The Missionary Review of the World — April 1937
1937
India Advances in Politics and Religion J. R. Edwards When a Korean Magistrate Went to Church William Scott A Chinese Concubine Tells Her Story James P. Leynse A Caravan in the Australian Bush Marjorie A. Burton An African View of Africa's Needs s. s. Tema A Golden Anniversary in Evangelism A. C. Snead Youth and the Christian Frontier Charles A. Platt 25 Cents a Copy $2.50 a Year
to Remember THE IDEAL GIFT AT ALL
May ll–General Conference, United Brethren in Christ, Chambersburg, Pa. GOD'S MINUTE ••• May 18-21- National Convention of Here is a marvelous collection of 365 Daily Prayers. A Spiritual the Evangelical Women's Union, each 60 seconds long. written by 365 of the most emi. thoughtfor St. Louis, Mo. nent preachers and laymen in the world. Cloth. 60 every day cents; Limp Leatherette. $1.00; Art Leather. $1.50. May 20-25 – Northern Baptist Con- • vention, Philadelphia, Pa. GOD'S MESSAGE •• A daily May 26 – General Assembly, United 365 prominent clergymen have chosen their favorite Presbyterian Church, Oak Park, Dl. Scripture passage. and, with this as a text. have written reminder of a Message that quickens faith. brings comfort. Cloth. May 27 – General Assembly, Presby- the giver terian Church in U. S. A., Colum- bus, Ohio. 60 cents; Limp Leatherette. $1.00; Art Leather. $1.50.
June 3, 1937-General Synod, Re- Iiii_ _ _ _ _ THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Winston Bid"" Phil•• formed Church in America, Asbury Park, N. J. would have retired as secretary for active service in 1982, he had spent rural church work of the Presbyterian his time in translating and editing. . June 3-8, 1937 – World's Woman's Board of National Missions. Dr. Christian Temperance Union, Wash- Warren H. Wilson was born on May A PLEA FOR THE "IMPRAC- ington, D. C. 1, 1867, at Tidioute, Warren County, TICAL" Pa. He received the B.A. degree from June 23-30, 1937 – Alliance of Re- Oberlin in 1890, the B.D. from Union Men said Jesus was "impractical." formed Churches Throughout the Theological Seminary in 1894, and World Holding the Presbyterian was ordained to the Presbyterian min- He preached a Gospel which men System, Montreal, Canada. istry. Dr. Wilson's first charge was Christ's Church at Quaker Hill, N. Y., called too idealistic. July 3-10, 1931- Association of Ex- near Pawling. From there he went ecutive Secretaries of Councils of to the Arlington Avenue Church in He said: "Love your enemies." Churches and Religious Education Brooklyn, and in 1908 took charge of Employed Officers' Association, work in rural fields. He was presi- Practical men have said: "In a Lake Geneva, Wis. dent of the International Association competitive world you must be armed of Agricultural Missions from 1919 to July 7 – August 11- Winona Lake 1929. Dr. Wilson was the author of to fight tour enemies. That is the School of Theology, Winona Lake, several books on country churches and safe way.' Ind. their problems. Surviving are his The World War cost to all partici- July 16-22-World Conference on Life pants $200,000 for every bour since and Work. Oxford, England. Jesus was born. .
August 3-18 – World Conference on widow, Mrs. Pauline Elizabeth Lane The next war will probably wreck Faith and Order. Edinburgh, Wilson, and two sons. civilization. Scotland. *** Practical men have had their way August 11-22-Winona Bible Confer- for many generations. It would be ence, Winona Lake, Ind. Canon P. Stacy Waddy, Secretary worth while to try Christ's way.-The of the Society for the Propagation of Indian Social Reformer.
CONFE'RENCES AND SCHOOLS the Gospel, died in the Hospital for II If you use OF MISSIONS Tropical Diseases, London, on Feb- ruary 8. Not only the Anglican Council of Women for Home Mis- Church, but the whole cause of Chrissions and Affiliated with the tian missions, has lost a notable Committee on Women's Work, worker. Canon Waddy had just re- Foreign Missions Conference turned from a visit to the Gold Coast PRINTING of Africa and had been seriously ill June 26-July 3-Eagles Mere, Pa. with malaria on the return voyage.
July 7-15-Northfield, Mass. He was born at Carcoar, New South YOU will profit from an ac- July 17-24-Mt. Hermon, Calif. Wales, on January 8, 1875, son of quaintanceship with us. We July 19'-23-Bethesda, Ohio. Lieut.-Col. R. A. Waddy. He became do the job complete in our own Canon of St. George's Cathedral, plant. whether it be large or Jerusalem, in 1919, and was Arch- small. deacon of Palestine from 1922 to 1925, when he came to England to be- Obituary Note. come secretary of the S. P. G. While our specialty is Books, Maga.tines and Pamphlets. yet Rev. Dr. Warren Hugh Wilson, for *** we have a variety of modem almost thirty years in charge of rural equipment to meet all the rechurch work in the Presbyterian Dr. Clarence A. Barbour, president quirements of your particular Church and a leader in the efforts to of Brown University since 1929, died job. You will find our service revive rural churches, died March 2, on January 16 at his home in Provi- prompt, careful and courteous. at 69 years of age. For several dence, R. I., at the age of 69. Dr. decades Dr. Wilson had been recog- Barbour had been active for many Will you allow us to estimate nized as an authority on religious and years in educational and religious on your next printing ? We beother problems of rural life. He work. It was under his leadership lieve you will be delighted with helped to develop the "larger parish that Rochester Theological Seminary our product, price and service. system" for combining country par- merged with Colgate to form the presishes. In 1908 he was appointed by ent Colgate-Rochester Divinity School.
President Theodore Roosevelt as a *** The EVANGELICAL PRESS member of the Country Life Commis- Rev. Thomas J. Porter, S.T.D., sion. In 1930 he was sent to India Print…. of for a survey of rural life for the Na- who had served under the Presby- The Missionary Review of the Warld terian Church, U. S. A., since 1884, tional Christian Council of In4ia. In as missionary in both Persia and two months Dr. Wilson would have Brazil, died suddenly in California, PLANT AND MAIN OFFICE Third and Reily Streell reached the 70-year age limit and December 26. Since he retired from
MISSIONARY USED IN OVER ONE MILLION CHRISTIAN
REVIEW OF THE WORLD HURLBUT'S STORY OF THE BIBLE By.JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT. D.O. DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor Recommended by all denominatlonsforitsfreshness and accuracy, for its simplicity of language, for its freedom from doctrinal discussion. VOL. LX APRIL, 1937 No.4 THE BEST GIFT FOR YOUNG AND OLD Publication and Business Office- Third and Reily Sts., Harrisburg, Pa. FOR TEACHERS-STUDENT8–FOR THE HOMEAND SCHOOL Editorial and Executive Office- One hundred and sixtY-<lightstories, each complete in itself, yet form- 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. ing a continuous narrative of the Biblefrom Genesis to Revelation. Entered as second-class matter at Each ofthe world-old stories is told by the noted author in a manner thatia vitally interesting and instructive to young and old alike. Post Office, Harrisburg, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879. Biggest _d Best Illustrated Book Ever Sold for the Price 25 cents a copy-$2.50 a year. Beautifully illustrated with 281 pictures in colors and in black and Foreign Postage, 50 cents a year. Published monthly, except August. white; over 100 famous Leinweber paintings. 759 pages. Price ..$2.00 All rights reserved. Gopyrighted 1937. British agents – Marshall, Morgan' At all bookstores or froTn the publishers and Scott, 12 Paternoster Buildings, London, E. C. 1 shilling per copy, . .__ THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO., Winston Bldg., Philadelphia _ __ 10 shillings a year. I would simply have to drop all the Personal Items MISSIONARY REVIEW PUB- work I am doing in various groups. LISHING CO., INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS Yesterday we finished a course on ROBERT E. SPEER, Pre8ident Africa. I gave everyone 'home work' Dr. George S. McKune, President A. L. WARNSHUlS, Vice-President to do-taken mostly from THE RE- of Union Christian College of Pyeng- WALTER MCDOUGALL, Treasurer DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Secretary VIEW. All went at it with a real zest. yang, Chosen, has been forced by the I've 'talked' about Africa in Methodist Japanese to resign because of his re- SAMUEL MCCREA CAVERT and Baptist groups also – in Xenia and neighboring towns and – once fusal to do homage before Shinto WILLIAM I. CHAMBERLAIN more-it has been THE REVIEW that shrines. He regarded the act as one D. J. FANT supplied most of my 'background.' I find the current issues are nearly al- of worship. In a respectful letter to MRS. ORRIN R. JUDD ways out of the library." the Governor-General, he asserted his loyalty to the government, and stated WM. B. LIPPHARD that he taught his students such ERIC M. NORTH MRS. D. WALTER FERGUSON. loyalty, but that as a Christian he SAMUEL M. ZWEMER Xenia, Ohio. could not bow in worship to the dead men whose spirits were supposed to Editorial Chat *** De present in the temple.
THE REVIEW endeavors to be up-to- CORRECT10N *** date in publishing articles on important current events and Christian The caption to the picture on page Dr. Paul deSchweinitz, for many world movements. As a matter of 79 of the February REVIEW, illus- years Treasurer of Missions of the fact, a seeming delay in such com- trating the article "Christ Comes to Moravian Church in America, is rements may, in reality, be due to the the Navajo," should read "Governor tiring from that office on May 1. He fact that we have been ahead of the B. B. Moeur of, Arizona and two was consecrated as a bishop of the other periodicals. For example: the Navajo Nurses, Ganado." Moravian Church at a service in the "New Life Movement in China," spon- Central Church of Bethlehem, Pa., sored by General and Mme. Chiang *. * * Kai-shek, which is just now receiving much pUblicity in America, was fully WANTED: By a correspondent vol- on March 14. All honor to Bishop described in the July, 1934, issue; the umes II to X of THE M[SSIONARY deSchweinitz. "Zoa (Life) Movement" (in the Greek Church) now first noted in the daily REVIEW OF THE WORLD. Can any *** press, was fully.described in THE RE- reader supply them? Please commu- VIEW in August, 1928; the Moody nicate with ·the Editorial Office, 156 Rai Bahadur A. C. Mukerjee is re- Centenary recently widely advertised Fifth A ven~-e, New York. tiring as General Secretary of the and observed was dealt with by Dr. National Missionary Society of India, John McDowell in our May, 1936, *** after a period of marked service to number. Read THE REVIEW to be up~ the Society and to India. He is now to-date on important matters relating Two sub~cribers write: at work up'on a plan for occupying a to the Kingdom of God. field where a mass movement toward "I can't do without your wonderful Christianity is taking place. *** magazine,'and what puzzles me is how any good missionary Christian can." Have you ordered your June (Rural Life) Number of THE REVIEW? Se- • MRS. AGNES HAZARD. *** cure copies for all in your mission Bouliler, Colo. study groups. This will be a great . Archdeacon John Batchelor, vethelp. Note what one enthusiastic .';,.. '" * * eran worker of the C. M. S. among the reader says: Ainu of Northern Japan, was the first "Enclosed $– is to be applied to missionary to take part in a television "The March REWIEW is especially program, Januar:v 20. Dr. Batchelor fine-Dr. Speer's article being 'tops.' my l.!ubscription as long as the money has worked for more than sixty years I am very sure I could not get along among the primitive Ainu of Hokat all without the REVIEW. Without it will last. This will save the work kaido. Although 83 years old, he has connected with the annual renewal, recent:ly returned to Japan to con- tinue his work. and serves as evidence that the RE- VIEW is much appreciated."
N. NIELSEN, PH. C., M.D. Siu-Yen, Manchoukuo.
*** PLAN NOW to Spend Next Summer's Vacation with Amer. Rev. Frank Houghton, editorial sec- ica's Greatest Theological Teachers. retary of the China Inland Mission in Winona Lake School of Theology, Winona Lake, Indiana London, has been made bishop of a new diocese created by the division of For Ministers9 Teachers, Missionaries, Sunday School Workers and Laymen SO the Diocese of Szechuan into the Free eastern and western. The eastern is Courses leading to Regular Theological Degrees, Cost Reasonable staffed by the China Inland Mission, July 7 to August ll···Two Terms 15 Days Each···lnterdenominational Rooms the western diocese by the Church Evangelical Faith and High Scholarship Combined Missionary Society. Dr. W. E. Biederwolf, Director (Ask for free Prosl>ectus) Dr. J. A. Huffman. Dean [ 177]
VILLAGE OF SAMHO, CHOSEN, WHERE "THE MAGISTRATE WENT TO CHURCH"
(See page 187)
NARY
REVIB ORLD VOLUME LX AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL REVIEW OF WORLD-WIDE CHRISTIAN PROGRESS NUMBER 4 APRIL, 1937 Topies of the Times CAN CHRISTIANS BE NEUTRAL nation bind itself ;to do so irresJ)€ctive of the moml issues involved? Neutrality is now a major Subject in press, Con- To the first questiDn, the answer of the best in- gress, peace societies, labor disputes, and in many formed students .of internationa] affairs is negachurch assemblies. Its slogans are popular: tive. They tell us ,that the circumstances that led "Keep us .out of war," "Let us mind .our own busi- us into the World War of 1914-1918 wDuld in- ness," "Other people's quarrels are not .our af- evitably draw us into another general conflict; fairs." While some .of this demand for "hands that international relations are now so interwDven off" is motivated by selfishness, much of it is that a strong nation cannot possibly maintain an prompted by a real desire for harmony. Mission- isolated position; that actual neutrality would ary wDrk, both home and foreign, is involved in mean no freedom .of the seas for American ships, peace promotion, since war demoralizes it, diverts no passports to Americans traveling in war zones attention and cripples its support. Boards and or on ships of a natiDn at war, no loans to belmissionaries and their supporters are theref.ore ligerents, no trade with them in food .or war ma- concerned in the question: When should Chris- terials, or with neutral agencies for reshipment tians be neutral in disputes and conflicts and when to them. This would mean the closing .of many should they take sides in the contrDversies that manufacturing plants and very widespread unare agitating the Church, nation and the world? employment. When the results .of such neutrality Neutrality, is certainly sometimes wise. FDr thus become clear to the American people, the example, most Americans do not strongly take business and labor interests affected would bring sides in the present internecine strife in Spain, such pressure to bear on Congress that politicians realizing that the outcome will probably be either would not dare to resist. Few, if any, students a Fascist government under a military dictator, of the problem believe that America would be or a Soviet government .of a communistic type. willing to pay the price, especially as popular feel- It is significant that Germany and Italy openly ing might be inflamed by the sinking of an Amer- encour.age the "insurgents" and that Russia as ican ship, or the loss of American lives .on a toropenly encourages the "loyalists." But France J)€doed neutral ship.
was not neutral in America's war for independ- The second question cuts deeper. When an ence and Americans were not neutral when Italy atheistic government attempts tD extirpate all re- invaded Ethiopia Dr when Japan bombed and ligion in Russia; when Jews are being inhumanly killed civilians in Shanghai. The fact that the persecuted and Christian churches are being made American Government did not invoke the "sanc- vassals of a totalitarian state as in Germany; tions" in either case does not imply that Amer- when Christian schools are forbidden to teach ican citizens were neutr,al, save in a technical Christian truths, as in China and Mexico; when sense of not taking active sides. palpable injustice is being perpetrated every- The pending issue, in America however, is not where, we believe that Christians should be outone .of popular sympathy but of national policy spoken in protest. Under such circumstances neu- expressed in law. This raises two questions: traIity would be culpable. Few Christians are Could America keep out of another world war if prepared to say that, no matter what wrong may one should develop? Even if it could, should our be inflicted by a strong nation upon a weaker .one, [179 ]
or by a powerful individual on a weaker 'One, he that the conference was entertained by the Ma- will, like the priest and the Levite in 'Our Lord's harajah of Mysore, himself a Hindu, is one indi- parable, "pass by on the other side." It was Cain, cation of the great change that has taken place in the murderer, who said that he was "nQt his the attitude of Hindus toward all that is labeled brother's keeper." Christian. The basis of this new tolerance and Bat taking sides against wrong does not neces- cooperation is seen in the address of the Dewan sarily mean war. The applicati'On of "sancti'Ons" of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail, who said: "You are in such circumstances are simply the exercise of deliberately planning an offensive against the the same kind of police power in international af- warring powers of evil, whose threat is now more fairs that every civilized state and cQmmunity deliberate and threatening than ever before. You exercises against lawless evildoers within its own stand for ideals that inspire us also-the freedom borders. Is it not high time that Americans of spirit, and unity and peace. And we are not should stop criticizing the League of NatiQns for merely your hosts; we are with you in this fight."
weakness in dealing with international disputes The delegates came from many nations and for which their own refusal to join is the chief represented different racial, cultural and early re- cause for failure? ligious backgrounds, but there was remarkable In the sphere of morals and religion, there is unity in worship, for all acknowledged allegience certainly nD proper place for neutrality when to Christ and were bent on discovering and doing there is a clear issue between right and wrong. the will of God. The general theme was: "The A man is either moral or immDral. In religion, Youth, the World and the Future."
the supreme Authority for the Christian has very Many grave problems were presented for dis- plainly said: "He that is not for me is against cussion, especially as they relate to young men of me." "Ye cannDt serve God and mammon." Any today. A study of seven main themes had been compromise with· the wDrld is sharply rebuked in made in advance and these were brought up for the. Bible and in the Epistle 'Of James we read: discussion by seven Commissions into which the "Kno'Y ye not that the friendship 'Of the world is delegates were divided. enmi,ty with God ?" In this time of rampant god- First, there is the problem of International Reless pOlitical evils, there is urgent need that the lations. The question was raised as to whether the Y. M. C. A. should take active part in organfollowers of Christ should repudiate all compro- ized movements to prevent war or should be con- tent with promoting the spirit of brotherhood and mises with wrong and should boldly stand for the advocate peaceful settlement of disputes. Should the Association endeavor to stop fighting or right and for right alone. If we cannot win on mainly serve the contending factions and aid the wounded in time of war? Can the Y. M. C. A. this issue, we cannot win at all. God himself will inaugurate and promote economic, social and political reforms that will remove causes of war, not bless such neutrality. "Because thou art or should it confine its endeavors to spiritual work lukewarm," He said to the church at Laodicea, "and neither cold n'Or hot I will spue thee out of my mouth." Christians cannot afford to do other- wise than to stand unequivocally for the right as God has revealed it. ARTHUR J. BROWN.
THE WORLD Y. M. C. A. CONFERENCE with individuals and Christian character build- IN INDIA ing? Some delegates asked for an immediate call for a World Congress to express the mind of the For the first time in the history of the Young M'Ovement 'On international issues and even ad- Men's Christian Association, the scene of the·· vocated a permanent bureau to watch the situaworld conference has been shifted to Asia, and tion.
one-half of the delegates came from Africa and Second: the Race Relations section was pre- the Orient. Here is an indication of the increas- sided over by J. H. Tobias, an American Negro.
ing importance of the youth of Asia in world af- One result was a resolution adopted to the effect fairs. This twenty-first world conference was that no one should be excluded from the Y. M.
held in Mysore, India, from January 5 to 10 and C. A. and its privileges on the ground of race or was attended by 200 selected delegates represent- color.
ing thirty different nations, races and tongues. Third, Difference in Religious Faiths. The Most of the delegates were over fifty years 9f age. Y. M. C. A. was founded by Sir George Williams Dr. John R. Mott, the President of the World's Al- in 1844 for the purpose of promoting the cause of liance, was chairman and was unanimously asked Christ among young men, by prayer, Bible study to continue as president of this youth movement, and personal work. Recently, however, even vot- although he is now over threescore and ten years ing power is not always based on public con- of age. The value of the wisdom and experience fession of faith in Christ. Jews and those of of "Elder Statesmen" is still recognized. The fact other religions are now admitted to active mem-
TOPICS. OF THE TIMES
bership and in many non-Christian lands there man's personal relation to God governs all his has been a strong move against "proselytizing" or standards, is the source of power and determines seeking to persuade men to change their religion. his relationship to others. Christ is the secret of It is not surprising, therefore, that at the Mysore strong, fruitful living and He offers the great Conference many held that a share in the control challenge to Godlike life and service to fellow men. of the Y. M. C. A. should be offered to members who are not Christians. This we believe to be a The Y. M. C. A. was founded to bring young grave mistake, since the movement should be kept men into vital personal relationship to God, definitely. and openly Christian. through Christ. The "Paris Basis" for member- ship is still the same as adopted in 1855. Various Fourth: On National Problems and Responsi- related ideals and activities may rightly be added bilities, the main question is whether situations so long as these do not conflict with or displace arise where a Christian should choose to follow the main purpose; but if Christ is left out of the the revealed will of God even where that is in con- Y. M. C. A. then the institution will be spiritually flict with the requirements of his national govern- dead and forfeits its right to the name Christian. ment. This problem is acute in Russia, in Ger- Other groups are free to found and support a many, in Japan, in Italy and in other lands dom- "Young Men's Religious Association" and to reinated by materialistic, militaristic or non-Chris- ceive members who do not acknowledge allegiance tian rulers. While the Y. M. C. A. should train to Christ, but it is not honest for others to "steal" men to be loyal to their rulers and to serve their the Y. M. C. A. and to attempt to change its charcountry, these duties cannot supplant obedience acter and purpose. to God, as He is revealed in Christ. In his opening address at the Conference, Dr. Fifth: The Need for Building a Better Social John R. Mott sounded a note that may well serve Order is evident. The feeling at Mysore was as the basis for all Y. M. C. A. membership and strong that the Y. M. C. A. should work definitely activity, in every land. He said: for economic betterment and social justice. Demands were formulated for action to "abolish "Our governing objective in the Y. M. C. A. is rights of property divorced from function"; to to make Christ known and trusted and loved and eliminate the "profit motive" from industry and to exemplified (as personal Saviour, Son of God, and adjust the conflicting interests of various classes Lord), not only in the whole individual range of in the economic order. This subject naturally individual life, boy, mind and spirit, but in all our deeply concerns the rising generation and calls for human relationships and with special reference to reforms. It must be kept in mind, however, that youth." new laws alone have not proved effective; there must also be a new, unselfish spirit instilled into Are we honestly seeking to discover and to do individuals to change human nature. This is ac- the will of God? That will mean something revocomplished by a new life motive, with power re- lutionary in every life. Let the Y. M. C. A. conceived through union with Christ. tinue to be positively, intellectually, evangelically and aggressively Christian in all of its ideals and Sixth: The Church and Her World Mission was activities. Then it will continue to live and grow another topic discussed. What is the relationship and be effective in the lives of young men and in of the Y. M. C. A. to the Church? How can they the world. work together effectively in the interest of boys and young men? One whole day was given at the THE NEED FOR A CHRISTIAN Conference to discuss the needs of the boys of the INTERNATIONALE world and youth representing six nationalities spoke on the varied problems but universal needs. More and more we are discovering that the In India the child suddenly becomes a man, while world is not made up of watertight compartments. in England many years are spent in preparing There is a real solidarity of human welfare or the boy for manhood; in the Philippines boys are woe. No man liveth to himself and no nation is ignorant of their own country's history while in independent of its neighbors. We are all of one Germany and Japan they are taught to worship blood and our present economic social and politinational ideals and heroes. Since youth is the cal problems are interlocked. period when the coming generation must be prepared to take their places in the Church, the na- The Communists are working on the principle tion and the world, the Y. M. C. A. should furnish that Communism, to be successful, cannot be contraining for these responsibilities. fined to the U. S. S. R., but must extend its in- fluence and ideals everywhere. This is the motive Seventh: The Challenge of Personal Life is the back of the Third Internationale and the presentroot of all other problems. Without ideal men and day world-wide propaganda from Moscow. Monwomen it is impossible to have an ideal world. A signor M. d'Herbigny, writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes, exposes the program which the
"militant godless" propose to follow in their sec- he noticed that the flag with its sickle and hammer ond five-year period. This plan for the "liquida- was unfurled only on special occasions. He says: tion of religiol}" is carefully studied and con- "When not unfurled it was protected by a canvas stantly brought up to date. There are special case made out of a waterproof oil painting of our seminaries for the training of antireligious Com- Lord's birth which I believe was taken from the munist workers to organize "cells"; they have Gospel Hall at Pensui. On the painting could be also opened museums in which Christianity and seen Bethlehem, the shepherds with their sheep, other faiths are exposed to ridicule. An atheistic and the star." Mr. Bosshardt was led captive bepress and colored posters are everywhere in evi- hind the Red flag, but the flag itself was embraced dence, copied from the Bezbozhniki and Die by the love manifested in Bethlehem. Kampfende Gottlosen. We quote from their manual: The great Slavic race with its religious tradi- tion, its remarkable literary genius, and its ca- A sympathizer with the U. S. S. R. is anyone who, with- pacity for suffering is surely not beyond the love out definite political tendencies, feels by intuition or re- of Christ. What a challenge the Communist flection that something interesting is going on in the Party of the U. S. S. R. offers to the pioneer mis- U. S. S. R., and that it would be a good thing to profit sionary spirit. Who will show them the Star of thereby. Consequently anyone is a sympathizer with the Bethelehm? Who will help organize, by prayer Communist Party who, having sympathy with the work of and a faith that prevails, a Christian Internathe Soviet Union, ;whether he goes or not to meetings of a tionale, a true and universal brotherhood of social party-cell or of a nucleus of sympathizers, readily accepts justice and divine compassion, with Christ as the the revolutionary party-orders and has the intention of center? The tragedy of the present situation is executing them, as far as lies in his power. that these lands where atheistic Communism is centered are not on the program of missionary While Protestant Christendom is planning for advance. To meet such an opportunity there must an Ecumenical understanding and an advance be the united cooperation of all the churches. program at Oxford and Edinburgh this coming Members of the Protestant Church need to recogsummer, the Central Committee of Atheists have nize the fact that, before the Reformation, many held a World Congress at Moscow in February, faithful members of the Oriental and Roman 1937, with the following program: churches that impinge upon this vast area, with- stood the terrific impact of Islam, and born wit- 1. Founding of an office for the antireligious propaganda ness to Christ by martyrdom. Now in many of the world. places members of these same churches are seal- ing their testimony with their own blood in the 2. Founding of an Atheist-Internationale conducted by the struggle against Godless Communism. Soviet Russian Atheist Union. S. M. ZWEMER. 3. Organization of a systematic antireligious propaganda in all countries.
4. International exchange of experiences in the struggle of the atheists.
5. Financial support of the Atheist Organizations.
In preparation for this Congress a powerful radio THE GREAT TEMPLE IN MADURA, IKDIA station was to be erected to be used exclusively for atheistic propaganda. The fool no longer says only in his heart, "There is no God"-he broadcasts his foolish blasphemy. In Madrid, Prague, Mexico, India, Northwest China, and closer home, in the United States, the fight against all religion is carried on with united front.
Shall we as Christians sit still when our brethren in many lands are living and dying as martyrs to God's truth? R. A. Bosshardt, of the China Inland Mission, who was for eighteen long months a captive of the Red Communistic army in western China, relates an incident which is illuminating. Marching in fetters behind the standard bearer,
Advan'ces in Politics and
By the REV. J. F. EDWARDS, Poona, India Recently Editor of Dnyanodaya I N THIS age of dictatorships and antireligious against possible breakdowns, that the most fully movements, India is making solid progress in organized party, the Congress party, talks of re- both politics and religion. Consider the po- jecting it with contumely. This same party, howlitical outlook of this great oriental country. ever, is straining every nerve to capture every possible seat and will take the oath of allegiance, A New Constitution leaving till later the decision whether to accept office. This April India enters upon a new and great chapter in its history by the inauguration of a The framers of the new constitution say that new political constitution which bids fair to make such, "safeguards" are meant only for crises and this land the first democracy in Asia. that they are necessary and indeed inevitable in these days of unstable government the world over. If the latest estimates of China's population be This is especially true as fourteen per cent of the correct (342 millions, including Mongolia and people are being given the right to vote in a land where only eight per cent know how to read and Tibet *) then India's 353 millions t means that write.
this is the largest human family on earth. Thus The autonomy bestowed upon the nine major one person out of every six in the world belongs Provinces into which India is divided, each havto India. ing its own separate government, is so far-reach- ing that one trusted leader, Dr. Natarajan, the William E. Gladstone used to say that "the task veteran editor of the Indian Social Reformer, of statesmanship is to discover where God Al- holds that the authority should have been more mighty is going the next fifty years," If India's centralized to prevent the Provinces becoming so new constitution does all that its framers hope many unrelated units. for, then it will become one of the mightiest powers for good in the Orient. While these two factors of responsibility and autonomy have been steadily developing ever since The democratic provision of the New Consti- the political reforms of 1919, when many imtution, enabling 35 million people to vote, will en- portant departments of Government, such as sure the dethronement of the Brahmin. This fact liquor and education, were transferred to Indian in itself marks a new epoch in India, and some statesmen, the third factor of an all-India federaunprejudiced observers believe this als'o helps to tion is wholly new, having come to birth during explain, in part, the unpopularity of the new con- the Round Table Conferences in London. By this stitution to many of the higher caste people. Some federation, the two great sections, called British of these would say with Goethe, "The century has India and the Indian States, are to be welded into given birth to a great epoch, but the great moment a unity that has never before existed. finds a petty generation." Uniting Two Indias Into One We have been watching the great constitutional argument in India for more than twenty-eight It is often forgotten in America that there are years, twenty of them as a missionary editor for 675 Indian States, comprising some 45 per cent six missions, and believe that both British and of India's area and nearly 25 per cent (over 81 Indian statesmen have been sincerely aiming at millions) of India's population. The rulers of India's welfare. these states may rule as they like, except when cases of grave miscarriage of justice cause the These three words may be said to sum up the British Resident to intervene. If, in the last reaims of India's new political constitution. sort, justice is not assured to the citizens, the Viceroy (representing the King-Emperor's Para- As to the first, the responsibility for governing mount Power) offers the defaulting ruler the the most complex nation in the world, which has alternative of a trial by his own fellow-Princes been placed in the hands of the people's leaders, is surrounded with so many "safeguards" to guard • Professor Wilcox, of Yale, maintained at the Conference on Pacific Relations a few years ago that China's population had always been grossly exaggerated. mirl~~;. 1931 official census, while the present estimate is 370 [ 183 ]
or a voluntary abdication; one of the recent cases constitution. They even hope that at the last in which abdication ensued was that of the Ma- some factor may lead the Princes to withdraw. harajah of Indore, well known by his marriage Our own hope is that, by working in close associato the American citizen Nancy Miller. Many in tion with the democratic councils in India, the India believe that, for the sake of India's people, Indian Princes may be led to liberalize their rule. direct intervention of the Paramount Power How essential such liberalization is for the fushould take place oftener than it does. ture of Indian democracy will be realized when we realize that no amendments to the new con- The new constitution brings under one scheme stitution can be carried out without the unaniof self-government the people all over India, and mous approval of the whole body of Indian rulers. that the new unity of India is officially regarded The only alternative for one who disapproves is as one of the greatest achievements of the new to secede from the Federation. constitution. It must have been some such hope as ours that This much is certain, that to continue much led the editor of the Indian Christian weekly longer the arrangement of two Indias, British Guardian of Madras to say: India ruled by the British, and the Indian States ruled by the Princes, would be to risk a destruc- If a place has to be found for them (the Indian tive civil war. When it is remembered that the States) in a self-governing India, it necessarily implies total population of India is nearly three times that their association would to some extent curtail the that of the United States, though in area it is only freedom of British India at the start. Their medieval about half, it will be realized how great the character, with but a few exceptions, must be recognized; dangers of delay might be. and their paralyzing effect upon British India must be faced and overcome. The sooner the Indian States and The Price of India's Unification the communal groups are brought into the current of na- tional administration, the better hope there is. But the unifying of India in one all-Indian Parliament is to be purchased at a heavy price. Here The Autocracy of India's Princes we begin to understand something of the forces moving behind the clash between the British Gov- The foregoing facts do not set forth the full ernment and those Indian leaders who desire sep- price being paid for the unification of India under arate independence. one supreme Indian Government. These 675 In- dian Princes, who are well organized in an Indian The Indian Princes are probably not only the Princes' Chamber of their own, have put a ban richest but the most reactionary rulers on earth. on India's separate independence by stipulating A few years ago that fearless journal of India's that the basic condition of their joining the allprogressive leaders, The Servant of India, af- India federation is that the connection between firmed that the most advanced Indian States are India and Britain must continue, and that on no below the level of British India, that "everyone account will they sign their new treaties or agreeof the Indian States without exception is miles ments with India's Parliament but only with the behind British India," that "the only two States King-Emperor direct, through his representative which approximate to the British Indian stand- the Vicerby. The reason is that they distrust ard of administration are Mysore and Baroda," their own fellow-countrymen, both Hindus and both of which were "under direct administration Moslems, whose failure to conclude an agreement of British Government for some time in their his- between their two communities regarding the tory," and that "even these lag behind British basis of representation in the councils, does not India in the matter of constitutional develop- encourage the Princes to make any agreement ment." with them on still larger questions.
Indian rulers of course have their own point of These Indian rulers have steadfastly refused to view, but Britain's democrats are deeply troubled allow their own representatives in the all-India in their minds over this aspect of the question, Federal Legislature to be appointed by election, as was shown by the leader of the British Labor thus denying the vote to their citizens. This Party, Major Attlee, in the House of Commons means that the representatives of Indian States when he asked "how long British democrats would in the Parliament will be nominees of the Princes, continue to maintain autocracies without some which means their palace favorites, and that these' better guarantee of what was happening inside will sit side by _side in· the all-India Parliament them." with the representatives from British India who have been elected by the 35 million voters of the Some Indian patriots (how many it is hard to more democratic part of the country. say) go the length of saying they wish the Indian Princes had not suggested this federation for all British Commonwealth of Independent Nations India, because the price India is paying for the cooperation of the Princes is a less democratic In 1931 there was passed by the British Parlia- ment an extremely important measure called the
INDIA ADVANCES IN POLITICS AND RELIGION
"Westminster Statute" which sets forth the far- How nobly India's own sons are fighting against reaching significance of that elastic term "Do- caste-inhumanity is shown by what Gandhi said minion Status." This Act made clear that all the at Faizpur where the Indian Congress was held countries forming the British Commonwealth are in the last week of 1936: "I went to your Local free and independent peoples and are at liberty to Board, well situated just near the Harijan (outleave the Commonwealth any moment they wish. caste) quarters, and I inquired if the Harijans It was not long after the important legislation of were allowed to draw water from that well. I 1931 that the Indian constitutional question as- was told they might not do so, but that they were sumed crucial importance. The Dominion Pre- suffered to take water out of an open trough from miers clearly intimated they were not willing to which cattle also drunk their water. How dare concede to India the "Dominion Status" of full you, who want to win swaraj (autonomy) suffer nationhood represented by full membership in the to keep your own brethren on a level with cattle?" Commonwealth. This has been a great blow to Yet in that same village of Faizpur Rs. 30,000 India's pride. The Right Honorable Srinivasa (over 10,000 dollars) were collected as gate-money Sastri, early in 1935, pleaded that Federation and to attend the Indian Congress that was crying Dominion Status could exist side by side, but that out for independence, and 25,000 people were the free and independent Dominions making up fed daily for a week. the British Commonwealth of Nations were not willing to receive India into the inner family Why then is there such appalling poverty as circle of the Commonwealth until India shows prevails in India? There are two reasons at least: more fitness for self-government. The Indian So- one is India's worship of the cow; for while 64 cial Reformer recalled that in connection with the definitions of Hinduism all differ, yet all include conflict between British and Boer in South Africa, cow-worship as essential. However decrepit or the world-renowned phrase was coined that "good milkless a cow may be, it must never be killed even government is no substitute for self-government." by a merciful anresthetic, but must drag on its weary existence under the hot Indian sun. India's Capacity for Self-Government It is estimated that in British India alone there Opinions greatly differ on the question as to are twenty-four and a half million useless cattle, how far the Dominion Premiers' position is justi- the maintenance of which costs India 176 crores fied by India's fitness, or unfitness, for complete of rupees (or more than 650 million dollars) self-government. There is evidence on both sides. every year. When we pointed this out, Mr. Gandhi replied that India ought to pay something Much has been made of the alleged inefficiency for its religious principles. Whether such prinand alleged nepotism of Indian Ministers in ciples are behind another cause of India's poverty, charge of various departments of government. India's money lenders, we know not, but it is not The reforms of 1919 provided for a large majority uncommon for them to charge 75 to 150 per cent of Indian members in every Council, Provincial or more for their loans. and National, with a large number of nationbuilding departments transferred to Indian con- India's Influence on the West trol. India has a very noble culture distinctively her The most capable judges of the results are the own. The influence of that culture is increasing British members of the Indian Civil Service. One in the West as is indicated by the recent appointof them, Sir John Thompson, says: ment of that renowned Indian scholar, Dr. Sir S. Radhakrishnan, to the newly instituted Spalding It would be unjust and ungenerous, especially in those Professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics in of us who once helped to control the departments now the Oxford University. This eloquent scholar transferred to Ministers, not to recognize what they have rightly affirmed in his inaugural address: "Redone and where they have gone beyond what we were aJle ligion has been the master passion of the Indian to effect. Let me mention one or two points. The villager mind." Should Dr. Radhakrishnan repeat in with a sick wife or baby now finds that medical relief has England his well-known defence of idolatry, as been brought nearer to his door. The number of hospitals being an infant state in religion and to be tolhas increased by 35 per cent. The man with children to erated as such, we have no doubt the philosophers educate finds things made easier for him. In ten years of Epgland and Scotland would know how to deal the number of schools went up by 24 per cent, the number with him. of pupils by 50 per cent, and the number of girl pupils by 80 per cent. Even in the last five years the number of Indian Christianity and Indian Nationality girls in the secondary schools has risen by over 100 per cent and the number of girl graduates by nearly 80 per All would-be vindicators of Indian idolatry are cent. answered by Indian citizens themselves, as is Over against this fair picture are such blots as the inhumanity of the Indian caste-system, and the superstitions and evil practices that lie at the root of India's poverty.
shown by the returns of the 1931 official census years (from 6,062 in 1931 to 4,467 in 1935), on which indicated that over a million and a half account of decrease in funds from Western lands, had been added to the Christian Church during has some compensation in the steady growth of the preceding decade. This means an average of voluntary service in many sections of the Indian 12,855 additions to the church every month, and Church. the present (1937) monthly increase is probably at least 15,000. Indian Christians are not overlooking their duty to India's national movements. They are to Nor is this the only index of an advancing In- be found in almost every political party in India. dian Christianity, for thousands of caste-people One of Mr. Gandhi's right-hand men is Mr. J. C. are every year entering the Indian Church and Kumarappa, an Indian Christian, occupying the are giving as their reason that they want the help strategic post of organizing secretary to the Allof the same Lord who is transforming so many India Village Industries Association. Several In- Indian outcastes and is transfiguring their homes dian Christian leaders are candidates for seats in and villages. India's Provincial and all-India Councils in the present general election. The influence of Jesus Christ and His message is also making itself felt upon every public move- Happily the day is past when Indian Christians ment in India. The searchlight of His personality can be left out of India's nation-building organizaand teaching is revealing some of the darker as- tions. One of the best known of India's Christian pects of India's time-worn faiths, so that a silent leaders, Dr. S. K. Datta, President of Forman revolution is being effected in these faiths. More- Christian College, in a notable speech in the Allover, educated Indian Christians say they see clear India Legislative Assembly at Delhi, told the Britsigns of a "mass movement of the Spirit of God ish and Indian statesmen gathered in India's Paramong the educated people of India." These vari- liament, that if they wished to see Indian democous factors are contributing to the building of an racy at its best they should see it at work in the enduring Indian Church. Even the reduction of Indian Churches, which he described as "so many missionaries in India by 1,595 during the past few little Indian republics."
THE IDEAL MISSIONARY FOR TODAY By THE REV. D. S. HIBBARD, D.D., PH.D.
"What kind of a man or woman should be sent out to the younger churches of Christ?" The missionary has the only God-given world message, but he is human. He talks with God, but he must deal with men. It must, therefore, weigh heavily upon anyone who is in any way responsible for choosing a foreign missionary.
David Livingstone was one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all missionaries. _But if he could be brought into the Philippines today with only his former preparation, he would be badly handicapped.
And yet I must frankly come out and state before I retire that the modern missionary in the Islands has to be a bigger and better man than those who came over in the early days, or he is doomed to be a dismal failure.
We had wonderful opportunities and privileges in those early days. The facts of change and of new ideals in the government opened the way for the preaching of the Gospel.
The people listened, and were willing to study the Bible of which they had heard but never seen. The Roman Catholic Church had failed to hold all of its members. Many of them, insurgents at heart, now broke away from that body. It was easy to teach, to preach, and to heal.
Today these conditions are materially changed. Instead of an uneducated younger genera- tion, we find holders of the master's degree, and even some with a doctorate from the best institutions in America, scattered throughout the Islands. And college graduates are every- where. The school system here is the best in the Orient. Printing presses,good and bad, are running full time.
Briefly then sermons, which would have held the attention and won approval of an audi- ence a generation ago, will not be effective today. There must be true vitality, intelligent pres- entation, practical relationship to life, and sacrificial service in the ideal missonary and in his Christian message for present-day needs at home and abroad.
the Magistrate Went to Church*
What Happened to Magistrate Kim Seung Myung in Korea -t€{ I Told by himself and WILLIAM SCOTT I )Be- I~==============================~ I T WAS a hot summer day and I hesitated to go, his conversion. The church was crowded, and for church openings, at the best of times, are among the audience were many of elder Kim's old long and tedious. But Samho, I reckoned, cronies,. still in their pagan unconcern. He ad- would be different. Samho Christians are rugged dressed himself particularly to them.
fisher folk, who pit their strength against the ele- The Story of His Conversion ments and wrest a living from the sea. When pagan, they were gloriously pagan; when they "You all know me for what I was and what I became Christian, life was still an adventure car- am," he began. "Money was no concern to me.
ried through with the old lt came easily; I spent it energy and daring. There freely. My chief concern before one's eyes stood a was the public good. I witness to this fact. They served you long and well as were only a fishing village, village h e a d man and as and only a handful of county magistrate. Yonder Christians, yet they had hill belongs. to the village dared to build the finest because I fought the Gov- church in all our section of ernment for it. I gave the Korea. On this particular public cemetery in which day they had met to dedi- you bury your dead. I built cate their church to God your first school and made and to honor the man whose you send your sons to it. I enthusiasm and generosity fathered a dozen projects had made it possible. for your good, till our vil- Elder Kim lage became the pride of the province. You, in your Elder Kim was the man, turn, were good to me. You and a fitting tribute asso- honored me and trusted ciated his name with the me. You raised a magnifichurch. A tablet graced cent stone to perpetuate my one of the walls, "In honour name.. I sat on the Goverof Elder Kim, a Christian and a Public Benefactor." nor's council. I was chosen His name was on the pro- to visit the palace and to gram to lead in prayer, MAGISTRATg KIM, NOW ELDER KIM receive some silver wine and this is how it ran: CUPSI as a token of respect.
"0 God, I thank thee for taking a man like me "Then came the Christians. You remember -a haughty, brawling, drunken man like me- how I hated them – upstart fellows who babbled for cleaning up my life and making me the man I about God and Christ and thought we were all am. I thank thee for putting it into my head sons of the devil because we drank and smoked to help build this church. May it be used to and enjoyed life. You remember how I set the Thy glory, and to the saving of many more like police on them, dogged their steps wherever they me." went, refus·ed to sell them land for a church, and Having unburdened his heart to his God, he threatened to drive them out of the village. Even wiped his eyes and turned to the congregation: when I went to the city I would walk through "I'd like to say a few things before I sit down," dirty narrow lanes and climb a fence rather than he remarked, and proceeded to tell the story of pass a foreigner's house or a Christian church.
• From Ko.rean Echoes, published by The Korea Mission of the "But they beat me to it in the end. My own United Church of Canada (October, 1936). nephew was converted; one of my own stock [ 187 ]
whose business it is to get things done. They might do. I said we were all proud to have such a bought land for a meeting place~the brow of a building in the village, and ended by wishing them hill that nobody wanted. They built a church and all success. Next I turned to you fellows who had boasted of its size. They put up a bell to ding in brought me to church. I said it was a disgrace to our ears, and finally they sent out invitations to dedicate a building to God with a debt on it, and all and sundry to attend the opening. It was a that it was up to us to do our bit. I promised to give three hundred and fifty yen, if you would pay the rest. It was my turn to chuckle as I made you open your purses and pay heavily for the prank you had played on me that day.
Magistrate Kim Cleans House "By this time I was thoroughly sober and a great decision was forming in my mind. You re- member it wen. I took you all to the wine shop.
'Boys,' I said, 'drink to your heart's content. I pay the bill. But remember: this is the last drink you'll ever get from Magistrate Kim. I'm through with it for ever. No man ever did me a better turn than you did when you filled me with liquor and took me to church. It's not the old Kim that's talking to you now. From today on I travel a dif- ferent road." I left you there befuddled and scep- THE' ORIGINAL CHURCH AT SAMHO, KOREA tical. God forgive me for filling you with drink that day, but you would have got drunk anyway.
great day. The whole town was agog with excite- , You didn't believe me then, and you may not be- ment. Perhaps the feast that was to follow ap- lieve me now, but I want to tell you that from pealed to some of you. As for me, I stormed and that day until this not a drop of liquor has passed fumed and threatened; too proud to acknowledge my lips. The very taste of it went out of my life defeat. Then some of you came to my office and that day and has never returned. And that's dared me to attend the ceremony. It was my eighteen years ago."
duty, you said, as headman and magistrate to do At this point the speaker paused, visibly moved the honors for the community. But I only laughed at the memory of the miracle that had trans- and drank to their confusion. And then you played your trick. You plied me with wine and still more wine until you got me gloriously drunk.
Then you carried me bodily to the church door and chuckled as my own nephew took me in hand, thanked me for coming, and led me staggering to a prominent place.
"Well, thank God for that day. Something so- bered me where I sat. It may have been a sense of shame. It may have been resentment at your handling of me, and a desire to get even. It was likely more than that, for I found myself thinking that these Christians were really men after my own heart. The courage with which they had car- ried on, despite my threats. The way they took our snubbing and persecution. The energy and enthusiasm they put into their church building.
The tremendous earnestness with which they TEE NEW CHURCH AT SAMHO, KOREA faced us with the need of religion. Even to that long, lanky foreign fellow who pleaded for help to formed his life. The day was hot and gave him pay the deht on the church, telling us that he who an excuse to mop his face and incidentally to wipe gave was not losing his money but only putting it away a tear. But he soon forgot himself again in the Bank of Heaven. All that somehow got me. in his tale, the audience following with keen I threw all caution to the winds and stood up to interest.
congratulate the Christians. I extolled the virtue "I don't wonder that you thought me crazy; of religion. I spoke of the good a Christian church the very children used to talk of the queer things
WHEN THE MAGISTRATE WENT TO CHURCH
I did. I called my family and relatives together done magnificently, and raised more than their and told them that I was now a Christian, that share. But a debt still remains, as on that day they were all Christians, and that if anyone long ago. Fourteen hundred yen must be raised wished to disagree he was at liberty to do so, but today. I'll give a thousand if you raise the four that henceforth he would be no connection of hundred here and now. It's a joy to do it. I've mine. I then wrote my eldest boy, at college in done many a good thing for the village, but the Japan. I told him what had happened and added, greatest good that.r have done, and the one which 'Son, you've got to become a Christian or you no brings me greatest satisfaction, is my share in the longer belong to me. I will wait your answer be- building .of this church. They have raised a tablet fore I send your next allowance.' His answer to my honor. My first impulse was to tear it came soon enough and showed that he really was d.own, but I finally consented to its remaining a son of mine. 'Dad,' he wrote, 'I knew how you there that it might be a lasting memorial of what hated the Christians and I kept it a secret from the grace of God did for Magistrate Kim. I only you, but I've been a Christian for over a year. wish that you could share the j.oy that came to me I've been praying daily for you, and I'm more that day you brought me to church against my than glad to hear you've come across.' will."
"I had set my own house in order. Now I Elder Kim sat down amid a round of applause. turned to public affairs. I may have been too He had stood up to pray; he had added a glorious hasty, but this new interest I had found seemed testimony. The church was duly dedicated and to come like a flood, sweeping my past life away the remaining four hundred yen fully subscribed like-a thing of straw. I resigned from the mag- by the congregation-part of it from non-Chrisistracy, and from the governor's council. I paid tian sources. The three hours of ceremony had men to pull down and bury the stone you had no dull moments, and was brought to a close with raised in my honor. I even destroyed my precious a strong appeal for decisi.ons. Elder Kim was silver wine cups. It was my way of breaking with again on his feet-his vigorous personality domthe past. Then I went to the city, no longer afraid inating the proceedings, and his oldtime magisof the missionary. I bought Bibles and hymn terial authority carrying some wavering ones over books for all my family and hired a man to teach the line. us to sing. How the town laughed when they heard of it. But there was laughter in my soul I was glad I went to Samho. The new church too, for a new strange joy possessed me. From is an honor to the Christian cause. Built of red that day until now my supreme aim in life has brick with two graceful towers flanking the enbeen to honor Christ." trance and capped by pointed spires, it stands on Building the New Church an eminence which overlooks the beautiful bay and the village which hugs the shore. It will long "That brings me to this day. There stands the remain a landmark to guide the fishing fleets old church, a silent witness both to my shame and home. It will be a perpetual reminder of God to my glory. I love that old church. But it has who ruleth over all. It is a fitting memorial to grown too small. We must replace it with some- the devoted group of men and women who built thing bigger and better, they said, and I knew it-among whom towers Elder Kim. God bless that my chance had come to do one more good the day that Kim the magistrate was brought to thing for the village. I would bear half the ex- church. His name belongs with those "whose pense, and I put my name down, as you know, for righteous deeds have not been forgotten, whose twenty-five hundred yen. The church people have name liveth to all generations."
MISSIONARIES ARE AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST, NOT DIPLOMATS OF THE CHURCH; THEY ARE SENT TO PREACH AND TEACH- Not human experience, but divine redemption Not social reform, but spiritual salvation. through Christ. Not a new organization, but a new creation. Not economic deals, but the Gospel of Christ. Not the benefits of civilization, but the bless- Not human culture, but spiritual conversion. ings of Christ.
Not personal reforms, but liberation from sin. -Adapted from R. P. Richardson, North K iangsu, China. Not laws of earthly progress, but God's for- giveness for sin.
A Prison Shaken in
By REV. ANDREW GIH, Bethel Mission, Shanghai, China I N THE city of Hankow, the so-called "Chicago saved the penitent thief on the cross! They con- of China," the church was packed every night fessed their sins and we taught them to pray so with eager listeners and the Lord worked with that many sad, hopeless sinners and criminals power. Many came with the burdens of sin on were soon rejoicing in the salvation offered by their hearts and went away happy in forgiveness. Him who came "to set the captives free." If we When the HQly Spirit works, people who have had not seen their prison garb we would never done wrong want to make it right. As a result have guessed that they were convicts! About things stolen were returned, old debts were paid, seventy truly accepted the Lord Jesus as their enemies who had not spoken to each other for personal Saviour and their faces shone with light years were reconciled. ' f r o m above.
Earnest-hearted pastors sent messengers to the As we were about to close the meeting one of outlying churches inviting them to send in dele- the officers stepped to the front and, in a choking gates and more than 100. responded so that it re- voice, asked to say a few words. He was trem- quired hundreds of dollars to entertain them for bling and his face was deathly pale, and there two weeks. The pastor and I took the matter to was a strange look in his eyes as he faced that the Lord and the next day a church member said prison audience. Then he said: to the pastor: "I have received a great blessing "God's Spirit is moving me mightily. My heart during these meetings and would like to do some- is pounding. I have no peace. I must confess thing for the Lord in return for what He has done my sins to you men. I have been crooked in my for me. I want to pay whatever you lack for feed- dealings with you. I have extorted bribes from ing these people; but please don't mention my your friends who come to visit you. I have been name to anyone." cruel and overbearing to you."
At the close of the campaign, twenty volunteer It seemed that something within him was driv- preaching bands were organized and at their con- ing him on as he turned from one side to the secration service crowded onto the platform carry- other and cried out in a voice that rang to all parts ing white flags on which were written the motto of the hall: "Will you forgive me? Will you for- of each band. They then went out to preach. give me?" The campaign in the church was over. Then The prisoners listened in astonishment as their something happened more wonderful than our officer confessed his wrongdoing and asked foreyes had ever witnessed. The Christian warden giveness! Such a thing had never before hap- of one of the great city prisons had attended many pened in a prison. Amazement kept them silent of the meetings and received a great blessing. a few seconds and the room was so still that one After that closing service he begged us to preach could almost hear the heart throbs of the agonized to the men in his prison. Speakers had occasion- officer. Then the response broke forth from these ally addressed the men on political subjects but a shackled ones who themselves had been forgiven Gospel service had never been held, as that was and delivered from sin that day. "We forgive not part of a prison program. The warden said: you!" "We forgive you!" came the response over "God has so blessed me in these meetings that I and over from all parts of the room.
dare not deprive the men of the privilege of hear- The officer, apparently unconscious of everyone, ing the same message, though I may risk my posi- fell on his knees before them all, while we knelt tion by inviting you." beside him and prayed. There must have been a So the next morning found us in the prison, with wonderful Hallelujah chorus in Heaven that day, all the men gathered in the hall used for instruc- for we are told there is "great joy in heaven over tion. The warden introduced us by saying: one sinner that repenteth." . "God has sent these men with a wonderful mes- The following afternoon, at the request of the sage. You must listen carefully and I hope you will accept what they preach to you." warden and this converted officer, we outlined a course of Bible study for the prisoners, to be con- We first taught the men a Gospel chorus, "I ducted by earnest pastors of the city. Will you am so glad that Jesus loves me," and in a few min- pray for these Bible classes in the Hankow prison utes practically every man was joining in the sing- and for God's blessing on the work of the Bethel ing. Then, as we gave the Message, we saw many Mission Bands for the evangelization of the of the prisoners in chains turn to the Lord who Chinese?
[ 190]
A Chinese Concubine Tells Her
-~I I~- By the REV. JAMES P. LEYNSE, Peiping, China i ~==============================~ I T WAS early in the morning when I entered my Opportune Rain, the proprietor. After much talk, study and found young Mrs. Chung already the price was settled and it was arranged that I awaiting me. Demurely she sat in a big chair, go to his home as his concubine number four.
her simple sea-green robe immaculate, her face "My lord proved to be a magistrate. His· pen frowned with care. Listlessly her hand moved a was powerful and he wrote excellently. He under- painted fan forth and back. The sounds of the stood how to stand between court and man, and heavy gong of the famous Lama Temple faintly he was friend to many high and mighty all filled the room. through the land. He did not weary of thinking Politely Mrs. Chung rose and bowed deeply; for of ways to earn much money; yea, did not count as long a time as it takes to walk a mile, she it hardship to tire himself doing so. But his deeds shielded the real object of her visit behind a of mercy were also many and they were talked clatter of polite vocabulary. Her voice rose and about beside river and lake. Many people thought fell in soft cadences over the four tones of the that good luck had come to me; but in the rice I Mandarin language, the Italian of the Orient. ate at his home there were many husks and Without any sign of impatience I waited. Then pebbles.
with a timid smile she began in more serious vein: "None of my master's other wives had a son, "I came on purpose to call upon you, Shepherd and when a year after my arrival, I presented my Teacher, as my heart is heavy with a problem that lord with the first-born one, their jealousy knew eats away my peace. I am ,burdened with a ques- no bounds. I called my precious one by Ii. girl's tion truly too big for me to solve, and I feel like a name, 'Autumn Pattern,' so that the demons in sparrow that has to battle with an eagle. the air would ignore him, thinking him to be a "When I was still a young child my father sold maiden. My little son, the only one in the family, me into the Hall of Lingering Perfume, a house of grew up a priceless possession in the eyes of my wine and pleasure. I had heard the flying gossip lord. But, as for me, I was but a thing who ate of such places but I never imagined the bitterness bitterness from dawn to dusk on account of the I would have to cover up there behind winning darkish ways of the women's quarters. Often I smiles. Everybody called me 'Sweet Water Pond,' poured out my hatred of the other wives before but Lake of Bitterness would have been a more the altar of the King of the Devils in the temple appropriate name for me. Ai ya! that life was hall at the end of our street. I filled the hand of my only means for food and clothing and it the priests with many gifts but they couid not aid brought my father a bag full of good pieces of me against the other women. If I made an error, silver which he used to start a small business that but as small as the half of a grain of rice, my lord filled the family rice bowls. What more need there would be told all about it many times over. By be said about this. Let these things be hidden be- day and by night I ever feared that my lord might hind a jade screen. be displeased and tire of me. I became ill with "One day when I had seen but nineteen New weeping because of my bitter fate, and my cough Year moons and had spent all of six years of serv- would not leave me; through all the hours my ice in that house, I was ordered to attend the man blood ran feverish in my veins. In vain I offered who now is my lord and master. When I first saw much good money and incense to the God of Medi- him, he wore an incense-eolored robe; upon his cine; without result I swallowed the large pills feet were white cloth stockings and silken shoes of herbs and took dried lizards which the nuns and in his hand he carried a painted fan. Straight- advised me.
way I saw that he was a man of good learning and "At the homes and courtyards of other ladies that his silver would roll freely. Many a time he they urged me to go to a Western hospital. I had visited me in the Lute Pavilion and all the maids heard many a good thing about the hospital of the talked about him into my ears until I was fairly Presbyterian Mission here in Peiping. On street made deaf with the clatter. Several months later and road it is told that your doctors are true over a pot of warm wine he talked about me with guardians of life and warmth of heart in stretch- [ 191]
ing forth hands skilful in medicine. Therefore ing and reviling are now heard only from the lips my lord paid out some silver pieces for me and I of the servants. Even that will change if the entered your hospital. There they healed my body ladies of our household truly believe in Christ. and moreover they prayed with me. Step by step they led me to know the only living God and Jesus "But, oh Worthy One, there is a problem daily Christ, my Saviour. Kneeling in prayer, my life before me, and what must I do? The Christian became to me as insignificant as a firefly's light. Way of Life does not allow a man to have several But Jesus regarded me with the forgiving eye of wives; neither should a Christian woman be a God and I learned that He Himself atoned for all concubine, yet here I am, a lowly sinner, concubine my sins and washed me white as snow. I became number four. It frightens me and often in prayer a new being, truly reborn, and I changed my name my heart falls to pieces. This lowly one knorws to Pervading Peace. her fault, but I have gone into a blind alley and do not see a clear way out, neither a path to con- "With a happy heart I returned home, a newly tinue on. I am of one heart with our household made soul, and with a healed body. The first and our master looks upon all of us with favor morning when it was my turn to burn incense be- and kindness. Willingly he uses silver high and fore the household gods I testified of my newly low for me and the others. Every day the maidfound faith in Christ. I refused to bow down any servants enter our women's quarters carrying in longer before idols made by the hands of man. their hands plates of good meat, dishes of fish The ladies of our household, known to be ardent fried with swee-sour sauce, bowls of rice and plat- Buddhists, made a big flutter about it, running ters of warm steamed bread. It is not as if I am back and forth and shouting that they were horri- afraid to eat course food, work hard, and wear a fied and that calamity would come to our house. coat of common cloth, but from childhood I never But I stood where I stood and did not light any was taught to provide for my own living and earn incense. Then the women busied themselves aU pieces of money. the more to give the gods and all the vessels of worship an extra dusting. They put the gong, the "I am but a feeble woman and my learning is bronze incense burner, the pewter candlesticks little. I know only what is connected with the and the paper flowers in especially good order. duties of a wife and mother. Our ways in China For many days they caUed the attention of my are not the bold ways of Western lands where a lord to the fresh peaches of long life which they woman is taught to stand by herself and, yea, even put daily before his favorite idol. compete with a man for a living. If I should leave the lord of our household, another man would put "Then it came about that all those in the wom- forth his hand before the next moon could shine en's court hated me with a strong hatred. They and would place me in his house. Clearly I could dispised my Christian religion, yet faithfully I not stand out against my father and uncles in such read my Bible and prayed for them. Months a thing, and they surely would want to put me passed by and gradually, in answer to my prayers, into another home. the atmosphere around me was changed. No longer did the women scold me when they saw me "You, Shepherd Teacher, are greatly learned reading God's word. The first lady of the house about the way of life, the will of God, and the allowed aJl of us to go once a week outside our teaching of Christ, therefore tell this lowly one gate to visit friends, and that allotted time I used what to do. I will let it be as you decree, and will for attending the church service. then make my bow of farewell and depart. It will be to me as if Heaven sent me the mess.age "When you, Shepherd Teacher, announced that through your lips. Dr. Sun was coming to hold revival meetings I redoubled my prayers, with a strong heart asking A VALID MISSIONARY MOTIVE God that I might be allowed to attend all the meetings. Great was my joy when the first lady spoke Albert Schweitzer, of West Africa, says that to our lord saying that it would be all right with he is there, at least in part, because he must make her if I went every day to the services. Yea, the up to those black people some of the wrong that third wife even went with me each morning and his brother white men have done them. Almost evening. The Living God answered my prayers every contact on the continent of Africa, other and her heart became so moved that now no longer than that of the Christian missionary, has· been does she contribute to the Temple of the Precious for exploitation, or at least for selfish acquisition. Pear. Together we are reading the Bible and to- The missionary more than anyone else stands as gether we pray at dawn and dusk. It seems to me the unselfish friend of the man who is in need. that heaven is going to use us to lead the others This would be a sad world if there should be taken to a belief in the Jesus, the Son of the Living God. out this supremely sacrificial service, but the true Our household is changing already so that scold- motive and power come through Jesus Christ.
A Caravan in the Australian Bush*
~I~=========B=Y=M=A=R=J=O=R=IE==A=.=B=U=R=T=O=N========~I~ "I SHOULD do so much hetter if only there dence, and then proceed to furnish the altar, give were three of me!" expresses what a Bush out books, and greet his congregation as they ar- priest of Western Australia often feels, for rive. Yet often in these Bush services a real he has a parish the size of two English counties. atmosphere of devotion will be found and people That is why we have a mission caravan, for there will drive many miles to get to them: although are twenty-two such parishes in the Bush. The one parishioner did sum up things by saying, "I caravan, staffed by two women workers, visits wish we could get a church of our own here; you any parish at the rector's invitation, so that with can't possibly feel devotional kneeling on a stale an extra vehicle, driver and teacher he is, in some jam tart!"
small measure, enabled to have "three" of him for a few weeks.
The caravan is a house on wheels, complete with two beds, cupboards, table, and locker; all these are fixtures, and every added box or suitcase has to be made a fixture by means of straps and cords before the caravan moves.
The main Bush roads can be pretty good, but they can be very bad. In dry weather the sur- face corrugates, and the van has to slow down to ten miles per hour. While my driver became an expert in dodging corrugations where possible, I became an expert at securing the cupboard with one hand when the fastening shook loose, the while I pushed a suitcase into place with one foot and a bookshelf with the other! In wet weather greasy roads and bogs have to be contended with.
The main roads mostly follow along beside the rather primitive railway lines, crossing them here and there. Along these roads the little townships may be found, ten, twenty, thirty or more miles apart, each with its railway siding. A Bush parish is formed, not of one or two such town- A MISSION CAR IN THE AUSTRALIAN BUSH'
ships, but of six or eight as well as of the other It is to parishes and people such as these that centres, far from any railway, consisting of a the caravan is invited, either for an ordinary school and all the neighboring farms, be they visit, a special visit, or a mission visit. eight or ten miles from it. In the ordinary visit one is simply unofficial The main township of the parish has, besides curate for a few weeks. This usually includes the railway siding, a church, rectory, hospital, day-school teaching, Sunday school teaching, talkdoctor, bank, post office, hotel, roads-board hall, ingat Mothers' Union, guild or other services, school, and from five to fifteen shops. The church sometimes the brief training of future Sunday is frequently the only church in the parish. In the school teachers, and unlimited visiting, a few days other centres services are held in the hall. When being spent in ea'ch district of the parish. the rector arrives on Sunday morning the hall may be open and ready, or he may have to fetch I arrived just before nine one Monday morning the key, arrange the benches, sweep the floor clear at a school which was reassembling after a week's of the remnants of last night's dance, heave table holiday. When I asked the teacher whether I and kerosene boxes into place for altar and cre- might take the children he simply leaped at it. He had ended his week's holiday by traveling all • Condensed from pamphlet published by the S. P. G. "World night, and had arrived back at 5 a. m: He didn't 'Vide Series," London.
[ 193]
wait to enquire which of the children took reli- schools, visiting, services, etc., the van may be ingious instruction; he went to bed and left me with vited for a special purpose. A rector coming new the whole school! to a parish is often glad of extra help in his early months. In the caravan we undertake anything I have been to a school in a district that bor- that he wants done in the way of blazing the trail ; dered two parishes; it had first belonged to one map out his unknown districts, take greetings to parish and then to another. The parishes, too, his parishioners, assuring them that he will call had changed hands, with the result that this dis- as soon as possible, find out existing Sunday trict had had no service for over a year and one schools and possibilities of starting them where celebration of Holy Communion in the last seven they do not exist. years. Could one expect much of the children in the way of religious instruction in that school? In one very isolated district where there were many would~be candidates I was giving some in- But I have been to schools where the children tensive confirmation instruction in the few days know nothing of the Christian faith, and where I was there; boys and girls at school and after the teacher has said to me, "Before I came here s'chool, adults in the evenings. At their request I there was only one family that knew the Lord's returned on Sunday afternoon to instruct them on Prayer." Holy Communion. As it was the Sunday before Christmas, we started with a Christmas prepara- I have been to a school where, as I was teach- tion service. In a schoolroom that accommodated ing, I realized that the children were hearing for ten children there were now ten children and ten the first time of Calvary and the Resurrection. adults. Most of them had driven three or four These are children of a nominally Christian race, miles on open lorries and the thermometer regiswhite children, English-speaking children of tered 106°! After the preparation service I sug- British descent. But how they listen! Not infre- gested that anyone who wished to go could do so quently the teacher will sit down and listen with before our final instruction. Noone moved; all them. twenty stayed throughout; and we were there an hour and a quarter in all! Visiting in a Bush parish is also very varied. One house may be well and solidly built of sun- Then lastly there is the mission visit. From baked bricks, with a wide verandah all round; the many parishes where one has been for an ordinary next-a mile or so away from its neighbor, if you or special visit, an invitation comes for a return are out of a township-may be of weatherboard visit to conduct a mission. A children's mission or galvanized iron, while others are built of wheat is a joyous affair. The usual procedure is: Prepbags stretched on upright poles. A wall of one aration service the first evening; then, during layer of wheat bags does not offer very sound pro- each day of the mission, prayers at 8: 30 before tection, but inner and outer layers stretched firmly they go to school, fifteen minutes' blackboard inon each side of the poles and whitewashed make struction in church when they come out at 12, and quite a comfortable and attractive house. thirty minutes' mission service after afternoon school. This is sometimes followed immediately, In visiting one finds names of would..be con- or later in the day, by "quiet time," a very infirmation candidates, or of the unbaptized, or of formal time when the children are free to copy those who would like to join the Sunday school by blackboard illustrations, make their self-examina- Post. Usually we are warmly welcomed and of- tion, write intercessions and thanksgivings, or fered tea and cakes. Once I was met outside the come and discuss anything they wish. house by the mother of an unbaptized family, and we held our conversation there, not much assisted I have also taken children's one-day missions by two very butting goats; we finished the discus- behind the caravan at remote Bush schools far sion on baptismal regeneration with the mother from any church, where listeners sit on rugs (not holding the horns of one goat while I held the for damp.,proof but ant-proof purposes), and inhorns of the other! terviews are carried on in the caravan.
At one house the husband welcomed me with, "I'm so thankful," said one mother, "that my "I was glad when I saw it was two ladies coming; Ken has got into touch with the Church; he's been my wife never sees another woman, for our near- a different boy at home." est neighbor is seven miles off and has a little baby and can't get out." "I think," said one mother, Scorching sun and unending wind, hideous galafter we had talked and talked, "that God must vanized iron and revolting flies, but endless sparks have sent you to me; I'd got right down and was of keenness and new life, and the chance to lend needing someone to help me pick up again." This a hand in helping to build up the Church and to was not just a pious utterance; it was the normal see it witnessing in places where it did not; and, expression of what she felt. in spite of innumerable setbacks and disappoint- ments it is tremendously worthwhile. But besides these ordinary caravan visits to a parish, with the daily and weekly round of
African View~of Africa's
By S. S. TEMA -.e( A Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church,. at Present Assisting )at- at the Bantu Men's Social Center in Johannesburg, C. P.
A FRICA has just awakened from a deep sleep. white man's philosophy of life, but that it is Di- vine truth for all the world. The greatest need .i"1 She finds nations, great and small, on the then, is to bring to my people, as clearly as pos- march of civilization. She has now just sible, the truth that Christianity is no white man's joined the march, though well in the rear of the theory of what life should be; but that it is the caravan of civilization. She was called "Dark real, true, pure and best teaching about life, im- Africa," and rightly so. Today she may be called parted by Christ Himself, the Founder, Master "The Awakening Africa." The impact of West- and King. ern civilization is so great that the "real" that is in African life is at present put back, and we are The ground on which Christian principles are really oscillating between Africa and Europe. Our resting in the mind of Africa is rather unstable. greatest battle today is how to adjust ourselves We want something solid and firm, something to this civilization that is deeply influencing Afri- which would keep us going even if all the missioncan culture. We feel we are fast losing our foot· ary activities were to go on holiday for centuries ing. -something which would make the missionary bodies in Africa happy over the good work they We need then those elements and qualities have been doing. The African must learn above which make life worth living-justice, good will all to worship God as an African believer, not as and real happiness. Africa needs to develop spir- itually, intellectually and temporally. She is with- a Christian imitator. We must learn to deal diout doubt poor in mind and spirit. She is a slave rectly with God as a prayer-hearing God, as a God intellectually, and to a far greater extent is spir- of the impossibles and above all as a wonderful itually imprisoned. As a people we need spiritual God Who can guide and protect a nation, but Who stability, spiritual independence, intellectual inde- in turn demands that He shall be given His place pendence, and temporal independence. Do the in its life. Africa needs to be taught that she has present world trends promise Africa these? responsibilities to carry, and her spiritual respon- sibilities are not the least of her duties. Africa First of all is spiritual independence, which means the complete dependence on God and in- must still learn to trust God as her own God, a dependence of man. My people view Christianity God of the very poor, backward, black and needy as the white man's religion. They do not feel it souls in the heart of a dark, hot continent. is their religion. Some go so far as to say Chris- The second great need I have called intellectual tianity is but another way of the white man for independence. To me intellectual independence getting the best of the native. means that my people need to be taught how to When they look at the manner in which the think for themselves. They must learn to do Europeans are dealing with the many problems of things for themselves and by themselves. They life-political, industrial, educational, economic, must be creative, self-reliant, constructive and and even social-and realize that things are not self-supporting. Today we are but little more than what they think they should be, they are skeptical. machines taught certain principles and doctrines, They wonder why it is the Golden Rule is not good and merely doing or saying what we have learned.
enough for the Europeans. They begin to loosen The African needs originality in all the plans of their grip on the reality of Christian standards. his life. He also has to learn the importance of Enthusiasm dies away when they see nothing but cooperation and unity, which are so indispensable. shame. They say like the Israelites, "For it were to the whole system of life. The Africans must better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we learn how to fill in for themselves the gaps in the should die in the wilderness." Africans measure molding of their own destiny. The need is to Christian standards by the failure of Western teach the African to use his own resources. He civilization. Europeans gave us very fine and has mental gifts just as well as any human being. lofty ideals, but why can they not live up to these But he has not known how to use them. Africa ideals? The Bantu do this because they do not needs to be inspired with the truth that as a peorealize the great fact that Christianity is no clever pIe she has great possibilities in both the religious [195 ]
and the intellectual fields. Have we no contribu- to save the situation? Another thing that is dotion to make in science, art, philosophy and in ing my people a certain amount of harm is deother spheres of life? We need to learn how to nominationalism. Our religion was a socio-relihave faith in other peoples, but more how to have gious system, or a relig~()-social system. Today faith in ourselves as a people. Let Africans learn we are broken up into denominations, all working to trust, and to be trusted by other races, then we on different lines and more or less on policies and have Africa developing for the good of humanity. doctrines which are in some cases contradictory. They cause bitterness and schisms in the lives of We cannot depend on the Europeans and re- people who w~re used to the old tribal family sysmain a spoon-fed nation. Africans should be tem. The common spirit of the joint family ties taught how to govern themselves. They must is gradually undermined, and the people are loslearn to direct their own affairs, and to become ing the real spirit of brotherhood and unity. Dethus an asset and not a liability as today. When nominationalism does more than that; it brings shall we grow to maturity? Some say we must in overlapping. The danger in the political world take about two thousand years because the Euro- seems to be a mania for colonial expansion, and I peans took that time. From the European point believe the danger in our religion today is overof view, we are only about two hundred and emphasized denominationalism with its doctrinal eighty-four years old, so that we are surely very differences. These things make an opening for young. Nevertheless, it is time we learned to sects, separatists, Roman Catholicism, and perwalk, and to stand on our own feet in upbuilding haps later even for such dangerous religions as and maintaining ourselves. In a half century or Mohammedanism. Why not give Africa the pure so we will be far from the stage we are in now. Gospel and leave out minor differences? Africa What is being done by those who are the trustees, is crying for the living God. Give Africa Christ the guardians, of Africa to prepare her for ma- and the new life He offers. turity? In Christianizing Africa, let us not forget that Missionary Work Africa has her own peculiar customs, beliefs and traditions and you cannot uproot all of these be- I believe I express the real feelings of Africa, cause they are deeply fixed in the minds of the religious or irreligious, when I say there is no African. Can we not find out by more research better memory in any true African than the those things which were part and parcel of primimemory of missionary work. What could Africa tive African religion and recognize in our work be, or do, if it were not for the work of Christian those sound principles which made our people a missionaries? No history of Africa can be com- people even before the arrival of Western civplete if it does not bring in the missionary as part ilization? and parcel of it. The chief need in making her whatever she should be is to allow missionary in- Africa wants to see Christ in Europe. We do fluence to become more dominant than it is today. not want to hear of wars, crises, economic depres- sions, unemployment, racial greed and pride. We In doing things, God has been using ordinary do not wish to hear of dictators and wild, brutal men, and ordinary men are not angels. They make war. These things make us think that Europe is mistakes, and so it is with the -missionaries. They planning and scheming things without God, or at made mistakes, and are still making some. As a least they do things first and then ask God to result we have had certain problems. These have bless them. We want only the best from Europe, come in the form of Ethiopianism, in the form of and to fuse these with the best that we possess. those undesirable separatist movements which are Africans want to be given a share in the spiritual, today very common in the South here. Many the intellectual and the temporal wealth of humansects are growing like mushrooms. There is also ity. We want a Christianity which will help us the problem of the rising generation of Africans to adjust ourselves to the overpowering prestige who are fast losing confidence in the Church. It of Western civilization. is difficult today to get the more educated youth of Africa to give the Church her rightful place in Missions in Africa can be improved by using their lives. The more they are educated, the more the African himself in Christianizing his own irreligious they seem to become. What are we go- people. Africa has very few leaders of her own ing to do with this growing skepticism in the edu- today. -Many of her present leaders are not the cated youth? best for us, but Africa needs the best. Our cry; then, is for the training of Africans of ability, Western civilization has brought a change in vision, faith and of love to God and Africa. Rethe life of Africa, but this change has done us ligious problems, social problems, and moral probsome harm. We have lost customs, traditions and lems are now so much one and the same that we laws, and even our very moral standards are need in Africa men of a special type to lead us. shaken. Demoralization is resulting in the growing generation. Can the Church not do something
Daniel-A Congo Apostle*
By JOHN MORRISON I }5t-.- American Presbyterian Congo Mission, ~ THE silence of early morning was broken by it all. Soon word came drifting in of a new force the mournful death wail which came from working for Christ in and around Luebo. He be- one of the little mud huts. The natives turned gan to travel farther afield, and on his own initiauneasily on their rough mats and shivered. It tive, many times in hut-to-hut visitation, brought was no uncommon noise, yet one could not still the together little groups for worship, often leaving shiver that crept up one's spine as the wailing them to form the nucleus of a future church.
sound rose in the air. But at intervals, pene- Mweka, a mushroom town on the new railroad, trating even the lamenting voices, a shrill cry be- was drawing away many mission boys in its de- tokened the presence of a little baby in the midst mand for labor. In towns of this kind there is of that awful sound. Such was Tshisunga's en- always great opening for the devil's agents and, trance into the world! The wasted body of his in spite of an evangelist being there, we knew heathen mother lay before him in the hut, sur- rounded by a group of heathen women, one of whom held the baby in her arms, rocking him to the swaying rhythm of her body as she lifted up her voice in valiant effort to drive the spirits from the hut wherein death had laid its hand.
When the hasty funeral was over there still re- mained the problem of the disposal of the child.
Many relatives raised their voices in the death- chant, but these same voices were still when a guardian was solicited for the new-born child.
Tshisunga's chance of learning much more about this world was a slender one until some one hit upon a happy solution. "Don't they care for orphan babies up there at the mission ?" Thus God prepared the way and the tiny babe was carried up the hill to become an inmate of the little home established by Miss Thomas and Miss Fearing.
As time went on Tshisunga became a school- teacher and later he entered our Industrial School, where his natural ability showed itself in his apti- T SHI SUNGA DAN I E L – A CONGO APOSTLE tude for fashioning little ivory curios out of ele- phant tusks and in acquiring a rough knowledge that many of the boys who had been reared on the of mechanics which served him later on. mission station were subject to sore temptation. Then Tshisunga took a hand. He had an old, He grew restless, however, and accepted an broken-down bicycle, which he patched up, and offer to work for a trading company on Lac Leo- one day off he set for Mweka, forty miles away. pold II, a spot several hundred miles from the He spent the week-end trying to enlist services of mission. Here for a considerable time he became some of the old mission boys in forming a Chrisindifferent to the claims of Christ and drifted tian Endeavor and succeeded in interesting about along with no definite aim in life. twenty. He came back to Luebo, but next week- end he returned and spent his time in going from One day at Luebo, however, as Mrs. Motte Mar- house to house until he had over a hundred who tin pled with him to come back to Christ, the promised to come out on Sunday to church. He shackles fell from his soul and he stood forth a kept up his visits there until he had some 200 soldier of the Lord Jesus. It seemed as if he re- going to Christian Endeavor, and when he left, gretted every moment that he had spent away from Christ, and was determined to make up for • Condensed from Congo Missi on News. there was a flourishing meeting run by its own [197 ]
native officers, many of them boys who, had they painful attacks of elephantiasis, when his leg bebeen left to themselves, might have been lost to came so swollen that even while resting he suf- Christ forever. He was so delighted with the suc- fered much, he still persisted in carrying on his cess of this first venture that he repeated his ef- work of soul-winning. I met him one day as he forts in several other places. came hobbling along after having been to see an old heathen woman. Poor old soul, she was cross Tshisunga's custom on Saturdays is to go to the with the world, and who can blame her? She native market, held not far from the mission, and lived in a little tumble-down mud hut, and toiled talk with anyone with whom he can strike up a painfully each day to the forest for firewood and conversation, telling him of Jesus and the way of to the spring for water. Each day meant a labosalvation. As he walked off from the market rious journey down a very steep hill, and a toilplace one day, he noticeq a woman carrying a some climb back with her heavy burden on her number of articles on her head, as is the native head. Uncared for, the only thing left for her was custom. When he broached the subject of Jesus, death, death without hope. It was just after one his Master, she laughed at him. of these expeditions that Tshisunga met her for the first time, and perhaps the time was a little "What do I want with Jesus; He is nothing to inopportune to speak to her at all. One job must me!" always follow another, she probably thought, as she was trying to repair her scanty fence. Tshi- He endeavored to say something more, but she sunga gave her "Good-day," and received a grunt. stepped out and left him. He kept on his way, He asked her if she knew Jesus; she glared at stopping to chat with people now and again, but him, and told him to be off about his business. As his heart was full of the woman who had spurned he didn't move quickly enough, she seized her staff his Master saying, "He is nothing to me!" He and drove him off. But he was undaunted. The prayed within himself, "Oh, God, help her to see old woman resumed her work on the fence, and the light." About two hours afterwards he came Tshisunga moved along to the other end, and to a village six miles farther on, and noticing a without further word started repairing it from group of women seated in the shade of a hut, he that end. She glanced at him from time to time went over to bid them "Good-day." He then no- as much as to say, "What game are you trying to ticed that the woman to whom he had spoken on play with me?" But he never looked her way. At the road was among the group and he spoke with last they met in the middle and the job was done. her again, but she mocked him. He sat there for "Well, that's one job done," said Tshisunga smila while praying silently: "Oh, Lord, do not let ingly, and the old woman smiled in response. this woman leave without accepting the Lord Poor woman, she had little chance to smile in this Jesus," and as he spoke to her, his innermost self life, and the help she received from others was communed with the Holy Spirit, striving to bring very little. They sat down to rest while Tshisunga His aid in helping the woman to see the light. told her of an old, yet new, Friend. Satan was loath to let go, but the faith that can remove mountains was his adversary. The woman Having been a backslider himself, he knows the grew silent, seemed to meditate; and then others wonderful peace and joy that a return to Christ who composed the group broke in. brings. He started a meeting for. those who had fallen by the wayside, and soon it grew so popular "Weare Christians," they said. "Why don't that the open spaces around his house were you accept Jesus?" crowded every Sunday evening with hundreds of people. He made the meeting as attractive as pos- Yet still the woman sat on, and still Tshisunga sible. He has a good ba8's voice and has sufficient prayed within himself, while pleading the Cross. ingenuity to construct a native xylophone. From At last the woman rose and moved off to another time to time he has added fresh attractions. He hut. She stood for a moment irresolute, then taught a number of boys to play simple reed inasked for a drink of water, and as the little group struments made from a native reed, and trained a watched her every movement, they saw her face choir of other boys and girls. He finally found break into a smile and turning, she came towards an old cast-off folding organ, and worked at it them. until he_ could accompany his choir. The main purpose of his meeting was never forgotten, and "Yes," she said, "I want to know Jesus, but how each evening a plea was made for all backsliders can I learn about Him? There is no one near us, to return to the fold. Many of them openly confor I live in a little village twenty miles from fessed their sins, and prayer was always made for here." them, and they were asked to stay behind when Tshisunga talked with them personally. He fol- She sat down again and Tshisunga told her of lowed up his work by going to their huts in the the wonderful love of Jesus, and when she rose to go she said: "I have no one to teach me, yet I will pray every day and God will send me help."
Tshisunga shows infinite patience and is never put out by refusal. He has suffered from very
A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY IN EVANGELISM
village, and many a sinner was brought back to the satisfaction of playing it in the Second Church the fold in this way. The meeting still flourishes at Luebo, and of being choir leader and trainer in and, notwithstanding the fact that it has been go- that church. He has a good working knowledge ing on for some years, is still as popular as ever. of English and French and has not hesJtated to In fact, there are other places within the radius use this talent in the Master's service. In our of our Luebo work that have Sunday evening native service we were surprised to see two Pormeetings which they call "Tshisunga Daniel tuguese traders attend one Sunday morning and meetings." they have since become fairly regular attendants. Tshisunga had spoken to them of Christ. Surely the true value of a man's service will come out in his own household. His wife, Madia, He carries a little notebook and jots down the says, "I was always too timid to speak to others names and villages. of his converts, so that he can about their soul's salvation, but Tshisunga kept remember them in prayer. I asked him if he had urging me and I kept on trying. It was difficult any record of the number who had accepted for a long time, but now it gives. me great joy." Jesus through his ministrations. "Well," he said, Tshisunga conducts women's meetings at which "I can count only this year." That number was he teaches the Christian women how to do per- 2,145, and others had promised to learn. sonal work among other women. Would that we had more Tshisungas, white and He practiced hard at the organ, and now has black!
A Golden Anniversary in Evangelism Fifty Years Work of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Founded by the Late Dr. A. B. Simpson By the REV. A. C. SNEAD, New York Foreign Mission Secretary of the Alliance FIFTY years ago, at Old Orchard, Maine, there ice, giving glory to God. China, the Tibetan was formed "a simple and fraternal union of all who hold in common the fulness of Jesus in border, India, Annam; Africa – Congo, Sudan, His present grace and coming glory." This simple union developed into The Christian and Mission- Timbuctoo; Latin America and the Isles of the ary Alliance, "pledged to take the whole Gospel to the whole world till Jesus comes." The "whole Seas called urgently and with whole-hearted en- Gospel," as presented by Dr. Simpson is a "fourfold Gospel" – including redemption, sanctifica- deavor he responded. The record of occupation tion, divine healing and the Second Coming of Christ. and achievement in Alliance Missions today is a This year the Golden Jubilee anniversary is be- roll call of places and lands over which he yearned ing celebrated in the twenty fields into which the Alliance has gone with the Gospel. As one result and for whose evangelization he prayed. of this work the baptized membership of 44,497 in the foreign fields is now (in 1935) greater than "The Christian and Missionary Alliance is not the total membership of these churches in the United States and Canada. Rev. A. C. Snead says: a missionary movement only, but it is called of "Dr. A. B. Simpson, like Abraham, when he God to declare at home and abroad the message of was 'called, . . . obeyed, . . . went out, . . . sojourned,. . looked,' and God gloriously the fulness of Jesus. We not only have a work to blessed him. And because He blessed him, the movement grew and spread far and wide. Since do but we have a life to live, and only as we truly the Founder died, the work has further increased and the movement goes on in scope and power, the live this life – Christ in you – can we surely do ministry continues in humble dependence upon God, and the message is still Christ Himself. Dr. this work in the regions beyond. By the grace of Simpson lived and wrought by faith that the grace of God might be fully manifested and the God, and through grace in the loyal, loving minglory of God fully revealed. He waxed strong in faith and pressed onward in the world-wide serv- istries of thousands at home and in the foreign fields, the missionary work of the Alliance has grown and borne fruit in goodly measure.
"The following figures show the growth of the work in the last fifteen years: 1920 1935 Number of fields ………………. . 16 20 Number of missionaries …………. . 342 508 Native Workers ……………….. . 715 1,527 Baptisms during year …………… . 1,649 6,187 Inquirers during year …………… . 3,993 21,759 Organized churches …………….. . 130 473 Church Membership …………….. . 11,923 44,497 Sunday Schools ……………….. . 162 935 Sunday Scholars ……………….. . 8,949 37,098 Stations ……………………… . 111 134 Outstations …………………… . 475 1,344 Bible School students …………… . 241 362
"The Christian and Missionary Alliance is now as we increase in the knowledge and fulness of working among ninety-five languages and prin- Christ can we increase in the scope and fruitfulcipal dialects. Twenty-four of these were entered ness of our service for Christ. Surely in this before the end of 1919, the year that Dr. Simpson Jubilee Year God wants us to continue and indied. The other seventy-one have been entered in crease our obedience to Christ's command, 'Go ye.' the years 1920 to 1936, inclusive. In about thirtysix of these languages and dialects The Christian "Let us go forward by preaching and pen, by and Missionary Alliance is the only evangelical prayer and purse. We must send forth the workwitness. The population for which The Alliance men by prayer and purse, that they may make is responsible in its mission fields is 72,643,000. God known to men and bring men to God."
"The Alliance, in its foreign work, ministers We also quote as follows from the Golden Anthe Word of God to men and women among all niversary Booklet: the great racial and religious groups of earth- Indians in South America, Negroes and pagans in "The Golden Anniversary of the Alliance this Africa, the peoples of India, China, Japan and the year will be observed throughout the fellowship Isles of the Sea, among many others. Roman by a renewed emphasis on prayer and evangelism. Catholics, Syrian and Greek church groups; Mos- With God's blessing organized evangelism will be lems, Jews, Tibetans, Confucianists, Taoists, energized by the working of the Holy Spirit and Buddhists, Hindus; Animists and pagans of many the harvest will be of God's own gathering. The kinds are found in our world-wide parish. Missionary Training Institute at Nyack, New York, is a vital link in doing effective missionary "God has set the Alliance in strategic crossways work. Throughout the United States and Canada of the world for work among tribes and peoples the anniversary is being commemorated in a Bible yet unevangelized. In a recent trip in Kwangsi, and Missionary Crusade which will be featured South China, two missionaries, a new recruit and in the Annual Council in New York City in May an older veteran, met people of six different tribes and throughout the summer conventions. Misand had previously visited those of a seventh. sionary conventions will also be held in thirty or The tribes are: Chwang, Timber Yao, Dog Yao, forty principal cities of America and definite ad- Black Miao, White Miao, Tung, and Red Yao. In vance is planned in reaching new objectives and Kweichow-Szechuan are eleven counties with opening pioneer areas to the Gospel. their vast multitudes of Chinese and tribespeople and as yet the Alliance has opened work in only "The intent of Dr. Simpson was not to found a four. French Indo-China presents three great new denomination, but to bring about an Alliance racial groups, totaling more than twenty million of those who would cooperate in taking the fullsouls, and in addition eighty or more tribes and orbed message of the Bible to the unreached peomany dialects. In the Southern Philippines are ples of earth. The General Council of the Somany Moslem and pagan groups and work is being ciety, in 1934, passed a Special Resolution bearing done in seventeen languages and dialects. In the on the broad fraternal relations of the work as Netherlands East Indies, six languages are being follows: regularly used and many others are represented in our Bible School. In French West Africa, Al- "The Society is not merely an organization but a moveliance responsibility is for five million out of the ment, and God is not interested in the preservation and twelve million total and for more than one-third of perpetuation of organizations as such, but in the blessing the 103 tribes. Already the witness is being given of great movements that honor Christ in all His Scripin thirty-one languages or dialects. In the new tural fulness, and are loyal to His calling to world-evanfield of French Gabon, six tribes are represented gelization. . . . The statement of objects in its Constituat the station and other tribes are yet to be tion clearly indicates the fact that the Alliance earnestly brought within the range of the Gospel. The desires the full fellowship and cooperation of Christians three missionary couples are studying respec- everywhere, in the great program of a full Gospel mestively: Massango, Banzebi, and Yipounou. In sage to the world and of prosecuting an intensive mis- Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are other tribes of sionary advance. mountain Indians and denizens of the jungles, while in all of the twenty fields of the Alliance "Areas newly opened by the developments of there are hungry hearts and needy lives to whom world trade, tribal chiefs bewildered by the imwe must minister. pact of civilization; independent kings puzzled by the urgency of world events, exploration of hidden "We have a work to do, a commission to obey, highways in the dark heart of Gontinents, and the a message to proclaim, which can only be accom- roar of aeroplanes that are making the inaccesplished by God Himself working in us and through sible a commonplace of travel, call us anew to an us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Only unfinished task. . . . God grant that the obedience of God's people shall move to bring His blessing down upon a sin-sick, weary world." * • The anniversary objectives include 100.000 prayer partner,. $700.000 for Missionary Evangelism. and 30.000 subscribers to The Alliance Weekly.
on the Christian
I By REV. CHARLES A. PLATT, East Orange, N. J. I~ _…et Assistant Minister of the First Presbyterian Church ~==========================~ I F YOU want to know the power of Christ in produce in the youth of America a missionary zeal this modern world, go out on the frontiers .of that will lead them to accept Christ as their Lord Christian thought and action. Look at our and to spread the vital, dynamic world-brotherreligion as it comes face to face with the majQr hood that He represents. problems which confront human life. How does it measure up in comparison to the other two II world forces, Communism and Facism? What is it doing to promote world peace and good will PrQbably the best method of understanding the among the nations? The best way to answer these power of Christ in the world today is to approach questions is to study the missionary enterprise. our present problems from the frontier angle. What has Christianity tD .offer a mDdern, indus- I trialized, interrelated mass of peoples? Why should we nDt all turn cDmmunist and dedicate . One .of the most erroneous ideas about Chris- our lives to the crushing of all unsympathetic tian work tDday is that missions is an appendage groups and to the glorification of the proletariat? .of the Church. Many are apt to think of religiQn Why should we be concerned with the problems as consisting of theolQgy, educatiQn, social proh- .of the wDrld, why nQt build up a colossal defense lems, and worship activities of the average Amer- in our own nation and then defy the rest .of maniean church, and we think of missionary activity kind? as some additional service-rather magnanimous but unnecessary. To hold such a view is to miss Looking at such questions from the Christian the whole spirit of Christ and (what is just as missionary angle has two distinct values. In the first place, we see Christianity stripped of past serious) to neglect the best available .medium .of momentum, standing on its own twentieth-eentury religious and Christian education. feet. On the frontier .our Christian life must go For fifty-one weeks we have been studying mis- forward to victory or must go down in inglDrious sions, with a group of young men and women in defeat. Secondly, the missionary enterprise is our church. Why? In order that we might under- seen to be an international institution already stand Christianity! We want to see Christianity functioning, and capable of exerting a tremendous on the firing line, not as it exists behind a mass influence in many .of the conflict areas of the .of traditi.ons and well established institutiQns. world. We want t.o know what Christianity has to offer Not long agD an outstanding church leader was when Communism is calling youth to follow a asked: "Can the Church be a force in the estabmaterialistic cause. We want to know Christ's lishment of world peace tDday?" His answer was answer when nationalistic forces, fill youth with an unqualified, "No!" But many thinking young ambitious ideas as to the supremacy of one nation people are thankful that they have a different or one race. idea. They say, "Look at the great number of out- posts of Christianity in countries like Persia and The youth of America seem to be placidly talk- China and Mexico where the influence of Coming about world friendship, while the youth of munism is being felt. Think of the mission staother countries are being filled to the bursting tions in Chosen and Japan and Cuba where napoint with nationalistic propaganda. Will this tionalism is the order of the day. The Church on wave of acute nationalism sweep America into the firing line offers one of the greatest .oPporwhat will be virtually another "holy war," s,imply tunities for fostering the cause of world peace because Christian youth has not caught the ideals that we have." and enthusiasm of Christ? The one world Leader who came to bring peace is receiving less support Youth is learning to expect great things from from the youth .of today than are any of the other the missionary enterprise in the way of influencworld leaders who seem to be hurtling civilization ing the international activities of various countoward another horrible struggle. What can we tries. It is the best program yet devised for the do to change this, condition? The answer is to education of all peoples to a sense of W.orld broth- [201 ]
erhood, and to the Christian (not Western) way will enable the Christian to face the world and its of living. We do not need more peace agencies! problems, and to triumph? To answer this phase We have enough overhead organization! We of Christianity it is again necessary to look have made enough resolutions! What we must do through the eyes of the missionary. What would is to give a more whole-hearted support to those you do if you were a missionary in a land where Christian missionary agencies that are already Christ is almost unknown? What are the qualifiset up, and which can do a most effective piece of cations of the missionary that enable him to prework when backed by the Christians of the world. sent Jesus Christ in a vital, appealing way? And What keeps the missionary going in the face of III incredible odds?
Furthennore, missions is our only hope for These questions bring us face to face with our pl'ogress toward the supremacy of Christ. We own spiritual needs. Viewing the whole matter hear many prophecies these days concerning the of personal religious life from the standpoint of future of the world. Whatever else may be said, "frontier life" enables us to see more clearly that it is certainly obvious that as the years go on the the Christian's devotional life is the power-station Orient will play an ever increasingly important of successful endeavor. Our great task in the part in international affairs. Does not this offer home church is to inspire in our youth that devoto us a great challenge? Some say that the next tion-to -Christ and that missionary zeal which will world empire will be that of the yellow race: transform character. China-Japan. This is only a human prediction. But the fact remains that the future of the world, Christian frontiers present the most vital kind in its uplifting aspects, depends largely upon a of Christian activity for thinking youth today. Christian Orient. How can this be brought about? Out there is no dependence on the momentum of Missions is our best and most practical answer. the past. There, we must do or die. Christ is the only One who is sufficient to meet the needs of the But let us get back to the next immediate step valiant souls on the mission fields. Is He not suffiin Christian progress, What is the Christian dy- cient also to meet the needs of those of us who namic of life? What are the qualifications which remain at home?
Missions and the Critics* By the REV. HOWELL D. DAVIES, Chicago, Illinois Regional Secretary of the Congregational and Christian Churches CRITICISM of missions is nothing new. It is should help themselves; that we shouldn't med- naIve to suppose that all went swimmingly dle and disturb those already contented; that they until the Laymen's Inquiry was launched. don't want us anyway; that missionaries cause The East India Company refused passage to mis- trouble; that they destroy native culture; that sionaries and stigmatized missions as the most they are all agents of American imperialism, etc. fantastic and lunatic idea that ever entered the human mind. Ridicule was common. Classify the Criticisms "Here you propose to export religion, whereas 1. Those hostile to Christianity itself. People there is none to spare at home," said a Massa- who see no value in the Gospel will see no value in chusetts legislator. His attitude was typical. Missions. Such a playas "Rain" and such articles as those in the American Mercury ridiculing mis- A list of objections a century back is identical sions in the South Seas are only caricatures like _ with what is heard today: that we have so many that of Jack London, who pictures a missionary needs at home; that we shouldn't interfere with in a Prince Albert and stove-pipe hat preaching the religions of others; that their own religion is the creation of the world in six literal days, to best suited to them; that missions are pater- near-nudist natives who are skeptical because they nalistic and pauperizing; that foreign peoples could not make even a canoe in less than two weeks. * From The .Missionary He,raId, Boston.
MISSIONS AND THE CRITICS
Over against all such we can put the judgment those wh'O receive it who are most competent to of first..hand, able observers. judge of it. None apparently are dissatisfied with "I suppose," said R. L. Stevenson, "I am in the the article sold them and want to return it.
position of many persons. I had conceived a great Rather they recommend it to their friends as prejudice against missions in the South Seas. I something superior to what they have had before.
had no sooner come there than that prej udice was The Japanese list six points 'Of superiority of reduced, and then at last annihilated." Christianity to Buddhism. God, as personal. God "A man that took one fairly by storm for the seeking men. The sense of personality. Pracmost attractive, brave, and interesting man in the tical, convenient Scriptures. A superlative ethical whole Pacific," he said of James Chalmers of New sense. Social justice and service. Guinea. 4. The criticisms of those who judge everything "I certainly should have predicted," said Darwin by a single unfortunate detail, such as an ignorant after seeing the work among the Indians of Tierra or tactless missionary, an unwise local policy, a del Fuego, "that not all the missionaries in the bungled program, a wasted dollar. Judged by world could have done what has been done." this standard, "Who or what, 0 Lord, anywhere, shall stand?" Ex~President Taft could not praise too highly the missionary work he observed in the Philip- One poor farmer is not sufficient t'O condemn pines when he was governor. agriculture, a poor preacher the ministry, a fake mining scheme the whole mining enterprise, a stu- "I have observed the results of their labors," dent flunk all education, nor a quack doctor the wrote the author and traveler, Alexander Powell, whole medical profession. "in every great field of evangelistic entleavor, and it angers me to hear missionaries and their work 5. The laissez-faire obiections of those who condemned." want things left alone-all forces and factors, to work out themselves. But laissez-faire never built "In my judgment the Christian missions have a school, founded a hospital, or developed a lightdone more lasting good to the people of India than ing plant and water system at a conference camp. all other agencies combined," stated the Governor The consistent laisseZ-faire critic will recognize of Bengal. Christianity as a force with the same rights as any other force. "After thirty thousand miles of travel and something like three hundred interviews," wrote the newspaper correspondent, Charles A. Selden, 6. The cross-fire based on the idea that we have "my prejudices gave way to great respect f'Or the only a social Gospel to offer and that nearly every missionaries and their work." effort is of a political scheming sort, gate~rashing "I believe that every dollar invested in foreign and imperialistic, the work of reactionary, self- missions has produced greater returns than any centered or even villainous denominational dollar invested in any human enterprise," said Boards.
William Boyd, Advertising M.ana,ger, Curtis Pub- The answer is that the motive and movement lishing Company. of missions are love and friendship, however in- 2. Those of ardent nationalists like Gandhi who adequate be the channels through which it flows. object to proselyting. Should courtesy .keep us The earthen vessel is only too apparent but in it is the treasure of divine redemption. from offering the Gospel, therefore, in India?
No, for it can be offered without objectionable 7. The criticisms of uninformed and selfish proselyting. Moreover, the Gospel is n'Ot one cul- church people. Education, persistent and kindly, ture displacing another and it belongs no more to can help the former and more Christian grace the America, England, or France than to India itself. latter. The trouble is to connect information and The Gospel has no less right of way than love with these parties. All that can be said for science, commerce or education. It can only help the Gospel itself can be said for missions, and India's nationalism in the higher sense. It is shall it not be said?
doubtful if many or if any Hindus regard their There is a sufficient answer to every criticism religion as for others. . honestly and sincerely proffered. But better than 3. Those ignorant of the whole idea. All objec- all answering of objections is an infusion of tions based on misconcepti'Ons are invalid. On Christlike love. Our great need is to make more any such theory all life would stop, for there is church members into Christians.
nothing against which objections based on igno- 8. The criticisms of sincere friends of the rance are not directed. B'Oth Democrats and Re- cause. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend."
publicans will tell you this. Prejudice being the All constructive criticism can do 'Only good. The thing that begins where your information leaves cause most to be pitied is the one that has lost the off, no enteliprise should halt for just that. capacity to criticize itself.
Presumably it is those who take the Gos,pel and The church of the 16th century was saved by
the self…criticism of Protestantism.· And this goes gation, knowing this means vindication and infor missions too. The verdict was: "The mission terest. Worse than to be criticized is to be must go on and there is enough in its program to ignored, and most of all to be ignored by church bankrupt Christendom if we try to do all that is people. calling to be done." But it may be safely said that missions cannot *** and will not be ignored by those who know the God who is the God of all the earth and not the In brief, most negative criticisms of missions God of a tribe, whether it be a family tribe, a are at bottom rationalizations of prejudice, igno- community tribe or a national tribe. rance and selfishness. Missions welcome investi- Combating Communism With Christian Service in Kiangsi* By GEORGE W. SHEPHERD, Kienning, Fukien Secretary of the North China Christian Rural'Service Union A FEW years ago some missionaries met at training that type of men: the Union High School Kuling to discuss communism. We invited in Foochow." Madame Chiang Kai-shek and asked her what she thought about how to overcome com- The government of Kiangsi expressed itself as munism. "I would like to ask this question," she determined to replace crooked politicians and corsaid; "what are we Christians doing? Do we rupt magistrates with men who have a definite not have some responsibility toward the needs of interest in the welfare of the people. China ?" In addition to supplying the government with "We are not an official body," we replied. men and women of integrity and training, the "Then pass it on to an official body." Church decided that it ought to respond to the The challenge was passed on to the National challenge to help reorganize society in the recov- Christian Council, and this body invited its rural ered communist areas, and to lend a hand in worksecretary, Mr. Chang Fu-liang, and myself, mis- ing out some of the acute economic and social sionary of the American Board, to report to an problems of the toiling masses. enlarged meeting in Nanchang, Kiangsi. A thorough investigation convinced these Chris- The Kiangsi Christian Rural Service Union was tian leaders, that the government had already em- organized and the National Christian Council apbarked upon a program for the improvement of proved the plan agreed upon: the life of the people, and that the invitation extended to the Christian forces was no political That it should be people-centric, rather than move, but was actuated by a sincere desire for the centered in an institution or the government; well-being of the farmers and workers. that it should train local leadership; that it The government leaders argued that the should test and adapt results of successful experi- Church and its institutions had men and women ments already under way in China; that it should of character and training, who ought to be re- work in a limited area; that it should assist local leased for remolding the life of the people in war- leaders in carrying out a program within the ecotorn Kiangsi and adjoining territory. nomic capacity of the people to support; that it "Do you have three hundred young men," asked should give the Christian religion an important the Commissioner of Education, "such as are place in serving the whole man and the whole trained in the Union High School in Foochow? community. Men who could come into the business of rural reconstruction under the government?" The central feature of this proposed project was "No! there is only one school in China that is to be the training of indigenous leadership by a traveling normal school of experts through serv- * From The Missionary Herald. ice-in-training and supervision of work.
The lines of service were intended to include vil- lage organization, agricultural extension, public health, the development of village industries, or-
COMBATING COMMUNISM WITH CHRISTIAN SERVICE IN KIANGSI
ganization of cooperatives, and the teaching of sician, who came highly recommended by her religion. school, went out into the area and began by treat- At the head of the traveling normal school were to be two executive secretaries, a Chinese and a ing disease. One pair of hands could not wait on missionary, to spend most of their time on the all who came to her, so her business was to find field, directing the work of the project. out the things she could teach the farmers to do The area selected for work was Lichuan, a Hsien forty miles from the American Board Mis- for themselves, such as to put drops into their sion at Shaowu. It is impossible to convey to outsiders the depths of human misery which have own children's eyes. . been accepted as the common lot of almost every human being born into Lichuan society. Through "Go into the villages and find out some things corrupt administration, banditry, and Communism the people have been reduced to extreme poverty. they need," we said to the college girls. They dis- It is a good place for the Church to tackle the covered that none of the women could cut out and economic, social, and religious problems of the make their children's clothes and had been empeople, who declare that, given peace and security, they can make a living. ploying traveling tailors. These tailors had been The question arose-how to finance this work a pesky nuisance for a few hundred years. with trained men? Doctors, nurses, agriculturists, specialists in industry, chemistry, and rural The college girls got those farmer women toeducation-college graduates-were needed. gether and cut out women's and children's gar- Christianity has a program for China and workers were invited to volunteer for service, for ments. their expenses. No farmer in that district has tools with which I was asked to come and speak to the boys for to make or mend his own baskets. We called in two hours at the Central Political Training Academy in Nanking, where all the diplomats and key- a man to teach them. men of the Chinese Government are trained. The We felt that we ought to appeal to Chinese President said that he wanted these young men, the future leaders of China, to know what the Christians to support this work and were sur- Church is attempting to do. Only one other foreigner had ever been invited to speak there, prised at the response. Muriel Lester of London. "We will give you half your budget of $100,- We had so many volunteers for service that we 000," said General and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. were perplexed and surprised. The National Mass Education Movement, of which Dr. James Yen is "I will give $5,000," said one man. "If you the director, sent three experts to organize a rural school and direct mass education. Yenching Uni- don't raise your budget come back and I will give versity, through its Department of Political Science, put two men in the village of Lichuan. another $5,000." That five-year work budget of Ginling College put two women graduates on the field and Nanking Theological Seminary sent one $100,000 is now practically assured. of its graduates to take charge of religious education under the direction of Professor Frank The National Economic Council and the Pro- Price. vincial Government are both deeply interested in the work at Lichuan and expect to utilize methods The young volunteers were asked to move out into the villages, live where there were nothing and materials that may be of value to other combut dirt floors, and to sleep on camp cots or pine planks. munities.
"We had no idea that the people of China lived The influence of this experiment upon the naas these people live," they said; "not even ancient Chinese culture is here, to say nothing about mod- tional program has far exceeded its intrinsic ern China." worth. Springing out of this move toward a fuller Some members of the group said: "We don't need $30 (Mex.) a month living expenses; we life for country dwellers is a widespread detercan live on $20." mination to abolish corruption and insist upon a How does the group work? The woman phy- fair deal for toilers. For the first time in the history of modern China the nation has a sufficient number of tech- nically trained men and women to fill important government positions. It is noteworthy how large a proportion of these are graduates of Christian colleges and universities. The people in our group justify our claim that a man who has had Christian experience should have a higher type of character than any other person in the world. Some institutions in China are academically the equals of Christian colleges, but are they producing character? Many in China say that they are not. This first year we will begin to give Christian teaching to the farmers who have been Commu- nists for a long time. Little booklets by Frank Price on the relationship of citizenship and char- acter make a very good approach. Much of the Christian religion is introduced and readers are
invited to come to special classes for the definite struction which will effectively neutralize Comstudy of Christianity. munist influence. An enormous amount of money and energy has been unavoidably devoted to the This project was launched as a venture in former of these which General Chiang and his Christian faith and we are being given an oppor- colleagues would otherwise have expended on the tunity to prove that we are followers of our latter. But with perhaps less of the former men- Lord, who was rich, yet for our sakes became ace hereafter to be feared and a sobering realizapoor, that we through his poverty might be rich. tion of the urgency of agrarian and other eco- nomic improvements, this Government has Dr. Leighton Stuart, President of Yenching achieved so much thus far in the face of stagger- University, Peiping, writes: "No more construc- ing obstacles that I have full confidence in its tive service could be rendered by Chinese intel- ability and intention to undertake the progressive lectuals than in the clarifying of these two issues measures which become more possible with grownow so confused – the protection of territorial ing confidence among its own people and less of administrative integrity from Japanese encroach- foreign interference." ments and an enlightening policy of social recon- Pioneering in a Cairo Slum* ~ ~.. I By MISS M. C. LIESCHING, Cairo i }lJE-•.- ~==========================~I BOULAC is the most thickly populated and the school. In those days every little pupil came with poorest part of Cairo. It is the haunt of a baby brother, or sister, hoisted up astride her vice, fanatically Moslem, and a place where shoulder. These filthy mites, generally full of the unfortunate drug addict abounds. Most fam- sores, and with fly-infested eyes, were the next to ilies live in one room, with no water supply and ·claim our attention. Government baby welfare no sanitation. Water has to be fetched daily from centres were only just being thought of in Egypt public taps, and paid for; so it is not surprising (it was the C. M. S. in Old Cairo that had the that cleanliness is at a discount. Rubbish is either honor of opening the pioneer welfare), and they thrown out into the streets, where it lies all day had not reached Boulac. rotting and collecting masses of flies, or it is left on the roof to dry, to be used later as fuel. So we started a Baby Welfare, with a clinic open twice a week, and systematic visiting in the The Ragged Sunday School homes on four other days. But what a business it was gaining the women's confidence and overcom- We looked from the windows of the C. M. S. ing their suspicion! High School in Boulac into this slum, and thus its existence was forced upon our consciousness and It takes a very long time for a new idea to peneour consciences. We began to fear that we might trate the mind of a Boulac woman, or of any other be allowing our girls, themselves receiving a first- uneducated woman, sufficiently for her to act rate education, to think of Christianity far too upon it. "How much better," we said, "to premuch as something which flowed into one, and not pare the future mothers than to repair those in through one to others. So we took them out, under whom wrong ideas are ingrained." chaperonage, into the almost unpenetrated fastnesses of Boulac to open a Ragged Sunday school The Little Girls' Club for little girls in the most despised section of this despised neighborhood. Two years pre- Thus we were led to the opening in 1~31 of what viously the C. M. S. had opened a boys' club in a is now known as the Little Girls' Club. We have rented coffee house, and it was in the same prem- some fifty children who come daily from 2 to 4 ises that we started the School of Love. "Sunday p. m. to learn reading and writing, hygiene, and school" would convey nothing to the people. the care of the home and baby. Each child is en- gaged at present on making a set of baby clothes, For some years it was more like a zoo than a and six at a time take turns in attending the wel- fare twice a week, to help in the bathing room and • Condensed from Church Missionary Outlook. to watch treatments. Last year we added another
A CHINESE COMMUNIST FINDS CHRIST
educative agency in the form of a children's have some real alleviation to offer that one feels prayer corner, i. e. a place set apart for quiet and is not just charity. with such an arrangement of beauty as to suggest worship and reverence. It is proving a real The Nursery School help to the children's prayer life, and indeed to all .of us. This year we have been able to start among The significant years between two, when the the senior girls who have learnt to read, both baby leaves the welfare, and six, when she can Moslem and Christian, a branch of the Bible Read- enter the club, were, however, not cared for. Last, ing Fellowship, using notes on Course C which we started, two years ago, a nursery class, the have recently been published in Arabic. first of its kind in Egypt. Elder girls from the club find here another practising school, by acting The Embroidery Industry as voluntary helpers with the toddlers, a most val- uable training for future motherhood. The med- We want to help our girls to deal with the two ical inspection that watched over the first two big problems of their life, boredom and poverty. years of the baby's life through the visits of the It was to find a solution to these that Miss Elsie welfare doctor, is now continued through mem- Anna Wood started an embroidery industry, using bership· of the nursery class. The happy home the beautiful eastern designs and coloring. This spirit and individual care that characterize the work is sold; a proportion of the profits goes to Nursery School are due to the personality of its the girls, and the rest helps to make the club self- superintendent, the babies' beloved "Sitt Linda," supporting. A most interesting development has an Egyptian girl, herself a trained welfare been that some of the poorest of the welfare moth- worker, who combines a deep spirituality of char- ers begged to be taught the embroidery'too, and acter with a most practical efficiency of detail. through its means have been able to live through long periods when their husbands have been out Thus we can now through the Baby Welfare, of work. They themselves greatly benefit by the the Nursery School, and the Little Girls' Club mental and social uplift of the work; and what an bring Christian influence to bear on every year immense help it is to us as we go about, meeting of a Boulac girl's life from birth to marriage. We on all sides such hopeless, grinding poverty, to must bring living water to the girls of a Cairo slum, as our Lord long ago offered it to a woman of despised Samaria.
A Chinese. Communist Finds Christ The Story of a Young Chinese Who, in Times Past, Had Participated in Some of the Communist Attacks upon Christian People in Shensi By the REV. JOHN G. MAGEE Church of the Triumphant Way, Hsiakwan, l~anking, China A CHINESE youth who belonged for six years the subject for that day was Jesus as the Saviour. to the "kill-or-be-killed" group of Commu- He was deeply impressed and began to read the nists in Shensi, went last year as a dele- Bible. Later he came to a missionary and said gate to the secret Communist meeting in Peking. that while praying he had seen Christ, who told Upon his return he was arrested by Chinese offi- him that he must fast and pray for a whole week. cers but escaped execution through a confusion of At the end of the week the boy told him that it names. While in prison he began to think seri- had been the greatest experience of his life, ously of the past years and realized that, though that hereafter he belonged to Christ and would his motives were to help China, the whole cam- preach the Gospel. He immediately began to paign had only caused more suffering. In prison preach publicly and to denounce the Communists. he read Karl Marx and Confucius, but received He is now in a Christian university and hopes no help. He was in despair after his release after five years to go back to Shensi to preach the from prison he attended a Bible School where Gospel. Effective Ways of Working 'fested Methods for Increasing Interest at Home I EDITED BY MRS. ESTELLA S. AITCHISON, GRANVILLE, OHIO d~,.,=============================================== MISSIONARY PLANS FOR was being used by the woman's Stuart visits us about every two society of the church. Most years. He speaks Sunday mornings ALL CHURCH WORKERS plans and programs featured in and then meets groups, particularly this Department under a wom- in the homes. In this way the foreign Among ihe life renewals of an's signature might be used mission appeal becomes concrete and equally well by "the brethren" personal. This is the best kind of the season is the springtime and vice versa. Pastors take thing we do in our church. notice! forecast of fresh endeavors Lacking a personal represenamong local missionary organ- Undergirding Principles tative on the field, any pastor or other church leader may secure izations whose plans and pro- There should be a united aim, such "living links" from time to gram building must take their all the way from beginners. and time and arrange opportunities primary tots up to pulpit 'en- for contacts with every age keynote from the new mission deavors, namely: So to present group in the church. In the instudy books and their presenta- a missionary theme as to give terim between such visitations, an .appreciative understanding the use of impersonations (costion in regional conferences soon of the people under considera- tumed or otherwise) of workers to be held. If nature is to set the tion, feel our kinship with them living or dead whose biographies pace, a mere duplication of last and realize the opportunity for can be obtained from most de:' sharing with them the task of nominational publication headyear's procedures will be inade- building the Kingdom of Jesus quarters warms up and vitalizes quate; for nature is cumulative Christ on earth. Away with the informational matter. There is in her output, whether it be of idea of racial superiority and the no substitute for life or as near weeds or useful vegetation. In gesture of patronage. Even if an approach to it as possible, in view of the resemblance of ruts it were consistent with the spirit motivating missionary activity. to graves, the Department Edi- and teachings of Christ, it would Plans for visualizing or dramator renews her plea for diversi- have become obsolete in the pres- tizing the new missionary topics fication and the adoption of im- ent state of mind of all "foreign" will be given in succeeding proved "ways of working" each peoples. They are all poten- issues. year. In this and the succeeding tially our equals, and the task of issue timeless principles and actuating that potentiality is It may seem redundant to plans mainly of a universal our privilege and obligation. mention as a second undergirdmould will be considered; and The ways of bringing to pass ing principle the value of swingwhile some suggestions may be that "appreciative understand- ing into line with other evanspecific to definite age interests, ing" form the motivation of all gelical folk by adopting the the majority can be adapted to plans and programs. It is not United Mission Study texts and their purP9ses by pastors, Bible for any of us finally to evaluate helps. But the contents of the school workers and a variety of those ways, but a paramount one Department E d ito r 's correlocal organizations. And by the is that of furnishing opportunity spondence file would surprise way, isn't the label "women's" for personal touch with live mis- you in their revelation of the and "men's" this and that be- sionary workers. number of inquirers who are coming a bit passe? Save for still in the hop-skip-and-a-jump certain adolescent features in Justin Nixon, pastor of the wilderness and have not heard unripe youth, is not teamwork Brick Presbyterian church 9f of any union highw.ay. In addirather than sex segregation our Rochester, N. Y., said in a recent tion to the advantage of finding ideal? Our pace setting young letter to the Editor: available the great volume of people would dub you a "back textbooks, suggestions, programs number" if a sex label were made The appeal of foreign missions to and other helps on the united a discriminatory measure in sub- the 25-45-year-old group is the appeal themes each year, there is the ject matter or methods. An ad- through person~lities. For instance, paramount value of a common vance step was taken by the in our church we support President J. atmosphere, of coordinated ac- Men's Missionary Lea,gue of the Leighton Stuart of Yenching Univer- tion, of good fellowship and United Presbyterian church in sity at Peiping, China. President Elyria, Ohio, when they took for their mission study text the [208 ] book, "Congo Crosses," which
EFFECTIVE WAYS OF WORKING
teamwork throughout Christen- ary organizations in the i r are sent each month, to be kept dom that you can't afford to churches. for 30 days, the postal departmiss. Never before were neigh- ment giving the plan the library borly borrowings of missionary A third undergirder is the privileges of three cents for the plans and programs so free and holding of a definite mission or first pound and one cent for each so helpful. Only those hope- World Friendship school at additional pound. The Convenlessly bogged down in denomina- whatever seems the most propi- tion pays the postage one way tional religiosity can fail to see tious period in the course of the and the church meets the return that we are now meeting new year. It yields returns far postage at the library rate by and emergent world conditions greater than any series of pro- using the enclosed sticker. The for which only a Christ-led, grams, though both have their local Reading Contest Secretary united Christendom can be ade- place. For plans and instruc- attends to the circulation of the quate; and for any denomina- tions, see this Department in volumes and their prompt retion to remain outside of such a THE REVIEW for January 1936 turn, whereupon a fresh supply union of forces is suicidal. and February of the present is sent. The Baptist Missionary year. Reading courses for cred- Reading Contest books serve as The new topic in home mis- its, such as a number of denom- a general guide in the selection sions is "Rural Life," and the inations now maintain, or the of the volumes, although some foreign, "The Moslem World." vigorous promotion of a circu- others are included. It is an il- Textbooks for the various age lating library of selected books, luminating fact that the women groups and coordinated helps are in a Sunday school class, a group of Vermont captured the silver usually ready by June or possibly organization or a department of cup of the New England district earlier. Send for lists of these the Bible school, is a corollary in the reading contest as a reeither to your own denomina- of the annual missionary school. sult, apparently, of the use of tional missionary e d u cat ion this circulating library. headquarters or to the Mission- Missionary Reading As a Promotional Plan On the Master's Waterways ary Education Movement, 150 Church leaders will find that Under this title the Woman's Fifth Ave., New York, and also little permanent interest in mis- Society of the First Baptist sions can be maintained without plan to send one or more repre- the use of reading matter. The church of Santa Ana, California, sentatives to some good summer effect of even a rousing booster have sent out their 1936-37 an- meeting will soon evaporate un- nual outline of activities which conference where the themes are less the new enthusiasm and truly is "a thing of beauty and interest are continuously nour- charm" as expressed in its into be discussed and materials ex- ished. The Baptist State Con- troductory literature, and em- vention in Vermont tried an bodies not so much a program ploited. (See "Dates to Remem- experiment which is yielding in- schedule as a policy and an ideal. creasing dividends in the way of Its theme and make-up are symber" on inside cover page of THE missionary zeal. For some years bolic. On a silver background, back a circulating free library of the cover presents a full-rigged REVIEW for location of many of good missionary books has been ship passing a lighthouse on a maintained. Previous to the de- promontory, and this design is these conferences.) As usual pression the library was financed delicately etched in green on entirely by the Convention, in- every inside page. The delightthe June issue of THE REVIEW cluding two-way postage on the ful surprise in keeping the whole volumes. Necessity altered this thing secret until its release at will feature the home mission plan, both as to purchase of the opening autumn meeting books and their transportation. added to its welcome. Infinite topic and the October the for- Baptist women hit upon the plan labor and pains must have been eign topic, although the home of having a penny collection dur- expended upon the preparation ing the dinner hour at all Asso- of the little 47-page booklet, for mission plans and programs in ciational meetings and urging the keynote, the opening poem, upon the local missionary or- Van Dyke's "0 Maker of the this Department cannot appear ganizations to solicit offerings Mighty Deep," "The Sailor's for new volumes. A sizeable Prayer," "Our Sailing Song," as in any great number until the fund comes in each year from well as all the headings of de- these sources. With annual re- partments and programs form a September number, due to the vision to delete out-of-date vol- fine anthology of prose and umes, a library of many hun- poetry centering upon the sea. fact that program builders never dreds of volumes is in continuous circulation. Each church is Among the policies reprehave their material ready as asked to appoint a reading sec- sented are those of a very broad retary to whom 10 or more books community service; caring for early in the spring as copy must the general social life of the be sent, and the Editor is obliged to wait until she can browse around at summer conferences. If not a subscriber to THE RE- VIEW, be sure to place your order for those two paramount issues early, at 25 cents per copy. It gratified the writer to note among the denominational leaflets and programs sent her last year what a large amount of REVIEW material or references thereto was included. Pastors will find an abundance of the best material in the magazine for their sermons, mid-week services and the various mission-
church (the "all church party" ship Port (Christian friendliness In October a speaker from Los in October being termed "Head- meeting). Angeles presented the issues of the in' for the Big Round-up," for coming election as they affected the purpose of better acquaint- Cotton Blossom Lunch . . . Negro Christian citizens (men at this meetance); coordinating the work Mariners (home mission theme). ing) in a setting representing a ship's and interests with those of "the railing extending across the deck, brethren" in that the men of the Dixie Dinner . . . Up the Bayous steamer chairs, life preservers, etc., in church are made special guests (home mission theme with young evidence. Patriotic decorations and at some of the luncheons and people's organization). flags were everywhere displayed. programs; "Husbands' Day" as Eight Bells-Ship's Rations . . . Hos- For November a Congo River observed at one of the executive pital Ship (White Cross work). jungle scene of tropical plants, a board luncheons; the society canoe, etc. The luncheon tables were sponsoring of some of the eve- Chart and Compass Lunch. . . Chart- decorated with miniature African huts ning church services; loans ing Unknown Seas (foreign mismade to University of Redlands sions-Albert Schweitzer). students, etc. This merging of the interests and endeavors of Lunch in Harbor Cafe . . . Western and figures nestled among bamboos men and women is a hopeful sign Har.Jors (Negro work in S. Cali- and palms. Tropical fruits served. of the day when invidious distinctions are to be wiped out. fornia). Decorated gourds as collection plates.
Apt nomenclature and rhetori- Eight Bells-Captain's pinner . . . The Student Counselor arranged the cal figures are used throughout. Through the Customs (installa- plan for the December meeting, a The official personnel is listed tion of officers). worker among the Negroes who had under "Our Ship's Officers"; the recently visited their southern schools standing committees are "Able Seamen"; the executive board is The devotional topics, taking being the speaker. "The Ship's Crew"; the presi- The Southern California Director dent's opening message, "We the meetings in the same order,' of Christian Friendliness (former Break New Seas Today"; the are: Christian Americanization work) social gatherings are "Pleasure Trips"; the financial plan is the Beacon Light-Clear Vision. Provo spoke in January. synthetic erection of a light- 29: 18; Acts 16: 9. house; the complete membership The setting for February was the I'oster is "The Passenger List"; Tower Light-Breakers Ahead. Isa. deck of a boat sailing on southern the programs are "The Monthly 55: 7; Provo 14: 34. waters. At the luncheon much cotton Sailings," etc. At these latter, was used in the table decorations. all the morning sewing sessions Running Lights – Beware of Sandare designated as "Seamen at bars. Heb. 12: 1, 2; Mat. 26: 41. The meetings in March and April Work," all business sessions as are to be in charge of the World Wide "Sailing Orders," the song serv- Harbor Lights-Quiet Waters. Mark Guild (girls) and the Children's ices as "Waves of Melody" and 4: 34-41; Ps. 107: 29, 30. World Crusade, each navigator being the devotionals as "Guiding advised by a member of the general Lights." Luncheons are coor- Signal Lights-Ship Ahoy! Provo 18: program committee so the session will dinated as far as possible with 24; 1 John 1: 3-7. program themes for the day, and Buoy Lights-Rocks and Shoals. Ps. be fitted into the year's theme. members whose birthdays fall in 19: 9-14; 119: 132-135. In July, the baggage of officers and each successive month sit together at one table with a special Pier Sighted. Acts 21: 1-8. chairmen will be examined carefully birthday cake as an extra. Search Light-Throw Out the Life- 0y the customs officer or baggage line. Ps. 103: 1-4; Rom. 16: 1, 2. master (historian) and the members The correspondence of lunch- will learn from their annual reports Starlight-Steer by the Stars. Dan. eons with topics is as follows, 12: 3; Mat. 2: 1,2. what has been accumulated during the beginning with September and tours on the Master's Waterways. Channel Lights-Deep Water. Provo The president will read her annual extending through July: 18: 4; 1 Cor. 2: 9, 10. report as "The Log of the Ship Serv- Landing Lights-Drop Anchor. Ps. ice," then the good vessel will go into dry dock during August. 91: 1,2; Heb. 6: 19, 20.
An outstanding feature for the year All program leaders are desig- will be the month-by-month building nated as "Navigators," the pro- of the financial "Lighthouse." This gram committee having entire completed will be a cylindrical model charge of the first meeting and standing six feet high, the additions the officers of the last. Special of a door, windows, foundation, lamp, plates, etc., being placed as they are music is on marine themes; and paid for month by month. At the first meeting the lighthouse has a firm as the luncheon tables are being foundation (rocks of papier-mache) cleared away the pianist plays and a lamp which is waiting for the Southern melodies or Negro cap before it can revolve. The mem- songs, Negro singers so far as bers waited with interest the succes- sive additions to the structure as fi- possible being also introduced nancial goals were attained. In addi- into the programs. It i·s mani- festly impossible to give a de- tion to this a Treasure Chest receives the offerings from the special gift tailed outline of all the programs boxes each month. It is always a prominent feature of the decorations. Bon Voyage Luncheon . "All but the following hints may . Our illustrations show- the lighthouse Aboard." prove suggestive to any societies wishing to build outlines sim- at the start of the year, also the set- Eight Bells, Luncheon on the Prom- ting for the September meeting. enade Deck . . . Ship of State (Civics meeting). ilarly: Jungle Lunch . . . Cruising on the The September meeting took the A few extra copies of this out- Congo (foreign mission theme). form of a play entitled "Sail On" and standing year book and the play, Plantation Dinner … Floating Uni- was held in the garden of the presi- "Sail On," are available and may versity (Christian e d u cat ion dent with marine decorations repre- theme). sentative of a deck. The theme was be had for 25 cents by address- most adroitly and helpfully elab- ing Mrs. E. L. Morris, 812 E.
Lunch in the Pavilion . . . Friend- orated. First St., Santa Ana, California. BULLETIN OF The Council of Women for Home Missions EDITH E. LOWRY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 105 EAST TWENTY-SECOND STREET, NEW YORK ~'~I~==~~====~~~~=~ FOR ALL MOTHERS of their beloved sons by the est maternal mortality rate of hideous institution of war; all.civilized countries. From slowness of heart to comprehend what is divine in the We beseech Thee to hear us, We think especially of the Indepth and constancy of a Moth- good Lord. dian and Migrant mothers for er's love; whom the Council has an imme- That it may please Thee also, to diate responsibility. Good Lord, deliver us. lay upon our conscience the un- The death notice in the county From the unreality of superficial equal lot of the Mothers of the paper was not more than two sentiment, from commercial ex- poor, the underprivileged and inches in depth but it had neverploitation, and from all lip serv- the unemployed; theless its modest headline: ice to Motherhood while we neglect the weightier matters of We beseech Thee to hear us, PEA-PICKERS' CHILD DIES . , . justice and mercy and love; good Lord. . the shallow headline of Zetilla Good Lord, deliver us. That it may please Thee to kindle Kane, the seventh child and only within us divine discontent with daughter of Joe and Jennie Bell By our remembrance of the any social order which tolerates Kane. Mother of our Lord standing by war or poverty, or any preventthe cross of her well-beloved able suffering among the Moth- "We come from Texas," Joe son: ers of the world; Kane had told the "lady from the ,government." . . . "We been Good Lord, deliver us. We beseech Thee to hear us, back three times in the five years good Lord. we been messin' 'round like this That it may please Thee to open without no home." … our ears that we may hear the That it may please Thee to Saviour's word from the cross, hasten the coming of the divine He glanced around the tent Behold thy Mother; society, when every Mother shall with its three cots for the family be secure, encompassed by lov- of nine – eight now – with its We beseech Thee to hear us, ing provision for all her need; stove that once had been a gaso- good Lord. line container, with its oilcloth- We beseech Thee to hear us, covered table on which was a That it may please Thee to give good Lord. pan of boiled potatoes black with us grace from this hour, with flies. . . . the swift obedience of beloved In the name of the Father, and disciples, to take unto our own of the Son, and of the Holy "Back in 1930 things had got every woman widowed, bereft, so doggone tough we sold off our hard-pressed in life; Spirit. Amen.* furniture and radio and cow and chickens and all and pulled out We beseech Thee to hear us, On May 9, thousands across of Texas for Missouri. . . . good Lord. our country will pause in rev- erence to honor their mothers. "We started on down toworge That it may please Thee to touch How much this Day could mean Texas. We got in a little cotton our hearts that we may behold if these thousands would express our Mother in every woman; in this love in help to the thousands women who toil in the factories of mothers who are physically and on the farms, in office and broken, socially outcast, economshop and home; in women of ically caught and spiritually alien race and foreign clime, in starved. It is reported by the women of every creed and color Maternity Association, New and condition; York City, that 8,000 mothers in the United States die needlessly We beseech Thee to hear us, every year and this is the high- good Lord. * From "Prayers for Self and Society," by That it may please Thee to excite our pity for all Mothers robbed James Myers. Industrial .Secretary, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ In America.
[211 ] pickin' but cotton was sorry and "These hard times sure ain't ment, "Christian Youth Building we seen there wasn't no chance made none of us no younger," a New World" to make a trade for a place to she sometimes said in apology. The United Christian Adult Movement stay another year, and we heard The Protestant Laymen's Commission pickin' was good over in Ari- "The old will be young there on Character Building zona. Well, we went and it forever," they sang. Missionary Conferences wasn't but we got in enough to keep us eatin' off and on, and we A woman had brought a tight The plan will make these sevrun into a fellow that said fruit bunch of wild flowers-lupin and eral field enterprises mutually pickin' was good out here, so we California poppies and baby- supporting and enriching. It come on to California. We been blue-eyes – wrapped in a news- will avoid duplication and the messin' along like that ever paper for Zetilla's grave. Ze- irritation of unrelated promotion since, pickin' hops and cotton tilla's mother stooped when the in the field. It will make possible and oranges and peas, prunin' a song was ended and took four an orderly sequence of field projlittle and spacin' peaches and of the blossoms. She looked at ects and an efficient use of field cuttin' lettuce and workin' at one her husband. Then she put her personnel, better equalizing field crop and another, and then flowers back with the others, on service and providing a more movin' on some more. We the mound of earth beside the balanced field program. might's well be gypsies and be grave. done with it. When Zetilly was The United Christian Advance born we was campin' on a picnic- "I might's well leave 'em," she may ultimately include all the ground up in Washington. We'd said brokenly. "I wouldn't have programs and field enterprises been up to see could we get on a no place to press 'em. Back of the participating national homestead." home we ust to press 'em in the agencies. While its initial ap- Bible." proach in the field is being made His voice shook and, waiting during the ensuing year, it is asto gain control of it, he bent to THE UNITED CHRISTIAN sumed that as many as possible straighten the stove-wood at his ADVANCE of the ongoing enterprises will feet. "Zetilly was born on the be caught up and carried forroad and she died on the road. It is increasingly apparent ward as an integral part of the The undertaker's is the first that the functions of preaching, United Christian A d van c e. house she's ever been in, and pastoral guidance, m iss ion s, Those which cannot be so insome say the County don't aim Christian education, evangelism, tegrated will presumably confor us to be there when she's social service and social action tinue their regular procedure. buried. She sure did hate being are mutually interdependent and left by herself. She was such a therefore inseparable in the The initial approach involves little thing and she wouldn't program of the church. The primarily those cities or areas hardly rest a minute lessen some wholesome trend toward unity in which a Preaching Mission of us had holt of her. Do you and comprehensiveness in the has been held or will be held this reckon it's so that they don't aim church's program should be sup- year. In this initial approach for us to be there?" ported by the unifying of field the United Christian Advance activities and approaches affect- will include three major phases. It wasn't. ing the church and community. While these will be mutually in- terdependent and supporting Joe and Jennie Bell Kane and The United Christian Advance they will ordinarily be planned their six sons went to the brief responds to this need as a plan so as to follow a sequence of emservice at the undertaker's, fol- for unifying into one "grand phases as follows: lowed Zetilla's body to the small strategy" the major field activigrave the County had prepared ties being projected by the fol- The National Preaching Mis s ion for it. Deacon, his wife and five lowing national agencies: (Evangelism) other pea..,pickers went also. Deacon was short and white- The Federal Council of Churches of Schools in Christian Living (Teachhaired and walked with a Christ in America ing) limp.. The International Council of Religious Projects in Building Together the The minister from the local Education Christian Community, Local and church said a prayer and spoke Worldwide (Action) briefly to the little group at the The Home Missions Council undertaker's.. In next month's Bulletin plans The Council of Women for Home Mis- Jennie Bell Kane uncovered sions for the Conference on Life and her face and pushed back a brittle strand of blonde hair that The National Council of Federated Work, Oxford, England, July 12 was streaked with grey. She Church Women was thirty-four. Whenever she ttohe2~6ea1n93t7i,mwe iwllebreecreopmomrteendd. In told her age to the women in the The Missionary Education Moveme:t:lt the camps they shook their heads and made lamenting sounds. The Foreign Missions Conference following study in preparation Among the field movements or for the Conference: "Christ's activities involved are the fol- lowing: Way and the Worl d's -In The National Preaching Mission Church, State, and Society," by The New Home Missions Advance The United Christian Youth Move- Henry Smith Leiper; 144 pages, paper cover 65 cents, cloth 90 cents.
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~ oUfM!:~r~~':!!~:cu5?t~~~~ok J1i EDITED BY MRS. HENRIETTA H. FERGUSON, XENIA, OHIO l @7' '~l§i INDIA largest gathering of I n d ian to perform the rites, and, even Important New Trends Christian women in the history after remonstrance from others, of the South India Baptist Mis- would not yield. Finally, he One of the most obvious trends in Burma, India, is the absorb. sion took place. Over 500 wom- asked the principal for an intering interest in rural work. Daily papers are full of rural findings, en, representing 80 different vil- . view, and told him that he was rural experiments, rural reports from all parts of the country. lages, met at the 4th Women's no longer satisfied with Hindu- The new viceroy is interested in improving the breed of cattle, Convention on the Madura field. ism. The principal, in a rage, inquires into the condition of the local milk supply, has the mu- These village women, who 20 burned the Bible and the young nicipality give free milk to poor children to see the effect on their years ago were almost wholly, man fled. health and mentality. Rural Uplift committees are organized illiterate, conducted the sessions Here is the sequel: A worker all over the provinces. entirely by themselves and con- in the "Regions Beyond Mission- This logically tends to bring tributed 112 rupees to the work. ary Union" writes, "One Sunabout cooperation bet wee n It should be remembered that day morning, a young man Christian and non-Christian; both are reading the same books, village women seldom have any dressed in the saffron robes of serving on the same committees, attending the same meetings and money. -Missions. the Sadhu came to our service, discussing the same problems. Indian Gospel League and asked for a talk. We sat There is also a tendency to down, and for about two hours voice in open forum' fearless The Indian Gospel League was conversed together. A few days criticism of Hinduism. One founded for the purpose of later, the Sadhu surrendered his might also mention trends along spreading the Gospel of St. John life to Christ"-Life of Faith. the line of temperance work in which the Government gives in everyone of the 300,000 The Most Christian Mission money to work against alcoholic towns of India. Together with Field liquor, which is a Government tracts on the Christian life, "The monopoly; women voting and serving on public committees; Way of Life and the Way of In the Guntur North and intercaste marriages; interre- Death," and "Which Route to South Godavery mission field in ligious marriages; marriages of Madras Presidency, the propor- East and West; researches along Take," a letter of explanation the lines of nutrition; the ad- entreating each recipient to read tion of Christians to the total vances made in the cure and con- the "Gift of the Gospel," the population of the district, won trol of leprosy: and also the con- from heathenism, exceeds the stant raising of standards in books are sent all over the counteaching, in medicine and in try. The Hoskote district, where ratio of Christians to general nursing. 400 villages are waiting to be population in all other parts of evangelized, is engaging the spe- India. According to the 1931 -Woman's Missionary census, one in every nine citi- Friend. cial attention of the League at present. A gospel car is used, zens in the Guntur District was Telugu Women Advance and some of the workers are a Christian. In the entire Ma- equipped with bicycles and dras Presidency, including na- If a group of village women tive states, one citizen in every can develop such initiative as did blankets, in order to reach vilone at Ootcur, South India, there lages off the highway. twenty was a Christian. For is hope for a Christian India. the entire Telugu country the In this village last year the -Life of Faith.
A Hindu Finds Christ census reported one in thirty- The son of a rajah's priest in seven a Christian. In British a .native State some distance India, including the native from Chapra, North India, was states, there is a Christian pop- studying for the Hindu priest- ulation of 5,961,794. These mil- hood. After five years' study he went to the Panjab for examina- lions have been won during the tion, and while there met a mis- past 135 years. sionary from whom he bought a Bible. As he read, doubts re- Another notable feature of the garding Hinduism came into his Gospel's influence within the mind. A climax came when one Guntur-Rajahmundry field is the of his friends died; he refused fact that these converts all be- long to the "Panchamas," sub- stitute term for outcastes. There has also been an advance among [213 ]
the Sudras. Statistics for 1932 World Congress, due in the year which they are supporting. an.d show baptisms in that field 1944. -London Missionary reports show over 1,000 patIents totaled 7,075; the following with 1,400 on the waiting list. three years also brought contin- Herald. -Christian Advocate. uous increase. First Christian Church -Lutheran News. in Sikkim CHINA Trends in Mungeli Sikkim is one of the Hima- Prayer Brings Victory layan states where Christian Chinese officials ordered Lisu At Mungeli the work of the work has had to be carried on Christians to tear down their Disciples Church is largely under severe restrictions. For chapel. After twice rebuilding the last 36 years the small group it, an official demanded, "Whatamong the Satnami Chamars, of Christians who have come ever made you Christians thi'nk one of the most approachable into existence there as the result I gave permission to rebuild the peoples of Central Provinces. chapel? You must tear it down They are Untouchables who of the work of a Scotch Mission at once." When the Christians about 100 years ago broke away has been asking peI:mission of refused to do so, he put two of . the Maharaja to erect a church the leaders in prison. They said, from their ancestral religion, "You may kill us if you like, but trying to find a way up to the in Gangtok, but without avail. you cannot force us to tear down light. But without books or But at last permission was given the chapel again." All joined the missionaries in prayer and teachers, and surrounded by and on October 30 the dedication fasting. Three days passed, but Hinduism they drifted back to of the first Christian church in even the heathen sent food to idolatry. In 1890 Hira Lal, a Sikkim state took place. The these prisoners. When their Satnami boy, was converted and Maharaja not only sanctioned friends came to the bars to comjoined the mission staff at Mun- the erection of the church, but fort them, they would laugh and gave the piece of land upon geli. He won all the members of his immediate family to which it was built. -Christian Century. Christ and has labored inces- santly for the conversion of his Singapore Churches say, "Don't worry about us." caste fellows. His faithfulness, One of them said, "Be sure to integrity and earnest Christian Ralph A. Felton tells some take good care of our missioncharacter won for him added re- ways in which churches in Sing- aries, as we are not home to look sponsibilities in the Mission, and apore differ from those at home. after them." The other said, "I in 1925 he was ordained. By One is that they are run by felt this trouble was coming and 1916 there were 52 villages in young people, for in the ordinary have stored up plenty of food which there lived Christians. In church there are more youths and firewood for my family, so several places large groups had than adults. The explanation I am quite willing to remain here professed the Christian faith. for this is found in the fact that as long as God wishes." Between 1914 and 1924 there the church conducts primary On Monday evening the offiwere 890 baptisms. But there and secondary schools in every cial's heart softened, and he was a downward movement. In- section of the city. These mis- said, "I'll let the prisoners out, terest is again stimulated in sion schools meet the govern- and the Christians need not tear Mungeli, hopes revived. The ment standards, and teach reli- down the chapel. But you must workers believe that there are gion during these formative not call the building a chapel. thousands-one missionary says years so that religious education Call it a dwelling, and have 20,000-Satnamis who in their is a part of the whole process, someone live there." hearts believe that Christianity and not merely a Sunday morn~ Since then a man, claiming he is for them the only way out and ing project. was sent by the official, tried to up, and it seems probable that Another difference is that the tear dow n another chapel. when the first 500 are won other Christians asked the official thousands will hasten to declare congregations are interracial; their faith. -World Call. the Sunday school and worship about it. Instead of defending service may be in Chinese from the man, the official put him in 8: 30 to 10: 30. English may be prison. -China's Millions.
New Baptist Union the language for the next two Chinese Leaders Condemn .War hours and Malay in the after- The recently formed Baptist noon. The same minister may From Chengtu, China, there Union of India, Burma and Cey- have two of these groups and comes a "Statement of Conviclon expects to be fully organized sometimes the third. Race does- tions" signed by fifty-three lead-. and at work some time in April. not matter-only language. ers, Chinese and Westerners, de- The first general gathering is nouncing war as un-Christian planned for 1938, and the hope Six out of ten churches in and unmoral, and calling for is being widely expressed that Singapore are self-supporting. world-wide condemnation of it. the Union may find itself able to Those receiving mission help are The statement originated at a invite the Baptist World Alliance the newly organized ones. Some conference of the Fellowship of of the Chinese laymen have to come to India for the seventh started an anti-opium clinic Reconciliation, and has been is-
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
sued in Chinese and in English. 1932-33 …. 64 328 139 467 Such missionary journeys across 1933-34 …. 96 748 326 1,248 These leaders in China believe 1934-35 …. 119 816 211 1,027 Turkestan and the Gobi Desert "in the moral order of the uni- 1935-36 …. 129 1,652 711 2,363 by cart are now becoming imverse and that man is included possible. Special danger comes in that moral order. We are -Presbyterian Tribune. from bands of wild people who, convinced that war is an offense Act of An Apostle more than ever since the recent to God." revolution, ravage the country- The manifesto concludes that "Can a Chinese business man side raiding caravans for a liv- "warfare, armed or economic, become a Christian?" Rev. An- ing. There is also the danger of as a method of settling interna- drew Thomson, United Church death from thirst, because the tional or national disputes, is in- of Canada missionary at Taokou, water stages are being left to fill compatible with the teaching has an answer. In January he up with sand. The only safe and example of the great moral distributed 500 suits of winter way to cross the Gobi desert in clothing among the flood suffer- future will be by motor truck, leaders of all ages."
-The Churchman. ers of eastern Honan, the gdt of and this is no good to mission- Leper Work a Hankow business firm. These aries because they cannot stop were quite unsolicited, and were off at all the oases and talk to the The China Inland Mission only a fraction of their total do- people and distribute the Scrip- Hospital in Kaolan (formerly nation for this purpose. After tures. called Lanchow), is the only in- the distribution was completed, This was the fifth time the stitution attempting leper work Mr. Thomson received the fol- three women had crossed the in the whole of Northwest lowing letter: Gobi. They found people at the China. They have about eighty DEAR MR. THOMSON: different oases thrilled to see leper patients, more than thirty them again, for when the mis- I am very happy to receive your sionaries last passed through, in of whom are Tibetans. The lett.er of 24th February and hereby the other direction, they were men have been classified into offer my sincere thanks to you, your· running away from the Mohamfive groups – two Chinese, two associates and the Magistrate for the medan General, Ma Chong lng, Tibetan and one Moslem. Two services in the distribution. the Thunderbolt, as he is called. At Tungwang, the City of Sands, services are held each day, one We feel grateful that God minisin the morning attended by all, tered seed to us for sowing and put in our heart to make winter garments for the flood refugees. So we seized the travelers heard rumors of and one at night especially for the opportunity as per Galatians 6: 10 communist activities in Kansu Christians. There are now more and made 4,800 suits (principally for Hupeh districts) entirely financed by and when at last they reached than twenty lepers asking for our firm ,with the twofold object to Suchow, their old C. I. M. stabaptism, and of these the majority are Tibetans. Bible classes cause thanksgiving to God and to . tion in the northwest of that have been arranged for the spe- supply the want of the poor. Now province, the city was under with your cooperation through Mr. cial instruction of those asking Stewart's introduction the work was martial law and they soon refor baptism. completely done. Christian unity is ceived the order to leave. They -Moody Institute Monthly. essential; as there are many mem- thereafter returned to Europe bers to one body, one can not dispense by the Trans-Siberian route. Christian Schools with the other. These her 0 i c missionaries The national secretary of the Again thanking you for your. serv- have, between them, given 108 China Christian Educational As- ice and wishing you abundant blesssociation says that Christian ing from God upon your work and years of service in China. For schools as a whole are making a yours. the last 16 years th~ have had large contribution to China's with them in their adventures a life. They have considerable Yours very truly, little Chinese deaf and dumb prestige, are well managed, and LI JUl. girl, whom they found as a baby, are growing steadily. "In our 13 Christian colleges and univer- -United Church Record. left by its mother on their doorsities, there are 6,700 students; step, and whom they named and in the approximately 250 The Gobi Trio Topsy. She has recently learned high schools about 250,000 stu- to speak a little to the great asdents. The number of primary Miss Mildred Cable, Miss tonishment of the simple people school students is about 125,000. Evangeline and Miss Francesca The stl1dents in colleges and high French, "the Gobi Trio" of the living in the oases of the Gobi. China Inland Mission, have re- "The missionaries' words are turned to England from their true," they said, "their Lord can last adventurous journey to make the dumb to speak." China. In the summer of 1935 schools are nearly 10 per cent they received a permit to cross Chinese Light Shines of the total number in the whole Russia and traveled by the country." Turkish – Siberian Railway, en- The ambition of Mr. Shan, A few years ago it was feared tering Turkestan fro m the Manchurian Christian, is to see that the day of Christian educa- north. From Chuguchak, they a house of worship in his home tion in China was over. But the went to Urumchi where they town before he dies. To this end number of baptisms in Christian found wonderful opportunities, he has contributed liberally.
high schools is as follows: and stayed for some months. Three years ago he made his
first contribution, $100; last mens. Dr. Lewis B. Franklin makes the Japanese feel the year he gave $200 more and re- visited this mission on his recent Church is their own, and not an cently an additional $60. He tour of the field. outside agency.
has frequently been reviled; once he was thrown into prison Tent Mission-Thirty Converts Night Clubs-Korean Style for a month because he had in "One of the most blessed and The original Night Club for his possession a Christian maga- encouraging tent missions we Boys was organized in 1930. Its zine published in China some have ever held," is thus de- success led to the formation of years ago. He was released another group to include gMiorrls~ scribed by Miss M. A. Burnet,' and meeting in day time. when missionaries vouched for of the Central Japan Pioneer his high character. Mission. It was conducted by than 150 boys and girls were two native evangelists in Mita- soon enrolled, and the title was The money he has given dur- gaya, a tiny village. The tent changed to Pioneer Clubs for ing three years is approximately was pitched in rice fields, with Korean children. In the fall two scarcely any houses in sight. Pyengyang churches organized the amount of his whole earnings Prayer preparation had been groups and in the following in one year.
-Evangelical Christian.
JAPAN-CHOSEN made by a Christian doctor born spring others were formed. Politics and Christianity in the village, who gave his testi- The movement was prosper- mony at the first meeting; and ing when a new Director of Edu- cation began to ask questions. Nearly 100 Japanese delegates by a young farmer, who has not "Pioneers" was also the name of attended the 14th annual meet- only prayed but worked. He ing of the National Christian has for several years sold forty a youth movement of commu- Council in Japan just before Gospel papers a month, accom- nistic Russia. What about these Christmas. The outstanding panying the sales with personal Korean "Pioneers"? What was message to the gathering was -talks wherever possible. Night going on? The purely evangelisthat the secret of power in the after night the tent was filled to tic purpose of the work, its world today depends upon per- overflowing with an eager and metho~ of C.hristian training, sonal spirituality. Plans, meth- attentive congregation, number- and Its antI-communistic inods, even duties are secondary ing between 150 and 200. Bi- fluence were explained at length. to the need for the Holy Spirit. cycles were stacked up outside Finally, at the suggestion of the One speaker opened the question the tent. Thirty confessed of peace, a subject which occu- Christ and sixteen have made offidals, the name "Pioneer" was pied the minds of all the dele- themselves responsible for hiring changed to "Bible Clubs." By gates. "The world is armed and an empty house to carryon regarming today as never before," ular meetings. An evangelist is 1935, there were fifteen such he said. "We who believe in the going to Mitagaya each week for groups meeting every day in Prince of Peace, what shall we the present, to shepherd this do? The peace of the world still little flock. -Life of Faith. Pyengyang, with about 1,500 children enrolled. Inspection rests with the churches. Japan's Day occurs every five or six fundamental spirit is peace, Literature of Their Own weeks. Leaders examine the children for their intellectual though Japanese patriotism is The Protestant Episcopal For- and physical improvement, innot yet true patriotism. Only in ward Movement has not only the spirit of Christ's self-sacri- translated the booklet, "The spect hands, faces and necks, and fice is there hope of peace." Coming of the Light," but has conclude with a "consdence in- redrawn the illustrations to con- spection," when the children are -World Dominion Press. told to look into their hearts, and then in prayer confess their evil deeds and thoughts to God and form with Japanese life. More before their playmates. "De- Opportunity in Rural Japan than 40,000 copies were distrib- cision Day" is the grand climax A little Japanese country mis- uted. A Tokyo writer in The at the end of the year. sion of the American Episcopal Living Church says: Church, which began to develop The whole Forward Movement has No Perseverance among the farmers and fisher- proven to be one of the most stim- men at Isoyama after Deaconess ulating, educational and spiritual Pak was a Korean bead Ranson went to live there, illus- forces in the Church. . . . Some of maker, and for 20 years had trates the opportunity now the most cheering letters of apprecia- been .working in the ~ame town, awaiting the Church in rural tion have been received from men and formmg glass into beads with women workers in all parts of the Japan. Thirty miles from any Empire, and in all dioceses a large his little blowpipe and lampresident pastor, a church has number of the parishes, missions and been built and dedicated by the institutions are now buying the book- for American five-and-ten-cent Episcopal Mission. At the dedi- lets for their members' daily use. stores. One day a colporteur called with a set of Gospels.
cation thirteen adults were bap- The fact that this literature is "I can't read those any more," tized and confirmed, six children printed in their own country and Pak said. "I read one of them were baptized, and seven per- presented in their own language once and it made me think too sons were admitted as catechu- wit h Japanese illustrations much of my sins."
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
"But if you keep on reading trips east and west on the coast tionship of this work with govand learn to pray, you will find ernments and disabilities ima way to get rid of your sins." about twenty miles each way, posed upon aborigines.
"That's just the trouble – I and so satisfactory is his over- Under the heading "Pacific," have no perseverance." The col- the Conference will study coopporteur pondered a moment and sight that the government med- eration, the attitude toward nathen said, "But you've been tive customs, and education and working at this same job-how ical patrols do not operate over evangelism. Methods, training long?" of missionaries and .the relative this section, content to leave the emphasis of different phases of "Twenty years." the work will be discussed under "In that case, you have perse- oversight of these villages to the Home Base. verance enough to read the Gospel." him. -The Chronicle. -Australia Missionary Pak is reading. Review. Javanese Christians -Monday Morning. Koreans in Hawaii The mission of the Reformed Korea Needs More Missionaries Church in Middle Java reports Since 1930 a mass meeting of that the number of Javanese Young Koreans of Hawaii, fea- The progress of K 0 rea n Christians increased in 1935 to turing oratorical and song conchurches, great as it is, has not 13,893, a growth of 1,842 in one tests among various church been sufficient as yet to warrant year, or 15 per cent. The Jav- groups, has been held at least the assumption that they can anese Christian sets a high value once a year. The last meeting, carryon successfully without on baptism. At present, there in the Mission Memorial Hall, missionary aid. The Christian are 2,076 people in the course Honolulu, was sponsored by the constituency in Korea is only of instruction for baptism who Korean University Graduates' about 500,000 out of a total pop- in a short time may be baptized. Club with Dr. Y. C. Yang, Presiulation of more than 22,000,000. There is great interest also dent, as the master of cere- The young churches need and among the young people, of monies. More than 500 young desire the continued cooperation whom it appears 5,637 are regis- people with their usual enthuof missionaries in the task of tered as catechumens; this is' siasm assembled to discuss the witnessing to these multitudes upwards of 40 per cent of those question, "Can youth improve concerning Jesus Christ. in the Javan.ese churches. and maintain Korean institu- tions in Hawaii?" – World Outlook.. Medical work is also expand- ing. There are nine hospitals, This hopeful second genera- ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC and the number of patients is tion, though U. S. citizens, re- constantly increasing. main loyal to their ancestral Papuan Medical Service background. Fiji Centenary Church All London Missionary Society Imported Sects in the appointees to Papua receive ele- The Fiji Methodist Church has Philippines mentary medical training at Liv- received the voluntary gift of ingstone College, London, before £1,000 from the Fiji Govern- The number of sects imported going to their field. The last ment for assistance in the build- to the Philippines from the few years have brought marked ing of a new centenary church. United States is becoming a matimprovement i n government The Methodists were the pioneer ter for concern. Filipinos edumedical service in Papua, one missionaries in the Fiji group. cated in America, and missionfeature being trained natives as This Memorial Church will be aries working independently are medical patrols. Cases beyond erected at Suva, capital of Fiji, introducing the Four – Square their power are taken to the to celebrate the centenary of Gospel, the Church of God, the nearest hospital where there is their advent to Fiji, at an esti- Church of the New Jerusalem, a European doctor. mated cost of £5,000. This is a the Pentecostal Church and mark of appreciation for the other similar organizations. In- Lameka, a Papuan lad only a contribution of the Mission to- stead of inquiring about the second generation from canni- ward educational uplift and good most needy parts of the archibalism, showed such aptitude in government. pelago and beginning work in his medical training that the unoccupied fields, they break government authorized the -Australia Missionary into well-established territory building of a small hospital Review. and undertake to set up new conwhere he could exercise the heal- gregations. ing art, the government assum- Australian National Council ing the cost of upkeep. A missionary of "the Four- From April 5-9 the National Square Gospel" who went to For ten years the little hospi- Missionary Council of Australia Laoag last April was asked to tal has been a center of help and will hold a Conference in Sydney confer with representatives of healing. Lameka runs the place, when three general topics will the National Christian Council, assisted by his wife and by a be considered: the Aborigines, younger lad whom he has taught. the Pacific, and the Home Base. Periodically he makes patrol Ques.tions involving the aborig- ines have to do with the half- castes and the ideal policy for Christianizing them; the rela-
who pointed out the great prog- religious groups on the campus. ganized basketball teams, physiress made in the last fifteen Records at the office of the dean cal training, adult education in years toward mutual under- show that of the 2,458 under- citizenship and current social standing, good will and Chris- graduates enrolled, only 147 problems, mothers' club, clinic tian cooperation, and asked in have no definite affiliation with for children, Boy Scouts, Girl the interests of Christian har- a religious denomination. More Scouts, home visitation, commumony, that this missionary with- than 1,000 are members of nity meetings, personal probdraw to territory where no either the Y. M. C. A. or the lems, daily vacation Bible school, other Protestant church is at Y.W.C.A. entertainments, manual trainwork? .Her reply was that her ing, sewing classes, dramatics, superintendent had assigned her – Watchman-Examiner. labor problems, kindergarten, to Ilocos Norte and she must do playground from June to Sephis bidding. The superintendent The Christian Observer tember, recreation for all ages, is a Filipino with a Mexican library for all age groups. wife. The Converse family has con- Through the whole program tinuously owned and edited the runs a golden thread of syste- NORTH AMERICA Christian Observer for one hun- matic Christian instruction. dred and ten years-since Feb- Income and Giving ruary 17, 1827. This Southern The community has responded Presbyterian weekly was found- until an enrolment of 2,300 has Returning prosperity is not ed by Dr. Amasa Converse, who overtaxed the capacity of the reflected in the philanthropies of was editor for 45 years. His building. -C. L. Zorbaugh. United States citizens, according grandson, Harry P. Converse, to Mr. C. V. Vickrey, President has been business manager and Indian Need of Christ of the Golden Rule Foundation. then managing editor since There was more generous giv- 1899. Chief Umpathtuh, last sachem ing in the deepest depression of the Mohicans, a graduate of year, 1932, than in subsequent The Religious Remembrancer Carlisle University and a strong years. In fact, that year marked appeared September 4, 1813 and advocate of Christianity for his the highest percentage of contri- later its name changed to the race, believes that unless there butions to religious., educational, Philadelphia Observer. The n is a change of heart among the scientific and other forms of two papers were merged under Indians through the acceptance service for society. On the the name· Christian Observer, of Jesus Christ as Saviour, the whole, the social services have which through all the years has education given them by the received approximately two per stood squarely for the integrity United States would be wasted. cent for a period of twenty of the Word of God, the deity of He says: "The Government years, which is one-fifth of the Christ, the reality of the atone- means well, but if education of biblical standard of the tithe. ment, and the purity and peace the soul does not go along with Giving is not according to in- of the Church. education of the mind, the recome, for more than one-half of sult for the Indian will be disasthe 1935 contributions declared The City Ohio Forgot trous. An educated Indian is in the income tax reports came liable to be a bad Indian, without from about four million persons Some ten years ago Youngs- religion." He pointed to his own whose net incomes averaged less town, Ohio, shocked the church tribe, now dwindled to a small than $5,000 a year. However, and the nation by a bloody strike number, as 75 per cent Christian forty-one persons who had an and disastrous fire. The Chris- and 100 per cent American. income of more than $1,000,000 tian conscience was aroused. each in 1935 claimed tax exemp- Here was a neglected city of new -United Presbyterian. tion on contributions totaling Americans employed in the steel $4,454,000, or 6.049 per cent of mills for whom the churches had Community Church in Alaska their declared net taxable in- felt little responsibility. As a come. The National Committee result among others, the West- Christmas, 1936, was more for Religion and Welfare Recov- minster Presbyterian church of than Christmas for the settlers ery is carrying on a countrywide Youngstown started a Sunday in Matanuska Valley, Alaska. It educational program to stim- school, putting $50,000 into a was the day of their first service ulate higher standards of philan- lot and a "Neighborhood House." in their new church, built of logs thropy. -Boston Transcript. A young Hungarian Christian, hewn from the "forest primeval" Mr. Zotlan Irshay, was put in by the men of the congregation, Campus Christian Training charge. This section of Young&- taken to the sawmn-l, faced on town, with its 14,650 people, al- two sides, and carried by theITl Twenty-six religious denom- most solidly foreign, is called to the site of the church. inations are represented at Duke Campbell. University, North Carolina, and Evenings aft e r working more than 94 per cent of the stu- The list of last year's activi- hours, the Young People's Sodents are members of some ties at "Campbell Christian ciety cleared the plot, dug the church. There are 15 organized Neighborhood House" give an basement, and hauled gravel for idea of its scope: Sunday school, the cement work. All together religious education classes, or- the congregation worked by shifts during the short days of
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
the fall and early winter. The day on some occasions. Lay tions." Six were "to live a life missionary pastor, Rev. Bert workers and young people's so- of service," "to end class distinc- Bingle, writes: "We look for- cieties were used effectively. tion in Colombia," "to help ward to a great work among' Brief services of ten or fifteen others." Several hoped "to make these unafraid people in the minutes were held in each home, Colombia a Christian nation." tracts distributed, invitations These young people have Northland." given and personal work done. charge of the Sunday night serv- LATIN AMERICA Results were very encouraging. ice once a month in one of the Two young pastors visited suburbs. Bible Distribution in Mexico several untouched places in Jan- -Colombian Clippings.
The house-to-house distribu- uary. Several small preaching Colombia's National Church tion of the Gospel in Mexico has stations were opened. It is met with opposition in some planned to cross the island from A little over ten years ago, places. A. B. De Roos reports: Havana to the south coast, Colombian and American Prot- touching man y communities estant leaders met in Medellin, In the first rural district in which a center of the Roman Church, the distribution was undertaken the where no Christian worker has yet gone. head of the village said, "We will not to exchange ideas regarding the Religion in Brazil Schools organization of the Presbyterian permit such propaganda, for we have The director of public instruc- Church in Colombia. Lack of all sworn not to accept any religion." ordained ministers prevented Only 30 Gospels were distributed there and throughout the district there is great suspicion. In twelve days tion of Rio De Janeiro has issued organization of presbyteries, but instructions to the principals of a rudimentary one took the thirty-four villages and ranchos were name "Council of the Coast." covered, in the midst of difficulties,. government schools to provide a Increasing needs of this group place and time for religious in- Yesterday we visited a number of villages, and going from house to house, a gendarme accosted us, rifle struction, other than Roman led to the organization of the in hand, asking us what we were do- Catholic, wherever the parents Church in Colombia on a real ing. I told him our mission, and he of 20 children desire it. Catholic Presbyterian basis. Last July said we must leave the place at once. religious instruction has been ten ordained ministers, four mis- "No strangers are allowed and no such propaganda is permitted, by requested by 70 per cent of' the sionaries and six Colombians order of the military chief of the district." parents of Catholic children. met again in Medellin and after This instruction is being given careful study decided: In one place we were subjected to a rigorous questioning, and our packs largely by priests. The director were searched for ammunition. When has asked Protestant groups to To adopt the Constitution of the Presthey had finished looking over our suggest the manner in which byterian Church, U. S. A., as the things I asked them to give me their the instruction 'requested by basis of the incipient Church. attention for a moment, and I read them shall be given. them Paul's sermon to the Athenians. To organize three presbyteries cov- I dwelt at length on the God Unknown -United Presbyterian. ering the states in which the but revealed in Jesus Christ through Presbyterian Mission is working. the Word. In conclusion I offered Young People in Bogota them "The Way of Salvation." They These presbyteries would be formed answered, "Yes, we'll take this, but Every Friday evening thirty by ordained ministers, without not the New Testament, as we have to forty young people of Bogota distinction of nationality, and been forbidden to take it." meet for a social and devotional licentiates residing in the respec- evening. Interest and enthu- tive territory, together with one -Scripture Gift Mission. ruling elder from each organized church. siasm have developed this or- ganization into a real force in To invite the Cumberland Presby- the evangelization of Bogota. terian Mission in the south- The Challenge of Cuba The object of this society, western part of Colombia to join this movement. A Mississippi pastor who re- To call a meeting of this same Ascently visited Cuba said the idea sembly to be held in Ibague in July, 1937, to take action toward prevails in his section that Cuba pledged by each person who beis almost a finished missionary comes a member, is (1) to pro- the organization of the "Synod of the Presbyterian Church in task; that great progress had mote all activities that develop Colombia."
been made, and Cuban Chris- a Christian life among its mem- With this Synod, the organiza- bers, by means of Bible study tion of the "Presbyterian Church tians are almost, if not quite, and meditation; (2) to develop in Colombia" will be completed, able to take care of their own Christian friendship and to take evangelization and other reli- part in activities of service. In and she will thus join the ingious work. The visitor was creasing fa mil y of national soon convinced that this is very a recent meeting those present churches that have been organ- were asked to write briefly their ized in Mexico, Guatemala, Brafar from being true. During this year much at- main ideal in life. The result zil, India, Siam, the Philippines, tention has been given to per- was interesting. Seven were China, Chosen and Japan. -Colombian Clippings. sonal house-to-house evangelism. "to get the most out of life," "to Cruces, in Santa Clara province, be intelligent," "to be something For Indians in Chile took the initiative, organizing worthwhile." Five were "to be- the forces of the congregation to come more spiritual," "to know Rev. Charles A. Sadleir many make several hundred visits a peace," "to conquer tempta- years ago founded a mission to
the Araucanian Indians of Chile. seven centers and the execution soil. They are largely literate, His son is continuing the work of others has been reported. but primitive, and enjoy few ma- and writes in the Evangelical Many are imprisoned and other terial comforts. Mr. Rahneff Christian: evangelicals are in hiding. Gen- works exclusively among these eral Franco is said to have stated humble villagers. Within less We now have three men working be- publicly that in the future Spain than a decade he has opened 50 sides myself, including our old helper would be "one nation, united in little churches, which have 5,000 Espinoza, who is in charge of the one faith – that of I sabel la adherents, almost entirely peas- press work. Domingo Carilaf, the Catolica." -Alliance Weekly. ants. This is the largest evan- first of our evangelists, has done and gelical group in Bulgaria. Rah- is doing excellent work in visiting the nlodern nlartyrs neff receives about $50 a month houses of the people in Witramalal, salary. Most of his preachers Chomio and two other reserves east Dr. John S. Bonnell, pastor of nave no regular pay. He seeks of Metrence Station on the railway Fifth A v e n u e Presbyterian little for himself, spends most of line. These reserves had never before Chureh in New York, likens the his time in the field, and works been visited by evangelists, 'and the German Christians of today to indefatigably. When n i g h t Indians there are showing great in- the martyrs of the early church. comes he asks his village hosts, terest, , . . The Capuchin Friars are "It is heartening to know," he who usually sleep on mattresses the bitterest enemies of our work says, "that the German Church on the floor or on a low platform, among the Indians, and will stop at is not a whit nearer surrender to shove over a little so that he nothing to hinder us and prejudice the today than three years ago. The may lie down beside them. Indians against us. Some of the tales German people today, in the they tell people are unbelievably ab- hour of persecution, are show- His services are revival meet- surd, and are only accepted by some ing a true unity and exhibiting ings. He invites his hearers to because of the superstition in which a fortitude and courage similar come forward and begin a new they live. to that which marked the early life. Many do. They become martyrs. Little did we think at "God's children." Hundreds Congregations vary from twenty- the beginning of the twentieth have been transformed. They five to sixty Indians, and while re- century that the relations of are turned into active, ardent, sults are hard to see, there are sev- church and state would become aggressive Christians and tell eral who are very much interested, one of the paramount issues of their good news to others. Vil- . and ask to hear more and more about the century. This question was lages become cleaner, more pros- the way of salvation. settled for Christians 1,900 perous, more orderly. This work years ago, when Jesus said: is .as modern, and as old fash- EUROPE 'Render therefore unto Cresar ioned as St. Paul's. the things that are Cresar's and "Christian Communism" unto God the things that are Pan-Orthodox Congress God's.' These words acknowl- A remarkable new religious edge the fact that the state pos- The first Pan-Orthodox Con- movement in France is called sesses certain rights over its gress of Theology, which was Christian Communism. It is led citizens, but they also make it held in Athens last December, jointly by Catholics and Prot- clear that there are bounds be- dealt with such subjects as the estants; its symbol is the Cross yond which the state must not position of theology and science of Divine Love on which are go in the coercion of Christian in the Church; Biblical criticism placed a sickle and a hammer, conscience. The principle enun- in its relation to revelation and and its quarterly magazine, The ciated by the founder of Chris- to ecclesiastical authority; the New Earth, has a circulation of tianity denies the right of a relation of the Church and so- 15,000 copies. The Christian totalitarian state to render the cial problems; the relation be- Communists are opposed to Christian Church impotent by tween religion and culture, be- the godlessness of Communism. making it merely the mouthpiece tween the Church and State and They derive their principles of dictatorial leaders. That is questions of doctrine. It was from Marxism, but they deny the religious issue which is para- wide, indeed, in its scope. The that this is "anti-God." They mount in Germany today." purpose of this first Congress believe that the moral principles was not, however, to solve these which underlie Christianity are -Presbyterian Banner. problems, or even to discuss compatible with those of Marx- them exhaustively, out to begin ism. They oppose violence, but A Successful nlissionary _ the work of discussing and solv- point out instances where it is ing some of them. Considered in justifiable. They do not wish to A correspondent in the Chris- this light, the Congress had a "reform the church," but rather tian Century tells of a young striking significance in that it to "free it from the capitalist pastor-missionary in Bulgaria, focused the mind of the Church regime." Paul Rahneff. Most of the upon the theological and prac- 6,000,000 Bulgarians are quite tical problems of the day. -Presbyterian Tribune. poor and four-fifths of them live in villages, where they work the -The Living Church. Spanish Evangelicals Suffer There seems a general tend- ency on the part of the insur- gents in Spain to put the Prot- estant element in an impossible position. Eleven evangelical workers have been killed in
OUR WORLD-WIDE OUTLOOK
Hardships in Russia listen to their teaching. Guards ham is the general director. British and American repre- Mr. I. V. Neprash, Director of were placed at the end of the sentatives at the capital pro- Russian Missionary Service, street to turn people back, and tested but to no avail. When publishes a bulletin called The men even came into the waiting- asked what was to become of a Link, from which we quote the room and tried to drag the pa- score of missionary workers, following: mostly women, who had been tients out. In spite of all this driven into the capital by war A Russian Christian from New the numbers kept up, and the conditions there was no reply Jersey went to Russia to see his aged women would slip in by side- but a shrug of the shoulders. father. Upon reaching Moscow he "For many weeks," writes a searched for some Gospel service, and streets; although they were missionary, "we have lived with after much hunting discovered that afraid to listen to the Gospel as many as twenty in one native the only place in which the believers message. hut. The mission station at were permitted to worship was the Lambuda has been completely space up under the roof of a Greek Then, gradually, a change destroyed and practically all the Catholic Church. It was a cemetery homes in the Gudella area have church, very inconveniently located, came. One day, in the middle of been burned." with narrow steps on the outside of a message, a woman jumped up the building. About 400 were present. Fighting Yellow Fever The people were constantly afraid and said, "Tell me again the that the beams of the ceiling would name of the One who can save Great Britain has invited Dr. give way and the whole crowd smash me,and keep my heart clean." Victor G. Heiser to make a spein a heap on the cement floor beneath. Turning to the others she said, cial study of the possibilities of "Listen, my sisters, to these controlling malaria and yellow From Moscow this man went to fever in British Africa. Dr. Leningrad and found that the largest wonderful words and take heed Heiser has spent thirty years preaching hall in Russia had been to them, for they are the truth." warring against plagues in all confiscated, and is being used as a parts of the world. He is recogmariner's clUb. He went next to a One by one they are turning nized as outstanding in the field country town where his father lives. to the light. -Life of Faith. of medical engineering. There was a group of believers there, but no services for fear of unbearable World's Youngest Elder The airplane, it appears, has persecutions. The coming of a Chris- become a potential disease cartian brother from the outside world In the Lokoja district of rier. European planes making was too great an occasion, and so they the regular journey to Brazil, finally decided to have a service. Nor,thern Nigeria the major part via the west coast of Africa, They gathered in a private home, have taken with them from Affrom three to five a. m., windows cov- of the Church responsibilities rica a new type of malaria that ered, with just one small oil lamp so is doing much damage in Brazil. that the visitor could read his New and organization falls upon one British health officers are anx- Testament. ious to prevent the spread in lady missionary. There are India from those areas in Africa At five a. m. the meeting dispersed, in which the host mosquitoes and it was well it did, for some spies ninety-two churches and only flourish. -Alliance Weekly. had already discovered them, and about ten minutes after the close of two catechis,ts with the help of Heathen in Union of S. A. the meeting the police were there. The man from New Jersey was then an African clergyman who pays The Union of South Africa has on his way to another town and not an approximate population of even his father knew which way he a visit once a quarter from the 9,479,985 persons, of whom more had gone. than two-thirds are nat i v e s. other side of ,the river. Since There are more than 3,000,000 AFRICA heathen in the Union; more this one missionary cannot visit heathen today than when the Work for Women missionaries began their work all the churches she adopted the over a century ago. One ex- A Girls' School and a Dispen- planation is the lack of a missary are firmly established in plan of caUing together two sionary spirit in the native Abu Hammad, under the control church and. a diminished evanof the Egypt General Mission, elders from each church in gelistic zeal on the part of nain a village of 5,000 Egyptian in- tive pastors. Furthermore there habitants. It was occupied by groups of 40 ata time, and giv- is among Europeans in South missionaries several years ago, Africa a widespread fear of the but opposition was so bitter that ing them a two-day course of competition of the black man, retreat became necessary. In should he be encouraged along 1934, a clinic was opened by mis- instruction. On one of these ocsionaries and soon many women were attending, both Egyptian casions, a boy of eleven apand Bedouin. As the numbers increased, act i v e opposition peared. When asked why he sprang up and spies were sent to the clinics. The work was de- had come he replied that he was nounced in the mosques, and pamphlets were printed and dis- a church elder, and so it proved. tributed, warning the people not to go near the missionaries or He frequently took the morning service,as he could read better than anyone else in the village, and he reminded the missionary that she had given him a New Testament four years previ- ously. -Eastward Ho.
Mission Property in Ethiopia The Sudan Interior Mission issues a report from its Toronto office that Italians in Addis Ababa have demanded all of the buildings, including headquar- ters and the leprosarium owned by the Sudan Interior Mission, of which Rev. Rowland V. Bing-
the path of progress. He is year ended without a single case under the rule of other Euro- more readily exploited when of default, or delayed payment. pean powers. Of the remaining -Christian Advocate. 34-35 million, Dnly those in Turignorant. -Alliance Weekly.
key, Arabia, Afghanistan and What Only Missions CanDo The Good Shepherd in Iran Iran are under Mohammedan rule. They no longer have a Northern Nigeria, equal in Most of the patients in a mis- sionary hospital of Iran are Mo- caliph; in 1924 the Ottoman calsize to the South Central U. S., hammedan. The medical superis Mohammedan and has been iphate was abolished with one entirely closed to missionary intendent asked his nurses to work. Some British leprosy try various schemes Df religious stroke of a pen, and the other teaching, and note the results Dn workers were allowed in govern- their charts just as they would Mohammedan states have never ment leper camps with the distinct understanding that they do nDte a rise in temperature or since been able to agree upon ap- other physical symptoms. The no religious work. pointing another. Then Dr. A. D. Helser, of the most successful was found to be the nurse's repetition of the Par- Moslems are themselves de- American Mission to Lepers, able of the Good Shepherd. The stroying their specifically Ismade a survey of this area. It patients became eager to hear revealed a growing dissatisfac- the great words, and soon lamic intellectual and spiritual tion on the part of the govern- learned them by heart, so that leadership. The great Azhar ment with its own efforts in when the "nurse departed from dealing with leprosy. In Sokoto, the true text, they would correct University, fDunded nearly one her. The explanation? The where the Sultan is the head, the parable supplies what is lacking thousand years ago, has for most government doctor was so dis- in Mohammedanism. Allah is of this time been the center from couraged that the leper camp great and powerful, in the minds which orthodox Islam derived its was closed down entirely. An- of his followers, but never tender other medical officer expressed or sympathetic. dynamic. The Azhar has IDSt himself as believing that "the first 40 per cent of leprosy treat- respect; it is continually mod- ernizing its curriculum. But missionaries dD not rejoice that modernization is takng the place of the old Islam, if it means their falling a prey toO Western ma- terialism. GEORGE SWAN.
ment lies in instilling hope in the -Christian Advocate. Annotated Testaments heart of the leper." The gov- Fernand Faivre, of Huguenot ernment now recognizes that MISCELLANEOUS descent, gave up the prospects missions can do that in a way Haven for Jews of a brilliant business career to that others cannot, and proposes that if missions will put a full- The New York Herald-Trib- devote himself e n t ire I y to time doctor in each camp, they une states that the French Min- preaching the Word. He has will finance him. ister Df Colonies has proposed been engaged for Dver 45 years The Sudan Interior Mission is that some colonies-specifically in evangelistic activity in southespecially eager to take advan- Madagascar, the New Hebrides, west France. tage of this opportunity to open F'rench Guiana, and New Cale- In 1922, he brought out the northern Nigeria to missionary donia-be thrown open to immi- first editiDn of his "Annotated effort for the first time. grants largely made up of Jews. New Testament," designed espe- -Mission to Lepers. This colonization is to be largely cially for evangelistic work. but not exclusively, Jewish; the Since then it has been issued in WESTERN ASIA immigrants must have capital Spanish, Italian, German, Por- and be prepared to work on the tuguese and other languages. Cooperatives in Palestine land or in other productive ac- Hundreds of copies have been The British Government is tivities. The plan is receiving shipped to the Cameroon, West helping to organize credit unions the careful attention of both Africa, where they have been and thrift societies among the Polish and Jewish press. used in the American Presby- Arabs in Palestine. There are It has also been proposed to terian Mission field. They were 74 societies, with 2,422 members settle Jews in the island of Cuba. adopted as textbooks on PrDtand capital of 1,709 Palestinian estant doctrine fDr native evanpounds. Borrowings amounting The plan has been laid before gelists. the President Df Cuba for conto 39,013 Palestinian pounds sideration and has the approval Rev. Andrew Gih, of the were made in one year by Bar- of President Roosevelt. Bethel Mission, S han g h a i, clays Bank at six per cent, and China, has translated the nDtes the societies reloaned to mem- The Moslem World Today – into Chinese (Mandarin). He bers at nine per cent, the cur- contemplates a first edition of rent charge made by the banks Of the approximately 235,- 20,000 copies, but wishes it were to borrowing bodies not Drgan- 000,000 Moslems in the world to- possible to have 150,000,000 ized as cooperative societies. day, 106,000,000 are under copies printed. Pastor Faivre Personal advances for seasonal British rule; 39,000,000 under offers toO pay one-half the cost of periods and medium-term loans Dutch rule; 32,000,000 under printing 100,000 cDpies ($6,250) up to five years are made. The French rule and 23,000,000 if the other half is provided.
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I Our Missionary Bookshelf Books Briefly Reviewed for the Readers' Information ~'i~================'~ The Way of the Witnesses. By Ed- sealed orders." These first wit- from quotations from other ward Shillito. Pages viii, 152. nesses to the crucified and risen writers, with whom of course Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. Christ began at Jerusalem and Dr. Speer is in agreement. These went as far as Rome. In obey- quotations are of real value and . Friendship Press, New York. 1936. ing the call they came to know more of the "mystery" of the na- show wide and discriminating This "New Testament Study ture and purpose of their Lord. reading, but they are not the in Missionary Motive" is by an They founded churches and fos- author's personal testimony. Oxford graduate who was a min- tered them, by visits and by letister in various parishes in Eng- ters, to meet the inevitable trials The first chapter, dealing with land and for some years Literary and dangers. They made prog- Christ's earthly life and its Superintendent of the London ress through conflict, as did the meaning, gives clearly the evi- Missionary Society before com- churches which they fathered. dences for the deity of Jesus. ing to America as a lecturer in In the Gospel of John, "the Gos- The second chapter, on the our colleges and theological pel of the Holy Spirit," the new "Person of Christ," points out schools. He is the author of generation "found a bridge be- that the whole essence of Chris- "Nationalism-Man's Other Re- tween their own day and that of ligion," and other works. Jesus their Lord." In its name tianity is in this God-man, rather the new society "claimed all the than in any philosophy, social Mr. Shi1lito's brief Introduc- world and all the ages." "The program or human organization. tion sums up the whole book, pattern of the New Testament," We do not agree with Dr. Speer, "The New Testament does not revealing "the love of Christ, un- however, in his view that "when contain a section given up to searchable and passing knowl- Christianity becomes a religion, . missions; it is a missionary edge," without that love "is book. . . . From cover to cover broken into fragments"; but the it ceases to be Christianity." it deals with one new fact – a constraint of that love will make That depends on one's definition power newly revealed and newly every Christian a missionary, a of religion. But the reviewer released in this human scene. A witness to all the world. new age begins. The revolution agrees that Christ is the essence is not of man, though it changes We would like to see this little of Christianity and without Him the life of man, but of God, book read by everyone interested there is no Christian religion. whose glory had been seen in the in missions, then placed in each face of Jesus Christ." But the one's lending library to be The chapter on the "Death of New Testament is not the end of recommended to every Christian it. It "deals with mankind and friend not yet interested. Mis- Christ" is a valuable contribuclaims the world for its scale." sion Study Classes will find it tion to this deeply mysterious The missionary is simply the attractive and inspiring. but most important subject. The servant of a world kingdom who author shows the deadly conflict "believes that a word meant for COURTENAY H. FENN. between two personalities-God all men should be offered to all and Satan – a conflict in which men." The Meaning of Christ to Me. By Satan seemed to be victorious Robert E. Speer. 12mo. 102 pp. but was definitely defeated at It is impossible to set forth in $1.50. Fleming H. Revell Co., New Calvary. Dr. Speer says: "The a brief review a hundredth part York. 1937. death of Christ reveals both the of the arresting thought, the con- limitlessness and the limitedness vincing argument, and the in- Here is a personal testimony of God, and also shows what he spiring challenge which the au- that is characterized by capital has done and will do for us." A thor has compressed into this "H" rather than by a capital railroad brakeman is quoted as small book. He pictures vividly "I"; "He"-Christ-is magni- expressing the truth when he "the first impressions of a pa- fied, not "I," the writer. For the said: "He (Christ) died my gan" on reading the New Testa- most part, the testimony is clear death for me, that I might live ment. Such a man is brought but only indirectly personal. His life for Him." face to face with a historic Jesus Some readers w.m wish that Dr. who committed His message of Speer had made it more direct The chapter on "The Resurthe Kingdom to witnesses whom rather than so largely made up rection of Christ" shows that He sent into all the world "under this is conclusive evidence of Christ's deity, and proof of man's immortality. The resur- rection imparts vitality to the Gospel and to be "risen with Any of the books noted in these columns will be sent by the R:o;vntw publishers on receipt of price.
[223 ]
Christ" means eternal life to the cares for the unemployed and capable of taking the conscious- Christian. ness of Christ as taught in the redeems the loss caused by "The Lordship of Christ" oc- panic." If it is true, as Dr. New Testament into their lives." cupies another chapter in which Kagawa repeatedly urges, that With the ultimate objectives the author shows that this means the recognition of Christ as the social reform must be motivated of Kagawa – the uplift of men supreme divine teacher, leader, by the Christian Spirit, then it overseer, owner of all who be- is highly important to know just and the introduction of a better long to Him. He is King of life. social 0 r d e r – there can, of what is the character of this im- course, be no disagreement. His Dr. Speer's most personal tes- pelling motive and how it is retimony is found in his final chap- sincer.ity and tireless energy ter on "The Second Coming." ceived. But here there is much also command admiration. It is This doctrine, belief, hope – is uncertainty as to the author's unfortunate, however, that he proved to be "an integral part of our Christian faith," clearly and position. No light is shed on the does not unite with these qualifrequently taught in the Scrip- problem by this further state- ties a clearer perception of tures, and of infinite importance ment: "If religion concerns itto every Christian. self only with the salvation of in- Christian truth, more of eco- nomic wisdom, and a truer his- Anyone who reads these dividuals and does not permeate torical perspective. studies carefully will find them society, it has but one result, the spiritually stimulating, encour- HUGH R. MONRO. aging, interesting, informing deepening of individuail conand convincing. They will prove sciousness." Or the following: 1936 Handbook of the Christian a blessing, not only to pastors, "The belief that the redemptive Movement in China under Protteachers and missionaries, but to estant Auspices. 8vo. 352 pp. every thoughtful reader who is love of Christ is united with the $3.00. Published for the National ready to accept the testimony of true nature of God gave birth to Christian Council by the Hsueh the Scriptures and of enlight- the doctrine of the divinity of Pub. House, Shanghai, China. 1936. ened Christian experience. Christ." The latest China Mission Brotherhood Economics. By Toyo- There can be no impeachment Yearbook includes information hiko Kagawa. 200 pp. $1.50. on the evangelistic, educational, Harper & Brothers. New York. of Dr. Kagawa's sincerity and, social, literary and medical 1936. in the light of what he has ac- work. Suggestions on "How to complished in dealings with out- use the book" are helpful, as well This volume has two distinct as the brief "HistorJcal Backvalues: first, it assembles a cast men and women in Japan, ground" and the "Interpretalarge amount of interesting in- there must be a certain grasp of tion." Since the first Protestant formation concerning the coop- missionary entered China in erative movement and its expan- the underlying truths of the 1807, the communicants have sion throughout the world; sec- Gospel. Nevertheless, his vo- grown from 100 in 1807 to 600,- ond, it presents the philosophy cabulary seems confusing and 000 in 1936 and the Christian and outlook of this outstanding strange to the intelligent Chris- community of all sects numbers Christian leader and social re- at least 2,000,000 Chinese. The former. Dr. Kagawa writes tian reader and the impression Handbook is mostly made up of with the evident conviction that will increase that this eminent lists of 68 missions with 1,207 the Church is under deep re- resident stations and 5,816 misproach by reason of failure to reformer fans to relate in any sionaries. Information is also translate its message into terms given on literature, cable adof economic life. Here is a adequate way the fruits of social dresses and institutions. It is a typical statement: "I believe efforts to the roots. A coopera- valuable book for reference. that instead of keeping this prin- tive is not necessarily a brotherciple of Cross-embracing love as Southern Baptists in World Service. a theological theory in the pul- hood, in the Christian sense. By E. P. Alldredge. Cloth, 60 cents; pit, we must put it into the When Dr. Kagawa deals with paper, 40 cents. 172 pp. Sunday whole social life of man. Right economic questions there is much here lies the principle which de- that is suggestive, but a some- School Board, Southern Baptist mands that the essence of Chris- Convention. Nashville. 1936. tianity must become the essence what similar lack of coherence. of the economic movement." There is recurrence of well- All phases of the denomina- The ambiguity of this state- known terms, some with a rather tion's enterprises are discussed ment is more or less character- radical connotation, and an adistic of the book. What is Cross- vocacy of theories of finance, in- in detail in eight chapters, in embracing love? In one place it surance, and distribution of is defined as "a great love which this handbook, designed to in- commodities which would hardly commend themselves to a well- struct the young people in informed economist. Dr. Kag- Southern Baptist churches con- awa passes a severe and not too discriminating judgment on the cerning the what, why and how Christian Church in this lan- of Southern Baptist world-serv- guage: "The majority of church ice. The material is well ar- organizations today are depend- ranged; Bible study is encour- ent, unfortunately, on the privi- leged class of profiteering so- aged by frequent references to ciety. When selfish profiteers, Scripture; questions for review who are of the same stock as barbarians, d 0 min ate the and answers are added to each churches, they are rendered in- chapter. B. G. JUDD.
Wonderful Women. By E. conference. "The Religious Na- A N 0 P P 0 R TUN I T Y
H. Farrance. 96 pp. Illus. lB. ture of the Negro," "The Im- Pickering & Inglis. London. 1936. portance of Understanding Na- for Pastors Desiring SONG BOOKS tive Customs," "The Effect of . Brief biographical sketches of twelve women whose lives have Industrialism on the Congo at counted in worthwhile service. Katanga," "The Right Attitude The list includes Harriet Beecher Stowe, Fanny Crosby, Mary toward Native Chiefs," "The A collection of n of the Moody-5IIn"'y Slessor and Ann Judson. The Psychology of Conversion," "The Evangelistic Campaign Song. u…. during material is not new or skilfully Place of Sports and Athletics in the Founder'. Week Conference. presented but the assembling of Missions," and "The Self-Sup- $ 5 0 0 PER HUN D RED these sketches in one volume is port of the Chur~h" – s.uch are ",..".'d. Slightly u••d. 1I0t impressive. some of the subJects dIscussed with considerable wisdom. Con- D. L MOODY CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS Sheaves After Harvest. By Dr. An- servative evangelical mission- 163 Instltllte Place drew A. Bonar. 12mo. 126 pp. Chicago, III. lB. Pickering and Inglis. Glas- gow. 1935. aries will find little here to criti- – – – – – – – – – – – cize and much to approve. Dr. Bonar was .a famous City Man. Charles Hatch Sears. Scotch preacher of over a gen- S. M. ZWEMER. 236 pp. $1.50. Harpers~ New eration ago, whose addresses repay reading today. Pentecost, York. Praise, The Second Coming, The Holy Spirit and similar topics New Boole. Frances Ridley Havergal. Esther E. are Scriptural, practical and in- Enoch. 95 pp. lB. Pickering & spiring. Beyond Statistics. The Wider Range Inglis. London. ' of World Missions. Stephen J. Corey. "Are You Awake?" By Florence E. 188 pp. $1.00. Bethany Press. St. A Hundred Years in Fiji. J. W. Marshall. Pamphlet~ 96 pp. 50 Louis, Mo. Burton and Wallace Dean. 144 pp. cents a copy, $30.00 a hundred. 222 3s.6d. W. Main St., Lansing, Michigan. 1936. Samuel Logan Brengle. Portrait of I Live–Yet Not I. George Goodman. a Prophet. Clarence H. Hall. 254 96 pp. lB. Pickering & Inglis. These clever verses set forth pp. Salvation Army, New York. London. the virtues of abstinence from 1933. alcoholic drinks. They are Missionary Stories to Tell. Various catchy and popular and useful Christian High Schools in India. authors. 178 pp. 50 cents, paper; for Sunday schools and other Alice B. Van Doren. 170 pp. Rs. $1.00, cloth. Missionary Education temperance work with boys and 2-12. Y. M. C. A. Publishing House. Movement. New York. girls. Calcutta, India. Master of Money – A. A. Hyde. Exspectatio Gentium. Compte Rendu The Glorious Revival Under King George Irving.' 157 pp. $1.00. de la XIIIe Semaine de Missiologie Hezekiah. Wilbur M. Smith. Pam- Revell. New York. de Louvain. 330 pp. 35 francs. phlet. 54 pp. 35 cents. Zondervan Paris: Desclee de Brouwer & Cie. Publishing House. Grand Rapids, The Meaning of Christ to Me. Rob- 1935. Mich. ert E. Speer. $1.50. Revell. New York. Under this striking title we have the twenty-fourth publica- Dwight L. Moody-;A Mighty Man North Pacific. Edward Weber Allen. tion on Christian missions by of God. A. Chester Mann. Pam- 300 pp. Illus. $2.50. Professional the Museum Lessianum. A few phlet. 27 pp. 20 cents. Zondervan & Technical Press. New York. years ago another volume ap- Publishing House. Grand Rapids, peared entitled La Conversions Mich. One Hundred Years. Arthur Judson which dealt with methods of Brown. 1140 pp. $8.00. Revell. evangelism and the winning of Pools on the Glowing Sand. Story New York. converts in every missionary of Karl Kumm. Irene V. Cleverarea. don.. 194 pp. 58. Specialty Press. John E. Williams of Nanking. W. Melbourne, Australia. Reginald Wheeler. 222 pp. $2.00. The present volume consists Revell. New York. of seventeen papers by Roman 1936 Handbook of the Christian Catholic missionaries read at Movement in China. Charles Lu- Jungle Friends. G. A. West. 63 pp. the missionary conference of ther Boynton and Charles Dozier lB. S. P. G. London. Louvain last year. Ten are in Boynton. 352 pp. $3.00 (Shanghai). French; and seven in Dutch. Kwang Hsueh Pub. Co. Shanghai, Moslem Women Enter a New World. The papers merit perusal and Ruth Woodsmall. 431 pp. $3.00. show how the same missionary China,.. Round Table Press. New York. problems that perplex Protestant missions are faced by the White Missionary Plays and Pageants. Fathers and the Jesuits in Af- Fannie Smith Gray. 277 pp. $2.75. rica. Asia and the island world Western Baptist Pub. Co. Kansas were evidently left out of this City, Mo.
William Quarrier and the Story of the Orphan Homes of Scotland. Alexander Gammie. 196 pp. 2s. 6d. Pickering and Inglis. London.
Awake! An African Calling. 56 pp. Is. Church Missionary Society. London.
1936 STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE James Hudson Taylor. James J. Ellis. Is. 96 pp. Pickering & Inglis. London.
Four Parts-52 Lessons. Part I, The Bible-The The Blessing of the Tribes. E.
God 01 the Bible. Part II, The Christ 01 the Bible Bendor Samuel. 28. 160 pp. Pick- -The Holy Spirit. Part III, Man-Sin and Redemp- ering & Inglis. London. tion. Part IV, The Church-Future Events. Send 15c in stamps for cunent issue. Full Assurance. H. A. Ironside. 75 cents. 126 pp. B. 1. C. A. Chicago. HRISTIAN PU8L1CATIONS.IN<: Kill or Cure? Muriel Lester. 135 pp. $1.00. Cokesbury Press. Nash- 1502 N. Third St., Hlrrlsburg, PI. ville.
NOT'
THE MOSLEM WORLD SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, Editor Some articles in the April number : THE CROSS AND ISLAM' Edwin E. Calverley A JOURNEY THROUGH NORTHWEST CHINA Claude L. Pickens THE WORSHIP OF ADAM BY ANGELS . Samuel M. Zwemer ILLUMINATION—A SUFI DOCTRINE Edward J. Jurji ALEPPO AS A MOSLEM CENTER Alford Carleton SOME ARAB FOLK-TUNES . W. Idris Jones OLD ISLAM ~ OLD TURKEY . Lootfy Levonian THE FINAL WORD OF THE AHL-I-HAOO Charles R. Pittman ISLAM IN TRANSITION Paul S. McElroy NORTHERN NIGERIA Benjamin J. Marais Book Reviews Current Topics Survey of Periodicals ORDER THE SPECIAL RURAL NUMBER The Missionary Review th~ World The June Number will contain special articles on "CHRIST AND RURAL AMERICA"
Achievements in Rural Churches From a Colporteur's Notebook Challenge of the Rural Community Solving Some Rural Problems Rural Trends in Twenty-five Years The Youth and the Country Parish Cooperation in Rural Parishes A Rural Pastor's Job The Rural Community Church Some Unchurched Rural Districts Evangelizing Rural Foreign Born Responsibility of the City Church The Larger Parish Project Woman's Work in a Country Parish Order These Copies Now for Yourself and for Mission Study Classes 25 cents a copy $20 a hundred $2.50 a year The Missionary Review of the World Third and Reily Streets, Harrisburg, Pa.
ROBERT E. SPEER, President DELAVAN L. PIERSON, Editor
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1892
THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION 01< BAPTIST MISSIONS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No. 9.-0ld &ries.–SEPTEMBER.–VOL. V. No. 9.-New 8erif3.
THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF BAPTIST MISSIONS.
* BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
One of the great milestones of the ages has just been left behind in the onward march of the centuries.
The centennial anniversary of the organization of the Baptist missions under the lead of William Carey marks an epoch in history; we hope it may prove a new birth-hour for a nobler age of missionary endeavor.
Providentially detained, much beyond my expectation, on the shores of Britain, I had the rare privilege of being personally present at Nottingham, Leicester, and Kettering, and taking part in the hallowed celebration of that great week which has already passed into history as among the most memorabl!'l ever known since apostolic missions began at Antioch, with the voice of the Spirit and the call of the Church separating Barnabas and Saul to the work of evangelization in the regions beyond! The arrange- ments were singularly happy, and the programme was well carried out.
New inspiration must have been imparted to all good work for God, and many lives will feel the impulse to a more heroic endurance and endeavor.
As the celehration was one of those great events whieh the scribe of history records in large characters. even the programme of proceedings should be preserved; and we here embody it. – BAPTIST MrSSIONARY SOCIETY.
Oentenary Oelebration, 1892. Nott£ngham, May 31st j Leicester, June 1st; Kettering, June 2d and 3d.
AT NOTTINGHAM.
Monday, May 30th, 7.30 P.M., Introductory Prayer-Meeting, George Street Chapel. The Rev. Dr. Culross to preside and deliver an address.
Tuesday, May 31st, 9 A.M., Breakfast Meeting in the Mechanics' Hall. Chairman, W. Hunt, Esq. Speakers, B. M. Bompas, Esq., Q.C.; the Rev. S. H. Booth, D.D., and Rev. W. Brock. 12 M., Sermon in Wesley Chapel, Broad Street. Preacher, the Rl'v. Dr. Clifford. 3 P.M., Ladies'
* An editorial on this Carey Centenary was sent from England at the time, but has been lost in the mails, after arrival at New York. Hence the delay in the appearance of this artice.-A. T. I'. Missionary Meeting in Mansfield Road Chapel. Mrs. E. Medley to preside. Speakers, Marianne Farningham, Mrs. J. J. Turner (of North China), and Miss Angus. 6.30 P.M., Public Meeting. Castlegate Chapel. Chairman, Edward Rawlings, Esq. Speakers, Rev. Dr. Mackennal, Rev. T. V. Tymms, and Rev. George Hawker. 8 P.M•• Public Meeting in Wesley Chapel. Chairman, William Willis, Esq., Q.C. Speakers, Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A. j Rev. Edward Parker, D.D. j and Rev. T. Graham Tarn.
AT LEICESTER.
Wednesday, June lst, 11 A.M., Devotional Service in Dover Street Chapel. Chairman, Rev. Solomon S. Allsop. Rev. W. J. Henderson, B.A., will deliver an address. 3 P.M., Sermon in Harvey Lane Chapel. Preacher, Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. 6.30 P.M., Public Meeting in Belvoir Street Chapel. Chairman, B. C. Wates, Esq. Speakers. Rev. Arthur Mursell j Rev. Dr. Stephenson, President of the Wesleyan Conference; and Rev. J. G. Greenhough, M.A. 8 P.M., Public Meeting in Friar Lane Chapel. Chairman, Mr. Alderman Bumpus. Speakers, Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. j Rev. S. Pearce Carey, M.A.; and Rev. G. Howard James.
AT KETTERING.
Except where otherwise stated, meetings to be held in the Marquee erected in the Mission House Paddock.
Thursday, June 2d, 11 A.M., Devotional Service in Fuller Chapel. Rev. Joseph Angus, D.D., to preside and deliver an address. 2 P.M., Sermon. Preacher, Rev. William Landels, D.D. 6 P.M., Public Meeting. Chairman, William Richard Rickett, Esq., Treasurer of the Society. Speakers, Rev. W. J. 'Price, of India; Rev. J. S. Whitewright, of China; Rev. W. Holman Bentley, of the Congo; and H. A. Lapham, of Ceylon; and the General Secretary.
Friday• June 3d, 7.30 A. M., Devotional Service in Fuller Chapel. E. B. Underhill, Esq., LL.D., to preside and deliver an address. 11 A.M., Sermon to Young People. Preacher, Rev. R. H. Robert!!, B.A., President of the Baptist Union. 2.aO P.M., International Meeting. Chairman, Dr. George Smith, C.LE. Speakers-England: Rev. Richard Glover, D.D. j Scotland: Rev. Oliver Flett, D.D.; Wales: Rev. James Owen j Ireland: Rev. Hugh D. Brown, M.A.; Australian Colonies: Rev. Samuel Chapman; United States of America: Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D.D. 6.30 P.M., Thanksgiving Meeting. Chairman, E. Robinson, Esq., J.P. Speakers, Rev. G. S. Barrett, .B.A.; Rev. F. W. Macdonald, M.A. j Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D.; and Rev. James A. Spurgeon.
Secretaries, Alfred Henry BayneR. Johu Brown Meyers. Local Centenary Secretaries.-Nottingham. the Rev. G. H. James, 7 Larkdale Street; Leicester, the Rev. R. M. Julian, Loughborough; Kettering, Mr. W. Meadows, Beech House.
Much of the attraction and interest which Invested these exercise~ can- not be conveyed or even caught by the pen of the readiest writer, any more than the subtle, evasive bloom or aroma of a flower; but wHh such an array of names, many of which belong to more than one continent, and are, in fact, familiar to the world; and with such un occasion and theme to evoke the best that was in the speakers, our readers need not to be assured that it was worth crossing the sea to be present when William Carey's grand work had laid upon it the century's capstone. The three great requisites of ull oratory of the highest sort-sympathy with the theme, sympathy with the audience, sympathy with the occasion-were inspired and supplied in very unusual measure. There was no excuse for not saying something worthy to be remembered, and most of the speakers certainly needed no excuse. Where there were so many memorable words uttered, and so many famous speakers took part, it might be invidious to discriminate j and I shall be content simply to portray for and convey to the readers of the REVIEW a general outline of the proceedings as they impressed one who was in attendance.
One of the main features of these meetings was the crowds attending. A list of some three hundred delegates was published, and they represented the whole earth-all parts of the United Kingdom j Africa-the Congo, etc. j various countries of Europe; also Asia-India, China, Japan, Burmah, Turkey j again, the West Indies-Jamaica, and other islands of the sea j America–the United States, the British provinces j and Australia-New South Waies, New Zealand, and other parts of the habitable globe. Delegates and visitors from every section of the earth and every great people were there; but these were a small part of the real attendance. At Nottingham and Leicester the crowds found no building adeqllate j and so it would have been at Kettering. but for a very spacious tent capable of holding five thousand, which was at times taxed to its capacity. The opening meeting at George Street Chapel, Nottingham. was one for prayer, and properly set the key-note for the week. By 9 o'clock the Mechanics' Hall was filled with breakfasters, and up to 10 o'clock at night, in two gatherings that proposed to be successive, but were near being simultaneous, the interest continued unabated; and 80 it was, day by day, the beautiful weather seeming God's smile on the occasion. At the last meeting I attended at Kettering, the enthusiasm seemed still rising to a higher ftoodmark, if possible, than ever.
Another notable feature was the general excellence and high tone of the addresses. We missed Dr. McLaren, of Manchester, and some other illustrious men. What Spurgeon could have contributed to such' an anniversary one could only sorrowfully imagine. There was now and then a playful allusion to the modern advanced notions of theology, to the higher criticism, and the progressive laxity of modern doctrine, and not a few more serious signs that not a little of this leaven of rationalism has pervaded the Baptist body, which we have been wont to regard as a bulwark of the old faith; but these were spots in the sun. W Il prefer to forget them and praise God for the noble utterances which characterized the whole occasion. If there was any noticeable mistake, it was in the line of too elaborate preparation. The literary feature sometimes proved more prominent than the spiritual. Some of the addresses were more like papers written for leading reviews, and will read better than they ~ounded. The conviction grows on me that what is needed on such an occasion is not intellectual and scholarly treatises or essays, but plain, careful, thoughtful, suggestivl', practical, hearty, warm speeches, wherein it is obvious that the man has something to say, not that he has to say something and wants to say something grand. The addresses that made the most impression, and tRe most lasting, were those that had least of the smell of midnight oil and of the savor of exeessive mental toil. The uplift was what was needed, and that comes from the spiritual side rather than t he merely intellectual. We yearned for such utterances as Carey himself would have given had he been there.
The missionary addresses-those by missionaries-were especiallyenjoyable and profitable. As the representatives from India, China, Africa, Jamaica thrilled the vast audiences, one could not but remember against what odds and oppositions Carey himself wrestled as he went forth the pioneer of British missions. To think of the six thousand men and women from Christian lands, and the seven times as many converts from heathendom, now laboring for a world's evangelization-how like the five loaves and two fishes among the five thousand seemed the little band of missionaries among whom Carey stood a leader! And how that "thirteen pounds, two and sixpence" of 1792 has multiplied over one hundred thousand times in 1892! In fal',t, how has the world opened to the Gospel since Carey had to seek Danish protection in India! Where now can we not go ~ How grandly like Pentecost's tongues of fire is that multiplication of the translations of the Bible into at least six times as many languages and dialects as when Carey began translating! One of the main ~lessings of these gatherings was this, that the contrast between 18&2 and 1792 was made vivid and almost visible as the missionary laborers told of the wonderworking of God. The very antithesis of history was a provocation to love and good works, and compei1ed one to feel ashamed at the lack of modern enterprise for God.
The interest of this great anniversary had, of course, three centres- Nottingham, Leicester, Kettering-because in a different way Carey and the work of missions was linked with each place. At Nottingham, May 30th, 1792, in the old Baptist chapel, Park Street, Carey preached that great epoch-making sermon from Isa. 54 : 2, 3. That chapel stands and is as it was, save that the pulpit and pews are removed and part of the gallery. The baptismal font is to be seen, though used now al part of the appurtenances of a pharmacy. As one stands in that sacred room, which may be fifty feet by thirty, and remembers what took place there, the conviction takes shape involuntarily that it ought to be still a place of worship, or at least a museum of missionary relics, sacred to the memory of Carey and his work.
At Leicester the interest gravitates toward Harvey Lane Chapel, where Carey preached, and the little humble home opposite, where he dwelt. It fell to me to preach the sermon at this hallowed place, and, like Dr. Glover in London and Dr. Clifford in Nottingham, before me, and Dr. Landels lit Kettering after me, the old text of Carey was I!till the theme, never more lIeedflll thau now ~s Ii signal-bell for missions. That gathering in Harvey Lane Chapel, on that memorable afternoon of June 1st, none of us will ever forget. The place was crowded to repletion by one of the most devout, prayerful, intelligent audiences ever assembled. Much prayer had preceded; and the place seemed fragrant, almost alive, with God's presence. The sermon was a simple, unstudied address, strictly textual and expository, and aspiring to no literary merit or intellectual display j yet a more beautifully receptive assembly of hearers I never addressed. Such hearing compelled the speaker to do his best, for it e<;oked whatever was best in him. I felt that day more than ever the contribution of a hearer to the power of the pulpit. It was easy to preach where others were praying, and hearing as only praying people can. The silence was awful, and when broken it was only by a faint and indescribable murmur, not 80 much of applause or appreciation, but of what might be called audible hearing, when any precious truth of the inspired Word touched sympathetically the great heart that throbbed in the meeting.
At Kettering the interest largely centres not only on the Fuller Chapel, but on ,"Vidow Beebe Wallis's cottage, still standing, where, on October 2d, 1792, the' actual meeting was held, when those twelve obscure men drew up their missionary compact, and the thirteen pounds and half crown a were laid on the table, and the table became an altar of offerings. That cottage is a kind of Mecca to missionary pilgrims, and it ought to be missionary training school. It reminds one of Antioch and the mysterious voice which said, as those primitive Christians fasted and prayed, "Separate Me Barnabas and Saul, to the work whereunto I have called them." Here, while most of the Church of God slept in indifference, those " apostates of the anvil, loom, and cobbler's bench" undertook to organize a society for a world's evangelization. Think of that first offm/ing-less than sixty-five dollars I-yet that offering probably represcnted more real prayer and self-denial than any similar sum collected since. How touching is the suggestiveness of that verse, Acts 2 : 42, where we are told that those first pentecostal converts" were in constant attendance on the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship [contribution ~], and the bread-breaking and the prayers." Four elements in primitive worship-teachings, fellowship in offerings, the Lord's SlIpper, and prayer! What an apostolic meeting that was at Kettering on October 2d, 1'792 !
May we not well ask ourselves what is God's portrait of a true church, and see what prominence is given in that earliest sketch to the element of praying and giving? They are associated so closely with the teaching and sacrament that they become sacramental; and for one I cannot imagine any act as more truly sacramental in the sight of God than when money, hallowed by prayer, is laid on that altar of missions that so sanctifies the gift. '1.'0 such sacramental praying and giving does not that meeting of a century ago at Kettering provoke us all ! and is there any lesson of the century more vital to the new century now opening!
Such meetings could not well be held without deserving tributes to such men as Secretaries Baynes and Myers, to whom mainly the admirable arrangemenb were due. Of Mr., Baynes, Hugh Price Hughes well said that if he were, like some forms of animal life, capable of being cut into pieces, and each piece retaining the vitality of the original, he would even then hew him into pieces for the sake of other missionary societies, who needed a slice of such inspiring leadership.
Among all the notable th.ings said, the following were conspicuously suggestive. It was shown that missions are as valuable for their refiex infiuence in quickening revivals at home as in promoting conversions abroad. The singular fourfold repetition of Carey's text in the four centenary sermons by Glover, Clifford, Pierson, and Landels served to engrave on the tablets of the gathering the famous motto of Carey as the signal for a new century. Fuller's compact with Carey to "hold the ropes" while he went down into the mine; Carey's humble saying to Dr. Duff, " When I am gone, speak not of Dr. Carey, but of Dr. Carey's Saviour j" God's choice of a poor and uneducated workingman, to leave the cobbler's hench and become a pioneer of missionaries and translators j the prominence of prayer and self-sacrifice in the inception of the missionary work j the personal contribution of Carey himself to miRsions, representing not less than £80,000 sterling in money values j Carey'. waiting, and being willing to wait ten yeard for one convert; Mr. Hawker's vindication of the cost of missions as belonging to a " costly order of things," in which the costliest sacrifice was the inception of all in the blood of JeSllS j the grandeur of a man as hanging partly on the nobility of his message and mission; the grandeur of the opportunity when God sets before the Church an open door to a thousand millions of heathens, and the awfulness of the responsibility to enter the harvest field when the sowing time comes, to sow. and when the reaping time comes, to reap-all these notable sayings, suggestions, reminders, will remain in the memories of all who were present, and we hope may make this second jubilee even more permanent in its hallowed impressions and impulses than the former in 1842, the influence of which has not yet passed away from those who survive to recall it.
At the outset of the meetings Secretary Baynes announced that the centennial fund had reached £78,000 j we felt confident that before the last Kettering meeting closed the s'um of at least £80,000 would be reached. and it was j and if the full £100,000 be not the final outcome, it will be a humiliating surprise indeed j but no present gush of even sanctified enthusiasm will suffice. The work of world-wide missions needs a long pull and a strong rull and a pull all together. Such a work cannot be done by spurts of activity and generosity. We have noticed, and with sorrow, that the most successful special effort, as at some such great jubilee gathering, i.s followed next year by a reaction and decline j and such will be the result next year if we depend at all on the fervor and ardor and zeal of this great centenary to furnish heat and force for 1893. The manna must be gathered every morning or there will be no meat in the house; the stream must have a perennial spring or it will run dry j giving must be a habit, not a response to an occasional appeal, or even a respectable custom, a necessary and integral part of worship and work, a feature of Christian life and ser- vice no more to be omitwd than praying. That primitive meeting at Ket- tering must set the key-note to missions for the new century. Thirteen ponnds ! more than a pound apiece! If the membership of all Protestant churches gave at that rate in 1893, we should have/our times as much as ever was contributed in a year!
It is a very noteworthy fact that the man whom God chose to inaugurate this magnificent work of organized modern missions was not one whom men would have selected. The simple truth is, He never tioes; for Hill own standards of qualification are essentially different from thoBe of men. Carey's election of God to this great trust was an illustration of the grand principles stated in 1 Cor. 1 : 26-29. There were in Carey five great . elements of fitness for this work, and not one of them defies imitation, and that is the blessed encouragement for us all. The five elements were char. acter, acquaintanoo with the Word of God and the facts of man, resolu- tion. education of self, and yielding of self unto God. Let us glance at these five requisites.
Character underlies everything. Reputation is but its reflection and echo, and oftentimes untrue and unfair. The character is the man himself as he is ; the reputation is the man as others take him to be. We may all well care little for the reputation if we take care of the character. No man has ever wrought for God, from the days of Abel until now, who haM not had this corner-stone benef.th his work-cHARACTER. To be rather than to seem, to be what God would have us be, that is the first condition of doing what He would have us do. Carey was a gl1nuine man. He repreBented that sterling worth which we call by the name of character; and instead of his lowly calling or sphere or station in life degrading the man, the man dignified the calling and glorified his humble surroundings.
He next cultivated acquaintance with the Word of God, on the one hand, and the facts about man on the other. He found the remedy before he understood the need j but as he studied Cook's" Voyages Round the World" and kindred books, and gathered information of the destitution and degradation of man, he saw that in that inspired, infallible, universsl Gospel he had the sovereign panacea for all human ills, wants, and woes. Few things are more sublimely instructive in all history than the sight of that humble cobbler at Hackleton and Moulton, sitting on his bench with a shoe on his lap. halting in his work to cast a glance at the open pages of Cook's "Voyages," as the book lay on the end of the bench; then, as the blows of his hammer fell on the sole of the shoe, hii'l mind was reBecting on the misery of the millions of the pagan peoples and the way to reach and remedy their degradation. Absent-minded, indeed! but not idly, indolently dreaming. He was a ~piritual disco,'erer ltnd inventor, planning one of the master enterprises of the ages. The spal'k of a Divine life was in his soul, and the fuel uf facts became just so much inflammable material to take fire and burst into flame, and so that conflagration in Carey's soul has lit up the darkness of a world and started fires burning in every Christian church.
Resolution, indomitable resolution was a third element of his power. The will makes giants for good and monsters for evil-a hero or a Nero; and where there is a will there is found a way, or a way is made. Nothing possible to be done is impossible to him who wills it. Carey's biographers may attribute to him genius, but he diilclaimed genius; he said, "All I can do is, I can P-L-O-D." And plodding was his secret. His firm and fixed resolve made him strong against the ridicule of such as Sidney Smith and the opposition, or what is something worse, vis inertia!, of even his own Baptist brethren. He determined to do, and so he did. He eouId wait, because willing was behind his waiting.
Education, self-acquired, was another secret. What is education! As Professor Shedd says, "Not a dead mass of accumulations, but power to work with the brain j" and, therefor8, all true education is self-acquired. No university curriculum can make a scholar. Is it not the true 8cholars that make the university ¥ It is time we understood that a man may be truly educated, like C. H. Spurgeon, who never saw college halls. What- ever makes the hand cunning and skilful in mechanic arts or fine arts j whatever makes the tongue attractive and persuasive in oratory, or the pen migilty to com–ince and control; whatever enables a man to evoke and then use his own powers for God and man-that is education, and such was Carey's self-knowledge and self-mastery.
Yielding of self to God was the last, not least secret j and I am more and mOle convinced that what in the last analysis determines the measure and even manner of use God can make of a man in His work, is more nearly than anything else self-surrender. Self-will is the subtle factor in us that to the last resists God's will. He who bows and yields, who can honestly ask, "What wilt Thou have me to do~" and then as honestly declare, " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work," is the instrument, or, better still, agent whom God is ready to employ. From his conversion at Hackleton to his decease in India, Carey knew but one purpose: to do the will of God j and so God found in him a vessel prepared to be used.
In all these five elements of success there is not one that everyone of us may not possess, and hence Carey's life is a universal, eternal lesson to c ery one who aspires to service. And so we bid adieu to the great meetings of that great week. To forget them is impossible, but to remember them is not necessarily to emhody their lessons in our lives. How much Christians need a rachet in their machinery to hold the wheel at the point where the lever brings it, to prevent an unwinding when the cylinder with its spring is wound up, to make conviction and impression permanent and perpetual I Oh, for the wace of continuance! Great gatherings furnish a mighty leverage, a grand momentum, but how soon it is practically lost, unless at the time godly purposes are formed and new steps taken onward, upward, forward! God grant that those who see duty and privilege in a new light may, while the vision is clear, move; for Satan is a master optician, and knows how to embarrass our progress by his magnifying and diminishing lenses and colored glasses j and how to veil and even blind our eyes to the true pros- pect. Let us have a new era of missions, as much beyond that which Carey introduced as that was beyond the epoch which preceded it !
1892.J THE YEAR 1891 IN JAPAN. (Ji9
THE YEAR 1891 IN JAPAN.
BY REV. GEORGE WILLIAM KNOX, D.D., TOKYO, JAPAN.
Sir Edwin Arnold is giving the world a poet's impressions of Japan. He makes its scenery and its art, its customs and its people pass before our eyes like the scenes of some fair drama, poetic, restful, pur-e, and far away, without one touch of rude reality to disturb the fond illusion. For our delight he exercises the poet's unquestioned right and sets forth his own sensations in the garb of facts. May no unfortunate read his poetry as prose and seek in real Japan the substance of these fancies light as air.
Readily as Japan lends itself to artist and poet, it is not fairyland. It has its own unyielding facts, painful and sbarp, which remain, ignore them as we may. It is of our world of sin and sorrow, and has no beauty without the underlying pain, and wins no triumph for which it does not pay. The Japanese are learning this truth, and the time has gone past here, too, when" To be young was very heaven I"
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE.
"The earth also shook and trembled, the foundations also of the mountains moved and were shaken j then the channels of waters appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare." Villages and towns fell with a crash, and from the clouds of dust and smoke the bewildered people, terrified, rushed forth, leaving behind the wounded and the dead. Ten thousand had been killed, fifteen thousand had been wounded, and five hundred thousand were homeless j and all was in a moment, without warning, in the twinkling of an eye. On such foundation rests the beauty of Japan.
The warnings are incessant. Look at the earthquake record in Tokyo for the few years past j in 1885, 51 earthquakes j in 1886, 55 j in 1887, 80 j in 1888, 101 j in 1889, 115 j in 1890, 95 j and familiarity breeds not contempt, but increasing apprehension. The record includes many slight tremblings, but also severer shocks which hal"e thrown down chimneys, cracked walls, and caused the earth to open. Nor has the memory of the earthquake of 1854 grown faint j and the story is often told of the destruction of the great city and the death of an hundred thousand persons. Now again whole provinces have suffered.
" The Nagoya-Gifu plain is one of Japan's great gardens, but it has been devastated. A disturbance occurred in the Mino Mountains, and at once an area greater than that of the Empire of Japan became a sea of waves, the movements being magnified on the surface of the soft alluvial plains. In Tokyo, more than two hundred miles from the centre of the disaster, the ground moved in long, easy undulations, producing in some persons dizziness and nausea, the movement being not unlike what we might expect upon a raft rising and falling on an ocean swell. Near to its origin the waves were short ood rapid, cities were overturned, the ground wafl fissured, small mud volcanoes were created, and the strongest of engineering structures were ruined."
Our leal'lled men are busy with their explanations, saying that, after alI, earthquakes are only the infrequent irregularities of the force on which our globe in its life·sustaining form depends. Were that force to die and the elevation of the continents to cease, the waste of wind and rain and storm would make uninhabitable the earth. The earth is alive and the mountains are thrown up from the depths., Thus was Japan formed in the past, and the process still goes on.
The great forces C'f, sorrow and death call forth the hidden good. Japan were not so beautiful were its physical conditions the placid background of Sir Edwiu's dream; and human nature would miss its highest excellence were there no great griefs, no evil to call forth pity and beneficence. When the foundations are moved distinctions of creed and race vanish. Money was poured out, and philanthropists T'ushed to the stricken region with ready aid.
So do we comfort ourselves in the midst of destruction. " Oh, yet we trust that somehow good will be the final goal of ill." And yet we cannot forget, the deftest poet cannot persuade us to forget, that the 80il which bears camellia, chrysanthemum, bamboo, and pine is formed by forces which in a moment slay ten thousand men and wreck the dwellings of a province.
THE IMPERIAL DIET.
The first session of the Diet ended with a compromise. The government yielded much, a group of radicals sacrified party to patriotism and the crisis was averted; but the second session was less fortunate. The government was not ready to repeat its compromise, and the opposition said" No" to every proposal of the government. Even the grants for the relief of the distressed provinces were opposed on trumpery technicalities. The lower house seemed determined to force the government to resign or to dissolve the Diet. The government promptly chose the latter alternative.
The conflict between the opposition and the government involves much more than the existence of a particular ministry. The government is a faction, the representative of two provinces or clans, Satsuma and Choshu. It won its power twenty years ago on the field of battle, and has strongly entrenched itself. Army, navy, police, judiciary, civil service, the department of education, the great banks, steamship companies, and business houses, all are its own. Its continuance is not compatible with a representative, constitutional government. The gradual transfer of power demands a spirit of concession and of patience on both sides which is not now apparent. An immediate settlement of the question would involve the empire in serious difficulties and dangers. What is to be the solution the future alone can show. THE ELECTIONS.
Upon the dissolution of the Diet a heated political campaign began at once. Ireland itself is not more passionate than Japan. Murders and mobs were many. The turbulent young men found ready employment and seeming immunity. In many of the provinces the authorities and the police were strangely powerless. It is significant that the majority of th03e kilied were of the opposition party. the government adherents taking the lead in violence. This is thought to explain the apathy of the local authorities. The government will be stronger in the new Diet, but no. one can foresee the course of events. The warnings are many that the political world contains seismic forces of unknown power.
THE ATTACK ON THE CZAROWITCH.
The great earthquake agitated Japan no more than did the attack upon the Czarowitch. The assailant found no sympathizer, never was the nation more unanimous in sentiment. The attack was taken as an affront to the Emperor of Japan as truly as to the Czar. No Western people could have expressed more plainly its detestation of the act of a half.crazed assassin. Yet had the deed flomething of exceptional significance.
Beneath their soft and friendly manners the Japanese too often conceal passions that only await opportunity to become deadly. Young men walk the street with the mien of scholars; they delight in books, poetry, and flowers, and yet are ready with dynamite or knife to destroy men whose opinions cross their own; and with desperate bravery the assassin plans to seal his murder with his own blood, while the populace with indiscriminating praise applauds the suicide as a hero. Self-destruction atones for any crime. So statesmen must surround themselves with guards, and public men are in constant danger of murderous assaults. Nowhere does life seem, on the surface, more contented and sunny, and nowhere is it thrown away with such unconcern. The spirit of old Japan remains beneath the modern garb.
LICENSED PROSTITUTION.
Prostitution is licensed by the government, and sections of the towns and cities are given up to vice without concealment or thought of shame. Parents ~ell their daughters with the sanction of the authorities and agents travel through the provinces and return with troops of young girls. The destruction caused by the great earthquake gave opportunity for this traffic and prices ruled very low. At the railway stations agents from these establishments openly seek guests, and the newspapers display advertisements as a matter of course. The sentiment of the people begins to show symptoms of revolt. Years ago some Christians began an agitation and formed a society which is already large and influential. Its membership is not confined to Christians. In several provinces it has already attained its end~. and even in Tokyo 1hl' Hdverse majority diminishes year by year. THE ANCIENT RELIGIONS.
The moral condition of Japan continues to excite apprehension. It is apparent that Confucius and Buddha have no reserved forces for the present emergency. "Buddhism," said a priest recently, "is the best of religions, but its priests are the most degraded of their class." The Imperial Government in the summer publicly reprimanded the leaders of the chief sects, but though the disgrace was keenly felt, I hear of no refor- mation. Whatever moral power this religion may have exerted in the past, it is not now an active influence for good.
Shinto has been proclaimed to be ., no religion" -by the government itself during the year past. Its rites are declared to be strictly traditional and commemorative, and thus the consciences of Christian officials have been relieved.
Confucianism teaches that benevolence and righteousness are the powers that govern the universe and constitute life. As a philosophy it satisfied the chosen few j as a code of morals it met fairly well the needs of a rigidly conservative society; as a religion its morality was sufficiently touched with emotion to satisfy those who knew neither the true Father- hood of God nor the personality of man. Its devoted adherents were the bitterest opponents of the opening of Japan. They knew that their philosophy could not continue should Western learning prevail, and they foretold thirty years ago the present moral interregnum. They were true _prophets, and the young men of to-day know little and care less for the philosophy that ruled their fathers' lives.
CHRISTIANITY.
The nation needs Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Lord j but the Tapid advance of the Church has been checked, and numbers no longer incrcase as a few years ago. The congregations do little more than hold their own, and the story of 1890 is repeated in 1891.
But there is a change for the better. The forebodings of disaster are gone. The Church faces its work with renewed faith and patience, knowing that Japan is not to be won in a brief campaign. It is recognized, too, that the fruits of Christian work are not all recounted in tables of statistics. Christianity has entered into the nation's life and manifests its power. No check to the numerical increase of converts checks the permeation of the nation with Christian life and truth. Already are these the strongest forces for righteousness in Japan, and would remain should every congregation disappear.
If the kingdom of Christ comes with less of observation, still does it come. Never, perhaps, were the congregations more intelligently in earnest. Though the people do not gather so readily in great crowds, still the preaching of the Gospel gains a hearing, and there are many inquirers. From some parts of the country there is especially encouraging news; never before were there so many earnest seekers after the truth, we are told. The Christians continue to give liberally, and their contributions to home missions show no diminution. The number of candidates for the ministry step.dily increases.
The mis$ion of the American Episcopal Church is especially encouraged, reporting better prospects in the provinces than ever before. The mission has been reorganizing its methods of work under the energetic leadership of Bishop Hare, of South Dakota. It is now in harmony with the Congregational and Presbyterian missions in giving a large share of responsibility and control to the Japanese in all departments.
No table of general statistics has been prepared this year. The Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai (Presbyterian Reformed) reports 960 baptisms and a net increase of 350 members during the year. The total is now 10,961 members The contributions for the work of the Church during the year were 16,628 silver dollars. The Kumiai churches (Congregational) report 1040 baptisms, a net increase of 668, and a total membership of 10,037. Their contributions during the year were 20,895 silver dollars. These two communions include almost two-thirds of the Protestant Christians in Japan, and from their reports we may fairly judge the condition of all.
While thus the increase is much smaller than in years past, still is there great cause for thankfulness. The Gospel has been preached; the congregations have gathered in their churcheR Sunday after Sunday; Bible and Tract Societies have distributed their supplies; the schools have been maintained in spite of many discouragements; orl'hanages and hospitals have cared for the bereaved and suffering; in public and in private the seed has been sown besiile all waters. All the varied forms of Christian activity are carried on with faith, hope, and increasing dependence upon our Saviour-Lord.
THE LIBERAL CHRISTIANS.
One of the Congregational mini~ters, a member of the well-known "Kumamoto Band," withdrew from his Church in the spring. He printed a book based upon Pfleiderer and Keirn. His secession was the sensation of the hour, and the first edition of his book sold out at once. His congrcgations, however, refused, to follow him, and his friends hastened to announce their want of sympathy with his position. He was welcomed by the Liberal Christians, but has not identified himself with any branch of their force.
The theological unrest of a year ago has Rubsided. The presence oi the Liberal Christians has not been without its benefits, for it has given shape to that which was undefined and in the air. Men have seen that they must choose, and thc Christians have examined the foundations of their faith. Never was the divinity of our Lord so firmly and intelligently held. The theological unrest has given place to an earnest desire for His presence and blessing. Not in controversies or in novelties, but in the outpouring of the Spirit would the Church know and do the truth. APPEALS FOR REINFORCEMENTS.
Some of the missions are asking large reinforcements from the United States. As the Church learns that Japan cannot be won in a rush, but that mission work is of the nature of a siege, the Japanese themselves become desirous of continued missionary co-operation. They have learned, too, that the missionaries desire to remain not as masters, but as fellow-workers.
At the request 'of the Japanese the mission of the American Board again seeks a large addition to its force. It would equip five new stations. This mission is already the largest and most thoroughly equipped mission in Japan. The policy of the American Board has been admirable from the beginning. It early appreciated the needs of the field and has freely given funds and men. This last request receives the same immediate and cordial attention as those which had preceded it.
The American Baptist Mission also repeat!l its request for twenty-five more men, most of them to serve as evangelists. This mission in the past has clearly shown. how this work should not be carried on. The Baptists early sent their representative to Japan, one man, and he most unfitted for the place. The early years were worse than wasted. When, later, opportunity came for a harvest the Baptists were not prepared to take advantage of it. This first mistake was partly rectified, and missionaries were sent who commanded respect; but they were too few in number and pursued no general or united policy. There was no efficient school, not even for evangelists. Tokyo was manned with one missionary, and his health failing it was left without a man. The men on the field were not adequately sustained; and now at last, when the work is entering upon its final stage, when there is not a town of any considerable size without one or more foreign missionaries, the Baptists appeal for a large reinforcement and seek to do the evangelistic work by foreigners which Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians are more efficiently doing by Japanese ministers and evangelists. If the Baptists purpose to participate in the Christianizing of Japan, it is high time that they should maintain an adequate force. Nothing is more discouraging than work half manned and half done.
MORE MISSIONS.
Still new missions appear. The Lutherans in the United States have sent out one man. Has the Church no mission field that needs reinforcement, and can it find no unoccupied field that it adds to the confusion in Japan ~ Must it send its little force, too small for efficiency and yet large enough to increase our denominations already far too many ~ The new missionary zeal in the United States has another illustration. Our missions have been increased by one called the Scandinavian Mission.
It is composed of nine unmarried men lind sil< lnmarriE!d WOIDE!n, H represents no board or church and has no organization. Its members are of different denominations and are supported by different congregations in the United States. The salaries paid are altogether inadequate for even a scanty living when the missionaries cease to live together in two large families. No theological training, no careful education, no peculiar adaptation to the field and work has been thought necessary. In dense ignorance as to the condition of Japan, in ignorance even as to the language spoken and the ordinary ways of life. this mission has been undertaken with the zeal that is not according to knowledge. There may be mistakes in missions as in other enterprises that are little short of crimes.
MISSIONARY POLITY AGAIN Three such illustrations of method tempt a return to the subject of missionary polity.
The American Board sent its mission when the times were ripe for aggressive work., Strong meu were sent; enough men were sent, and money was not grudged. The Board sent strong men and trusted them. The men on the field shaped the policy of the mission and the Board sustained it. When schools were needed they were established. When more mis-. sionaries were asked for they were sent. When the mission was ready to tru~t the Japanese Christians with larger responsibilities and powers the Board had no policy of its own to enforce. Strong men, enough men, adequate equipment, complete confidence in the men upon the field, a harmonious policy firmly carried out, these are the conditions that make success when success is possible at all.
Such a policy demands large resources freely used. That is merely to say that the missionary work demands large resources. Few men, weak men, inadequate equipments, a priori methods invented in the United States, will win no empires for Christ.
Missions, then, demand large expenditures from single societies or the union of missions representing several societies. Side by side with this great work of the American Board has been the equally successful work of the United Missions of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches. With smaller cost to each mission the united force has been larger. Small societies by combination can make their forces as effective as the missions of the strongest. Combination is a more difficult problem for missions and for boards. Japan is an illustration that it is a possible and an effective policy. It doubtless demands in a high degree mutual confidence between missionaries on the field and between missions and Boards. I can say nothing higher in praise of all concerned than this. that during fifteen years of trial the combination of forces has occasioned no serious difficulty on the field or at home.
An adcquatc policy does not demand endless resources. There is a natural limit to the force that can be effectively employed, 1'00 large, "
DEATH OF REV. B. W. CHIDLAW, D:D
forces may be as injurioU!1 as forces that are inadequate. There is no call for a large increase of miRsionary force in Japan.
The wrong policy sends a man to begin work in an empire. It does not reinforce him at the right time or adequately. It loses the golden opportunity, and only awakes when other bodies h;lve ministers and evangelists, heads of colleges and theological professors who are native born..
It is possible to go a step further in the wrong direction, send out men and women for this most difficult of all forms of work who are not adapted to successful work at home, and who have neither the education nor the peculiar qualities demanded by the field. Let faith and zeal attempt to supply the place of all else and carryon a mission that shall be futile in Japan and identified with fanaticism at home.
Strong men, enough men, a policy carefully studied on the different fields and adapted to them-this is not too much to ask for foreign missions at the close of a century of experiment. Missionary stateRmen are needed to head the enterprise. Rflstraint is needed on the part of strong churches and societies that they undertake work only where they can adequately carry it on. Combination is needed by weak societies every- where and by strong societies of kindred churches in the great strategic fields.
A missionary league is necessary. If still the proposal is thoug-ht premature a missionary council, composed of the representatives of the different societies, is surely practicable. Information and connsel, discussion of plans and purposes of work, a study of the whole field, this would be profitable, and preventive of waste, ineffective experiments, and the useless duplication of agencies. The uprising of the Church, the great outpouring of men and money, demand such consultation that the work may be done efficiently abroad, and that the missionary spirit may be nourished at home.
What Board will take the lead in proposing a council for conference and advice ~ DEATH OF REV. B. W. CHIDLAW, D.D.
This remarkable Vlelshman was born July 14th, 1811, and died on his eighty-second birthday, in his native land, where he was visiting. He was a singular example of usefulness. Brought by his parents to this country seventy years ago, ho studied in a log-cabin school in Radnor, 0., a copy of Webster's spelling-book which he had bought for four pounds of butter; was converted and joined a Presbyterian church at eighteen years; and the same year was gradnated at Miami Universit.y. He studied theology at Oxford, 0., and was ordained at twenty-five; and a. year later enteren on the long period of service as missionary of the American SUIlday-school Union, wh08e representative he was at the Robert Raikes centenary in 1880. He has literally founded thousands of Sunday-schools in remote districts, and given the first impulRe to new churches. For twelve years be was n Commissioner of the Ohio Reform School for Boys at Lan- ~aster, and during the war did much good service in connection with the Christian Commission. He was a devotedly pious man and a very effective ~peak'r.-EDrTOR,
A STORY OF THE MARVELS OF MISSIONS
A STORY OF THE MARVELS OF MISSIONS-REV. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D.
BY J. D. DAVIS, D.D., KYOTO, JAPAN.
Among the miracles of this nineteenth century the Divir.e leading and the life and work of Dr. Neesima should be recorded as one.
Mr. Neesima was born of Samurai parents in Tokyo, February 12th, 1843. He was ten years old when Commodore Perry first entered the Bay of Yedo. He was early taught to read and write Chinese, and later the sword exercise. He was also taught to worship the family gods which stood upon a shelf in the house. From the time he was about fifteen years old, however, he refused to worship these idols. He could see for himself that they were only" whittled ones," and that they never touched the food and drink which he offered them.
When he was fourteen years old he began the study of the Dutch language and continued it for a year with a native teacher. When he was sixteen he borrowed a geography of the United States, written in Chinese by Dr. Bridgman of China, and also an abridged Bible history in the Chinese language. The opening sentence in the history was, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In II brief description of this experience written in broken English, Mr. Neesima says: "I put down the book and look around me, saying, Who made me, my parents ~ No, my God. God make my parents, and let them make me. Who made my table, a carpenter ~ No, my God. God let trees grow upon the earth; although a carpenter made up this table, it indeed came from trees; then I must be thankful to God, I must believe Him, and I must be upright against Him." He at once recognized his Maker's claim to his love and obedience, and began to yield to it; he prayed, " Oh, if you have eyes, look upon me ; if you have ears, listen for me."
Again he says: "I found Ollt that the world we live upon was created by His unseen hand, and not by a mere chance. I discovered in the same history that His other name was the 'Heavenly Father,' which created in me more reverence toward Him, because I thought He was more to me than a mere Creator of the world. All these books helped me to behold a being somewhat dimly yet in my mental eye, who was so blindly concealed from me during the first two decades of my life.
" Not being able to see any foreign missionaries then, I could not obtain any explanations on many points, and I wished at once to visit a land where the Gospel is freely taught, and from whence teachers of God's words were sent out. Having recognized God as my Heavenly Father, I felt I was no longer inseparably bound to my parents. I discovered for the first time that the doctrines of Confucius on the filial relation were too narrow and fallacious. I said then, 'I am no more my parents', but my God's.' A strong cord which had held me strongly to my father's home was broken asunder at that moment. I felt then that I must take my own course. I must serve my Heavenly Father more than my earthly parents. This new idea gave me courage to make a decision to forsake my prince, and also to leave my home and my country temporarily. "
His decision was made, and with an unwavering purpose he waited and watched for an opportunity to put it into execution; after four or five years it came. With great difficulty he obtained permission to sail in a ship bound to Hakodate in the spriug of 1864. "Not thinking," as he wrote in his diary, "that when money was gone, how would I eat and dress myself, but only casting myself on the providence of God."
After months of waiting in Hakodate he at last found an American brig which was to sail for Shanghai. Making a confidant of a young Japanese who could speak a little English, this friend rowed him out to the brig at midnight and the captain received him on board.
Althongh the ship was searched by JapancRe officials the next morning before she wcighed anchor, to make sure that no Japanese were secreted on board, for it was then a capital offence to leave the country, Mr. Neesima was not disco'i'ered, and in due time he reached Shanghai, where in the providence of God he secured passage in a sailing-vessel bound for Boston, and owned by Bon. Alpheus Hardy, of Beston, Mass. It was many months, however, before the ship set sail for Boston, and in the harbor of Hongkong he exchanged his sword for a copy of the New Testament in Chinese, and he studied this on the voyage, and when, reading it in course, he came to the sixteerrth verse of the third chapter of John, he felt that this was just such a Saviour as he needed. The ship on which he came was owned by Mr. Hardy, and when he had learned from Mr. Neesima through a brief statement which the latter wrote of his reasons for coming to America, Mr. Hardy decided that it was of the Lord, and he adopted him as his own son, as it were, and gave him the best education which New England afforded, in Phillips Academy, Amherst College, and Andover Theological Seminary. His faithfulness in his studies and his high character won for him the love and respect of all his teachers and classmates. When asked for a letter of recommendation at the time of Mr. Neesima's appointment as a corresponding member of the Japan Mission of the American Board, President Seelye of Amherst College said, " Yvu cannot gild gold."
When he had been less than one year in the theological school at A.II'l.on.'f the first great Japanese embasRY visited the United States. " This was composed of four Cabinet ministers, of commissioners in the several administrative departments, and was under the conduct of one of the most di:;fillguished of Japanese statesmen, Iwakura Tomomi." Its leading memberR were Iwakura, Okubo, Kido, Ito, Terashima, and Tanaka. These were the men who were to be at the head of the government for many years to come, and the providence which brought Mr. Neesima into
REV. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D. Uli9
personal relations with them was one of the most striking providenc"s in his life.
When this embassy reached Washington, they sent an order to all the Japanese students who were then studying in the United States, some twelve in number, to appear before them, and among others to Mr. Neesima, Mr. Neesima replied that he was an outlaw, and that he acknowledged no king but the King of heaven, and that he could not obey a mandate to come, but if they asked him as a friend to come he would do &0. He wrote to Mr. Flint, one of his teachers, at this time: "I expect to stand up for Christ before the heathen embassy; I think it is a good opportunity for me to speak Christ. I wish you would make special prayer for me, and also for the embassy." They sent the request, and when Mr. Neesima reached Washington he told Mr. Mori, the Japanese minister, that he could not consent to meet the embassy as a vassal, but only on terms of equality. When Mr. Necsima first met the embassy there were twelve other Japanese students present in the same room, who were being supported by the Japanese Government j these made the old Japanese bow, but Mr. Neesima stood erect behind them in the corner of the room, and not until the Commissioner of Education came forward and extended his hand to him did Mr. Neesima bow, and then in the Western way.
From this time on for a year or more Mr. Neesima was with this embassy, and at their request he accompanied them to Europe, visiting all the European capitals. He writes of this decision: "I would not go abroad unless I feel it may be a good opportunity to promote Christ's kingdom to the heart of heathen noblemen and Japan." As Professor Hardy says, in the excellent" Life and Letters" of Mr. Neesima, recently published by Houghton, MifHin & Co.: "In Europe, as in America, he gave all his time and strength to the study of the best methods of instruction then prevailing, the organization and conduct of schools and institutions of learning of all grades, and it was on the basis of his reports that Mr. Tanaka, appointed, on his return to Japan, Vice-Minister of Education, laid the foundation of the present educational system of Japan. His personal influence was also felt by all who were associated with him; for his character marked him off from all others connected with the embassy in a like capacity, and won for him that sympathetic esteem and respect which was so valuable to him in later life. Travelling in close companionship with others, he never failed in his private devotions, in his conscienti,ms resolve to rest on the Sabbath, in his effort to speak for Christ." Often did he stop off in Europe Saturday night, spend the Sabbath alone, and go on Monday and overtake the party.
As the time drew near for the departure of the embassy from Europe, to return home by way of India, Mr. Neesima was pressed to accompany them to Japan, and it seemed that it would be almost impossible for him to r;efuse to do so, but he decided to return to his studies in Andover, and a severe pttack of rheumatism coming on at this time compelled him tQ
A STOny OF 'rHE MARVELS OF MISSIONS
remain behind in Europe, among strangers, until long after the embassy had sailed for Japan, but on his recovery he returned to his studies. He graduated in the summer of 1874 and was ordained as an evangdist, the first of his race to take upon himself this office.
He was also appointed a corresponding member of the Japan Mission of the American Board. Mr. Hardy also arranged to have sent to Mr. Neesima each year what he needed for his support, so that he was placed above anxiety on that point. His farewell speech at the meeting of the American Board at Rutland, Vt., in the fall of 1874, just before he sailed for Japan, and its outcome may best be described in Mr. Neesima's own words in a letter, the last one in English which his hand ever penned, written only a few days before his death: "Fifteen years ago I had a day-dream to found a Christian college. I used to express my intense desire to found it, especially to raise up Christian workers, to Dr. Clark, Secretary of the American Board, and also to some other friends, but none of them gave me any encouraging words. However, I was not discolll"- aged at all. I kept it within myself and prayed over it. In the fall of 1874 I was invited to attend the annual meeting of said Board, which was held at Rutland, Vt., to bid my last farewell to my friends. I wail asked to appear on the platform on the very last day of the meeting. In the evening of the previous day I called on Mr. and Mrs. Alpheus Hardy, my benefactors, and consulted with them about the advisability of my bringing out my long-cherished scheme-that is, to found a Christian college in Japan, in my farewell speech. Mr. Hardy was rather doubtful about my attaining any success j however, I was rather insisting to do it, because it was my last chance to bring out such a subject to such a grand Christian audience. Then he spoke to me half smiling, and in a most tender, fatherly manner said, 'Joseph, the matter looks rather dubious, but you might try it.' Receiving that consent, I went b'ack to the place where I was entertained and tried to make a preparation for the speech. I found my heart throbbing and found myself utterly' unable to make a careful preparatioR. I was then like that poor Jacob, wrestling with God in my prayers. On the following day, when I appeared on the stage, I could hardly remember my prepared piece-a poor, untried speaker; but after a minute or two I recovered myself and my trembling knees became firm and strong; a new thought flashed into my mind, and I spoke something quite different from my prepared speech. My whole speech must have lasted less than fifteen minutes. While I was speaking I was moved with most intense feeling over my fellow-countrymen, and I shed much tears instead of speaking in their behalf; but before I closed my poor speech, about $5000 were subscribed on the spot to found a. Christian college in Japan. That generous subscription of our American friends became the nucleus of our present Doshisha, which is now recognized as the best and largest Christian college in Japan. "
Mr, Ncc8ima reached Japan un his retllrn in Decemberl 1874. He
REV. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D. 66l
round great changes had taken place during his ten years' absence. The Mikado was reinstated, his capital was changed from Kyoto, where his ancestors had ruled for a thousand years, to Tokyo; the Daimios liad relinquished their feudal rights, and the pensions of their retainers were capitalized; the Julian or Gregorian calendar had been adopted, and the Sabbath was made a holiday; the post office with a money order system, a savings bank system, and a postal delivery system were established i newspapers were being printed !lnd circulated; an army and a navy on a foreign plan were formed ; a mint was established; the coast was being surrounded with light-houses; the first railroads were opened, and a net· work of telegraphs was unifying the old feudal kingdom. Most of these changes had taken place one or two years before Mr. Neesima returned. The great question of constitutional liberty was beginning to be agitated, and the men whose confidence and love Mr. Neesima had gained in his intercourse with the embassy three years before were at the head of the government. Their prejudices had been removed and their minds broadened by their intercourse with Western nations, and they were ready to encourage the adoption of Western civilization in their own empire.
Mr. Neesima was offered, again and again, places of high position under these men and urged to acc~pt them, but he steadily declined them. He allowed nothing to turn him from the great purpose of his life, to establish a Christian college in his native land.
Soon after landing in Yokohama he visited his aged parents, who had gone back to their native province and were living in Annaka. There were at this time small churches in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Kobe, but it was hardly safe to profess Christianity, even in the open ports. Away from the open ports there was very little, if any, effort on the part of any Japanese to teach the forbidden doctrines; but no sooner did Mr. Neesima reach Annaka, seventy-five miles from Tokyo, than the people began to beg him to tell all about foreign countries, and he took that opportunity to openly tell them about Christianity. He did this so boldly for several days that the governor of that province became troubleJ. Mr. NeeBima was plainly violating the old law, but yet be was no ordinary person; he had been attached to the Iwakura embassy and was already a widely known man. To arrest or even caution him might have some unknown results; so the governor went hastily in person to Tokyo and aid the matter before some of the men who were at the head of the government. They replied, "If it is Neesima, it is all right, let him lllone;" so the governor returned satisfied, and the work was begnn which resulted in the organization of the Annaka church a few years later under the labors of Mr. Yebina, and the Annaka church, with the five other churches, within a very few miles, which have sprung from it, make it probably the most thoroughly evangelized community in Japan, Several of the members of that provincial assembly and a majority of the Standing Committee are Christian men, and two thirds of the members of the
A STORY OF 'ERE MARVELS 01' MISSIONS
Imperial Diet, elected from that province, are Christians. From the time of Mr. Neesima's visit to Annaka dates the entrance of Christianity into the heart of Japan, and that was the beginning of the fearless preaching of the Gospel in the interior. The same count who gave to the governor the reply mentioned above, himself told Mr. Neesima of this fact a short time afterward.
After a few weeks spent with his friends in Annaka, preaching the Gospel, Mr. Neesima came on to Kobe and Osaka to confer in regard to the establishment of the Christian college.
A short time before Mr. Neesima's return, our mission received a letter from Secretary Clark, telling us that $5000 were waiting to found a collegiate and theological training school to train Christian workers for Japan. We had not yet begun to think of such a school, or, at least, we felt that it was far in the future; our first two churches had been organized that year,. one in Kobe with eleven members, and one in Osaka with seven members; a few young men were found ready to listen to the truth, also, in Sanda, twenty miles from Kobe, but the villages about Kobe and between Kobe and Osaka were so much opposed to Christianity that it was impossible to even teach a few men in a hotel or tea-house.
Mr. Neesima tried for several months to secure permission from the governor of the Osaka-Fu to establish the college in that city; he saw the governor many times and urged his plan; the governor told him he would approve the establishment of the school there, but that no missionary should teach in it, so Mr. Neesima reluctantly gave up hope in Osaka, and then our thoughts were turned to Kyoto; but Kyoto was an interior c!ty where foreigners had never been allowed to reside; it had been the centre of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan for a thousand years, and, moreover, was away from the centres of work which our mission had opened.
The mission, however, gave a reluctant consent to the location of the school in Kyoto, if permission could be secured, and in the summer of 1875 Mr. Neesima went to Kyoto to see what could be done. The Lord had prepared the way before him j the city had been opened for one hundred days during the three previous years while the exhibition was held there, and Rev. O. H. Gulick had spent three months in the city during the summer of 1872, and had made the acquaintance of Mr. Yamamoto Kakuma, a blind man who was then a private counsellor to the Kyoto-Fu. Others of our mission had met him during the next two summers, and he had become greatly interested in Christianity. When Mr. Neesima presented his plan for the establishment of a Christian college in Kyoto to Mr. Yamam0to, he was ready to give it his warm approval from the first, and he used his strong influence with the governor ·of the Kyoto-Fu in the same direction, so that the governor also gave his approval to the scheme.
The writer made a hasty visit to Kyoto in June of 1875, and with Mr. Neesima, looked at a lot of land containing five and one half neres,
REV. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D
situated in the northern part of the city, jllst above the old palace grounds, and with a large temple grove of one hundred acres on the north side of it. This land was the former site of the palace of the Satsuma Daimio, the last resident being Shimadzu Saburo. It was now in the possession of the blind Yamamoto, and he gladly sold it to us for the school for the sum of $550. Thus the site for the school was secured. What should be its aame ?
Many names were thought of, but finally the name "Doshisha" wall decided upon; t.his means one endeavor or one purpose company. Mr. Neesima was in Kyoto all the summer of that year except during 8 hnrried. visit to Tokyo. Although the approval of the local government had been secured for the location of the school in Kyoto, the approval of the central government was necessary. A building must also be secured for the school, and permission for a family to reside in Kyoto, and for a missionary to teach in the school. Mr. Neesima was busy with all these plans, and his heart was stirred also to find some way by which the Gospel could be freely taught in the school and in the city and all over the empire.
– There is not room here to speak at length of the wonderful training of the "Kuma~oto Band," in the heart of Kiushu. where Captain L. L. Janes taught an English school from 1871-76, from which a band of over thirty young men took a decided stand for Christ which broke up that school; but they came to the Doshisha at the beginning of its second year, and brought new life and spirit into it, and among them were a class of fifteen who studied theology in the Doshisha and have been among the most efficient workers for Christ in Japan, laying Christian foundations as pastors and teachers.
We cannot speak at length of the five long ycars of trial and difficulty which followed the opening of the school; it seemed again and again as if its very existence hung in the balance, but Mr. Neesima's faith never wavered; though nothing was left" but heaven and prayer," he held on to God.
The strain of these years, however. told upon him and laid the foundation of that heart trouble which later ended his life.
In the spring of 1883 Mr. Neesima began to think and plan actively to enlist interest among Japanese friends in the establishment of a university, or in the broadening out of the Doshisha into a Christian university, and a year later he issued the first printed appeal for it. In the spring. of 1884, by the advice of physicians, he left Japan to go to the United States by way of Europe, and it was in Switzerland that he had the first attack of heart disease which came near terminating his life then. From this time till the end came he had to work carefully and avoid as much as possible all excitement. He spent nearly a year in the United States, and his mind was wholly absorbed in plans for his Christian university and for broadening the evangelistic efforts in Japan.
A STORY OF THE MARVELS OF MISSIONS
At the close of a letter urging a broadening of the work, he says: " I cannot write such a letter as this without shedding many tears. My heart is constantly burning like a volcanic fire for my dearly beloved Japan.
Pray for me that I may rest in the Lord." Before leaving the United States 'he wrote another strong appeal for the university. On his return to Japan in the autumn of 1885, although still suffering, he began to work quietly for the university, and in the summer of 1888, at a dinner given one evening by Count Inouye to men of rank and wealth, over $31,000 were subscribed.
The autumn of 1889 found Mr. Neesima far from well, but his intense desire to work for the university led him to go to Tokyo and vicinity, where he worked privately for his plan and received many promises of aid.
A severe cold, however, coming upon him in his extreme weakness brought on the disease which ended his life at Oiso, on the coast west of Yokohama, January 23d, 1890. With the words, " Peace, joy, heaven" on his lips he fell asleep. When the body reached Kyoto it was nearly midnight, but abollt one thousand persons were at the depot to receive it, including nearly the whole of the teachers and six hundred scholars of the Doshisha.
The latter carried the body two and one half miles to Mr. Neesima's home.
No private citizen has ever died in Japan whose loss was 80 widely and deeply felt as that of Mr. Neesima.
He lived to see the foundation of the university laid. The Lord moved Mr. Harris, of New London, Conn., to give $100,000 to endow the Department of Science, and with the endowment of about $60,000 secured in Japan, the Department of Jurisprudence has been opened this fall. The Department of Theology numbers over eighty members, and the College Department about two hundred and forty, and the preparatory one hundred and forty-over five hundred young men in all. There is also cOl;mected with the Doshisha a girls' school of about one hundred members, and a training school for nurses with twenty-five students. Nearly thirty build- ings have been erected for these schools. Nearly one hundred men are now preaching the Gospel in Japan, who were educated in the Doshisha, and many others are engaged as Christian teachers, editors, etc, Mr. Neesima's meekness was remarkable. When he was informed that his Alma Mater had conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., he wrote to a member of the mission that he was not worthy of it and asked what he should do with it ? '
It is difficult to analyze the great secret of his po}Ver and su'ccess, but we may mention a few point!l.
1. Loyalty to duty. From the day he read of the Creator in the Bible history in Chinese to the day of his death his loyalty to duty shines out.
As soon as he gained an idea of God he felt his obligation to Him and he began to discharge it, and as the months and years went on and his vision of duty broadened, hi~ sense of obligation broadened with it, and efforts to discharge that obligation kept pace with his enlarging vision. No
1892.J REV. JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA, LL.D
matter what were the circumstances, and no matter how great the loss, he was always loyal to the higher duty. Take the example of his travels in Europe with the embassy; he would stop off and spend the Sabbath alone.
2. He took a great aim and one which was in harmony with God's great aim. He did not take a low aim, he did not take a selfish one j he took for his aim the establishment of a great Christian university for the sake of lifting up, so far as he could through that, his whole nation toward God and a Christian civilization. His great aim was not education for its own sake, but for Christ's sake and as a help to lead the millions of Japan to Christ and eternal life. The results of that school are already changing the history of the empire. .
3. He had a holy, absorbing ambition to realize his great aim. This ambition led him to forget himself and devote his whole being and all his powers to secure the great aim of his life. He counted not his life dear to him if he could accomplish his great object. When, a few years before he died, the question was raised of his going to the United States a third time to try and secure money for the endowment of the university, and his physicians told him it would be almost certain death for him to go, he replied that that would make no difference with him, if he felt that by going he could lIecure the'money. His going to Tokyo and working during the last months of his life were done in a similar spirit. He wanted to die in the harness, and he did.
4. He committed himself and his great plan and all its details to God, with a firm faith that God would give him success. He never seemed to waver even in the darkest days. In the last English letter which he wrote this faith shines out. After speaking of the gift of $100,000 for the scientific school, just as Professor Shimomura was ready to return to his work in the school, he says: "Is it not wonderful that when he was about ready to come home the way to make himself useful was opened before him. Oh, dear friend, I am a strong believer in the most wonderful dealings of Providence with those whoever believe in God. As for me, I am a man of delicate health and am not permitted to do much now. However, He has employed this poor and helpless instrumentality to bless others in His behalf." And then in that letter he tells of his" day-dream to found a Christian college," and how he received no human encouragement, but he says: "However, I was not discouraged at all. I kept it within myself and prayed over it." Then the night before he made his appeal for money at Rutland he could not sleep. and says: "I was then like that poor Jacob, wrestling with God in my prayers." Then, later, when he took up the larger work of founding a university, he says, in the same letter: "The matter seemed to myself and also to my friends that I am hoping for something altogether beyond a hope. However, I had a strong conviction that God will help us to found it in His name's sake ;"
A STORY OF THE MARVELS OF MISSIONS
and again, " I have a full hope that my vague day-dream for a Christian university will sooner or later be realized, and in some future we shall find occasion to give thanks to Him who has led us and blessed us beyond our expectation. "
5. His heart was greatly interested in direct mission work. Deeper than all other thoughts, more important than all other plans, was the thought and the planning to bring the millions of Japan to Christ. This was fundamental to his whole plan for a Christian college and university. When compelled to rest in the United States, or in lbo, or in Oiso during the last weeks of his life, he never could rest from thinking, planning, writing, and praying over the great problem of the speedy evangelization of Japan.
When the writer visited him for an hour in lbo, where he rested in great weakness during the summer of 1888, he was no sooner seated than Dr. Neesima said, "l have something I want to show you," and he went to the adjoining room and brought out a map of the province of J oshu, and on it he had marked every place where there was a church, every place where the Gospel was regularly preached, and other places for which he was praying and planning to secure evangelists.
He was always doing personal work also. Before he had been in America two years he was asked to sit a few minutes with an old lady who was seventy-two years old, not a Christian, and on her death-bed. While sitting there alone with her he so spoke to her of Christ that she gave herself to the Saviour. So, in the shoe factory at North Adams, or at Green River, Wyoming, when he stopped off to spend the Sabbath, he talked with the Chinamen, writing his words of Christ to try to lead them. When in Berlin among the eighty Japanese students, he led one to earnestly study the Bible with him. Once when travelling near Tokyo, he talked so earnestly to the mall who pulled him in his jinrikisha, that this coolie went home and spoke of the truth to his friends, and they called an evangelist, and Mr. Neesima helped to support him until his death, and now there is a flourishing church there.
Those who would read this wonderful story more fully would do well to get Dr. Neesima's Life, written by the author of the foregoing article. It is printed at Tokyo, by Z. P. Maraya & Co., and can be ordered also at Shanghai and Singapore. I believe there is also an American edition, though I have not seen it. Few books of a biographical nature have ever fallen under my eyes which have so interested and delighted me. The riches of missionary literature more and more increase. No man or womall can read this book without a positive addition to heart-wealth.-EDITOR.
Divisions of'
HOz,l/ses (I) Seoul.. ……".Kyeng -Key _ _ _……_……_ _ _ 'S6. 600 ……._ .. Wkang-Ra. 138,000 ………… Choung- Chen.g.._ …_…~.._ … _.~…..244. 080 Tot:u-i .. 568. 680 (2) Fusan_= .. Kyeng-Sang _+21.500 _ _.C'h-ul–La-_~_ ……….__……………_Z90, .556 Tot at .. ",Z"056 (3) on.esa~..~~::::;.IJf::!!::::~…………………………..~~Ji,1liPo Toea/. _196.200 (4<) Wee.choo…..,pye't.-.§f-An._………………….. ……….. 293, ~OO
STRATEGIC POINTS IN KOREA
STRATEGIC POINTS IN KOREA. (lfith Map.) BY REV. JAMES G. GALE, SEOUL, KOREA.
I have divided Korea into fbur districts, according to the points already partially occupied. Whatever the changes of the future may be, these four -Seoul, Fusan, Onesan, and Weechoo-will remain the basis of missionary work. and from these even at this early day we are safe in drawing plans.
Seoul, the centre of the kingdom, is also the centre of the first section. With its official record of 568,680 houses it ranks second in populatio~. It is four days' journey from Hachoo, the capital of Whang Ha, and also four days from Kong Choo, the capital of Choung-Cheng. The 'roads through each of these, though nothing to boast of, are the hest in the kingdom. We may say that it is within five days of any part of the district.
The climate of the capital, given to extremes somewhat. more than the seaports, is yet suitable in every way to a western constitution. During the two summer months the neighboring mountains are sufficient for any number of people who may wish to escape the heat and carryon their work there.
The natives of the capital have more !!elfish ambition than those of the country, which makes them a harder class to rllach. Their worship of " rank" excludes all other thoughts of time and eternity, while their limp, aimless lives forbid expectation of vigor in either the natural or spiritual world. Korea as a nation is asphyxiated with tobacco smoke, ha!! been inactive for centuries, is dead, long sinee dead, and Seoul the deadest and most putrid of it all. The nation as a whole is thus; viewed individually the people have hearts like our own, they know of joy and pain, of hope and fear, are kind and lovable, poor, lost mortals who need the prayers and sympathies of everyone of us !
Seoul is the best place to learn the language. Those in the country or open ports should have Seoul men as teachers if they would escape provincialisms.
The Seoul district has been the centre of mission work now for seven years. The people are beginning to know the name Yesow (Jesus), and to recover somewhat from their first shock in seeing mortal man in any but white habiliments. There are three other points in the district where foreigners may, perhaps, expect to live in future-Hachoo, Kong Choo, and Song-to.
Fusan is the sad-looking settlement at the far south of Kyeng Sang. Notwithstanding its uninviting prospect, it is the gateway to the two largest provinces, Kyeng Sang and Chulla. The .Tapanese have a town here of some three thousand inhabitants. A grove or two of pines somewhat relieves the barrenness of it all. To this shipping port come wayfarers from all parts of the south, through whom the missionaries hope to reach many of the inland cities. The language here is explosive in sound and unpleasant to the ear. The people are less ambitious and infinitely more stolid than those of the capital. They are an ignorant, tough-hided race, and the most difficult to approach of all the " hermits."
The climate is pleasant, being tempered by the sea. Fruits grow in abundance, while the sea swarms with fish. The air is purer than in Seoul, and better suited to a delicate constitution. I say this notwithstanding the fact that on the hill overlooking the harbor there are two missionary graves, of Mr. Davies and Mrs. Mackay, both from Australia. There are some five or six missionaries already settled here from Canada, United States, and Australia, with whom rests the problem of these southern millions.
Onesan is a port on the east coast. It is touched by all ships bound for Russia, and being exposed thus to the open sea, the climate is not unlike the northwest. Opening from it is the emallf'st district of the four. Though smaller in numb~IR, it stretches over a wide territory away to the Siberian frontier and the land of the sacred mountains. The capital of Ham Kyeng is three days from Onesan, through a beautifully cultivated country. This district is drawing numbers of people from Pyeng-An, which has been losing its trading class since the opening of the ports. The dwellers in the ports are in intelligence the lowest of the low. Our hopes are not centred so much in them as in the quiet country people inland. Onesan is yet untouched by the missionaries. Roman Catholics have been here for a few years and have a great following, so the natives say. The language is colored with provincialisms, which neither add to its ease or beauty of expression. The people of this northern district are more vigorous and, as ,far 8S I have seen them, have more character than those of the south.
Weechoo is the old gateway to China. Before the opening of the ports it was the first eity of the north for life and commerce, but it has fallen away, and but few traces remain of its old· time vigor. Its public buildings in ruins, its walls crumbEng, its citizens idle, are symptoms of the same disease that we find through all the rest of Korea. Its peopllhave heard the Gospel for some fifteen years through the new Chang missionaries, and from that number come the best helpers that we have. One is delighted to find, away in that lonely, far-off city, so many who know of. a Saviour as well as of sin. Even though nothing can be hoped for Weechoo from a commercial point of view, we yet expect great thingf from its Christians. Though not an open port, it is visited by itinerating missionaries many times a year.
In all Korea there are 1,770,336 houses. Some estimatll the average inmates to a home at ten, which would make the population over seventeen millions and a half. It srems to me that seven would be a high Ilnough average, bringing the population to about the estimate of Von Moellendorff, the first foreign adviser of the king.
FOREIGN MISSIONS ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 66J
FOREIGN MISSIONS ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENG.
The era of modern missions dates from 1792. Since then the Bapti8t Missionary Society was formed, followed in 1795 by the London Missionary Society, in 1799 the Church Missionary and Religious Tract Societies, in 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society, these being the precursors of the more than two hundred societies which now represent the Protestant missionary force for the conversion of all heathendom to the Christian faith.
It will interest many to sketch the conditions of the missionary problem at the commencement of this era, when the society first named was formed, and Carey and Dr. Thomas had been accepted as its pi(lneer missionaries.
But the missionary idea did not originate with the last decade of last century, though then it assumed a more definite and combined form. For almost two centuries it had shown itself here and there in personal desires and efforts, or on the part of small groups of influential individuals, or in vague connection with schemes of conquest and colonization.
It was, therefore, unsystematic, intermittent, and unproductive; much good seed was sown, but the grain grown was neither plentiful nor strong, and was subject therefore to deterioration and even destruction under ad"erse circumstances. Into the history of these early efforts I cannot enter. The purpose of this article is rather to describe how the missionary enterprise stood in 17g2 in agency, methods, and results. There were then but four missionary societies, all very restricted in their resources and spheres, for their aggregate annual income did not reach £12,000. The oldest, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, confined its efforts almost entirely to the colonists and few aborigines in the British possessions. The Danish Society labored solely in South India.
The Moravian Society confined its operations almost exclusively to the scattered and uninfluential races of heathendom, and the Baptist Missionary Society was formed on October 22d, 1792, but with no missionaries in the field until the following year.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had 38 missionaries thus located: Newfoundland, 4; Nova Scotia, 14; New Brunswick, 7; Canada, 6; Cape Breton, 1 ; the Bahamas, 4, and on the Gold Coast, Africa, 1. These were assisted by about an equal number of schoolmasters.
Their joint duties were to instruct the colonists and the Indian aborigines, but apparently the former received the greater part of their attention.
The Moravians counted 137 missionaries, distributed as follows, though of this number 25 were wives and 4 widows of missionaries : St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. Jans, 29; Antigua, 11; St. Kits, 5; Jamaica, 6; Barbadoes, 4; South America, 18; Greenland, 15; Labrador, 25; Canada, 6 ; Cape of Good Hope, 3 ; Tranquibar, 15. A small Morayian mission established in 1765 on the Volga, near Astrakan, for the conver- !;ion of the Calmuc Tartars, was abandoned at this time. Also Stocker then died, after a most romantic and perilious career, extending over forty years, commencing with an attempt to settle as a medical missionary in Persi/!, then in Abyssinia, and finally in Egypt. Here, too, from 1769 for almost twenty years another remarkable Moravian, John Antes, labored, seeking to find a sphere in Upper Egypt and then among the Copts in the lower Nile Valley.
Two more groups of laborers demand notice. The first Protestant mission in India commenced at Tranquibar, in the first decade of the century, had extended to some important centres before its close j but in 1792 there were but twelve missionariel in all India-some of them very old veterans-aU Daues and Germans, though mainly sustained by English money through the Christian Knowledge and Propagation Society. Schwartz had been in India forty-two years, and was at Tangore with a very young colleague, J. C. Kolhoff. Konig and John had been at Tranquibsr for more than a quarter of a century, and had now some younger colleagues. Gericki was at Madras, and J anniske at Tangore. The only missionary away from the south was Kierwander, who went to Cuddalore in 1740 and to Calcutta in 1758, where after a romantic life, most varied labors, and not a little success, he died in 1794.
The Dutch with much earnestness, but no great judgment, attempted to evangelize theIr heathen subjects. In Ceylon, Java, and some adjoining islands they placed several ministers, a part of whose duty it was to see to the education of the young and the Christianization of the people generally. A few were devout men with spiritual instincts, but the majority were mere officials and formalists, who appealed only to the worldly side of human nature, and were content with the merest profession of religion based on the most mercenary motives. The result was a huge, ignominious, and most disgraceful failure. Even as early as 1722 the native. Christian population of Ceylon was officially declared to be 424,400, but in 1813, eigllteen years after the Engli8h had swept away the temptations to hypocrisy, the number had fallen to 146,000, and this in subsequent years was yet further reduced.
Two spheres in America require some notice. The work 80 nobly begun and 80 unselfishly prosecuted at various places among the Indians, by Eliot, Jonathan Edwards, Brainard, and the Mayhews, after a season of promise now languished through want of suitable missionaries. In the West Indies there were more laborers, more zeal, and more success. This was mainly owing to the indomitable energy and wise influence of Dr. Coke.
In 1786, in company with three other preachers, he went to America, and in Antigua, St. Vincent, Jamaica, and other i~lands either breathfd new life into efforts struggling with difficultie~ or gathered llew,congregatians in which were the elements of vigorou~ life, Thus the total number who in 1792 could in the widest sense be called missionaries to the heathen was less than one hundred and ninety, and of these more than half gave but a part of their attention, in several instances but a very small part of their time to direct missionary effort.
Nor were they or their predecessors very successful in consolidating such success as they had or in supplementing their own by native agency. There were about forty thousand converts in South India, but excluding those in the Dutch possessions, who were Christian only in name but Buddhists in reality, there were nO,t six thousand converts elsewhere. Nowhere was there a strong, intelligent, self-supporting native Christian church with its ordained native ministers. The decline, indeed, of some missions toward the close of last century and the little progress made far into this was largely owing either to the defective quality of the converts generally or to the reluctance of the miRsionaries to train for service the most promising of them. Both causes, I think, were operative. However it was, the native laborers were singularly few and inefficient. A few were school-teachers, but there does not appear to have been an aggregate of even fifty native evangelists, and of those not four who had received ministerial rank and recognition.
What a contrast between] 792 and 1892 !-a contrast which proves the splendid progress of the milSsional'Y enterprise, and which should inspire all its friends with elation and confidence.
In 1792 not 190 missionaries-four only in all Africa, 12 only in India, but not one in China, or Japan, or Burmah, or all Central and Western Asia, with not 50,000 reliable converts around them or 50 of these converts to give them efficient aid. Now there are 3000 ordained missionaries, with 2500 lay and lady coadjutors, with no fewer than 30,000 native evangelists, one sixth of them ordained and for the most pal't well tried and trained. Around them have been gathered a nati.ve Christian population of three millions, far in advance of their heathen neighbors in intelligence, morals, and bDterprise.
Into every non-Christian country with but three exceptions the missionaries have entered and converts have been made, in some cases numbering their thousands, their tens of thousands, and even their hundreds of thousands, and what is equally significant and important, the Bible and its conceptions of God, of a Saviour, of a future life, and of morals is rapidly Rpreading everywhere. During the past one hundred years Christianity has spread more widely and won more triumphs than in any three centuries during the previous fifteen hundred years. These are facts which make it absurd to speak of missions as a failure.
The philanthropic Mr. Quarrier, carrying on Christian work in the worst part' of Glasgow, has just received $10,000 for building an orphanage, from unknown friends.
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS
OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO CHRIST FOR TEMPORAL BLESS- INGS.-PART I.
BY REV. T. LAURIE, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
The truth that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved, constrains us to preach Christ to the race. Comparatively few, however, are aware that we are equally dc- pendent on Him for temporal blessings, and that this also is an urgent motive for preaching the Gospel to every creature, gratitude for our own blessings leading us to impart both them and salvation to others.
When the writer was a resident in Turkey, one of the strongest impres- sions made upon him by daily occurrences was this of our great indebtedness to Christ for every good thing in the life that now is as well as in the life to come, and he often wished that he could let Christians at home look through his eyes, if only for a few days, for he felt sure that in that case the love of Christ would constrain them to labor for the conversion of the world as they had never done before. More than forty years have passed since then, but the impression of those days has never been effaced, and he feels that he cannot more effectually deepen interest in the missionary work than by recounting some of the facts that moved him then.
The impression was made by no one event or line of things, but it was the result of many things in all departments of daily life. Others, who . have toiled in different portions of the one field, may contribute other facts i but, however they may differ in detail, all corroborate the one truth that everything which makes this life desirable we owe to Christ.
No doubt, isolated facts might be discovered at home corresponding to those observed abroad, but so exceptional that, instead of representing the general condition of things, they are in sharp contrast to that condition, whereas that which makes missionary facts so terrible is that they truth- fully describe the ordinary state of affairs.
There is no more reliable measure of the material condition of a com- munity than the houses of the common people. I say the common people, for the magnificent castles of the nobility may only serve to make-more conspicuous the wretched abodes of the poor.
Here in New England the traveller is struck by the neatness of its homes. In the villages hardly two houses are alike. Each reveals both the taste and the resources of its owner. Even the buildings erected for the operatives in our factories are pleasant cottages lining well-paved· streets in picturesque valleys; or they are goodly brick blocks, as in Lowell or Lawrence, Holyoke or Lonsdale.
In Turkey we find an entirely different state of things. True, different regions have different styles of building, and in Mt. Lebanon and some other places they are often well built and of good appearance, but this is exceptional. Generally in the interior the variety is only a variety in poverty and discomfort. In some villages a stranger is riding over the ~oofs of the houses without being aware of it, for they are under the surface.
Sometimes on steep hill-sides the flat earthen roof of one house forms the front yard of the next above. Often windowless wall!! are the only things visible to a stranger. AmOl;g the mOllntains of America the family often occupies a raised comer in a stable or a dark cabin opening out of the stable for the sake of warmth j add to this tlmt the whole is either partially or entirely underground, the light struggling down through the smoke that escapes from a hole in the earthen roof. The writer hall wakened in such a stable-home, to find a cow chewing her cud over his head or a horse munching barley and straw at his side. Often has he spent the night in a hut built of loose stones, so low that in moving about one must take good care not to hit some twig projecting from underneath the roof, and so start I:ltreams of dry earth from a dozen apertures. In a rain the stream of earth becomes mud.
In Berwer he lodged in a Nestorian house, the roughness of whose mud floor reminded him of the surface of a New England barn-yard when a frost follows a January thaw. Lying in one corner, with nothing under him but a Turkish rug, he envied the calf in the adjoining corner that lay on some soft, green grass. Half way between a door opened into another apartment_ I say opened, for there was nothing to close it, only some round sticks were so arranged as to shut in a cow that stood up to her ankles in a semi-liquid mass, whose material it is not necessary to specify. Every sound from my four-footed room-mate called forth a maternal response, and a restless movement hither and yon that stirred up the odorous mire. As the night was cold, I had asked the landlord before retiring if he could not in some way close the outer doorway, and in reply he unearthed a rough door from the floor of the inner apartment and, set it up, with barely the semblance of a scraping. The picture may perhaps provoke a laugh, but it was no laughing matter for a family to live in such a place day in and day out through all the year, and for children to be educated in such a school.house for the duties of future life j and the question is, Could such a home exist in a community leavened by the Gospel ~ If there is anything at all approaching to it in our land, it must either be in some corner where the Gospel was never known, or where men have broken away from it and are on their way back to heathenism.
In the swamp at Scanderoon I looked into sereTal native houses, and saw that the damp, black surface of the soil formed the floor, enclosed by a wall of reeds or sticks not much larger. What must be the life spent in such a home-in a place which is the headquarters of fever and ague !
True, I found in some cities palatial residences whose courts are paved with marble varied with beds of flowers and shrubbery, while inside of lofty halls the gilded stars of the ceiling look down on soft Persian carpets and divans covered with brilliant satin j massive mirrors reflect the elegant arabesques on the walls, and large Arabic inscriptioM, with their bright colors and graceful curves, extend round the room; but the question is, How are the people lodged who support these luxuries of the nobility q Amadia represents an ancient city. Its position on the broad top of a steep, rocky hill is just the place that would have been selected for a city in ancient times. Then the deep road excavated up through the rock at the gate, and the wells sunk for more than one hJlndred feet in that same rock, are not the work of modern times. The spacious ruined halls in the serai are also a relic of former glory; but how shall I describe the houses of the people to American readers so that the account shall be received as credible and at the same time be truthful f We read of the heathen so called in our own cities, but nothing that I ever saw or read concerning such things at home can compare with Amadia.
The house of one of the leading men I mistook ~t first for an abode of poverty, but the homes of the common people seemed more like dens of wild beasts. The only door in some cases was a hole in the wall half choked with rubbish, down which we scrambled as into a dungeon. When the e}:e became accustomed to the gloom, in one we saw only a cradle and an earthen jar, and in another two jars and a heap of rags. The clothing of the inmates hardly served the purposes of decency, much less of warmth, so that we could understand how women on the plain of the moosh to the north hid themselves on the approach of visitors, and did not come forth from their hiding-places till after they had gone. How these found shelter from the cold either by day or by night we could not see. Fifteen years before the population had been two thousand houses; now it was only two hundred and twenty.
The floor of the selamlik (reception-room) of the Mutsellim was coated with mud, the divan was in tatters, and with a dozen guns, swords, and pistols constituted its only furniture.
An Armenian showed the wounds made by the fetters in prison, where 3000 piasters were extorted as the price of his ransom. It explained the misery around us to see seven huudred soldiers over against those two hundred and twenty houses of peaeeful citizens. These force the people to toil not only without pay, but without giving them a morsel of food to sustain them under tasks sometimes imposed for days. While we were there several Nestorians were forced, like beasts of burden, to carry wood for the troops up the steep hill-side. One applied for medicine for an eye destroyed by a blow from the soldiers. The priest and even the women were compellcd to do the same. One shudders to think of other wrongs perpetrated on defenecless women for which there was no redress. Many. of the people had died of starvation, and-something very unusual in Turkey, where men expect wrong and suffering as their alloted fate-others had committed suicide. Is it strange if amid such scenes the writer felt that Christians at home did not appreeiat~ how much they owe to Christ for tpmporal blessings ~ But this is only one of many things, all teaching the same lesson. In another number the subject will be continued.
PRESENT OUTLOO;;: IN JAPAN
PRESENT OUTLOOK IN JAPAN.
The two years from July, 1888, to June, 1890, were years of deep solicitude in Christian work in Japan. The year 1888 was the climax of Christian effort, and results that year marked the largest increase of any year in the history of Protestant missions in Japan. Since 1888 the progress has not been so rapid-discouragement and difficulties have arisen. The cause of this decline-rather standstiiI-in Christian work was twofold. The anti-foreign feeling that arose on the failure of the treaty-revision negotiations with foreign powers, and the presence and teachings of so-called Liberal Christianity (the Unitarians of America and the Hationalists of Germany). Without discussing the working of the Unitarians in Japan the past three years, it can now be safely affirmeu that they have already had their day, and already the tide is turning in favor of evangelical Christianity. Even from the standpoint of Japanese Christians, judging from expressions heard frequently among them, the Unitarian movement has oeen " weighed in the balance and found wanting." Its teachings do not satisfy the wants of the human heart. While some have wandered away from the faith-a few, perhaps, hopelessly lost-it is a matter of devout thanksgiving that the many are stronger in their allegiance to Christ to-day than when the Unitarians first set foot on the soil of Japan. They may not be as demonstrative or emotional, but they are deeply in earnest and are planning for larger work and more aggressive movements. A series of meetings was held in the city of Tokyo, continuing for five months-meetings designed to arouse the dormant energies of the Church, and awaken deeper interest in the truths of Christianity among the people. A committee of eight-four foreign missionaries and four JapaneJe preacherR-had this matter in hand. One day was set apart as a day for special prayer to God, that He would pour out His Spirit upon the churches and people, and make these meetings a great blessing to all. On this committee are two Presbyterians, two Congregationalist.s, one Episcopalian, aud three Methodists. Weare looking and praying for great results.
Since the spring of this year the work of Christian missions in Japan has greatly improved. I have specially noticed this in my fall trips in the country, as well as my late visits to our Tokyo churches. Never did the country work look more hopeful and encouraging. The Tokyo congregations are not so large as they were several years ago-notably in 1888yet the attendance is good and gradually improving.
On Saturday, December 11th, at the invitation of the pastor of our Shirakawa Methodist church (one hundred and twelve miles north of Tokyo), I left the city and spent five days in Shirakawa and vicinity. I never had a more encouraging trip into the interior. For five days I was preaching, holding religious conversations, and explaining the great truths of Christianity day and night. I delivered six addresses or sermons, besides holding a large inquiry meeting. At one place the crowd that filled the theatre numbered eight hutldred. At two of the other places about five hundred each. These services usually lasted from seven to ten o'clock in the evening, averag-ing three hours, The inquiry meeting held on the night of December 8th, lasting from six to ten o'clock, was the most interesting of all. There were about sixty persons pre~ent, gathered in the hotel where I put up. When they first spoke of an inquiry meeting, I thought a few of the friends and neighbors would assemble, and we would have a kind of Bible class; but to my great surprise they went into the very dp-pths of Christian doctrine. They asked all sorts of questions. I was on the" witness stand" for over four hours answering their questions and trying to make them plain with suitable explanation and illustration.
The following are the main questions they asked, mostly at the mouth of two of the company (one a Christian). who actcd as its mouthpiece. These two were well acquainted with the doubts and difficulties existing in the minds of those present.
THE QUESTION DRAWER.
1. What induces the Christians of the West to expend so much money annually, and the missionaries to lIeparate themselves from their kindred and native land, and labor on from year to year, for the spreading of their religion in foreign lands ~ 2. Will you give us a short account of the life of Christ ~ 3. You say Christ was" conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary"-that is, that He had no human father; will you explain this-it is difficult of comprehension. 4. What proof have you that Christ -was a Divine being ~-that is, that He was the Son of God 1 Doubtless, He was a superior being (personage), the greatest of the world's great men j but, how He could be the Son of God is most difficult to understand. 5. What proof have you that the Bible is inspired of God ~ 6. What relation does the atonement of Christ have to mankind 1 7. Why cannot men be virtuous and be saved without trusting III Christ 1 8. What becomes of those who die without the knowledge of Christ- some of whom, at least, are trying to lead virtuous lives ~ 9. Suppose a man. after studying Christianity, comes to the conclu- sion that Buddhism is better, what have you to say of such an one 1 10. How can one become perfectly satisfied in religious matters, and find true peace to his soul 1 11. What explanation can you give of humiln suffering ~ 12. Why should Christ have suffered, as the Bible declares He did 1 What need was there for ~uch suffering ~ 13. Why is it that so many die while young-before they reach maturity and the full development of their powers? 14. Why are the rewards and punishments so unevenly distributed in this life -the wicked seeming to flourish more than the righteous 1 15. Are there degrees of rewards and punishments in the future world ~ 16. What is the origin of evil-did not God create evil ~ 17. Does God directly or indirectly inflict punishment on a lost soul, or is punishment the inevitable result of the violation of law ~ 18. Why did not God make man so as to be incapable of sinning, and thus have avoided all the Ulisel'Y, woe, and suffering in the world?- TVorld- Wide Missions.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO-OPERA'l'ION
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO-OPERATION.
BY W. A. FARNSWORTH, CESAREA.
Our great secretary, the late Dr. Anderson, is credited with a remark to this effect: "W~ have yet much to learn as to the best methods of carrying on missions." This is an acknowledgment of the truth of the adage, "Practice makes perfect." The Reformed churches look back scarcely more than one hundred years to find their first systematic efforts for the enlightenment of those who "sit in darkness." It would be strange, indeed, had not serious mistakes been made. The work was both new and very difficult. The workers must have been very dull pupils had they not learned much from their ample experience. We should not, however, credit to experience that which is simply development. System- atic co-operation is a natural result of healthy growth. Co-operation is not new. Systematic and efficient co-operation is new. From the time when the first evangelical church was organized in Turkey and the first pastor ordained there was a kind of co-operation.Where, as was the case several years in Cesarea, there was but one missionary, it was perfectly natural and easy for him to co-operate with the pastor, and they consulted freely and fully.
When other missionaries came that kind of co-operation was no longer practicable. It could not fail to cause friction in the circle of missionaries.
As a natural result the work was carried on too much as if it was, the work of the missionaries. There was this in favor of its being conducted thus -viz., the missionaries alone were and still are responsible to the Board.
As time went on and the work enlarged a band of fellow-worker~ was raised up-pastors, preachers, teachers-many of whom were, in some respects at least, the peers of the missionaries. These could not fail to see that in many important matters pertaining to our common work they were apparently quite ignored. Jealousies and heart-burnings arose. Some of the missionaries, if not all, saw that there must be a readjustment of our ways of working. Just how to make it was a serious question. The trouble became acute, and showed itself unmistakably at the meeting of the Board in Portland in 1882. The result was the visits of the two com- mittees in 1883, tho one representing the Board and the other the Pruden- tial Committee. Representatives of the four Turkey missions met them in convention at Constantinople. Eight topics are given as occupying the attention of the convention (see Missionary Herald, 1883, p. 289), but the one subject of prime importance was the third: "The best methods of co-operation between missionaries and native pastors and churches."
In this meeting it was fonnd that, from nearly all quarters, there was an earnest call for some formal and efficient co-operation. On this subject the report presented at the next annual meeting of the Board (Herald, 1883, p. 435) said: "It was left to the conference to formulate such general principles as should secure the greatest harmony of action, without trenching on the privilege of the different stations to exercise their best judgment in their own field." All the missionarie8 of the Cesarea station were present at this conference. Immediately on their return they adopted the following: "Desiring to give practical effect to the suggestions made in the fourth resolution adopted at the Jate conference" (Herald, 1883, p. 291), "resolved that all matters of business relating to the edncational and evangelistic work of the station shall be decided, after full and free discussion, by the approval of a mixed conference con8isting of the missionaries of the station and such pastors and licensed preachers as may be present at IIny regular meeting of said conference." A second resolution guarded the station llgainst IIny action that might seem to contravene any rule of the Board. As Jet there has been no occasion to even allude to that resolution. At the third meeting of this mixed conference this was adopted: "At any regular meeting of this conference two missionaries and two other regular members shall be considered a quorum for the transaction of business." From that time to the present, almost nine years, our efficient working force has been this couference. In the first nine months it held eighteen formal meetings. Fre· quently it meets once a week, and on an average once in about two or three weeks. Usually there are present three missionaries, two native pastors, and three or four preachers. This is our 8tation or mixed conference. Besides this we have a special meeting once a year, to which all the pastors and preachers in all the field are specially invited. At this general conference reports are presented from each of the thirty-eight congregations, the needs of each are considered, and a schedule of estimates, subject to revision by the station (but never yet altered), is prepared. It has just closed its ninth annual session, and a most delightful and encouraging meeting it was. Nearly every station in the four Turkey missions has now adopted some form of systematic and efficient co-operation. As was anticipated in the conference of 1883, plans differ according to the varying conditions of different fields. Perhaps no missionaries had a more competent or a more sympathetic band of fellow-workers with whom to eo-operate than did those of Cesarea. Weare glad to know that in some places, if not in all, the results of similar efforts have been equally successful. A trial of nine years has demonstrated the fact that the time had fully come for systematic and efficient co-operation.
A Syrian convert was urged by his employer to work on Sunday, but he declined. "But," said the master, "does not your Bible say that if a man has an ox or an ass that falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, he may pull him out~" "Yes," answered the convert, "but if the ass had the habit of falling into the same pit every Sabbath day, then the man should either fill up the pit or sell the ass."
OUR GOD IS A PRAYER-HEARING AND PRAYER-ANSWEutNG (jOn. G7!J
OUR GOD IS A PRAYER-HEARING AND PRAYER-ANSWERING GOD.
A PERSONAL NARRATIVE.
BY MRS. S. G. WEEMS, MEXICO CITY.
I left my native land and all I loved best on earth except my husband, with whom I came to this beautiful and historic capital of the Montezumas -as a missIonary. Iii a short time I was prostrated on a bed of pain, being strangely afflicted. After weary days and weeks of suffering the physicians decided that my last and only hope for life was removal from the city. Before this could be effected I was so low they feared I'd die on the way. My husband persisted in trying it, while the native Chris- tians prayed without ceasing, begging God that I might not lay down my life for them, but Jive to work in the Church in this field. I stood the journey to another city, and the nativ€s continued to have spilcial prayer for my restoration. After five months of snffering I began to recover, to the astonishment of many; but it seemed I was destined to be a cripple. The natives then asked God that I might lay aside my crutch6s, never doubtrng that He would regard their petitions. In a short time I was on my feet, and now do as much mission work as anyone in the field. I feel that I live and am able to work in answer to their prayers.
This year my husband was given a very important work, though hig ignorance of the language caused him serious difficulties; however, he asked this faithful band of Mexicans, who prayed so persistently for me, to join him in asking. the Lord to give him three hundred sonls for his hire. They did so, and he has received three hundred and twenty and the year is not ended.
Brother G–, a missionary in our church here, while living in San Luis Potosi had a fearful attack of typhus fever-was given up by his physician to die. A glass was held to his lips to see if the breath had left him, and all things were arranged for his expected death. However, the natives continued to pray and ask for his life. When he rallied the physician (not a Christian) said, " It is a miracle; not my medicine, but the prayers of those people saved you."
Some years ago, when to labor in this field was even more difficult and dangerous than now, the life of our missionary, Rev. D. F. W., in Guadalajara, was threatened by an infuriated mob. ITe, with his wife and little babe, were clinging together, etpecting the next moment they would have to die. Brother W– said to his wife, "God is able to save us ;" but his wife replied, "Though He has brought us safely through many _ dangers and difficulties in the past. I can see no chance for Him to save us now. Hear the cries of the advancing mob drawing nearer." She and her husband knelt together, clasping their babe to their hearts, to resign themselves into the hands of God. Suddenly the cry of "Death to the Protestants!" was changed, as there was heard an awful, roaring sound. The would-be murderers fell on their knees in the street crying for mercy, for the Lord had sent an earthquake to save His servants. The hou~e in which they prayed was sound, but every other in the city was more or less injured.
Again, this same servant was stricken with disease, and all hope of his recovery was given up. His wife says she saw him die three times. The poor people of his charge gathered and prayed, offering their children to the Lord in place of their pastor. The dear Lord saw the earnestness of their hearts, and restored the shepherd to the flock.
There came into our church a poor little ragged girl asking membership. When examined, and the pastor satisfied that she understood the importance of the step she was taking, she was duly received. When she returned home it was to meet severe persecution from her Catholic mother, who was most cruel to the child. She came to me asking that my husband and self would join her in praying for her parents. We agreed to do so. In a: little while, so unhappy was her home, I asked for and obtained the child, and got her in a good school. The first Sabbath after her departure the mother was at church, and after my hU8band preached she rose in the congregation and asked to be received into the church. The father came forward, too, and was received with his wife, and has been faithful since j all in answer to the prayers of this little Mexican girl, who is now mine, having been given to me by her parents.
Several months ago, after I had employed as a Bible-woman in Toluca, a poor widow, who had a family of children, her relatives and friends began to persecute her in various ways to force her to give up her work, which she refused to do. As she had no means of support, she had to be separated from her children. So, failing in other ways to make her surrt:nder, they began to try to force her daughter, a girl of fourteen years, and her son of eight to go into a school of nnns. They refused, and were turned into the street. They managed to find their way to their mother. She came at onCe to me, with her children clinging to her skirts. When she entered my room she fell on her knees and said, " Let us ask our God for light and help j I know not what to do." After we had wept and prayed I told her I would write some letters and see if I could not get the children into a Christian school. The poor mother said, "Oh, if God will only hear this prayer, I'll bless Him for the trouble caused me by my children being cast off." God did hear. The little boy is in our college in San Luis Potosi, and the girl in the college at Laredo, both well and happy, and the mother more successful as a Bible-woman. She is supported by friends in Livingston, Ala., one of whom is Mr. C. K. Pickens, who is posted in regard to the experience of this woman.
A few weeks ago one of our natlVe Protestant Episcopalians, Rev. Luis G. Prietor, was telling us his experience as a Christian, and how God had answered his prayers. He said he married a Roman Catholic, and he began praying at once for her conversion, and for three months he wearied heaven with his petitions. God mercifully heard and answered him in giving him a Christian helpmeet in his work. Her family were still out of the ark of safety, and at our last conference he Raid he felt that he ought to be near to talk to them constantly and pray for them, lest they die soon and be lost. Instead, he was appointed to an important work far away. Though grieved to be away, he prayed for them. On coming to the city on business he called to see them j found them. converted and in the church, and he was taught the Lord could answer prayer without his personal help. He went home, stronger in faith, to tell his wife the good news, who shouted, "Glory to God !"
The Bible-woman in this city related to me a remarkable experience she had with a Mrs. P–, who was a Roman Catholic and seriously ill-indeed, sick unto death. She visited her, began praying for her conversion and restoration to health, though that seemed perfectly hopeless. She seemed to grow weaker and approach nearer the grave, though this faithful Christian nurse did not falter in her petitions for the apparently dying woman. At last the priest carne to offer such consolation as he gave the dying, but she waved him off, and in a faint whisper called for a Protestant minister. This woman, who had watched for this moment, went as if winged to call our missionary to the bedside of her charge. He went and prayed with and for her, had special prayer-meetings, etc. The Lord heard, converted the soul of the feeble creature, and her health began to improve. She is living to-day, and the Lord raised her from a bed of affliction, and from Romish idolatry and superstition several years ago, in honor, as I believe, to the simple, child-like faith of these native Christians.
About three months ago, while my husband was in an Indian town called Tecalco, holding special services, where were many who had not heard the Gospel preached before, eighteen persons presented themselves for membership, among the number an old man over sixty years old and his wife. When they were all on their knees ready to receive baptism, this old man asked if he might be permitted to pray that the baptism of the Holy Ghost would come with the water. He prayed very earnestly for the descent of the Holy Spirit with the water. When he concluded his aged companion began to pray, when the Holy Spirit descended with power from -on high, lighting the countenances and causing many to cry aloud. There was but one person in the congregation who was not visibly moved by this strange, wonderful power, and she was a poor Indian woman who could not understand a word of Spanish. All t!:Jese incidents occurred in our mission in Central Mexico, and will serve to show that our God does not disregard the cry of the humblest of His creatures.
CltEED FORl{ATloN IN JAPAN
CREED FORMATION IN JAPAN.
The Synod of the" Church of Christ in Japan"-composed of the various Presbyterian bodies – was marked by two significant features: First, the controlling influence of the' native ministers and elders j and, second, the refusal to express their faith in the statements of the "Re- formed Confessions," and a return to the primitive Apostles' Creed.
In the Confession of Faith will be observed a significant silence upon the subject of retribution and of the future state. It reads thus: " The Lord Jesus Christ, whom we worship as God, the only begotten Son of God, for us men and for our salvation was made man and suffered. He offered up a perfect !!acrifice for sin j and all who are one with Him by faith Ilre pardoned and accounted righteou!!, lind faith in Him working by love purifies the heart.
"The Holy Ghost, who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified, reveals Jesus Christ to the soul, and without His grace, man, being dead in !lins, cannot enter the kingdom of God. By Rim the prophets lind the apostles snd holy men of old were inspired, and He, speaking in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the supreme and infallible judge in all things pertaining unto faith and living.
"From these Holy Scriptures the ancient Church of Christ drew its Confession j hence we, holding the faith once delivered to the saints, join in that Confession with praise and thanksgiving."
Then follows the Apostles' Creed. Dr. Knox wrote to the New York Evangelist: "Small bodies move swiftly. While the Presbyterian Church in the United States lingers hesitatingly on the outskirts of revision, its youthful . sister in Japan covers the whole territory from centre to circumference, and boldly revises name, constitution, and confession. 'Boldly' may be thought too mild a word. Conservatives substitute' rashly,' and for , revision' they say' revolution.' But boldly or rashly, revision or revo- lution, Synod made no delay and did its work with a thoroughness rarely witnessed outside the land of the Rising Sun. "Revision was imperative. To 'attempt it may have been' rash,' but to postpone it would have been folly. The problem was already compli- cated, but delay would have added to the difficulties. Years ago the mis- sionaries gave full heed to the counsels of conservatism when in 1877 they tried their hand at Church making. Then foreigners had their own way, but now the Church thinks itself of age. The revision is the work of the Japanese. "
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM: FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
AFRICA.
– " TRADE PROSPECTS IN UGANDA.-These, from a lecture of Mr. Jephson, one of Stanley's companions, delivered at Edinburgh, are very favorable: 'The healthiness of its climate for Europeans, the richness of its soil for cultivation, the vast superiority of its people over the surround- ing tribes, its central position, and its command of a great waterway-all marked it as the country of the future in connection with the trade of equatorial Africa.' In coffee it might become a second Ceylon, while it had valleys also excellently fitted for tea cultivation. It was also a great up-country depot for ivory, and in the equatorial provinces farther north there was an abundant supply, as Emin Pasha had shown. In the large forests at the headquarters of the Nile there was also an unlimited supply of rubber, and the trade in ostriches might become a large one. As to minerals, there was abundance of iron ore, and copper and gold were found. The great difficulty was the expense of transport. • •• This, as well as the great value a railway would be toward the suppression of the slave trade, are convincing arguments for the construction of a line betwixt Mombasa and Lake Nyanza. "-Church Missionary Intelligencer.
– " Central Africa continues to deplore the lack of missionary zeal among High Churchmen. 'Nine years ago we had as many priests working in Africa as we have now,' although the lay helpers, male and female, have increased to 54. Three urgent letters on the subject are published, in which' the other great Anglican party' and the response to Bishop Tucker's appeals are contrasted with their own lukewarmness. However, two new ordained missionaries have been accepted, and have already sailed with Archdeacon Jones-Bateman and his party for Zanzibar."-Church Missionary I ntelligencer.
– " In early ages the whole of North Africa, from the Red Sea on the East, to the Pillars of Hercules on the vVest, was mainly Christian. Here lived Clemens and TertulIian, Origen. Cyprian, and Augustine-men mighty in faith and love, who, being dead, yet speak. Here were flourishing churches, and here the Truth seemed established beyond all the vicissitudes of time. To-day all this is changed : North Africa is now Mohammedan j the crescent is now waving where the cross once stood, and all Christianity – ' save an oppressed remnant '-is gone.
" The question cannot but present itself, Why was this sweeping judgment allowed ~ . No answer can be given except that the Church of North Africa had lost her first love, and had ceased to let her light shine. Careless of the great commission of her Lord, she had ceased to be missionary, and so provoked His indignation that at last He utterly removed her candlestick and submerged all her glory beneath the wave of Saracenic woe. And He who did all this still walks amid the golden candlesticks and still tries the children of men."- Canadian Church Missionary Magazine.
CHINA.
– " Sir Monier WilliamR, in his work on ' Buddhism,' says: 'Christianity demands the suppression of selfishness. Buddha demands the suppression of self. In the one the true self is elevated. In the other it is annihilated.' "-Spirit of .J.fissions. -Archdeacon Moule writes, as quoted in the Spirit of Missions: "Twenty-nine years havs passed since I arrived in Shanghai, and my acquaintance with the country and the people makes me wonder less and less at the title given to China by the Chinese-the Glorious or Brilliant Land. China is often called the Flowery Land. This is not exactly a misnomer, for the hills and plains of China are fair and fragrant with both wild and garden flowers. The chrysanthemum and the peony j the olea fragrans (changing for a few short weeks the air, heavy with the evil odors of earth, into the sweetness of Eden) ; the azalea, red and yellow, covering the hills for thousands of miles; the sheets of wild but almost scentless white and blue and red violets carpeting the banks of river and canal-all these belong to China j but they are not sufficient to give her the distinctive name of the Flowery Land; for European wild flowers are sweeter and fairer than those of China, and the Himalayas are more bowery and beautiful than Chinese hills. Her true name is, rather, the Glorious Land; the same word in Chinese meaning both flowery and glorious. And gloriolls the land is, indeed, with its wide boundaries and enormous area. The region of Western China alone, that magnificent new world now fast opening to exploration and commerce, a region comprising the three provinces of Szchuen, Yunnan, and Kweichow, is larger by 20,000 square miles than Grrat Britain, Ireland, and France, and contains 80,000,000 inhabitants. The gigantic uplands of Thibet, from which the rivers Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Seluen, and Yangtse all take their rise, own China's supremacy; and the' roof of the world' in Nepaul is in theory, at any rate, under China's jurisdiction. Her outer rim is as long in mileage as the overland route from North China to England."
-The Manchu Christians say of their late missionary, Mr. Gilmour, that he fulfilled all the eight beatitudes, and enjoyed the blessedness belonging to them.
– " The charge of the New York Times, that missionaries have frequently been the aggressors in controversies that have arisen, cannot, in our judgment, be supported by the facts as developed by judicial investigation."-Chinese Recorder.
MISCELLANEOUS.
-Nachrichten aus dem Mm'genlande has a report from the German Hospital in Constantinople, in which the good sisters express the great satisfaction they had enjoyed in receiving a visit from their empress. Augusta Victoria is known to be deeply interested in all works of Christian evangelization and benevolence.
-The Rev. A. H. Kelk, of Jerusalem, in reference to the statement that the latter rains are recommencing, says that they have never ceased. The average rainfall, however, which up to 1881 was 22 inches, has since then risen to 28 inches. So that if the chosen people are to be brought back God seems to be making the way ready for them.
– " The fourth annllal report of the Medical Mission and Orphans' Home at Scutari, Constantinople, conducted by Dr. and Mrs. Alexandrian, states that during the yoor about ~ix thous~nd of all ages have attended at the dispensary, and over three hundred have been waited on at their homes. Jews and Mohammedans, Armenians and Greeks were among those who came under instruction and care. Dr. Alexandrian continues to realize the great power of kindness in commending the Gospel. He writes: 'True kinclness, through Christian hands, is powerful enough to open the Mussulman mind to the truth as it is in Jesus. Onr visits to the patients' houses are welcomed everywhere with no sign of dislike for the Word of God. In the house of a Turk, every time of my visiting, the rooms were half filled with the household and neighbors.' "-The Christian.
– " If cities be determined by the majority of their inhabitants, Jerusalem iR at last again a Jewish city." -The Spectator (quoted in Jewish Intelligence) .
– " At Chigakhor, a chief of the Janniki tribe came to my tent to ask me to go with him a three day!!' journey, to cure his wife's eyes. He had brought baggage and saddle-horses, a tent and e~cort, and said that I should have neither expense nor risk if I would go. He was greatly disappointed when I told him that, from his description of the symptom8, his wife's eyes were far beyond my simple remedies. A question he asked led to Christ the Healer being mentioned, on which he became very thoughtful, and after a time said, ' You call Him Mastel' and Lord; He was a great prophet; send us a hakim (physician) in His likeness,' the briefest and best dQscription," added Mrs. Bishop, "of a true medical missionary which was ever given."-Quarterly Paper Edinburgh M. M. S.
– " It is touching to think of the last of an ancient and proud line of nobles dying as a simple missionary of Christ far away in obscurity and solitude; but to the spiritual eye the greater glory rests upon such a close. , What to me,' said Von Weltz himself, in his farewell address, 'is the title" well born," when I am one" born again" of Christ? What to me is the title "lord," when I desire to be a servant of Christ? What to me to be called" your grace," when I have need of God's grace, help, and aid? All these vanities I will away with, and everything besides I will lay at the feet of Jesus, my dearest Lord, that I may have no hindrance in serving Him aright.' His was a rare devotion. His life, indeed, seemed to issue in total failure; his toil seemed fruitless, his great endeavor completely frustrated, his sacrifice of rank, property, life itself, to be all in vain; but such a surrender in the service of God could not be in vain. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' His words and his example are finding now a growing fruitage; and ont of long obiivion and opprobrium the name of Justinian Ernst von Weltz is emerging like a star from behind a cloud, to shine with growing lustre as that of the pioneer of Protestant missions in Germany."-Missionary Record (U. P. C.).
– " David Livingstone could say: 'People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Say, rather, it is a privilege. I never made a sacrifice.' "-Spirit of Missions.
– The Moravian Church being of German origin, we should naturally suppose that its German publications were the eldest. It appears, however, that the Periodical Accounts, published in London, are some fiftv years older than the Missions-Blatt, published at Herrnhut.
– " At a missionary meeting recently the venerable Rev. Edmund Worth, of Kennebunk, Me., stated that he well remembered hearing Adoniram Judson preach while he was still a student at Andover. It seems almost incredible that the great development of modern missions has occurred within the space of a single lifetime, and yet such is the fact."- Baptist Missionar'!l Ma[Jazine. -'rhe Syrian Orphanage, to the northwest of Jerusalem, continues to flourish under the direction of the venerable House-father, J. L. Schmeller.
It has at present 136 inmates. Its 550 former inmates, dispersed over Palestine and a part of Syria, are regularly visited, at least once a year by two native evangelist colporteurs. '
– " The United Presbyterians are said to be, next to the Moravians, the mOi;t missionary Church in the world. Their returns show that they raised £41,602 for foreign and £17,725 for home missions during the past year. Most of their work is done in Jamaica, Rajputana (including a Bhil Mission) and Manchuria. Dr. Gray, whose ill-treatment during the recent anti-foreign riots will be remembered, is a member of the U. p, Manchuria Mission, The U. P. Missionary Record has a cir{mlation of 63,000."- Church Missiorwry Intelligencer. ..
-The Netherlands Government has declared that, in view of the high importance which attaches to the beneficial results of missions for the advancement of civilization in the Dutch East Indies, it shall hold itself bound to see that the forces of missions are not weakened by the competition of various societies in one place. The Dutch are a sensible race.
-Edward Hicks, Jr., of London, has published an excellent essay by an unnamed author, which, while warmly vindicating that doctrine of the indwelling Spirit of God, granted to every man who will receive it, which the Friends have stood for, yet shows how far this is from excusing indolence in missions, since it is, after all, compared with the historic revelation of God in Christ, as twilight to noonday.
-The catalogue for 1892-93 of Anatolia College, at Marsovan, Pontus, Asia Minor (American Board), shows 3 professors, 6 instructors, 40 college and 77 preparatory students, of whom 92 are Armenians, 20 Greeks, 2 Germans, and 2 OsmanIies (Turks). The whole number from the opening, in 1886, has been 356. The official language of the col!ege is English. Robert College is ChristIan, but not distinctively Protestant j the colleges of the American Board are Protestant, but not acrimoniously so. The object of the Board is to propagate sound knowledge and pure religion in the Ottoman Empire, and leave it to determine its particular forms of manifestation for itself. It is sufficiently natural that its most welcome home is usually found in Protestantism.
-There are about three hundred Protestant Germans in the Holy Land. They have lately been holding a reunion in Jerusalem. The Roman Catholics and the Greek Church are both showing so large a foresight of the necessity of maintaining their influence in Palestine, that it highly behoves German and British Protestantism to do the same.
-The Medical Missionary, of the Seventh-day Adventist brethren, is a large and very agreeably edited periodical, published at Battle Creek, . M~~ -Mrs. Bishop, in a recent book, quoted in The Church Missionary Gleaner, of travels in Persia, says: "So much has been written lately about the' style of living' of missionaries, their large houses, and somewhat unnecessary comfort in ll:eneral, that I am everywhere specially interested in investigating the subject. . • . The mission-house here is a native building, its walls and ceilings simply decorated with pale brown arabesques on a white ground. There are a bedroom and parlor with anteroom giving access to both from ttle courtyard, a storerooll and i kitchen. Across the court are servants' quarters and a guest-room for natives. Above these, reached by an outside stair, are a good room, occupied by Mr. Carless as a study and bedroom, and one small bedroom. Another stair leads to two rooms above some of the girls' school premises, having enclosed alcoves, used as sleeping and dressing-rooms. These are occupied hy two ladies. One room serves as eating· room for the whole mission party, and as a drawing-room and work-room. Books, a harmonium, Persian rngs on the floor, and just enough furniture for use constitute its • luxury.' There are two servants, both, of course, men, and all the ladies do some housework. At present the only horse is the dispen- "ary horse, a beast of such rough and uneven paces that it is a penance to ride him. The food is abundant, well cooked, and very simple. • I ha~'e told facts and make no comments, and it must be remembered that some of the party have the means, if they had the desire, of surrounding themselves with comforts."
-Speaking of Argentina, Bishop Walden, in Harper's Magazine (quoted in the Missionary Reporter), says: "In several of the cities there are hospitals, orphanages, and other humalle institutions incident to Christianity. Many of these are under the charge of the Sisters of Charity, some of them built through their instrumentality. These devoted women have schools also at several points. The services in the churches being so largely ritualistic, the impression seems to be warranted that the charitable ministrations of the women in the Roman Catholic orders are doing far more to illustrate the true spirit of Christianity, and perpetuate the hold of the Church on the better classes in Argentina, than all the offices of the altar and sanctuary maintained by the priests." The bishop, however, praises the kindly and elevating influence of the Church toward the natives. Argentina is at once cordially Catholic and cordially tolerant, and it should seem from Bishop Walden's article that the clergy has not been so factious in opposition to this broader policy as in some other countries.
-" Jewish history is not only fascinating in itself, but remarkable in its characteristics. Some of these are well indicated by Rev. T. Pryde, of Glasgow, in the current issue of The Old and New Testament Student: " , When we review the history of the Jews, from the call of Abraham to the persecutions in Russia, we can truly say, "God hath not dealt so with any nation" (Psalm 147 : 20). There must be something veryen. during that can keep them alive through five thousand years, in the midst of such vicissitudes. The empires of Asia, such as the Chinese and the Hindu, may be as old, but, properly speaking, they have no history. There seems to be no progress, but only stagnation for millenniums, in the same social and religious state; but the Jews have alwaYil been in the van of progress. They have been able also to adapt themselves to all times and to all climes. They multiply in Egypt and Babylon under taskmasters and a burning sun, and they can now live and thrive in the midst :1f Siberilln snows. This power of endurance and this power of adaptation tOo changing circumstances have not been given to all. They belong to the: favored people.
" 'The dispersion of the Jews was not only effected by God, but has. by Him been made effective to an important end. Wherever they have, been, these people have borne a passive, but still undeniable testimony to. the truth of the Holy Scriptures, which set forth God's love in Christ, and: also declare, in varied tones and on many grounds, that He " l},,0W, ~()w..-. mendeth all men everywhere to repent." , "-The Ohristian., THE UNITED KINGDOM.
– " Reviewing the present position of the Friends as a !'ociety, The Friend calls attention to thelact that sixty years ago they were OIle of the most self-contained sects; to-day they have become one of the broadest III Christian sympathies and philanthropies. The change is shown to be from that of a religious recluse to that of an active citizen."-The Ohristian.
-Archdeacon Moule says: "The formation of the Gleaners' Union of the Church Missionary Society is another very remarkable evidence of the revival and growth of missionary zeal in the Church of England.
The Union numbers more than 40,000 members. Though only five years old, my own ticket is numbered 36,841. Very many of the recent missionary recruits are drawn from the ranks of this Gleaners' Union."
-" We take the opportunity'~f congratulating Sir M. Monier-Williams on the success which his Indian writings have secured. We believe that even much larger praise would have been accorded to them, and without question a larger circle of readers would have been secured, had not Sir M. Monier-Williams been content to be orthodox. Had he professed to have discovered, in the course of his Sanskrit investigations, independent evidence for rejecting the Christian scheme, or had he set himself to prove that the whole of Christian morality had been forestalled in the Vedic hymns, our author would have enjoyed a popularity whose dimensions would have been in exact proportion to the measure of his abilities, the ignorance of his readers, and the degree of contempt he had been able to cast upon the Christian name. This temptation, we are thankful to say, has not prevailed with the author of 'Brahmanism and Hinduism.' He is mnch too candid to avail himself of such short cuts to literary fame. He seeks no monument of such perishable bras~. He has laid his finger with no sparing force upon the darkest feature in the whole compass of heathen life-namely, the perpetration of vice in the name of piety, and the clothing of the vilest degradation with the sanction of a sacred service to the gods."-Rev. GEORGE ENSOR, in Church Missionary Intelligencer.
– " Nor must we omit, in our estimate of the Indian theism with its various societies, reformed and revised and reformed again as they are, one serious element of consideration. We believe that they serve to receive multitudes of India's seeking souls who else would not have rested until they had found themselves within the fold. These theistic societies meet the souls awakening from the superstitions of idolatry, and promise them a salvation without a Christ. While they welcome the soul which seeks a refuge from the burden of innumerable deities, and promise a return to the ancient monotheism of the Veda, they deny that such a deity is intelligible only in Christ. The heart that is yen ling after rest from sin is pointed to the perfect example presented in the life of Christ, but that pardon alone can be procured through the shedding of His blood, and power only can be received through the gift of His Spirit-this, in spite of much effusive and meaningless laudation, is emphatically and firmly denied. Meanwhile full tolerance is accorded in its ancient paths of error to the sin-stricken soul, and the one decisive step of the confession of Christ as the sole Saviour of the world is denounced as unnecessary and condemned as a mistake, "-Jbid,
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
I1.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND OONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GRAOEY, D.D.
The Missionary Issue in the Ottoman found in the article of Rev. W. N. Cham- Empire. bers, in this number of the REVIEW. The obliteration of ethnological and [EDITORIAL, J. T. G.] political differences being sought, the We have noted in a previous number, Armenians are prohibited from usi.ng the the serious character of the actual and word Armenia. But this name is found proposed interference of the Turkish in the Bible; and on this pretext the Government with evangelical operations subordinate officials seek to prohibit the of the Protestants, which have been circulation of the Bible, notwithstand.
li.itherto supposed to be protected by ing it is officially sanctioned. Another treatyrights, and which have so longbeen illustraHon is seen in a regulation that permitted as to have not only become foreign colporteurs shall sign a bond, custom but that the very custom stands certified to by the embassy of their Gov- as commentary on the text of the capitu. ernment, whereby they agree to be treat· lations. The encroachments on the re- ed as subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
ligiousliberty hitherto enjoyed, became This prevents their appealing for pro· so alarming to the missionary work of tection from their governments under Protestants throughout the empire, that the treaties. These regUlations are the British and American missionaries ostensibly to secure a legitimate super.
at Constantinople issued a pamphlet vision of the sale of books. The pro· complaining of them, and of other pro. posal was that the Sublime Porte should posed encroachments. These related to legalize many of these restrictions, from the circulation of books, and the use of which the societies had suffered-mu- property other than strictly houses of tilation and destruction of their litera· worship for public religious services. ture, and imprisonment of their agents.
The publication matter may be briefly. The other exhibition of recent intoler- outlined. No books .are legally circu- ance relates to the use of ordinary prop- lated in Turkey until they have been erty as places of religious worship.
sanctioned by the official censor of the During 1891 an edict was promulgated Government. This itself puts a severe which restrains missionaries from limitation on the manuscripts of Chris· "transforming" dwelling. houses .. into tian writers. But that is not now at churches or schools" except byauthor- issue. The missionaries suppose them- ity or imperial firman. This strikes selves to have complied with theseregu- also at holding schools in dwelling.
lations, and to have offered for sale or houses-the subordinates, for instance, put into circulation only such puhlica. claiming that a dwelling, if used as a tions as were properly sanctioned by school, becomes thereby a church, ana the State authorities. But in 1890-91, must have the sanction of an imperiai for instance, we are informed, the offi· order. When the attempt is made to cials in Erzroom confiscated five hun· secure such official sanction, it is de· dred volumes of officially authorized nied on the ground that the building is books consisting of hymn.books and a not a church. The edict may have been Bible dictionary; and in June,1891, a defended on the ground that it was colporteur was imprisoned twelve days necessary til prevent the unlawful trans- for selling authorized Bibles. The his- fer of dwellings into the category of tory of these encroachments is greatly permanent churches and schools, which involved. A striking illustration· is by law are freed from taxation; but itu application is to private dwellings, on The Nature of the arisis in Missionary Work in the Turkish Empire. which the taxes have been duly paid. It is not said that the Imperial Govern- BY REV. WILLIAM NESBITT CHAMBERS, ment has instigated nor authorized these restrictions of its subordinates ERZROOM, TURKEY IN ASIA. throughout the empire; but it is claimed that the Sultan sbould suppress them. If it be true that .. possession is nine points in law," Turkey has a right to The several governments who have voice and put into execution the printreaties with the Ottom>'n Empire, se- ciple which has silently influenced her curing these long. used and well·under- in all her national life. Spurred on by stood privIleges of missionaries, are the example of her neighbors, she hILS called on by the nature 'ilf the case, to begun to emphasize as a working policy, interfere for the observance of these and urge with considerable aggressive " capitulations." zeal, the thought that the Government should be administered in the interests We are gratified to read ill the Mail ana of the ruling race. So" Turkey for the JJ1r,press, of New York, the statement from 'furks" becomes an emphatic voicing. Rev. M. T. Bliss, of Beyroot, Turkey, with a new application, of the old spirit that the imperial firman of January last, of Mohammedanism. " Islam, tribute, ordering the closing of the schools, was or the sword" is just as much a foundain a very summary way" suspended tion principle to-day as it was twelve temporarily," owing to prompt appeal centuries ago. Any apparent mollifica. of the American Minister Hirsch, at tion of this principle has come about by Constantinople, to the Government at the force of circumstances, and not be- Washington, and the equally prompt cause the spirit is changed. This new action of President Harrison and his way of expressing it is more in accord associates. Mr. Hirsch's contention was, with the custom of nations around, and that no obligation can be laid on mission is more popular in form. Outside comschools to exclude Moslem pupils, as plications and the changed conditions was demanded; and that nothing but of national life have made it impossible non· compliance with the Turkish school for the Moslem to enforce it in the manlaw can justify the prohibition of Ameri- ner observed in the days of his vigor. can schools. Mr. BliRS says the end is The spirit is there, nevertheless, and not yet, although France and Great only needs opportunity to manifest it· Britain have re-enforced the American self with ancient severity. ,. Jan chttcmovement for the protection of mission. maienja, khtti chuJcmaz" is a Turkish ary interests by instructing their ambas. adage which the subject races are accussadors to pursue a similar course. The tomed to quote with the conviction of " end" is far enough away; for it will hopelessness when speaking of the nanot be till Islam cl;tanges-which is an ture of the ruling race. It may be freeimpossible supposition-and Christian. lyrendered," Until the giving up of the ity, through political, social, and re- ghost the nature changes not." It is ligious influences, elevates the masses about equivalent to the saying in Eng. of the land into true notions of liberty lish, "The ruling passion strong in of conscience. We do not think the death." Trne, there have been changes, American Government ought to be sum- but they have been, to a great extent, moned as a religious propagandist; but superficial. So long the" sick man,". we do think its self· respect requires thlt the Turk has lost much of the wonderit demands the observance of treaties. ful vigor manifested in his early con- The interests of individual Americans, quests. Hurled back from the walls of whether in Turkey, Samoa, China, or Vienna, he was effectually arrested in anywhere else on the globe, ought to be his onward march, and bounds were set protected; and we hope there will be to the farther enlargement of his em· no failure of this result in this case. pire. He settled down to enjoy what he must not be considered for a moment. had gained in luxury, sensuality, and The few concessions—–some of them in indolencc. From that ti~e no progress the interests of .Proteiltant Christianity has been made in the development of -were effected at a time when the Mosthe rich empire of which he became lem had not come to realize the danger master. The conquered races became a which thre!l.tened, and also when, even source of revenue of .no little impor- if he had fully realized it, he had not tance. That, with the fact that the the power to resist. Christians and Jews possessed their sacred books, gained for them some con- During the last decade or two he has sideration at the hand of the conqueror. begun to appreciate the influences at They were rnled, however, in such man- work which threaten his cherished inner that they were unable, or at least stitutions. He is, therefore, forced from failed to exert any influence in modify- his position of indifferent and coning, to any appreciable extent, the con- temptuous tolerance to one of aggressi ve stitution of the empire. Because of this intolerance. Among the various reathe Moslem's contempt grew into in- sons for this change of attitude we will difference. Their religion was not mate. mention two which are of importance. rially interfered with, and they were protected in its exercise, and some civil 1. l!lcternal pressure on the Government. privileges were accorded to them as long -The international relations of Turkey as they endured the oppression and paid present questions of the gravest nature. their taxes. Indeed, in one sense, it She has become aware of the fact that may be said that the Government has she owes her political existence to-day been tolerant. The tolerance, however, to the jealousies of the European Pow. has been that of cont6mptuous indiffer- ers. She knows that if those interested ence. could agxee on a plan of partition, her lease of life would be measured only by Let it be remembered that the Turk- her own power of resistance, which would indAed be small as compared with ish Government is founded On 'the that arrayed against her. Aside from her geographical position, which sub- Koran. The sacred law-sheriat-is suo jects her to international envy, this conpreme. The Sultan is the Khalif-the dition is largely due to her inability to head of the Khalifate. One most im- administer properly the financial affairs portant part of the ceremony of his coro· of the empire. Her enormous debt is a nation is the girding on of the sword of crushing burden. To carry this weight the prophet. He is nothing if not the and provide for current expenses conprophet's successor. The religious idea cession after concession has been made overshadows everything in the concep- to foreign monopolies, until much of the tion of the State. The civil power is revenue has passed out of the hands of simply the handmaid of religion, and is the Government. The Turk finds him_ to be used to its utmost extent in the self in the humiliating position of havdefence and preservation of the Gov- ing to purchase a stamp from what is ernment as a religious organization. A virtually a foreign agent, in order to Turkish pasha expressed the idea in a legalize a travelling permit issued by the conversation when hesaid that the Gov- local governor. The salaries of those in ernment should be paternal in its nature Government employ are very greatly in and function. It should rule the peo- arrears. The result is increased oppresple in the interests of the established sion. Trade is but a small fraction of religion. That religion must of neces- what it might be. Progress is impossisity be protected, and the people obliged ble. In fact, such is her condition that to conform to it. No defection from it in any other country the result would should be tolerated. Anything, there- be revolution. Even the lethargic Mosfore, that contemplates radical change lem himself galls under the burden, in. either' threat0ns injury to both, and The only way the Government can sus- Turk begins to realize as threatening tain itself und maintain its hold is by lies in the institutions which have been appealing to the religious sentiment, established and the movements which which is equivalent to developing a have been set on foot within tho empire. patriotic spirit. To this end religious These threaten to shake the very foundarights and ceremonies are emphasized, tion of the politico-religious fabric. Turkish national days, such as the birthday of the prophet, the coronation of These are the results of the efforts of the Sultan, the Bairam festival, aro oelebrated with considerable elaborate- foreigners, and so are, in a sense, from ness~ Feasts are given, cities are illu- without. But they have become essenminated, exhortations are pronounced tial features in the development of the in the mosques, and military displays country. These institutions have beare made. And, what is in the eyes of come rooted to live and grow. They the Turk of equal importance, he does have started to gather force and influall he can to repress national sentiment ence. As they do so, they challenge the in the minds of the subject races. For opposition of that organillation which instance, the Armenians of the province they threaten. An eloquent senator, in of Erzroom may not lawfully use the the course of a speech on the Indian word which racially distinguishes them question, delivered in Philadelphia -the word Armenia. The Bible dic- some time ago, said that if he were tionary, published by the American asked to name the three things that in Mission at Constantinople a Bcore of his opinion are calculated to solve the years ago, may not now be sold because Indian question and make the India.n that word occurs in it once. what he ought to be, he would answer that" the first was education; the sec- The discussion raised by Canon Tay- ond was education; and the third was lor concerning the respective merits of education. " Taken in its best sense, Christianity and Mohammedanism as a there is here a vital principle enunciatmissionary religion was made much of ed. One of the greatest factors in the in Mohammedan circles. It became the progress of civilization is education. absorbing topic of conversation in gov- When that becomes a liberal Christian ernment offices, even to the hindering education, the force of it can scarcely of the proper work of the courts. The be overestimated. When the uneducat- JiJ:J,stern Light, the local paper of an east- ed a.re started in the path of education ern city of the empire, contained lists a great change is inevitable. When a of converts made during the year to :Mo· man, accustomed to think only within hammedanism, with suitable comments the narrow lines of a great overshadowthereon. All this and much more was ing and uncompromising organization and is being done to magnify Moslem in which change is abhorrent, begins to ism, and to arouse the people to re- think for himself, or in any way quesnewed loyalty to their religion and so to tions what he has been taught, a most their government The wonderful con- serious problem confronts the organizatrast presented in the comparison of the tion in which he is found. It is forced material condition of the country with either to suppress the individual or that of any of her Western or Northern make concessions most fatal to its own neighbors is apparent to the most life. We take education in the broad lethargic and fanatical, and causes much sense of being the effort to arouse peodiscontent and envy. The only cry that ple to think and investigate for themwill arouse the people to the defence of selves. It is Done the less educatioD, the Government is the cry, " For Allah whether that effort is put forth in the and his prophet." school·room or chapel, in the homes or OD the highway, by the distribution of 2. Institutional forces developed within books. The essential point is to arouse the empire.-AIother danger which tho JP.cn to think and question-in othor words, if you plAase, make sceptics of If the American Government does not them. Then they begin to realize the strongly assert the rights of her citizens desirablene-<~ of enjoying their rights of conceded by treaty, other acts of a freedom of thought, liberty of con. similar nature will follow. The represscience, and outgrowing privileges. The sive measures in reference to chapels concession of this to any extent would be and schools and book distribution are fatal to the Mohammedan system. The of the same nature. The opposition to Mohammedan finds that he has com· aggressive Gospel work must of necesmitted a great error in granting the few sity be bitter and uncompromising so concessions already made. He perceives far as that is possible. It will be charthat the influences at work in the em· acterized by the methods peculiar to pire threaten fatal injury to his religion, that people. The same spirit that con· and so to his civil life. In mere self. fronted the Crusaders of Europe eight preservation he is led to vigorous op- centuries ago confronts the crusaders of position. He follows the method of at. the Churches·to-day. In another way tempting to fortify the faithful by a the Christian sword is crossed with the revival, and at the same time to repress Turkish cimeter. The standard of the the causes of the danger. He is deter. cross is over against the standard of the mined now to nndo, if possible, the star and crescent. The conflict is on. first mistake. It may be that the ruler The issue cannot be doubtful. It be. of Turkey is a liberal·minded man; but comes the Church to put on the whole I much donbt whether he may be claimed armor of God, and taking the sword of as a " higher critic" of his own sacred the Spirit, to do her part in vindioating book. I imagne he knows that evan. the claim of our Lord to be the true gelical Christianity and its concomi. prophet of God. tants, the Church and open Bible, the school and college, etc., are his greatest Australian Notes. enemies and most uncompromising foes. He realizes the force of the advice which BY BEV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D. it is reported an official offered in the declaration that the giving of a " fir. Australia has been visited by Mr. man" (order) for the erection of a chapel Eugene Stock, the editorial secretary of was equivalent to ordering the destruc. the Church Missionary Society in Lon. tion of two mosques. The Turk is in· don, and the Rev. R. W. Stewart, M.A., tensely conservative; his life is bound missionary to China. They were deputup in his religion. Anything that ed to stir up the congregations of the touches his religion touches his life. Church of England in Australia. They So nothing can be expeeted but opposi. have held many meetings, and have had tion. The Mohammedan iM not like the enthusiastic audiences. Much good is people of Japan, for instance, progress- likely to result. The Melanesian Mis· loving and ready to investigate. Be sian has celebrated its anniversary on has attained the summum bOllum, and St. Barnabas Day. Divine service was no change can be tolerated. If he can held in the cathedral; the annual meetprevent it, none will be. ing was held in the Chapter House, and a garden party at the residence of I doubt very much if the prcsent at- the Bishop of Sydney. The income for titude of the Turkish Government is a the year 1891 was £5256, of which £500 reaction. There never was a really in- came from the Melanesian Trust. The telligent sympathy with progress. It is Southern Cross has been replaced by a a result of what might be called a re- fine and commodious steamer. The vival, or an awaking to see the dani(ers year has been one of trial and anxiety, that threaten. In the arrest of Ameri- as the health of Bishop Selwyn has can citizens the Government is but feel. necessitated his resignation. The Rev. ing its way to greater acts of (lp!10~ition. J. H. Plant has died. The work of the mission extends over five Solomon "To go -into the details of the his.' Islands, where there are 45 schools, 118 tory of the Uganda Mission would be teachers, and 1580 scholars. The Rev. beyond our limits. Certain facts, how-' R. B. Comins has superintended the ever, stand out mOilt prominently, and work. In the Banks Islands, 9 in num- must be kept in mind in forming any ber, there are 40 schools, with 981 teach- opinion on the present condition of ers. Three northern islands of the New affairs. The missionaries in Uganda Hebrides, under the care of the mission, have had to battle against three influhave 15 schools with 530 scholars. The ences, each of them most powerful. mission operates also on the Santa Cruz The first was the heathen character of &Ild Torres Islands. The head station the people themselves, their love for is at Norfolk Island, where there are 127 heathen superstitions, the power of male and 39 female scholars collected whose hold upon them it is scarcely from 20 islands. There are 6 European possible for us to realize. Second to and 8 native clergymen, a medical or- this was the hostility of the Arab tradained missionary, and 2 lay European ders, influenced by Moslem pride and workers. The Rev. C. Bice, who has greed of gain. They early saw that the been twenty-five years in the mission, Christians furnished the sole obstacle is now organizing secretary in Australia. to the extension of their slave trade, and they have watched every oppor. The New Hebrides Mission of the tunity of hampering and even destroy- Presbyterian churches is working vigor- ing their work. At times they have sue. ously. Two brethren have just sailed ceeded, but only for a period. Never for their spheres of labor after a fur- discouraged, however, they have waited lough in the Colonies. One of them, on the outskirts and done their best to the Rev. P. Milne, of Nguna, has been increase any discords which appeared twenty years in the group. He went in the community. Less open but not among cannibals. He has now 800 less potent against the mission work communicants on 6 islands, while near- have been the French Catholic priests. ly all the inhabitants are under Chris- 'They first appeared upon the scene in tian instruc.tion. He translated and 1879. after Wilson and Mackay had printed the Gospels; Acts; and 1 John; broken the ground and made it possible Genesis and half of Exodus also; a book for Europeans to enter Central Africa, of Scripture extracts, and a hymn.book. and at once commenced their work of His labors have been much blessed. neutralizing, by every possible means, The other, the Rev. J. D. Landels, has the work of the Protestant missionaries. been a few years at Malo, and has They went to Mtesa, who was as yet broken ground and gained some con- very weak in the faith, and told him verts. He took back a church with that the Christianity of these teachers him. A valedictory meeting was held was a false Christianity. What to make prior to the departure of these hrethren, of that he hardly knew; but it is most and addresses given by Mr. Eugene probable that to the doubts raised by Stock, of the Church Missionary So- this hostility, and to the constantly opciety, Rev. G. Brown, of the Wesleyan posing intrigues of the priests, is due Society. Rev. Dr. Wyatt Gill, of the Lon- the fact that, not long after he redon Missionary Society, the Rev. C nounced Christianity and return ed to Bice, and others. his heathen superstitions.
"The Crisis in Uganda." "In 1882 the priests retired, appar- ently with the idea that their work had We find a task ready done, to our failed. The Protestant misaionaries hand, which we had purposed doing, held firm. Then followed a period of and avail ourselves of the work of the great distress, until the death of Mtesa Independent by using its resume of the in 1884 left the throne of Uganda to sitnation in Uganda.. Africa.. hiH son Mwanga, a weak and cruel char· bitter, and the captain was in a very acter, an easy prey to influences of difficult position. Great excitement every kind. The Roman Catholics saw prevailed, and arms and ammunition, their opportunity. Three priests start- which had been brought into the coun- ed at once for Uganda, and on Easter try against Captain Lugard's earnest Sunday of 1885 Cardinal Lavigerie con- protest, were secured on both sides and secrated forty new missionaries for that a conflict seemed inevitable. The cap- country. Immediately on their arrival tain met with the Freneh priests, and they succeeded in bringing Mwanga endeavored t"O secure their co·operation completely under their control and in- in persnading the king to abide by the spiring in him a bitter hostility to the agreement that had been made. On English and the Protestants. During one pretext or another this was post- the interim the natives, Protestant and poned, and again a contest between the Catholic, had stood shoulder to shoulder two parties seemed inevitable. The against the Arab invaders. Now the Catholics were greatly in the majority, Catholics were embittered against the and the only hope for the Protestants Protestants. By every means the lat- lay in the support of the British East ter, who were inferior in numbers and African Oompany. The captain felt without the support of the king, were that he was there in the interest of all, dispossessed of their estates, and on and by superhuman exertions succeeded every hand felt a tyranny that was un- again in averting a disaster. Such was endurable. Political influences also the condition of things on the occasion came into play. Thc German annexa- of sending the last dispatches that have tions in East Afrioa necessitated ar- been received from Captain Lugard.
rangements between Germany and Eng- " The Catholic statements claim that land. German rule, it was felt, would Captain Lugard and the Protestants be more favorable than English to the have turned upon the Catholics, and by Catholics, and every effort was made to bringing in the aid of the Mohamme- include Uganda in the German prov- dans have driven Mwanga from his ince. That failed, and the trade ar- capital, destroyed the mission premises, rangements that followed the delimita- and massacred the priests and native tion of the German and English spheres, Catholics. The French Government resulted in increasing the bitterness has taken lip the matter and demands and hostility manifested by the Catho- protection at the hands of the English lics toward the Protestants. At last Government. The latter has replied Bishop Tucker himself secured an in- very properly that it cannot act until it terview with Pere Beard, and an agree- hears from Captain Lugard, whose dis- ment was arrived at between them that patches there is reason to believe have complaints in regard to ejectment from been intercepted on their way to the estates should be referred to Captain coast. The latest reports are that the Lugard, the agent of the British East fighting has ceased, that Captain Ln- African Company, who was then ap- gard hopes to effect an arrangement prilaching, while they would bind them- with Mwanga, and that the British Gov- selves to arrange personal difficulties ernment has ordered the British East between the natives. It seemed as if African Company to withdraw. Mean- aU would work well, and Bishop Tucker while the Catholic papers on every hand left for England. are loud in their condemnation of the " When Captain Lugard arrived Protestant missionaries and natives.
Mwanga and the Catholics utterly re- It.is impossible, until we receive Cap- fused the arrangement that had been tain Lugard's statements, to know the agreed upon. The Catholic leaders condition of matters there; but in view claimed that they had no power over of the fact that the Protestant mission their followers. The strife grew very and the British Government have had to meet through all these years the de· soul and be satisfied-His will being termined, unwavering hostility not only done on earth as in heaven. of the heathen and Mohammedans, but of the French Clttholic element, we "The members of the Synod make cannot ItCcept the stlttements that have this request with a deep sense of their been made. That Captain Lugard, the own need of such a spirit of importunate English missionaries, or native Protes. prayer and supplication. They make tants have led in any ma.ssacre we do it in full reliance on the Head of the not believe. It is far more likely that Church as present with them. and they all alike have suffered from a Baganda send it forth in His name to His people or an Arab invasion. If so, the respon. the world over." sibility must rest with those whose in. trigues and persistent hostility have Prayer versus Prayer. furnished the opportunity." We follow the call for daily prayer A Oa11 for Daily Prayer. with another call for a day of prayer. One of the most significant occurrences The Presbyterian missionaries in of recent times in India was a great Northwest India originated the sugges· Hindu conference. held at Benares. tion to the Evangelical Alliance of a This conference on what to do to pre· world's week of prayer for the conver· serve Hinduism from the encroachments sion of the world. 'I'his same mission being made upon it. appointed a com· now sends forth a call to universal mittee to formulate their decision. An Christendom for a world's daily prayer immense cr!'wd is said to have assem· to the same end. The following is the bled to hear the report of this com· text of the appeal: mittee read by four pundits, standing at the corners of the great pavilion in "The Presbyterian Synod of India met which the conference was held. in Lodiana, November 19th, 1891, and was in session until the 24th. By reo The conference recommended that quest of the presbyteries of Allahabad prayers be offered at fixed times to the and Lahore, part of the first day was Supreme Power, that the Hindu religion devoted to prayer. From the first to may be saved from its present degener. the closing session of the Synod a spirit ate position, October 30th being speciof prayer and supplication prevailed- fied as the special day for the whole so much so that at the closing session country. Branches of this conference the following call to prayer was sent out are to be organized in all the provinces ; to the members of Christ's body the preachers are to be sent over the land world over: to preach the sacred truths of Hindu- ism; Sanskrit books containing the reo "We, the members of the Synod of ligious rules are to be published, and India, met in Lodiana, unite, in the schools are to be established for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in ask· study of Sanskrit. This shrewdness in ing our brethren throughout the world copying Christian methods is natural to to join with us in daily prayer that a the imitative Asiatic. It is an indirect spirit oj constant, importunate prayer and compliment to the methods of the Chris· supplication may be given to every member tian Church, nevertheless, and an ac· oj Ohrisf s body the world over-to the end knowledgment of the felt force of Chris. that the Spirit may be poured out on all tianity in the land. flesh; that laborers may be separated by the Holy Ghost and sent forth by It seems to us that it would be a very Him to the work to which He has called fitting thing for the Christian churches them, and that speedily our Lord and of all the world, so far as information Saviour may see of the travail of His can be extended in time to admit of it, to set apart October 30th as a day of special prayer for these religionists, that God would, in a way they little intend can further the mov.ement by its official or suspect, hear their cry and answer sanction and guidance, certainly any misthem. A power for organization is al- sionary board can do so. Now is the ways present with thc Aryan race in all time, it appears to me, for all of us to of its branches, and hence a great move- join hands. I do not believe any sepament is possible. In the spirit of Eli- rate organization for this object WIll sucjah's contention with the priests of ceed, as it involves the weight gf ma- Baal, it seems we might cry to the Lord, chinery and its specil1lmeetings, but we on October 30th to show Himself as the can add a wheel to existing machinery and give it supervision and scarcely feel it."
,. Supreme Power" to whom these peo- ple are called to pray. If the Lord be God, may He not thus show Himself to A Ohinese Mandarin on the Situation.
our brL1thers ? Let October 30th be re- Rev. T. Richard, in translating for membered as a special day of prayer for the Messenger, of Shanghai, from" Jeu these Hindus. Yuen Ri," gives the view of the author, an eminent Chinese mandarin, on the Systematic Giving. attitude which the high class of Chinese ought to assume toward the aggressiTe We take the liberty to present to our Christian forces of the empire. In the readers the following personal note re- third chapter of the work the author ceived some weeks since from Esther says: Tuttle Prichard, well and widely known .. Now we find the Roman Catholic and Protestant religions scatt'lred as a Bible expositor, an earnest evange- throughout our provinces and increas_ ing daily. If we forbid them it is list, an editor for years, as well as founder against the treaties; if they are let alone, it is a sore grief to our heart. of the woman's missionary paper of the Moreover, depraved religions are numer- ons everywhere in China; fortunately Society of Friends. and at present, added those who join them are mostly igno- rant people; few of the intelligent and to other offices, Superintendent of the scholars are deceived by them.
"National Deparhhent of Systematic .. Commands should be issued order- ing all the viceroys and governors Giving" of the Woman's Christian 'tem- throughout the empire to issue instruc. tions to all prefects, sub-prefects, and perance Union. Mrs. Prichard says: magistrates in their respective jurisdic- tions to establish charity schools in " I am mailing you a copy of ' superintendent's reports' (W. C. T. U.) that cities and market towns. Let the ex- I may call your attention to the begin- penses come from the Government or ning which has been made in my depart- by subscriptions without troubling the mentof systematic giving, p.127. Since the national meeting the New York poor people, and let the magistrate seunion has fallen into line, and appoint- lect Siu tsais of learning and virtue to ed a very efficient woman as State teach in them. Let all the children, superintendent; other States will follow, for this thing is • in the air.' the laborers, tradesmen and agricultu- Everything seems ripe for the move. ,rists who cannot afford to pay, be adment. I have often quoted your en- mitted to the schools to learn. Let couraging remark to me a year ago, that them study the Siao Hao and the Conif systematic giving were pushed it fucian Analects and have them exwould win its way in five years, and we plained as they commit them to memintend to • push' it. Can you not help 'ory, and at the first and fifteenth of me push it through the REVIEW? If the each month let the Sacred Edict be woman's missionary boards would add a preached to them, so that the pupils department of this kind, or create a may understand what is right and not chain of committees, it would give a be led astray by heresies (Christianity). grand impulse to the work. The wis- This is really of very great importance dom of this course need not be ques· to the minds and morals of the peotioned, since it is already succeeding in the Friends' Women's Temperance Mis- ple. . . . Let those who refuse to send sionary Union, and the Women's Home thei~' children to school be punished Missionary Society of the Methodist without mercy. " Church has made a beginning. If the Women's Christian Temperance Union James Oalvert. tellding the work, and the bitter oppo· sition of the powers that were, never llY THE BEV. JORN WALTON, M.A. shook his confidenoe with regard to the issue. To sceptical doubts, such as the JAMES CALVERT is a great figure in situation might naturally Bugge8t, he missionary- history. He ranb with gave no place-no. not for an hour. those heroic pioneers who hazarded On the oontrary, when the forees of their lives for the name of the Lord darkness raged around-like hell let Jesus among the cannibals of the Pa· loose-he construed the position hope. ciiic. The story of Fiji has been well fully, rightly interpreting the terrible told. It could not fail to strike the struggle. Indeed, upon a review of imagination, confirm the faith, and those early years of that mission, the kindle afresh the missionary enthusi. veteran says, .. We had no night of toil ; asm of the churches. Christ indicates to His Church the men He has desig. God was with us from the first, and nated for hazardous posts; and JameR all along." 'fhe breaking up of the Calvert was manifestly separated for ser· ground, the sowing of the seed, early vice in the field in which he achie'fed so and late, the faithful preaching of the conspicuous a success. His sound can· Word and patient waiting for the gra. version, his fervent spirit, his robust cious result, were necessary processes. frame, and his special business train. ing, marked him as the right man for Certain it is that Christ was with Hili Christian enterprise among the races in servants in their toil. The Holy Spirit the Southern Seas. was striving powerfully with the gen. eral population. The very chiefs were A man of strong common sense, troubled, and their councillors with shrewd and practical in his methods, them. At length the morning broke. and fearlesa in duty, he could readily The sowers began to reap. The har· adapt himself to new and difficult situ· vest was on a scale that transcended ations. He was a fine.tempered, loving their utmost expectations. Conviction and lovable man, tender as a woman, seized Thakombau himself, and swept and soon moved to tears. But he did through the general population. " A not lack the courage of his convictions. mighty revival broke out, and the Politic he was, as a missionary among young ehiefs. in the ardor of their first savages must be ; but he never com· love, were sent forth to tell what great 'promised truth or principle; he always things God had done for their souls." went straight and did his duty-as his It was a genuine breakdown, marked Church expected him to do-with un· by Pentecostal characteristics. Every. flinching fidelity. He was indeed a where the "lotu" spread. People of man of resource, and not soon at his all ages-men, women, and childrenwits' end. In dealing with the chiefs were crying, " What shall we do ?" A he displayed wonderful tact. While he nation was born in a day, and stood up properly recognized their position, and before Christendom a new people. Do on all occasions treated them with due not let us readily forget what those respect, he never flattered, never feared poor islanders" were before," and so them. When occasion required he fail to realize the mighty transformation could be bold as )lathan. Once and which then took place. Poor canni. again the cannibal despot has been bals they were-of every age, and every turned from his murderous design by type, and every degree of moral turpi. the brave expostulations of this herald tude. Hard and hoary savages, with of the Cross. He stood up manfully almost the last spark of what is hopeful for the oppressed and defenceless peo· in human nature snuffed out of them; pIe. Poor women and innocent chilo these were lifted out of the darkness of dren, already doomed to be strangled that horrible pit into the light of God. or clnbbed to furnish the cannibal That victory of the Gospel over the feast, have been rescued by the cour· poor savages in the Pacific was cele. ageous intervention of the man of God. brated by angelic choirs, as well as by By his wise address and Christian con· our churches of every Christian name. ciliation fearful war was averted and James Calvert and his colleagues had peace restored. their reward. Theirs was the honor of gathering into Christ's Church, and This great missionary was never left into the comity of civilIzed and Chrisalone. The personal presence of Christ tian nations, a new race; who, indeed, with him always was not a mere article were not a people, and hardly human. of James Oalvert's creed; it was an Now are they the people of God, and ever.present, vital, and experimental Christ Himself is not ashamed to call verity. Hence,it was that the long and them-brethren.-Methodist Recorder. trying delay, the unique difficulties at-
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
I1I.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Grea.t Openings in Eastern Lands. round the world to 11.11 Christian young men in other lands, " Let us make J eaus Mr. L. D. Wishard, who has returned King," and these young citizens of from a "forty-five months' tour round Japan took solemn oath before Heaven the world in the interests of the inter- that they would undertake to exa.lt Jesus national and collegiate movement of the to the throne of their own native land. Young Men's Christian Association," gave an address of singular interest at From Japan, Mr. Wishard went to the Northfield Students' Summer School China, Ceylon, India, Persia, Turkey, on Sunday night, July 10th. etc., and found a similar state of pre- paredness in these lands. He thinks He first defined the object of this China is, in' some respects, a more movement as being threefold: to im- promisin~ field even than Japan. The press on young men the duty of being persistence and earnestness of the Chifaithful tel their obligations-first, to nese character is remarkable. The Chithe-ir felbw-students in their own col- nese are conservative and slow to move, leges; secondly, to those in their own but when they do move it is with great country; and, thirdly, to others in for- momentum. They take hold cautiouseign lands. Mr. Wishard went abroad ly, but hold fast tenaciously. A most to examine personally as to whether the interesting insta.nce of self-denying work time was ripe for extension of this in- for God was detailed by Mr. Wishard ter-collegiate movement in Asia as well iIi the association at Ceylon, that details as Europe. a committee of twelve to cultivate a ba- nana garden, the proceeds of which go He began with the Sunrise Kingdom, year by year to the evangelization of a and his advent to Japan was singularly small island in the vicinity. timed by God's providence, for it fell in the very year when Japan adopted con- It is a most significant fact that tostitutional government, and was thus day there are in foreign lands some 3000 taking her great stride forward in the students gathering in some twelve of direction of progress. He found a warm these summer schools for Bible study welcome even in Government schools. and culture of the Christian life. A larger percentage of students were found to be Christians than in Ameri, Six years ago, in the summer of 1886, can colleges a century ago. As the his- at Mt. Hermon, Mass" some 250 tory of the students' summer confer- young men met to hold the first of these ences was unfolded to the Japanese they summer schools_ Out of that meeting clamored for a similar gathering, which grew the Student Volunteer Movement, was with some hesitation called to meet now enrolling over 7000 in this conti- June 29th, 1889 ; and, although it would nent alone; and one of the direct outhave been gratifying to find a hundred comes of that gathering was the extenor more assembled, some five hundred sion of this Intercollegiate Movement students and mercantile young men, and Mr. Wishard's round-the-world tour. representing twenty-five colleges, came But, as Mr. Wishard says, the pedigree together, some from great distances, reaches much further back, to the hayand on foot. So marked were these stack meeting in 1806 at Williams' Colmeetings by the power of God's Spirit lege. One of those three students pub. that seventy.five of these young men lished a pamphlet on the" Salvation of devoted their entire summer to volun- the Heathen ;" that pamphlet was read tary labors for the eva.ngeliza.tion of by and determined the career of John their own countrymen. From that sum- Scudder, and so of James Brainerd Taymer school went out the ca.blegram lor, who founded the Philadelphia.n So- cie~y of Princeton College ; from that grew the Young Men's Christian Asso. and the Young Men's Christian Associa· ciation movement among the colleges, tion, and the Young People's Society of and so the international gatherings and Christian Endeavor together, and let a affiliations with all the student volun. zeal according to knowledge fire these teer crusade and its world wide influ· great hosts, and the Spirit of God come ence. The last six years since that firRt on them us on Gideon, and what is not Bummer school at Mt. Hermon have wit. possible to their united forces in the nessed changes and developments more practical conquest of the world?
stupendous than probably any similar Dr. Andrew Thomson's Jubilee. period in history. Who can tell what another six years may develop? He writes from Edinburgh : " I may tell you that my congregation The eleventh Christian Endeavor con· held a very interesting meeting on Tues· vention closed in New York City on Sun. day, June 28th. My jubilee as a minis.
day, July 10th. t~ had been celebrated five years ago, Its proportions were colossal and its when ministers of all denominations interest absorbing. It was probably the were prcsent, as also all our civic dig.
largest single gathering of Christians nitaries and representatives of the uni.
that ever met within one building, and versity and benevolent' institutions.
especially of young disciples. The But this was my jubilee as minist~ of selection of topics, speakers, and pro· Broughton Place Church, and the meeting gramme generally impress us as very was restricted to it. And one thing sagacious and successful. which the congregation determined to The rapid and unprecedented growth do will please you. They agreed to of this Young People's Society of Chris. undertake the support of another for.
tian Endeavor is one of the phenomena eign missionary. We already support of history. We know nothing to com· four. But this is to be identified with pllre with it except the Salvation Army, my name and jubilee, 'The Thomson and even that shows less remarkable ex· Jubilee Memorial Mission.' No pro.
pansiveness. Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., posal could have pleased me more. I in the Williston Church of Portland, prefer it to a monumentum perennius Me., February 2, 1881, a little over rere, and so would you. I continue to be eleven years ago, organized the parent blessed with good health, and to preach society, and now there are over 22,000 once. every Lor s day.
such soCieties, with 1,250,000 members, " Ever affectionately yours, and the organization belts the globe. " A~')BEw THOMSON."
The last year distanced all others in growth, and in one week more societies Rev. Baring Gonld (Church Mission.
have been formed than in the first four ary Society) says that thongh the private years, from 1881-85. The possibilities income of England is as much as £1,300"
of snch an organization with such prin. 000,000 per annum, only about £1,250,.
ciples at bottom and such a membership 000 is given by that country toward for.
at top are' herculean. The responsibili. eign mission work. He believes that 99 ties involved are not less overwhelming. out of every 100 Christian people in To my mind, the grand ultimate end England have not the shadow of an idea of such an organization of yonng people of the horrors of heathendom. Many of must, in God's eyes, be nothing less the temples in India are often used for than a world's speedy evangelization. immoral and obscene purposes. Ont of This is the age of organizations, and dis· GOO native newspapers there, all are tinctively Ohristian organizations. Can it hostile to Christianity. The Free bl) any less than a world's enlightenment Thonght depot in Madras contains 124 which lies back of these providential de· separate works, of which 34 were writ- velopments. Take ~he Salvation Army, ten by Bradlaugh, 19 by }frs. Besant, III by Ingersoll, and others by Paine and for services there is not a room large Voltaire. enough to hold twenty persons; and Mr. George MUller, of Bristol, though over and over again ninety have crowdover eighty·seven years of age, on his reo ed into the car, which seats seventy; cent return from a missionary tour in and often the congregation is larger than Europe preached with his old·time the whole popUlation of the village. vigor and intensity. Eighteen years Not only the people of churchless neighsince, a.Uer forty -three years of pastoral borhoods, but the railway employes work, he determined to give himself to are described as asking affectionately preaching in foreign lands ; and since when" their cathedral" is going to arthen has made 16 tours, preached 3000 rivEl. times, and travelled 150,000 miles. His last tourwaa beguu in August, 1890, and The bishop adds : "My custom is to extended into Austria, Germany, Switz- do all the work necessary in the car erland, France, and Italy, His son-in- with my own hands. It would be very law, Rev. James Wright, one of the unlike a missionary in this new Northpurest, noblest men I ever met, super- west to bring a uniformed porter on my intends the orphanage work. journeys. It would give unreality to the work. So I prepare the lamps and light them; I sweep the Hoor and make my own bed, and distribute the leaflets, While we are celebrating the Carey and make the fires, and put the seats in Centenary, we must not forget that one order. About half the time it falls to hundred and fifty years before Carey my lot to play the organ. I find all started his missionary enterpriRe, John this no hardship; often I have three or Eliot left England to begin his work of four hours on my hands while waiting preaching the .Gospel to the Indians of for service time on a Side-track, and North America. He was the first Prot- many come to see me then, and feel dis- estant missionary that ever left Britain posed to look on me as a working.man too work among the heathen in foreign like themselves."
lands. His father was a man of good This looks to ue like the right kind estate, and lived at Nazing, Essex, a vil- of work done in the true spirit of the lage on the borders of Hertfordshire, Master. Knowing the Bishop as we do, and close to Hoddesdon, Herts. Naz- it is no surprise to find him thus at ing was the home of not a few of the work.
Puritan fathers, many of whom left their native village two hundred and fifty Bimlunanda Nag, a recent Hindu conyears ago, went to America, and became vert, at a meeting of the Young Men's the founders of influential families Religions Association of the" New Disthere. John Eliot's father gave him a pensation Brahmo Samaj at Dacca,"
good university education, and had the lately read a paper, now published means to start him well in life ; but .he under the title of .. My Sin and My son forsook all, and at thirty years of Saviour." , age devoted himself to mission work. He says: ,. Sin is the combination of He endured untold hardships in that Satan and •I,' while faith is the com- desolate and trying region, but remained bination of the Father and' I.' I must at his post till, at eighty. three years of tell you how this thought came to my age, he died. Probably he was the first mind. In English there are two ways to translate the JJJnglish Bible into a heathen of abbreviating words: one is by put.
language. ting the first and the last letter, as Rs.
for ' rupees,' and the other by putting That .. cathedral car" in North Da- a few letters from the beginning of the kota is a great success. At many places word, as Marq. for' marquis.' Accord- along the line of railway where it is left ing to this rule, Sn. is an abbreviation of ' Satan, I and when' I • is joined with 1856 a meeting had been held in Glasit, it becomes sin-s-i·n. And again, gow in this Zenana interest. There are on the other hand, Fath. is an abbre- those now living in London, Harrpw, viation of • .Father,' and when 'I' is and Edinburgh who were in Calcutta in joined with it, it becomes faith-f-a-i-t-h. 1855, and knew the facts of the then al- In both the cases' I' is exactly in the ready begun Zenana visitation.· Up to middle, showing' I • seized by Satan is 1860 it is said no man had so often sin, and ' I' yielded to the Father is pleaded for India's daughters as John faith. " Fordyce, who had made their condition and history his speciftl study. This On the tablet which has been erected matter may Beem trifling, but nothing in London to the memory of General is small which is pertinent to historic Gordon are these words: .. Major· Gen- accuracy. And this REVIEW will gladly eral George Charles Gordon, who, at all give honor to whom honor is "due, and times and everywhere, gave his strength correct any errors of statement, even to the weak, his substance to the poor, though, as in thifl case, the editor himhis sympathy to suffering, and his heart self may need to be more fully informed to God." and to retract statements based on im. perfect information. The Origin of Zenana Work.
A letter has been received from a very When the Oxford honors were behigh authority that a faithful historical stowed upon Bisbop Potter, of New statement must place the origin of Ze- York, Dr. Ince, adverting to the pronana missions farther back than 1858, posed cathedral in the American metropand before Mrs. Mullens or even Mrs. olis. stated that Divine service is to be Sale made their visits to the iron-barred said in seven different chapels in as homes of India's women. many tongues, among them Chinese and Armenian. It seems that as long ago at least as 1855 Dr. George Smith and Rev. John A Paulist father, at a public service .Fordyce and others had been engaged in which certain pretended relics of St. in the work of reaching hy organized Anna, the mother of Mary, were exhibitefforts these millions of wives, mothers, ed, exclaimed: "Here are relics of lhe and daughters. The conference of grandmolher of God, bone of His bone, which Mr. Sale was a member set its flesh of His flesh;" whereupon the conseal of approbation on the work of these gregation are said to have prostrated pioneers in 1855, and the proceedings themselves in an agony of awe and were printed in different forms at the adoration. " It would be difficult," says Baptist Mission Press. The idea that a the Church Standard, "to find anything little" needle-work embroidery opened more revolting or more profane in any long-shut doors" does not, therefore, form of heathenism." Surely this is a represent the earlier opening, however " crazy monk !" true and interesting in later cases. It was the grand work of English educa- Archbishop Whately says: ., If our tion, as Dr. Duff predicted, that pre- religion is not true, we are bound to pared the educated men. He himself change it; if it is true, we are bound to was not in Calcutta in 1855, but Mr. propagate it." Here is in a nutshell Fordyce's appeals went far and wide the whole of the argument for foreign over India and moved many, and the missions. few doors opened that year prepared for wider openings in 1858 and later. In One of our correspondents thinks jus- 1868 a paper was prepared by the late tice to General Booth and the Salvation Lady Kinnaird and her friends, and pre- Army demands that the UEVIl);W shall (It sented to the Queen, and as early flS least refer to the fact that Henry Labou· tioal oontempt of the sacraments is a chere who has been understood to re- radical evil. gard 'Booth as a shllm, has signed the appeal for funds for the Salvation Army I received the following letter, which work, and says he has satisfied himself may serve to explain somewhat the in. that the money raised by Booth is prop- difference to the state of the heathen in erly spent. Labouchere recently visited some parts. Dr. Briggs is credited with the farm colony near Hadleigh, and saying that "no man in his heart befound an enormous work had been ac- lieves in the condemnation of the complished-a complete village built heathen, and that any man who does up in thirteen months. The colony deserves damnation more than the possesses 300 acres of land under crops, heathen do!" The first chapter of Romans and 1200 acres of land is being reclaimed ought settle that.-A. T. P. from the sea by the dumping of London refuse. Thirty-seven acres are devoted LONDON, May 14, 1892. t~ fruit· trees. There are 600 chickens, DEAR DR. PIERSON: In visiting various 600 cattle, and large numbers of sheep parts of the country on deputation work, and pigs. A rabbit warren is a novel our missionaries have been struck by and useful part of the stock-raising es- the remarks of many friends concerning tablishment. the state of the heathen after death, showing that there is a very widespread The colony also boasts of a saw.mill, a idea that in some way they will altogether brick-yard with a capacity of 30,000 per escape the judgment of God, and be liS well day, a chair factory with a daily output off in the end as others, from th~ fact of 600 chairs, and other manufacturing that the Gospel has not been proclaimed plants. Mr. Labouchere found the to them while livillg. Inmost illstances " submerged tenth" working hard and this is, no doubt, due to the teaching of proving themselves deserving of the their minister rather than to any serious help Booth, by the aid of the generous thought on the subject themselves. public, has extended them. Booth's I am allxious, therefore, to publish theory that by giving these poor something in North Africa, our month· wretches a little encouragement and a ly record, bearing upon the subject; in· start they could be redeemed, seemed deed, I should like to seG a symposium to be substantiated by the results ob- on this question which might afterward tained. Men are constantly leaving the be published as a tractate. May I ask colony to accept good situations. The you, therefore, as a special favor, to moral effect upon the beneficiaries seems kindly write me a few lines embodying like a physica tonic. Labouchere con- your thoughts on this subject, or refer siders Booth's enterprise an honest, me to something you hal'e already writfruitful, and successful one. ten. I should be glad to have them at your earliest convenience. The editor would add that the REVIEW With kind regards, believe me, has never discountenanced Booth and the Salvation work he has been doing, Sincerely yours, but, on the contrary, was among the first WILLIAM T. FLOAT. to bid him Godspeed, and say a word in favor of his great experiment. Yet The Bible as a Missionary. loyalty to the Master demands that we record our conviction that the Army cairn Island is a solitary islalld in provides no proper teaching or training the Pacific. about seven miles around, for its members in Christian doctrine, having elevated districts, one peak risand our disapproval that it ignores ut· ing over one thonsand fl'et above sea.- terly the two great sacraments of bap- level, and the north coast presenting a tism and the Lord's Supper. Idiosyn. sort of natnral amphitheatre of thick orasies ,we oan tolerate, but this prac- woodland, flanked by steep cliffs. It was here that the famous settlement in destitution of all clergymen., waH. The island was discovered in churches, and ordinary means of grace, 1767 by Carteret, and named after Pit- and amid the most unlikely classes to cairn, one of his officers, who caught the be reached by saving influences, a sin- first glimpse of it. The mutineers of gle copy of the Bible and the Book of the Bounty and their descendants lived Common Prayer, so largely permeated upon this island for more than sixty with the Bible, became the missionaries years. In 1790 nine of these mutineers of God to convert a whole community.
land6d there, and with them six men We have been wont to emphasize the and twelve women from Tahiti. At need of personal agents in the work of that time the island was uninhabited, conversion, and that need can scarcely though remains, discovered later, prove be made too emphatic; but there is a that at some previous time a native growing evidence that God honors His population had li ved there, and had own Word, and sometimes even wheJ;,e either migrated or become extinct. there are as yet no believers uses that Among these settlers of 1790 quarrels Word to convey the first blessing.
violent and bloody broke out, fed by What of early parental or other relig- the use of spirits distilled from vegeta- ious training may haTe left impressions ble products of the island, and within on the mind and heart of John Adams, ten years after the original settlement, we know not; but the Word of God all of the Tahitian men and all the Eng- was certainly in this case the conspicu- lishmen but one had perished. The one ous, if not the solitary cause of a great surviving mutineer, John Adams, had change.
a Bible and prayer-book, saved from "Servioe for the King." the Bounty, and it was by reading these that the Spirit of God awakened in him This beautiful and instructive record deep remorse for his crimes; and be. of Mildmay work, issued by those dear coming a true Christian believer, he be- servants of God whose good works and gan, with the aid of these books, to in- alms deeds have done so much to illu- struct the Tahitian women and the chil- mine the darkness not only of London, dren of this mixed parentage, with the but of far distant lands, is now issued result that upon this lonely island there in an enlarged and illustrated form; ·grew up a very remarkable community. and we are very glad to recommend all All travellers visiting the island have our readers to subscribe for it. Ad- borne testimony to the gentleness and dress Colonel Morton, Garden House, kindness of character and virtuous Mildmay Park, London, N.
simplicity of conduct which marked this community. As the population James Gilmour of Mongolia.* grew the island became insufficient to The story of this consecrated life, ae assure the subsistence of the increasing told by Rev. Richard Lovett, is a new community; and in March, 1831, the addition and a very fine one to the lit- British Government conveyed the Pit- erature of missions and the biographies cairn Islanders to Tahiti. Their new of heroes. This extraordinary man situation did not prove satisfactory, and went out in 1870 to revive mission·work sickness made inroads into their num- in Mongolia, and labored with devotion ber, so that they soon returned to the among Chinese and Mongols. He had island, from which, in 1856, however, to endure many. disappointments, but they finally and as a body removed to was a man of large practical resource Norfolk Island, where proper proYision and child·like Christian faith. He lived had. been made by Great Britain for their permanent abode. * "James Gilmour of Mongolia: his Diaries, The story of the Pitcairn Islanders is Letters, and Reports." Edited and arranged by the more impressive from the fact that, Rev. Richard Lovett, liLA. (7s. 6d. Religions Tract Society.) as a nomad among a benighted people, ary; he was a generous missionary and inspired the regard of all. giver, making God his banker. He urged his children to give at least a He married, in 1874, Miss Emily tenth of their money to the Lord's Prankard, sister-in law of a Chinese cause. In a letter of brotherly remonmissionary, Rev. S. E. Meech. He pro- strance to one who, in a moment of deposed to her by letter, and she went pression, and without adequate cause, out to be the wife of a man whom she thought he was slighted, he said: had never seen; but it was a marriage "What you do is don,e, not for the L. made in heaven. After her death, in M. S., but for Him; and he sees and 1885, the children being under guar- knows, and won't forget, but. sympadians in England, Mr. Gilmour with thizes and appreciates, and at the end undiminished ardor carried on his work. will speak up straight and open for His With strong faith in God, his attitude true men. I often lug portmanteaus, of life was one of absolute dependence walk afoot, and, as the Chinese say, upon and submission to the will of • eat bitterness' in China and in Eng- God. He wrote: "The great object or land. I am not thanked for it, but He my life is to be like Christ. As He was knows. No danger of being overlooked. in the world, so are we to be. He was Now, don't be' huffed' at my lecturing in the world to manifest God; we are you, and don't think I must think a lot in the world to manifest Christ." of myself to suppose that I am running up a bill of merit, like a Buddhist, and In a letter to a missionary in a dis- think I am Jesus's creditor. My dear tant field, he wrote: " All alone I have fellow, you know better than that. I gone on the 'headlong for Christ' way point out to you and remind you of the of things here, even when preaching to only way I know to be persistently usethe most intellectual English and Ameri- ful and at the same time happy." can audiences, and they have received me royally. God has waked me up When he died last year, Christians these last years to such an extent that who had been gathered from among the I feel a different man. I sometimes people whom he labored to enlighten wonder now if I was converted before. bore touching testimony to his faith I suppose I was, but the life was a cold, and character. Moreover, all who knew dull one. Just the other day Jesus, so him mourned the loss. The life is full to speak, put out His hand and touched of inspiration, and we cordially comme as I was reading a hymn, something mend the book to our readers. Mr. about desiring spiritual things and pass- Lovett concludes: "James Gilmour, in ing by Jesus Himself. I wanted His season and out of season, in almost conblessing more than I wanted Him. stant solitude, in super-abounding phy_ That is not right. Lately, to.!', I have sical labors that often overburdened become calm. Before, I worked, oh! him, and once nearly broke him down, so hard and so much, and asked God to in the long disappointment of the most bless my work. Now I try to pray cherished hopes, and under the conmore, and get more blessing, and then stant strain of what would have crushed work enough to let the blessing find its any but a giant in faith, lived a life way through me to men. And this is which, if it taught no other lesson, was the better way. And I work a lot even now-perhaps as much as before; but yet well worth living to teach this–that I don't worry at the things I cannot overtake. I feel, too, more than I did, Jesus Christ can and does give His serthat God is guiding me. Oh! some- vants the victory over apparent nontimes the peace of God flows over me success, after the most vehement and like a river. Then it is so blessed; long. sustained effort to secure success, heaven is real, so is God, so is Jesus." and that this is the greatest victory possible to renewed and sanctified hu- Mr, Gihj:lour wal;J !lot only a mission- man nature." , So writes the Ohristian, and we say "Amen."
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS. [S(.ptember
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY BEV. H. G. UNDERWOOD, D.D., KOREA.
Medioal Missions in Japan and Korea. there, if it is not accompanied by some- thing else, if it is not done witl;l a view ~ From the very inauguration of the to the greater work of soul-healing and second dispensation by the head of the soul·saving, it cannot properly be called Church, the great Physician, the allevi- medical mission work. Only so far as ation of suffering, the eradication of the work of healing is accompanied by disease, as in a large measure typifying efforts toward and has for its ultimate the work for and on the soul that was object the winning of the soul to Christ to be done by the Holy Spirit, has gone can it properly be called the work of hand·in-hand with efforts toward the medical missions. renewal of the spiritual man and the sanctification of the soul. This leads naturally to the statement Our great Pattern in all Hill journeys, of the second advantage to be derived in all His attempts to win the people from medical missions, which is, in around Him to His cause, was ever fields that are open to the heralds of ready to let His heart go out in pity to the Gospel, and where women. are easily the suffering and the sick, and was ever reached, the winning of the individuals spending all the power that had been one by one through the benefit that given Him by His Father in lessening they have derived from the earthly pain and relieving from disease. physician to look for greater and more " Great multitudes followed Him, and abundant help to the great Physician. they brought unto Him all sick people The winning of souls and the spread of that were taken with divers diseases, the kingdom throngh the agency of and those which were possessed with medicine is the true aim of the medical devils, and those which were lunatic, missionary. Medicine is but the means and those that had palsy, and He healed to an end, and the evangelization of the them." world is that end. Medical mission- In like manner should the Church to- aries, however, state that through the day go forward in her work of evangel- interest that they naturally feel in their izing the world, and, copying her Master, profession, there is a danger of that should use all the power that God which by rights should be only the through the knowledge of medicine has means toward something higher becom- placed in her handl> for the alleviation ing the end itself, and that where it has of suffering, and should see to it that been attempted to combine the two the physician and evangelist, either professions in one, ofttimes either the combining.the two in one or going hand- physician has become lost in the evan- in-hand, should travel the world over, gelist or the evangelist in the physi- and carrying joy and happiness and cian. Here we see need of care to ward dispelling pain should proclaim, ,. Peace against this danger, and here we see and good-will to men." the advantage of the physician and The special advantages to be derived evangelist going hand-in-hand in this from medical missions, taking them in- work. versely in regard to their importance, are as follows: First, and least of all A third and very great advantage to we would mention the physical benefit be derived from medical missions in conferred in alleviating suffering and countries already opened to the Gospel, the healing of diseases. This is by no but where women are secluded, is to be DleaDS a small bluefit, but if it stops found in the power of the woman physi- cian to open the doors (closed to all others) of harems, zenanas, and anpangs, and thus to carry the Gospel to the most medical missionaries have had no small secluded, where its benign influences share in the successes that have attend- are in truth most needed. Many and ed the Gospel in that marvellous land.
many a woman has thus been brought The first resirlent missionaries to both under the influence of the Gospel; many Japan and Korea were very rightly and many a mother's heart thus won to meJical men, Dr. Hepburn reaching the Saviour; many and many a home Yokohama in 1859 and Dr. Allen arriv- thus made bright that would otherwise ing jn Seoul in 1884. That grand veter.
be dark, dreary, and out of Christ; and an missionary, Dr. Hepburn, together thus is medical mission work bearing a with his noble wife, as now in their noble part in that steady winning of ripe old age they look upon modern individuals one by one that will bring Japan and see what Christianity has the world to Christ. done, can look upon a work in which . But a fourth and by far th-! pre.emi. they have had no small share, and can nent advantage of medical missions is feel assured that God was in it when He to be found in the ability of the physi- sent the physician first. Western medi.
cian, through his knowledge of medi. cal science has completely supplanted cine, to gain admittance to the homes the old and almost useless medical su· and win the friendship and confidence perstitions of that country; medical col.
of tb.e people in hostile fields and lands legesof no mean standing are to.day grad- otherwise closed to .the Gospel. This uating yearly scores of native doctors has been and will be for years to come that rank well with tlle hest graduates the pre·eminent advantage to be derived of our medical colleges at home. Some from medical missions. God ha.s most of the first men of that land, however, wonderfully opened to the physician now tell us that medical missions in villages, towns, cities, and even nations that country have had their day, On that were otherwise closed. Villages the last two counts they are most cer· that had been closed for years where tainly no longer needed in modern Ja- the evangelist had apparently been try. pan, and though on the first two there ing in vain to gain a foothold have might still be a place and work for been opened by but one visit from the them, the native physicians are so physician, and Christianity has been many, so well qualified to do their welcomed almost with open arms. work, and object so bitterly to the for.
Prejudices that seemed iron bound and eigners who injure their practice and hatred that seemed bred in the bone take bread from their children's mouths have been broken and cast out by the by doing gratuitously what they must practical Christianity that has been ex· do for a living. that it is thought best emplified by medical missions, and at by many of the missionaries to carry on this late date many and many is the city their Christian work in other lines. where the evangelist is excluded by This is the opinion of a large number legal restrictions, but where the physi. of the missionaries now in Japan, and cian would easily earn a ready welcome from our acquaintance with the field not only for himself, but for the minis. and knowledge of the facts (gained ters of the Gospel as well. But in through several lengthened visits and a these pages we are to consider medical careful study of the problem) it seems missions in Japan and Korea; let us to us well grounded. With reference then see how the statements made to Japan, therefore, we conolude that above apply in these two lands. First, medical missions have done a noble then, work in that land; that to them belongs no small share of the reRuts in this in. JAPAN. teresting country, bllt that her~~here is Medical work in Japan has made it· self felt in a very marked manner. A now no more need for mission work noble work has been done, and the -along these lines. There may be sOmc who will take issue with us, but even till the fall of 1884 that Dr. Allen, who the most positive of them will agree was transferred from the Presbyterian that on the last two counts at least mission in China, reached Seoul-the medical missions are no longer needed in first to arrive there of the Protestant Japan; and when there are so few work- missionaries appointed to Korea. Here ers of this class, it will surely be agreed in the most marvellous way we seEl the by all that it were far better to send the hand of God in sending as the first mis- men to lands where the conditions are sionary a physician. God bad been such that if possible all or at least three preparing him for his work by over a of the great advantages to be reaped from year's missionary labor in China, and medical mislions will be gained. at the critical time had him providen- KOREA. tially waiting in Shanghai ready to go, so that a cable message consenting to Such, then, is the status of affairs to- the transfer placed him in Korea sooner day in Japan. In Korea the case is al- than it would have been possible for together different. The hermit nation any of those already appointed in has been opened to foreign countries, America to reach there. Brilliant op- the influence of civilization, and the portunities awaited him, and they were Gospel for barely a decade. A scarce brilliantly availed of by the doctor.
ten years ago it was not only death to Scarcely had he reached Korea when the Christian, but death to any foreign- the emeute of 1884 took place. The er landing on her shores, death to any story is too well known to need repeti- Korean harboring a foreigner. Then it tion. 8uffice it to say, Prince Min Yong was generally conceded that Korea was Ik was, as the Koreans expressed it, a closed nation, and but a few years brought to life again by the doctor's previously the London Missionary 80- skill, and thus at one stride a vast ciety, though refusing to send a mis- amount of prejudice and hatred was sionary to Korea, had given its consent overcome, the foreign missionary was to one of its agents in China, who felt brought from ignominy and distrust called to go, to make th& attempt. He to prominence and favor at the court embarked for the Korean shore, and, it itself, and once more medical missions is believed, effected a landing, but has had been used of God to open a wholu never been heard of since. Here was a nation to the Gospel. Property was at country entirely shut in, steeped in once set apart by the king for a govern- prejudices, and yet one from which came ment hospital, to be under the charge back wonderful and most marvellous of the missionaries, which to this day reports of the successes that were attend- retains the high favor of the govern- ing the Romanists, who had entered the ment. From the very start medical land by stealth. Attempts had been work has been a most prominent fea- made by force of arms on t1e part of ture in all the Protestant missions in two of the great powers to open this Korea, so mnch so, that for some years country, but had failed. The arts of the physicians outnumbered the min- diplomacy had had no better success; isters. Medical work among the women Korea was still the hermit nation. has been started, and found wonderful Christians prayed earnestly that the acceptance throughout the whole coun~ barriers that hindered the entrance of try. Three or four other hospitals have Christianity might be broken down, and been opened in the capital, and in in 1882 the prayer was answered; the these thousands of patients are an- negotiation of her first treaty with a nually treated, nearly all of whom at Western power took place, and Korea the same time receive Gospel instruc- was open. , tion.
The Christian Church, however, was Many Koreans in Seoul to-day can slow to heed GOd's call, and it was not oear witness to the power and influence which a devoted physician can wield heathen countries, he can be of service over the hearts of the people, as illus- in Korea. With a system of medicine trated in the life of Dr. Heron, one of and surgery so crude and inefficient, in the pioneer missionaries, who has since a country where diseases are so preva- laid down his life in the service and lent, and where sanitary rules and regu- among the people he loved so well. lations are so poor that pests of every Although at the start the work was description run riot, the amount of confined almost entireJy to Seoul, two physical suffering that these poor Ko.
new missi.'n stations with resident reans are forced to endure cannot be esti.
physicians have since been started, and mated.
two more will be opened as soon as the Then, too, the women of Korea are medical men can be found, for their more secluded than those of either presence is deemed so essential that China or Japan; in fact, among certain most of the missionaries in Korea hold clasBes the Korean anpang becomes as the opinion, and the Presbyterian much a Iiving tomb as are the zenanas Board of Foreign Missions has decided, of India. In times of sickness and that no new station should be started trouble scarcely one of these but would without the aid of a pioneer medical be at once opened to the woman physi.
missionary. cian, and thus an entrance for the Gos- Medical science in Km·ea is extremely pel, which could be gained in no other crude, if indeed it can be called a sci- way, would be effected into the very ence. The native physicians know ab- heart of Korean home life. The truth solutely nothing about anatomy, physi- of this last statement has been most ology, therapeutics; they have a mate- conclusively shown in the reception ac- , ria medica, such as it is, of their own; corded to the women physicians who and they know the results whioh follow up to this time have labored in Korea.
the administration of certain drugs; They have been cordially welcomed in but their whole system of medicine the homes of the people from the high.
seems to be nothing more than a some- est to the lowest. A most royal wel- what skilled use of certain herbs, to come has been accorded two of them by which they frequently add the flesh of their majesties, who have continued to some of the lower animals. Everything load them with favors. No door has is, however, of the crudest and often seemed closed, and the extent of their the most loathsome, and those parts of work has been limited only by the time animals considered unfit for use by civ- and ability of the few on the field.
ilized people form not uncommonly the In relation to the fourth point that bulk of a remedy prescribed by a native was made, as to the advantages to be physician, for with this tolerably accu- derived from medical missions, we find rate knowledge of the action of certain that in Korea the conditions are such herbs upon the system is mingled an that this benefit also will accrue to the immense amount of superstition and cause of Christ in this country through ignorance. Of surgery they have no medical work. True, it cannot be for knowledge, and a Korean surgical caRe one moment claimed that Korea is a will contain nothing but a few sharp hostile country, or that it is any longer pointed lancets or needles and dull closed to the Gospel; but we must not irons for puncturing and cauterizing. forget that this land has been but re· It will at once be seen that under these cently opened; and while the physician circumstances the advantages to be de- and minister of the Gospel can with rived from medical missions are mani- perfect right take up their abode in fold, and that the conditions of the Seoul ,or anyone of the other open country are such that in every respect ports; while the natives in these parts to which we have referred, by which and wherever foreigners have gone the physician can be of service in seem kindly disposed, it must also be borne in mind that to a large extent the an evangelist in his trips to the interior confidence of the people is yet to be is incalculable. Were it possible to re- won, and when all the ports, together late simply the medical side of a three with the more than five hundred square months' trip, when a physician and miles around each one of them, which evangelist travelled together in Korea, are open to the foreign missionary, his it would fill a tolerably good-sized book medicines, and tracts without passports and make an interesting chapter in the shall have been reached, there will still history of medical missionary work. remain large cities and vast provinces Starting from the capital, they had not untouched. It is here that the physi- gone far before the news that a foreign " eui uon" (wiwon) was coming preceded cian is most needed, here that he will them. At almost every village scores find the widest field for usefulness. It were awaiting their arrival asking to be has been stated that there are in Korea treated. In the ancient capital, Song Do, where they spent geveral days, the three hundred and thirty-seven large crowds were so dense that the only way cities, with from ten to three hundred by which they could proceed on their journey was to arise very early in the and fifty thousand inhabitants in each. morning and leave the city before it Of these three hundred and thirty-seven was noised abroad that they were going.
cities, when all the treaty ports have Christian books were always spread out been entered, three hundred and thirty- on a table near by, and without offering them for sale hundreds of them were three will yet remain without a mission- sold daily to the sick who came for ary of the Gospel. Legal barriers stand medioine and to their friends. Such was in the way of any minister of the Gos- the beginning of the trip, and such a pel taking up his permanent abode in sample of the work that met them day after dllY, village I!.fter Village. Euiju, these cities. He can visit them in his on the extreme north, was reached just itinerations, but when he reaches the at dusk, and nnder shadow of the night interior prejudice, superstition, and dis- they crept in, as they supposed, unob- trust will be met nearly everywhere at served. Crowds of Illl classes thronged the threshold, all of which could be dis- the gates continuously during the ten pelled like morning dew before the ris- days spent there. Medioines and books were distdbuted, and sold as fast as ing sun were there at his side the tired hands could perform the service.
Christ-loving physician to show practi- The diagnosing of cases, the prepara- tion of medicines, and the selling of cally that Christ came to bring good books were interspersed with long and will to men. Then, too, these three earnest talks conoerning the welfare of hundred and thirty-seven cities are di- the soul and services of prayer and vided among eight provinces, and clus- praise. This was continued till the stock of medicines was exhausted. The tAr around, as their eight centres, the history of this trip might be the history capitals of these provinces. With the of hundreds like it were there but the exception of Seoul, which is the capital physicians to do the work; but when one of onr largest boards, after nearly a of the Province of Kyeng Ki Do, these year and a half of careful searoh, fails capitals are closed to missionaries, but to find two physicians who would be it has been stated on the highest au- the right men to act as pioneer medical thority, both native and foreign, thl!.t if miHsionaries in two out of the fOllr open ports, how can we expect to find the thA Protestant Church stands ready with men to occupy the seven other centres, the men, not only could permission be much more to do this itinerating work.
obtained for a physician accompanied Time and space will not permit me by a minister of the Gospel to settle in further to enlarge; it is simply my deeach one of these capitals, but in all sire to present before Christ's people probability the central government the fact that He is calling loudly for medical workers in these fields, and to would stand ready to bear a large share ask His Churoh that they obey the com- of the expense of opening and sustaining maud of their Master when He said, a hospital in each one of these centres. .. The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye, there- The amount of good that is to be fore, the Lord of the harvest that He will gained by a physician travelling with send forth laborers into His harvest."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistios. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, . Oberlin, O.
The Darker Side.-As an incentive to of 110,000 Chinese, some 7,000,000 Ger.
mOl'e earnest effort in spreading the mans, French Catholics in New Eng- Gospel, the following figures are given: land increasing at the rate of 1000 per .. Thibet has 6,000,000 inhabitants; month, and already 160,000 of them in Manchuria,12,OOO,000; Nepaul, 2,000,. Massachusetts alone, 2,000,000 Scandi· 000 : Hunan, 16.000,000, and Kwangsi, navians in America, one ninth of the 5,000,000, without a single missionary Norwegian nation on our shores, one station. One district in Northwest fifth of the Swedes, one tenth of the India has 6,000,000, and only 3 Euro· Danes, 54,000 Bohemians in Chicago, pean missionaries. The State of Bhope 3,000,000 Celtic Irish in onr country, has 10,000,000, and only 2 mission. the Italians increasing with fearful rae aries." pidity-only 44,000 four years ago, to.
-There were 363,935 public.school day there are 300,000 !
teachers and 204,913 liquor.dealers in Gleams of Ligltt. -Since its organiz~ the United States last year. tion, in 1799, the Church Missionary -According to the New York Sun, Society has sent out more than 1000 there is in that city a square mile which missionaries, wives not included, and contains a population of more than since 1812 the American Board has sent 350,000. This area contains one block out upward of 2000 missionaries an I so densely occupied with human beings assistants, and has gathered more than that the rate of population is more than 100,000 into churches.
a million to the mile. It is the most -Twenty.five years ago there was thickly populated area on the earth. not a Women's Foreign Mi~sionary So.
Neither Chinatown in San Francisco, ciety in America; now there are in nor the lowest quarter of an Asiatic Great Britain and America 19.500 auxili- city, nor the slums of London or Paris, aries and 5200 bands, with an aggregate hold so many people to the acre. income of $1,250,000. The 20 of these -Some features of the .. American societies in the United States, managen problem" are presented in this table: and supported by women, support 757 missionaries. They contributed $1,038,- NATIONALITIES COMPRISING THE POPULATION 233 in 1888, and since their organiza· OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO.
American …..• 292,4631 Hnngarians ..••• 4,827 tion $10,325,124. At the beginning of German …….. 231854.,5935481RSwouisms .a.n.ia..n.s…. … 2,735 this century the way of life could be Irish……. , .. … 4,350 studied by but one fifth of the world's Bohemian. . . . . . 54,209 Canadia"s…..••• 6,989 population. Now the Bible is trans· Polish ………. 52,7561 Belgians . …… 682 lated into Janguages that make it acces· Swedish…. … 45,877, Greeks ………. 698 sible to nine tenths of the inhabitants Norwegian….. 44,6151 Spanish………. 297 of the globe. English…. …. 33,785, Portugue~e …… 34 French……… 12,963i East IndIans….. 28 -The cost of the 14 Presbyterian Scotch…. ….. 11'9271 West Indians….. 37 churches erected for the Sioux mission Welsh……. ~.. 2,966 Sandwich I~land· Russian. …… 9,977 ers.. .. .. .. .. … 31 Da'!es…. …… 9,891 Mongolians……. 1,217 Itahans . …. . .. 9,921 — Hollanders.. … 4,9121 1,208,669 And these facts and figures will work was a.bout $15,000, of which portray a portion of the task laid upon amount the Sioux contributed one fifth the shoulders of American Christians: of the whole. In only one instance Eight million colored people rapidly was a church erected where a native increasing, 230,000 Indians to be in. contribution was not the beginning of corporated into our civilization, upwllrd the work. Of the 17 Congregational buildings, the Indians were contribu- -The Western Recorder (Baptist) tors to all but 4, and 2 were buil t almost vouches for the accuracy of these fig.
wholly by Indian contributions. It is ures, which are for 1890: In that year estimated that the 1400 native members the Baptists of the United States had of the Congregational Church contribute in the foreign field, not including Cuba for benevolence and church expenses or the Home Mission Society's work in an average of $2.50 each! The native Mexico, as 'follows : missionary society raised $1386 last Ordained missionaries …. . 170 year, and the native Y. M. C. A. $328. Ordained natives ……… . 579 Church-members on fields .. 141,313 -In the Independent, Dr. J. E. Rankin, Money contributed for the President of Howard University, draws year..••………….. $707,135 a cheering contrast: "Twenty-seven The other denominations in the years ago the negro in the South was United States, regarded as evangelical, forbidden by law to learn to read; now had as follows in the foreign field: there are among them 2,250,000 who Ordained missionaries…. . 815 have learned to read. Then a negro teacher would have been a rare curio Ordained natives …. _…. . 860 osity; now there are 20,000 teachers of this race. There are 66 academies and Church-members on fields .. 146,053 high schools taught by colored teach- Money contributed for the year…………•….. $3,315,870 ers. Then the colored preachers were And, after making certain corrections uneducated; now there are about 1000 and adjustments, the writer's conclu- college-bred preachers among them_ sion is that" the Baptists of the United In 1865 there were 2 negro attorneys ; States have more than half the converts now there are 250. Then there were 3 on foreign fields. Our denomination colored physicians; now there are near- furnishes about one sixth of the men ly 750 of them. In the universities of and about one sixth of the money fur- Europe to-day there are nearly 250 col- nished by the evangelical Christians of ored students. Of course twenty-seven the United States for foreign missions, years ago the colored people had very and yet we have more converts than all little taxable property; now they own the rest put together."
taxable property to the amount of -The Woman's Foreign Missionary $264,000,000. " Society of the Methodist Episcopal -A remarkable work is being done Church received for the work $263,- among the Jews in New York by Her- 660, of which only $12,000 came by mann-Warsawaik. He preaches in"De- bequest or donation. The society supwitt Memorial chapel, which is sur· ports 120 foreign missionaries. rounded by 50,000 Jews. At the first meeting, In 1890, there were 16 present; -The African Methodist Episcopal now he has an audience of 1000. Church reports a bench of 12 bishops, Forty-five have been baptized. and 9 general officers, 4150 travelling preachmany more are believers in secret. ers, 9913 local preachers, 475,565 mem- bers, with 1,484,000 followers, 53 an- nual conferences, including the United -The total regular Baptist member- States and Territories, the Canadas, ship in the United States, including the Nova Scotia, British West Indies, Brit- Northern and the Southern Churches, ish Guiana, a conference in Hayti, San is reported as 3,269,806, an increase Domingo, and 2 in Africa. The amount over the previous year of 105,579. expended annually for religious !Ind This includes about 1,000,000 negroes educational purposes is $1,583,353.
in the South. The total of the contri. -The Reformed Presbyterian Church butions for the year is $11,886,558. (Covenanter) numbers only about 10,000, but sustains missions in Syria and Asia recently been in session. The foreign Minor, as well as among the freedmen, work is conducted in 5 fields, the New Indians, and Chinese in the United Hebrides, Trinidad, the Indian fields States. The contributions for foreign of the Northwest, Formosa and Honan missions from all sources in 1891, not in China, and Central India, and a new including a bequest of $8500, were mission is to be at once established in $19,614, or an average of $1.74 per Palestine. Five new missionaries have member. gone ont since last Assembly: 1 to India, 1 to Honan, 1 to Formosa, 1 to -The Southern Presbyterian Church Palestine, and 1 to the Chinese in Britis about to open a missio~ in Korea by ish Columbia. sending thither 8 representatives (instead of 2), 2 men with wives, 2 men Says the report: "We have 67 misunmarried, and 2 unmarried women. sionaries, Canadian, in the field, 30 of One of the number goes at private ex· whom are ordained, and 37 appointed pense. Two are from Missouri and 6 as doctors and teachers. Besides these from within the bounds of the Synod we have 4 ordained natives. Native of Virginia. preachers and teachers: Formosa, 58 ; Central India, 73 ; New Hebrides, 34 ; -·At a recent meeting in New York, Trinidad, 44; in all 209 native agents, denominated a " Great Eastern Demon and a total force of 280. Or, adding 29 stration," and incl uding some 900 rep- Canadian women (wives), the number resentatives of the Army east of Chica- is 316. The Presbyterian Church in go, Commander BaUington Booth and Canada has sent out 47 male mission· Mrs. Booth spoke to an enormous audio aries in all. The first was the Rev. ence concerning their work. During John Geddie, who went to the New the five years that Commander and Mrs. Hebrides in 18i6. Of these 24 have Booth have been in this country, the either died or resigned Two suffered work of the Army has extended to 500 martyrdom at the hands of the natives cities and towns. The" Salvation of Erromanga, New Hebrides. Sevenlasses," who work in the slums of New teen unmarried women of the Presbyte. York City, have visited during the same rian Church have gone to India, 9 to period 4891 saloons, 662 disorderly Trinidad, 3 to Honan, China. The rehouses, and 4500 tenement-houses. ceipts last year for missions were $94,- Their" shelter," which provides a sup- 702. per, bath, bed and breakfast for 15 cents, has harbored 9000 unfortunates, -The Canadian Presbyterian Church many of whom had been converted. has appointed Rev. A. B. Winchester, In the last 12 months 25,287,000 people late of Fungchow, China, to commence have head of Christ through the Sal- work among the Chinese in BritIsh Covation Army, and 28,750 have been con- lumbia. The Canadian Methodist verted. Church has had a mission to the Chi- nese in the city of Victoria about seven -In Canada the Roman Catholics years under the care of Rev. E. J. Gardtake the lead with 1,990,465 adherents, ner, who speaks Cantonese like a native. the Methodists have 847,469, the Pres· Since the opening of this work 116 byterians 755,199, the Episcopalians Chinese have been baptized and 25 644,106, the Baptists 303,749, the Lu. women and girls rescued from a life of therans 63,979, and the Congregational. slavery and shame. The Baptists, too, ists 28,155. are working for the good of the Chi- nese ; and the English Church has a -Seventeen years ago the union of school of about 25 Chinamen, and is the various branches of the Presbyte. making strenuous efforts to extend the rian Church in Canada was consum- work. In all there are more than 200 mated in the city of Montreal, and in the same city the General Assembly has Chinese Christians in British Colum- Bibles and prayer.books, and over bia. A few of these were convert.erl in 6,000,000 other volumes. The Prayer. China, California, and Oregon. book is published in 90 languages; it was first transl!lted by the society in EUROPE. 1709 into Arabic, when an edition of 10,000 Arabic Testaments was issued. -The fund which George Peabody, The society began with a capital of 25 the wealthy London banker, gave, thirty shillings; its present annual income is years ago, to build homes for the poor, £40,000. Ims increased from $750,000 to more than $5,000,000. Up to the end of -At the eighty.eighth annual meet- 1891 the trustees of the fund had pro- ing of the British and Foreign Bible vided for the artisan and laboring poor Society the statement was made that of London 11,273 rooms, besides bath- 13,000 copies of the Bible, in whole or rJoms, laundries, and wash· houses. in part, were issued every working day These rooms were comprised in 5070 of the year by that society alone. Verhouses. The average 1'ent of these sions of some part of the Bible in 9 new houses was $1.20 a week. languages appeared this year for the first time on the lists of the society. -At the annual meeting of the Lon- There lacked only 11,000 of 4.000,000 don Missionary Society the treasurer's copies of Bibles, Testaments, or porreport showed that the ordinary con- tions, distributed during the year, tributions reached $50,000 more than which is an advance of 62,000 copies ever before; $47,500 had come in in over the previous year. Since 1874 the special gifts for the Forward move· society had issued a little short of 132,. ment; the Week of Selt-Denial yielded 01)0,000 copies. Since 1884 the circu- $48,000, making an increased income lation of the penny Testaments has exof $145,000, or, with additional legacies, ceeded 5,000,000 copies. One of the $175,000. In ten years the native striking facts hrought to view is that Christian community, in Travancore, the Bible is circulated as never before has increased 19 per cent, while the in Mohammedan lands; the IIgency at population has grown but 6 per cent. Aden, with its branches, sells 20,000 At the present time the missionary in copies; Algiers takes 8800 ; in Morocco charge has the oversight of 17,000 na- there is a circulation of 6000; and tive Christians gathered in 134 congre- there is a call in almost all Mohammegations; 4 additional European mis- dan lands. sionaries are needed, and increased church accommodations. In Madagas- -The Belgium Missionary Christian car there are between 1300 and 1400 Church reports 45 chapels and halls, 28 congregations, including 276,000 peo- churches, 60 annexes, and 58 Sundayple, and 108,490 children in the schools. schools. The growth has been very marked in the neighborhood of Liege, -The Society for Promoting Chris- in Lize Serning, at Namm, and Charle_ tian Knowledge was founded in 1698 roy, where there are now 3 new churches by 1 clergyman and 4 laymen, and to- with a number of annexes and a total day numbers more than 10,000 mem- of 2000 members, including children. bers. In the last twenty-five years it At Brussels there are 2 churches, one has endowed 38 colonial bishoprics, French and the other Flemish; the helped to build 6 colonial cathedrals work of evangelization is increasing and 2100 mission churches, educated and has made it necessary to hire 2 new 430 native clergy, built Church colleges halls. On every hand the churches and schools ~t home and abroad, cared show commendable liberality, but in for emigrants, endowed medical mis- their poverty it is impossible for them sions, besides conducting an enormous to meet all the demands upon them. and growing publishing business. Last year the society issued over 5,000,000 -Rev. Dr. McAll, speaking at Liver- burn, addressing the Methodist General pool recenlly in behalf of t,he French Conference iu Omaha: "In 1891 I ven- Mission, said they had 136 stations in tured to say that I hoped to live till I France, of which 40 were in and around should lead an assault upon the gates Paris, the remainder being scattered of hell with 100,000 Indian Methodists through the provinces and Corsica, with at my back. The remark was ap- 4 or 5 in Algiers. The total attendance plauded and widely quoted, but, al- at their services during th8 past year though made only a year and a half ago, was 1,280 000, or more than 73,000 over I have long since become ashamed of any previous year, and they had 10,000 it. If I were to make that address children in the various mission schools. over again I should deliberately say ASIA. 1,000,000."
China.-Twenty-six years ago the -The Canadian Baptists are meeting Rev..J. Hudson Taylor inaugurated the with signal success in their Telugu Mis- China Inland Mission, sailing from sion. They have among the Telugus England for China with 15 missionaries. 7 stations, 15 missionaries, a theological The income, which for the first ten seminary, and about 6000 members; years ayeraged about $25,000,18st year and among this same people the Baprose to nearly $133,000. The number tists of the United States received 7905 of missionarielil has increased at a sim- to church membership last year.
ilar rate and now numbers 432, with -No less than 56 villages are now about 526 workers in connection with included in the (S. P. G.) Toungoo other societies, acting under the direc- Mission in Burma. Distributed among tion of the mission. The breadth of these there are more than 5000 conits platform has been steadily main- verts, the number of the catechumens tained, Presbyterians, Baptists, Con- being 1020, and that of the baptized gregationalists, Church of England, 4179, while there are 1;46 communi- Wesleyans and Brethren working har_ cants. Besides the 4 European mismoniously together. Of these, some sionaries, there are in this vast district have gone out entirely at their own ex- 6 native clergymen, 8 sub-deacons, and peOlle, and have, besides, liberally con- 43 village catechists. tributed to the general fund; some are university men, and some have re- -Benares, the religious centre of all ceived only a plain English education, India since countless generations be- and some are from the humblest posi- fore Christ, is.described as a city which tions. The mission has now more than bears the same relation to Hinduism 100 stations in which there are' resident (or Buddhism) that Bethlehem did and missionaries, reports 407 baptisms in does to Christendom. Its origin can- the last year, and there are now 3000 not, it is said, be traced by man. It converts. was occupied by hundreds of thousands -A Chinese cl~rgyman was asked of people over six centuries hefore our how many clergy he thought there were Christian era. There are 500,000,000 in England. "Perhaps 1500," he said. people in the world who bow to the When he heard that there were 24,000, Buddhist faith, worshipping as de- " Can you not," he asked, "spare 1000 voutly as ever Christian worshipped for China?" Christ.
India.-In Northern India very large -In Burma there are but 18,757 numbers of converts are pressing into Europeans and Eurasians. In Ranthe churches. During 1891 nearly ill,Ooo goon, 7163 return their parent tongue heathen were baptized by the Meth- as English. There are 22 Chins, 439 odist mission alone, and 40,000 more are Kareus, 1950 Shans, 7592 Chinese. seeking admission. Said Bishop Tho- Those who return Burmese as their parent tongue number nearly 10,000 less The gain in membership was 1010 for than the natives of India. Of the na- the year. tives of India, :M:adras supplies two thirds, Chittagong and Bengal, which Turkey.-:M:iss Mary E. Brewer, of are nearly equal, coming next. The Sivas, has charge of 1 high school, 4 birthplace of 1725 persons is returned other schools of from 30 to 60 scholars as England, cf 300 as Scotland, 161 as each, in Sivas, and 6 other schools in Ireland, of 173 as Germany, and Wales 5 other places, the nearest of which is only furnishes 10. about 60 miles away. The high school in Sivas supplies teachers for the other Japan.-The number of schools now 10 schools. in operation in Japan is reported to be 28,000, controlled by the local authori. British Foreign Missions. By Rev. James ties, 26,000 of them elementary; nearly Johnston, Bolton, England. 72,000 teachers, while the scholars number 3,410,000. Free Church of Scotland Foreign Missions.-For the year ending :M:arch -The first Christian building in 31st the whole sum raised and spent Tokio was erected twenty.five years ago. by the Free Church on foreign. missions There are now 92 Christian churches to the heathen and Mohammedans was and chapels there. £100,400. The other missions con- nected with the Church raised £7923 -Native converts in Japan, with for conversion of the Jews, £7130 for average wages of less than 25 cents a the continent, and £2662 for the British day, contributed last year $27,000 to colonies, making the total missionary mission work. revenue of the Free Church £116,759. In the India :M:ission are comprised the -An orphan asylum is heing estab· four great missions of Bengal, Western lished in Tokio by a Ohristian teacher India, :M:adras and Centra India, the who devotes to it all 'his own property. Santal and :M:edical :M:ission. The It is designed for girls under six years Christian colleges continued to develop of age, that they may be trained for in work and usefulness and in their Christian service. elevating influence on the better class of Hindus, Parsees, and :M:ohammedans. -:M:issionary statistics for 1891, given Probably the United :M:adras Christian by deno~inations, are as follows; College was the first in all Asia, in the train of which came the Wilson ·:M:is- w *~ ~ ~ ~ t; 0 l0 _ sionary College, the Duff Missionary 1i 0 College at Calcutta, and the Hislop Col- 0§ ~ '" '" !.; lege at Nagpoor, in the heart of India. t In the extension of schools, raising edu- ""0>, .~ cational standards, the baptism of many …..,… of the people of different tribes, and 2 ~o ,~ the inter·tribal pacification of the Nyassa Highlands, the Livingstonia :M:ission );l -l:l was bearing fruit, but was passing through a serious time of transition j~ ~ s>0 '8"i ~ § 8 ~ from native to British administration. .&"",5 The Keith·Falconer Mission is being re- ." ." 00 inforced by the departure of Mr. J. C. "0 Young, of Glasgow, to Shaikh Othman, ~.g !Q ~ ~ ~ .0..0. >0 § in Southern Arabia. In support of the <n ~ :M:edical Mission of Dr. Torrance at Tiberias, and especially toward the ~ .8- .g , 0 8 '" :<;g-., ~ ~- m ,0 ''"" .;l ~ ~ ~ IS "~ 8 ;:i ",- 0"" ~" s:l " ..~ ·O0il !il r: ~ (it '~" ~ ~ ~ ~ '" .S .; ..; j .; o~ s ~ ~" ~ ~ i ~"""0 ~ i j.,., """0[" ~ ~ bJl ~ Eo< '&"l ~ ~ """ 1'""1 to 0 "u0 Eo< 't * ::<: erection of a new hospital to cost £2500, another bishop to have control of the the students of the Glasgow College Nyassaland stations, as the area em- have subscribed 500 guineas. The braced in his diocese is far too large for Free Church has missions at Budapesth, the energies of one man. It took him Breslau, Tiberias, Safed, and Constanti- six months to go from Zanzibar to nople. Nearly 10,000 cases of a medi- Nyassa and back and transact the neces- cal character were dealt with in 1891 at sary business. A rearrangement was Tiberias, and in Constantinople 9D55 further necessary, since the British Gov- were treated in the dispensaries. Mis- ernment is placing gunboats on the sionary operations in the Turkish Em- lake to suppress the slave trade. The pire had been much hindered by the bishop speaks in appreciative terms of proscriptions of the government. the kindness of the officials with whom Church of Scotland Foreign Mis- he has been brought into contact in sion Agencies.-In the various mission German East Africa. The mission had fields during 1891 the number of bap- also been aided by the determination tisms was 1129, of which 638 were of German officials to put down the adults, making a total of 5000 baptized drink traffic. Respecting the prevalent persons at the stations. Ten years ago slave-raiding by the Arabs, he says: there were less than 1000. Five new "So long as the Arabs remained in missionaries had sailed for Africa, and Africa with any power, so long would the opening of the Blantyre Church had these evils continue, for slavery, as the been attended with great rejoicings. Arabs themselves declared, was their For the evangelization of the tribes on very life." The future of African misthe Shire a new steamer would soon be sions lay in the Europeans training an launched. On the European mission- efficient native staff as ministers of the ary roll were 22 ordained missionaries Gospel, who would become the very (2 of whom were also medical), 3 unor- best instruments for the work. On dained medical missionaries, 7 lay this point Dr. Laws also speaks quite teachers, etc., 1 engineer for missionary emphatically. steamer, and 2 industrial missionaries -in all 35; and 18 women, wives of Madagascar.-A correspondent in missionaries, were in the mission field, Antananarivo says that the efforts of a making altogether 53 Europeans. There nation to preserve its independence dewere about 213 Christian natives in ser- mand attention, and especially so when vice in various capacities. The stu- they are made by a Protestant and dents numbered 507, and the younger progressive people of British civilizascholars 6886. From all sources the tion. The Hovas, brought to a high total fund at the disposal of the com- state of civilization by the educational mittee, including the income from the influence of British missions, are Ladies' Association, amounted to £46,- struggling to maintain their political 124. In the propagation of missions freedom. At present the dispute has to the Jews the Church of Scotland not got beyond diplomatic contention, has vigorous organizations at Alex- but if England persists in giving France andria, Smyrna, Constantinople, Bey- a free hand in Madagascar war will ultirout, and Salonica. mately result, as France wonld be com- pelled to enforce her intentions. In 1890 France and England agreed by Universities Mission to Central convention to exchange Zanzibar and Africa.-Bishop Smythies, who super- Madagascar. Zanzibar was willing to vises the missions in Nyassaland, at be exchanged, but Madagascar, never Zanzibar, and on the East Coast is in consulted, was opposed to it. A stigma England, mainly with the object of ,cQnsequently attaches to the British, conferring with the committee in Lon- and to bring this home to them the dOll on the desirllbility of appointing Hovas contemplate taking a step which will prove to Englishmen that a great Burma for putting do;wn the opium wrong was committed in bargaining vice.
away Madagascar as though her sub- jects were a horde of savages. In offer. Uganda.-Early in June intense ex- ing resistance to France, having judi- citement prevailed in Europe, notably ciary control and consul representation in France, England, and Germany, over of foreigners, they propose to take re- ·the letters and messages received from taliatory measures on England by an- Catholic sources respecting the alleged nouncing shortly that the Anglo-Mal- outrages committed by the East Africa agasy treaty is annulled. This would Company's officers, countenanced by deprive British subjects of all rights the Church Society'S agents. In Eng- and immunities in the country, and lish quarters, awaiting intelligence from leave France, should she ever establish Bishop Tucker and Captain Lugard, the a protectorate, free to deal with ,British sensational news is doubted, if not enterprise as she does in her colonies; flatly denied, upon the data of letters British missionaries would be excluded , received at an earlier period. The 0.0- from their former pri vileges, and the curacy claimed by the Review of Catholic customs on British goods would like- M'tSsions, to the effect that the attack wise be raised. on the Roman Catholic missionaries and their converts was incited by Protes- A Canadian Bishopric.-An inter. tant missionaries, is contradicted. All esting gathering has been held in Lon- through the troublous years that have don for the advocacy of dividing the passed since the accession of Mwanga see of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The to the throne, the influence of the Prot- area of Salikatchewan is about 200,000 estant missionaries has been exerted on square miles, and of Calgary nearly the side of peace, and urgent efforts 100,000. A steady flow of immigrants made to repress the hostile feeling that into both territories makes it imperative the two native parties have manifested.
to provide better spiritual ministra- The workers of the Church Missionary tions. To endow a bishopric for the Society are expressly prohibited from Province of Alberta, to be called the interfering with the political concerns Diocese of Calgary, a sum of £10,000 is of any country where they may be labor- needed, toward which handsome dona- ing. In the last letter, dated December tions are being made by societies affili 14th, 1891, which the Church Mission- ated with the Church of England. ary Society received from Uganda, Mr.
Baskerville said that they were sitting Suppression of the Opium Traffic. on the edge of a volcano, and that the -During the year, 181 meetings have Protestants were acting with great for- been held in connection with the Eng- bearance.
lish Society's work in various parts of the United Kingdom, and others organ- The African Slave Trade.-Major ized by the Women's League. The vote von Wissmann has left Cairo for Quili- taken in the House of Commons on mane, East Africa, where with 20 Euro- April 10th, 1891, condemning the opium peans and 200 picked African followers trade as "morally indefensible," had he will travel vii/, the Zambesi and already produced results full of encour- Shire rivers to Lakes Nyassa and Tan- agement. Endeavors are being made ganyika, There it is intended to estab- to suppress the cultivation of the poppy lish fortified stations as the bases of in India except for medical purposes, operations for the two steamers, and a.
and protests have been raised against flotilla of steel sailing-boats for service the decision of the Indian Government on the lakes. The major states that refusing to accept the only too modJ:~te his sole object is to suppress slave-trad- proposals of the C.hief Commissioner of ins, a~g f<?r t!:Jil! re~so~ he hopes tq :r~" ceive all necessary assistance from the not so much Christian seed in the world British Commissioner in the Nyassa that we can afford to put it in heaps in district through which he must travel. any place.' On the evangelization of He expects also to work conjointly with the world pray over this: • Of the the anti.slavery.expedition of the Congo world's inhabitants, 1,440,000,000 have State on Tanganyika. Major Wissmann not accepted Jesus Christ: "
has received leave of absence'from the -It plainly appears, from an item in German army for his expedition, which the Independent, that at least not all foris so far a private undertaking that the eign missionaries are pampered by lux. two lake steamers are his property, ury ; for the Rev. George A. Stuart, of while the expenses are being provided the American Methodist Mission in by the Anti·Slavery Committee at Cob· China, affirms: •• I know of two young lenz. In a year's time he believes the ladies, alone in an interior station, who steamers will be launched and the forti· live on a. very poor quality of Chinese fied stations erected on both lakes. A food, and not too large a supply of that. Berlin telegram at the end 'of May stated They are so much reduced in l1esh and that 17 Arabs had been sentenced to be strength that the friends of a neighborhanged for holding a slave market on ing mission are alarmed about them. A German territory. On the awakening lady sent them a few potatoes, and found zeal of Germany in crushing the traffic, that these were the first potatoes, and a London journal observes: "The par.
tition of Africa by the great powers has almost the only foreign food, found in a very ugly look of spoliation about it, their house for over two years. It is but if they take the slave trade by the the opinion of the neighbors that they throat and strangle it, such a deed will will not survive the summer unless they atone for much. The African slave leave the place and change their man· trade means wholesale massacre, cruel. ner of life. I know of another lady, ty, and torture, and the exposure of going as fast as she can with II. wasting helpless children to die. In tropical difficulty, and who should be having Africa more than elsewhere the slave the best of care and the most nourish.
trade is' the sum of all villainies.' The ing food, but who is in an interior town prospect of stamping it out almost rec. with barely enough to subsist upon.
onciles us to the employment of the gib. Beef is not to be had in the place in bet. " which she lives, and sbe told one of her friends that her husband WBS trying to Monthly Bulletin. make her some • beef tea out of lean pork.' " In General.-Theodore Parker was not a special friend to evangelical missions, -Mr. L. D. Wishard. the well-known but he said: ., If the modern mission. Y. M. O. A. secretary, who has spent ary enterprise had done no more than the past two years in stUdying the mis.
produce one such character as Adoniram sion fields of Europe and Asia, recently Judson, 'it would be worth more than all said: .. I have never met young man .the money which has been spent upon who have more thorough appreciation it. " of the practical points of Christian work -In a recent address at a convention than the Chinese. Out of the Y. M C. A. at United Presbyterian young people in at Jaffna, Ceylon, fourteen other associa- Ohio, it was well suggested: "Those tions have grown." Mr. Wishard sewho are trying to maintain two or three cured a pledge of $1600 from the secrelittle struggling congregations that taries to pay the expenses of an assistant might unite in one strong one that could to Mr. David McConaughy in Madras.
be a power in mission work, would do United Btates.-Dr. John G. Paton, the well to ponder these words : • There is well·known missionary tQ ~h!! N!!"" Hebrides, is a delegate to the Pan Pres- carrying on work among the lepers in byterian Council that meets in Toronto, different parts of the world. Canada, next September, and will spend a few weeks in the United States, seek. – Within two years the Church Mis- ing to influence our Government to act sionary Society has sent one hundred in accord with other great nations in and fifty new missionaries into the vari. preventing the traffic in slaves and rum ous foreign fields ; and there is said to at the New Hebrides. be so great a desire on the part of many young men and women to go that this -Among the students in the Chicago society is overwhelmed with applicants, Theological Seminary are three Chris- and has been driven to formulate a tian Jews, one of whom (Rabbi Freuder) statement of its requirements for service. was converted in the Hebrew Christian Mission, Chicago, conducted by Rev. B. -Miss Leitch, the author of" Seven Angel, a graduate of this institution. Years in Ceylon," has, with her sister, raised more than $150,000 for foreign -Rev. Y. Asada, of Japan, who took a missions during her visit to this coun· full course at Garrett Biblical Institute try and Great Britain. and a special course in the Semitic branch at Union Theological Seminary, -It was announced to the Free Church will enter Chicago University in the fall Assembly of Scotland, at its last meet- for advanced work in Hebrew. His ing, that the sum of $115,000 would be purpose is to translate the Scriptures paid to the church by the representa· into Japanese. tives of the late George B. McKenzie, of New York City. -The American Bible Society is tak- ing advantage of modern science to The Oontinent.-It is estimated that enter new fields of usefulness. Photo- Europe is $1,000,000,000 poorer every engraved plates for the printing of the year by her system of armed peace. Scriptures in Zulu and the languages of the Gilbert Islands are being made. -A Roman Catholio church origi- This makes five foreign languages that nally built for the Hussites has been the society will be printing this year. ceded by the Town Council of Laun, in Bohemia, for the use of the Protestant -Dr. Daniel Dorchester has intro· congregation gathered in that town. duced the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com· The event is evidence that religious lib- mandments, and the twenty-third Psalm erty is making headway even in Austria. into the religious services of the Gov- ernment schools among the Indians. -Rabbi Lichtenstein, of Tapio.Szele, Hungary, who some years ago, simply -The Presbyterian Board of Homs through reading the New Testament, Missions has authorized the Woman's came to a knowledge of the truth, has Executive Committee to raise $5000 for "endured many trials and persecutions, the enlargement and establishment of but remains steadfast, and many Jews the work at Juneau, Alaska, where a have, through him, come to know the firm footing has been gained, and con- way of life. Maintaining that as a rabbi fidence has been established. Fifteen he has a more potent influence than he : tribes are there, twelve of them speak· would have if he joined a Christian comi ing the same language (the Thinket). munion, he has yet witnessed with joy More than fifty applicants were refused the baptism of Israelitish converts. admission to the school home between September and March of the past year -The Russian Cabinet has decided for lack of room. that Hebrews who are desirous of emi- grating shall be provided with a permit, Great Britain.-There are now about free of charge, and be relieved of mili. twenty-five missionaries of the Church tary service. Other immunities will be of England alld of various other bodies granted.