. Heron, Medi- treasurer, Cleveland H. Dodge, Esq., No. 11 <ml Missionary of the Presbyterian Board in Cliff Street; and the medical director, George Seoul, is dead. He died of dysentery. The D. Dowkoutt, M. D., 118 East 45th Street, New loss is great, 'for he was Superintendent of the York City. The Society deserves the liberal Royal Hospital in the capital, and had won the support of Christian people. {lonfidence of the King. His infiuence in the foreign comniunity and in Seoul was also -The receipts of the American Board for very great. the year ending Septemb"r 1st, are $617,723. This amount is $69,025 in excess of last year. .of-Moravian Missions.-The latest statistics Of this increase $22,876 is from donations, the our missions show an increase over last balance is from legacies. During the year 64 year of 620 communicants and of 1457 In the new mission aries have been appointed. 22 of total membership of our congregations in the whom are men: 54 of. these new recruits have foreign fields. The number under the direct already been sent to the field. This number care of our missionaries DOW amounts to 87,263, is in excess of any year since 1837.-The Adand of these 30,591 are enjoying the full privi- vance. leges of communicant membership. These are solid figures, and we thank God for the un- -Secretary Ellinwood of the Presbyterian mistakable token of His blessing on our work Board of Foreign Missions writes, that the in Asia, Africa, America and Australia.- new value put upon silver has so affected ex- Periodical Accotlnts. change in all the foreign countries where silver is the chief medium, that the purchasing power Thibet.-Mr. W. Woodville Rockhill, of the Board's appropriations is diminished formerly of the American Diplomatic Service, from 15 to 20 per cent., and the rate of exhas recently returned from a long and peril- change is constantly fluctuating. A heavy, <>us journey through Thibet, the unknown needless tax is thus laid upon the missionary heart' of Asia. For 700 hundred miles he cause for the benefit of a few silver kings. passed through a country where no white man had ever set foot, journeying, of course, in disguise. It is only within the last few

INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE NOVEMBER NUMBER

INDEX OF CONTENTS NOVEMBER NUMBER.

PAGE PAGE I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS••••••• 801–842 plore Central Africa, 877; Universities' IT.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI- Mission, 877; the Trappists, 877; Roman Catholic Missions in Uganda ………… 877 GENCE•• – …………….. _…. 842–850 IIT.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE… 85O-S54 BELGIUM.-Loan to the Congo Free IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT ••• 854-862 States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877 V.-MONTHLY CONOERT OF MISSIONS 862–867 BRAZIL.-Political Changes, American VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT Missions, etc., 862; Other South Ameri- can MiSSions, Brussels Anti-Slavery Con- TOPICS …… _……………. 867-873 gress……………………………… 86(t vn.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK BURMAH AND SIAM.-"A Thousand AND STATISTICS. .. ……..–873-877 Miles on an Elephant. " …………….. 842 VIIT.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS; MONTH- CANADA.-Presbyterian Church, 878; LY BULLETIN ……………… 877-879 Toronto Medical Students' Y. M. C. A… 878 IX.-INDEX TO CONTENTS. .••••• •• • ••• 880 CHINA.-A Great Evangelizing Agency, 845; Inland Mission, 878; Presbyterian Authors. Board Indemnified …………….. : …. 878 EDITORS.-A. T. Pierson. The Miracles ENGLAND.-Flowof Converts to the of Missions; The Wonderful Story of Church of Rome……. .. . … .. …… 846 Madagascar, 808; Editorial Notes. J. M. Sherwood, Book Notices, 841; Editorial FRANCE.-Anti-sla.very Congress …… 878 Notes …………………………….. 871 GERMANY.-Generous Giving………. 878 HAWA H.-Rev.W. A. Essery's Address Blackie, William G., D.D., "Personal Life of David Livingstone, " noticed………. 842 on the Victory of the Gospel ………… 846 Brockett, r,. P., M.D., Education and INDIA.-Lunn's Work; "A Friend of Missions in India," 841; Poverty of the E.vangelization…………………….. 850 Clark. Miss Helen F., The Congo Missions, 826 People, 846; Missionaries in Court. 878 Ellinwood, F. F., D.D.• The Duty of Chris- IRELAl'U>.-Irish Church Mission So- tendom to.the Jews, 801; Brazil and its ciety ……………………………. 879 Missions. Other South American Mis- sions………… _._ ……………….. 860 JAPAN.-The New Constitutional Gov- Gracey, J. T., D.D., International Depart- ernment, 846; Appeal from Ba.ptist Mis- ment …………………………….. 851 sionaries. ……………………….. '" 847 Guinness, Mrs. H. Grattan, "New World of Central Africa," noticed…•…. __ .. 841 JEWS.-The Duty of Christendom to …. 801 Haig, Mrs. F. T.,"Daybreak in North Afri- ca," noticed…. …….. …………… 841 KOREA.-The gift of a Bible to the King, Hallett, Holt S • "A Thousand Miles on an 879; Roman Catholic Missionaries, 879; Elephant," noticed……….. .. .. . •. 842 Moravian Missions ………………… 879 Herrick, George F., D.D., The Kingdom of God in the Land of its Origin…….. 854 MADAGASCAR.-TheWonderful Story Hunt, Life of John; Missionary to Fiji, of its Evangelization, 808; Letter from noticed ……….. _…………………. 842 Rev. James B. Mackay…. .. …. . 850 Lunn, Rev. Henry S., "A Friend of Mis- sions in India, " noticed ………… "…… 841 Moravian Missions in Surinam………… 867 Moorhead, Max Wood, Student Volunteer Moravians not Lutherans……………… 853 Movement ………………… …….. 842 Pitzer, A. W., D.D., The Inheritance of PALESTINE.-An Awakening of Life Nations Allotted of God….. ………… 820 and Energy………. .. …… 847 Schweinitz, Rev. Paul de, The Romance of Goedverwacht ………………….. 833 South American Missions ……. _…….. 866 Starbuck, Rev. Chas. C., Translations from Foreign Missionary Periodicals………. 836 Turkish Empire, Dr. Herrick's Graphic West, Maria A.. Hidden Springs, or How Sketch of its Present Condition .. _. . . .. 854- Missionaries are Made.. .. .. … . . . . .. …. 835 THIBET.-A perilous journey………. 879 Countries and Subjects. UNITED STATES.-The Silver Law's AFRICA.-The Congo Missions, 826; Effect on Missions, 848;.Farewell Meeting New World of Central Africa, 841; of Missionaries in Boston, 849; Presby- Daybreak in North Africa, 841; Dr. terian Woman's Missionary Society, 879; Blackie's Life of Livingstone, 842; Mwan- Report of International'Medical Mission- ga Stripred of Despotic Power, 844; ary Society, 879; Receipts American Editoria Notes on Uganda, 845; Zanzi- Board ………………………. _…. 879· bar, 84.5; The Slave Traffic, 861; Fire- arn1S, 862; The Liquor Traffic, 861; Great Statistics of Foreign Missions. Britain. Sphere of inlluence, 877; to ex- American :r.larathi Mission, 873; American Madura Mission, South India, 874; Amer- ican Free Baptist Mission, South Ben· gal, 874; Canada Baptist TeJugn Mis- sion, 874; Malayam Mission of L. M. S., Basel G. E. M. S., Southwestern India, 874; Mackay Mission Hospital, Formosa, 874; M. E. Church (North) N. China Missions, 874; American Presbyterian (North) Mission in Canton. China., 875; B. F. Missions of Presbyterian Church (South) Report for 1889-90, 874; Ameri- can Baptist Missionary Union, 876; Church Missionary Society…… • … 876·