The Missionary Review of the World — December 1900
A PROCLAMATION AT A GREAT PUBLIC ASSEMBLY, ANDORALO
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
Old Series. } DEOEMBER. New Series. VOL. XXIII. No. 12. { VOL. XIII. No. 12.
GOD'S WORKING FOROE IN THE MISSION FIELD.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
God is the One Oenter of all true activity, like the sun in the solar system. But there are also lesser orbits of revolution, with their sub- ordinate centers, as the planets which circle about the snn have their own s'atellites. In a true sense all human history moves about a few great men. God has set them in the social firmament to give light on the earth, and to be for signs and seasons, days and years; so that their lives are controlling influences.
Looking back from this commanding point of view, over the hun- dred years now past, there are certain individual workers who stand out conspicuous for that abundant service which is always the out- come of a Divine purpose, and therefore conditioned upon holiness, and complete surrender to the will of God.
In America there has been felt no little interest in the selection of the few who are considered as entitled to a memorial pillar in the new " Temple of Fame." Were it necessary to select fifty of the most serv- iceable men and women, now dead, whose lives deserve to rank among the dynamic forces in direct mission work on the field, there would be an embarrassment, not of poverty, but of riches. Oertain names would at once crowd to the front, compelling recognition, such as those of William Oarey, Robert Morrison, John Williams, James Hannington, David Livingstone, Robert Moffat, Robert W. McAll, Alexander Mackay, Joseph Rabinowitz, Adoniram Judson, Ooleridge Patteson, Wm. A. B. Johnson, Geo. Bowen, Wm. O. Burns, Oatharine Booth, Wm. Butler, Louise H. Pierson, Samuel Marsden, John Ged die, John Oalvert, Henry Martyn, Alex. Duff, John Wilson, John Scudder, Peter J. Gulick, Titus Ooan, Fidelia Fiske, Asahel Grant, Eli Smith, O. V. A. Van Dyck, Wm. Goodell, John Hunt, John L.
Krapf, Lyman Jewett, rfhomas Ooke, Harriet Newell, Reginald Heber, Karl F. A. Gutzlaff, David Abeel, George D. Boardman, Justin Per- kins, Johann G. Oncken, Peter Parker, Allen Gardiner, Stephen R.
Riggs, Melinda Rankin, John F. O. Heyer, John flogg, John L.
Nevius, Ion Keith FlJ,IQop.er, Cyrul! Hamlin, etc. —
We have named fifty, and could as easily name fifty more. In fact, the missionaries that rise up before the mind's eye come in flocks, like doves to the windows of the dovecote. Their name is legion. Every land where the Church has reared and sent forth her missionary heralds, can present a roll of illustrious names which are her glory and boast. The missionary firmament is one blaze of luster, studded not with scattered stars only, but crowded with constellations. In some lands, like India, China, Africa, there are such hosts of saintly men and women who have there found their sphere of holy shining for God, that we are reminded of those nebulous clusters i"!l which individual stars are lost sight of in the blaze of collective glory, or of the milky way, whose white banner streams across the whole face of the firmament.
More may be said without extravagance or exaggeration. John Bell once briefly sketched his outline of the ideal Esculapius. He ll).ust embrace and combine four excellencies: the brain of an Apollo, the eye of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the hand of a lady-in other words, intellectual mastery of medical and surgical science, together with a keen-sighted eye, a lion-hearted courage, and a feminine delicacy and tenderness. It was not inaptly said of Sir James Y. Simpson, of Edinburgh, that in all four particulars he filled out the ideal of Dr. Bell.
Of the ideal missionary no one has yet ventured to draw the corresponding portrait, but it would be no very difficult task. Surely there must first of all be a sincere evangelical faith, and that must be accompanied by a life of symmetry and sanctity; and if to these we add a large capacity for self-sacrifice, and a consuming passion for humanity, we shall not be far from having outlined with these four simple strokes of the pen the profile of a model messenger of the cross. For, in all model missionaries there must 'burn these four great Divine yearnings: to know the truth, to be holy, to serve the will of God, and to save the souls of men. These will light an altarfire which burns up the four carnal lusts, of pleasure, of gain, of fame, and of power, those earthly forms of rubbish which make impossible both holiness and usefulness, and quench the very flames of God in the souls of His human creatures.
Yet judged even by such a high standard of measurement, there are not less than five hundred missionaries who, since William Carey's day, have gone to the foreign field, and who deserve to rank among those who have filled out the pattern thus outlined. To prove this, and show how, God has been at work in the preparation and the sending out of His workmen, it may be well to select a few notable names out of the many thousands who have laid down their lives on the Divine altar of missions since the nineteenth century began.
If a few men and women be thus named, let it be distinctly under-
GOD'S WORKING FORCE IN THE MISSION FIELD
stood that it is not to the disparagement of others who are left without mention. It is a trick of the fruit-vender to put his poor and half-decayed fruit at the bottom of the basket and deceive the buyer by a toplayer of that which is exceptionally fair and perfect. But the most honest marketman finds it impossible to put all his fruits at the top, and those which meet the eye of the purchaser, are in such case but a specimen of what he would find if the bottom layer should exchange places with those at the top. The story of missions is in nothing more remarkable than in the high average of missionary character and service. In fact, the demands of the field are such, that incompetency and unworthiness are sooner or later exposed; and in unfit parties the grace of continuance proves fatally lacking.
In the modern missionary host, William Oarey naturally leads the van. In him some characteristic qualities meet, which mark a man who has few rivals, in any age.
First of all, he had an invincible will-an endowment the more princely because his aim was not to further self-interest, but to reach mankind with the Gospel of salvation. Sitting on his shoemaker's bench at Hackleton, he pored over Oook's voyages round the world, till he looked down into that bottomless pit into which earth's millions had fallen, and where they lay hopelessly sunk in the mire of idolatry, superstition, and sensuality. He saw and felt the gross darkness which covered the earth, and he made his own rude map of the world that he might keep before him the vast black spaces where this awful death-shade and night-shade held, and still hold sway. He resolved that the light of God should pierce that midnight, and bring a day dawn. He was" alone," as was Abraham when God "called him." * But" one with God is a majority," and he prayed and studied, and with pains and patience wrought, until he got the ears of his brethren, and they consented to nnite in a distinctly missionary movement. This "young man" would not "sit down" even at the bidding of his elders-in fact, he could not keep still. The Ohurch was like a refrigerator, but even such an icy air of apathy did not chill his ardor and fervor. He prayed, and wrote, and spoke, and pleaded until Widow Wallis' parlor at Kettering became the sanctuary of God's presence, and the spirit of missions had a new incarnation. And, when that first distinctively Foreign Missionary Society of Britain was born, he did not shrink from the severe test of self-offering, and William Oarey himself led the way as Britain's pioneer missionary to India.
A godly talk and a godly walk are sometimes far apart. Many a man talks missions, and even gives, who will not go. But Oarey went. His whole life was one long martyrdom for Ohrist, for whose sake He was killed all the day long. Voluntary poverty, habitual self-denial, *Isaiah Ii : 2.
untiring labor, humble self-oblivion, are some of the gems that shine in this" cobbler's" coronet. He founded the Serampore Mission, whence in less than forty years, in forty Oriental tongues, went forth a quarter million Bibles, besides all the other contributions to a Ohristian literature in the native languages of India. '1'he" Ooyenant" of that Serampore Brotherhood reads like an inspired document, and might have come from apostolic hands.
The "consecrated cobbler" has left his own simple humble record: "I might have had very great possessions, but have given all I had, except what I ate, and drank, and wore, to the cause of missions; and Dr. Marshman has done the same, and Mr. Ward likewise." But far beyond all the material possessions which the Brotherhood thus gave to the work of missions, were the translations of the Word of God in those many tongues of the Orient-a permanent and priceless legacy to the world and the work.
Yet, when young Alexander Duff called on the veteran to pay to the father of modern missions the homage of a younger missionary, Dr. Oarey's last words to him were, "When I am gone, speak not of William Oarey, but of William Oarey's Savior I" He who had not spared himself but denied himself for his Master's sake, would have all men spare him the vain eulogy that calls attention from the Master to the servant. The man who, beyond any other since Paul, perhaps, had counted all but as refuse for Christ, like that same Paul, would have all glory paid to Him. Oarey never boasted. His humility was his crown, as it is always the very diadem of the true disciple. Many an otherwise useful man tarnishes his service to God by his self-consciousness and conceit. He professedly bears the fruit of his toils to his Master's table, and on the way robs the cluster of the richest and fullest grapes to please his own palate. William Oarey gave over forty years to his work and never thought of himself; and he was never further from such self-praise than when the long period of selfdenying service was at its close. When the temptation to self-glory was the greatest, and the justification of it the most abundant, his humility was only the more habitual. He never seemed to himself so little in his own eyes as when he was" great in the eyes of the Lord."
No true historian of the missions of the nineteenth century can pass by Adoniram Judson, t)ne of the ten foremost missionaries since Paul, the apostle, finished his course. He has had few equals and no superior. The first impression he makes upon us is that of a man who has the courage of his convictions. The sense of truth and duty was with him commanding. On his way to the field, and before he set foot on heathen soil, a solemn change of views on baptism and its place in a believer's life separated him to a peculiar loneliness in his walk with God, and constrained him to go out like Abraham, not
GOD'S WORKING FORCE IN THE MISSION FIELD
knowing whither. It was a brave act to burn his bridges behind him, and for conscience's sake cut loose from his supporters in the London Missionary Society, and cast himself on God, and this, too, in a foreign field, when as yet there was no" American Baptist Missionary Union" to stand back of him. It was one of the boldest ventures of faith on record.
All his forty years in Burma exhibit the same costly courage of conviction and the same lofty loneliness with God. The throne might be held by a hostile Buddhist king, who meant to put down all Chris- tianizing work, but Judson was fearless. No prison bars nor heavy chains, nor the threatened death that for two years faced him, could shut his mouth. He must preach the Gospel and translate the Word, that all Burma might hear. His twenty-five years' work in the Karen jungles was owned by the conversion of twenty thousand of those "wildmen of Burma," and when he died, one of the purest heroes ever in any mission field passed away. Three holy, heroic, and gifted women had snccessively joined him in wedlock and work, who are forever inseparable from his service and sacrifice, of whom it is enough to say that they were not unworthy of their great husband. And in order to know how beautifully simple, spiritual, and apostolic Judson's work was in the Karen churches he founded, one needs to read into his epitaph its full meaning : "Converted Burmans and the Burman Bible his monument."
We question whether Judson's true biography ever was or can be written. Aroma can not be put into picture or poem. There is a subtle evasive savor and flavor about such a life which escapes both tongue and pen. Moreover, the best things about such a character and life are unknown, save to God, and can not be told because they are among the secret things which belong to Him. The best men, like Elijah, hide themselves with God, before they show themselves to men. '1.'he showing may have some history, but the hiding has necessarily none, and, in studying Judson's life, even with the best helps, we still feel that its deeper and unwritten history only eternity can unveil.
. William Goodell is another of the "forty year" men. He sailed in 1822 for Beirut, and in 1831 was transferred to Constantinople to begin a new mission to the Armenians of Turkey. After forty-three years of mission work he died peacefully at seventy-five years of age, in 1867, in Philadelphia. Twenty-one words, written of him, so fully sketch his character that we hang in our little gallery this word portrait, just as we find it: He was rarely gifted, full of genial humor, sanguine, simple, courageous, modest-above all, holy. He won hearts and molded lives.
One early experience forecasts the man. His father could not help him to an education for the ministry. In hope of beneficiary aid at
Phillips' Academy, he trudged to Andover, Massachusetts,· but, finding the charity fund already overdrawn, he footed it back, sixty miles, to his home at. Templeton. The next term, without either cash or credit, he put books and clothes in his trunk, strapped it on his back, and started once more on his sixty miles march, and this time was received. The same indomitable pel'severance marked his whole work abroad. He studied Turkish, Arabic, and Armenian, and dared personal perils in the times of war, when ecclesiastical persecution ran riot. He kept at his work of translation, rendering the whole Bible' into Armeno-Turkish, in the first two decades of years after he reached Palestine. When, in 1833, a conflagration which swept over a square mile burned all his property, grammars and dictionaries, commentaries and translations, and manuscripts of all sorts, he began, once more, undaunted. When, six years later, the plague in its most terrible form stalked abroad, and persecution lit its fires; when, in fact, the sultan decreed the expulsion of all the missionaries, and even the British ambassador and the United States consul said it was in vain to resist, he quietly said to Dr. Hamlin, "The Sultan of the Universe can change all this!" and serenely waited. God interposed, and wonderfully. The immediate death of the sultan with the defeat of the Turkish army and a destructive fire, together combined to stop persecution. It was one of the most signal interpositions of God in mission history.
His greatest work was that of translation, and so persistent was he to make his work as far as might be perfect, that he subjected his rendering to repeated revisions, the last one not being completed till four years before his death, and on that day he recorded his joy: "Thus have I been permitted by the goodness of God to dig a well in this distant land at which millions may drink, . to throw wide open the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem to this immense population."
As we have used twenty-one brief words to outline his character, again we have used less than forty of his own to sum up his career.
John Wilson spent nearly forty-seven years at Bombay. He was an exceptional man even among great missionaries. He seems to us a singular example of consecrated and versatile ability. His training was thorough and his scholarship broad and deep. He had extraordinary memory, but not at cost of a well-balanced mind; and he gave himself to the acquisition of the vernaculars of that varied population which thai little world in India presents. Not content with Marathi and Jujarati, and Hindustani, and Hebrew, he studied Portuguese, and Arabic, and Sanskrit that he might reach all classes, even the learned Parsees, and Moslems, and Brahmans, and Jews. He could confute the Brahmans out of their own sacred books, the Mohammed-
GOD'S WORKING FORCE IN THE MISSION FIELD
ans out of the Koran, and the Jews out of the Old Testament. He prepared books, he preached, lectured, aud taught; there was nothing too hard for him and no demand too heavy. He could talk to chil- dren, or discourse to students, or argue with sages. When he visited Britain he completely won the love even of the university scholars and the Anglican dignitaries. And in India everybody from the humblest to the highest held him in respect and delighted to do him honor. The fortieth anniversary of his arrival in India was observed by the leaders of all the communities ill Bombay, European and Asiatic, and a silver salver, the work of natives, was presented to him with an inscription in Sanskrit, recording the universal esteem in which he was held as an educator and philanthropist.
David Livingstone was another of the men who for forty years was, in heart and aim, a missionary. He stands out as the missionary general and explorer, who for two score years poured forth the costly ointment of a holy service on the altar of humanity.
His singular force of character would have made him anywhere a power. His own maxim, " Fear God and work hard," tells his secret. He worked out that maxim in thirty thousand miles of travel in Africa, in his great discoveries and explorations, and his lifelong grapple with Africa's_three curses, fever, tsetse, and slavery. To energy he joined industry. Like Carey he could" plod." He saved fragments of time, from the days in the factory at Blantyre till his death near Bangweolo. He showed patient attention to details in his" lined journal" of eight hundred pages, with its neat entries. His versatility was such that he seemed an adept at every task, yet he claimed no genius, and after many-sided service as traveler, explorer, geographer, astronomer, botanist, geologist, physician, and missionary, he cared for no honors, and hated to be lionized.
Duty was his watchword and service his goal. His strong will reminds us of Carey; his pains and patience have had few equals; his self-oblivion equaled that of General Gordon. One who knew him well pronounced him the" best man he ever knew." His great faith was the power that held him to God as his Pole star. In all his ways he acknowledged Him, and by Him was directed in all his paths. Even seeming calamity could only extort one cry: "Fiat, Domine, volunlas tua ! " He kept his eye on God, and nevel' read or preserved any words of praise, lest they might mislead or inflate him.
He was a pioneer in discovery, but, al ways and only, a missionary, with whom the" end of the geographical feat was but the beginning of the enterprise," He caught the true spirit of missions, the foremost law of which was, to him, "not concentration but diffusion." He was a missionary martyr in spirit for no inconsiderable part of his career, dying daily, yet declaring "I have never made any sacrifice." It was but the year before he was found in his grass hut, dead on his
knees, that he uttered the memorahle words which are now deeply cut into the memorial slab in the aisle at Westminster Abbey: All I can add in my loneliness is, may Heaven's richest blessing come down on everyone, American, Englishman, or Turk, who will help to heal the open sore of the world!
It is no marvel if a man who had such love for Africa should be so loved by her sable sons, that he could travel where no white man had trod, and go unarmed; that he should have molded savages into saints, and made noblemen of God out of degraded slaves of fetish worship. Nor is it strange that the devotion of those simple black men to even his dead body should have led them, having buried his heart beneath the moula tree, as belonging to the Dark Continent, to bear his remains by that long, perilons, and weary way, to the coast, and then to the great British sepulcher. That march to the sea, led by Susi and Chuma, is a fit theme for a great, yet unwritten epic.
Such are a few of the vast host of missionary heroes" of whom the world is not worthy."
We shall give mention to more of them from time to time hereafter.
MADAGASCAR: HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN.* BY REV. WILLIAM E. COUSINS, D.D.
Formerly a Missionary of the London Missionary Society in Madagascar.
In older days, as a terra incognita, Madagascar appealed to the enthusiasm and enterprise of the Christian Church, and the London Missionary Society began its work there eighty years ago. Later on, during a quarter of a century of trial and persecution, the Martyr church took firm hold on the sympathy of Christians in more privileged lands. In times nearer to us a fresh interest in the island was called forth by the conversion of Queen RanavaIona II. (1869) and by the sudden influx of tens of thousands of nominal Christians into our churches. And now once more, through the great changes brought abont by the war of 1895, Madagascar appeals to our hearts, and presents to our contemplation a series of difficult and interesting problems. How will the great change ill the government of the country affect the progress of the Gospel? Will the land aronnd which so many affecting associations have gathered in past years continue to move forward in the direction of a deeper and fuller religious life, or will it relapse into godlessness and darkness? Is Madagascar sufficiently Christian to bear the severe testing that will arise from the • "Madagascar: Heathen and Christian" is the title prefixed to this paper; and we shall consider how far Madagascar, or any part of it, may be called Christian; and what are the prospects of the remaining !;eathenism being conquered by the Gospel. We shall try to estimate the value of the forces at present in operation, and to form a just idea of the peculiar difficulties that ;ust now beset missionary work in the island.- W. E. C
MADAGASCAR: HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN
new conditions in which it is now placed? These and similar questions are constantly arising in the minds of those interested in the progress of the Gospel in this land.
Descriptions of Madagascar as a heathen land may be found in the writings of early travelers and missionaries. Up to 1820, notwithstanding the early Roman Catholic missions, no appreciable victories had been won by the Christian religion; and the pioneer Protestant missionaries found a people utterly ignorant of the very name of Christ. Some knowledge of the Supreme God existed, the remnant of a primitive tradition, or more likely, the result of intercourse with Arab settlers. But, speaking generally, the land was utterly heathen.
The Hovas, among whom the early work of the London Missionary Society was carried on, had much to distinguish them from the other tribes, and possessed qualities that greatly attracted those who visited them. We have, recently, through a paper reprinted in the "Antananarivo Annual," been enabled to look at our friends, now so well known to us, with the eyes of a French traveler, named Mayeur, who was the first European to visit and describe them, 120 years ago. In 1777 he made his way from the East coast to the valley of Betafo in N. Betsileo, and finally to Antananarivo. The one thing that strikes us in reading his account is, how much remains unchanged after the many years that have passed since his visit was paid. The great weekly market south of Tanjombato, through which he passed, is described almost exactly as it might be by a traveler seeing it today. M. Mayeur also gives an admirable account of the general characteristics of the people. He says: The Havas had not the warlike disposition of the other tribes of the island; mild and peaceable in character, they preferred to devote themsel ves to industry and to useful occupations; but they were greedy of gain, artful, and very mnch given to thieving, pillaging, and cheating travelers, and selling by false weights and measures. . . .
The Europeans who frequent the coasts of Madagascar would hardly believe that in the center of the island, a hundred miles distant from the sea, in a country up to the present time unknown, and surrounded by wild and savage tribes, there is more enlightenment, more industry, more efficient government, more advanced civilization, than on the coasts. .
All who came into contact with these people spoke of their kindness and hospitality to strangers, and praised them for their gentleness and politeness. Le Sage, the first British agent to visit Antananarivo (1816), speaks in the warmest terms of the kindness shown him by Radama I. When he was suffering from an attack of fever the king remained almost constantly by his bedside; and the kindest attentions were shown to all the members of his party. Testimonies of this kind might easily be multiplied. The Havas have also a strong family
GROUP OF SAKALAVA, MADAGASCAR.
feeling, and parents show much love for their children. To be childless is regarded as a lot greatly to be deplored.
There exists among the people a belief that in far-off times there was a golden age, when all dwelt together in mutual confidence and amity, and when the rights of property were so fully recognized that a man might leave his spade in the field and be surc of finding it the next morning. This golden age has long vanished, however, and present day experience makes us somewhat skeptical as to its past existence.
Pleasant as it is to dwell on the good features of the character of the Hovas, we must confess that there was, and still is, a darker side of the picture. These gentle and attractive Hovas were sadly lacking in uprightness and truthfulness; they were full of envy and jealousy, and they were the slaves of licentiousness and impurity. Their morals as a whole were probably no higher than those of other heathen peoples. Polygamy was common; divorce was absolutely in the hands of the husband; gross licentiousness prevailed among young people; slavery existed, and thousands of captives taken in war were sold to European slave traders. Cruelty, treachery, and impurity were the most characteristic features of the life of the people in the days of their heathenism.
Tho the Gospel has now been taken to most of the main divisions of Madagascar, there are many tribes that remain almost entirely heathen still, such as the Ibara in the South, the Sakalava in the
MADAGASCAR: HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN
West, and the Antakarana in the North. Among these still heathen tribes the grossest superstition exists, and the state of morality is deplorable. Speaking generally, we may say these tribes stand on a lower level than the Hovas did even in their pre-Christian days. In one respect, however, it has been claimed that they are above the Hovas, viz., in that they are less crafty; and in one tribe (the Tanosy) it is said that a higher standard is maintained in all that pertains to the relations of the sexes.
In Central Madagascar, as we know it to-day, we can happily no longer speak of heathenism in the old sense of the term. No outward idolatry exists, and indeed, no religious rites of any kind are practised but those belonging to the Christian religion. What remains of heathenism is just what exists in a smaller measure in lands that have known the Gospel for centuries; that is, the prevalence 'of many superstitions, and the low standard of morality with which too many are content.
There is little fear of any renewal of the outward profession of idolatry in Imerina. We had in the rebellion of 1896 a last dying struggle of the old heathenism, but it was defeated; and those who were carried away by the evil influences of the time learned by bitter experience how utterly powerless to help them were their old charms and idols. What we have to fear just now is that many will be con- NATIVE PASTORS AT ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR.
tent to live without any religion at all, and will give themselves up to utter indifference and immorality. Let us not be led away by any rose-tinted pictures of the heathen world stretching out eager hands for the bread of life. Greatly as the masses around us need the Gospel, few desire it. The Bible account of the human heart is the only true one, aud we have not simply to supply a deeply felt need, but rather to lead men to know their own sinfulness, and their utter helplessness apart from the Savior.
VICTORIES OF THE GOSPEL.
The Gospel has undoubtedly won great victories in Madagascar. Idolatry has been overthrown in all the central regions. Many evil eustoms have been swept away. Education has made great advances. Christian churches are to be found in almost all the principal towns. But we must beware of forming too favorable an estimate of the advantages already gained. Before the outbreak of the war in 1895, the most hopeful estimate formed of the proportion of Christians to heathens was, that out of a population of about four millions perhaps one-tenth were under Christian teaching. This estimate, however, would be far too favorable at the present time, as the trou bles following the French annexation have reduced the number of those attending Christian services to less than half what it was in 1894. Much of the work carried on in connection with the Tamatave and East Coast mission and also that of the native missionary society has for a time ceased to exist. The churches in all parts have also been passing through a time of sifting, and it is no surprise to the missionaries that so many thousands of their adherents have fallen away. 'fhat the missionaries as a whole never formed a very high opinion of the value of the nominal profession of Christianity by so many thousands of the people might easily be shown by collecting passages from their reports in past years. The superficial character of much of the Christian profession was always regarded as one of the great hindrances to their work. We are not, therefore, surprised that many have left us. The surprise should rather be, that after the trying experiences of 1896 and 1897 so many remain faithful.
One important fact may be noticed as affording ground of hope for the future. Great as has been the faIliug away, the majority of our churches in Imerina and Betsileo still exist. They have been weakened, but not destroyed. In the time of greatest need the Paris Society came nobly to the aid of the Protestant cause, and took charge of the threatened districts, and they have now under their care a larger extent of work than that of the London Missionary Society. Many of the churches that might have been destroyed have thus been saved. In 1895 there were about 1,100 congregations in Imerina under the care of the London Missionary Society and the Friends
MADAGASCAR: HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN
Society. There are in this district at the present time under the care of these two societies and the Paris Society about 900 congregations. These will form centers of Christian life, and we may look for a time when a revival of religion will take place, and bring into the now poorly attended churches those who for a time have wandered away from us, and who will come back, not because their rulers wish it, but because they can find in the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior they so much need.
A distinct ground of encouragement at the present time is, that as the result of the trials through which the Protestant churches have . been passing the missionary forces at work in the island are larger than ever before, and the five or six societies at work are represented by a body of aQout one hundred European workers. Times of diffi- LONDON MIS8[ONA.RY SOCIETY HOSPITAL, IIADAG.A.SCAR.
culty and distress have called forth sympathy, and have brought new workers into the field.
Not only have we received this encouragement from without,-but among our native friends during the days of darkness and' confusion following the French occupation we have had new proofs that the martyr spirit has not been extinguished, but that to many in this land the work of Christ is dearer than life itself.
The Rev. W. Huckelt, formerly of Vonizango, tells of a faithful evangelist in that district, of whom he says: Ratsimikotona, altho knowing the fanaticism of the rebels, relying on the promise of protection, ventured back to his home, and at the
weekly market told the people what the authorities had said. To show his reliance on their promises he returned to his house. Two days later a band of heathen madmen surrounded the house before sunrise, burnt the roof and doors, and bound him and his two sons with cords. They were conducted to a camp some two hours away; there they were offered their lives if they would forswear their religion and Ohrist. " We will never deny our Ohrist, so do what you will," replied Ratsimikotona. His two sons suggested that money should be paid as a ransom. "No." said Ratsimikotona, "we will neither buy our lives, nor sell our religion. Let us speak no more, but pray. It is God's will." The two sons were silent, and dropped their heads in acknowledgment. It is uncertain whether they were tortured first, or mutilated afterward; but gashes all over their bodies told a brutal tale.
At Isoavina, Mr. Peake's station, a faithful old Ohristian named David, a leper, was killed by the rebels, because he would not renounce his religion. He had formerly been an evangelist; and on his becoming a leper, and entering the leper settlement near Isoavina, Mr. Peake made him superintendent. During the time of rebellion some money was sent to him for the purchase of food for the lepers in the settlement. The rebels got to know of this, and attacked the place. They seized David, stole his money, and stripped him of his clothing. They then required him to renounce Ohristianity, and to throw in his lot with them. On his refusing to do this, they cut off his head, and then burned his body.
The accounts of some of our native missionaries in distant parts also give abundant proofs of fidelity in the midst of great trial and danger. All religious meetings were prohibited, but these men managed to hold secret services in the forest; and by visiting quietly from house to house they encouraged the faith of many. Rainizanamavo of Analalava writes: One day we were in great danger of being killed. A certain Ohristian was appointed to go as a soldier, and he sent for his family and for us to join in prayer with him before he started. When we had entered the house, and had begun our simple service, a crowd gathered around for the purpose of seizing us. But by God's gracious protection their purpose was changed. They crouched quietly around the house, and as they listened to our singing, some sighed, and one was heard to say: " Why should such a good thing as this be hindered?" When our service was over, they stole away one by one. Some of these native missionaries and their families were in hiding for months in the forest, subsisting on yams and wild fruits, and in one caSe feeding a small baby on wild honey and water.
It has been impossible to gather any complete record of these sad days; but many cases of true heroism occurred, and clear proof was given that Madagascar still has those who would not count their lives dear unto them in maintaining their loyalty to their Savior.
In some of the distant parts of the country, where these native
MADAGASCAR: HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN
missionariee were at work, the churches and schools were for a time quite broken up. But now that the country is settling down under its new rulers, efforts are being made to resume some of this inter- rupted work; and in May last, three men were appointed to stations in the north and northwest of the island.
In Antananarivo and its neighborhood there has never been any absolute interruption of Christian work. There was a considerable falling off in some congregations, while others never suffered much. And now there are many evidences of a revived interest in religion. Much has been done during the past year with a view to deepen the spiritual life of the churches, and missionaries have been greatly encouraged by the results of their efforts. Mr. Thorne wrote quite recently: It is becoming clear to us that the changes are not all for the worse. A very violent storm has indeed passed over the country; but now we begin to take stock of our losses, we see that what has perished was mostly very perishable, and not greatly to be regretted, while all that is essentially good has remained. We have many things to encourage us now-the steadfastness of many of the Christians in our congregations, the improved moral and spiritual tone of the Church in consequence of the sifting, and the growing liberality of those who remain.
The conditions of the country districts is also improving. The people are beginning to see that now that martial law has come to an end, there may be under French rule true religious freedom, and they are no longer living in the state of constant terror that prevailed three or four years ago. A recent letter from Madagascar says: The gigantic and unscrupulous efforts of the Jesuits to destroy Protestantism have resulted in a magnificent failure. The country people tell me that their converts are leaving them just now in crowds, and that the numerous huge churches built in the hope of getting the whole population stand empty.
From all quarters we hear the cheerful news of congregations being employed in the work of rebuilding the churches destroyed by the rebels. The time of destruction has come to an end, and an era of rebuilding and restoration has set in.
In all the Protestant missions a process of adaptation and readjustment is going on, and all are doing their utmost to make the best of the changed conditions of work. Within a few years all missionaries in Madagascar will have a fair knowledge of French, which is now of so much importance there. Already French is well taught in one high school, and never were these schools so well attended as at this present time. Between two and three thousand pupils are now in daily attendance in the various Protestant high schools in Antananarivo. And in some of the recent government examinations in the French language some of our young men have taken very high places.
Another thing that is a ground for thankfulness is, that the strong
anti-English feeling shown by many of the French officials seems to be passing away, and from some of them the missionaries receive friendly recognition and help. It has become clear to them that the English missionaries are not the political agents they were supposed to be; and that their presence and work tend to promote order and quiet among the people. The tribes that are causing trouble to France at the present time are the non-Christian semi-barbarous tribes, like the Takalava. Even on political grounds, therefore, Frenchmen should have no quarrel with the missionaries.
Undoubtedly, the French conquest has brought with it many things that are for the good of the people, especially as regards the development of the material resources of the country, and the general administration of the government. But at the same time it has indirectly raised up fresh difficulties to missionary work. There are, for instance, questions affecting the great educational work of the missions, the observance of the Lord's Day, marriage relations, especially the irregular so-called marriages between French settlers and native women, the sale of strong drink, and other things. It is evident that the work of the future will be different, and in some respects more arduous than that of the past. But the distinction between the Church and the world will become deeper, and we believe that those who call themselves Christians will be more spiritual and more distinctly Ohristian. Our hope and prayer is, that the Lord of the Harvest may yet have gathered into his garner from Madagascar many sheaves full of golden grain; and we look for the time when the church of the martyrs will become a strong and earnest missionary church for those large portions of this land that still remain heathen.
COOPERATION IN MISSION WORK.
A ROUND-TABLE, BY REV. J. T. GRAOEY, D.D.
What Bismarck called the" psychological moment," has come, in the matter of increased solidarity in missions. Conditions favor closer practical unity of operation. The old sentiment of fellowship among foreign missionaries on the field is strengthening, and developing into intenser communal action. Bishop Potter ran up a weather signal when as the metropolitan of New York, the day after the great Ecumenical Oonference, he introduced into the pulpit of old Trinity Church, at the head of Wall Street, a Baptist minister, Rev. Dr. William Ashmore, and a Presbyterian layman, Mr. Robert E. Speer, to speak on missions. The crisis in China has fostered a fellowship of suffering. Laymen are bringing to bear the pressure of business methods in the conduct of mission economics. They are warmly
COOPERATION IN MISSION WORK
welcomed in the councils of missionary boards. Merchants of Liver- pool and London who can spend two hundred thousand dollars in merely prospecting a line of business in West Africa, before spending any other dollar in establishing it, represent the type of mind that can count all that has been done in foreign missions as only data from which to infer how to lay broad plans. But those mistake who fancy that missionaries have been dull in like studies and efforts.
Here are a few samples of sentiment.
COMITY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Much interest has been expressed in an article on "Some Early Beginnings of Missions," in the March number of this REVIEW. A part of this consisted of a note on the back of one of Dr. Ryland's sermons about his baptizing William Oarey. There lies before the writer the original manuscript of a sermon preached by the same Rev. John Ryland, D.D., president of the Baptist Oollege, Bristol, England. He, with William Oarey and Andrew Fuller, founded Bap- tist missions. Dr. Ryland also was one of the founders of the London Missionary Society. On the back of this manuscript is the following: " Our brethren in India have uniformly discovered a spirit of kindness toward their fellow laborers sent by other societies. Nor is there anything for which I more sincerely and earnestly pray, than that they and we may ever be kept from all party spirit, respecting selfishness or vainboasting.
" Never may we listen to that spurious moderation which requires a dereliction of principle or a disregard to what we believe to be most agreeable to the Vord of God; but never may we lay an undue stress on those thillgs wherein they may differ, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Ohrist Jesus, and place no confidence in the flesh. All who love our Lord Jesus Ohl'ist in sinceritv shall share in our love; all who appear to be led by the Spirit of God shall be acknowledged as the children of God, and as our dear brethren, yet will we follow none of them farther than we see them follow the footsteps of Christ-nothing in which bad men can unite shall unite us so closely, or those things in which good men can not disagree.
"On the behalf of our dear brethren we rejoice in their success, their diligence, their concord, their humility; and we bless God for what he has done for them and by them. But if we should honor them more and more we pray that they and we may rejoice with trembling. We are aware that no man should glory in men; were lOe to give them the honor which belongs to their Lord. they would be grieved if they knew it, and be alarmed lest we should bring a blast on their labors; and were they to begin to ascribe the honor to themselves, we would expect that they would meet with a more certain and severe rebuke.
"The zeal of the Lord of Hosts has done all that has been wrought. This zeal is combined with omnipotence; His zeal is combined with infinite wisdom; His zeal is the flame of infinite love. Our zeal is but a spark, kindled by the rays of that Sun of Righteousness which warms and illumines all the realms of bliss. And hence it is that we
hope to see all the earth enlightened in His glory; all nations shall submit to His government; all the tribes of mankind shall rejoice in His salvation. A multitude which no man can number, redeemed out of every kingdom, and nation, and tongne, shall make the East and the West, and the North and the South, to resound with t.his song of Isaiah, ' Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given,' etc.; and with the song of John, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor and glory,' etc. Amen."
REV. DAVID DOWNIE, D.D., OF INDIA.
Dr. Downie, one of the editors of The Baptist Missionary Review a very vigorous periodical published in India, is an experienced mis- sionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, who has had twen- ty-seven years of service in India. He has this to say: "I think a good deal of misunderstanding exists as to what comity really is. Comity is not organic church union. That may come some day, but I do not expect it before the morning of the first day of the millennium. Comity is not 'fusion.' Comity is simply Christian courtesy, and surely that is attainable.
"The oneness for which Christ prayed is not a loss of personality or identity, but rather a oneness of character.
"If the spirit which marked the Ecumenical Conference and which characterises the International Missionary Union, now in the eighteenth year of its history, were carried into all our missionary fields of operation, both at home and abroad, there would be no need of any further discussion of this question of comity.
"But I think that we need and ought to have some sort of Interdenominational Bureau or Board looking to federation for concerted action relative to public movements, and civil and political matters affecting missions, to which questions affecting the relatiOlis between different societies and missions could be referred, not for decision, but for counsel. What such a council would recommend would carry such weight and force as to secure in almost every case an amicable adjustment of all differences, and concentration of plans and purposes."
REV. A. D. GRING, OF JAPAN.
Rev. Mr. Gring, after twenty-two years of service in the mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Japan, which covers the years of most of the modern history of missions in that land, has no hesitancy in uttering the following vigorous words: "There is no doubt but that the divisions of Christendom are a great injury to our work abroad.
" The Japanese, of course, know how their Buddhism is divided into sects, but that does not help us much, for we should be able to show them something better. We do try to live as peaceably as possible and thus lessen the evil of our unseemly divisions. It was thought at one time that the union was to be effected on the field. But this will never be so long as the Church is divided at home and the missionaries are obliged to represent their home boards and their churches. It must be done at home; water will run no higher than its source.
" In Japan affiliated Ohristian bodies have made a laudable effort to unite. The Church of England and the Episcopal Church in
America are laboring together for the strengthening of the Native Holy Catholic Church of Japan, the' Nippon Sei Kokai.'
" The Presbyterian bodies have joined to aid the ' Union Church of Christ in Japan.' 'fhe Methodists have also attempted to unite but have failed so far, I believe.
"But God alone some day will bring to pass so great and solemn a demand upon the faith and love of His people, to Christianize the Orient, that men will forget their differences in their desire to meet the call, as is witnessed in a great calamity. Theu men forget their differences under an all-absorbing desire to escape it."
REV. C. C. BALDWIN, D. D., OF CHINA.
Rev. C. C. Baldwin, D. D" who entered the service of the American Board in Fuchau, China, in 1847, and continued therein until 1895, making forty-eight years in connection with that board, and who still maintains his interest in that work, is competent to secure a hearing.
He says: "Cooperation is indeed a vital principle (1) vital to a true economy of funds of the Church, (2) vital to a true economy of the missionary power, and therefore (3) to a genuine and large success.
" It will he easy to show this in the various departments of missionary labors, as in schools of various grades; in literary work, such as translation of the Sunday-school lessons; in all which a right distribution of the required work demands a wise cooperation. All this is aside from, yet in harmony with, the dividing-up of the territory of districts.
"It is needless to point out the huge evils of unholy competition and jealousy in this heaven-given work for the salvation of the heathen. There is a pressing need of much sanctified good sense as well as of applied Christianity.
"Failure here may mean some years of waiting and humble working to efface bad impressions on the heathen, as well as the Christian mind. I may say that my own observation, limited to the single Fuchau field during over forty years, bears testimony to the good results of comity, and the evil results of friction in the work from want of it -the latter being pretty well disposed of by patient delay and conference."
W. HENRY GRANT, OF NEW YORK.
Mr. Grant has been earnestly endeavoring, as secretary of the Mis- sionary Officers' Union, for seven years, to effect the most cordial coordination of missionary activities of the societies of the United States and Canada; and as assistant secretary of the Ecumenical Con- ference, on whom devolved so much of the organization and mobilizing of that conference, he never lost sight of the bearings of it on future practical union in work throughout the world-field. He makes the following practical suggestion: "If each board would concentrate its work around strong central stations, instead of scattering over a far larger field than there could be reasonable hope of being able to work, a good many of the difficulties due to lack of concerted action would be obviated. Many
societies have not only opened work in different parts of the world- field, but have so scattered their forces over each country that no other body can corne into the country to work without overlapping. Any society concentrating its work would not only tend to produce comity, but would find it far better for the work of its own society."
J. HEYWOOD HORSBURGH, OF CHINA.
Mr. Horsburgh, who has been in China for seventeen years, and represents experience in the extreme west province Sz-chuen, writes from Mien Cho: "I long for the day when the missionary societies shall say to their missionaries, ' We represent different branches of Christ's Church at horne, but remember we do not send you to heathen lands to set up onr different churches there. We have given up some, and are pre- pared to give up more, of those non-essentials which distinguish us from one another, rather than cause divisions among the little flock for whom we are collectively responsible. 'fake heed, therefore, in the country to which you are going, to do nothing which shall endanger the oneness of God's people. Make it yonr aim to unite all Christians everywhere, and to build up with your fellow workers one undivided Church of Christ.'
"If one undivided Church of Christ is indeed Utopian, an ideal which in this world can never be realized, is the whole matter therefore at an end? Are we now justified in going each one our own way, independent of one another, starting divisions in all directions? Can we do nothing? We can do a great deal. Not to get as near the ideal as we can, because we say the ideal can not be fully realized, is inexcusable neglect. Surely, we are bound to see to it that the points of division among Christians, which we say are inevitable, shall, at any rate, be as small and as jew, and as inconspictlons as possible."
REV. O. H. GULICK, OF HAWAII.
Rev. O. H. Gulick, of the celebrated missionary family of that name, who has served the American Board in Japan and the Hawaiian Islands for thirty years, says: "In personal appearance and in dress we differ one from another; our coats may be of different hues, but these are little trifles, for at heart we are one, and unless we are specifically told, we can not tell who is a Methodist, who a Baptist, or who a Congregationalist.
" Some good may perhaps corne from plans spoken of for guiding the missionary campaign aright, for coordinating the missionary work; but I believe that the Savior is the Great Commander in this grand campaign, and tho we may make blunders, or think we do, the Master knows what He is about and He is guiding the battle aright."
THE ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ADDRESS.
At the close of the great meetings of the Ecumenical Conference, an address was officially prepared and read in Carnegie Hall, in which the whole body was made to " speak as a conference to the churches of evangelical Christianity," which they represent. In that address was the following paragraph: i' We rejoice to testify to the Ohurch that in all essential matters
COOPERATlON IN MISSION WORK
we are of one mind. We believe that the supreme aim of missions is to make Jeslls Ohrist known to the whole world with a view to the salvation of men for time and for eternity, and to the establishment in every nation of a true and living Ohurch. We believe that Jesus Christ as Lord is Himself the authority and power of .missions, and the Sllre promise of absolute success. We believe that He lives and rules, and that we are but working under His present kingdomship and control. We believe in the spirit of love and of brotherhood in our service, 'doing nothing through faction or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking each of us to his own things, but each of us also to the things of others.' We believe in recognizing the due bounds of one another's activity, in avoiding both the reality and the appearance of rivalry, and in so disposing our forces that we may the more speedily reach the whole world with the Gospel. We thank God that we have found this unity of heart and purpose compatible with great diversity of temperament and wide difference of practise in many matters; that in the midst of diversities of gifts we have had and shall have ever the same Spirit; of diversities of ministration the same Lord; of diversities of working the same God who worketh all things in all."
On May 2, the day following the formal closing of the Oonfer- ence, at a public meeting held in Oentral Presbyterian Ohurch, after considerable discussion, but scarcely with ideal deliberation, the meeting passed a resolution requesting the executive committee of the Ecumenical Oonference in New York and the corresponding com- mittees in London, Germany, and Scandinavia, "to consider the question of appointing an international committee, who by conference or correspondence, or both, shall deal with certain practical questions of cooperative work on the mission fields, and shall make known the results of their deliberations to the societies which have been repre- sented in this Conference."
WHAT ONE BOARD HAS SAID.
The Executive OO,mmittee of the Ecumenical Oonference, took this action of the meeting at Central Ohurch into most earnest con- sideration, and started a process of investigation in many quarters to ascertain what is considered desirable and practical. The results of that solicitation of information and suggestion will in due time and place be made known. Meanwhile-whether in connection with this, or independently of it, is not material-on May 15, the Presbyterian Board formulated a deliverance on the subject of cooperation, which was subsequently approved by the General Assembly of that church. They say: "In the view of the board, the object of the foreign missionary enterprise is not to perpetuate on the mission field the denominational distinctions of Ohristendom, but to build up on Scriptural lines, and according to Scriptural principles and methods, the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where church union can not be attained, the board and missions will seek such divisions of territory as will leave
as large districts as possible to the exclusive care and development of separate agencies. It is believed that in other regards also, missionary comity should be given large range: (1) Salaries of native workers should be so adjusted among missions as not to introduce an element of dissatisfaction among the workers of any mission, or to tempt them away from the mission with which they are connected. (2) Each mission and the churches connected therewith should recognize the acts of discipline of other missions, and the churches connected with them. (3) In cooperative educational work, and especially where the schools of one mission train helpers for other missions, the latter should render some compensatory service. (4) Printing establishments are in many missions required by the missionary work. Such should not be unnecessarily duplicated. The printing establishment of one mission should, if possible, be made to serve the needs of all others in the same territory. (5) A hospital invariably opens wide opportunities for evangelistic work. Until these are properly utilized, it is not judicious or economical to establish other hospitals, the results of whose establishment will be to multiply further unutilized spiritual opportunities. (6) Fellowship and union among native Ohristians of whatever name should be encouraged in every possible way, with a view to that unity of all disciples for which our Lord prayed, and to which all mission efforts should contribute."
REV. ARTHUR EDWARDS, D.D., OF CHICAGO.
Dr. Edwards, editor of the Northwestern Ohristian Advocate (Methodist Episcopal). Ohicago, is a warm champion of missions, and has carefully studied all phases of them for at least a quarter of a century. He writes: "It is matter for regret, if literally true (and it is too nearly correct), that thirty-five different, and in some sense competing, Ohristian missionary societies have been at work in that land, as large and populous as it may be. Deprecate or defend the facts and motives as we may, the best and most kindly rebuke of this excess of zeal and consequent abundance of insistence upon the anise and cummin in modern dogmatic formulas, even in some missions, is implied in the safe prophecy that we probably will be guilty of no such theological foolishness in the near future. Weare not insistent concerning creed shortening and simplification, and verbal identity for home uses, but it would seem that there are power and safety and actual conditions for success in the entire suppression of evangelical creed differences among those who go abroad as Ohrist's messengers from the Ohurch at home."
Dr. Edwards calls upon the mission authorities of his own church to consider the question of reorganizing their entire work in Ohina.
He thinks the time opportune. He says, " Big fires often do wonders for a vigorous young city. They vacate lots, settle the issue when buildings are worth too much to tear down, but really are in the way, and almost unsalable." He suggests that his own board may profit- ably_consider if they_can not afresh coordinate their entire Asiatic work. .
COOPERATlON iN MISSION WORg
MISCELLANEOUS MENTION.
If this is profitable for one board it may be for others, for one board cannot do all it ought without taking into account correla- tion with the work of others.
Missionary boards have done something of this from time to time.
The American Board made over its Bulgaria Mission, north of the Danube, perhaps not with satisfactory results, to the Methodist Epis- copal Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church made over to the British Wesleyans its inspiring and successful work among the sol- diers of the Italian army. It cost a twinge in the home church to part with what had been the subject of a good deal of missionary platform oratory in America. The IVesleyan Methodists have within four years made over to the American Methodists, their work in Ger- many, on which they had spent many thousands of dollars, not because it was not successful in their hands, but that there might be only one Methodism in Germany.
Providence is here and there wresting mission work from one society and giving it to another. The nations are growing jealous of the influence of languages. Dr. Warneck is reported to have said that in England and America the revised reading of the Gospel is," Go into the world and teach-English." The French on the west coast of Africa and in Madagascar, have made the palimpsest to read, "French." The necessity developed the opportunity for the cooper- ation between the English and French evangelical missionary societies and the transfer of work. The Nicaragua command for exclusive use of Spanish in schools may require temporary brotherliness from some Spanish-speaking missions to the Moravians. These things have only welded evangelical missions.
When the American Methodists first entered India, they practically let Alexander Duff decide where they should locate. They have gone wide afield since then, much as Dr. Edwards says, like making" addi- tions," the parts that have been added being" remedial, adjustive, and often with the immediate aim of obviating embarrassments and incon- veniences." 'l'here are missions of other boards that are in like case.
'ro our way of thinking, those persons miss the crucial point who think that it is theologies that keep the churches from cooperation.
The real crux lies in the treasuries. It is not easy to keep aflame the zeal of contributors for joint operations. Many branches of the work are tied historically with special contributors or local societies who have nurtured them for years. The financial is the most serious question in the attempt at practical redistribution of work and read- justment for denominational cooperation. It remains to see whether the constituency of the societies are even yet intelligent enough, and self-denying enough, to sustain any considerable readjustment. Dr.
Edwards thinks they are. "The one great condition," he says, "for obtaining money from the home church, is the positive assurance that money is being used just where it will do the most Divine good."
That is broad and business-like, if only it is true tbat the churches are up to that level now. .
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF BANZA MANTEKE-II.
BY REV. HENRY RICHARDS. Missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union.
When I began to translate Luke's Gospel I told them, "We white people have thousands of books, some good and some bad, and I have a perfect right to accept or to reject anything I like in them. But it is different with this book. 'l'his is God's book-not the white man's book. It is God's letter to the world, and every word in it is true." Now the people were not only thieves, but notorious beggars. They would ask for anything they saw-my only blanket, my only plate, my only knife-anything. I refused to give them these things, saying, . "No; I am a white man; I can't do without them." But when they saw me write a note, and send a porter down to the other station, and saw the things brought back, they thought, "All the white man has to do is to write a book, and send a man down, and up the things come. Isn't he mean not to give the things to us? If he won't give them to us we will steal them." They told me afterward that they thought all our things came from the sea.
"GIVE TO EVERY MAN THAT ASKETH OF THEE."
When I came to the sixth chapter of Luke and the thirtieth verse, "Give to every man that asketh of thee," I. thought, "What shall I do with a verse like that among these people? " I dismissed the man who was helping me translate, and went into my room to pray about it. If I lived that, the people would take all that I had, and I should starve. Then the thought carne, " Why not pass over that verse?" But my conscience said, "No, that is not right. If you can not live this Gospel, you have no business preaching it." A happy thought carne to me just as the people were waiting for me to come. I would begin again. So I said to the people, "We will begin with Luke's Gospel again." That gave me time for consideration and prayer. I went to one commentary to see what it said about this verse, and found nothing at all. Another said something like this: "This verse can not be taken literally. What it means is that we must be kind and generous, and give to those whom we know to be in real need. We are to use our common sense. If we gave to everybody indiscriminately, we would encourage idle:ness and drunkenness-in fact, we would do a great deal of harm." "But," I thought, "if that is what Jesus meant, why did He not say so? He was not an uneducated man who could not express His thoughts correctly. If we are to interpret Scripture in that way, we can take any doctrine or ism we like out of it."
After a fortnight's cons1deration I came to the conclusion that the Lord meant just what He said, and I determined to read it to the peo-
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF BANZA MANTEKE
pIe. Of course, I had to make a confession, and that was rather humiliating to a missionary who went to teach heathen; but it does not do any harm to be humbled. So I said to my congregation, "Now God has set before us in His Word a very high standard. It will take me a whole lifetime to live up to it, but I intend, by the grace of God, to live what I preach to you." I then read to them the text, and said, "God means what He says." The people all over the congregation began to smile. I did not interpret the text, but they did. They nnderstood it if the man who wrote the commentary did not.
When I had finished preaching they came up and began to ask for some things. One said, "Give me a piece of soap;" another wanted a reel of cotton, another a piece of cloth-and so on.
I gave them the things they asked for, but there was one consolation; I had very few things there.
Next day I had a much larger congregation – if you do not believe it, try that plan and see-and when I had finished preaching, they began to beg in the same way.
This went on for a day or two, and I wondered if AFRICAN GRAVES NEAR THE KONGO.
I would be able to live The natives have the custom of putting on their graves their up to that standard after Idols and fetishes. Here may be seen the cause of many all. What if they came deaths and the objects of worship – rum bottles and Jugs from England and America.
into my bedroom and took everything? Still I could not see that the text meant anything else than what it said.
One day the people were waiting, and as I looked at them from behind the curtain of my bedroom, I saw them showing each other the things I had given them the day before. One man said, "I am going to ask for that to-day." But the chief's son, who was among them, said, "You mustn't ask that white man for anything more. He will give all he has. If you want anything more now you must buy it." When I had finished preaching, not one of them asked for a thing, and they very rarely begged for anything after that.
When our work had extended, a missionary came up from the other
station and asked how it all began. I told him my experience and he said, "Do you take that text literally?" "Certainly," I said; "I have never been able to see the figure. Can you?" "Well," he said, "these people know you. You have lived here seven years, but if you would come to Mpalabala they would ask for your house and you would have to live in thc grass." I went down a short time after this and stayed for a fortnight, and no one asked for a thing, altho I knew from previous experience that they were great beggars.
People have said to me, "When you go to England you will not be able to live up to that text." But that was in 1886, and I have found no difficulty in living it in England and in America; and if I only gave when I was asked, I would give very little. Since I began this I have never, to my knowledge, had a man come to me for money to buy strong drink. When I go into a degraded district and see tramps about me, I pray, "Now, Lord, if you don't wish me to give to them, don't let them ask;" and I believe that if they ask, the Lord has allowed them to come to me. We have no right to put in any" ifs" and "buts." God is always giving. Jesus gave Himself, gave His life. I think I am beginning to understand the real meaning of that text. One might give material things and not obey the spirit of the text at all. If we have knowledge, if we have the Gospel, we are to give. "Freely ye have received, freely give." The Christian life is a life of giving. Jesus means us to give in its fullest extent, even to our life, if necessary.
PREACHING CHRIST CRUCIFIED.
I went onwith the translation of Luke until I came to the account of the crucifixion of our Lord. I shall never forget the effect of that in the chief's town. After reading the account I said, "Now it comes to this. I have talked to you about this loving One, who always went about doing good, and never did any wrong. Even Pilate said, ' I find no fault in Him.' But there He is dying on the cross for your sins and for mine. Do not tell me that you have not sinned. While the Scribes and Pharisees are scoffing at Him, and the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross are mocking Him, and the chief is reviling Him, listen to what He says, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' Did you ever hear anything like that?" The people seemed electrified. No one spoke; and I should not have been at all surprised if they had said, " We believe." But they did not move, and I left them deeply impressed. I went to another town, and read the same account, and saw the same impression. Now I understood what Jesus meant when He said, " And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." I now knew why Paul said, "I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus, and Him crucified."
One day, when I had finished, the man who had helped me in
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF BANZA
translation got up and spoke to the people for the first time. He said. "Now, this white man has been here a long time, and the words he has spoken are true words, and yet you do not believe." "You are a strange man," I thought; "you do not belief yourself." Previous to this, when the man was helping me with the translation, he would sometimes say, " I believe," but I saw no change in his life. I would say, " No, Lutete; a Christian means one who lives a Christian life; and you keep your fetishes and charms, and go on with your ways the saIlle as ever." But this day, as we were going through the wood he began to sing one of our hymns. I turned around, and we met each other face to face; and he said to me, "I do believe those words. I do believe Jesus has forgiven my sins. I believe He has given me life, and I am so joyful here, pointing to his heart." I could see from the man's countenance that he was a saved man. I said, "Give me your hand, Lutete." I gave him the name Barnaba (Barnabas), for he was a "son of consolation" to me. That man was the first convert after seven years of work. He went to his town, and told his people that he was a Ohristian; but his wife, and children, and his people, all turned against him, and the men bound themselves together to poison him; and so he had to leave his town, and put a little house outside the mission station. He went with me to the towns and told the people what the Lord had done for hini.
CONVERSION OF THE CHIEF'S SON.
One day, when I had finished preaching at the station, the chief's son-the one who told the people not to beg any more-remained behind after the others had gone, and said," Oan you help me?" pointing to his swollen face. He had been to all the witch doctors he knew, and had tried all the idols and charms, but got no better, tho he had spent all that he had. I said, "Let me look in your mouth." I looked in his month and saw that he had decayed teeth. I extracted them, and he felt better. He went home and put his idols away in the grass. He said afterward," When I went to sleep that night, I trembled as I lay down, because they tell us that if we offend the charms, the spirits and witches will come, and we will die. 'rho I did not believe that, yet I feared." In the morning he did not find himself dead, so he went and put his idols farther away in the grass; and as nothing happened, he entirely lost faith in them. One day, when I had finished preaching, he remained to talk with me. I told him to give his heart to Jesus. He thought I meant he must give his physical heart, and did not know how. The next day he remained behind, and I explained to him what I meant. Then I took him into my room, and said, "Let ns kneel down and pray." After I had prayed, I said to him, " Now you pray." He prayed, and gave his heart to God. He went to his town with me, and told his people that
he no longer believed in idols and charms, but that he was a Ohristian. His father and all his people became very angry, called him all t.he names they could thin~ of, and said he was a traitor, who wanted to bewitch them and kill them. It was all very well to listen to what the white man said; but to say that all their customs that they had inherited from their forefathers were nothing but an illusion, that was more than they could bear. Before he had been honored; now he was hated. So he had to leave his town, and put up a house beside Lutete's.
Another man came one day, and brought his charms and put them on the table, saying he wanted no more of those things. He spoke in quite a savage way. I reminded him that he would have to come as a little child. But he was in real earnest, and after I had pointed out the way of salvation, he gave his heart to the Lord, and remained faithful and won many souls. The next convert came down and said that he had not been able to rest, because he had been thinking over all the bad things he ever did. He wanted to know if Jesus would forgive him. I said, "Yes; it is His business to forgive sins." Then and there he knelt down and gave his heart to the Lord. He has remained faithful ever since, and is now an ordained native pastor, and has about a hundred Ohristians under him. He goes into the villages, among the people who can not come to the station, and baptizes those who are ready for baptism, and sits at the Lord's table with the believers in those outlying places, when the missionary can not go to them.
'l'his went on until there were ten converts-fine young men. Then I thought it was time to shut up the station and go about preaching in the villages all day long. There was quite a stir in the district, and the people came to the station in such numbers that we could not go out into the towns much. They came in the morning before we were up, some of them saying that they could not sleep because of thinking of their evil deeds. Ah, that was the Spirit at work. The Gospel was indeed proving the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. The law does not convict of sin. "By the law is the knowledge of sin"; but" when the Spirit of Truth is come, He shall convict the world of sin." The Scribes and Pharisees had knowledge of sin, but did they feel that they were sinners? "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them," they said. Evidently they thought they were not sinners. It is the Spirit's work to convict of sin when Jesus and Him crucified is preached. The attraction of the cross is the greatest power on earth.
I organized two preaching services a day, morning and evening, and inquiry meetings all day long. You might have seen large groups of inquirers, with our first converts in the center, trying to teach them the way of life. This continued until hundreds left
THE WONDERFUL STORY OF BANZA MANTEKE
heathenism and became followers of Christ. Those people who had not known about sin now kn ew that they were sinners.
The Gospel is now being preached within a radius of thirty miles. At our station during the last year we had three hundred and thirty. nine converts, and at another station over four hnndred. Altogether in our mission over nine hnndred and fifty were baptized last year, and we do not baptize without probation. To-day there are one thou sand five hundred church members at our station, two thousand persons have been baptized, and we have fifty preachers and t eachers at work. We have a training-school for preachers and teachers carried on nine months in the year. There are twenty-five out-stations, about thirty schools, and a large medical practise and hospitals. Our A BAPI'ISMAL SERVICE' IN THIC WOODS, BANZA MANTICKB.
object is to organize self-supporting and self-extending churches. The people, poor as they are, last year gave eight hundred and forty. four dollars toward the work, which is sufficient to support all the native preachers in charge of Christian congregations. Of course, the schools are not self-supporting, as the children have nothing to pay, and the work of sending out preachers must be kept up, for of course the heathen will not support them. But so far as our work among Christians is concerned, it is self-supporting.
I like to think of the promise in Daniel, which is yet to be fulfilled: And there was given to Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting kingdom, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed.
THE FOURTH ZIONIST CONGRESS AT LONDON.
BY ARTHUR W. PAYNE, LONDON.
" Zionism" expresses the burning desire and determined e:fl'ort on the part of a vast nnmber of Jews of all lands, in hearty unison to obtain Palestine for their home, and Jerusalem for their capital, and to restart their national life as speedily as possible. The rapid growth of the movement, and its unquestionable expansion in the immediate future, recall to mind the words of the prophet Isaiah, repeated by the apostle Paul: "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob;" also, the significant statement of our Savior that when they see the fig-tree (a type of Israel as a nation) shooting forth her leaves, His disciples are to "lift np their heads," for then their "redemption draweth nigh."
1. We note first, the character and circumstances of tltis Oongress. This shaking among the dry bones and their coming together, bone to his bone, is only a national and political movement, and has not at present necessarily, if at all, a religious or spiritual meaning; truly "there is no breath in them." Yet, in the central city of the British empire, the capital of the world, on the eve of the twentieth century, Jehovah, who had millenniums ago declared: "I will open your graves;" permits representatives of His people, Israel, to congregate in what has been called the finest auditorium in London-the Queen's Hall, Langham Place, W.-to proclaim through speech and through the press, before the civilized world, their soul-stirring ideal.
On entering the building on the first day of the congress, one was struck with the fact that it was the" Victorian age" which witnessed such an assemblage; for, in the center of the platform, out of the midst of ferns and palms, rose a lifelike bust of Her Majesty, the queen. Hanging from the organ and the galleries, were seen banners and flags of the various London and Provincial Zionist societies, in blue and white, with mottoes in Hebrew, and decorated with twelve stars, emblematic of the whole house of Israel, and also a symbol strangely suggesting the Trinity. There was a crowd of foreigners, mostly of Oriental type of features; a mixed company of old and young, rich and poor (tho this is an organization of the masses rather than of the classes), clllturedand unrefined Jews, male and female, conversing in the most emphatic and excited manner, and in various languages. In the area of the building were gathered four hundred delegates, deputed to represent Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia, Russians and English sitting side by side, while, next to the large group of reporters, were a number of lady representatives.
About 10.30 A.M. on Monday, August 13, a bell rang, and the confusion was hushed ~s th~ crowQ. took seats. Shortly Dr. Theodol'~
THE FOURTH ZIONIST CONGRESS AT LONDON
Herzl, the" Moses" of this proposed latter-day exodus, stepped on the platform followed by Dr. Max Nordau (who, like a second Aaron, is the chief speaker), accompanied by many other Jewish celebrities. The enthusiastic reception given to these leaders surpassed description, and as the president delivered his opening address, and Dr. Nordau followed speaking on the" general position of the Jews," each sentence was listened to with intense alertness. The solemn and vivid review of the Jewish disabilities throughout the world, evoked naturally more tears than cheers; and at times, as Dr. Nordau depicted the terrible hardships of his Rumanian brethren, one vast sob seemed to rise from the great audience.
THE MEANING OF THE MOVEMENT.
2. We notice next, the "morale" or momentous meaning of this movement. God lIDd the Scrip- tures are not given a primary, or perhaps even secondary place in connection with these Zion i s t congresses, though there had been more acknowl- edgment of Him and of His prophets in the last assembly than in the three previolls gatherings in Basel. On the Jewish sabbath preceding this congress, a service was held in the synagog, Qt. St. Helen's, where Rev. S. Levy, B.A., preached from Isaiah 40: 1: "Oomfort ye, comfort ye, my people," and, while lamenting that the immediate future seems to cast shadows upon the Jews, he said it was a THEODORE HERZL. happy thonght that the con- Founder and President of the Zionist Movement.
gress should be held in the week immediately following the Sabbath of Oomfort and that the delegates should on that sabbath attend divine service; and, while quoting the Hebrew saying, "It may not be thy fate to complete the work, neither art thou free to desist from it;" he declared "the present congress to be probably the first real reunion of the scattered members of the House of Israel ever witnessed in England."
On Saturday evening, that great center of Ohristian mission work in the East End of London, Oharrington's Hall, was the scene of an immense concourse of Zionists, so enthusiastic that, as it was said1 to
calm them was like putting out a fire. Mr. J. Goldsmith sang a solo, " Blessed is He that cometh;" and Mr. Israel Zangwill, the "Charles Dickens" of the Ghetto, in supporting the resolution, praying for the blessing of the Almighty on the proceedings of the Congress, declared that the movement was as much a problem to give an ideal to the rich as to give bread to the POOl'. Dr. Herzl said that when Jerusalem was destroyed the Torah (the copy of the Law) was placed in a coffin and buried (}Utside the city walls, and this coffin was compared to Judaism. This was his reply, "They had now to open the coffin and breathe new life into Judaism, and return to their country." Dr. Max Nordau said he could best illustrate the position of affairs caused through the Anti-Semitic spirit of Europe by the case of a man traveling on an ocean liner, who after some days, approached the captain and asked for a berth-" Go sleep where you have slept the past four days." "Impossible," was the reply, "I slept on a sick man, and llDW the man is recovered and won't stand it." The wave of nationalism sweeping over the Jews had aroused latent hatred against them, and they were reduced to starvation unless they would become again agriculturists and industrialists; so they had now Hobson's choice, either Zionism or death.
At the official reception the delegates drank to each other's health in Palestinean wine, and drank to the return to Palestine, while, at,their social gatherings" Rule Britannia" and" God Save the Queen" were sung. Dr. Herzl said to the Congress, "England, great free England, commanding all the seas, will understand our aims." What, if the B~itish nation as representing" the isles and the ships of Tarshish" (Isaiah 60), should yet help on this movement by sending back the Jews in her ocean liners to their homeland! The situation is becoming so grave that something must be done shortly, for as Dr. Nordau declared," Anti-Semitism, which, according to the smiling assurances of the heads of the committees of the Jewish people, is only an ugly and passing fashion of the day, spreads to all parts of the world like a prairie fire, which rages the more as the circle widens." In Bohemia quite recently a Jew was actually condemned to death on the charge of having committed a ritual murder, and in the Czech districts Jews are greeted in the streets with the signs of throat-cutting. In France the " Universal Anti-Semitic League" has been formed, at present composed of members from France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain, and its one object is to get rid of the Jews. Dr. Nordau says, " Jews are to be placed in a position compared to which that of the gipsies and even of the lepers in the middle ages was resplendent; and the pleasant hope is expressed that placed in such a position, even the wiry Jews will, with the exception of a few, be in one generation destroyed both body and soul." How near the day of Jacob's trouble seems to be! The callous spirit of
the European nation toward the sufferings of this people was well illustrated by the Afghan fable: « A fox fell into a lake. In his fear of a violent death, he called out, ' W0, the world fs coming to an end!' A peasant standing on the bank, who heard him, smilingly replied, , You are mistaken, friend, for the world is not coming to an end; I only see that a fox is being drowned.' "
Dr. Nordau, in his powerful peroration implored through the assembly, the wealthier portion of the Jewish community to work with them to conquer a home for the Jewish people. "You are able to do it," he said, "you have only to will. You have the millions; you have the connections; you have the influence; and you have the experience of great undertakings. Do for your own people a thou- sandth part of what you have done for all other nations."
Mr. L. J. Greenberg, representing England, and speaking on the statns of the Jews in this land, gave two causes for the happy position of his people here, one economic, and one religious; first, free trade, and second, the Holy Scriptures. He said, "In no European country to-day is the Bible so entirely part and parcel of life as among large sections of the English people. Those who laid the foundations of Bible literature, and preserved it throngh ages of moral darkness and ignorance-guarded it with their life's blood-are not likely to suffer persecution at the hands of those to whom the Bible is a cherished, a precious, and a sacred heritage." Yet, toward the close of this address, he spoke of the" perversions" of Jews to Christianity, and complained of the lavish expenditure employed "to make bad Jews worse Chris- tians." 'rhe veil is still upon the heart of Israel; may it soon be taken away!
OPPORTUNITIES FOR PREACHING THE GOSPEL.
3. We note the opportu1l1:ties ajforded of offering the Gospel at the gatherings. Those who know the close connection between the land, the Book, the people, and their Lord, are only sadly certain that there can be no true safety or lasting satisfaction for the Jews in Jerusalem, apart from the salvation and presence of their Messiah. It was with the object of discreetly emphasizing this fact that lectures on the Holy Land, illustrated by beautiful paintingR, were given by Rev. J. Neil, M.A., ex-chaplain to the Bishop of Jerusalem, and lantern views were shown by Rev. Samuel J. Wilkinson, of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews. These meetings, held twice a day, were largely attended, and afterward opportunity offered for personal contact and conversa- tion with those present. Models of the Tabernacle and the temples of 'Solomon and Herod were also on view, and specimens of the flora and fauna, and other products of Palestine, as well as illustrations of the customs and costumes of the East. Here friends of Israel, such as Rev. Jas. Sprunt, had opportunities of helpful intercourse with interested groups of Jews or individuals.
Rev. Marcus Bergmann, the translator of the Old and New Testament into "Yiddish" (the colloquial language of so many) distributed many copies of the Scriptures, which were most eagerly received, specially by the bright little Jewish children.
Open-air meetings were held, and from the steps of the Rev. F. S. Webster's church, All Souls, Langham Place, addresses were given in German, Yiddish, and English by Hebrew Ohristians and others, interspersed with the singing of Gospel songs. There was open opposition on the part of the more bigoted Jews. Yet it can hardly be doubted that a deep spiritual impression was made upon many by the preached and printed Word of God.
How great a debt Ohristendom owes to the Jews, through whom came originally the Scriptures, for "to them were committed the orades of God," and from them first shone forth the light of Gospel truth. "Salvation is of the Jews," and most of all Jesus, the Lord Himself, was a Jew, and was crucified for the Jews, and will yet be crowned as the King of the Jews. The Gospel is still "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." This was the order of the Pentecostal age, and even of the apostle to the Genhles Himself, who reminds fellowbelievers that, through their mercy, Israel is to obtain mercy.
We believe the recognition of the position of Israel and her King is the secret of successful mission work as well as the key to the mysteries of the history and prophecy of Holy Scripture. Professor Kennedy, D.D., of the Ohurch of Scotland, speaking at the S. V. M. U. Oonference, 1900, declared that every student of Jewish history and life is ready to acknowledge that many of the more unlovely traits in the character of the typical Jew to-day are the products of centuries of oppression and repression on the part of Ohristian Europe, and he reminded us that probably nine-tenths at least of modern Jewry hold fast to the twelfth article of their creed: "I believe with a perfect faith, that the Messiah will come; and altho His coming be delayed, I will await His speedy appearance." " Next year at Jerusalem" is the hopeful note with which they close their most solemn services; but, apart from individual repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Ohrist, there will be no true and permanent success in their Zionist movement. May the curse they called down on themselves, "His blood be upon us and upon our children," be speedily turned into a blessing.
Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Until thou turn again And seek with penitence of heart The Lamb thy sons have slain; Till to the Savior of mankind, Thou humbly bow the knee; Jerusalem I Jerusalem! Our tears shall flow for thee.
CHURCH BURNING IN CHINA
CHURCH BURNING IN CHINA.
llY PROF. ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND, PEKING UNJVERSITY.
Wednesday night of June 13th witnessed the destruction of church and mission property which it has taken fifty years to accumu- late. Five days before, on June 8th, all the missionaries from the more remote parts of the city of Peking, 'because of the rapid devel- opment of the Boxer troubles, and the orders of their various minis- ters, had fled for safety to the Methodist compound, which is within a half mile of the nearest legation, and within three-quarters of a mile of the British and American.
They began at once to fortify themselves by bricking up all the gateways to this compound, digging ditches, and stretching barbed wire fen c e s around within a few feet of the wall, cut- ting loopholes in the upper part of the large church, and gathering in- to this building all such provi- sions, stores, and clothing, as a siege might de- mand. Thiscom- pound is the largest in the METHODIST CHURCH AT TSUN·HUA., CHINA. city, containing six dwellings, one This 18 one of tbe h uUdlng8 r eported destroyed.
hospital and dispensary, one large school building, together with a litrge number of dormitories and native residences, an electric-light plant, and the church, which cost $12,000. The seating capacity of the church is two thousand, divided by rolling screens into main auditorium and Sunday-school room. There is probably no better built church in China. The outside is of pressed brick, built with- out mortar, with imitation stained glass windows, corrugated iron roof, the latest style of chair seating, decorated with elaborately carved Chinese mottoes in black and gold, finished in natural wood with board ceiling. It is furnished with electric light as well as oil chandeliers, and in every way forms a most attractive church-home.
Just three months before the Boxer troubles began in Peking a most gracious revival service was held in this church, in which all the missions of Peking and T'ung Chou joined. At this service there was a regular congregation of eight hundred. Every evening, kneeling
around the platform, the altar, and the first two rows of seats, were from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and seventy-five seekers, among whom were two Buddhist priests, old men and women of seventy and boys and girls of ten or twelve. All knelt at the close of the exhortation, and did not arise nntil the close of the meeting. All over the house they were kneeling two and two, a Ohristian and a heathen, and from that vast audience went up one chorus or prayer from the beginning to the close.
In this church there is a Ohristian Sunday-school of about eight hundred, and a heathen Sunday-school in the afternoon which sometimes reaches fifteen hundred, composed entirely of street waifs and their parents and friends. It is the church-home of more than three hundred students, boys and girls, and from it has gone ont as graduates of the Peking University, twenty-eight yonng men, twenty of whom are preaching the Gospel, or teaching, on salaries from onethird to one-tenth what they could be getting in business. Some of these are having seventy-five to one hundred and twenty baptisms a year. One of these young men during the recent siege was shot through the head and killed instantly. When the one hundred girls of the Girls' High School were shut up in this church, they went to their teacher, who was worrying about them, and told her not to do so, saying, "If we must die, how nice it will be for one hundred of us all to go to heaven together."
Rev. Oourteney H. Fenn, of the American Presbyterian Mission, writes that on the evening of June 13th, as they came out from supper, they noticed the street chapel belonging to this mission, about two hnndred yards from this large church, going up in flames. This chapel is also new. For many years the mission had applied to the board for a new chapel, but every year it was" cut out." Rev. J. F. Hayner was so enthusiastic in his desire for a new chapel, and so earnest in his work as a preacher, that Miss Douw, a lady who supports an entire mission at her own expense, gave him 1,000 titels (ounces oj silver) to build this chapel.
While it was building, one of the student graduates, already mentioned, who had given up a salary of fifty ounces of silver a month, and was preaching for ten, gave up that ten ounces, preached for nothing, taught English for a living, and during his first year teaching English he gave ten ounces toward the building of this chapel, ten ounces more toward the building of a dispensary in connection with the only chapel in the southern city, and collected two hundred ounces more from outside friendly officials, and completed the building of the dispensary. And these are two of the chapels and dispensaries which are burned to the ground. Self-sacrifice was represented by every brick and by every ounce of mortar that was in the walls of those buildings. The young man who was pastor of this street chapel
CHURCH BURNiNG IN CHINA
gave up an offer of forty dollars a month when he graduated, and began preaching for two dollars and seventy-five cents, and the young man who was pastor of the south city chapel, the only Christian chapel in a city of nearly a half million inhabitants, gave up an offer of one thousand dollars a year, and began preaching for eighty-four dollars a year, and out of that gave enough to support a student in the univerHity.
As the missionaries from the various other missions sat on the roof of this large, fine church in the Methodist miss ion and looked to the nor t h, northwest, and west, and toward the very center of the city, they could see their churches and their hom e s blaze 11 p furiously for a few hours, and then die down to a dull glow. All the i r possessions, all the keepsakes 0 f dear ones, were I~=====;;;;;;;;=========;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;i;;;;=~ destroyed by the GRADUATES FROM THE PEKING UNIVERSITY.
fire. Churches which had. been built with the pennies of Sunday-school children throughout the English-speaking world, with the rich man's liberality and the widow's mite, were alike destroyed, and self-denying, selfsacrificing natives who had endured lifelong persecutions for faith's sake, were ruthlessly murdered. The next few days were among the saddest, perhaps, Peking has ever known. There came to the compound where the missionaries were gathered parents without children, children without parents, wives without husbands, and husbands without wives, and many of those who found not their loved ones already there, returned to the places of destruction to search for them, dead or alive.
In the Presbyterian mission were two well-equipped hospitals, one for women and one for men, built up both of them very largely by the liberality of Dr. B. C. Atterbury, who spent many years of his life
BOtTSE OF' A MISSIONARY OF' THE AMERICAN BOARD IN PEKING (DESTROYED).
there, and thousands of dollars of his fortune. There was a boys' and a girls' school in which brigbt intelligent young men and women were preparing for a life-work of self-sacrifice, like those we have already named. There were also in some of the store-rooms all the earthly possessions of some families, who, having spent their ten years in faithful service in Ohina, had come to the homeland for a year's rest, or because of broken health, and there were keepsakes given to the missionaries by some of their college friends in Vassar, or Princeton, H amilton, Washington and Jefferson, or Rush, for most of them were graduates of these institutions.
At the American Board compound there was gathered all the lIIaterial for the building of a church similar to that in which the missionaries were gathered. For years the old chapel had been too small, and they had just seenred funds and purchased brick and lime, wood and iron, to build a new church. The foundations had already been laid and the walls built, but the structure was not yet completed. In that compound there was also a large printing-press which sent out hundreds of thousands of pages of Ohristian literature annually, and connected with it was the Bible Society where the emperor sent :five years ago to C( buy the kind of Bibles that were being sold to his people." There was a bookstore in which His Maj esty had purchased other Ohristian books; there was a hospital and dispellsary, and homes of both the families of the American Board representatives and those of the Woman's Board, and finally there was the Bridgeman School for girls, from which have gone out educated young women, who, with the graduates of the North Ohina Oollege, have established homes which are to the ordinary home of the heathen what an arc light is to a tallow dip.
CHURCH BURNING IN CHINA
At the London mission of both the east and west side of the city there are churches, hospitals, and dispensaries, and boys' and girls' schools. The dispensary and hospital at this mission are liberally subscribed to by the diplomatic circles in Peking and by the pro-foreign officials, and from it physicians have been invited into the forbidden city to perform operations on some of the favored eunuchs. From it have gone out men who have prepared medical works which were purchased by the emperor in his search for foreign books, and in its chapels has been done some of the most devoted street chapel preaching that has been done anywhere in China.
Miss Douw's mission on the west side was supported entirely by her own private fortune, and was doing a most beneficent work among the women.
The South Cathedral (Roman Catholic) was erected at a cost of eighty thousand dollars, and the East Cathedral at a cost of sixty thousand dollars, to say nothing of the hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages, and schools that w~re connected with them.
The S. P. G. Mission, three of whose members have been murdered by the Boxers, was in the west city, and was well equipped with church, school, hospital, and homes. Near it was the International Institute, presided over by the Rev. Gilbert Reid, whom I have known to live on ten cents a day in his efforts to economize that he might realize his hopes for a "mission to the higher classes." All of these, together with all shops and stores which had anything to do with foreigners or SLEEPER DAVIS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, PEKING.
Hospital for women and children Includes waiting rooms, dispensary, operating rooms, and surgical and special wards. Reported destroyed.
which kept foreign goods, were burned, showing the magnitude of the Boxers' plan to rid the country of every trace of the foreign devil and his wares.
It is impossible to describe in detail the property scattered throughout these two northeastern provinces which has been destroyed-the great college building at T'ung Chou, one of the finest buildings in China, Durbin Hall in Peking, in which there was a valuable library, all the mission buildings, houses, hospitals, and dispensaries in T'ung Chon, the valuable property at 'l'sun-hua, one hundred miles east of Peking, where there are four residences, a large girls' school, a hospital and dispensary, and two chapels, all are destroyed. Throughout all the country villages the chapels have been destroyed and the Christians massacred. The summer resorts at the western hills, fifteen miles west of Peking, and all the houses and the large hall at the newly opened summer resort at Pei Tai Ho on the seashore, near Shanhaikuan, have likewise been looted and destroyed. Why? Because a superstitious secret society took it into their heads to rid the country of foreigners, and a foolish conservative party with an ambitious woman at its head encouraged them to do so.
It appears from the most reliable evidence now at hand, that almost all the property of foreigners in the provinces of Shantung and Chihli, situated in country places, or remote from the foreign settlements in the cities, has been destroyed. The property of the American Board at T'ung Chou was all destroyed, except a small street chapel, and that proved to be a rented building. In Peking nothing was left. At Wei Hsien in Shantung, one church, six dwellings, boys' and girls' boarding schools, and most of the hospital were all destroyed. At I-Chou fu the latest reports indicate that the place has been looted but not burned. At Pao-Ting fu letters discovered in the viceroy's yamen in Tientsin said that the property had all been destroyed. It appears from the conduct of the Boxers in T'ung Chou, and from the fact that the rooms of Mr. Pethick, private secretary of Li Hung Chang in Peking, were found just as he left them, the remains of his lunch still on the table, that the Boxers were well instructed as to which was foreign property and which was-not, and all Chinese property which had been used by foreigners, was not destroyed.
IN THE HEART OF BRAZIL.
BY JAMES A. GRAHA~f, ~f.D.
Among the many almost unknown tribes of aborigines, practically lost to sight and forgotten, in the vast regions of interior Brazil, are the Caraoh Indians, who inhabit the forest land on the banks of the Manoel Aves Pequefia River, a tributary of the Tocantins. Fifty years ago the tribe was settled on the Rio Somno in charge of a friar, into
IN THE HEART OF BRAZIL
whose hands their education had been committed by the imperial government. '1'hey remained under his care for some years, but withdrew into the forest when their chiefs saw the evil effects which resulted among their people from contact with the whites. A pioneering expedition has just been made to their headquarters by James A. Graham, M.D., of the South American Evangelical Mission, and t.he following accou nt of his visit to them is full of interest.* We neared the Indian encampment, which had been our goal, and in the distance heard the yelling and monotonous singing. We rode to the house of the capitao, and found the old man sleeping, but he arose and greeted us. I think this is the ugliest man I ever saw. He is not a pure Indian, having some Negro blood; his hair in consequence, unlike the Indians', is stiff and frizzled. This, with a long pointed beard, one blind eyc, aud the other squinted, a broad face and a tall body, was indeed a picture, ugly enough, tho at the same time to some extent majestic. This man seems to have the village in thorough good order, and under discipline. As well as a heathen man knows how, he cautions the people not to steal, and seems to support justice to some degree. At first things did not look very welcome. The children and women were conspicuous by their absence, tho they later on appeared in great numbers; the men were nearly all painted and armed with clubs, guns, bows and arrows, etc.; they stood at some distance from us, and did not seem at all friendly, but after I had presented the chief with a large knife, and several of the others with smaller knives, they began to gain confidence, and were completely disarmed when I gave a spoonful of gunpowder to all the young men who dared to come for it, beads to the women, and fish-hooks to the boys. " They then became very friendly, and soon we were the recipients of about a wagon load of bananas, peanuts, etc. The chief's son was very ill with fever, so I gave him some medicine, and then set out to visit the other sick people in the village, escorted by a guard of twelve naked Indians, armed with clubs, and marching in regular military style, headed by the chief and some other officials. Arriving at the sick people's doors, they would form line on either side, and let me pass in.
On returning to the chief's housl:', we had coffee with him, and talked, in Portuguese, far into the night, about God, and Jesus and His relation to God. I read a little to him from John's Gospel, and left a copy with him, telling him to ask anyhody he might meet to read it to him. He was quite willing that we should start a school in his village, and that some one should come to teach the people about God and Heaven, only he did not ~oant a friar. During this conversation, the chief explained that some people had told them we wanted to steal their children, and take them away to Oarolina on pretense of * The Secretotry of the Mission, 58 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, will be glad to give further information with regard to these Indians.
taking them to school, but that really we wanted to steal the children to take them away to England as slaves. Of course, he said, he did not believe this any more, and saying" good night," he retired behind a palm-leaf partition to rest. Outside the Indians continued dancing, and stamping on the ground to mark time to their chants, keeping up a constant rattling of their war rattles. At twelve o'clock everything was quiet, except for the occasional yell of the night sentinel, but by three o'clock in the morning the dancers were at work again, and continued this laborious exercise until the sun rose at six o'clock.
One thing of the previous evening amused me much; this was a whole household in tears; the tears fairly rolled down their cheeks while they wailed piteously, the women vigorously rubbing the side of their heads, and the men their foreheads. I asked why they wept, and was told that a child of the family had been lost for three days, but" that now they had found him, and were weeping to show their joy at the lost being found. This incident gave me a text to tell about joy in Heaven over the lost ones coming home.
These children of the forest have one good trait, and that is love for their offspring, while the children have equal love for their parents. They never take delight in ill-treating a child, in fact, they say the spirit of an Indian must not be broken, but be always free and wild; hence parents refrain from chastising their children, and it was really touching to see how the sons of an aged sick Indian were concerned about their old father, and begged me to save him if I could. I am convinced these poor creatures have hearts which, if touched with God's Spirit, would simply blaze with love to Him. The Brazilians are cruel and hard-hearted, with an inhumanity that is scarcely credible, but I have much kindlitU' thoughts of these poor, naked, Indians.
This Caraoh tribe has three villages, called respectively (Portuguese), Serraina (Little Mountain); Gammelleira (the name of a tree); and Domeseilla (Dame or Virgin). We visited the largest, Serraina, which is composed of a large circle of twenty houses, but with a big space between each, and a wide, clear space in the middle. Every house contains a generation, not less than five families in each. The other two villages are smaller in point of size, tho I doubt if they are less numerous in population, as these people accommodate themselves to any kind of circumstance. Each village has a chief, to whom the Indians are responsible for conduct. This chief is despotic and all powerful, tho all of them recognize two revolutionists, who were prominent in the late local rebellion. They are much under the power of these two dangerous men, who are most bigoted Catholics, believing that to kill an enemy of the church is the same as killing a snake on Good Friday. I mention this, not to discourage work among the Indians, but to discourage any unsuitable worker coming out. Let
men come who know they are immortal till their work is done. Let them come, willing if need be, to live and die without seeing much visible fruit, as the amount of preliminary clearing of the ground, before much harvest can be seen, is great, very great indeed. I advise two men to come together, who know each other well.
The morning we left, the Indians were preparing for a great feast, and the chief warmly invited us to stay, but, of course, we could not, so the chief ordered them off in bands, some to fish, some to hunt, and some to gather forest fruits-the pilot declared some to steal, and all to beg. They had just received these instructions when another messenger called them together to see us off, also declaring that the Doctor did not eat farina and dried beef, hence eggs would be acceptable as a parting gift.
As a result they came with their eggs, which turned out to be nearly all with chickens inside.
This I learned was quite a com- pliment, as nearer to the present of a chicken than a fresh egg; the Indians eat them thus, and think them more "substantial." We had mounted, when we were asked to name the chief's grand- son after me, in remembrance of the visit, so in the midst of the assembled villagers, I declared the boy's namc was James. This they all repeated, but the father pro- tested it was not enough, so I CHARANTE INDJAN1 BRAZIL. added Alexander Graham, and From a photograph by Geo, R. Witte.
rode off while they continued to shout "Farewell," "Happiness,"
" Return another time," etc.
The Indians, to the number of twenty, have since returned my visit, bringing presents of bows and arrows, walking sticks, whistles, a war rattle, etc., etc. One of the chief's sons conversed with me a good deal, and as far as I could judge, they have an idea of a Great Spirit whom they call "Putu." They think he is angry when it thunders, but the idea of "Putu" loving them was new. The young Indian to whom I explained how much God loved them said, "Ah, we do not know this, but I want to know." This young man and I became very friendly; he took great delight in teaching me the names of familiar objects in his native language, and used to say, "You teach me about' Putu,' and I teach you about the Caraoh." We long to see two young men established among these Indians; our hearts warm to them with real affection, yet clearly our principal work for the present is among the Brazilians.
A BABEL OF TONGUES IN HAINAN.
BY REV. WILLIAlf J. LEVERETT, NODOA, HAINAN, Cl'IINA.
Missionary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions (North).
In the Chinese Empire, Province of Kuantung, there is a market town named Nodoa, in the northwest part of the Island of Hainan, which surely deserves to be called "a modern Babel," for within a radius of thirty miles there are at least eight different dialects or languages spoken. In this district there are, also, differences in the character of the people, differences in customs, and often differences in dress.
Taking the island as a whole, the language t of probably the majority of the people on Hainan is, with slight dialectic differences, what we call Hainanese. Hainanese is, in fact, the" Lingua Franca" of Hainan. Many hundred years ago Hainan was colonized by immigrants from the mainland of China, opposite Formosa, so that the Hainanese of the present time is nearer like the dialects spoken at Amoy and Swatow than of the people of any other part of China. To the south and west of Nodoa is a settlement of Hak-kas (language number 2) who came over from the mainland comparatively recently; in fact, they are still immigrating. The Basel Mission have a very successful work among the Hak ka people in the northern part of the province, where they are said to number seyeral millions. One custom in which the Hak-kas of Hainan differ from some of their neighbors is that they do not bind their girls' feet, except for a short time when they are about to be married. The people of Nodoa itself call their native speech Mandarin (language number 3). This language is spoken to the north and west of Nodoa, in the district city, and several large market towns, where, in some cases, it almost entirely excludes the Hainanese. 'rradition says that this" Mandarin" was brought direct from Peking many years ago by the exiled poet-official Siu Dan-po and his followers. But whoever transplanted it from its far northern home, friends from the north, who have visited Nodoa, say that it has wofully departed from its pristine beauty. To the north of Nodoa there is a place where the people speak a dialect of the Cantonese (language number 4). They come from Kau-ciu, which is situated on the mainland, nearly half way from the Hainan Straits to Canton.
The Loi or Li, the aborigine of Hainan, talks an entirely different t Several times, for convenience, I use the word language rather loosely, for, technically, however greatly they may differ from one another, the forms of speech of different parts of China are generally known as dialects, on account of the peculiar nature of the common written language. Properly, only three languages have been enumerated in my article, the Chinese, the Loi or Li, and the Miau-tse.-W. J. L.
A BABEL OF TONGUES IN HAINAN
language from the Chinese, and also from the Miau-tse or aborigines of the Chinese mainland. His words, and possibly also his disposition, are much more like the Siamese or Laos. We generally distinguish the Lois as "Wild J.Jois" and "Tame Lois." The Wild Lois, who inhabit the mountainous interior of the island, live a wild life, and are still in tribal relations. Tribe differs from tribe in dialect, in the pattern tattooed on the women, and, when they come up to market, in the style of coat and skirt they wear. The men, except for different modes of doing up their hair, behold each other on their native heath, differing only as God made them to differ. Without doubt, the Wild Lois, even within thirty miles of Nodoa, belong to several TEACHERS AND SCHOLARS AT THE PRESBYTER]A~ MISSION IN NODOA, HAINAN, CHINA.
Those seated in the mlddJ e row are a preacher, two teachers, Rod students.
different tribes, but from lack of certain knowledge on that point we will class them all together (language number 5).
The region inhabited by the Tame Lois lies to the north of the mountains and between them and the sea. Like the Chinese, they live in villages, cultivate the land, have prosperous market towns, and schools with scholars that have taken degrees in the prefectural ana provincial examinations. The Tame Lois are known as Dam-ciu Lois, Lim-ko Lois, and King-toa Lois, so-called from the names of the thirteen districts on Hainan. The Dam-cius (language number 6) and Limkos (language number 7) make up a large part of the population about Nodoa, the former to the northwest, and the latter to the north-
east. Besides differing in speech, they have evident differences in customs. The Lim-ko peasant women wear the plain Ohinese cuat and trousers of dark blue cloth. The Dahl-ciu women, on the other hand, wear a long coat and a skirt, often white, are inveterate betel nut chewers, and are much more likely than the Lim-kos to leave their husbands at home on a market day, and come up to town to do the trading.
There still remain those who are called by the Cantonese the "Miau-tse," the aborigines of the Ohinese mainland (language number 8). There are many villages of them in the hills, where they cultivate mountain rice and follow out their own peculiar customs. They can be often seen on the mission compound, the women gaily attired with curiously embroidered headkerchiefs and jackets, and their skirts stamped prettily with an odd pattern; for the Mian, unlike the Loi, by an ancient treaty with the Ohinese, may wear his native costume openly in the market towns. Such is the" Babel" of eight languages, which is not lessened any by a scattering of Hunanese soldiers, Oantonese shopkeepers, and King-toa Loi carpenters.
This "Babel" may seem a rather strange place in which to open a mission station, but when Nodoa was occupied there were already over one hundred applicants for baptism to start with. Time proved that almost all these had come from unworthy motives, but through them were brought others who have made it possible, after getting rid of the unworthy ones, to establish a substantial work. Last year the increase in the number of Ohristians was fifty per cent. The attitude of the literati and officials is very encouraging. The former in time of danger from famine and again from insurrection have come to us for counsel and moral support, and the latter, when Nodoa was actually attacked by several hundred robbers, garrisoned the mission compound with their soldiers, and when the danger was over handed back the premises and all they contained without even a tea cup missing-a fact that will mean a good deal to those familiar with the ways of Ohinese soldiery. The people among whom we work seem, moreover, to be more willing than in many parts of Ohina, to give financial proof of their appreciation of a Ohristian education and foreign medical treatment.
This Babel also brings in part its own remedy, for a boy educated at Nodoa must be indeed dull if he can speak but one language. So that the gift of tongues, if it has not been bestowed on the missionaries at Nodoa, yet comes quite easily to those who are probably the most effective evangelists in Ohina-the missionaries' native helpers.
THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS IN CHINA
THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS IN CHINA.* BY THE REV. J. S. WHITEWRIGHT, CHING CHOU FU, SHANTUNG, NORTH CHINA.
Missionary of the Baptist Missionary Society.
The writer of the following very remarkable paper, having lately returned from the interior of Sh.antung province, and having lived since 1881 close to the region where the so-called "Boxer" movement took its rise, is competent as few others are to write as to the origin and development of the present anti-foreign struggle in China. He has had special opportunities for meeting with large numbers of Chinese of the official and literary classes, and gives mainly facts within his own knowledge, quoting also the opinions of Chinese of all classes which throw light on the conditions that have led up to the present terrible crisis. Those who have seen this paper and who are most competent judges pronounce it unsurpassed as a clear exhibition of the subject.-EDITOR.
Three distinct stages are clear in this present anti-foreign movement. 1. Soon after the seizure of Kiao Chou by Germany, a good deal of ill feeling arose, and active opposition was shown by Chinese; German surveyors wel'e attacked, and reprisals were made by German troops. 2. 1Vhen the Governor of Shantung last year gave the Boxers his moral support by ordering the troops he sent against them not to fire, and to be careful not to hurt them in any way. This governor refused to see a deputation of the gentry of his own capital, who came to petition that he would take vigorous action against these rebels. 3. When, to the horror of the whole world, the Chinese government deliberately threw off the mask and made war on the civilized world.
The whole history of China, in its relations with other powers, shows a state of intolerable pride and insolence, profound ignorance, together with unparalleled duplicity and inhumanity on the part of Chinese officials. The primary cause of the present state of affairs is, then, to my mind, to be found in this pride, ignorance, duplicity, and inhumanity of the Chinese government. The immediate cause is the seizures of Chinese territory by European powers, and the attempt to open up China for purposes of trade.
It is needless to go into the history of Chinese diplomacy. The English embassy under Lord Amherst, in 1816, was summarily dismissed because its members refused to knock their heads on the ground nine times in succession to the Chinese emperor. In 1860 Mr. (afterward Sir Harry) Parkes, together with a number of other envoys were seized and brutally tortured. He was questioned while kneeling with his arms twisted behind him, and only escaped prolonged torture by pretending to faint. During the recent war with Japan, and while the victorious Japanese were driving the Chinese armies before them, an insolent proclamation was issued by the Chinese government, stating that "the dwarfs had rebelled, but there are not many of them; let them therefore be l3urrounded," etc. There is nothing new whatever in the present attitude of the Chinese government. It is only that matters have come to a head and are now on a colossal scale.
A Chinese well acquainted with foreign affairs once propounded the question: "How is it that our officials so often get the better of yours in … Condensed from the Baptist Missionary Herald, London.
diplomacy?" He added, "Your officials are men of high character, ability, and education, and yet ours, vastly their inferiors, get the better of them." He replied to his own question by saying that the Englishmen were men of honor, who did not know how to tell lies, but that the Chinese officials gloried in lying and deceit, and congratulated one another when they deceived the foreigner.
Their standard of honor and honesty may be judged by their dealings with their own people. When the. Tai Ping princes surrendered to Li Hung Chang, on the solemn promise that their lives would be spared, they were immediately beheaded. The fierce wrath of Gordon when he heard of the foul deed will be remembered. This is the value of the word of honor of a great and representative Chinese statesman.
The number of different theories put forward in this country as to the causes of the present condition is astonishing. British ambassadors and consuls have been blamed, the ministers of other powers, the governments of Germany and Russia, the English government for not interfering before, again for interfering too much. Li Hung Chang'S tour round the world has been suggested as the cause of it all. The fact that German soldiers have been used to drill Chinese troops, that missionaries appealed to their consuls too often, and finally the Christian religion itself, has been blamed.
There are people who seem to think that the explanation of great world movements, and even of great campaigns, is to be found in the particular wording of a par:ticular despatch or in the revision of a telegram. To understand the present war in South Africa we have to go back at the very least half a century, and the same principle applies to China.
During the last five years China has lost Formosa and its suzerain state, Korea, while bodies of Russian troops have been sent into the great province of Manchuria "to guard the railway." The Chinese may be excused in interpreting the phrase about guarding the railway as meaning something else, even tho they have brought it on themselves by the exceedingly doubtful protection afforded by Chinese troops to foreigners engaged in construction. The territories thus lost are very rich and extensive.
It may surprise some to learn that in the two years previous to the present disturbances, a vastly greater number of Europeans penetrated into the interior of North China, among the foreign-hating, foreigndespising Chinese, than were seen in these regions in the previous two centuries. This sudden influx of foreignerll, many of whom are engaged in making or guarding the railways that have so long been dreaded by .the Chinese as the means that foreigners desired to use in bringing in troops to take their country, is sufficient of itself to account for a great deal of the intensely anti-foreign feeling recently manifested.
The conclusion might be arrived at that the sole cause of the present trouble is to be found in the seizure of Chinese territory. No doubt this, together with the irresponsible discussion as to the division of the whole of China among the powers of Europe, has been the immediate cause of the present crisis. How comes it to pass that they took such action, from the seizure of Hongkong sixty years ago up to the seizure of Kiao Chou by the Germans? It has to be remembered that the governments of Europe had borne very long with China-with its dishonesty, incapacity, and deceit. This ought to be said, even when it is held, as I strongly
THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS IN CHINA
do hold, that these recent seizures were a mistake, to say nothing more; and that concessions such as at Shanghai, involving no government or tracts of territory, would have served all purposes of trade, and have been also to the very great advantage of China and the whole world. It may be that the nations of Europe have attempted recently to go too fast.
With regard to the attitude of the German authorities at Kiao Chou, the writer had a conversation with a Christian convert of fifteen years' standing. He had worked for Germans at Kiao Chou during the whole of last winter. He said: "I had heard that the Germans treated the Chinelle badly; and now, after having lived among them and worked for them, I say to you that the Germans treat the Chinese far better than the Chinese treat each other." The native contractors used to keep back part of the wages of the workmen; and when this was discovered, German officials took the trouble to pay into the hands of each workman, at considerable labor to themselves, his just wages. It did not accomplish altogether what was sought, as everybody who has lived in the interior would know, but that was not the fault of the officials in question; they did all in their power to do what was right in the matter. My friend told me, further. that the prices paid for contracts were not only fair, but generous; but that the contracts were secretly sublet and the workmen ground down.
Last year, in the course of a long conversation with an official of rank, who had been sent by the Chinese government to settle difficulties of a serious nature that had arisen on account of the prosecution of the railway in Shantung province, he stated that the men to blame for the disturbances were the native officials, who neglected to inform the people of the rights which the Germans had acquired, and of their aims and objects. They allowed the people to remain in ignorance, and with the most disastrous misconceptions with regard to foreigners generally, and the Germans in particular. This man was one of the few liberal and enlightened officials. He was very despondent about the progress of his country, and when it was pointed out to him that it only needed a larger number of men with ideas like his own to help to bring about a gradual change for the better, he replied, that there was absolutely no hope for the present; that the high authorities were, the majority of them, men who knew practically nothing about affairs outside China, and were determined to have no change and no reform. Pointing to his son, a lad of nineteen, he said: "There is the hope of China; it is in the next generation." As the" Boxer" movement began in the German" sphere of 'influence," it may be well to keep such facts in mind. During the Japanese war an official, in the course of a confidential conversation, gave as his view that the lamentable condition of affairs at that time was to be traced to the "utter insincerity" of the central government. A leader of a Chinese religious sect expressed himself in almost identical t6rma some time after.
With regard to the statement that the action of missionaries had tended to produce the present state of affairs, we have heard of Buddhist and Mohammedan, and other missionaries in England; and even if they were to come in numbers-say as many as fifty men to forty millions of Englishmen, which would be aquivalent to fifty missionaries to a population of over forty millions in a given section of China-it is very evident that the irritation caused by the presence of these few men in Eng-
land would be infinitesimal when compared with that produced by the seizure of English ports, with large hintedands and perpetual talk about the dividing up of England among other powers. The said missionaries might fare very badly when the English people came to believe in the designs of governments to which they belonged; but that would hardly be their fault.
The Baptist Mission in Central Shantung, close to the region where the present anti-foreign movement began, succeeded in establishing very friendly relations with the people in the district where its work was carried on. This is well known throughout China among all who have paid any attention to these questions. It is the rule of the mission that every man should make himself acquainted with Chinese etiquette, etc., so as to be able to conform himself to the manners and customs of the people. No man is given the status of a full missionary by his society until he has served three years' probation on the field, and passed four examinations in the language. They have exerted themselves in various ways to enlighten the people and make friends with them, knowing very well that enemies and people who are filled with suspicion can not be made converts. Both friends and converts were made. Appeals to consuls have been discouraged, and have only been made when other efforts have been exhausted. These appeals have been very rare indeed. In the early days of the first station great caution was exercised. In those days they seldom went out without hearing some unpleasant epithet addressed to them; and it is evident that it is to the interest of the missionary in the interior, if only for his own comfort, to try to produce a better state of things. The missionaries did their utmost to establish friendly relations, and before long succeeded. This year, February 7, the writer left his station for Europe on furlough. The leaving was a very pleasant contrast to the treatment of eighteen or nineteen years ago. Neighbors came out, not to revile, but to bid farewell in most friendly fashion, and to say they would be glad to see him back again. This is only mentioned as typical of the experience of missionaries in the interior when they have been enabled to establish themselves and gain the confidence of the people. The troubles that have come to missionaries almost invariably come from people outside, from those beyond the reach of their influence.
The Marquis of Salisbury lately spoke some very wise words of counsel to missionaries. The writer has the honor to belong to a mission which has done not only what the prime minister advises, but a good deal more. He would desire with profound respect to add to the advice given to missionaries, also "all residents in the East, and especially all travelers in the interior." It has to be remembered that missionaries are, after all, few, and the others very many. Up to three years ago missionaries were living in the central and eastern sections of Shantung province in great peace and quietness, our relations with the people improving year by year. The district referred to is inhabited by over twenty millions of people. Then came the occupation of Kiao Chou. At first the Chinese did not seem to be able to understand what it meant, but gradually, as the surveys for the railway were pushed on, and as miners, prospectors, surveyors, travelers, began to move about the district, they began to realize the position. Their ideas were further accentuated when land was purchased for the railway, and Chinese officials deliberatelr, on the testimonr of men of their own number, kept infor-
THE CAUSES OF THE CRISIS IN CHINA
mation from the peasantry which would have facilitated matters. The missionaries who were there before all this, with few exceptions, wore the native costume, they all spoke the Chinese language, and were thor- oughly acquainted with the manners, customs, and prejudices of the people. In previous years a foreign traveler was very rarely seen; but now in one fortnight more foreign travelers in foreign dress passed over the main roads than were seen in twenty years previously. Some of these, without having any idea whatever that they were doing anything at all offensive, some who were commendably anxious to conciliate the Chi- nese, did things which gave rise to a great deal of suspicion and unrest.
To give a few typical instances within my own personal knowledge. Two travelers in foreign dress, wearing the short tight-fitting jacket which the Chinese in the interior think to be hardly decent, and which they so dislike and despise, rode up to the door of a missionary's house, with their sporting rifles over their shoulders. They had to the Chinese mind the appearance of foreign cavalry soldiers. It did ncit much mat- ter in the city in which we lived, as we were on good terms with the magistrates and people, but it might have mattered a good deal if they had happened to travel into a hostile district.
It may be well to note here with regard to taking the life of animals in sport that it is contrary to the religious ideas of very many of the Chinese, and while the people in the neighborhood of treaty ports may have got used to the idea that some foreigners are sportsmen and may even have ceased to care about it, it is by no means so in the interior. In January of this year, another traveler was staying a night at the house of a medical missionary. He produced a pair of Mauser revolvers for inspection, and explained their capabilities, hitherto unknown at that station, which possessed no weapons. He called attention to a dent on the but of one of the revolvers, and explained that he had seen a dog that morning eating part of a human body, and was so disgusted, that he shot the dog. He fired two shots, but the dog did not die at once, so he hit him over the head with the revolver and killed him. Now, the horror and disgust was very natural, especially in a man who was not accustomed to such a spectacle, but the dog belonged to some one who, tho he might have no care for his dog, would very much resent his being killed by a foreigner. His shooting at all was the serious thing-it called attention to the fact of his being armed with superior and deadly weapons.
Another traveler was taking photographs in a promiscuous manner as he traveled. Now, some Chinese have a superstitious fear of being photographed. No one who understood the people would think of taking photographs in the interior of China except where he was very well known and with the consent of the people, One of the worst cases was when a party of travelers was observed to measure the city walls of the city of Wei Hsien. Strolling on the embankment, it was perhaps only to decide an idle bet, and tho nothing was done at the moment, for days after the whole city was in a furor of indignation at what they regarded as an outrage. The travelers in the meantime passed on, and, doubtless, reported that all was quiet. They did not hear what was said, and would not have understood it if they had; but the American missionaries, who have a large station just outside the city, had to bear the brunt of it all.
Within my own experience I have known of more unwise things
being done in a month by travelers and others than by the whole mis- sionary body in Shantung in twenty years. Indeed, there is no com- parison: no missionary would dream of doing such things as above men- tioned. It should be very clearly understood that in many cases it was simply ignorance of the language, manners, customs, and prejudices of the people, that was the reason of the offense given. If a missionary, after nineteen years of application, feels that he has a great deal to learn, what about the man who has not been nineteen days in the country and does not feel at all called upon to seek advice and learn how to comport himself ?
In Manchuria Scotch and Irish Presbyterians have a large mission work, but there also, during the last three years, the missionaries have been very few, and other foreigners, surveyors, engineers, etc., not to speak of large numbers of Cossack soldiers, have been very many. In a district where there are, say, half a dozen missionaries, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Cossacks. As I am speaking mainly of my own experiences, and have not lived in Manchuria, I will not venture on any opinion as to how far the Cossacks are likely to seek to attempt to accommodate themselves to the manners, customs, and prejudices of the Chinese. I will leave all that to the historic imagination of my readers. With regard to the mi3sionaries, Mrs. Bishop, a traveler of a very different stamp from some of those mentioned above, who spent some time among the mission stations making a study of their work, speaks of the esteem in which they were held, and states that "on all public and private occasions, they were treated with respect."
A good deal is said as to the confusion that must be caused by the differences between the various Christian churches. It is not so "confusing to the Chinese philosophic mind with a religion adapted to its own needs" as is supposed. The Chinese have not one religion, but several. The writer has often stood on a mound from which could be seen Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist temples, also a Mohammedan mosque. There were also other temples that it would be difficult to class under the head of any religion. The Chinese have also many religious sects, and the general idea is that all these religions are seeking to do good and save men from sorrow. The Chinese are well accustomed to the idea of various religions and sects, and they tolerate Christianity more readily than perhaps any other nation in history, when once thev come to have any accurate idea as to what Christian doctrine really is. It has also to be remembered that among all Protestant missions there is a tendency to draw more and more together: The relations of English and American missionaries in the Shantung district are of the most cordial character. With regard to German missionaries, the only fault. that their American and English colleagues have to find is that there are so few of them. Those on the field have worthily carried on the scholarly traditions of their country. There are no books more highly appreciated by all missionaries than the ahle works of the late Dr. Faber. The" confusion" has been exaggerated.
It may be difficult to gain a hearing for a good word on behalf of the Chinese people at this time-that is, for the Chinese as a whole, regarding them as distinct from the present governing class. With regard to the present government it is sufficient to say that the cup of its iniquity has long been full to overflowing. It by its own action in making war on the civilized world has demonstrated the truth of the statement made
19oo.J THE CAUSES oF' THE CRIsIS IN OtttNA
at the beginning of this article that the primary cause of the present horror is to be found in the boundless pride, ignorance, duplicity, and inhumanity of the rulers of China. It is not fair, however, to class all the Chinese with the present governing authorities. Many could speak of great kindness shown to them by Chinese. The writer's own relations with the Chinese of all classes of society have been in the main very happy, and they have been more and more so as the years went by. After living a few years in China I was taken ill. It was worth some suffering to receive the kindly congratulations of heathen neighbors on recovery. Servants are very often found faithful and loyal, especially in times of trouble and illness. Our whole mission in Central Shantung is indebted to a native gentleman who hal:! come forward again to serve us. He comes to my mind just now, as a message from the kindly old Confucianist has recently reached me through a colleague. He expresses the hope that I have" reached England in peace, and that while there he hopes there will be safety from the Boers." (His geography il:! vague.) After famine relief many missionaries received very cordial expressions of gratitude, yet it has been said that the Chinese people are destitute of gratitude. There may be reasons for contrary experience in ordinary intercourse with the Chinese-it may be the old attempt to "hustle the East" on a small scale.
There is a growing" Reform Party" even in China, and numbers of the younger officials have come under its influence. It was an infinite pity that the young emperor could not have received the united support of all civilized powers when he started on his career for the renovation of his country.
The Chinese have no more loyal friends, and none who have such faith in their future as a race, than the members of the missionary body. One has only to mention the names of Prof. Legge, who undertook and brought to completion the colossal task of translating into English the whole of the Chinese classics; the great scholar Chalmers; Muirhead, who for over half a century has labored in Shanghai, honored and beloved by all who know him; Griffith John, great preacher and translator. Among the Americans, the names of Nevius, Mateer, and Corbett readily occur. Scores of others could be mentioned, both English and American, who have grown old in the service of the ChineEe. The few names just mentioned represent together over three hundred years of service-evangelistic, educational, and literary.
There are those of us living in the interior of China, trying to become Chinese to the Chinese, to speak their tongue, to appreciate their sacred books, to think their thoughts, to do all in our power to heal their diseases, to help them in time of famine, to enlighten their ignorance, to show them the value of Western science and civilization, and, above all, and supremely, to give them that religion which we believe alone can lead men to the highest moral, intellectual, and material advancement. Still, we have not forgotten that we are of the English blood, and have tried to live so as in no way to dishonor our flag. While keenly conscious how far we fall short of our ideals, we have sought to live in a manner worthy of our churches and the glorious traditions of the missionary body, to belong to which we regard as our highest honor.
LIST OF PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN MASSACRED FROM THE BEGINNING OF "BOXER" MOVEMENT TO SEPTEMBER 11, 1900.
BY REV. JOHN R. HYKES, SHANGHAI, CHINA.
SHANTUNG, December 31, 1899; Church of signed" C. W. Price," and dated August England Mission. (S. P. G.) 13, which said: .. This man will tell our situation and is trustworthy." The mes- Rev. S. M. Brooks. senger said: .. A party. of three men, four CHIHLI, about June 1, 1900; Church of Eng- women, and three chIldren, left that city under escort on the 15th of August, and land Mission. (S. P. G.) they are reported to have been shot." Rev. H. V. Norman. TAIYUENFU, June 27; .. Sheoyang" (Inde- Rev. C. Robinson. pendent Baptist) Mission. PAOTINGFU, June 30; American Presbyte- Miss Coombs. (The evidence of her death is a letter in rian Mission. German, dated July 6, and seen by Mr. Rev. and Mrs. F. E. Simcox, (three chil- Stevenson, the Deputy Director of the Chilla Inland Mission, in which it is stated dren). that there was a riot June 27, and that C. V. R. Hodge, M.D., and Mrs. Hodge. Dr. Edwards's Hospital was destroyed, G. Y. Taylor, M.D. and Miss Coombs killed. The letter was PAOTINGFU, July 1; American Board Mis- sewn in the sole of the messenger's shoe, and altho he was repeatedly stripped and sion. searched, it was not found.) Rev. H. T. Pitkin. Miss A. A. Gould. T~r:o~~ITrr~~ ~¥~r:;A1;:[~;~n Board. Miss M. S. Morrill. PAOTINGFU, July 1; China Inland Mission. TAIYUENFU, July9; "Sheo Yang " Mission. Rev. and Mrs. B. Bagnall, (one child). Dr. and Mrs. Lovitt, (one child). Rev. William Cooper (of Shanghai). Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Stokes. HSIAO YI, SHANSI, June 3u; China Inland Rev. and Mrs. J. Simpson. Rev. A. J. Hoddle (Independent). Mission. Miss DuvaI. Miss Whitchurch. Miss Stewart. Miss E. E. Searell. NEAR THE YELLOW RIVER (while fleeing TAIYUENFU, July 9; English Baptist.
from Shansi), July 15 or 16; China Inland ~:;: :~g :~:: .f.ar'{j~!er~~gd.children). Mission. Rev. and Mrs. G. McConnell, (one child). Rev. and Mrs. Whitehouse. Miss King (of Yang-chou). TAIYUENFU, July 9; China Inland Mission. Miss Burton. (Miss F. E. Nathan, Miss M. R. Nathan, Dr. and Mrs. Miller Wilson, (one child). and Miss Heayman, of the C. I. M., are Miss J. Stevens (of Ho-chou). supposed to have been with this party, Miss M. E. Clark. and to have shared their fate. TAIYUENFU; British and Foreign Bible So- K'U CHEO, CHEKIANG (Chu-chou). July 21 and 22; China Inland Mission. ciety. Rev. and Mrs. D. B. Thompson, (two chil- Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Beynon, (three children). dren). Miss Desmond. (The above are believed to have been Miss Manchester. massacred at Taiyuen on the 9th of July, Rev. and Mrs. G. F. Ward, (one child). for the following reasons: Miss Sherwood. Miss Thirgood (of Chang-shan). 1. The last word received from any for- EN ROUTE TO HANKOW FROM SHANSI, eigner in the city was the letter of July 6, July 13; China Inland Mission. referred to above. Miss Rice (of Lu-Cheng). Mr. Saunders' children, Isabella and Jessie, 2. A number of .. urgent" telegrams July 27 and August 8. sent from here between the 1st and the Mrs. E. J. Cooper, August 6, (child Aug. 17). 10th of July have not been answered. Miss Huston, August 11. Two of Mr. Lutley's children. 3. The missionaries who have escaped TAIKU, SHANSI, July 31; American Board. from the cities nearest to the capital re- Rev. and Mrs. D. H. Clapp, (one child). port a general massacre in the city. Rev. G. L. Williams. Rev. F. W. Davis (of Fen-Chou-Fu). 4. No less than three despatches from Miss R. Bird. officials in Taiyuen have been seen in the Miss M. L. Partridge (of Li-man). yamens to which they were sent, in all (The evidence of their death is a messen- of which it is stated that 37 foreigners ger sent from Fen-Chou-Fu by Rev. C. and 30 native converts were murdered on W. Price, who said he was perfectly trust- the 9th of July. worthy. FEN-CHOU-FU, SHANSI; American Board. 5. Pere Robert has information of the Rev. and Mrs. E. R. Atwater, (two children). massacre having occurred on that date Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Price, (one child). (July 9), and he gives the names of two FEN-CHOU-FU; China Inland Mission. ~::~~~~~~m~d.and Fatosati), known to Rev. and Mrs. A. P. Lundgren (Kiai-hsin). Miss Eldrid (of Yang-chou). 6. L'Echo de Chine, the French news- paper published at Shanghai, has pub- (These three memhers of the China In- lished a detailed account of the massacre land Mission are known to have been vis- as furnished by its own correspondent at iting at Fen-Chou-Fu in June. Letters Hienhien. He confirms the date, July 9. have been received from them up to June IANG-KAO, (date unknown); Christian and 28, in which they say that there had al- Missionary Alliance. ready been a riot at Mr. Atwater's place, Mr. and Mrs. O. Bingmerk and that all were congregated and barri- SHEO YANG, SHANSI, (date unknown); caded in Mr. Price's house. The evidence Sheo-yang Mission. of this massacre is a messenger who ar- Rev. and Mrs. W. W. Pigott. rived at Tientsin on the 2nd of Septembp-r (News has been received here that two from Fen-Chou-Fu. He brought a rag foreigners have been murdered in Sheo· yang. This was Mr. Pigott's station. and it is probable that he and his wife were the victims.)
CHRIST OWNED AND DISOWNED IN lNDIA
CHRIST OWNED AND DISOWNED IN INDIA.* BY MISSIONARY HOCH.
Even a superficial glance at what is going on in India will easily persuade the observer that at present the utmost animation and activity are prevailing in the religious sphere. As if in anticipation of a coming storm, the old and crumbling structure of the ancestral religion is undergoing a close examination, in the view of strengtheningand renewing the foundations, of repairing breaches, of covering exposed angles. Here and there a turret also, in the most modern style, is built on, and the building receives a new coat of stucco. It is as if the people, long enthralled under the spell of idolatry and caste, were now beginning to awake out of their sleep of many ages. The dead bones are stirring, everything is becoming fluent, there appears a previously unknown seeking and inquiring after reform in the religious and social sphere.
We take the .view-point of the evangelical missionary labor of the now closing century. The leaven of the Gospel has penetrated as a mighty ferment into the sinews of the people, before so dead, and we can see with our eyes how it has leavened the lump. True, it "is not the preaching of the Gospel alone which has induced this change. The invading power of Western culture and civilization has essentially contributed, in bringing the Indian people to a consciousness of the contrast in which the old Hindu religion stands in many particulars to the simplest dictates of the healthy human reason, and at the same time of the hindrance which it forms to the national well-being and the urgent social reforms. It has brought the cultivated Hindu into that inner schism of a peculiar double life-a double life that is pressed between what, as an enlightened man, he thinks and speaks in his enthusiasm for reform and freedom, and what, as a slave of caste and his family, he is constrained to do. It is a hybrid position which, by reason of its untruthfulness is, in the long run, untenable, and must lead either to moral bankruptcy or to a radical breach with the unworthy situation. Alas! the Western culture, which has been variously introduced to the Indian people in divorce from Christianity, nay, in antagonism with it, has aggravated this innate discord, which, in some way or other, must, in time, have come to view, by a precipitation of it, before the people had gained the inner strength to overcome it, and at the same time, by withholding from them that means which is alone in a position to supply them with this strength.
It is, therefore, a Divine disposition that the Gospel, partly before the migl;tty invasion of Western culture, partly together with it, could unfold its activity, partly to tear down, partly to build up, for the transformation of the Indian people. For we need not fear contradiction in saying that the Indian people, so religiously disposed, will not be permanently satisfied with a religionless civilization. And, altho in the last decades, many cultivated men have gone over, after their faith in their ancestral religion had been shattered, to the atheism and materialism imported from the West, yet this has come about not so much out of irreligiousness of principle, as out of a more or less instinctive opposition to Christianity. Their wish was to defend themselves thereby against the claims of the Gospel. On the other hand, men are now coming to perceive that enlightenment and cultivation without religion, not only undermine faith in the ancestral religion, but also indirectly level the way for Ohristian- • Extracts from Evangelisches Missions-Magazin.
ity; for the more the Indian religion loses credit with its adherents, the more it stands out against such appropriate reforms as may render it acceptable even to the cultivated, the less prospect it has of being able to check the mighty advance of Christianity. The present watchword, therefore, is: Return from the materialistic philosophy of the West to the monistic philosophy of the ancient Rishis, a relief philosophy sprung out of the religious genius of the Indian people. Accordingly, endeavors are made to bring the present generation again into the knowledge of their ancestral religion; the youth, now growing up, ought, it is held, to obtain an impression of the rich treasures of deep wisdom and genuine piety contained in the ancient religious books. Sanskrit schools are opened, and prizes proposed, as an encouragement to the study of the Shastras. Attempts are also made to elevate the priesthood. " As missionaries and soldiers are trained for their respective calling," so declares, for instance, an association of the adherents of the .Madhwajari sect in South India, "so it is also our design to bring on priestly Muthas by instruction in the Vedanta Shastras, so that they may be in a position to instruct us seculars also, and others. The times when one worshiped dumb idols are gone by. Accordingly, our priesthood ought to be zealously conserved to develop itself thoroughly for its calling, so as to gain from other classes the consideration due to it." People begin to be ashamed of the uncultivated priests and high priests (Swami) and of their reactionary measures, such as excommunication of such as have taken up residence in England, and demand of them, in recognition of the signs of the time, to put themselves at the head of the reform movements.
This deeply-felt need of social reform serves no less to bring the religious questions into the foreground of the public interest. For most of the social evils of India are so thoroughly fused with religion, that every attempt to remove them comes in conflict with a religiously sanctioned order. In such a case the ultimate question is whether Hinduism shall or shall not continue to subsist in its traditional order. Yet the craving for social reforms, such as the modification of caste, the elevation of the female sex, the abolition of the joint family system, etc., are the inevitable result of the incoming 'Vestern civilization, and of the necessities of the new life which it has aroused. The strait-jacket of ancient haste no longer fits the enlightened view of life; it has already had to suffer many rents, and even yet it is not wide and elastic enough. Will not in the end the new most completely shatter the ancient wine-skins II And what then? Thus the social problems likewise make urgent a reformation of the outworn religion.
It lies in the nature of the case, that these modern reform movements within the Indian religion stand in conscious antagonism to Christianity. For their impelling motive is resistance to the latter, and the problem which they seek to solve is: to assure to the Indian people the enjoyment of the Western culture without the acceptance of Christianity. Yet every reasonably penetrating observer will recognize in thesejDovements the mighty influence of previous missionary effort, and this so much the more, as it is unmistakably for the most part truths borrowed from Christianity, with the help of which the effort is making to reanimate Christianity. It is becoming little by little the mode, to read Christian thoughts into the old religious books of India. In this respect these people are merely following the fashion set by Swami Vivekananda at the Congress of Religions in Chicago.
CHRisT OWNED AND DISOWNED IN iNDIA
A peculiar inst,ance of this is offered in the essay of K. Sundaram, M.A., an eminent Brahman, esteemed as orthodox, a professor in the state college at Kumbakonam. The essay bears the interest;ng- ,;itle: "The Mission of Jesus in the Light of the Vedanta Philol!o(>phy." The author proceeds from the assumption that Jesus was an Asiatic, and that therefore it is to be assumed that his views concerning "the prob- lem of eternal life" have been influenced by his Asiatic t;emperament, his Asiatic sympathies and environments. He is inclined to assume that Jesus has been influenced by Indian teachings, but is also honest enough to allow that such an influence is not historically demonstrable. What now, according to the Brahman's view, is "Asiatic" in the teaching of'
Jesus? First, his conservatism, which he thinks appears in his saying that He came not to abolish the law or the prophets, but to fulfil. From this he draws the conclusion, that Jesus has rejected no form of religious truth whatever as error, but, like the Vedantists, has only acknowledged higher and lower gradations of truth. He speaks then of Jesus' moral teaching, and finds it comprehended in the double commandment of love. In this latter, he thinks, lies the newness of Jesus' teaching, and thereby He has set the principle of inwardness in place of the outward ceremonialism of the Old Testament religion. But for India, he maintains, this principle is nothing new; the Indian religion has from of old had and cherished a mystical, spiritual element, indeed he will have it that this is its soul, and the deepest reason why it has been able to maintain itself to this day. Especially, in his view, is the commandment of love the essential import of the Bhagavadriter and of the Vedanta philosophy. He then passes to the Sermon on the Mount, in "illustration of the new spirit with which Jesus endeavored to kindle the glow of the spiritual nature in the heart of men." Yon feel how Jesus has inwardly laid hold of him and brought him into warm agreement with himself in reading his exposition of Jesus' interpretation of the commandments: "Thou shalt not kill;" "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Jesus says he does not content himself with condemning the external outbreak of the sin, but follows up the sin to its deepest root in the heart, insisting therewith on an inner renewal, altho still maintaining the outward law and the traditional faith. "Thus example is piled on example in the Master's exposition of the principles of the higher righteousness which constitutes the Kingdom of God, until, as crown of the whole, the principle is laid down: Love your enemies." Yet even this highest he finds fulfilled in the Vedantic view of Sathva: "The highest grade in the spiritual development of a man, the state of perfection, in which the votary, dissolved in God, free from all self-seeking, and every striving of enmity toward any living being whatever; regards, accepts, and loves all creation as something possessed of God, and therefore as something which must be holy and dear to himself."
It would lead us too far, to test the justness of this comparison of the teaching of Jesus with the pantheistic teaching of the Vedanta. Moreover, it needs no proof, that the Brahman has not only completely overlooked the high spiritual character of the Old Testament, but also idealizes Vedantism, and ascribes to it Ohristian ideas which, according to the unity of the system, are either foreign to it or can only belong to it in a sense alien to Ohristianity. Yet we may well agree with a South Indian native newspaper, in regarding this essay as a significant sign of the times. It observes: "A remarkable transformation is now accomplishing itself among thinking Hindus in their attitude toward Ohrist. He is to them no longer the despised Nazarene, no longer merely the Savior of the Pariahs and casteless, as aforetime. They render to the person of Ohrist the deepest reverence. It is, no doubt, in the first place the ethical Ohrist who is so attractive to our Hindu brethren, not the eternal Son of God, who is come to redeem mankind. Yet there can be no doubt that the spirit of thinking Hindus has been most profoundly improved and apprehended by the moral greatness of Ohrist."
EDITORIALS.
The New Oentury. was to vacate the evening and leave the business men to do with With January, 1901, begins the it what they pleased. Theyorgan- 20th century according to the pres- ized a great meeting and put it ent mode of reckoning. Our hope through with telling effect. and prayer is that it may be a cen- tury of new and ever increasing It was intended as an initial fidelity to duty, of prompt recep- movement of laymen further to the tion of truth and acceptance of new responsible front in mission admin- opportunities, of self-denial, and of istration. It will we are sure in- effectiveness in service of God and terest business men to read of the man. For the MISSIONARY RE- organization of a company of busi- VIEW we crave greater usefulness ness men in Rochester, N. Y., for in the Kingdom of God through- a little work on their own account, out the world. It will be our en- while they diminish nothing of deavor to deal carefully with all what they have been accustomed subjects which directly bear on to do for the support of the Church the progress of the Gospel at home and all its benevolences. We can and abroad, especially where the do no better than to let their or- Church of Christ is not firmly es- ganization speak through its own tablished. text, which, at our solicitation, the secretary, Horace McGuire, Esq., During the coming year we plan has placed at our disposal. to have valuable articles on the various mission fields of the world, THE BUSINESS MEN'S MISSIONARY CIRCLE the missionary problems of the new century, the organizations which OF CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, are sending out and maintaining soldiers of the cross, methods of ROCHESTER, N. Y. work in foreign lands, as wea as biographical sketches and stories This Circle was formed Dec. 20th, 1898. It of mission work. Maps and photo- consists of ten business men. It is hoped to graphs will be extensively used to continue its membership at ten, no more, no give interest and vividness to the less. Each member is an active willing memsubjects treated. We have made ber, and the membership fees are one hunarrangements for securing the lat- dred dollars per year from each member. est items of intelligence from the The pastor of the church is to be, ex officio, various fields as promptly as pos- an honorary member. We may have a pressible, and in other ways to make ident, a secretary, and a treasurer, to be the REVIEW of the utmost value to elected annually by ballot. Meetings of the Christians everywhere. Circle are to be held as often as any business requires a meeting, upon a call by the presi- Buslness Men to the Front. dent.
Nothing was more impressive, The Object of the Circle. nor perhaps more hopeful in the whole series of meetings of the We have been impressed with the idea that Ecumenical Conference, than the as business men we have not taken the inter- Business Men's Session. It was est in foreign missions which the great subplanned and executed wholly by ject demands. That the Presbyterian business men. All that the pro- Church of the United States is about to make gram or executive committee of a H forward movement" in foreign missions. the Conference had to do with it, That as new fields &re being opened, the Gos- pel of Jesus Christ should follow our flag, if not precede it, into every new possession acquired either temporarily or permanently by our country. That there is no better way to enlighten a people, or to enable them to be- come self-supporting and capable of self-gov- ernment, than by the dissemination among them of the Word of God. That the vital truths taught in God's Word, and exempli- fied in the lives of men, will ennoble a people and lift them up from semi·barbarism to a
EDITORIALS
Christianized civilization. That we have the establishment in France. Were all ability, and it may be our great pleasure to the French missionaries in Ohina materially assist in this work. as humble as no doubt many of them' are, France would compel That the Board of Foreign Missions of our church will welcome our material assistance, and aid us in acquiring all necessary informa- them to be instrumental of her tion which will tend to quicken our activities aggressive policy, whether they and stimulate our efforts. would or no.
The Aim 01 the Oircle. However, it is ridiculous to pre- tend that modest humility is a We shall pay to the support of a foreign common mark of Roman Oatholic missionary in the Philippines $1,000 a year. If by death or resignation we shall lose a member, we shall at once seek a new man to missions. Rome has never broken fill the vacancy. Applications for member- the connection with the Middle ship may be placed upon the waiting list and Ages, in which temporal and spirselected to fill vacancies, in the order of fIl- itual aims were inextricably intering applications.
We shall hope to know all about the man woven. That the temporal power whom the Foreign Board shall assign to us. should always hold itself ready to We shall feel free to write to him individu- support an interest defined by the ally or through our secretary, and shall try church as spiritual, is almost a to keep fully informed of the kind and char- acter of the work done by him. Our prefer- Oatholic commonplace, at least ence is for a medical missionary. with the clergy. Modern France, that is her government, cares little At our meetings it is hoped we shall have about spiritual interests, but information gathered by the members from any and all sources, and given to us. That we shall each endeavor by our private read- abroad she is very ready to answer ing to become well informed as to the work every appeal of the church, for she of our church in the Philippines, and inter- finds her own accounts in it. change views on the subject. But above all Ohurch and state, therefore, aggrawe shall aim to be loyal members of the Church of Christ upon the earth, and put vate each other to aggressiveness. forth an honest effort to bring about that Moreover, French Oatholics, who *. time when all men everywhere shall believe were chief in the Orusades, have kept up the crusading traditions to in His name, and be guided by His spirit.
Papal Missions in Ohina. this day. The crusading instinct was not very humble, nor were its In discussing how far missions in immediate aims or its instruments Ohina are answerable for the re- spiritual.
cent outbreaks, it is very thought- The Orusade contemplated the less to forget that there are two erection of Ohristian states in the profoundly different missions in East, and the Roman Oatholic mis- Ohina, and that an accusation sions in Ohina, supported by against one might be wholly inap- France, do very much the same plicable to the other. thing. The missionaries require One of the missions, the Roman their converts to pay a certain trib- Oatholic, is almost wholly con- ute to the Ohinese authorities, ducted by Frenchmen,and predom- and after that they regard them as inantly by Jesuits. It has there- virtually the subjects of France.
fore all the advantages and all the Every complaint of the converts temptations implied in religious that can be defined as involving and national unity. Except in the their religion-and hardly any- northeast, where Germany con- thing can not-is brought to the trols, France has the avowed pro- consular courts, and, for obvious tectorate of aU Roman Oatholic' reasons,commonly decided in favor interests. The attempt of the Vat- of the Roman Oatholics, and that ican to secure them for itself was by France, not by Ohina.
foiled by a significant threat of dis- Who can wonder, therefore, that
THE :M:ISSIONAR~ RE~tEw OF THlll wORL
the Chinese are deeply embittered will progress toward God and truth, at finding almost a million of their but it will be in spite of those who countrymen virtually withdrawn wish to shut out the Gospel. from the national authority? The expression of their anger is horri- Imagine the result of giving the ble because all their punishments Chinese a foreign-drilled army, are horrible, but the displeasure in European guns and warships, moditself is thoroughly warranted. ern factories, telegraph lines, and railroads-in fact, a knowledge of Now how can such things be laid all the modern arts andappliancesto the charge of the Protestant without even attempting to give missionaries? Some few of these them the Christian ideals and prinmay be arrogant and meddlesome, ciples which to some degree, at but their unsupported efforts die least, restrain the use of this power out, and thus far in public matters in wrong directions. Had China they have not been combined or waited ten years longer before decombinable. They are English- fying the world, and in the meanmen, Americans, Germans, and time had continued to develop her Swedes, and, we believe, Danes. army and navy and to unify the Here are five nations, at least, no empire, without a corresponding one of which pretends to any right progress in the acceptance of Chrisof a common protectorate over tian faith and practise, it seems Protestantism, or would be suffered possible that she would have been by the others to assume it. The able to resist all Europe for an in- Protestants, therefore, have not definite period. She could easily the power, nor the temptation, to have put into the field an army of any such political aggressiveness 1,000,000 men, which would have as the Roman Catholics, to raise no been well nigh invincible. But question as to the relative spiritu- God did not permit that. China ality of their missionary theories. must be won to Christ. He will conquer. t Ohina Without Ohrist. Lessons for Missionaries.
It is appalling to think what It is well for missionaries to inwould be the result of allowing quire of God what He has for them the antagonists of missions-Ori- to learn from these outbreaks and ental and Occidental-to have their persecutions. Have we been blameway and exclude Christian mission- less? Have we been "wise as seraries and the Gospel from the pents, and harmless as doves" in Chinese empire. China is certain our dealings with the Chinese? to move; the only question is, will Have we always used heavenly she move toward righteousness, wisdom, and been constant in and peace, and true prosperity, or prayer? Have we boasted of success will she move forward only in or thought that our own self-sacgreater shrewdness and duplicity, rifice and tact and power was at all more skill in warfare, and increased responsible for the progress of the worldly wealth and wickedness? Kingdom? Shall we not, at Her doors have been opened to home or abroad, rely more abso- Western ideas of life and civiliza- lutely upon the arm of the Lord tion, and many of her brightest and less upon the arm of flesh? young men have grasped the idea Shall we not move forward in the of bringing the nation out of her strength of His might and preach sleep of conservatism and stagna- His Gospel, leaving results with tion; the land is awakening and Him, and giving Him the praise?
EDITORIALS
The Egypt Mission Band. that of conversion by theological argument.' This is so far from Some of our readers have prob- the actual fact that our report even expressly states 'as a rule we ably seen in the Nineteenth Cen- refused to enter into controversy' (page 6), and in further contradic- tury an article on the subject of tion I would say that we would not only have the idea of adopting missionaries in Egypt, which con- other methods, but actually do adopt them, and at the present time tains some very serious misstate- we have two flourishing boys' schools with many Mohammedan ments, and charges of "amazing pupils.
.imprudence" are brought by the ,.That suchmisstatements should be made seems to indicate either writer against Mr. J. Martyn culpable ignorance on the part of the writer, or else a deliberate Cleaver, secretary of the Egypt attempt to mislead the British public." Mission Band. Errors Noted. '.rhe writer states that Mr. Dr. Maud Mackay was not killed at Pao- Cleaver had a certain controversial ting-fu as stated in our November number. She was in Peking at the time and so escaped. tract translated into Arabic, and The article by Mr. Masterman on medical having obtained the addresses of missions was written some three years before it appeared in our November number; con- the principal Mohammedans in sequently several slight errors are found in it. Our attention is called to some of these Egypt, "forwarded to them copies by the author, who is now stationed in Jeru- salem; others are mentioned in a letter from of the tract enclosed in wrappers Dr. Lankester, Secretary of the Medical Committee of the C. M. S. He says in part: which bore an unfortunate re- " The Medical Mission Auxiliary of the C.M. – semblance to those in which gov- S. was started in December, 1891, and the ernment circulars are sent," imply- ~r~~~t~~7'::,~l~~~~ ~~jh:lls~~Jr;,~le::s':f~~ ing, as his subsequent argument matters connected with the society's work. There are clergy, doctors, and laymen on the shows, that the object was to lead committee. I think this plan is a much better one than that of having only medical those to whom the tract was sent to men sitting ~on its medical committee. I believe that it came from the l~~~~~tl~~ ca~~r!U~~~~T~1ra';'i!~~o:~~k government. Mr. Cleaver says in in Damascus, and has a training institution in Agra, but the London Medical Mission reply: Association has no foreign work of its own, but makes grants in aid of the work carried "Certainly, if this were the case, on by other societies. The main work of both I should be the first to admit that it these societies is that of training men and was not only an act of 'amazing women for medical missionary work, whereas imprudence' but even gross folly. the princinal work of the C. M. S. Medical Not only was the tract not sent Committee is to collect and administer funds out in wrappers resembling those for the carrying on of the work done by the in use by the government, butthey sixty C. M. S. medical missionaries. In addiwere not sent out in wrappers at tion, they do make grants toward the eduall, the address beingsimplywritten cation of suitable male and female missionon the folded pamphlet. And to ary candidates. The income of the Medical completely identify the tract with Mission Auxiliary was last year £10,500 our mission, our name and address exclusive of centenary gifts." was impressed by means of a rubber stamp on the outside of It was erroneously stated in our November each copy. number that the Congregational Home Mis- sionary Society, organized in 1826, was the "Besides, the postage stamp first home missionary SOCiety in America. would sufficiently indicate that it Our attention is called to the fact that the was not official, as in Egypt there is Presbyterian Church began home mission a distinct government stamp. By work under a committee in 1816, ten years anyone understanding the alphabet before. of missionary enterprise such a course of action as the writer at- Donations Received. tributes to us, would be deemed too ridiculous for even a 'young Eng- No. 226. Water Street Mission ………. $2 50 lish missionary.' Our constant No. 226. Chinese Christians…………. 2.50 care is to dissociate ourselves from No. 227. Indian Famine Fund. ………. 5.00 all connections with the govern- No. 228. Kongo Balolo Mission ………. 35.00 ment, and to insist on the purely spiritual character of our message.
"The writer goes on to say that we 'had not the faintest idea of adopting any other method than
RECENT BOOKS ON MISSIONS AND MISSION LAND$.
CHINA'S ONLY HOPE. An appeal by Chang tomed to look upon as pertaining Chih-Tung. Translated by Samuel 1. only to "foreign devils." Woodbridge. Introduction and appendix by Griffith John, D.D. Portrait. 12mo, The book was the result of the 151 pp. 75 cents. Fleming H. Revell Co., Chinese-Japanese war, which hum- New York, Chicago, and Toronto. bled the great empire and opened the eyes of some of her statesmen Noone who desires to understand to her weakness. When published, the Chinese can afford not to read 1,000,000 copies are said to have this appeal by her most enlighten- been sold and circulated among ed viceroy, who has recently been the Chinese, many of them by the appointed one of the peace com- emperor himself. His interest in mISSIOners. From a missionary, this reform movement was largely as well as from a general viewpoint, the cause of his deposition, and it is extremely interesting and en- the temporary overthrow of the lightening, since it reveals the best reform party. Dr. Griffith John, solution that Confucianism can in his introduction says, that the suggest to the difficulties which at chapter on "Religion Toleration" present bind China, hand and foot. might well be published by the The viceroy advocates a revival of China Religious Tract Societies, Confucianism and the adoption of and used for general distribution. Western science and methods. The It would cause a change of senticonsideration of the ethical occu- ment in all thoughtful Chinese. pies the first nine chapters in the The book is destined to be influbook, and the consideration of the ential in the making of new China. " practical" fills in the last eleven chapters. This is China's Only THE CRISIS IN CHINA. Map and illustrations_ Hope according to her most en- 16mo, 271 pp. $1.00. Harper and Bros. lightened and least selfish viceroy. A dozen of the ablest essays that Of course, the solution offered is have appeared in the current disinadequate to meet the case. A cussion of affairs pertaining to real and lasting reformation can China compose this volume. It only be brought about by the new would not be easy to name a dozen birth of individual Chinese-a writers more competent to thoughtspiritual regeneration through re- fully and interestingly present pentance and faith in Christ. The the live issues of the present missionaries, who have been so situation in China than Mr. Colqucruelly persecuted, have been offer- houn, Rear-Admiral Lord Charles ing the true solution of the problem. Beresford, Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. China's only hope is Christ. Dilke, Hon. John Barrett, late minister of the United States to Chang Chih-Tung, the viceroy of Siam, and the others who con- Hupeh and Hunan, seems to be a tribute to this book symposium. strong and pure character and a There is not a better article in the deep and clear thinker. Only a book than that of missionary Rev. wise, brave, and powerful states- George B. Smyth, president of the man would have dared to write as Anglo-Chinese College, at Fuhe has done, advising the abandon- chau, China. The map of China ment of many corrupt and estab- is reduced from that in Lord Bereslished customs, advocating radical ford's "The Break-up of Ohina." reforms in education and politics, defending foreigners and praising much that the Chinese have accus-
RECENT BOOKS ON MISSIONS AND MISSION LANDS
These essays are a contribution to get-up of the book is also rather the permanent literature on China, cheap and inartistic. The half-tone and should be read and studied. ** illustrations give an excellent idea of the work at Tuskegee, but the My LIFE AND WORK. Booker T. Washington. woodcuts are not a desirable addi- Illustrated. 8vo, 424 pp. $1.50. J. L. tion. Nichols & Co. (Napierville), Chicago, Ill. Nevertheless this stands as the The story of Booker Washing- only detailed and authentic record ton's early life is one of great inter- of the career and achievement of a est; it carries with it many sug- remarkable man. Mr. Washington gestive and valuable lessons, and has had many honors thrust upon we are thankful that he has put in him, and has really achieved great. print this record of his early ex- ness, yet he tells the story with a periences and achievements. He straightforward simplicity and has well been called the "Moses" modesty that awakens respect and of the negro race; he might be confidence. called their "Washington" figuratively as well as literally, for FORBIDDEN PATHS IN THE LAND OF OG. under his leadership they are mak- "The Otherwiseman." Illustrated. 12mo, ing greater strides toward intellec- 258 pp. $1.25. Fleming H. Revell Co. tual, industrial, and social freedom than they have ever made hereto- Here is a very readable account fore. Tuskegee Institute has al- of a tour in Bashan-a tour which ready had an immense influence in the author says" requires hope for the elevation of the colored race. its inception, experience for its preparation, patience for its man- Booker Washington was born of agement, and time for its ccmplea slave mother whose memory he tion." Three American missionhighly honors. His father was a aries took a vacation tour into forwhite man. The story of the bidden land, east of the Jordan. emancipation of Booker and his Besides being full of information in mother, the boy's early struggles to regard to an almost unknown counobtain a living and an education, try people, the narrative throws his seeking entrance to Hampton many sidelights on Scripture pas- Institute, his subsequent career, sages and brings us more into the founding and development of touch with places referred to in the Tuskegee in spite of many dis- Old and New Testament, e. g., Citcouragements and hardships, his ies of Refuge, Gadara, Mispah, Tibetravels, honors, and addresses- rias, Magdala, etc. The Scriptural these and much more are all inter- index refers to about 150 passages estingly told. in the Bible.
Unfortunately the literary qual- A glimpse of missionary life is ity of the book is not high. The given in the first chapter. The story is interesting and the record missionaries' duties include those is valuable, but is for the most part "theological, educational, pastoral, poorly written. Constant repeti- political, financial, medical, practions of the same words where tical duties to the young, duties to synonyms should have been used; the old, duties to the living, duties the excessive personal references to the dead; duties to the rich, and acknowledgment of obliga- duties to the poor; duties to the tion; the minute detail in the story learned, duties to the ignorant; of the founding and growth of the duties to the single who wish to be Institute mar the book from married, duties to the married who a literary standpoint, and for its wish to be single." In spite of these general and permanent value. The many duties, nay, because of them,
the missionary must take a vaca- pIe, not one of whom was a Gention. The one here recorded has tile, can hardly be deemed" a Genborne good fruit in a book which tile dispensation." might well find place in Biblical and missionary libraries. The fact is, the Church t:>-day is so much occupied with herself, CHRISTIAN EFFORTS AMONG THE JEWS. Facts first and foremost of all; secondly and figures collected by Rev. Louis with the outside world of the Gen- Meyer, Hopkinton, Iowa. Leaflet. 5 tiles, upon which all her super- cents. fluous energy is bestowed, that she has no time or thought for the This is the most complete list of Jew. But in God's estimation this missions to the Jews which we is the order for the believer, "the have ever seen. It was gathered Jew, the Gentile, and the Church by Mr. Meyer with much care and of God." The Christ-centered labor, and contains the names of Christian will always keep in mind British, American, and other socie- that He was a Jew, and seek to reties working for the Jews, together pay a little of the debt we owe to with the date of establishment, the Jewish people.-James E. the location and number of mis- Mathieson, President of Prayer sionaries, the auxiliaries, publica- Union for Israel, formed 1880. tions, and anlOunt of income. There is also a brief statistical table. Monthly Missionary Bibliography.
In a brief review of Rev. John CHINA'S ONLY. HOPE. Viceroy Chang Chih· Wilkinson's pamphlet, "The Jew Tung. Translated by S. I. Woodbridge. and the World's Blessing," there Portrait. 12mo, 151 pp. 75 cents. Flem· are sentences calculated to lead ing H. Revell Co. New York, Chicago, readers to refuse to listen to the Toronto. teachings of the pamphlet. . . . CHINA AND THE PRESENT CRISIS. Joseph Wal- Altho a careful perusal of the ton. Map. 12mo, 319 pp. $2.00. Impamphlet would prove the con- ported by Charles Scribner's Sons. trary, it seemed to be assumed that Saul had given up the Jews as a THE REAL CHINESE QUESTION. Chester Hoi· bad job, because at Antioch in Pis- colme. $1.50. Dodd, Mead & Co. idia, Acts xiii: 46, when Jews refused his message, he said, "Lo, we . CHINA'S OPEN DOOR: A Sketch of Chinese turn to the Gentiles." Yes, he did Life and History. Rounsevelle Wildman. so, and spoke then to the Gentiles 12mo, 318 pp. $1.50. Lothrop & Co. in Antioch, but he did not then leave off preaching to the Jews, for CHINA. Wm. B. Parsons. Illustrated. 12mo. at Iconium, Acts xiv: 1; at Thessa- McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. lonica, xvii: 2, "as his custom was;" at Berea, xvii: 10; at Athens, THE AWAKENING OF THE EAST. Leroy-Beauxvii: 17; at Corinth, xviii: 4where lieu. Translated. 12mo. McClure, Philonce more he said [verse 6], " I will lips & Co. go unto the Gentiles") ; yet, again, at Ephesus, xviii: 19, "he entered BRIEF HISTORY OF EASTERN ASIA. I. C. into the synagog;" again, xix: 8, Hannah. T. Fisher Unwin, London. for three months he taught in the synagog at Ephesus; and at Rome, TRAvEr..s IN TARTARY, TIBET, AND CHINA. xxviii: 17 (R. V. margin) "he called together those that were of the Huc and Gabet. Translated from the Jews first," and he enjoined the French. 688 pp. $1.25. Open Court Church of God to offer the Gospel Pub. Co., Chicago. " to the Jew first, and also to the WRONGS OF INDIAN WOMANHOOD. Mrs. M. B. Gentile." . . . . Fuller. Illustrated. 12mo, 302 pp. $1.25. Fleming H. Revell Co. The other blemish in the brief A LITTLE AMERICAN GIRL IN INDIA. Harriet notice is the assertion that" this is A. Cheever. Illustrated. 12mo, 281 pp. a Gentile dispensation!" It is no Little, Brown & Co. such thing; this is "the Christian BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM. Arthur Little. 12mo, dispensation," in which it has 233 pp. Charles Scribner's Sons. pleased God to "make of twain FORBIDDEN PATHS IN THE LAND OF OG. one new man," that is to bring Travels of Three Wise and Otherwise into the Church Jew and Gentile Men East of the Jordan. Illustrated. alike; and a dispensation ushered 12mo. $1.25. Fleming H. Revell Co. in by the conversion of 3,000 peo- AT HOME AND ABROAD. (Missions to the Jews.) W. T. Gidney. Illustrated. Maps. 8vo, 246 pp. 18. London Jews Society. ECHOES FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. Dudley Kidd. Illustrated. 8vo. 28. 6d. Marshall Brothers, London. RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS. Edmund Noble. 12mo, 150 pp. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. THE BIBLE IN SPAIN. Geo. Borrow. 8vo, 823pp. $2.00. G. P. Putnam's Sons. THE PAPACY IN THE XIX. CENTURY. Frederick Nippold. 8vo, 372 pp. G. P. Putnam's Sons_ SOUTH AMERICA. Social, Industrial, Political. Frank G. Carpenter. 8vo, 625 pp. $3.00. Saalfield Pub. Co. RECOLLECTIONS OF A MISSIONARY IN THE GREAT WEST. Cyrus Townsend Brady. 8vo, 200 pp. $1.25. Charles Scribner's Sons. A REPORTER AT MOODY'S. Margaret B. Robin- son. Illustrated. 12mo, 140 pp. 5Oc. Bible Institute Colportage ASSOCiation.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
AMERICA. The legacies were $154,884. The board has 20 principal missions, Our City According to the with 102 stations where mission- Population. figures of the Cen- aries reside, and 1,268 out-sta- tions; 166 ordained missionaries. 40 sus Bureau, there physicians (men and women), 336 are 6 cities in the United States women, including 170 wives, 239 having over 500,000 inhabitants, 15 native pastors, besides numerous with more than 250,000, and 29 over other native assistants; 495 100,000. while the total population churches with 51,699 members, of of the 29 cities is more than 13,000,- whom 4,523 were added during the 000 and increasing at a rapid rate. year. There are 14 theological seminaries, or classes, with 196 stu- The Chicago This, our second dents for the ministry, III b,oard- ing and high schools, with 7,839 Babel. largest city, covers pupils; and 40,598 children in com- mon schools. 193 square miles, and contains a population of 1,698,- 575, among whom no less than 60 languages are spoken. .The Ameri- cans and Germans number about Churches and The following sta- 500,000 each; the Irish, 250,000; Schools in tistics have been Swedes. 112,000; Poles, 100,000; Utah. secured by a com- Bohemians, 90,000; Norwegians, mittee'of the minis- 50,000; Russians, 40,000; Italians, terial association of Salt Lake City, 25,000; French, 20,000, etc. Poland in order to ascertain as far as pos- has no city containing so many sible the results of evangelical Polacks, and only Berlin holds so labors among the Mormons. The many Germans. These hosts of report is incomplete, as not all the foreign-born dwell together largely churches reported, but the figures by nationalities, each race or people given afford a fair representation in a ward or section of its own. of the work being accomplished: Chicago is ministered to religiously 0:1 0:1., 0"0:1 by 718 churches, of which 605 are CHURCH ., ….8=,- S0 ", ., STATISTICS …," ~"0!:1g) oE'oSo,S~: .o.= Protestant and 113 are Roman ..= .,s.0,:.10" S .0.:.':~: £~ r.o;.,"-o='rSt;o, ~se~§.~..=~ Catholic. 6]" (Denominations) … 0", bIlO The The oldest of our Zo r>;-,1,0,,~OCI-oI American foreign missionary Presbyterian …. 9 811 117 476 Episcopal. ……. 4 529 155 582 Board societies held its Methodist ……. 14 549 69 163 Congregational. 5 582 31 49 Meeting. ninetieth a nn u a 1 Baptist ………. 6 546 58 109 meeting in St. Louis Christian …….. 1 160 11 25 Lutheran …….. 1 43 13 13 October 9-12. It was reported that ., 40 3,220 514 1,417 during the year 40 new mission- 0:1 10 aries had been sent out, 11 men and 0 t.0;,.., S SCHOOL …."=,, """., "0 <st1:;.;:;i: 29 women, while 39 missionaries STATl6TICS ., ., ~~ r.o;.,,S,to, had returned after a furlough at (Denominations) 0 ..0= ."to, B rS.o;.,rSa;to, home. The total receipts for the "00 E- 00 year wer:e $737,957, an increase Presbyterian……. 6 19 580 275 143 Episcopal. ……… 1 10 175 10 70 from last year of $93,756. Of Methodist ……… 5 7 342 240 22 this sum $516,536 was in regular Congregational. … 3 9 168 104 18 Baptist ………… 4 15 424 120 46 donations, a gain of $26,128, and Christian……….. N:?ne $214,774 was from the Woman's Lutheran ……….
Boards, an increase of $14,664. 19 60 1,689 749 299
The Friends The m iss i onary being primarily a work of educa- tion much emphasis is laid upon the and efforts of the introduction of missionary litera- ture in both homes and churches. Missions. Friends are carried In the 3,048 homes visited by work- ers, 624 books were sold and 779 on in a quite pecu- magazine subscriptions received. One hundred and thirteen libraries, liar way. There is no general soci- containing 1,844 volumes, costing $1,133, were placed in churches. As ety, but each yearly meeting a further means of education, 23 missionary committees, 50 monthly appoints and su~tains its own rep- missionary meetings, and 78 mis- sion study classes were inaugurated resentatives. Thus the New Eng- in C. E. societies. Thirty-six mis- sionary societies were organized. land section has 6 men and women "The introduction of systematic giving in 51 churches and 20 C. E. in Ramleh, Syria; Ohio, 7 in China societies hrought in immediate returns, $904, while the gifts of and 3 in India; New York, 2 in 10 churches marked an increase over former contributions, and 13 Mexico and 2 in China; Iowa, 12 in churches were led to give to foreign missions for the .first time. While Jamaica; Indiana, 6 in Mexico; statistics can not tell of the awakened interest and renewed Wilmington, 6 in Alaska; Phila- consecration, they help one to read between the lines. God has owned delphia, 4 in Japan; the Western, and blessed this work. A similar campaign will be conducted during 10 in Mexico; or 12 meetings have the winter months. Persons who wish a campaign worker to visit in all 62 missionaries. the churches of their presbytery should address: F. M. Stead, 37 Salvation The value of the Randolph St., Chicago, Ill.
Army property he 1d by Property. the Salvation Army in the United States is rated at $600,000, which is mort- gaged to the amount of $300,000.
The personal property is rated at $195,000. Three farm colonies have been established by the organiza- tion-situated at Fort Amity, Col- orado; Fort Ramie, California; and Cleveland, Ohio. The first was originally valued at $13,370, and 480 acres have been sold to colon- ists for $13,850. The second cost $25,952, and 200 acres have been sold for $16,800. The value of the third is rated at $25,000. Roman Nearly 200,000 Presbyterian The Student Mis- Catholics and Rom a n Catholics Student sionary Campaign, the Freedmen. are to be found Campaign. which is now or- ganized in most of among our colored the denominations, is a natural population, as Mary E. Holmes inoutgrowth of the Volunteer Movement. Its program is systematic forms us in The Herald and Presvisitation of the churches by students who have given themselves byter: to the cause of foreign missions. The Presbyterian campaign of "There are 21 sisterhoods teachthe past summer was conducted in ing in over 120 schools, with nearly ten states. Sixteen workers made 575 addresses in 279 churches, and 10,000 children. Four' communiheld 371 conferences on practical methods of work with various mis- ties' are especially devoted to the sionary agencies. The campaign negroes: the Sisters of St. Francis of England, the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, San Antonio, '.rexas; the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Mother Katharine Drexel's com- munity, and the Mission Helpers of Baltimore; St. Joseph's Seminary of Baltimore, and its 'feeder,'
Epiphany College, Highland Park,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
are training young men for negro The A recent number of missions. There are also 3 exclusively colored sisterhoods in the "Fragrant " the American Mes- United States; the 'Oblates,' 'Holy Family,' and 'Sisters of Church of senger contains the St. Francis.' The 'Oblates' were founded in Baltimore in 1829 Metlakahtla. following interestand have 'houses' in Washington, Baltimore, St. Louis, and ing s tat e men t : Leavenworth; the 'Holy Family' was founded in New Orleans in "There is said to be a church at 1842. At their golden jubilee in 1892, 50 colored sisters were pres- Metlakahtla, Alaska, built by the ent." civilized and Christianized Indians, Over 90 young men have been that exhales perpetually a fratrained to work among those of grapce as if the finest incense was their color, and 31 are now study- being burned within its walls. ing in a single seminary, "The St. This exquisite odor proceeds, not J 0 s e phS 0 c i e t y of the Sacred. from anyone quarter, but from the Heart," in Baltimore. entire building, which is made throughout from the wood of the giant arbor-vitro, Thuga gigantea.
It is continuous, unvarying in quantity and intensity, and will A Tribute The following son- last as long as the sacred edifice to Booker net, written by the stands."
Washington. colored poet, Paul The Mission The Rev. E. J. Peck Laurence Dunbar, Nearest the is the well-known celebrates this leader of his race. North Pole. C. M. S. missionary It appears in The New England to the Eskimo of Magazine: Blackhead Island, Cum bel' I and The word is writ that he who runs may read. Sound, to the north of Hudson's What is the passing breath of earthly fame? Bay. He has been working for 23 But to snatch glory from thc hands of years in the frozen north, (j of them in this remote island, which can blame,- only be reached by a whaler once a That is to be, to live, to strive indeed. A poor Virginia cabin gave the seed, And from its dark and lowly door there came year. This much-enduring man A peer of princes in the worldIS acclaim, A master spirit for the nation's need. has recently written: Strong, silent, purposeful beyond his kind, The mark of rugged force on brow and lip, "Some are probably aware that Straight on he goes nor turns to look be- for the last 6 years I have lived at our barren station at Blackhead hind, Island-one of the most isolated, if Where hot the hounds come baying at his not the most isolated, mission sta·· tions now existing. This fact will hip; be obvious when I say that after With one idea foremost in his mind, leaving England again about mid- Like the keen prow of some on-forging ship. summer this year, on my return journey, I can receive no letters Medical Course for Delayed Mis- from home for 14 months. In such sionaries.-A special accident and isolation it is well indeed to have emergency course has been arrang- that Eternal Word which gives ed, open to evangelical missionaries comfort to one's own soul, and of both sexes, at a total charge for proves also a fountain of blessing instruction, with board and rooms, to the Eskimo."
of $100 for six months, from Five Curses Even a brief resi- November 1st to May 1st. Some of Brazil. dence in Brazil dis- medical missionaries from China closes in a very and other countries will be on the short time the five great evils staff of teachers. Address, Dr. G. which blight this people, namely, D. Dowkontt, medical director, 288 immorality, drunkenness, shiftless- Lexington Avenue, New York City. ness, ignorance, and superstition.
Throughout Brazil, a medical Portuguese, Italian, and French man meets with an incredibly large sailors, 1 to Scandinavians, 1 to number of persons with diverse Asiatics and Africans, and 7 to forms of venereal diseases. This Jews. gives prima facie evidence of the shockingly low state of morality ANable The D u c h e s s of among the Brazilians. The vilest Woman. Sutherland, say s sort of home-made rum, known as caxaca, is found everywhere, even the ClwisUan Herif there is not another thing to be ald, is one of the many members of had. The laziness and shiftless- the aristocracy who are interested ness of the low-class Brazilians is in the welfare of humanity, and almost incredible. In a country who try to make the world happier abounding in natural wealth, the than they found it. The cause of people have absolutely nothing. temperance, labor reform, and kin- The traveler who attempts to pass dred movements have received her through the interior, expeeting to sympathetic support, and she has buy his food on the way, stands a given unlimited time and labor in fair chance of starving, for, instead befriending the women engaged in of selling to you, the people expect the white lead and other deadly to buy from you, whenever you industries. At 'l'rentham and Dunmake a landing. robin she does a good deal for the tenants, and the rooms at Stafford The last two evils, ignorance and House, her beautiful home in Lonsuperstition, go hand in hand, and don, have several times been placed it is frequently claimed that the at the disposal of the different inpeople of Homan Catholic countries dustries and charities in which she are charged with ignorance by is so deeply interested. Protestant missionaries from motives arising out of our religious Free Church The annual report prejudices, and that the pieture is Missions. of the Free Church generally overdrawn. Critics of of Scotland foreign that sort ought to come to the interior of Brazil. It is a good place missions is prefaced by an interestin which to study a people over ing historical outline, recalling imwhom the Homan Catholic clergy portant events, and showing the has had undisputed sway for cen- progress made. The main source turies, entirely free from anarchis- of income is congregational contritic and atheistic influences. I have butions. Of a total of 1,070 Free found a great deal of atheism Church congregations, 880 have among the Brazilian merchants, quarterly associations in operation but they dare not profess it openJy; -Dr. Duff's suggestion-While the fear makes them bow to the dic- remaining 190 congregations adtates of the church, tho they se- here to the annual collection at the cretly despise its shallow teachings. church door. The missionary in- -Geo. R. Witte. come from Scotland has risen from £7,046 in Disruption Year (1843-44), EUHOPE. to £68,759 in 1899-1900. The growth of income abroad has been from City Missions The London City £6,387 in 1843-44 to £44,498 in 1899- in London. Mission has 14 mis- 1900. The report says, "Never sionaries to foreign- were the church's missions more successful, never were the funds ers and Jews in the metropolis-l more prosperous, and never was to the French, 2 to the Germans, 1 the interest in foreign missions to the Italians, 1 to the Spanish, greater than now."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
United The formal union when the figures were looked up, it was found that within the last Free Church of the Free and decade that seemingly preposterous number had been reached and of Scotland. United Presbyter- passed, for 1,002 have actually been secured. ian C h u I' C h e s of Scotland was consummated at the joint meeting of the Free Church Assembly and the United Presby- Women's Not less than 737 terian Synod in Edinburgh. The Work Christian worn e n ministers marched from their re- in Berlin. are engaged in spective halls to the Royal Insti- works of love and tution, then proceeded to Waverley mercy in the capital city of Ger- Market, and held the first meeting many. Of these 555 received their of the United Free Church of Scot- training in the 8 mother nOllses, land. Large crowds witnessed the while 182 came from 8 other dea- procession. Some three thousand coness houses, 60 of them from ministers took part in the proces- Kaiserswerth. While 368 care for sion, and dense crowds along the the sick and teach children, 105 are route cheered them repeatedly. on duty as nurses, and 157 labor as The hall where the uniting act was Bible workers and visitors in con- signed was draped with crimson nection with various churches.
and yellow and liberally bedecked with flags used by the Covenanters. German The Indian Wit- Women and ness makes this The Earl of Aberdeen, Dr. Missions. criticism with re- Parker, "Ian lVlaclaren" (the Rev. , gard to one serious John Watson), and delegates from defect in the management of mis- sions in Fatherland: " In pre- Canada, Australia, Jamaica, Af- Christian times the Germanic peoples treated their women with rica, France, and other countries conspicuous respect. In this par- ticular they were in advance of took part in the proceedings. The other contemporary races. The development of woman's position Rev. Dr. Robert Rainy was chosen in Germany has not kept pace with that of man. Compared with the moderator of the United Free place woman occupies in the social and public life of Great Britain and Church. The small minority which America, her status in the Father- land is very backward. As a reopposed the union met in a separate sult, the Christian women of Ger- many do comparatively little for hall and constituted themselves a the cause of missions. Pastors fear that somehow they may get Free Church Assembly. out of their sphere and lose their womanly modesty. It is rare if The Greatest Including some 23 not unknown, for a committee of of Societies. missionaries wh 0 women of any kind to be presided over by one of their own sex. All were transferred to public meetings of ladies' missionit by auxiliary associations, the ary and benevolent societies are Church Missionary Society of Eng- usually presided over by men, not land during the past year accepted even a report of the work done be- 122 candidates for service. Of the ing read by a lady. This is the 99 new appointees nearly one-half were men, 25 of the whole number being ordained. Some ten years ago it "happened" that somebody threw out the suggestion to the friends of this 0 I' g ani z a t ion, "Within a few years why not send out 1,000 missionaries?" No definite action was taken to secure this result, and no especial thought was given to the matter, but recently,
practise in other countries besides forbidding the duello, but it is a Germany. 'Ve trust the day is dead letter." not distant in those lands when all apprehensions regarding the effect The Priests A rather interestof public effort upon womankind in Spain. ing piece of news shall vanish, and earnest Ohristian women shall be allowed to use their comes from Spain talents in the cause of Christ and to the effect that the lower priestfor the good of His Church with- hood have begun to organize with out unnecessary hindrance." a view to bring their grievances before their hierarchical superiors A Swedish Probably very few through the public press. Accord- ing to accounts, the organiza- Society. have any adequate tion, known as the Institucion Sacredoial, counts already upon idea of the magni- the adhesion and active coopera- tion of 11,000 Roman ecclesiastics tude of the work which is being car- scattered throughout the penin- sula, and possesses two official ried oil by the Swedish Missionary organs, El Regional, published in Figueras, and El Urbion, which Church. It represents the 3 church- issues from Barcelona, besides hav- ing, of course, the support of some es of the country, and commenced political papers in Madrid and the provinces. These publications are operations in the valley of the full of abuse, litigation, and dis- putes, the outcome of a keen Kongo, and now it has there 5 struggle which is going on between the conscience of the subordinate principal and 45 subordinate sta- clergy and the despotism of the higher ranks. It is not by any tions. In connection with these means pleasant reading; yet as the reformation of,the sixteenth centhere are 24 European missionaries, tury, which, beginning by a quarrel over the sale of indulgences, led to 270 were last year received into the a revision of all the doctrines of Rome, no one can tell what such church' by baptism, and the total movements as these may sometimes bring in their trail.-F. Castells. membership now in fellowship ASIA. with the mission amounts to nearly Christian PreRident Fuller in 1,000. Education in his annual report of Dereliction Before Protestants Turkey. Central Turkey Col- of the are excluded from lege says: "Our Italy as wicked in- Papacy. graduating class num bers 11, 6 Prot- estants and 5 Gregorians; of the truders, or at best Protestants, 5 are church members and 4 are desiring to study for the their presence and cooperation not ministry; of the Gregorians, 2 are needed, the pope will do well to intending to become priests. More than two-thirds of the whole class ponder this fact: are available for teaching service. The total number of students en- " During the last few week duels rolled is 124-52 boarders and 72 have caused a perfect slaughter in Italy. In one day 4 duellists were killed in different Italian towns. Statistics show that last year 2,400 duels were fought in Italy, in 480 of which death resulted to one or both of the combatants. The ordeal of the sword or pistol is the usual method of settling points of honor (as questions of personal character are called) among the Italians. For instance, public accusations in a newspaper seldom lead to a lawsuit. They generally result in a duel between the writer of the article or the proprietor and the person who feels himself injured. Most of these combats are fought by officers and soldiers of the army. and frequently on the most trivial pretexts. There is, of course, a law
1900.J GENERAL MisSIONARY
day students-78 in the college, and marveled that our ears were not 46 in the preparatory department; bored. They thought it a great 80 are Protestants, and 42 Gre- pity that we were not married, gorians, 1 Catholic, and 1 Greek with a house and children. Our Orthodox; 62 are from Aintab, 10 not accepting the offered cigarettes from Marash, 7 from Oorfa, 7 from did not hinder their enjoyment of Hadjin, 5 from Kessab, and the those which they smoked to the' remainder from 11 different places. " full extent of their capacity. The women of all classes adorn them- Rebuilding of At Harpoot in Asi- selves extravagantly with gold and Euphrates at i c Turkey the silver, and their ears are sometimes College. buildings a fEu – split by the weight which is eus- phrates College, 6 pended therefrom by a dirty string." in number, were destroyed by vio- lence in 1895, at the time of the Presbyterians This is the sum- Armenian massacres. Indemnity for this destruction has never been in Persia. mary of Presbyter- paid, but President Gates was resolved to see them rebuilt. At ian missions in Perfirst the Turkish government refused its consent; but in April last sia, according to the last report: the authorities at Constantinople gave the required permission. Missionaries. . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. •. 47 Then the sub-governor began to put in objections. At last these Stations, 4; out-stations…… 131 have been overcome, and if President Gates can raise the necessary Churches………. . ………. 24 $25,000, the college will be rebuilt soon. Communicants…………… 2,768 Henry Martyn Just eighty-eight Added to the church, '98-'99.. 228 Memorial. years ago died at Tocat, in Asia Schools, lOS; pupils……….. 2,666 Minor, the famous Cornish youth Patients treated. …….. ….. 24,039 and senior wrangler, Henry Martyn, whose name still shines as a Pages printed…………… , .1,264,100 missionary of the first rank. His best work was the translation of Moslem Gift to Medical Missions. the New Testament into the lan- -H. R. H., the Hla:l-ud-Dowleh (a guage of the Bible. land, Persia. nephew of the shah) recently visit- His grave is in the ground of the ed the hospital at Yezd. He went American mission, whose mission- in state with his brother, H. R. H. aries appeal for contributions in Hormuz Mirza. He was much aid of a much-needed memorial pleased with all he saw, and handed building to his name. Dr. White 2,000 krans Uibout £40) for the hospital funds. Visit to Miss Foote, of a Harem. Oorfa, was recently INDIA.
taken by a female Heartless A missionary who friend into the harem of a Turk, Hindus. has been touring in where she was welcomed, as she the ::1adura district says. "something as I fancy Barnum's circus might be welcomed, writes: """Ve hear much about and only on a smaller scale. The women we see constantly much of the pov- erty of this people, but here is another picture. It is twenty years since I last visited these regions. At that time, two of the towns of these Chetties were small and un- pretentious. In one there were about half a dozen large, fine houses, and in the other, only one. To-day the former of these is a large town, containing some 50 fine residences, most of them averaging in cost about Rs. 50,000 each; while in the
other town a couple of dozen much. Let not Ramabai's message princely abodAs are found. Out- to her friends be in vain. "He side of the city of Madras there is, that giveth unto the poor shall not perhaps, no other town which com- lack." pares with these in wealth-many millions of rupees being repre- Funds should be sent to the sented by each. And while the treasurer of the Association, Mr. E. charitable Christians of Western Hayward Ferry, 2'22 Boylston St., countries are generously sending Boston. millions of rupees to relieve the terrible suffering of the famine- A Famine This description is stricken millions of this land, I Scene. taken from real ha1!e yet to learn of a rupee being life: "As for clothcontributed by these wealthy shylocks for their famishing brethren ing, generally sp8aking, very many in the North. This is the" true of the women and elder girls fruit of Hinduism. It is not hard have dirty shreds of rags hangto contrast it with the best efforts ing around their loins, in quanof Christian charity, such as we see tity not sufficient for young at home to-day." children; some are a little better off and have old pieces of colored Ramabai's What is this work? cloth over their chests (saris). Work in India. Nearly two thou- Younger girls, boys of nearly all ages, and often the men too, have sand women an d nothing but a small strip of cloth girls saved by Ramabai from ruin about the loins. At night time and death, to be fed, clothed, and the poor creatures have to lie on sheltered; to be taught how to the bare ground; those women who meet evil and conquer it (alas! they possess remnants of saris or chadknow too well what evil is); to be dars carefully spread them on the taught how to care for their own ground and lie on top, thtH' having bodies and souls, that they may something between the damp cold know how to care for others; to be earth and their skir::s, but there is placed on a self-respecting, self- no covering for the body. Really supporting plane, and become ob- in practical language one may say ject lessons to India in what that the majority, day and night, Christianity, education, and honest are almost in a state of nudity. Is work can do for its women, espe- it to be wondered that many die cially its" despised widow." For through the night, and that if there all this a large a nd an assured has been any rain, the number of annual income is needed. Will deaths is greater? " not the American people, into whose hands God gave the be- Brahmans Mrs. E. G. Hume, ginning of this wonderful work and the of Bombay, writes: twelve years ago, again respond Plague. " In Poona, for promptly and generously to its three months, the increasing needs? Will not ministers, churches, societies, women's plague made terrible havoc. In clubs, etc., include it in the work the city and cantonment (where they are now planning for human- most of the Europeans reside) there ity? The formation of new circles, were at least 200 deaths a day for the strengthening of old circles, an weeks. A Brahman family of 6 or increase of annual contributors 7 persons all had the plague; 2 had and contributions, will accomplish been buried and the mother was dying. The father died first, and on hearing this, four Brahman priests, stout men, came in and
1900·1 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
said, 'This woman must be shaved, tressing picture of the agricultural in order that her husband's soul shortage in India, losses that must may attain heaven.' She was too inevitably have led to wide-spread weak to resist. They took hold of famine. He states that the wheat her, broke her bangles, took her crop of India usually averages jewels, and holding her by main 6,000,000 tons, and is valued at force, as in her terrible sufferings $120,000,000. But during the agriwith the plague she would have cultural year just closed the wheat fallen over, they rudely shaved the crop only yielded 3,000,000 tons. In widowed sufferer, and while abus- other years the average value of ing her in every way possible, she the cotton crop is $60,000,000; but dropped dead. But who could do this year its value was only $25, anything? The government must 000,000, a loss of $35,000,000. These not interfere! It was a religious facts apply to all India. Coming rite! Those priests would lend no to provinces, the Presidency of hand to bury the woman, but they Bombay alone shows a loss in tortured her to death, that the breadstuffs of $60,000,000, with a dead man's soul might not, by the loss of $15,000,000 from cotton. disgrace of her having a hair left on Again, equally disastrous to the her head, be kept swimming around farmer has been loss in his cattle. hopelessly in purgatory!" In the famine districts only 300,000 cattle survive out of 1,300,000. In An The Rev. J. Wyck- two of the most sorely stricken states, Rajputana and Gujerat, Experiment in off of Arcot Mis- almost all the cattle have perished. These figures give -a doleful picture Banking. sian, In d i a, and of stricken India.
Rev. D. Rees of the The Indian ' 'On July 30th," says Wesleyan Mission, Karur, India, Government the r owng JJlen of have started successful small banks and Y. M.e.A. India, "the govern- men t of Bengal for the Christians, that have proved made an appropriation of Rs. 5,000 a great blessing to their people. toward the College Young Men's Christian Association buildillg. The Christians form themselves In view of the many calls made at this time, due to famine, war, and into a sort of joint-stock banking other exigencies, the gift conveys the warm interest and sense of company, with the missionary as need felt in this work for Bengal's students. We may very safely expresident. A fair rate of interest pect that from time to time the gov- ernment will make other appropriis given to depositors and de- ations until the whole .'1mount of Rs.40,000 asked for shall have been manded from borrowers who can given. The last mail brings word from Mr. White that a total of Rs. give the needed security. The box 50,000 has just been secured in England for the proposed new Cenin which the missionary keeps his t l' a 1 Building on Chowringhee. We in Calcutta should certainly be securities resembles somewhat a very grateful to England's gener- ous-hearted and public-spirited pa,wn shop. The goods accept'ld are not such as a bank at home or even a government one in India could receive, but they represent the wealth of the poor borrower and are worth more to the bank than he is allowed to take out, and so it works to the satisfaction of all classes.
Agricultural A missionary of the Shortage in Canadian Pre s by- India. terian Church, writ- ing in the August number of the Record, gives a dis-
men for the interest they have all many cases, our friends have been along taken in this work." rioted out of their stations, and have barely escaped with their A Brutal Bishop Warne, of lives. In other cases, the English Statement. the Methodist Epis- and American consuls have issued orders recalling the missionaries, copal Church, en and they have been forced to reroute to his field of episcopal over- tire from their stations. In still sight in southern Asia, writes to other cases, the directors of the the New York Christian Advocate mission in China have thought it that when Consul-General Good- advisable to send for the workers, now, with Dr. Hykes of the Bible as their position in the interior had Society acting as an interpreter, become dangerous, and hence these went to call on Li Hung Chang also have returned to the coast. in Shanghai to ask whether he As a result of these various causes, could give them assurances respect- there must be gathered at Shanghai ing the safety of foreigners in Pe- between 400 and 500 workers of our king, in order that they might reply mission, while others are constantto anxious friends in the United ly arriving. Our large mission States, Li Hung Chang pleaded home there, is full to overflowing. ignorance. When asked regarding Four houses have been rented in missionaries and their families, the the city to provide for these ~xtra tourists and other foreigners in numbers, while some of the frIends Peking, Li Hung Chang placid- have gone to Japan." ly smoked on, waved his hand nonchalantly, and replied: "They Missionaries In certain quarters are of no importance. I do not know." When asked whether he in China. the speech of the was willing to have this remark cabled to the United States, he Marquis of Salisanswered: "Yes, they are not worth taking into account. They bury has been regarded as if it conwill not count in the .final reckoning." Urged again to give some tained a salutary rebuke to those opinion as to the state of affairs in Peking, he replied: "It is of no im- who are engaged in missionary portance to me: I look at it as a Chinese, you look at it as a for- effort. Others have treated it as eigner." tho Lord Salisbury regarded the The Chief D 0 u btl e s s more Sufferer in damage has been missionaries as almost exclusively China. done to the work of responsible for the present unsatis- the China Inland factory condition of affairs in Mission than to any other by the Boxer uprising, and mainly be- China. cause its work waf' more extensive. Its representatives include almost The mission with which it is my one-third of all the missionaries at work in the empire. As China's privilege to be associated, was Millions says: born in 1865 to open up work in "We have advice that most of our mission workers have been obliged the eleven interior provinces of the to leave the interior of China, and to come down to Shanghai. In Chinese empire, which were, at that time, without any Protestant mis- sionaries. The following excerpt from our" Principles and Practi;e "
indicates the attitude of the China Inland Mission with reference to those in authority: While availing himself of any privileges offered: by his own or the Chinese govern- ment, he (i. e., the missionary) must make no demand for help or protection, tho in emer- gencies he may need to ask for it as a favor. Appeals to consuls or to Chinese officials to procure the pnnishment of offenders, or to demand the vindication of real or supposed rights, or indemnification for losses, are to be avoided. Should trouble or persecution arise inland, a friendly representation may be made to the local Chinese officials, failing
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
redress from whom, those suffering must be timacy with the people, this mission has, at satisfied to leave their case in God's hands. the same time, shown the true way of spread- Under no circumstances may any missionary ing Christianity in China.-WALTER B. SLOAN on his own responsibility make any written in The London Times. appeal to the British or other foreign authorities. Should such an appeal be Gospel for Blind men are not, thought necessary, it m~st first be submitted the Blind as a rule, to be ento the Qhina director or his deputy through Chinese. vied, but in China, the superintendent, and receive his authorization. according to The Examiner, it seems to be a con- During the past thirty-five venience for some purposes. Rev. years, 125 stations have been opened W. H. Murray, who, it was by us in ten of the provinces, and in feared, had been murdered in the course of this work, most of China, became interested in the which has bepn carried on far be- condition of the blind in that counyond the immediate influence of try many years ago, and for their "gunboats," only one of our mis- sake he invented a system of repsionaries has lost his life through resenting the sounds of the Chinese the violence of' the people. The language by raised dots. It was cases have been very rare, indeed, found that by this means 8, blind when any of our missionaries have Chinaman could learn to read in appealed to the British consuls for less than three months, whereas a their protection; altho in some Chinaman who can see takes years instances the consuls have felt it to master the ordinary written to be their duty to interfere on our language, for there are 4,000 charbehalf as being British subjects. acters in Chinese, tho only 480 sounds. Mr. Murray opened The following extract from the schools in Peking, in which a conreport of Her Majesty's consul in siderable number of blind boys, Han-kow for the year 1880 (see who otherwise would have starved China, No.3, 1880) may serve to in the gutter, have been trained show how large a part missionaries for educational and missionary have taken in opening up the in- work. terior of China. And in the face of such testimony it must surely be AFRICA. admitted that not a little tact and prudence have been mingled with Mission With the American the zeal of the missionaries: Schools in (United Presbyteri- Apart from this increased care on the part of the mandarins, this improved state Egypt. an) Mission in the of affairs is due to the fact, that the natives are becoming more accustomed to the pres- land of the Nile are ence of foreigners among them, much of the credit of which belongs to the members of connected 180 schools, with 12,872 what is called the China Inland Mission, instituted by the Rev. Hudson Taylor, M.R.C.S., pupils, and Asyut College as the some dozen years ago . . . Not only do the bachelor members of the mission visit crown; 612 students are enrolled places supposed to be inaccessible to foreigners, but those who are married take their at the college, of whom some 515 wives with them and settle down with the good will of the people in districts far remote have been boarding students in from official influence, and get on as comfortably and securely as their brethren of the the college dormitories; and 112 older missions under the shadow of a consular flag and within range of a gunboat's towns and villages in the valley guns; and, while aiding the foreign merchant by obtaining information regarding the un- of the Nile contribute these stuknown interior of the country and strengthening our relations by increasing our in- dents, those who come as board- ing students bringing their own bedding, etc., providing their own books, and paying for their tuition and board as they are able. On account of the great poverty of the Egyptians, they pay from nothing to $28 per student for the term of
eighteen weeks. and by far the mission field. It is a formidable greater part of them pay not more danger for the African Church herthan $2.50 for the term, and sweep, self; but it is a very serious one wait on table, teach primary for our poor mission, already so classes, etc., for the balance of sorely tried." their tuition and board. A very large part of the students bring Natal Native The first meeting of their own bread, according to the Congress. the Natal Native Egyptian custom, at the first of Congress was held the term, which lasts until the end of the term, being kept dry and on August 3d in Maritzburg. hard by the intensely dry atmos- There were present 100 delegates phere of Egypt; it is moistened in from 23 native associations. Chief water just before it is eaten. Mkize, president of the congress, opened the meeting with prayer. The Khartum The Missionary As- The subjects discussed were native Mission. sociation of Egypt, representation, education, and at the sum mer occupancy of land.
meetin'k in RamIe, after much Resolutions were passed asking prayer and careful deliberation, the colonial government for four selected the Rev. J. Kelly' Giffen Europeans elected by natives to as missionary to Khartum. He represent their interests in the accepted the appointment, and ex- Cape Parliament. Resolutions were pected to set out for his new field offered requesting that no restricas soon after the middle of Septem- tions be placed on teachers as to ber as he could get affairs in his the exact instruction to be given station at Tanta arranged. The natives, and holding that withevangelistic committee of the Syn- drawal of grants for higher standod of the Nile appointed a young ards than those required by the native laborer to accompany Mr. government is unjust. The desire Giffen. If he accepts the appoint- of the natives is to have their ment he will go at the same time. children trained to read, not to turn Feeling the need of a medical mis- them from farming but that they sionary at once in this mission, the may he able to read the Bible and association requested the board to assist in civilizing South Africa. appoint Dr. H. T. McLaughlin, The congress also asked for rights who had been for two years in of personal property for natives to Egypt, and the appointment has inspire thrift. The conditions since been made. should be monogamy and personal tenure. Peril from the Many of our read- "Ethiopian ers have heard of Boy Teachers Perhaps the most Church." the formation of in Uganda. remarkable devel- the E t h i 0 pia n opment of the work Church in South Africa. Regard- in Uganda has been that among ing it M. Coillard says: "There is children, about 10,000 of whom are a dark cloud on the horizon. It is under instruction (not including 'Ethiopianism' which threatens one large district from which reus, brought hither by our Basuto turns have not been received). A evangelists. Unfortunately this number of the older boys have been movement, initiated by African picked out to be trained as teach- Christians, which ought to rejoice ers, the church and the katikiro us, is based on racial hatred, and (prime-minister and one of the on those grounds is invading every regents acting for the infant king) providing them with food and
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
clothing. The katikiro also lent Norway, and the self-sacrifice at a house and garden near the church home that had led to all this. for the boys to live in. Then the " They sat and listened attentively, church council discussed the ques- astonished to hear of all the meet- tion, "Who was to act as father to ings in Norway, and how the the boys, and see that they kept money was collected, and how it out of mischief in their homes?" was so often the widow's mite that Of the man chosen, Mr. C. W. Hat- had made the work among them tersley writes: " An ordination possible, that they had never candidate, whose name is Jacob thought of! They sat and ponderthe Elephant, an extremely nice, ed over what they had heard; then sensible man, was suggested, and I an old patriarch rose and said that was much struck by his reply when that day they had Iived to see more asked if he would undertake the than they ever expected, but with post. He at once said, 'Is it for God's help it should only be a beme to choose my work ? You tell ginning. It was the first harvest me what to do, and I am ready to festival they had had; the next obey.'''-G. M. S. Gleaner. should be far better."-Norsk Mis- sionstidende. Calamity on In February, 1899, the Zambesi. 17 new workers ac- THE ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
companied M. Coil- A German The Rhenish Mislard to Barotseland, on the Upper Mission sionary Society oc- Zambesi. They formed an additional force representing the in Malaysia. cupies in Borneo 9 French Protestant missions. They stations, with '1n reached the Barotse country safely, but already the Central African aggregate of 1,900 members. The climate has claimed its victims, missionaries express themselves and while 3 have succumbed to frankly about the slow growth and fever and dysentery, 6 have had to poor results of their labors. The leave the field to save life. One population is sparse and scattered outstanding difficulty is the lack of over a large area, hence difficult to medical help. reach; but bondage to material in- terests, inertness, obtuseness, and The Spirit of The Norwegian -as regards the Dajak tribe-im- Giving in mission at Ihosy, morality and drunkenness, present far graver difficulties to the spread Madagascar. among the Bara, of the Gospel. Last year has been after long waiting, almost throughout a disappointing year; at two stations the missionis beginning to reap fruit of its ary has been practically left to labors in a quite unexpected way. himself, while at others the mem- Not only among the young, but bership consists almost entirely of among aged men who have gone to traders, who spend a few weeks at church for many years without be- their stores and then absent theming able to bring themselves to the selves for prolonged journeys into decisive step, a general desire for the interior or to the coast. The baptism is declaring itself. At the frank reply of a native, in response harvest festival, which was held at to an invitation to attend worship, Christmas, the gifts were so liberal "Christianity has no value for me, and hearty, that the missionary as it brings me no temporal advanwas moved almost to tears, and tage," expresses the prevailing senconstrained to tell the people the timent.-L. M S. Chronicle. story of the missionary cause in
The Austral- Through much of ary force of the church was mainly ian Common- the century 6 colo- directed toward maintaining and extending the work which in 1848 wealth. n i e sun d e r the was commenced by Bishop George Sou the r n Cross Selwyn in Melanesia, with the re- suIt that the seed sown 50 years ago have been steadily developing into in those islands, now bears much independent states, and now all are fruit, as may be gathered from the confederated into a commonwealth fact that the last published returns covering an area almost as great as state that the staff consists of the the American Republic, and con· bishop, an archdeacon, 14 English taining a popUlation of 3,625,000. and 11 native clergy, 2 English lay- How wonderful is it all, when we men, 7 ladies, and 404 Melanesian remember that a hundred years ago lay workers. Australia was only Botany Bay, a synonym for degradation and The missions that may be regardcrime! ed as distinctively Australian are to the heathen residing among us Church Jubilee The jubilee of the and those who are adjacent to our in Australia. Australian Board shores. The former include the aborigines of the land, together of Missions (August with the Chinese, who represent a 19-26) is an event of interest. population of 46,000 in Australasia, On January 26, 1788, the English nearly one-half of which are withflag was hoisted in Sydney Cove. in New South Wales and Victoria. The Church of England was repre- The heathen adjacent to us include sented by one of her authorized Eastern Polynesia and the eastern clergy, the Rev. Robert Johnson. coast of New Guinea, both of which From that day to the present time are the appointed spheres in which the church has never ceased her the Church of England has to do ministrations. For 38 years her its mISSIOnary work.-Sydney history may be regarded as being lI'Iorning Herald. specially missionary in its character, and the work of consolida- Good Things In this group the tion may be considered as begin- About Samoa. London Society has ning in 1836, with the consecration of the first bishop of Australia. over 8,000 members The missionary spirit of the first who in the main are Bible-loving. chaplains appointed by the home The complete Bible was given to authorities is evidenced in the life the people in 1855. It had been of the Rev. Samuel Marsden-often previously given in portions, as called the Apostle of the Maoris- each book was translated and who, between 1814 and 1837, visited printed on the islands. In less than New Zealand seven times, amid seven years an edition of 10,000 much danger and great difficulty, copies of the complete Bible was on missionary work. In 1Sn the sold, for which over £3,000 was paid first bishop for New Zealand was to the British and Foreign Bible consecrated. The bisho_ps met in Society, Very soon another edi- Sydney in 1850, and altho much tion of 10,000 copies was sold. missionary work has already been There is scarcely a family where undertaken by the church among the Bible is absent. The Samoan the aborigines of Australia, the Church has given scores of her Maoris of New Zealand, and the sons and daughters to go as mis- Papuans in the South Pacific, that sionaries to far-distant islands. meeting formed 11 Board of Mis- Some 30 married couples are now sions for Australasia. The missiondoing good work in New Guinea, MISCELLANEOUS.
over 2,000 miles from their native The Perils or, Peace hath her land. They know that they have of Peace, destructions as well a new language to learn, and often a savage people to teach, and that as War. The Engmany of their people have died of lish army in South Africa numbers diseases that they wot not of in upwards of 200,000 men; the number their own land, and yet we have no of railway employees in the United lack of offers of service from our States is 227,547. The total of killed trained teachers. This indicates a and wounded in the English army love for the Gospel and an eager in Africa from October 1899 to July desire to tell to others the story of 1900 is estimated at 15,000; the a Savior who has done so much for number of railroad employees killed them.-The Chronicle. or wounded in the United States during the year ending June 30, Cannibalism Rev. F. J. Paton 1899, was 37,133 (killed, 2,210; wounded, 34,923). The ratio of in the says that in the death or injury in the railroad serv- ice is more than twice as great as New Hebrides. New Hebrides in the army in active warfare. A comparison with our army in the every island which Philippines gives similar results. ,Ve have had 63,000 soldiers there, is not Christian is yet cannibal, and the casualties have been 1,640. The railroad employees are foul' and genuine fondness is displayed and a half times as numerous, the casualties in railroad service are for human flesh. The grossest at 23 times as many.
times are kindly disposed toward him and hospitable. Once, after a night in a certain village, the chief gave him a spear which had been handed down for generations, and also a beautifully carved and well polished spoon. He soon found Chief Cause "If anybody will that the spoon had been used only of Poverty. take charge of all at cannibal feasts to dig out of Boston's poverty the cooked bodies the choice por- and crime which results from tions of meat! Hence the polish! drunkenness," says Edward Ever- Depopu!ation Among the5e same ett Hale, "the South Congrega- in Progress. islands sickness and tional Church, of which T have the honor to be the minister, will alone death have been take charge of all the rest of the terribly common, especially on poverty which needs relief in the Aneityum, Futuna, and Epi. On city of Boston." East Epi the ratio of deaths to births has been almost 4 to 1, on The Money At the recent meet- Aneityum 4.3 to 1, and on Futuna Cost of ing of the National 57:) to 1. On Aneityum this mor- Crime. P r i son Congress tality has pressed very sorely on an expert statisti- the elders and deacons. Thus, cian and penologist of established within foul' and a half years, out of reputation, MI'. Eugene Smith,esti- a total of 31 no less than 21 have mated that out of a revenue of died. This heavy mortality also $90,000,000 in 1899 New York City seriously affects the statistics of the spent $20,000,000 of it as the result miSSIOn. Thus during the year, of crime, its detection and punish- at one station. 42 members were ment. The same authority esti- added to the roll; but 40 died in the mates that in a recent given year same time, leaving only a net in- the United States spent $200,000,000 crease of 2. for the same reason-$I05,OOO,OOO
being raised by city taxation, $45,- occurred at Shanghai, where he has 000,000 of it by county taxation, labored since 1847. Dr. Muirhead, and $50,000,000 of it by federal and who has thus completed 53 years state taxation. Estimating the of active service, was born at Leith, income lost to the country by the on March 7, 1822. In addition to choice of a criminal career by the evangelistic preaching in Shanghai 250,000 criminals in the country as itself, he has made repeated tours $400,000,000, he thus makes the to- into the country beyond, on one tal loss to the country, through occasion narrowly escaping death crime, at $600,000,000 per year. at the hands of a Chinese mob. For some years he was pastor of Is Not a Man Rev. T. L. Gulick Union Chapel, Shanghai. As early Better than in The Evangel'ist as 1866 he visited Peking, and from a Giraffe? calls attention to there made a tour into Mongolia. he has in the course of his, long the fact that the missionary career prepared numernations of Europe are beginning to ous educational and other works in unite in arrangements to pro- the Chinese language, and also a tect from destruction the larger book for English readers on animals 'of Africa, such as the ele- "China and the Gospel." During phant, rhinoceros, giraffe, ostrich, the recent troubles in China the etc., and innocently inquires (is he burden of anxiety on account of sarcastic ?) if it would not be proper missionary colleagues weighed and fitting for Christian govern- very heavily upon him, and greatly ments to unite also in forbidding taxed his strength. When he the importation of firearms, rum, arrived in China in 1847 there were and opium, and the like into the 20 Protestant missionaries in the Dark Continent and other such empire, now there are over 2,000. regions, that men may be saved. Dr. L. M. The Rev. Dr. La- Dr. Paton's While addressing Illness. meetings in the Gordon fayette M. Gordon, Presbytery of Chat- of Japan. an able missionary ham, Canada, the venerable Dr. Paton was taken suddenly and of the American seriously ill. He was obliged to cancel his near engagements, but Board for twenty-eight years, died hoped to fill those more distant. After lying for a week in Chatham, November 4th. Dr. Gordon was however, his physicians peremptorily forbade further work, al~d ad- born JUly 18th, 1843, at 'Vaynevised him to return at once to Britain. He has followed their advice, burg, Penn. He served three years and sailed from New York, but we are thankful to say that his health in the army, from 1861 to 1864, in has been improving. connection with a Pennsylvania OBITUARY. regiment. He was graduated from Dr. Muirhead, We hear with sor- of Shanghai. row of the death of Andover Theological Seminary in the Rev. William 1871 and studied medicine before he Muirhead, D.D., the veteran of the London Missionary Society, which sailed for Japan in 1872. He re- turned to the United States on a furlough last year, and it was expected that he would be trans- ferred to the Hawaiian Islands, but his health failed. Dr. Gordon was the author of a very interesting and suggestive book "The Ameri- can Missionary in Japan." He was a very lovable character.
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1897
PA'I)lTA HA:lIASAl
lIER (O-WORKER.
WORK FOR TIlE WIDOWS OF T:DIA. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOL. xx. No. S.-Old SerieB.-SEPTEMBER-VoL. X. No. S.-N81lJ&rieB.
THE SPIRiTUAL MovEMENTS OF THE CENTURY- WOMAN'S WORK AT HOME AND ABROAD.
BY THE EDITOR-[N-CHIEF.
The" Diamond Jubilee" ofthe accession of Queen Victoria affords a most fitting occasion for the review of the marvellous development of Christian womanhood during the half century which has been so markt by manifold forms and phases of missionary activity. AmOllg all the achievements of the Victorian era, none is perhaps more C011spicuous than what may be truly called The Epiphany of Womanher emergence out of the obscurity of centuries into something like her true position and relation as to the work of God. And how curious is the coincidence that such emergence should so exactly correspond with the period during which a woman has occupied the throne of the most prominent of Protestant kingdoms, and, during sixty yearsthe longest reign of a woman on record-has challenged admiration by her unblemished personal character and Ohristian influence 1 Victoria may well stand as the historic type of the era of woman's development as a. distinct and separate factor in the Kingdom of God.
In the Old Testament there are seven women that stand out with singular and unique distinctness, Eve, the universal mother; Sarah, the mother of the faithful; Miriam, the minstrel prophetess; Deborah, the ruler and judge; Esther, the interceding Persian Queen; the Queen of Sheba, and the Queen of Massa, who seems to have been the mother of Agur and Lemuel whose wise words are attributed to her teaching (Prov. xxx, xxxi). These seven women seem typical of the new era which Ohristianity was to inaugurate, when womanhood was to be associated 'with holy minstrelsy and teaching, with Christian government and counsel, with consecrated courage and intercession in critical emergencies, with adoring gifts to the King of Kings, and with the imperial power of home influence whereby to train a household of princely characters to wield the scepter of social life.
Surely, among the most remarkable movements, guided by God's • Thia periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philological Aesoclation and the Philological Society of England :-{)hange d or Old lIDal to , when so pronounced. except wbeb the e aBects a preceding 1IOlIIId.-PuBLIaIIua.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
hand, in our times, has been this singular and steady forward march of Christian womanhood towards the front rank of consecrated service. While God was opening new doors and removing old barriers to heathen peoples, He was preparing new workers and agencies to enter the doors and occupy the accessible fields. The story of the organization of women, in boards of missions, especially in zenana work, and in every other form of Ohristian service, to promote total abstinence, social purity, systematic giving and united prayer, to disseminate intelligence and educate a new generation of givers and workers,- this is one of the greatest of the modern chapters in the new acts of the apostles. The importance and significance of this series of developments, and the obvious leadership of a divine hand in them all, entitle them to a special and permanent memorial among the markt spiritual movements of our time.
We mnst go back to the beginning. It is just about sixty years ago since Mr. Abeel was returning to Ohina, having told the women of Britain about the women of the far East, who, shut up in zenanas, harems, seraglios, were inaccessible to all holy influences, unless their own sex could be induced to undertake work in their behalf. That moving, melting plea was the parent of zenana missions. How strange that this first woman's mission should so marvellously synchronize with the accession of this Christian Queen to the British throne! that God should have chosen, at the very time when He was lifting to the seat of an empire that reaches round the world, a young Ohristian woman, He should be revealing to woman throughout the world the throne of her predestined influence, and put in her hands a hitherto undreamed of scepter for a more than imperial sway! The Victorian era is woman's era. When Victoria was crowned, the diadem was placed upon the head of her sex, and woman's true epoch began to be inaugurated, as we behold it in our day. We can do no more than briefly trace the outlines in this sixty-year history.
The project of carrying the Gospel to women in their oriental seclusion and exclusion, seemed at first the wild visionary scheme of unbalanced enthusiasts; and wise men and even sagacious women shook their heads in doubt, if not derision. How impracticable, nay how impossible! It was like forcing gates of steel in walls of stone, to seek to get access to the harems of Turkey and the zenanas of India. But something mnst be done. The condition of womankind in the East was so destitute and desolate that it had long drawn toward the wives, mothers, daughters of the Orient the attention and sympathy of the whole civilized world. And there seemed to be neither hope nor help for woman, unless it should come through woman herself. No activity or generosity in sending and supporting male missionaries would solve the problem; for no man could without risk to life enter these sealed doors even in the capacity of a physiciano And this fact seemed to compel woman's ministry. God appeared· to be saying to woman as from heaven: "Thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this; " and to those who had ears to hear and heart to heed and respond, there seemed no alternative. The women of England resolved to undertake the work of carrying the Gospel within zenana gates.
How little we, even yet, grasp the facts. In India alone it is estimated that there are one hundred and forty millions of women and girls. These were found sunk in such depths of degraded ignorance, that one-third of them could neither read nor write; one-twelfth of them were widows, and of these widows fourteen thousand were under four years of age, eight thousand were under ten and one hundred and seventy-five thousand under fourteen. Think of such a host of women, twelve million of girls under fourteen, and half of them wives! Absolutely unreacht and unreachable by any existing influence that could elevate, educate, or evangelize them I What words could fitly portray sO Iowan estate for nearly half the popUlation of oriental empires!
The work was undertaken. 'Reason opposed, but faith proposed and disposed. It is an old familiar, pathetic story, how in the days of Rev. Dr. Thomas Smith, then of Rev. John Fordyce and Alexander Duff, the first systematic efforts were made to get access to the zenanas of India.* Then how the deft needle of a missionary's wife, Mrs.
Mullens, was used to unlock the doors. A simple piece of embroidery, wrought by her skillful fingers, attracted the attention of the secluded inmates of one of these household prisons; they argued, that if a woman could do such work as that, other women might learn how to do it, and so with the cordial consent of the lord of the zenana, this Christian woman was welcomed within the veiled chamber, and encouraged to teach his wives the woman's art of embroidery, and as she wrought on a pair of slippers the beautiful pattern, she was quietly working into the very fabric of their hearts and lives the scarlet threads dyed in the blood, and the golden threads shining with the glory of the Lamb.
*This history has been carefully outlined elsewhere (" Crisis of Missions," Chap. XIX, "New Acts of Apostles," PartII.,Chap. 8) but we here rehearse the main facts. Rev. Dr. Thos. Smith March, 1840, urged on the Oalcutta Missiona!71 Observer, the question of zenana teaching. But it was fifteen years later before his sensible plans took such root as to have practical and lasting growth. Rev. Jno. Fordyce and others secured the services of two or three lady vlsi- ~ors, and got access to some native families. Then Mrs. Mullens, Mrs. Eliz. Sale, Miss Briton and others enlarged the work. But in 1851 the work had as yet no Imporlance sufficient to give It any statistics.. In 1871, twenty years after, 1,800 houses were found to be under visitation and there were about 2,000 pupils, and twenty years later, the homes found accessible had multiplied more than three-fold, to over 40,500. In 1896 the following are the figures for the work outside this fleW ofIndia.
Foreign and European female teachers……………………… 711 Native teachers………… •••••••••••••••• …………………… 8,661 Day-schools………………………………………… ….••.• 1,507 Scholars…………………………………………………… 62,414 See MIssIONARY RKVIB'W, April 1897, p. 278-279. We can scarcely credit the fact that, under so gentle a touch as that of a woman's hand, the long-locked gates have flown wid" open, and that the barriers of ages are no more! Christian women go, almost without restraint, sometimes with urgent entreaty, into the homes of women in Turkey, Syria, China, India, and the Orient generally. The girls are gathered by hundreds of thousands into Christian schools; and the increase in the number of female pupils has been so rapid, that it doubled in ten years between 1876 and 1886, and has multiplied much more rapidly in the last decade. As long ago as 1884, one hundred and sixty women missionaries had been enrolled in the work of that one I ..ondon mission; pupils numbered thousands within the zenanas, and tens of thousands in their day-schools. Ten years later, Bible women entered the richest homes freely, and Hindu husbands actually clamored to have their wives and daughters taught. l!'ourteen years ago, the Church of England society alone had under visitation eighteen hundred zenanas with four thousand pupils; and both visitors and schools have steadily grown in numbers and influence.
Thus suddenly the women of Christendom had "discovered a new world" with limitless possibilities of work for the Master. Leupolt, contempJating the fact that, not only to the houses of the lower classes of natives, but to the zenanas in cities like Benares, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Amritsi, Lahore, etc., European women with their native assistants were admitted freely, to teach the word of God, exclaims: "If anyone had hinted twenty-five years before that this would be, I would have replied, 'All things are possible to God, but I do not expect such a glorious event in my day.' But what has God wrought! more than we askt or thought, expected or prayed for! His name be praised." And when Leupolt thus wrote, already to more than twelve hundred such seraglios the agents of the Female Normal School and Instruction Society had access; and this was many years ago, when the work was at its inception comparatively, aud this was only as to the success of one organization! and an intelligent Hindu says: "If these women rmch the hearts of the women of our country, they will soon get at the heads of the men."
It was about thirteen years since, when the Indian Education Commission officially reported to the government that the most successful efforts at woman's education, after leaving school, had been conducted by missionaries; that in every province of India, Christian women had devoted themselves to teaching in native homes; and recommended grants for zenana work to be recognized as a proper charge on public funds, etc. .Soon after, a Mohammedan paper of Lahore urged those who would propagate Islam, to see to it that zenana women were taught the Koran, lest by the Christian teaching that was making such inroads the very foundations of Allah's empire should be demolished. Shaftesbury, at the jubilee of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, in 1884, said: " The time is at hand when you will see the great dimensions of the work you are now doing, not Qnly in rr.<1ia but throughout the East. Great changes are in the future." His words were prophetic of what is already taking place. Ten years ago this society had missions not only in India and Oeylon, but in Japan, Persia, and Africa, etc. One instance may be cited as a representative example of how in individual cases this zenana movement proves far-reaching and mighty. At the girls' central school in the capital of Madagascar, Miss Bliss taught the young princess who at the crisis came to the throne in that great island.
While God was thus opening the door of approach and access to Gentile women, behold Him moving Christian women to organize for the great Woman's Orusad~ of modern history! And so we come to that new chapter of missions which records the rapid growth of Women's Boards of Missions, which mark the next grand epoch of woman's epiphany and activity.
Much pains have been taken to find the facts, for the early records were destroyed by fire, and hence a general misapprehension as to the origin of the parent society.. Rev. L. A. Gould, in a letter to the writer, says: "The exact facts are as follows: Mrs. Ellen B. Mason, wife of Rev. Francis Mason, D.D., a Baptist missionary from Burmah, stopt in Oalcutta on her way to America, and learned the story of Mrs. :Mullens' zenana slippers. Mrs. Mason, with two ladies, still living, Mrs. J. D. Richardson and Mrs. H. O. Gould, my mother, visited influential families in Boston; and the first society, consisting of nine ladies, whose names I have, was formed in Boston, November, 1860, Miss M. V. Ball, President. Subsequently, in 1861, societies were formed in New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia; and the New York society, by reason of its strength, was allowed to become the general society. These facts are not vital, only advantageous for accuracy."
Thus, then, was organized, thirty-seven years ago, in America, the Woman's Union Missionary Society, which, under the leadership of the loved and lamented Mrs. T. O. Doremus, became the pioneer society of America, with The Missionary Link as its organ. This was an undenominational society, and led the way as the parent of the various denominational Women's Boards now found connected with all the great Ohristian bodies. Of all these societies the one originating cause was the inaccessibility of heathen women save to their own sex; and the one aim was to organize women, in cooperation with the existing foreign missionary societies, for sending out and supporting unmarried women as missionaries and teachers to their neglected heathen sisters.
The rallying cry, heard in Britain sixty years ago, and loudly echoed in America about twenty years later, brought Ohristian women boldly to the front in all the leading denominations. Early in 1868, there was formed in Boston the New England Women's Foreign Missionary Society, with Mrs. Albert Bowker for President, and Mrs. Homer Bartlett for Treasurer. The previous year the American Board had sent into the field ten single women, appropriating for this end $25,000. We can readily understand why Ohristian women felt called of God to this special work. We mention the following dominant reasons: 1. Women abroad were inaccessible except to women. 2. Ohristian womanhood would naturally both prompt and help work for woman. 3. Woman owes a special debt to Ohrist for what He has done to uplift her socially and domestically. 4. Woman naturally sympathizes with her own sex, and can appre- ciate woman's degradation and elevation. 5. Woman abroad needs the practical illustration of what the Gos- pel can do, and has done, for women. 6. In all education woman is God's ordained pioneer. As wife, mother, sister, daughter, she is the heart of the home and sways its scepter. 7. This work provides a legitimate sphere in which all that is best in woman can thus be amply exercised and developt.
The results are correspondent with what might be expected. Ohris- tian women became, for the first time in all history, thoroughly united in organized work for souls. Their interest in the spiritual uplifting of their own sex was quickened; larger means for supporting women as missionaries and teachers were forthcoming; intelli- gence was more widely spread, and in cheap mission leaflets and booklets; offerings were systematically gathered iu small sums, like "Oarey's weekly pennies"; direct correspondence with women workers, stated meetings for prayer, and hearing of news from the field- these were the results, which became in turn causes of new and larger results. The collections of the first month enabled this early New England society to assume the support of a missionary to South Africa. At the end of three months, three women became living links with the foreign field, Miss Edwards in Africa and Miss Andrews and Miss Parmelee in Turkey; and ten native Bible women were to be main- tained by the society. By October 8th, 1868, at Norwich, Oonn., this society was already the parent of auxiliaries everywhere forminK. and was now called "The Women's Board of Missions."
The same month, of the same year, a similar society was formed in the great West, " The Women's Board of Missions for the Interior," and the next year this new society assumed the support of Mrs. Tyler of the Madura mission, and Miss Dean of Oroomiah, and issued its quarterly, Life and Light for Heathen Women. During its first year about *4,000 were gathered. So rapidly grew the women's societies, that in 1884 there were twenty-two Women's Boards, representing twelve denominations, and aD. aggregate of about $1,000,000 receiptsl In 1897, the total number of women's societies has reacht upwards of one hundred.
One example of the rapid increase of gifts ought to be added to show the power of many little sums, systematically gathered. One Board, the Presbyterian, that reported in 1871 $7,000, reported $224,- 000 in 1886-thirty-two fold increase in fifteen years 1 And the incre80/3e still goes on.
No wonder Thos. Chalmers should have declared that he had found in benevolent work, that one woman was equal to seven and a half men!
This has not been the only direction in which Christian women have organized for holy activity during this Victorian era. Zenana work was but the first trumpet-blast that rallied this vast reserve force of the Lord's army. Then came the Women's Boards, both of Home aud Foreign Missions. But since then, behold the various forms of holy enterprize upon which the Christian sisterhood have entered. Four or five may be mentioned as conspicuous, tho far from exhausting the long list.
The Women's Temperance Orusade is one of the most memorable for its desperate daring. Maddened by the cruelties inflicted by strong drink, and hopeless of human intervention, Christian women in the United States took the kingdom of Satan by violence, and went into the drink-shops to protest with dram-sellers; they knelt on the floors of bar-rooms, and with prayers and tears besought God to curse the drink traffic and stop its awful ravages. When turned into the street, they knelt on the pavements and interposed their bodies between the door of gin palaces an9- those who would enter. They saw the haunts of the drunkard turned into places of prayer, rumsellers changed to evangelists, and sots into saints. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was baptized in tears and prayers and blood. It has a holy history.
The Woman's League for Social Pnrity attempted to do with the brothel and all its accessories what the Temperance Crusade undertook with the drink-shop. Obscene books, prints, exhibitions, houses of iII-fame, the uses of the post for all immoral purposes, and the perversion of law to impure ends,-these and other helpers and abettors of prostitution and corruption occupied their attention. It was a mighty movement, and has still an increasing momentum, directed toward the purity of our homes, as its sister movement toward their sobriety. And it ought to be said that it required great heroism and courage of conviction, for women to cast off the trammels of a mock modesty and a refined sensibility, and call things by their right names, and in public as well as in private, before men as well as women, and sometimes in courts and legislatures, grapple with an evil that even men had found it difficult to discuss. But they have done it, and challenged universal admiration for their intrepid fidelity.
The Young Women's Ohristian Association has done grand work for young women, as the Y. M. C. A. has for young men. It is making itself felt in all our great cities, in throwing a loving shelter about young girls who come to the great centers of population to find employment, and have no proper home-life. These associations have erected magnificent buildings where young women find board, lodging, companionship, employment, libraries, prayer-meetings, Bible classes, and every aid to temporal and spiritual advancement. If there is any more beneficial institution of its sort in existence, we do not know of such, and can speak with confidence and from personal knowledge of the immense benefit accruing, the writer having a daughter who is the secretary of one of these city organizations. And just now this work is expanding and becoming a power in foreign lands, gathering young women, as in India, into the embrace of a consecrated Christian sisterhood.
The women's medical mission work is one of the latest born ofthe organized movements of women in Christian lands. To have women going forth into all parts of the world, not simply as nurses, but as fully qualified physicians; and to have them commending themselves even to imperial governments as competent to practice medicine and surgery side by'side with the most skillful male practitioners, is certainly a very markt advance. Here is especially a new feature of the zenana movement, which led all the rest in point of time. Women penetrate the seclusion of oriental homes to-day, with the balm of Gilead in one hand and the balm of the apothecary in the other; they go to heal the body and to heal the soul, to preach and to cure; and in true apostolic fashion to commend themselves to the heart, by skill in ministering to the bodily ills and ailments. There is an eminent fitness in woman's medical ministry to woman, and upon it God is setting II. very markt seal and sanction.
No reference has yet been made to the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, nor to the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, iIi both of which women are perhaps as prominent leaders, if not as numerous members as men. But our object has been to call attention mainly to organizations solely composed of and officered by women, and these, selected out of many, may suffice to illustrate how in every direction the female factor in the Churcp. of Christ is making itself felt as never before in the various forms of Christian activity. There is, in fact, not one department of service to Christ and a lost humanity, in which women's gentle hand is not found conspicuous, not in association with m'en, but in independent methods of organized action. What the church and the world has gained thereby, it would be difficult to estimate. One example might be given out of many thousands as a typical instance. Nearly forty years ago, Mrs. Murrilla B. Ingalls, widow of Rev. Lovell Ingalls, a missionary to Arakan, after a visit to America, returned to Burma, and went at once to Thongze, where she remained and had entire control, without help from any male missionary, except a native ordained preacher and a few other native assistants. Often ,alone, she has with markt capacity and sagacity carried on the mission with conspicuous blessing. Without transgressing the limits of propriety, or assuming ecclesiastical functions, she has been a sort of acknowledged bishop of a vast diocese. +n all that has to do with Christian doctrine and church organization and administration she has taught both women and men. She chooses and then trains native evangelists, oversees the schools and discovers the aptitude in pupils for teachers, and then trains them for educational work. She maintains strict discipline, guides the church in appointing pastors, and then humbly trains pastors in Bible truth, homiletic studies, and pastoral theology. She has establisht Zayat preaching, organized a circulating library, and distributed Bibles and tracts over a wide district. Seeing the great destitution about her, she went with her Bible women on tours into the country, and her tent became the resort of multitudes who sought instruction. Being accused of "preaching" by those who were jealous of her influence, and defending her course as justifiable from New Testamen texamples, she was askt, "Were you ever ordained?" " No," she answered, "but I was Joreorda·tned." Mrs. Ingalls is a bright example of what woman has done and is doing in all lands, and those who would pursue the study of the theme have only to read the story of such heroic women .as the three wives of Dr. Judson, the second Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Krapf, Mrs. Judith Grant, Fidelia Fiske, Eliza Agnew, Mrs. McAll, Mrs. Moffat, and Mrs. Livingstone, Mary Whately, Matilda Rankin, Mary Graybell, Clara Cushman, Hannah Mullens, Rebecca Wakefield, Sarah B. Capron, Mary Williams, Dorothy Jones, Anna Hinderer, and a host of others who have adorned the annals of missions. And who needs to be'told that the names of Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton are inseparable from the ministry to wounded and sick soldiers and victims of famine and persecution Bnd pestilence the world over?
Surely, when God lifted a Christian woman to the British throne sixty years ago, He was saying to her whole sisterhood in all Christian lands, "Ye are come to the Kingdom for such a time as this." Let woman appreciate her opportunity, for it is the golden age of her reign, and she holds a scepter that ·sways empires. Let her prove herself to be a power ordained of God to fulfil a holy mission!
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. [t;eptemoer
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN.
BY WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D., AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE."
Japan is the most interesting country in Asia, perhaps in the whole missionary field. The reason is plain. Despite their boasting and self-conceit, the Japanese are not satisfied with themselves. Despite many foreign flatterers, they know that their civilization is very far ·from being finisht, and that their character lacks much. In this dissatisfaction lies the best hope of their salvation. When a nation ceases its restlessness and becomes self-contented, it is hopelessly senile. The people who say that they are rich and have need of nothing, and that they see clearly, when others know that they are poor and blind, are already in the numbness of paralysis. Japan now sees herself as others see her. By sudden contact with many nations, she is in a panopticon, and is disturbed at the too numerous reflections. Her people are an interesting study to themselves, like a man thoroughly awakened to himself, through some searching sermon or book which has revealed himself to himself.
Modesty is not a shining characteristic of the modern Japanese; but, tho their books and newspapers are painfully, even disgustingly, full of boasting and national vanity, yet in reality there is a deepseated self-disgust, a realization that something is not only wroug, but radically so. The most thoughtful men feel that, despite victorious armies or foreign models, steel and steam navies, and the miscellaneous borrowed furniture of modern civilization, somethiug still is lacking. "More moral oil to run the machinery," is a native editor's cry. To put on sealskins, diamonds, and what anyone can buy in the shops does not make a lady. Even one's private palace car and steam yacht will not produce a gentleman of culture; for "vindictive circumstances" of speech, spelling, and grammar will betray early deficiencies. To-day, probably more than ever before, there are deep searchings of heart in that country, where it is not yet safe to openly challenge the mythology on which the popular and political religion rests. There is much earnest talking and writing about a "moral crisis." There is yearning after a religion that will satisfy the awakened man in the Sunrise Land. The old foundations are slipping away, even while Japan hopes to build a national superstructure that will dazzle the world. The old stone-weighted wooden anchor, with its wisteria-vine rope, will no longer hold the ship of state. Millions of human beings, heretofore political ciphers, each one lost in a mass of similar ciphers, and made into expressional value only by the integer of the throne, are slowly rising into consciousness of rights and. individuality. It may be that each individual may become a giant. Then how hold the strong ones together? Let us inquire and see what the matter with Japan is. Whether we derive religion from the same idea that is in the word ligament~ and regard it a vinculum to bind the individual man and all his powers in unity, and to hold society together; or, whether we derive it from the idea of reading and reflection, making it the choicest product of thought, or of inspiration through revelation, it is what the Japanese want; and it is that which they know they want. At what they have had thus far, let us look, and then apply those words of her Master, which Christianity continually and unsparingly applies to herself,-" By their fruits ye shall know them."
Japan has three definite religious systems, thoroughly acclimated, naturalized, and active for over a thousand years, with only two intervals of labor by Christian missionaries–one of seventy years, from 1540 to 1620, by Portuguese and Spaniards, and the second in our day; which, whether we reckon from 1860 or 1870, we shall call a full generation of sporadic missionary effort by teachers from Roman, Greek,. and Reformed Churches,-those of the English-speaking nations outnumbering all others.
The oldest of all religions in the archipelago is Shinto, or the godway, which, briefly comprehended, has no distinct idea of God or of a Creator. It is a crude form of merely natural evolution, in which matter blossomed into mind and beings arose from mud to man. The men were the conquering few, and they conquered many; for Shinto is, first of all, a political machine, and will die the moment the ligature is cut which biuds it to the throne. Personifying the powers of nature, the islanders made apotheosis of the wise, the heroic, and especially the chief of one clan which, conquering other clans, became paramount in the archipelago. The core of Shinto is Mikadoism, and it has neither ethics nor religion, apart from the imperial decrees. It is bald of either rational morals or dogma, but yet is a joyous and pleas!mt cult, fitted for the infancy of a people liviIig off on an island by themselves. It inculcates personal cleanliness and gentle manners,. and nurses a narrow sort of patriotism. It is also the fountain and supply of a senseless conceit which, pardonable and even pretty in the minds of children and rustics, is simply absurd in a people who wish to be collectively considered as a great world-power, and even a teacher and giver of civilization to mankind.
Shinto goes back of history, and even well-founded tradition, tho its ancestor worship may possibly be borrowed from China. Confucianism, or the Chinese system of ethics and etiquette, has had a foothold in Japan for probably fourteen hundred years. Whatever the primitive faith of the first settlers of the Middle Kingdom may have been, it is certain that when Confucianism came into Japan it was already nearly a thousand years old, having scarcely the rudiments of a religion in it-nothing of prayer, aspiration, idea of personality, or suggestions of exalted soul-consciousness. Ignoring God and the soul, it taught a low routine ofl human duty, gave rules of conduct, and prescribed the ceremonies to be used in propitiating the unknown, and for the most part, politely ignored spirits that vaguely have something to do with the universe and its order. Whereas, in China filial piety was the center of the system, in Japan loyalty was made the basis. For in Mikado-land everything is sub- ordinate to the throne. No freedom of thought or of action was or is allowed in any way likely to disturb this subordination of every- . thing in the whole empire to the emperor and his ancestors.
As in China, so in Japan, but still more so. The agnosticism and etiquette of Confucius lent themselves aumirably to despotism and arbitrary government, whether of the central suzerain or the local lords. Over a thousand years' active use oi the sword, of oppression, of grinding down the masses, have made the Japanese that submissive and demure people, which we find all over the empire, below that sub- I merged tenth that have ruled the country for ages, and who, despite all pretense and profession of modern constitutionalism, rule them yet. Now, thousands of this hereditary ruling class see their mythology melting into empty air. They have discovered that their feudal ethics rest as does a mass of iron rails and wooden tif)s which, after an awful washout, still holds a thin shell of earth. They wonder how the heavy engine of modern life can be run over the foundation- less old tracks. Having bought or made all sorts of new machinery, but with mighty problems unsolved, they ask, Where is the new type of man· to stand on deck and order at once the steersman above and the engineer below?
Buddhism entered Japan fourteen hundred years ago. Then, for the first time, the Japanese were brought in contact with a distinct product of the Aryan mind. The ultimate result was a chapter of decay for Buddhism. In the first centuries the tremendous zeal of the new missionaries, their positive works of benevolence, their intro- duction of a great train of civilizing influences with art, ethical codes, sutras and shastras, a ,great apparatus of devotion, with idealistic philosophy, with a splendid architecture and symbolism which beauti- fied the landscape of Japan, and teachings which made the law of kindness the rule of life, they educated the whole nation. The suc- . cess of Buddhism in winning all, from the nobles at court to the humblest fisherman and farmer, to gentle virtues, appreciation of natural beauty and of art and literature, has been vastly more than that of all other influences put together, including Shinto, Confu- cianism, and whatever has drifted to Japau from the continental nations of Asia. Buddhism has been the mother of Japanese civiliza- tioll. Nevertheless, Japanese Buddhism, when once become domesticated, won its final victories by compromises and transmutations that not only changed its own character, but ministered to the conceit of the Japanese people; for it proclaimed the gods of Shinto as nothing more than previous avatars or manifestations of Buddha. Thus it not only swallowed up the older indigenous cult, making it practically invisible for many centuries, but itself entered upon a wild reversionary and degraded form of pantheism which still further swampt any gleams of the personality of God or of real individuality in man. Thus the Japanese people could not, morally and religiously, be anything else than a nation still bound in the lower forms of invertebrate and nerveless life, remiuding one of a jelly fish rather than of the splendid creatures of nerve and brain, which we find in the higher ranges of life.
So, applying the test that "by their fruits ye shall know them," most linguists, historians, and the students of philosophy and literature, and of religion, agree in their general appraisement of the outcome of the Japanese mind and heart. While gladly and warmly acknowledging much pleasing fruit and many beautiful products, critics can not, if honest and truthful, but point out the defects which, indeed, seem appalling when we consider the ambition of the Japanese to claim an equal place among the nations of the world. For these islanders at this end of the nineteenth century claim to have aci;ually inaugurated a new career of civilization, which neither as to religion, nor ethics, nor philosophy, nor literature, nor politics, nor social life, nor material products and inventions shall pe second to anything which the nations in Christendom have produced or can produce. Yet what is the outcome of the Japanese religions? How stand, not the rare specimen, but the average Japanese man, and the masses to.day?
As one who has for thirty years been before the English-speaking and American public as a writer on Japan, one will not accuse me of lack of appreciation. Yet the truth must be told. Using words in their highest and therefore their true sense, we declare that the average Japanese lacks the fundamental ideas that go to make up a religion. He not only does not know of God but he ignores the very idea. He has scarcely a conception of the sonl as perdnring and individual. His idea of duty, nobly as he fulfils it, is a childish one. Once again, remember, that I nse the ideas of " God," " soul," and "duty" in the highest sense and that I do not refer to the few thousand Christians or a few hundred sincere thinkers who are not agnostics or slaves of Mr. Herbert Spencer,-the philosopher, whose name and work I honor.
Using the word with the same value, weight, and color that we nse it when talking of the Hebrew prophets, the Greek sages, the English poets, Dante, Milton, or Shakespeare, or of the nations which have produced these men, I believe that the Japanese, in spite of all their religions, are not a religious, certainly not a spiritual people. I have tried to make myself reasonably familiar with Japanese history, but I find in it no overmastering spiritual ideals such as have moved and do move the great men of the continents; no consciousness of personal individuality such as filled and exalted the soul of teachers, heroes, and martyrs in lands where Christ reigns; no vision and realization of a presence filling heaven and earth. Tho the term Creator is not unknown in the language of the Japanese, yet they have never reachtany idea of God higher than that of a bundle of abstract principles and forces. Their notion of God is such a sort of entity as may be found inside of a book like Ganot's physics. Their most holy men remind one more of Benjamin Franklin on the one hand or of Saint Simeon Stylites on the other, than of Paul or Augustine, Anselm or Bernard, David Brainerd or Abraham Lincoln. In studying Japanese Buddhist's books, or, the only work which might, by a tremendous stretch of fancy and charity, be called the Japanese Bible,-the Kojijione feels that he is in a fog, or a mist that rolls over and covers everything sharp and definite. Indeed, in that kind of painting which depicts cloud and haze, as well as in philosophy, the Japanese delight; but, whether this misty vagueness be the product of the brush or the brain, such art, philosophy or religion, will never produce men like William the Silent, Raphael or Rembrandt, Kant or Bacon, or Oliver Cromwell, John Huss or Guido de Bres, William Penn or Peter Cooper. Indeed the whole idea of Buddhism is to ignore man's soulconsciousness and that infinite Presence,-that "one simple and spiritual Being which we call God, who is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good." Indeed, what could we expect, with a rudimentary system founded on the idea of the mere evolution of matter and force which, after rising into the personification of the forces of nature, became a political engine for the subjugation of the people, centering everything to the will of the emperor?
After the boldness of Shinto comes the agnosticism of Confucius, t'eaching only etiquette and ceremony, bidding men to "honor the gods but keep them far from you." After this extinguisher of all faith in personality divine or human, Buddhism enters to ignore and ridicule the idea of a Creator, teaching flat atheism and a new cycle of ideas founded on agnosticism, evolution without any previous divine involution, and finding the whole basis of its philosophy in a succession of cause and effect, even while ignoring the First Cause. '
Is it any wonder then, since the Japanese have, roughly speaking, never had anything else but a protean agnosticism, and being throughout their whole history, swampt and mired in the philosophy of ignorance, that they should never know God, or the soul, or duty in any high sense P Is it any wonder that to-day the gospel of Herbed Spencer-a J apanized gospel of Herbert Spencer at that-is the favorite creed of the average educated (heaven save the mark!) Japanese? Without then, the idea of a personal God as a living, self- conscious, free intelligence; without the idea of personality of man, as of a real individual surviving as a spiritual entity the di~solving of his fleshly frame-work; without any moral character apart from per- sonal interest and social necessity, or the will of the emperor; how, in the name of any philosophy known under heaven, are the Japanese to face the perils which now beset them and solve the problems await- ing them? How can Japan, undoubtedly yearning for the fullrecog- nition of all the world, reach that level which the proud nations in Ohristendom require in one who claims to be an equal? The very fact that under the searching word of God, and under that travail and questioning which Ohristian nations feel, because of their God-con- sciousness and soul-consciousness, they ever challenge themselves unto ever nobler ideals, makes them all the more rigid ill demanding of a still pagan nation stern moral tests, and not only a high religion but the frnits of it. It is certain that the nations of Ohristendom will never admit as their equal one in which Buddhism is the popular creed. Oertainly Shinto, the last shadowy relic of an ethnic religion, gives no card of introduction. A mere code of ceremonies like Oon- fucianism begets neither confidence or recognition.
The Japanese boast of their ethics or "spirituality" is a sham.
They may be perfectly certain that a country in which one divorce to every three marriages is the rule, where polygamy and private harems, -with children born in a herd instead of a home, the emperor him- self setting the example, and this being the general custom from the court noble to the betta, is reckoned distinctly inferior and will be.
The hazy view which mercantile and other folk take of the sacredness of a contract, the low value put on the letter of one's bond and of truth generally, the lack of general understanding of the value of a promise, -these things, which better religion will vastly improve, are paving the Japanese future pathway with failures both humiliating and con- tinuous.
He who dwells in the country of the little captain Miles Standish, and familiar with the story of David and Goliath, will not willingly twit the Japanese for their smallness, either in personal stature, the area of their country, the dimiuutiveness of their rice and wheat stalks, compared with those of South Oarolina and Dakota, the little- ness of their rivers, their low percentage of arable area, nor with the grade of their heroes, literature, art, or poetry, all of which seem miniatures rather than mature or imposing products. And this we .'. say, in spite of a whole school of American and European uncritical admirers. But, when we see the Japanese persisting in their love for things petty, and clan-like in regions sublime, cosmical, eternal, demanding" Japanese ethics," a religion of their own making, or "Ohristianity adapted to the needs of Japan," we behol<1 either a merely splenetic reaction against what they deem foreign, or insanity with which God has afflicted them in order to hum.ble them, and we trust afterwards to raise them up.
When the whole truth is told about the Japanese armies in Ohina and Formosa, and the behavior of civilian officers in the newly con- quered island, one is not favorably imprest with the fruits of their ethical training. Tho the nation is to-day ground down under the awful load of taxes that keeps the mass of the people poor and ignorant, tho, no doubt, many are made rich, one in Tokio, Osaka, or Kioto looks almost in vain for great schemes of benevolence, hospitals, asylums for the insane, for the blind, and for diseased and suffering humanity. One does indeed find a few hospitals maintained by the government, but even these are ridiculously few compared with the number in Ohristian countries; while for the special classes, for orphans, the blind, the dumb, the insane, the lying-in-mothers, one is appalled to find that, ~)Utside of those under Ohristian or foreign auspices, and one blind and dumb school of the government, such things hardly exist. The finest buildings in Japan are the government offices, the houses of the high officials, and the military barracks, but a Girard Oollege or Oooper Institute, or those institutions which even in colonial America were hopefully common, are practically unknown in boasting Japan. Large-minded philanthropists are as rare as white crows.
Even the idea of prosperity in religion is apt to mean the approval of eminent statesmen or the applause of the secular newspapers. The Japanese are not yet educated to the idea of ethics, religion, practical benevolence existing apart from politics. It is also true that they are too sadly encouraged by the examples of those despotisms in Europe which they so delightfully follow.
Perhaps it is not possible for a foreigner to divest himself wholly of prejudices, but the writer has not often been accused of prejudices against Japan. 'fhis question of religion must be and can be ponderated apart from subjective prepossessions, when we apply the test ~~~~~~~I~~~~~~~~~ continue in these old paths or to rest in their interpretation of the gospel of Herbert Spencer, will result not only failure to win a place of equality among the nations of Ohristendom, but means utter collapse of the nation. They have planted the acorn in the bottle, but their honest men know the power of growth and the thinness and rigidity of the glass, and therefore dwell in impotent fear. Theyneed ~ become a religious nation and to have that sense and apprehension' .of one living and true God who is "the overflowing fountain of all good." They need to know the reality and therefore the worth of the individual human soul. They need to know of duty done" as in the great Task-Master's eye." They need to get over that frightful conceit which makes them still look on the fundamental principles of Christianity-the world-educating and the world-conquering religion -as inferior to their insular hereditary traditions. Their notions about the desertion of even father and mother for Ohrist's sake as "uprooting Japanese society," seems puerile or dotard-like. It reminds us of Marshal.McMahon who would govern France solely by the advice of his family clergyman. It resembles that of those "mouutain whites" in Kentucky, whose preferenoe for home-distilled corn whiskey leads them to think United States law inferior to local ideals. It is this narrow, childish spirit which has led to Bome of those grotesque reactions and those picturesque anachronisms which have recently illustrated Japanese history during this decade, and which are to be classt with those manias which for twenty-five years have kept them in a succession of wasteful crazes for rabbits, cockfighting, whist, waltzing, big funerals, planchette, wrestling, and the revival of obsolete costumes and sports. Even the Japanese writers now make themselves merry over these revivals of "New Shintoism," "Neo-Buddhism," and over the (now past) spectacle of old-fashioned Oonfucianists, spectacled and top-knotted, lecturing on ethics to classes of bright-faced boys sitting in school-rooms with seats, desks, apparatus and text books of latest pattern; and over that variegated Ohauvinism in politics, literature, dress, and behavior which shows, we trust, the last flickerings of a dying flame. By and by the Japauese will see clearly that God Almighty is greater even than their Mikado. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that, after two thousand years inoculation in the idea that Japan is the center of the universe, the disease is not easily curable.
Will not the Japanese, even those who "swallow Herbert Spencer whole," understand that even the philosopher of the unknowable does not deny the existence and activity of a personal God, that even those destructive critics on the European continent who have deserted the old Calvinism and other traditional forms of Ohristian faith, believe none the less in a great determining Power, personal and intelligent? The Japanese must learn that the very "evolution" in which they so delight is, with thousands of Ohristian thinkers, supremely loyal to Jesus, only another way of describing and of seeing plaiply God's method of continuous creation. Oertain it is that, without the faith of theism, it will be impossible to grasp that which not only binds the nations of the west in unity, but which gives them their law of progress,-that is, the fatherhood of God ani! the brotherhood of man. Nor can any hope for the welfare of the great mass of the Japanese people be based on anything else than on Ohrist's law of love. Following out this law, the leaders of Ohristendom have been able under
ABOUT THE AINU 01f JAPAN
God to lift up the whole body of their fellow men. For the Japanese intellect-after three different systems, all agnostic, pantheistic, and corrosive of the great fundamental truths which have uplifted Europe and America-to adopt a new one-that of Spencer, but with SFencer's ultimate idea left out-seems rather the freak of the insane than the choice of intelligent men. Possibly, however, they are playing a game to deceive the world, and once more practicing their old trick of taking on the material forces and bastard philosophy of Christendom, in order, really, to guard their isolation amI insulate themselves from the shock of vital change.
The editor of this magazine has askt me for an article on "The Religions of Japan," leaving me free to deal with some special phrase of the subject, or with the subject in general. I have chosen to point out the failure of the three religions of Japan (and, like failure in all, because of the same defect in each), to elevate and save the Japanese. I believe they can be elevated and saved, when they come to God, believing that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; when they realize human personality in the highest sense, and when the,r notions of duty become something more than a local, insular, and familyaffa,ir. So I close this article with words written in March, 1875 (after having lived four years among them, and known them for seven years), and now all the more deeply felt after thirty years' acquaintance with them.
"Unless a mightier spiritual force than either Shinto or Buddhism is allowed unimpeded operation, we see little prospect of aught better than the gain of a glittering veneer of material civilization, and the corroding foreign vices under which, in the presence of the superior aggressive races of the west, Japan must fall as the doomed races of America. or Hawaii."
SOMETHING ABOUT THE AINU* OF JAPAN.
BY THE REV. JOHN BATCHELOR, SAPPORO, YEZO, JAPAN.
It will be found that, as a rule, writers of certain classes of nOTels make their stories center round some one or more heroes. It is also a rule,- a very natural, and therefore most important rule it may be added,-that the remarks made concerning these heroes shall be in conformity with the character it has already been determined to portray. Unless this principle is maintained the story will certainly be pronounced bad. Nevertheless, in a large majority of cases it turns out that such conformity is found to be of a highly embellisht nature, * The word Ainu means" man " or " men," This people therefore knows itself as the race of U men." SOMETHING A.BOUT THE AINU OF JAPAN.
and is often so exaggerated as to amount to moral untruth, for the writer dwells almost exclusively on one or two characteristics at the expense of all others.
So does it also appear to be a general rule that any person undertaking to write about the Ainu residing in far off Japan, must, to lend interest to his book, by all means produce this phenomenon. Intending travelers and writers will have already heard beforehand that the Ainu are a very filthy and very hairy race, and so before they appear upon the scene and commence their task, they have already got their own clean cut ideas as to what the people ought to be like. Their phenomena, therefore, invariably figure as particularly filthy, hairy, and for this reason abject specimens, more like brute beasts than human beings. And, the cue being taken from that, the race is described very much according to the writer's notion of what they consider it ought to be, rather than what it is in reality. Moreover, the phenomena are made to serve various purposes. They are either used as subjects upon which to base a few interesting remarks, or from which to give a far-fetcht back-handed hit at the Christian faith iu the creation of man by the Supreme Being, or as texts from which to draw some peculiar, if not impossible conclusions; or else they are made to do duty as pegs, upon which to hang some long cherisht opinion of persons or things in general which the writer wishes to air by some pretense or other. And we find that the interesting remarks made are often so exaggerated and the facts so over-stated as to give the reader quite a wrong impression of the people, while the peculiar conclusions drawn and sentiments exprest are, if not unscientific, at least such as reflect credit neither on the intelligent discrimination, fairness of mind, aud kindness of heart in the writer, nor moral character, intellectual status, and common human nature of the Ainu. Indeed, unless great care is exercised, there is a danger of being led by writers to look upon this people as partaking more of the outward appearance and inward nature of the lower animals than of human beings,-of being led to expect to find them wild savages rather than as the civilized, quiet and good-natured men and women they are. Many a traTeler has said to me: "Why these people are nothing like as hairy and wild as I expected to find them I " And such indeed is the fact; the whole matter has been greatly over-stated.
That most indefatigable and brave lady traveler, who, whenever she puts pen to paper, always writes so honestly and vividly, intereetingly and impartially (I mean Mrs. Isabella Bird-Bishop), found her filthy and hairy specimen at Repungepin Volcano Bay. She writes very graphically of him, and in a pleasant, good-humored way calls him the MISSING LINK. Futhermore, to give greater perspicuity to her description she speaks of him in the neuter gender. In writing about him she says: "I was startled when I first saw it. It was-shall I say-a man, and the mate, I can not write hUsbQ.ud,of the ugly woman. The arms and legs were unnaturally long and thin, and the creature sat with the knees tuckt into the armpits. The limbs and body, with the exception of a patch on each side, were thinly covered with fine black hair, more than an inch long, which was slightly curly on the shoulders. It showed no other signs of intelligence than that evi- denced by boiling water for my tea." * Bnt Miss Bird is very fair to this people (and I wish, indeed, I could say all were like her in this matter), and would not have the careful reader be led astray by this or any other exceptional phenome- non, for, in another place which she likewise intended to be read, she most trnly says: "The Volcano Bay Ainos t are far more hairy than the mountain Ainos, but even among them it is qnite common to see men not more so than vigorous Enropeans, and I think that the hair- iness of the race, as a distinctive feature, has been much exaggerated, partly by the smooth-skinned Japanese."! Thus, then, by comparing these two passages together, we find that Miss Bird gives a very good description of the hairiness of the Ainu, and in it she speaks the trnth. When, therefore, we hear her speaking about the MISSING LINK as existing at Repungep, we must take her words, not as conveying assent to the doctrine 'of human evolution, but rather as an expression of surprise at seeing a man who was, even for an Ainu, beyond donbt exceptionally hairy. And we must ever remember that the Ainu is not altogether made up of hair, and is a biped.
But all writers on the Ainu are by no means as fair as Miss Bird, for, while she describes her phenomenon as above quoted, and, tho not / in an unkind manner, yet perhaps a little thoughtlessly for a serious writer, calls him the MISSING LINK, Mr. Savage Landor gOE)s a long step further, and seems to seriously look upon the Ainu as the genuine article referred to in the above terms, as if, forsooth, the doctrine of the MISSING LINK was a proved and already accepted article of general belief! This gentleman writes at the end of the 27th Ohapter of his book as follows: "Resuming these few remarks 'on the characteristic points of Ainn senses, my readers will probably have noticed certain facts which strongly support Darwin's theory of evolution and the hairy arboreal ancestor with pointed ears, from which the races of men are descended." Mr. Landor has very highly colored his Ainu, and in his" remarks on characteristic points of Ainu senses," has sadly dis- torted the facts of the case. He is uttel'ly unreliable when writing of the Ainu. Indeed, from a perusal of his account and illustration of them, I should hardly have known, unless from some of the names he gives and from his having told us, that he was writing of the race I …. Unbeaten Tracts In Japan." Vol. Ii., page 1"1.
t It should be written Ainu, not .. Alnos. " ; .. Unbeaten Tracts In Japan." Vol. Ii., page 189.
BATCHELOR AND CHRISTIAN AINU
~v. J OH N BATC HELOR AND NO~-C H KL!!i 'l' l AN Al NU MEN.
AMONG THE AINU OF JAPAN.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE .&.IlIIll' OJ!' JUIJr
and my wife have been for so many years most intimately connected with and working among. Whatever Mr. Landor may consider to be his own ancestry, I, for my part, prefer .to accept the account revealed and set forth in Genesis i-iii. Whatever that gentleman's illustra- tions may be, upon these I make no comment here, his writing can, in no sense, be relied on, particularly so when he touches upon matters connected with any department whatever of psychology or theology.
Dr. Howard also found his hairy specimen to write about, but in this case it happened to be a woman. He found her in a Russian hospital on the Island of Sakhalin. Of her he says: "The most astounding feature of all in this remarkable phenomenon, and that which at first caused me to inquire why the doctor allowed it the privileges of the female ward, was that the neck, chest, arms, and, as I afterwards found, the whole body was more hairy than the most hairy man I ever saw.
It Despite the atrocious appearance, this phenomenon was taciturn, shy, and docile, with an evident wish, were it possible, to be even friendly and amiable." '"
The inference, I suppose, the doctor desires the reader to draw is not only that the Ainu, both men and women alike, resemble the lower animals as regards quantity of hair, but also that they are no more capable of intelligent friendship and expression of amiability than those creatures are. But in this he is altogether mistaken, for not only is it possible for the Ainu to be friendly, but they are indeed so. They are just as much human as Doctor Howard himself, and neither more nor less so. According to Dr. Howard and another writer one would be led to conclude that the Ainu have not as much sense and capacity. for affection as a common Scotch collie. Furthermore, the doctor has informed us that the Yezo Ainu are descended from those of Sakhalin; the Ainu themselves, however, know nothing of this, and the Yezo Ainu scornfully repUdiate the idea. It is a purely gratuitous guess on the part of the doctor. Thus we find that almost all statements made by the passing stranger and ordinary traveler on these and kindred matters should be received with caution, and ought to be taken very much cum grano salis.. A few weeks or months is not sufficient time in which to learn all about a race of people and write a good, reliable book on them, especially so when the writers know nothing of the lauguage of the subjects of their remarks.
So much then for Messrs. Landor and Howard. But, it may be askt, does not one of the greatest Japanese scholars and writers on things Japanese speak somewhat in the same strain as these gentlemen? Well, yes I Professor Basil Hall Ohamberlain does appear in one place to be rather hard on the poor Ainn, but his writings may not, for a moment, be compared with those of the writers just men- … Trans·Siberian Savaies," paie 9. tioned. Whatever he says about the Ainu is reliable, and may not be lightly questioned. However, there is just one place in his writing with which I cannot agree. In concluding an essay on the Ainu, he finishes with the following remarks:* "By some European travelers this Japanization of the present generation (of Ainu), and the probable speedy extinction of the race, are mourned over. The present writer can not share these regrets. . • . But so little have they profited by the opportunities offered to them during the past thousand or two thousand years, that there is no longer room for them in the world. It (i. 6., this race) has no future, because it has no root in the past. . . . The existence of this race has been as aimless, as fruitless as the perpetual dashing of the breakers on the shore of Horo- betsu. t It leaves behind it nothing but a few names."
No one would ever suspect me of being one of those who think with the professor on this point. We might inquire as to what the so-called opportunities of the last one or two thousand years he speaks of have been. There is, perhaps, another side to this question upon which a great deal might be said, but a discussion of which would be outside the scope of this article. And as to saying that the race has 'been as aimless, as fruitless, as the perpetual dashing of the breakers on the shores of the sea, can it be demonstrated, indeed, that the dashing of these same breakers is aimless and fruitless? Is the least vibration of the earth or the smallest movement of air aimless and fruitless? Unless a man is infinite in knowledge and perception he surely has no right to say that this is so. Perhaps at the time when all mysteries are laid open before us, we shall see that the existence of the Ainu race has not been in vain. No; surely there can be nothing in the whole universe that is or has been absolutely useless. We believe that" God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." This being so, the Ainu existence may not lightly be called aimless and fruitless.
And when we remember that Christ, like the merchantman in the parable, sold all that He had, as it were, i. 6., laid aside His great and eternal glory for a time and became man, that He might come to this earth and seek after the goodly pearl of the human soul-when we remember Him as the good Shepherd seeking till he found the sheep that was lost-then, in some. degree, do we learn to look upon these friendless Ainu in the way that the Great Master of all looks upon them; then do we learn to see through the rugged exterior and understand something of what is contained beneath. And looking beyond • "lIIemoirlof the IJterature College, Imperial University of Japan." No.1. Pages 74,15.
t Horobetsu is a mixt village of Japanese and Ainu ou the East coast of Yazo, and Is open to the broad expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Prof. Chamberlain spent a few weeka with the present writer and his wife at this place in 1888 for the study of the Ainu laqtIaie, hence the illustration. this present world to that which is to come, we see, with the eye of faith, men "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and natiou" (and surely this includes the Ainu race), standing round the throne of God and the Lamb. Thus we believe that when the Ainu race has served the purpose for which it was sent into the world, and not before, it shall pass away as other races have done before it and shall do after it. And so we go on working in faith.
That the Ainu is a disappearing race is a fact which can not be denied, for while thirty years ago the population numbered some thirty thousand souls, there are now no more than sixteen thousand of them left. And the fewer they become the faster they will die out. What with the rapid immigration of the Japanese, who come by thousands every year, and not only reside in and about the Ainu villages, but also take up the lands and the fishing grounds along the seacoast and rivers, thus pushing the Ainu out; what with the strong passion for alcoholic drink there is among the men; the poor food they have to subsist on; the inroads of disease and utter ignorance and disregard of the most elementary hygienic rules, together with other causes, it seems to be inevitable that the race should. become qnite extinct within a very few years. One or two Japanese philanthropists, indeed, have spoken about preserving the Ainu by placing them in :reserves, and the matter has been even mentioned in the diet, but so far it has all ended in talk. The doctor who attends to the Ainu who come to our" rest-house" in Sapporo, has examined and prescribed for some four hundred of them, and his opinion is that the race is worn out; its energy and vitality have disappeared. It would appear to be too late now to do anything effectually for the physical salvation of the people by way of placing them in reserves. The Japanese nation has missed a grand opportunity in suffering this poor people to be thus driven to the wall when it was in their power to help them.
Mission work has been carried on ft.mong those Ainu under Russian rule for many years and there are quite a number of Greek Christians, I understand, on the Island of Sakhalin. How many I have no means of finding out. I also hear that laws have been made and are rigidly enforced, by which it is forbidden to sell alcoholic liquors to them. I am sure the people are happier and better for this wise regulation. I wish I could say as much for the Japanese treatment of the Ainu in their dominions. So far from forbidding the sale of Sake* to them, there is now a distillery in full work right among the Ainu of the old capital of Piratori I It was built about twelve months ago, and has already done much harm to the people and the cause of Christ about there. I notice a great di1Jerence between the people to-day and what they were before this distillery was built. It is very distressini to * Sake is whiskey distilled from rice.
September
see ~he downward grade of many a promising youth, and the sad, tearful faces of what were but a short time since bright and happy wives.
So far as I am aware, I happen to be the first missionary of any denomination to preach the Gospel to the Ainu of Yezo in their native tongue. Speaking of the communion to which I belong, the Rev. W. Dening was originally sent in the year 1874 by the C. M. S. to take up work in Yezo with the special object of reaching the Ainu race, but he gave the most af his time to the study of Japanese in Hakodate, and tho he 'made one or two trips to some of the Ainn villages, notably those of Usu and Piratori for the purpose of studying the language, he was not able to spare enough time from the Japanese work to make himself proficient in the Ainu tongue. I was sent to Hakodate in the year 1877, having been obliged to leave Hongkong, to which place I was originally appointed, through malarial fever. For the space of two years I gave almost the whole of my time to studying the Japanese language, occasionally, however, making a short trip to the Ainu near at hand and while among them devoted myself to stUdying their language, religion, and customs, as a kind of rest and recreation from the difficulties of the Japanese tongue. These trips became more frequent till in the year 1882, having by this time gained some little knowledge of the language and people, I was appointed by the C. M. S. Committee to make the matter of evangelizing the Ainu my special work and first care. Hence the Ainu have for many yeam been my chief study while preaohing, the Gospel to them. Mrs. Batchelor has of course assisted me in no small degree in the work, and the Lord has been pleased to bless the labors of our hands abundantly.
But we are nOw no longer alone in this work. All the O. M. S. missionaries on the island have their share of Ainu to evangelize. The majority of the people, however, are still under my charge, for out of the total of 16,000, nearly 10,000 are in my district. A lady also has now been sent to help us in this cause, and there are three Ainu and two Japanese helpers laboring especially among the people. There is also a school for boys at Hakodate, and a "Rest-House" for the sick at Sapporo.
The first Ainu Christian admitted into our section of the Church of Christ was baptized on Christmas day in 1885, and he past away on January the 19th of the present year. In the following year three others were added to the church. In 1887 two more were baptized, and so on till the year 1893 the people came out by ones and twos· But in that year the seed which had been steadily sown during so long' a time'suddenly sprang to life, so that up to the present time more than seven hundred have been admitted into the Ohurch by baptism, while there are many others coming out. There are, in fact, more
TBB nu.a IN UPU
than a hundred catechumens uuder instruction at the present moment. Thus does the Lord add to His churches daily such as are being saved. Moreover, it has been my blessed privilege to give the Ainu the New Tt*itament in their own language. May the Lord continue His good work in the hearts of this poor downtrodden people.
THE YEAR IN JAPAN.
BY REV. GEORGE Wlf. KNOX, D.D• .As we closed our survey of the year in Japan, in July, 1896, came the news of the terrible disaster in the North. It was described in the October number of this REVIEW, by one who visited the scene on an errand of mercy. During the months following, there were terrible floods, and, later, a long continued epidemic of smallpox. But terrible catastrophies occur so often in Japan that they are accepted as natural and to be expected. So has it been from the dawn of history and so is it likely to be for ages to come. The only unusual thing is the bleSBed charity which hastens now to alleviate the suffering, a charity taught by our Lord but learned by multitudes who do not profess his name.
The Death of the Empress Dowager occurred in January, 1897, and her funeral gave opportunity for the Japanese to show that in some things at least they still are lovers of the past. The funeral ceremonies were prolonged, expensive, inexpressibly tedious (to impatient occidentals at least), exaggerated, antiquated. The empire was searched for oxeu of just the right ritual color to draw the cart that bore the coffin, the cart itself was of a peculiar pattern and its wheels emitted a monrnful sound as they revolved. After careful search oue ancient carpenter was found who knew how to construct the vehicle. The interment at last was at night, and an hour was consumed in lowering the coffin into its place. Everything belonged to the old, old Japan of elaborate ceremony, and endless time, and exhaustless patience.
Amnesty to prisoners was proclaimed. Sixty thousand were benefitted by a reduction in their sentences, and 16,000 were released outright. It was in vain that some of the newspapers protested that this ancient custom was more honored in the breach than in the observance. In the ancient times the presumption was all against the prisoner and he was often kept for years, sometimes for life, without his guilt .being establisht, even without formal trial. Many, too, were condemned for ceremonial or unintentional or some relative's transgressions implying no real guilt. For such the death of a ruler offered an opportu-
TlIB Y]U,B IN JAPAlf
nity for redress, and the prison doors were opened that innocent sufferers might go free. But now, it was argued, with the modern system of law men get only what they deserve, and such release of prisoners is at 'the expense of justice. They also prophesied an increase of crime as the result, a prophecy that has seemed to be fulfilled in the months past.
More in accordance with modern notions was the gift of 400,000 en from the Imperial purse to charitable institutions, though it is doubtful if even so royal a gift could make up for the sufferings caused dancing girls, actors, and musicians, who for fifteen days were forbidden to follow their means of livelihood. And after all the Empress Dowager was not the mother of the Emperor. But in family relationships, as in funeral ceremonies, Imperial Japan is still wholly archaic and unreformed.
With Foreign Powers.-Some of the very patriotic folks sharply reproved the government for not insisting on mourning by foreign courts. But European powers have never thus recognized Asiatic courts, and it is not yet clear that Christian usages can be extended to non-Christian states. In any case, some at least of the Japanese felt that a slight was put upon their idolized land.
A more serious matter was the reported Russian military mission to Korea, a mission seemingly in contravention of the treaty recently concluded between the two empires concerning the troublesome little kingdom. But this is now reported as arranged satisfactOl·ily. None the less does Korea remain a thorn in the patriotic flesh of Japan. None can pretend that she achieved peace with honor there.
Nor yet in Formosa. That remains a white elephant. Insurrections, epidemics, dissatisfaction, and worst of all, the conduct of the Japanese themselves appear as causes of the misfortunes and disgrace. The newspapers are keenly alive to the situation and loud in their demands for reforms, and in that is perhaps the brightest gleam of hope.
With Hawaii, too, there hits been trouble; the Japanese being at least technically right. This little cloud shows how all the world is one, since the Japanese protest against the exclusion of its laborers has hastened the action of our own executive in making its new treaty for the incorporation of the Sandwich Islands in our domain. 'rhe Japanese protest again as they already felt themselves aggrieved by our proposed new tariff with its increased duties on silks and matting, and its tax on tea. Perhaps the cutting off the latter tax may appease the cl~mor raised against the new" unfriendly" policy of the United States.
Politics at Home.-There has been the usual strife, but less acute, and the customary change of ministry. No ministry seems able to endure a twelve months. Perhaps the last may have a more kindly fate. Two measures of importance it has already with the willing help of Parliament accomplished. There is now greater freedom of speech and of the press. Indeed, Japan is now far in advance in this of some European powers that count themselves at the very top; Germany for example. Nor has there yet been undue license, though there have been occasions for excited debate. But freedom in Japan we venture to prophesy will prove to be conservative and not revolutionary.
But whether because of greater freedom or because of greater cause there are plain charges of serious corruption in the government. It is openly charged that the change of ministry was rendered possible by the bribery of Parliament. Certain it is that a hostile majority was converted mysteriously into one subservient, and certain also is it that a change is passing rapidly over Japanese society; a change ominous in many ways.
The Money Power.-Japan has still retained socially its feudal ideals and standards. In old Japan luxury, wealth, and display were despised. The poorest samurai counted himself superior to the richest merchant. In the great clans young gentlemen were trained as soldiers, and by precept and example were taught that wealth was not to be sought by gentlemen. Boys grew to manhood with no knowledge of trade and without a dollar they could call their own. In the old representative samurai families a puritan simplicity reigned. And after feudalism past the old standard remained. The smallest official felt himself of the governing caste and superior to common folks. The petty officials were poor but beyond suspicion. One could not fee even a policeman, not even for extraordinary service. The deference accorded them and the powers exercised by them, by men paid the merest pittance, was astonishing. Within a few years to be in the government service was the ambition of the brightest youth.
But with the new civilization comes a. change, most markt since the termination of the war. The old ambition that Japan be the equal" of the great Powers seems attainable ouly through a vast increase of wealth. The nation has never thought itself poor. It has had enough, but now with new ~ays of life come new needs. Civilization of the modern style is endlessly costly. Compared with Europe and America Japan is poor indeed, but it must maintain itself in the new society into which it has been forced. Expenditures increase apace, and taxation is in proportion. A clear example of the new influence is in the substitution of gold as money standard in place of silver. The change was effected in the briefest space of time, with the minimum of discussion and almost no dissent. The nation felt it another change advancing it towards equality with the favored nations of the West. The rapid adoption of the measure markt, possibly, the new influence of the money power. But the
Sept~~
nation agreed. So does it agree to the new social position accorded wealth. It is now said to be the ambition of young men to become rich, and the relative position of poor officials and rich merohants is suddenly reverst. There comes to be a scramble for money. New enterprises are planned, new resources sought, and new characteristics displayed. With all the vast extension of commerce and of manufacturing industry of recent years the nation still feels poor and st.ill craves wealth. One can not look upon this feature in new Japan without grave disquietude. Inevitable it doubtless is, but what shall become of the old charm of the old life, so restful, so full of grace, so far removed from the sordid strife of the modern world? One does not like to think that~' Christian" civilization taught Japan first how in most approved style to kill, and then introduced the scramble for more and more and ever more of this world's goods. It is not pleasant to be told that money makes and unmakes parliamentary majorities, and that a ministry can endure only if in alliance with millionaires. When shall we be able to say that not only Western modes of warfare, and of commerce, and of sordid politics, but that the Christ's teaching of love and truth has won Japan? Not at once we fear.
The Work of the Okurck.-Not yet does there seem to be a turn of the tide that has so checkt the advance. Indee'd, some of the keenest observers think this new strife for wealth the most antagonistic force which has yet appeared. Whatever be the cause the result is manifest.
Again the table of statistics of all mission work shows a net 1088. At the close of the year 1896 there were 349 fewer communicants in Protestant churches than were reported at the close of 1895, and 879 less than those reported at the close of 1894. Let us face the facts at their worst. Not counting the wives of missionaries, many of whom do most valiant and effective service, there are 472 foreign missionaries, with 281 ordained Japanese ministers, and 610 unol'dained preachers and helpers, and 204 Bible women, a total of 1,567 professionallaborers, and the net result for two years of work has been a loss in the number of communicants of 879. In the long list of columns the list of laborers almost alone show increase. More laborers and less results, that seems to be the story for years. And even the number of ordained Japanese shows a large falling off.
It is true that there is a pretty large number of adult baptisms reported (2,513), but this is less than in the year preceding, and that less than in the year before, and that also showed a decrease.
The largest diminution is in the work of the American Board, and the exceptional causes for its decrease are well known. For the first time, we judge, it falls to third place in the number of converts, and its native ministry is less than half, only 25 now against 60 a year before, while its students for the ministry are reported as only six. But tho special causes have affected this work long the most promising of all, still, at best, the other missions have only held their own.
It is much that they have held their own, and much that in that mission that has suffered so grievously so many stand fast and maintain the faith. In total result they are second, and in benevolence still leli.d all the rest.
The Hope jor the Future.-So far 3S we know none is discouraged. In the days of success many, as in the days of the early Church with apostolic leadership, profest the faith who did not know its power. And many flourisht for a time but had no root and by and by withered away. But many endure, and from them shall come the Church that shall endure. The work no longer occupies its old place in the public eye, it no longer comes with observation, but it endure~, and it will still possess the land.
In many places interest is manifested, and faithful work brings forth fruit. Missionaries and converts are in greater harmony than in times past. There is less unrest, less curiosity abont the latest novelty, anef a truer and more sober estimate of the work that must be done.
The experience in Japan is not exceptional. It is from such experiences that the Chnrch learns patience, faith, and its absolute dependence upon God's power. To learn that is to learn all, and at last to win all.
PANDITA RAMABAI AND HER WORK.
BY MISS GRACE E. WILDER, KOLHAPUR, INDIA.
The name of Pandita Ramabai isfamiliarto many. We American women are glad to recall the fact that when this young widow came to our shores, she received the sympathy and aid for which her heart was longing. Ramabai's efforts for the widows of western India, and more especially her present connection with famine widows, has 80 brought her into prominence that some may be glad to have a short review of a life so signally molded and used by God.
In the famine of 1876 Ramabai was a little Hindu girl living in, the jungles of India. Her father being a pundit, he chose So solitary abode-a custom not uncommon among the religious people of India. Both parents were anxions to have Rama become learned; so, from So child, she was taught the Hindu shastras. I have been told that she committed to memory 23,000 verses of the Hindu scriptures.
. Among others, her own people fell victims to the terrible famine. Of this time she says: "Eleven days and nights, in which we sub-
PANDITA. ,RAHABA.I AND DEB WOBlI
sisted on water and leaves, were spent in great mental and bodily pain. At last our dear father could hold out no longer. He determined to drown himself in the sacred tank neal' by. ' Remember, my child,' he said, 'you are my youngest, my most beloved child. I have. given you into the hands of our God; you are His, and to Him alone you must belong and serve all your life.' He could speak no more. My father's prayers for me were no doubt heard by the Almighty, the all merciful heavenly Father, whom the old Hindu did not know. The God of all flesh did not find it impossible to bring me, a great sinner and an unworthy child of His, out of heathen darkness into the saving light of His love and salvation."
Happily the resolve of suicide was not carried out, for later this father was attacked by fever, from which he did not recover. Ramabai touchingly tells of how fellow-villagers, being doubtful as to the caste of the family, offered no assistance, and her brother carried the lifeless form alone over two miles to its last resting-place.
The story of helplessness and starvation continued until mother and sister both died. She and her brother visited the large cities of India. She advocated female education, and after a time this young lecturer and Sanscrit scholar created a sensation by her views and scholarship. The pundits of Calcutta conferred upon her the distinguisht title ()f Sarasvati. Soon after this her brother died. "His great thought during his illness," she writes, " was for me." When he spoke of his anxiety, I answered: "There is no one but God to care for you and me." " Ah," he answered, "then if God cares for UB, I am afraid of nothing! and indeed in my loneliness it seemed as if God was near me, I felt his presence."
After the death of her brother, Ramabai married a Bengali gentleman. After nineteen months of married life she was left a widow with a baby daughter Manorama (Heart's Joy). She resumed her former work as a lecturer, going from city to city to plead for the education of native women and the discouragement of child marriage.
It was not long before her restless desire to go to England was real. ized. She writes: "It seems to me now very strange how I could have started as I did with my friend and little child, throwing ,myself on God's protection. When I reacht England, the sisters in St. Mary's Home at Wantage kindly received me. There I gradually learned to feel the truth of Christianity, and to see that it is a philosophy teaching truths higher than I had ever known in all our systems; to see that it gives not only precepts but a perfect example; that it does not give us precepts and an example only, but assures us a divine grace to follow that example." Here she and her daughter were baptized, and thus before reaching America she had profest an outward adherence to Christianity.
She was received into the home of Dean Bodley, of Philadelphia, and there received the encouragement and counsel and love of a truly great woman. In preparing an introduction to one of Ramaba.i's boo~s, Dean Bodley writes: "I askt her as she arose to depart if she had a last message for the readers of her book. 'Remind them,' she • replied, with animated countenance and rapid speech, as she claspt my hand, 'that it was out of Nazareth that the blessed Redeemer of mankind came; that great reforms have again and again been wrought by instrumentalities that the world despised. Tell them to help me educate the high caste child widows, for I solemnly believe that this hated and despised class of women, educated and enlightened, are by God's grace to redeem India.''' In remarkable ways God is causing Ramabai to realize the gradual fulfillment of this prophetic desire.
Her'home for widows is located at Poona, amid pleasant natural surroundings. The inmates-numbering at the close of last year between fifty and sixty-receive here not alone superior educational advantages, but a home-life which is a constant protest against the awful customs of Hindu widowhood.
During the last two years Ramabai has herself experienced a deeper knowledge of the life of Christ and of the possibilities of that life being manifested in her. Through the blessing of God on the efforts of an English evangelist, she was shown that the Holy Spirit is a living person. Her acceptance of Him and obedience to Him have had a markt influence on the girls in her home. Ramabai has always held the position that every pupil is free to join her at the time of morning and evening prayer. As the spirit of God has been manifested in this home, the attendance at prayers has increast, and last year twelve girls profest faith in Christ by baptism.
Six months ago-as fearful facts of famine su:ffering reachtRama- bai-her heart could not rest without making efforts to save the widows of Central India. "We shall be quite contented," she writes, "to have only one meal of common coarse food daily, if necessary, and so long as we have a little room or a seed of grain left in this' house, we shall try and help our sisters who are starving."
After a rail journey of many miles, Ramabai hired a bullock-cart, and visited some of the villages of the Central Provinces. She found that not only were young widows and deserted wives starving, but their lives were in great moral danger from wicked Mohammedans, who were taking advantage of this time of their dis- tress and helplessness.
Before we left India, Ramabai's jourlley had added 125 to Sarada Sadhan-her home in Poona. I saw many of these young widows, with skeleton forms and gaunt looks, which said more than their words. They were under a temporary inclosure of Bamboo poles, covered with clo.th and matting. When I said, "Ramabai, you now need bui,ldings," she replied, "Yes, and the Father must send the money." News has reacht me that the number of widows or deserted wives taken by Ramabai from famine districts has risen to 149, and preparations are being made to receive more.
We, who live in Western India, recognize God's gracious love and power in this chosen life. . We see that Ramabai is now gathering in the girls who will, with God's blessing, be teachers and missionaries to their own people. Will you help her by prayer, and by undertaking the support of one or more of the members of her increasing family?
We add the following account of the terrible condition of affairs in India, where the distress brought about by plague and famine is unspeakably augmented by the unprincipled use which evil men make to gratify their own lust. Pandita Ramabai is doing her utmost to rescue the young girls and child-widows who would otherwise fall into the hands of these human vultures.
At Sohagpur Ramabai first began the work of rescuing these starving girls. Sbe says: We found that we could not get the orphan children without the permission of the government, so our first business was to see the physician in charge of the hospital, and the tahsildar in charge of the poor-house. Before that hospital were walking three little famished skeleton-like forms, and this first sight of- their distress I shall never forget. The three children were of the Ohamar caste, their father had died some time ago, and the mother died only the day before. The eldest was a girl of about seven, the second a boy of five, and the youngest a baby boy three years of age. The girl was protecting herself from the intense cold with a covering of rags, and the two boys had nothing on their bodies. Their wrinkled faces and the ghastly, death-like expression told the story of the terrible suffering they were in. All of them were crying for food. The youngest had sore eyes, and could scarcely open them. The poor babe was suffering from dysentery, so much so that his intestines were almost falling out. T{) add to hIS misery, he had fallen down and hurt his back. The blood flowed freely from the injured part, which was already so sore and painful, but there was no one to care for him. He was crying, but tears were not to be seen in his eyes. The children were right before the hospital, but no one showed any sign of pity. It took us so long to find the officer in charge of the poor-house that when we returned they had gone, and though I went searching all over the town, I could not find them. Perhaps they died of hunger.
The poor-house was only a grove in the outskirts of the town. Groups of famisht people lying down in heaps, or sittin~ or lying in ashes on the dirty ground. Some had rags to cover theu bodies, and some had none. There were old and young men, and women, and children, most of the ill, too weak to move about, and many suffering from leprosy and other unmentionable diseases. Bad men, immoral wqmen, pure young girls, innocent children and old people, good, bad, and indifferent, were freely mixing and conversing with each other. They slept in the open air, or under the trees at night, and ate the scanty and coarse food provided by the government. The food was nothing but dry flour and some salt. Many of the so-called poor-houses are open grounds with a lIort of fence all round them. Some are nothing but sheds temporarily erected to shelter the people. The miserable men, women, and children, who find shelter in these places, are baked in the sun in the day and freeze in cold at night. In some places there is a thin fencing, where men and women are placed separately. But this arrangelllent is not much of a protection to the women. The devil is at work, even in these poor-houses and relief camps, and they are not fit places for young women and girls to be in. The European and native officers employed to look after the interests of the dying thousands are hard at work, and try to do as much as they can. But it is impossible for them to find out what goes on behind their backs; they are obliged to leave the work in the hands of the Mukadams, who can do whatever they like. They pull and push the working coolies, even women. Young men can be seen everywhere talking to girls and women under the pretense of doing the Mukadam's work. Wicked men and women are everywhere ou the lookout for young women and girls; they entice them by offering sweetmeats and other kind of food, clothing, and fair promises to take them to nice places and make them happy. So hundreds of girls, young widows, and deserted wives are waylaid as they go to the relief camps and poor-houses in search of food and work, and taken away before they place themselves in the custody of the governmeut. The wicked are not afraid of the judgment of God, they are sinning away their lives in the midst of the fearful scene of famine and pestilence. They are carrying on a wholesale trade in young girls who have been obliged to leave their families and wander away from home in quest of food. In many cases parents have fallen a prey to the famine, and left their young girls to the tender mercies of their neighbors, or fellow travelers, or other wayfarers. Such girls easily fall into the hands of wicked people.
Here is an instance: A young girl of fourteen, and a little sister of about eight years of a~e, were left orphans and taken possession of by a wicked man at !tarsI. I happened to see her in the streets and askt her who she was. She told me her whole story and said she would let me have her sister, who was not wanted by her cruel master, and that she could not come away for the fear of that man. I wanted to rescue the poor child but was at that time unable to do so. I prayed to the Lord to show me the way-and in the next week He sent help. A young missionary gentleman came to help me. He went to the police station and took her away from the "man who had kept her in his possession against her will. She was sent to the mission bungalow with a servant, but the former master carried her away by force. A~ain the missionary went to the town and fetcht her, and that very mght 1 took her to Jabalpur, and now she and her sister are placed with some good missionary ladies who will take care of them. The elder girl, poor child, is rumed for life, and.is suffering from horrible disease.
May the merciful Father help these children! Another young girl of about fifteen was some time ago wandering away from home, when a res~ectable looking man told her to go home with him and help his wife m the household work. She consented, and went with him. He gave her nice clothes and food, and for a few days all went on nicely with her, but the devil was at work in his heart. Other demands were made on her, but the girl said she had gone to his house to work and not for any other purpose. He then said that she should nDt get sari and fDDd, unless she cDnsented to fDllo.W his wishes.
" Very well," she said, and put Dn her DId rags, threw away the gDDd sari, and went Dut Dn the street again to beg her fODd. She was pickt up the same day by a kind lady and is safe with me now.
There are not many such girls who. will resist the devil in the face of starvatio.n and death. Go.d be thanked fo.r prDtecting the virtue of these innocents. But it has been my sad lot to see many little girls ruined for life.
My sympathies are excited by the needs of young girl widDws, especially at this time. To let them go. to the relief camps and pDor- hDuses, or allDW them to' wander in the streets and Dn the highways ,means their eternal destructiDn. Ever since I have seen these girls in the famine districts-some fallen into. the hauds o.f wicked people; some ruined fQr life and turned Qut by their cruel masters Qwing to.
bad diseases, to. die a miserable death in a ho.peless, helpless manner, SDme being treated in the hQspitals Qnly to' be taken back into the pits Df sin there to await a cruel death; some bearing the burdens of sin utterly lost to. the sense of shame and humanity-hell has become a horrible reality to me, and my heart is bleeding for those daughters of fond parents who have died leaving them orphans. Who. with a mother's heart and a sister's love can rest without doing everything in her power to save at least a few of the girls who can yet be saved from the hands of the evil ones I So, regardless Df the trying financial state Df my SChODl, I went to work in the Central Provinces to get a few of the helpless young widows.
The Father, who is a very present help in trouble, has enabled me to get SDme sixty widows, forty· seven Df whDm will go to SChDOI to study, and others will work. Over eight hundred and fifty rupees were spent in fetching them here. The Lord has put it into. my mind to save three hundred girls out of the famine districts, and I shall go to work in His name. The fundI! sent to me by my friends in Amer- ica. are barely enough to feed and educate fifty girls, and several peo-'
pIe are asking me how lam going to suppDrt all these girls who may come from Central India. Besides their food and clothing. new dor- mitories and dining-roo.ms must be built. Our present school-house is not large enough to hold more than one hundred girls at the most.
And how are these emergencies to be met?
I do. not know, but the Lord knows what I need. I can say with the Psalmist," I am Po.or and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me." My girls and I are quite ready to fDregD all Dur cDmfDrts, give up luxuries, and live as plainly as we can. We shall be quite CDn- tented to' have Dnly Dne meal of CDmmDn CDarse fDOd daily, if neces- sary, and so. long as we have a little room or a seed Df grain left in this hDuse, we shall try and help our sisters who. are starving. It seems a sin to live in this go.Dd house and eat plenty of gODd fDod and be warmly clDthed, while thousands of Dur fellow creatures are dying of hunger, and are without shelter. If all of us do our part faithfully, GDd is faithful to. fulfil His prDmises. and will send uil the help we need at this time.
r humbly request you to pray for me and mine that we may be made strong in the Lord, and walk by faith and not by sight. Believe me, yours in the Lord's service, R.uLBAI.
MILITARY RULB IN MADAGASCAR
MILITARY RULE IN MADAGASCAR.
The past eight months have been a time of darkness and horror to many of the natives, upon which they will long 100Js back as upon a terrible nightmare. General Gallieni is a man of immense energy and a prompt striker. "With him," said one of his compatriots, "it is a word and a blow, and usually the blow comes first." He is said to have acquired the name of the "fusilier," and in Madagascar he has fully maintained his reputation. The shooting of rebels and others has been an almost daily occurrence. Many of those shot have, doubtless, been guilty of rebellion, or, as they would themselves perhaps say, of a determination not to be ruled by foreigners; but some of those so hastily shot down have been, in the judgment of many, absolutely guiltless of the charges laid against them. During a state of siege it often happens that young and inexperienced officers have great powers entrusted to them, and evidence is not very carefully sifted. Everything, too, has to be done through interpreters, whose knowledge of French is neither extensive nor accurate, and there is thus but small probability that a trial will be fairly conducted. Some of these officers seem to think it highly to their credit to shoot down natives. One of these said recently to one of his compatriots, " I am just going to shoot a native rebel-my seventy-third. Come and ~ee it done." All this may be a natural consequence of military rule; but it is none the less deplorable, and we long for the time when civil rule will be restored, and every accused person may at least have a fair opportunity of defense.
Madagascar is now a French colony, and the Queen has been banisht to Rennideo. This was a logical result of the steps already taken by the authorities. The hybrid form of government that existed for a few months after General GaIIi€mi's arrival could not last long, and the situation has been simplified by the removal of the Queen: Her power had already been taken from her, and she was of no service to the French rulers. Indeed, without any "fault of her own, she may have been an indirect hindrance to them in their efforts to pacify the country. The general has not charged her with any act of disloyalty, tho, perhaps, she did not show enough gaiety to satisfy Frenchmen. She remained a Protestant to the end, notwithstanding many attempts to induce her to change her religion.
The general results of French rule in Madagascar are becoming more and more apparent. Great labor is being expended on roadmaking, and the general appearance of the capital is rapidly changing. Not many new public buildings are being erected; but great activity is shown in altering and adapting the many native houses that have fallen into the hands of the government. The central parts of the city will soon become entirely French. During this month of May hundreds of workmen are busy in Adohalo, a fine open space in the very heart of the city, and it is said that by the Fete of the Republic, on July 14th, the place will have undergone a complete transformation, and will have become a public garden, with a band- stand in the center.
The French rulers are gradually perfecting their system of com- mercial government and of taxation, and also the regulation of the corvee. It was said at the beginning of the occupation that the covee was dead-an evil system that would never be revived. The natives, however, are finding that such hopes were an illusion. Every able-bodied man is required to spend fifty days a year in roadmaking, or in certain privileged cases he pays five dollars. In addition to this there are military requisitions of different kind and various taxes, and many are beginning to feel the hand of the conquerer press' heavily upon them.
But the bearing of French rule on the cause of Protestant mis- sions is the topic possessing most interest for the readers of~ this RE- VIEW, and to that we address ourselves.
General Gallieni reflects the feelings of thousands of his fellow , countrymen in showing himself strongly opposed to English influ- ence. He was sent, it is said, to fulfill a two-fold mission: to destroy the rule of the Hova and the English supremacy. "English suprem- acy" with him and with many others simply means the influence of the London Missionary Society. It is strange to those actually en- gaged in the work of that society to find their influence regarded as an important factor in the political situation. In carrying ·out this policy, General Galli€mi is simply following out the lines laid down by M. Ie Myre di Vilers, who said the two irreconcilable enemies of France in Madagascar were the Hova Government and the London Missionary Society. The latter, he said, has always cherisht the se- cret design of securing the annexation of Madagascar by England.
A series of events has shown how strong the anti-Protestant (or anti-English) feeliug is among the French officers. From the begin- ning of the occupation Protestant churches have been requisitioned for the use of the soldiers, but, so far as I know, not a single Roman Catholic church has been so taken. This has been a great trial to the . Protestant Ohristians, who have been grieved to see their houses of prayer become scenes of debauchery and immorality. In the com- pound of a mission house in the country, on property belonging to the London Missionary Society, huts have been erected for the native women who follow the soldiers.
The seizure of the large hospital at Goavinandriana, and more recently the purchase of the principal educational establishments of the London Society, have been regarded by the people generally as a blow dealt at the work of that society. That this was the real motive that led General Gallieni to enforce the sa.le of these buildings, is shown by the naive confession of the correspondent of the Temps. This gentleman, evidently well informed, after stating the sum paid for the buildings, says, "This sum, which at first appears very considerable, is relatively slight, considering the injury done to the prestige of the society, for it is thereby deprived of its most powerful means of propaganda."
An illustration that throws much light upon the French policy is found in the action of the administration in regard to the Normal School building. When arrangements were being made last February for the purchase of its buildings named above, it was said by General Galli€mi's intermediary, that they were absolutely required by the exigencies of the public service. Within a few hours, however, of the arrival of the Paris missionaries last month, the Normal School building was offered them on condition that no Englishman should take any part in the work to be carried on in it. The building and the whole work connected with it was accordingly handed over to Mr. Mondain, of the Paris Society, a few days ago; and Mr. Richardson, who has had charge of the school 25 years, is leaving the island.
Another instance illustrating the same point is that of the church at Andohalo. This is a building of burnt brick, built after designs prepared by the late Mr. William Johnson. The people have spent a large sum on the building, but they also gave much labor, especially in digging very deep foundations. The site is one of the best in the town, and we attacht a special value to it, because from its fine central position it would have been so convenient for united meetings of various kinds. The congregation was founded by missionaries of the London Missionary Society more than 30 years ago, and the former building was erected almost entirely at the expense of friends of that society. The building was required by the government, and the people have sold it (according to Mr. Peake's estimate) for about half its value. Their defense is that they had no option in the matter. We are greatly disappointed to lose this building, and the more so, as we had a written promise from the General, that none of our church buildings should be taken by the administration, unless we ourselves agreed to treat in a friendly manner. This we have not done, but have urged strong reasons why the building should not be taken. All the material claims of the London Missionary Society are fairly met by the French government; but this is no compensation for the loss of such a well-situated and well-built church. Rumors are common both among the natives and among Frenchmen that this church is to be turned into a theater. Let us hope this is one of the cases in which rumors may prove false.
In the Betsileo province the French president, Dr. Besson, has shown a bitter animus against the work of tbe London Missionary Society. The people have been terrorized by the agents of the Jesuits in the most shameless fashion. Many of the agents of the London Missionary Society have been banisht from the province on the plea that they were Hovas, whilst other Hovas are not interfered with, and stranger still any of these agents who are willing to become Roman Catholics, are also permitted to remain. The latest news from this district is that twelve leading men from Ambohimandroso have been imprisoned or put in chains, the only charge against them being (so far as our friends can learn) that they have been friendly with the English and have spoken against France. No opportunity has been given them of rebutting these charges.
It should in fairness be stated, however, that this intolerance is by no means universal among the French administrators. There are large sections of the country in which the proclamations guaranteeing religious liberty are faithfully adhered to, and where much kindness has been shown by French officers to the native Protestant Christians. Everything seems to depend upon the character of the officer in charge, and on the greater or smaller influence the Jesuits have over him. The districts in which the Protestants have suffered most are those of Betsileo, already mentioned, and of Ambatomanga. Of the latter district the missionary in charge could tell a sad story. More than twenty Protestants were shot in a small circle of villages a few weeks since" with scarcely the shadow of a trial. It is quite enough if some overzealous native governor calls them fahavalo (or rebels), and in a few hours they may be dead.
Dark as recent experiences have been, however, there seems some reason to hope that the worst is past, and that the fierceness of this intolerance is abating. Since March there has been no more church stealing, and some few of the buildings have been restored. Some of the churches requisitioned by the military authorities (as Imahamasina and Isoavina) have also been recently restored to ns. Mr. Leban, the Colonial Minister, has also promist that compensation shall be paid for the hospital. We trust these indications of fair treatment may soon be followed by the restoration of religious freedom, such as was enjoyed before the war. The French might in regard to this matter well learn a lesson from the despised Hovas. During the war of 1883- 1886, tho all the French were expelled, their native congregations suffered no persecution, nor were their buildings taken from them by the powerful Protestant majority.
Our main ground of hopefulness as to the future lies in the action of the Paris Missionary Society. A year ago it was thought that some slight help may be rendered by that society to the Protestant cause. The severe troubles of the native Protestants and the stirring appeals of Messrs. Kruger and Langa throughout France, have deeply stirred the heart of the Protestant churches there, and already they are enter- ing with much zeal and earnestness into this work. Five new mis- sionaries arrived a month ago, and a few days after their arrival a large meeting attended by 1,200 or 1,400 Protestant Christians of Antananarivo was held in the Amparibe Church to bid them welcome. At the present moment their position is this: They have taken charge 'of all primary schools, nearly 500 in number, with more than 30,000 scholars. They will also train teachers in the Normal School, and take charge of "the Palace School." They will also settle in distrest districts, and undertake general visitations for the encouragement of the native Protestants. Reenforcements are expected, and it seems probable that the bulk of the London Missionary Society's work will gradually pass into their hands. It is possible the Swiss Society will also take some share in the work; as recent events make it abundantly clear that it will be much to the advantage of the native churches to be placed under the superintendence of French-speaking missionaries.
How soon this transfer of work may take place can not, of course, be foreseen; but events have been marching rapidly of late, and the work of the London Missionary Society in this land may come to an end much sooner than some of us anticipated. Still there remains the hope, that if the larger portion of the work is taken over by the French-speaking missionaries, some few of the English workers may remain for a few years, so as to preserve the continuity of the mission, and to give to the Frenchmen the benefit of their knowledge of the language aud of the people. Whatever the final issue of event;s may be, the foundations, laid broad and deep by the English society, will not be destroyed. The written language, the translated Bible, the spread of elementary education, the developmeut of higher education and of medical study, the general principles of church order, and the native missionary society-these are things that will abide; and those who follow us in this land will gladly acknowledge that other men labored, and that they had entered into their labor.- • Since the aboTe was written we haTe had a tragic illustration of how much anti-foreign feeling may still be smoldering under the apparent calm. On Monday, May 17th, the Revs. B. Escande and P. Minault, of the Paris Society, left the capital tor Betsileo. Mr. H. F. Standing, of the Friends' Mi88lon, went with them part of the way, and lett them on Thursday morning. 'On the Friday morning, when nearing a large market, they were suddenlyattackt by a party of SO armed rebels and killed. Details have not yet reacht us. But the bodies, we hear, haTe been recovered by the Rev. E. O. McMahon, of the Angelican Mission, and buried at his station of Ramainandro. A gloom has been cast over the Protestants ot AntananariTo by his sad news. Six victims have now tallen since the outbreak of' the rebellion. Mr. and Hi'll. Willism Johnson and little Blo88om at Arivonlmamo; Father Berties near AmbohlbemaMI&Ildro, and now Messrs. Escande and Mlnault near Ramainandro.
A.LLlA.NCE }fi1!1I10NARY OFFERlNGII
THE CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE MISSIONARY OFFERINGS.* BY REV. H. WILSON, D.D., NEW YORK.
Nearly a quarter of a million dollalrs were subscribed at five meetings during the summer and autumn of 1896, in one day at Old Orchard meeting, August 9, 1896, .101,500 being obtained without special effort, and October 11, at Carnegie Hall, New York City, *122,000 more so freely given, that those on the platform could hardly keep pace with the tide of pledges and money poured in upon them. Beginning at Old Orchard with a one dollar bill, given by a very poor woman, and followed by a nickel brought up by a little boy, the offerings rose steadily to the amount given above. While at Carnegie Hall a washerwo~an handed in $25 as the first contribution, followed by others, thus varying from 10 cents to $10,000, till the total reacht the sum which has startled so many by its size, and the perfect ease with which it was obtained, and this in a year of great financial depression. . Let me try to answer the question so often askt us and from so many quarters: "What is the secret of this spontaneous and magnificent giving at the conventions of the Christian Alliance? How is it. that a body of people so poor, can be led not only to pledge but to pay so much to the cause of Foreign Missions, and in times of such financial pressure? They do it.
I. Because they have caught God's Tlw1tght for the world. By years of truthful teaching they have learned God's idea of missions, viz., the rapid evangelization of the heathen world in preparation for the speedy coming of our Lord to this earth again.
Not the conversion of every soul on the earth, but the preaching of the Gospel for a witness to those who have never heard it, giving at least one chance to know Ohrist and be saved to those millions in heathen lands who have never had one chance in contrast to those in Christendom, who have been preacht to till they are Gospel hardened.
II. The second reason for the extraordinary liberality shown at the close of these conventions is the gradual and solemn preparation for the offering.
These extraordinary gifts for missions are not spasmodic or hypnotic in their character. They are not the result of any labored appeal to the feelings, or of playing upon the emotions of the audience. A stranger dropping in and sitting on the outskirts of the vast multitude at Old Orchard, or any similar meeting, would perhaps be • We have asked Rev. H. Wilson, D.D., who has been familiar with the whole history of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, to give a succinct account of the missionary olferings at Its conventions, which may at once Inform the public and correct erroneous statements. puzzled to account for the result of a simple Gospel sermon of perhaps 45 minutes in length. But if our stranger or critic friend had been present from the beginning of the convention, and observed that for 14 days-beginning each morning at 6 :30, and going on almost c9n- tinuously ti1110 :30 or 11 at night, comprising from 12 to 15 different meetings-the people were under the direct and continuous influence of the Holy Spirit, he might catch the secret of the closing day. For two weeks the great themes of our life in Ohrist and His life in us, for salvation, sanctification. Healing and the second coming of the Lord, and their practical outcome in the salvation of sinners and the evangelization of the heathen are presented and dwelt upon by speakers filled with the Holy Spirit, and listened to by thousands of equally baptized people. Added to this comes the mighty influence of men and women, lately returned from their missionary fields among the heathens, and speaking with the freshness and power of a living experience. With the eloquence of facts backed up by aims of deepest consecration, the Holy Ghost himself speaks through these to the hearts of the people, and keeps speaking until all prejudice is removed, false views dissipated, eyes are opened, vision cleared, minds enlightened, and hearts are melted into one mighty stream of tenderness and love for the 100,000 souls a day that are passing to their doom.
In.fact, the outpouring on the closing Sabbath is but the natural, or rather supernatural result of the inpouring of right, truth, and life throngh the Holy Spirit during the days preceding it.
III. A third reason for this liberal aLd continuous giving on the part of onr people is their confidence in the simplicity and economy of administration of the funds they so freely give.
Without any invidious comparison with the system and methods. of other societies, it is simple justice to state that every dollar subscribed at these great meetings goes directly to the object for which it was given. With the exception of about $2,000 spent on the rent of one or two very plain offices, printing and stationery, the whole of the large sums pledged and paid goes straight to the field for the spread of the Gospel.
Excepting a bookkeeper, who receives a very modest sum, there is not a paid officer in connection with our Board and committees, while the 200 missionaries are sent out and supported on the fields for a year for an average sum of $500. The missionaries abroad and the people at home know these things. Oonfidence is begotten and enthusiasm awakened by the lives of those sent, and the sympathy of those who send them. And when the simplicity of the system is justified by the results attained; when, from one missionary on the field eight years ago, the number 11as grown to over 300 now at work in various parts of Japan, Ohina, Thibet, India, Africa, Palestine, Bulgaria, Hayti, Brazil, Venezuela, aud the income of our society has risen steadily from *5,000 in 1888 to $140,000 last year, the offerings of the past summer are not so hard to understand. The secret is an open one to those who have seen the vision of Jesus, heard His commission, and breathed in His Spirit.
THE MADRAS CHRISTIAN A880CIATiOJl'
THE MADRAS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.
BY DAVID MCCONAUGHHY, M. A.
The success of the experiment which the Young Men's Christian Association of America entered upon, when, in 1889, they sent out their first representatives, one to India and the other to Japan, is no longer questioned. There had previously been a few associations in India, but the character of the new organization, which was establisht in Madras early in 1890, was distinctly different from these. In that land where caste is so rife amongst Europeans, as well as Hindus, it resolutely refused to recognize any distinction whatsoever of race, rank, or religion. Any young men of good character were admitted as associate members, while the management was retained in the hands of active members who must be in the communion of some Protestant Christian Church. The Madras Association was also establisht upon a self-supporting basis, refusing to be subsidized from outside, altho its work might easily have been doubled or quadrupled at any time, if this principle had not been adbered to. Tbe board of directors has from the outset insisted that the growth, tho slower, would be surer and more permanent, if not dependent upon outside sources. During the first seven year!! about $10,000 had been contributed by the members and friends of the association in Madras. Every expense except the salary of the General Secretary has thus been provided. The principle of supporting Indian agents solely by funds raised in India has now been adopted for the National Union, as well as for the local associations, and all surplus is now applied toward this end. Amongst the subscribers to theassociation are His Excellency, Sir Arthur E. Havelock, Governor of Madras, and each of the members of his Executive Council, as well as the Lord Bishop of Madras, the Venerable, the Arch-Deacon, the Bishop's Chaplain, and a hundred others prominent in Church and State, in government and commercial circles. Perhaps no better proof than this can be given of the seal of divine approval which has been put upon the work of this association in reward for its adherence to the principle of the real brotherhood of man. Of the more than four hundred members of the Madras Association, nearly one half are non-Christians. Tho without any voice in the management, they enjoy all the varied privileges which the association affords, including that of being brought into living contact with Christ in the persons of the active members in the rooms, socials, lectures, educational classes, and on the athletic field day by day.
As long ago as 1892 the need of a building began to be felt, and the members of Madras have since contributed more than $1,600 toward the building fund. In 1894 Dr. Pentecost proposed at a drawing. room meeting in Kent House, London, that a building be provided on international lines, India to provide the cost of the foundations, Great Britain the site, and America the superstructure. That suggestion was adopted with enthusiasm, and within a few weeks some *6,000 was raised in England. At the end of more than two years of patient negotiations, the site was secured which His Excellency Sir Arthur E. Havelock, Governor of Madras, when laying the corrierstone in January, described as "really magnificent." It faces the Esplanade-the open green of the city-just opposite the handsome buildings of the high court and law college, with the electric tramway passing in front and a great Union railway station about to be built near bv. Within a stone's throw, on the east, is the Madras Christian College, and on the west the principal Hindu college of South India, while just across the China Bazaar road stands the splendid new building of the law college. Facing on three streets, the site has a frontage of 151 feet and a depth of 126, covering an area of 19,000 feet. The story of the purchase of this ground is in itself a fascinat- ing chapter in the growing volume of answers to prayer. It was in I 1893 that an amateur photographer focused his camera upon the block of old tin bazaars which then covered this piece of land. That photograph, though not even shown to the board of directors for . many months, like Hezekiah's letter, was spread before the Lord. In spite of obstacles, which all who were at all acquainted with the cir- cumstances pronounced insurmountable, the conviction had been begotten that that ground had been given of God for the purposes of this association. It was not until November 27, 1896, that the last obstacle to the purchase was removed, and it has been only within the past month that the collector's certificate has been obtained, giving an indisputable title to the entire property. There were more than a sC,.ore of different signatories (all non-Christians) requisit in order to complete the transaction, and the consent of more than twice this nnmber of Hindus was required. In the midst of the eighteen tin bazaars, which formed the front of the lot, were two, the revenue of which went to support an Hindu temple, and these were h~ld by trustees. After all the other owners had come to terms, two, whose holdings measured about six by eight feet each, still held out for an exorbitant price-five times the amount they had paid only a few years ago. Every effort to bring them to terms had been exhausted, and as they believed that their ground was absolutely indispensable to the purpose of the association, they believed they could get what- ever they demanded. On the last morning before the last monsoon ended, the building committee of the Madras Association met for con- ference and prayer over this matter. In the course of the two hours thus spent, the committee pleaded with God to once more cast out the heathen to give place to His people. Within an hour after adjourn- ment these bazaars were a crumbling mass of ruins, a cyclone having swept across the town while the committee was still in session. As the Hindu owners stood wringing their hands in front of the ruins a little later that morning, they were overheard lamenting that this calamity had overtaken them in retribution for their having refused to sell the ground to the association for a reasonable price. Next day the ground was bought for less than half what they had been demanding.
Meanwhile, friends in America have come forward and contributed the full amount required both for the superstructure and for furnish- ing, the Hon. John Wanamaker, of Philadelphia, personally assum- ing the cost of the former, which is estimated at $30,000. The site cost about $12,000, of which two-thirds has now been contributed. The building is now in course of erection, and it is expected that it will be ready for occupancy next year.
INTlIBlU.T10NAL DBPABTK:IIlfT. [Septemb&t
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Anglo-Ohinese College, Foochow, dred .dollars, the Missionary Society Ohina. added twenty-five hundred, and the property mentioned was bought. The REV. GEO. B. SllYTH, D.D., PRESIDENT. school was opened, and has ever since been conducted on the lines then laid The Bok LiDg Anglo·Chinese Col- down. The College therefore had its lege, to give it its full name, was birth in the brain and heart of a gener· founded sixteen years ago, by Diong ous Chinese, not in the treasury of the Hok Ling, a Chinese merchant at FOG- Missionary Society of New York, and chow. Unhappily for himself, as he this fact alone should plead eloquently regarded it, he was a gentleman wholly with those who are interested in educaunlearned in the knowledge of books, tional work in connection with missions for when young he could not afford to in China. go to school, and so grew up without those educational advantages the lack I am well aware that compared with of which he never ceast to mourn. some American gifts toward the found· But he had energy and faithfulness, ing of colleges, the one of which I am and after working for a time for others, writing is small indeed. but it must be he came from Amoy, his native city, thought of in connection with the cirand opened a small shop at Foochow, cumstances. It was given toward the which finally grew into the larger founding of a Christian school by a store so well known to both Chinese Chinese who was not a Christian, and and foreigners at this port. Increasing it is, so far as I know, the largMt gift wealth did not make him less sensible for such a purpose yet made in China. of what he always considered his great Again, the founder was not a rich man misfortune, and he resolved that when in the American sense, indeed. in west· the opportunity offered he would found ern countries he would have been con· a school where young men, who wisht sidered poor. If his business had con. it, might acquire a thorough education. tinued to prosper he would have added Be made careful observations as to the to the first sum, but he met with rebest way in which to realize his gener- verses, and left but little at his death. ous purpose, and give permanence to Christians will be glad to know that the work when it should be once beguu. soon after founding the college, he He finally decided to place his gift at entered the Methodist Church, of the disposal of a Board of Trustees which he remained a faithful member who should control it for the Mission. until his death in 1890. ary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This Board was composed of In the following numbered parathe United States and British Consuls, graphs I would invite attention to the agent of the Hong Kong and Shang- some special points in the character and hai Bank,several members of the Meth- position of the college. odist Mission, and, one each, from the American Board and English Missions. 1. The purpose of the college is to The donor then handed over ten thous- prepare young men for the work of life and doUars toward the purchase of a by giving them a sound education, fine building, other Chinese, stimulated both moral and intellectual, in the Chi- ' by his example, subscribed fifteen hun· nese and English languages. The English course is very much like that of the smaller colleges in America.
INTERllfATION.A.L DEPARTMENT
omitting Latin and Greek. The spe- foreign gentleman in the compilation cial study of English is kept up of an Anglo-Chinese dictionary, and through the students' whole course, is now a :aritish government interand there are the usual courses in preter in Singapore. He is a consistent mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Christian, and superintendent of the In addition there Is a systematic pro- Methodist Sunday-school there. gram of Bible study, including Scripture history and the history of the 3. So far as the students are con- Church. cerned, the college Is sclf-supporting, not one of them receiving pecuniary 2. It is a Christian college. Cinis- aid of any sort from the college or the tianity is the basis of its teaching. mission. They pay in full for board, This is announced in our catalogs and in addition, the current expenses, and every father who sends his son such 8S salaries of Chinese teachers, here knows to what he is sending him. Chinese tutors in English, repairs, fur- Nevertheless, no compulsion is ever niture, and other items, amounting last employed, we deal with perfect good year to about $2,500, were met by their faith with the parents of the students, fees. Besides the salaries of the forallowing perfect freedom of conscience, eign teachers, of whom there are three, o1fering no allurements or inducements the Missionary Society makes an annu_ of any sort, yet enjoying the right to al grant of *260, and this sum has-to present the truth in fulness to all. Re- be used entirely in the purchase of ligious services are held every morn- necessary apparatus. ing, and all are required to attend one service at the church on Sunday. The attendance is larger than that of There is a Young Men's Christian As- any other college in China; this year it sociation, the first of its kind in China, is 237. This represents a great advance which conducts a weekly prayer-meet- since 1887, when we had but fifty-four. ing. The president of the Association For some years the higher classes lookt is also president of the local Epworth at the college with suspicion, but their League. Tho the majority of the fears have been removed, and now we students who go out from us do not en- have the large number given above, gage in direct Christian work, some of many of whom arc the sons of men, our graduates are prominently con- who, a few years ago, would not have nected with the Church. One of them allowed them to enter a school conis the principal teacher in the Theolog- nected, however remotely, with a ical Seminary of the Church of Eng- Christian church. The students reland Missionary Society, a second, who present every class eligible for admisis a member of the Foochow Confer- sion to the government literary examience, has recently gone to America to nations. Some are the sons of poor men pursue a. theological course, while who are obliged to work hard to give still another, a graduate of the class of them an education, while others are the 1896, was elected last November by the sons of merchants and officials. Rich National Council of the College Young and poor, Christian and non-Christian, :Men's Christian Associations of China all alike are represented, the only reas the Chinese delcgate to the conven- quirements being that they be of suittion of the WorId's Christian Students' able age, be properly recommended, Federation, at Williamstown, Massa- pass the examinations, study diligently, chusetts. There are others engaged in and conduct themselves as gentlemen. direct Christian service, though not so They are, therefore, with a few excepprominently as thcse. tions such as are met with in every school, a body of self-respecting young One young man deserves special students, who come here to learn, who mention. He workt his way through have something at stake both financollege against great odds, helped a cially and in reputation, and who are intent upon making the most of oppor- spring term in 1896, the numbers who tunities which it costs them something desired to be in residence were so great to get. that I was compelled to borrow one of I'i. The college is situated at one of the mission residences for a temporary the treaty ports, and one of the great- dormitory, tho the one we had would est literary centers in China. As the accommodate 104. I promised, however, chief center of the tea trade of southern to have a new dormitory by the open- China, it has a large number of mer- ing of the present term on the 23rd of ,chants of enterprise and wealth, and February, and resolved to raise the the influence which such men natural- money here. I am happy to say that ly possess. None of these have en- I have been able to keep that promise, tered the Vhurch, or look upon its and when the new students came in purely evangelistic work with any sort last week the building was ready for of sympathy. But the advantages of a their reception. It is three stories high, school like this are so apparent that seventy· five feet long, and has rooms some of them send their sons here to for sixty-six students, a monitor's room, be educated. One result is the estab- servant's room, office, reception-room, lishment of friendly relations with men and two school-roOlps. The cost is whose friendship is valuable, and the nearly three thousand Mexican dollars, gradual revealing to them what Chris- and not a dollar has been askt or re- tianity is. ceived from foreigners. The whole Thus, to that extent at least, is reacht work was done by Chinese subscrip- a class of men who are for the present tions. The money came from different as far beyond the reach of all the other sources. The officials of the city sub- agencies of the Church as if they were scribed $600, a Cantonese merchant, inhabitants of another planet. who gave $200 himself, raised $500 Again, Foochow is the literary center more among his friends; a former stu- of the province, the focus of all its dent here $150 as a thank-offering for most powerful influences, the meeting- what the college had done for him, the place of those whose teaching and ex- Foochow Mint gave $100 and promised ample count for most with their fellow to give regularly $100 a year; various provincials. Surely it is no small thing sums ranging from $5 to a $100 were to have an institution here on which given by others, and so the amount many of this class look with favor and grew. The new dormitory is therefore to which they send their sons. They a striking testimony to the confidence do not hesitate to be known as its in the work of the college, which is felt friends, to visit it, and to recommend its by those who know it best.
work to others. The college thus be- A pleasing evidence of interest of an- comes leaven, which, tho working slow- other kind was shown by His Excel- ly, works surely, toward the establish- lency, Lo Fu Luh, the new minister to ment of a better understanding between England, in sending fans and scrolls these men and the Church; it is a plat- with complimentary sentences in his form on which men of both sides may own handwriting to the heads of our meet and discuss together the great various classes at our last Commence- theme which brought us here, the re- ment. This gentleman will be remem- generation of China through the vital- bered in America as Li Hung Chang's izing power of Christianity. interpreter on his tour around the 6. Last year the Chinese of this city world. His nephew, who has just been gave striking proof of this confidence appointed Chinese Consul-General at in the college, by their ready response Singapore, was present, and made an to my request for subscriptions for a address of much encouragement to new dormitory. At the opening of the the students. A ffigh Oaste Woman's Oonversion. making an offering to the shrine at- tacht to the tree. She was so devoted MRS. J. T. GRACEY, ROCHESTER, :N. Y. that nothing would satisfy her but the building of a temple, and now near the The conversion recently of a high- city of Madras, where the Methodist caste Brahman lady, in the city of Mad- church has lately commenced work, ras, India, and her public baptism in stands a temple, a monument to her the Methodist church, has attracted idolatry and devotion. Every week considerable attention throughout that she visited this place, and often spent country. While the great ingathering many days, feeding and sustaining the in the churches has come from the people connected with the tem~le, and lower classes, there is now a movement decorating the idol with some of her among the higher classes of women, tinest jewels. Her own house was who have been receiving instruction in tilled with idols, in her own room she the 2;enanas. The experience in the had twenty-five pictures of idols and a present case is one of many who have dozen images. As the holy child in grown weary of their false religion, the household she decorated the idols and long for something higher and with flowers, drank the sacred water better. The story as told by the after placing it before the idol, and for one instrumental in her conversion is hours would sit with a wet cloth about of thrilling interest. She was a strict her, counting the beads that were given Brahman, and from the day of her for this office, offering a prayer over birth had all the lites of her sect per- each bead, until a thousand were acformed for her, and in the seclusion of complisht. Every day she lighted beher ancestral home, amid all its wealth fore shrines and idols two or three and luxury, was devoted to her gods. hundred little oil lamps, excluding Her father was a man of great wealth, from her mind everything else, but mediand exerted a powerful influence, and tated upon the Vedas, thus performing was of the strictest Bl'ahmanical sect, the ceremony called, .. the million and many of his friends, who are lights," to insure a pathway of light among the leading citizens, express when she should come to die. astonishment that the daughter of such a cultured man should embrace Chris- This was the woman, with intellect tianity. The daughter was the young- bright, and with a religious devotio~ est child, and was taught early to live scarcely surpast, when the Methodist an idolatrous life. According to Hindu missionary found her about two years custom, she married at the age of ten, ago. It is now no longer necessary to and at her wedding thousands of rupees hide the true object in teaching the were spent. As is the custom with woman in 'the zenanas. They have Hindu wives, she divided her time be- been taught various things in the way tween her mother's and her husband's of fancy work that an opportunity home. She was of a thoughtful and might be afforded for presenting religious turn of mind, and from her Christian truths. Now the study of early years there was no ceremony in the Scriptures is required. This womwhich she did not take part. She an desired to be taught, and accepted went to eight sacred rivers, and bathed the conditions, against all the remonin the sea, visited fifty temples, and strances of her family. She did not the bread she ate was from a certain want the Scliptures, she wanted other temple. At one time she fasted for things, and was willing to take the one forty days to appease the gods, taking for the purpose of securing the other. only a little milk. She performed many Sometimes she would take a lesson, at penances,chlef of which was making the other times she was too much engaged circuit of a certain tree forty-two times with fasting, prayer, and idol-worship Tery early in the morning, each time to pay any attention to her teacher, and without a word would wave her hand ran. I was so frightened, I would not for her to leave, as there were often stop to take my breath, but at every days when she had to keep silence, not step I took I felt as if some one were a word escaping her lips. behind me. The swifter I ran, the But then came a Change. The quiet, swifter seemed the step. If I am persistent presentation of the truth and caught what will become of me, I reading of the Word had its influence, thought, but I ran on and on, and at her zeal for idol-worship began to flag, your gate I stopt. I felt that if I were and she failed to visit her temple. caught, I would scream, and you She had contemplated having a golden would all run out, and help and protect image of herself in the act of prostra- me. When I stopt, I turned around.
tion before the idol, but that was given There was nobody. Then and there I up. She neglected many of her relig- offered a prayer. I told God I might ious duties, and her family became be dragged back on the streets (about greatly concerned. half a mile) on which I ran, I might The mother and ever vigilant priests have to endure persecution, trial, and were on the alert, and she was ordered hardships, but I askt him to keep me to dismiss the teacher, which she did, faithful to him."
tho this caused her great sorrow. Soon Reaching the home of the missionary after she wrote a letter to her teacher, who had been instrumental in her con- in which she opened her heart, and version, who was busily engaged in told how her people hated the Christ- Christmas festivity, she ran almost ian religion, but that she loved it, and breathless up the stairway, and falling askt for the prayers of her teacher, into the arms of the missionary said, that she might be willing to leave all "I am come; I am God's Christmas her former associations. This was fol- gift to you."
lowed by another letter saying she was She wore no jewels nor costly very unhappy, but that in her heart clothes, but was clad in the coarsest she had abandoned idol-worship and cloth. She took from her person a depended on Christ alone for salvation. little metal box, containing the sacred Preparations were made by her family powder that had been given her by the to send her away from the city, but priests as a sign that she had been she set her face against all their ar- sealed by them, and which she had to rangements and determined to cast in wear about her person, and in doing her lot with the Christians. She was this, she renounced caste, heathenism, willing to leave her family, and even idolatry, everything. This was all be- exprest a wish that she might become hind her. Before her she knew not a zenana worker. She offered to do what. In a few days persecutions the work at her own expense. At last commenced. Relatives accompanied the crisis came, she counted the cost, by native policemen visited the house, made her preparations, packt her insinuating that she had been unlaw- boxes, put away her jewels, and when fully detained. They had an inter- the evening came, and all the family view, pleading with her to return to were engaged in their evening worship, her home, her mother and her old asso- she quietly embraced the opportunity ciations; but none of these things to slip out. moved her, Quietly, but flrmly, she She said afterward: H I went out in- said, "I can not go back; I am & to the darkness with only the stars Christian." They used every argu- above me. It was to me like taking a ment, assuring her that if she persisted, long journey, and I did not know as orthodox Brahmans they would be where or how it was going to be. under the necessity of performing the There was nothing before me, but a funeral ceremony over her, and that voice in my heart told me to run, and I she would be dead to them and to the whole Brahman community. She only perience exprest fears in regard to the replied, ., 1 know it-I shall be dead to course to be taken, and advised that all, but tell them 1 yet live, and will the baptism be done in the Home, or tell of Christ's love to my people." the church doors closed. When the hour arrived, the missionary accom- Upon another occasion came the panied by her protege, found the mother and relatives accompanied by church crowded with Europeans, na- an angry mob, with threats and impre- tive Christians, Hindus and Mohamcations which could be heard all over medans. Every window and door was the house. They predicted the down- crowded so they could not be closed, fall of the mission and threatened to and police were on all sides of the spend thousands to take the case into churcb, tho their protection had not the courts, and denounced her in the been askt. The services were convilest language. When they found she ducted in Tamil and English. When could not be infiuenced, the mother the candidate was presented at the altar called on all the gods to curse her to take ber part in the service, there child, and with bitter cries lamented was a murmur of voices 'aU over the she had not dragged her dead from a house, many of bem saying, .. What! a well. It became necessary to call Brahman lady baptized!" At the close the police, and the people unwill- of the service she sang in a clear sweet ingly retreated with cries of venge. voice the hymn she had learnt. ance, shouting that if tbey could tbey would kill ber, and declaring she acted .. Jesus 1 my cross have taken, thus because she was intoxicated. All to leave and follow thee; " etc.
It was suggested that she be taken and then in great simplicity and tenaway from Madras, but it was decided derness gave her testimony before the that it was better to stay and give her crowded audience. The whole exerpeople every opportunity of seeing her. cises made a great impression. Many And so her relatives came and went. Hindus and some of her relatives who Several weeks past and the mattcr of had attended to give trouble went away a public baptism was agitated. This deeply imprest, confessing the woman woman lIad made such a noble confes- was sincere, and they would not intersion, had been so brave in the midst of fere with her. sucb opposition, bad been so clear in her Christian testimony, that it was This baptism made such a stir that thought a public baptism would convince people that the missionaries de- a for several Sabbaths, more than three sired to hide nothing from them, and it would probably be an encouragement thousand Hindus assembled in large to other women to take the same step. hall to discuss the work of the mission- So the decision was made, but not aries in their midst, and to devise without grave apprehension on the part plans to end all missionary work. Then of many Christian friends, both Euro- the Hindu papers took up and discust pean and native. The service was ap- the matter, expressing surprise that a pointed for an evening in the week and woman of such social standing among Christians and missionaries of other the Hindus should embrace Christiandenominations were invited to be pre- ity. One month after the baptism, sent. During the day there was con- funeral ceremonies were held for her siderable excitement and the mission- by relatives, as she was considered ary was told that the event was the talk dead to them. These lasted three days. of the city bazaars, and that evil·dis- and were attended by large numbers of posed persons would make trouble at Brahmans who had been invited. the church in the evening, and even a Special bathing was performed by.her missionary of twenty-four years' ex- husband, money spent liberally to feast Brahmans and costly presents were made to the multitude. .All the crock- ery belonging to the woman in her home was broken and everything de- kind of things he wants aI'e sold. Some stroyed that would remind them of needs will have been already antici- her. Then an effigy was made of her pated, and supplies brought, but these of reeds from the banks of the Ganges, run out, and so many unlookt for re- and the form was thrown into the fire quirements come to light, and keep on and the priests shouted, "Dead! Dead! presenting themselves, so that recourse Burnt out I" has to be had to the friendly missionary brother, at the nearest point where The bond or "Execution Bill" was such supplies may be purchased. While signed by the family priests and four such aid may do in the early stages of Brahman gentlemen, the sacred ashes missionary openings, and the" friendwere gathered and taken at night to the ly brother" be willing to leave hls own burying ground, where other cere- work, and go about his needy brother's monies were performed. business, it will not answer when there are many who have such needs, She is now living with the mission- and the number of workers scattered ary, happy and cheerful. The once about interior parts become numerous. proud, petted, wealthy Brahman wom- Thus, an agency which will undertake an has broken all her alabaster boxes all such matters, and meet the needs as and laid all upon the altar, and is now they arise, becomes a necessity. The teaching a low-caste Sunday-school and qualitieations of such an agent, however, aiding in the Christian Orphanage, and for the work have to be manysided. her one longing is to go to the villages One always to be depended upon and tell the women the story of God's to be there when applied to, to be great love. ready to go about the matter entrusted to him, promptly, attentively, to use Missionary Agencies. skill, taste, judgment, care, and econ- omy in selecting, ordering, purchas- MR. EDWARD EVANS, S3ANGHAI, ing and packing, is a desideratum. Such an agent is called upon to take CHINA.* such a variety of matters in hand. The selecting of stores, food, drugs, The missionary, entering upon life in clothing, books. etc., hardware and a heathen land, aforeigner in the midst other necessities for the house and of a large population of natives, whose other buildings, which often have to be habits of living, clothing, eating, etc., undertaken. Then, packages are being are entirely different to his, is at once sent from home, which must be reconfronted with some very practical ceived, past the customs -and forquestions entirely apart from his spirit- warded on. ual vocation. Himself and family, to be housed, closed, fed, and all their New arriving missionaries require accustomed needs supplied, how is it to outfits for residence in the interior; 80 be done? No shops there, where the furniture adapted to the new condi- tions has to be obtained, experienced • It is now nearly two years since we re- counsel in such respect being all esquested Mr. Edward Evans to collate infor- sential. Dressmakers are not! where mation concerning missionary agencies in clothing is so different, what is to be the far East, and to prepare a paper on the done? The wife and the children as entire topic. Our thought was to provoke well as the poor man himself mURt liave discussion of the subject. We had known of such things done for them; so the agent the efficiency of such agency in Constantino- is called upon to buy, match, alter and ple aL~ elsewhere, and believed that much get made the wardrobe of the family. greater etteciency might be reacht by com- Who can do for others, with all the parison of experiences among missionaries. different ideas and tastes which are The Sanitarium was not in our thought, but Dr. Beebe of the hospital at Nanking and Dr. Main of the Hongchow hospital, both write endorsing Mr. Evan's article in its reference to SanItarium. J. T. G. suggested in such a presentation of Home and Supply Depot JJ for its the case as the foregoing? And with members, that is a model of excellency. it all, there must be economy, or the This mission is noted for its thrifty bills will get beyond the resources. methods in these matters. A depart- And what means for remunerating ment for the storing of all kinds of such agency? Many of these calls are supplies is kept, the articles having for items of trifling value, tho most been purchased at wholesale prices necessary, and therefore anycommi8sion and imported, and then retailed out at to really be commensurate with the bare cost to its members. Distributing service would probably be equal to or branches are establisht through the more than the amount to be expended. land at various points. One such" agency" described in its report this branch of the work as A number of the members of the "the un·remunerative branch." In mission have been delegated to attend his case the Board paid his salary and to this work. Some give their whole all the expenses of the "agency." But time, and others a part. Clerks, acvery few Boards have made this pro- countants, housekeepers, etc., are occuvision, and the larger part of the mis- pied thus, as their share of the work, sionary body in China [for the writer who gave themselves to the missionhas this field in mind] are without any field, expecting to be preaching to the provision thus made for them by their "heathen;" but it has to be "indi- Board, and have consequently to man- rectly .. in their cases, and the blessing age these things themselves. shared as to those who "tarry by the stuff." In connection with such agency there has been made evident that another The writer has been askt by the Edineed has to be met. The arrival and tor of this periodical to give some acdeparture of the missionary family, and count of "Missionary Agencies, his the occasional visit to the ports, have own included," and may therefore be led to the establishing of a " Missionary permitted to add to this sketch the in- Home," where all the conveniences of formation that he, with his wife, some " llome" may be had, rather than the eight years ago, having gone to China, expense and discomforts of a hotel with the intention of laboring among while so sojourning. It would be ren- the heathen, was led quite unexpectdered more trying to the heads of the edly into undertaking the organization family if, as they necessarily have to of a work such as has been herein inmake many excursions around the port dicated. "The Missionary Home and to select and purchase the outfit, and Agency" in Shanghai was in existnece these things are accumulating and being before, but has expanded in its scope prepared for transport to their station, in the last seven years so that now they felt themselves intruding on the it has for its correspondents a very " Hotel" and their children meantime large part of the missionaries in China, having been left in the care of servants, numbering upwards of 2,000, not mothers on returning finding the chil- counting wives and children, and exdren and their nurses alike voted an cluding the C. I. M. already mentioned, intolerable nuisance to the other guests. as well as many in Korea, Formosa, Thus a "Home" where no sense of and Japan. The office·work to attend restraint will be felt, where the circum- to the Agency Department employs stances they are in are understood and several native assistants, bookkeeper, sympathized with, the help rendered in etc., as well as keeping perpetually every needed way, is appreciated. busy the writer and his wife the year round. The China Inland Mission, which has now some 700 workers in the field, The "home" as its name implies, is has provided at Shanghai a "Receiving necessarily a place made as convenient as possible for the circumstances of those who come to it. It is confined to the work. Not seldom wo:uld such exclusively to missionaries. There are expense have been avoided, and the dif- times when it will be crowded to its ftcultymet, if a .. Home," combining utmost capacity, tho the question. the advantages of a .' Sanitarium"
sometimes askt has not yet been an- were available here to be a little swered, "How many can it accommo- while in a restful home, away from date?" It meeting emergencies, so that the sighs and sounds (and smells) of when there is a great congregating, as the native land, and in the midst of at time!! of some mission assembling, or Christian friends of one's own kind, at the season of arrivals from the would often rehabilitate such an one, home-lands, it is in much demand. without the necessity of traveling fur- At other times but a very few may be ther. Owing to recent appreciation in found in it, but it is always ready for the value of property in Shanghai, rent· whatever call may be made on it, how- als have greatly increast, and altho the ever unexpected, as in the times of present Home is an old dilapidated "Riots," when a whole province of place in a poor locality, the rent has workers was emptied into it at once. been so increast that with the advanced It has been appreciated, too, because cost of everything else, rates of accom- of the opportunity given for meeting modation have had to be advanced, in workers from different points with order to meet the expenses, so much, whom comparison is made of methods that only a short stay in Shanghai is of work, etc.; and to the new arrival it practicable owing to the expense. An is an inspiration thus to come at once institution, erected as a permanent in contact with veterans whose names Home ava1lable to all missionaries of are familiar, and find a warm welcome every denomination, or of no connec- to the land. tion with any society, would be a great The Christian atmosphere, too, is blessing. If the only expense that had helpful, where all have a common in- to be covered were the food and ser- terest, so that tired workers are cheered vice, it would bring its advantages by a few days' stay there, and little within the reach of the poorest, and meetings may be held of an im- there are "poor" missionaries, where promptu character, for stimulating the large families and frequent sickness spiritual life, and bearing mutually the has taken all the resources. Tene- burdens of others. Of all .the other ments, of two or more rooms, partially needs that it is sought to meet, this is furnisht, connected with it, would be ever regarded as of the greatest im- desirable, so that a family could use it, portance. and live as economically as they de- And now ere concluding the writer sired.
after relating the actual, would like to In the present state of things, with give his thoughts of the t'deal in some many of the societies in debt, and of these matters. unable to carry on all their present What one individual, on his own re- undertakings, it would be out of the sources, has been able to accomplish in question, if for no other reason, that meeting the needs that have been indi- such an institution should be incepted'
cated, comes very far short of what either by one or a combination of sev- might and should be provided for the eral societies. Their funds-even if Lord's servants, laboring in trying con- they had a surplus-are not available . ditions in this wonderful land. One for such a thing. Our only hope for might go on to speak of times, not in- one, therefore, would be that some of frequent, when one of the heads of a those entrusted of the Lord with a family becoming invalided, the entire stewardship for him, should take it in family has to be transported away to hand. Mention has been made of that the home land, at great cost and loss ·of the China Inland Mission, and it is known that this splendid Home was the work, just as much as preaching the gift of one of its own members, who, gospel to the heathen. At any rate the out of his ample means has mainly writer feels this, and is grateful to God provilied the cost of several such places for putting him in such a place. for the mission at different points, including a SCHOOL now being erected Still beyond there is more Ideal planfor the children of its missionaries. ning. This suggests another Ideal. The need of education for the children of mis- Why should there not be a supply sionaries is a pressing one that has been depot establisht, where staple articles ill met so far. One of the trials and of food, clothing, drugs, etc., could be hardships of a missionary life is this. laid in at first cost, and retailed at low- To see their children growing up est rates to all the missionaries in the around them without school advan- land? Here is a grand opening for a tages, and dependent upon what they firm of consecrated business men. personally can teach them, with the ine"vitable necessity to look forward The writer has, too, some pet ideas to, of having to send them to the about a central bank for missionaries home-land soon, for years of separation, in the East, in charge of a responsible to get them educated, this is indeed a financier, who would consolidate the trial. Recently one has made a start local treasureship of the several socIe. in connection with the " Home" here, ties operating in the East. At present, to undertake the education of such in each station, and in each district, one children, and if such an institute as has of the missionaries of each society is been suggested, should have attacht to given the work of local treasurer, it a children's home and school, where whose duties are, to draw upon the families could send their children to be home Board for needed funds, selling trained for later entering on college life exchange on it for what the banks will in the home lands, it would be a great give him. Much time is necessarily boon to many. Yes a misssionary spent in keeping accounts, by those " Home," including a sanitarium and a who would so gladly be more congeniboarding and day.school for mission- ally occupied, unaccustomed as many aries' children is a need in Shanghai. are to business accounts and bookkeep- It may not be known 1;0 every reader ing. A general treasurer could econom· that Shanghai is practically the port of icallyadminister the funds of a number entrance to China. Almost all have to of societies, experience enabling him to pass through it, going and coming, and obtain the best terms in disposing of it is the metropolis of western civiliza- exchange at the most favorable times tion in this East. The writer would for operating. Instead of each society like to include in his scheme a resident having to hold a margin on deposit at dentist, who could be sent to convenient various points, losing interest on it, such points in the land, as well as several a manager would be able to meet any trained nurses to go to the relief of sick exigency promptly without such being families; one or two teachers; as well required. The clerical work would be as a good dressmaker to take in hand doue by native help in large measure the women's and children's supply de- and methodically, regular reports made partment. But enough has been said to Boards, an experienced audit also to show what a work can be done in certifying to the correctness of all the aid of the missionary worker. To thus details recorded. Business men will help in economic supply of necessities, appreciate these suggestions, and it and provide ameliorating service of would not be difficult to believe that various kinds, is surely a missionary the expense of such a general treas- ury, would be largely, if not wholly covered by the saving effected in ex- change.
FIELD OJ' MONTHLY IURT1I:T. (l?eptember
lII.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Ja.pan,* Korea.,t Medioal Missions.
BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
KOREA FOR CHRIST. become a recognized and indispensable factor in the national life. In former Korea has nearly ninety thousand days the king's birthday was a time of square miles of territory, twelve mil- festivity to the official and noble classes lions of people, and is extraordinarily only, the common people having no rich in natural resources. These natu- part in its observance. Last year when ral resources consist in a soil of great the auspicious day came around the fertility, vast mineral deposits, untold Korean Christians suggested that spewealth in sea products, which Korea's cial prayer and thanksgiving services unusually extensive seaboard brings to be held in the different churches in its doors, and a population capable of behalf of his majesty. On the aftergreat industrial activity. Until 1883 noon of the day a grand Christian mass- Korea had no relations with foreign meeting was held in the open air outcountries, and, therefore, there has side the city wall, and over three thoubeen a total absence of that commercial sand Koreans were present. Addresses exploitation, which would have made were made by high noblemen as well the people rich. As a nation they are as by Christian missionaries, and great poverty·stricken, but a brighter day enthusiasm was manifested. Coming seeIDS to be approaching, for the total spontaneously, it impressed the Korean volume of foreign trade for the ten government in a most pleasant manner, years ending 1894 was about thirty-five and his majesty was especially demillion dollars, aDd this seems to point lighted. to dawning commercial-linterprise. This is but a hint of the power which At present the Protestant missionary the Christian community possesses in force in Korea numbers about ninety modeling the national life. Korea workers, representing six different mise must, and will be. won for the Lord sions. Since the work began in the Jesus Christ.-REV. G. H. JONES. fall of 1884 the Korean Church has had a marvelous growth. The total num- From every hand come cheering tidber of converts to the various missions ings of the progress of the Gospel in is about two thousand, and regular Korea. Bishop Joyce writes that all preaching is maintained at fifty differ- Korea is open to receive the Gospel. ent places throughout the peninsula. Towns and villages are constantly ask- A Holy Ghost native ministry is being ing for missionaries, and the need for raised up, and the outlook is of the reinforcements is rapidly increasing. brightest possible nature. lIrs. Bishop's call has already -been sounded in these pages (May, p. 363). Under God, Christian missions have Rev. Malcolm C. Fenwick. of Wonsan, writes that missionaries are now gladly • See also pp. 47, 48, 55 (Jan); 110 (Feb· received all over the country, and that ruary); 650, 658, 665 (present issue)_ there are multitudes of earnest seekers after the Light. Rev. D. L. Gifford NEW BOOKS: "The Gist of Japan," R. P. tells of churches whose membel'lhip has Peeryj .. Religion in Japan," G. A_ Cobboldj increast three-fold in the past year .. Japan, Its People and Missions," JeS88 &tid of congregations far too large fo; Page; .. Dragons and Cherry Blossoms," Mrs. any of their church buildings. Dr. Morris. Underwood. of Seoul, says that it migh'
t See also pp. 863, 871 (May). NEW BooJtS: "Korea, The Hennit Natlon" (new edition), W. E. GrIftls; .. A For· ward Movement in North Korea," D. L. Gif· ford. almost be said of his report as was said of Christian friends, the prayera and in a certain war record, "There is the exhortations and comforts of Christian usual monotony of success and victory." ministers, and even where the sufferer Churches have been increasing rapidly, may have been impenitent to the last, members have been growing in num- we .have Him who was ever ready to bers and in grace, and almost the only save, standing by the sickbed, ready to drawback has been that due to the the very uttermost to cleanse and rechurches at home. Surely God is mov- ceive the parting soul. ing marvelously in Korea, and is calling us to an "advance upon our knees" to But what does'sickness mean among claim the country for Him. the thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of millions of our un- The Need for Medical Missions. christianized brothers and sisters? We must remember that sickness among BY MRS. BISHOP, F.R.G.S. them is usually, if not always, supposed to be the work of demons, especially It is not as a worker, but as a traveler in Asia and Africa. In many parts of Bolely, that my journeys in .Asia have .Asia a sick person is looked upon as given me some knowledge of the un- being possest of demons, and bechristianized Asiatic world. In those comes an object of loathing and terror. years I have become a convert to the He is put into a large house with food necessity of missions, not by seeing the and water beside him, and is absolutely success of missions, but by seeing the avoided, owing to the terrible fear lest misery of the unchristianized world. the demon in him go into the one attend- From the seaboard of Japan to those ing him. In other cases the medicine shady streams by which the Jewish men, priests, and astrologers aresentfor. exiles wept when they remembered They light huge fires, and bring gongs Zion, and from the icy plateaux of and drums and six feet high horns, and Northern Asia down to the Equator, I dance round the fire, blowing the horns have seen nothing but sorrow, sin, and round the sufferer; and if this does not shame, of which we have not the re- drive out the demon, they lay the motest conception. sufferer before a roaring fire until his skin is blistered allover, and then We all know what sickness means plunge him into cold water. If this among ourselves, and even in such an does not succeed, they lay him on epidemic as influenza. The sufferings his back and beat him with heavy of surgical operations, weary nights, clubs in order to drive out the demon_ fever, pain, and much distress are all If the case is chronic, and he does not connected with illness among ourselves, succumb to these remedies, in some but this illness has its bright side. It countries he is carried to the mountain brings out kindness and temlerness in top, a few barley balls and a little those about us; it brings delicacies and water are put teside him, and he is left flowers into the sick·room. Everything there to die alone. In all these circumthat might bring distress into the sick- stances of misery and solitude, thouroom is kept out of it, and everything sands and hundreds of thousands are that might cheer the sufferer is brought passing away in heathen lands, where in. We have the skill and kindness the Gospel of Christ, the Good Physiand self-sacrifice of men of the very cian, has never produced its healing noblest profession about us, and the infiuence. There is no hope. There is skill of trained nurses; we have magnifi- only the looking forward with terror cent hospitals, where the appliances of to something going to happen of a medical skill and the most skilful nurs- terrible kind, launched at the diseming are at the disposal of the very bodied spirit from some quarter they poorest of the community. We have, know not. besides that, the tender ministrations Medical missions put an end to these views about the heathen world. barbaric systems of native treatment, We imagine that the heathen world which are 'IlJ0'1'8e in the case of women is not so much worse than our own. secluded in their zenanas. In the hour After living amongst the heathen in of women's greatest peril and pain, many mission stations, I would say these barbaritie& are multiplied to such that the awful and fearful wickedness an extent, that in many places women of our own slums, and of our own die in legions, or are rendered invalids lapst masses, can not be named in the for life. We are bound, as humanita- same day with the wickedness which is rians as well as Christians, to make an part of the daily life of these people. end to those systems of treatment that Scenes of vice are witnessed not only exist in Asia and Africa, and to carry inside their temples but outside. in the first place the unspeakable bless- There is no public opinion, prompted ing of European treatment at the hands by Christ, to condemn any single act. of skilful and gentle doctors, combined From the sole of the foot to the crown with the knowledge of the Gospel of of the head there is not one sound part. the Lord Jesus Christ as the Healer of It is one mass of wounds and of putrithe soul as well as of the body. fying sores, and there is nothing left on which to build any superstructure of People go to missionary meetings truth. There is nothing left to tell of and hear much that excites enthusiasm that creation of God in the beginning. about the work done, but we have While the intellect of women of 20 and only touched the outskirts of the work 25 is not on a level with girls here of that is to be done, altho it is nineteen 10, yet the worst passions exist as if centuries since our Lord was on the grown on a hotbed. I have counted earth. We should set ourfaces towards up about 200 times that I have been that wilderness in which two-thirds of askt what drugs would takeaway a the human race are, at this moment, favorite wife, or a favorite wife's son. wandering without hope. We have This is the state of women in the East 1,000,000,000 at this time on the earth -huddled together and exposed in illabsolutely unchristianized, of which ness to the barbarities of native doctors. number, it is said, that 800,000,000 have There are now a few hundred medical never even heard the name of our Lord missionaries, many of whom are womand Savior. We have 3,000 languages en, but we need them in thousands. in which not even a fragment of the Bible has been translated. If the popu- There is spent every year in this lation ofthe world, estimated at 1,500,- country fifteen dollal's a head on alco- 000,000, could pass before us, two out holic drink, and eigUeen cents a head of every three would have no knowl- on converting the heathen. When we edge, even in name, of the Lord Jesus; remember that every minute five souls and this is after the voice of our Lord pass into eternity-1,400 dying every has been ringing through the Church for hour in India aud 1,600 every hour in nearly 1,900 years. It seems to me that China-it seems to me the time has instead of congratulation in speaking come when we should readjust our exof what has been done, and imagining penditures at the foot of Christ's Cross. that the kingdoms of this world are on We must choose whether we will spend t~ verge of becoming kingdoms of our upon ourselves or give to Him. We Lord, we should look these awful facts speak of the claims of the heathen, but in the face, and be covered with shame I should rather speak of the claims of and confusion, when we are content to Christ. Blessed indeed are those who take the blessings that come to us from have heard His voice, and who are the death of Christ, without passing giving their lives to Him, trying to them on to those who know Him not. lighten that great darkness. And we must do the same. How will they We are getting milk and water preach unless they be sent? and as to The Church is on a better basis. The sending them, we. can do it if we will. impression seems to be general that We can do it by expending our means, Japan is about to witness another great and in other ways. Silver and gold spiritual movement, provided, .the we may have none, but we have influ- Church sizes the present opportumty, ence in our own sphere, and we can About thirty years ago the drst two use that influence upon those about us Christians were baptized, now there are in favor of Christian missions. By over forty thousand. God has doubtprayer, by influence, by conversation, less great things in store for Japan. Let us advance to the place of duty and of privilege.
by cheerful giving, we may advance Rev. Dr. J. D. Davis, of Kyoto, authe work of Christ. The self-denial thor of a "Life of Neesima," has reof Christ was not confined to the cently made an extended evangelistic week of His passion, but the whole tour in Japan, and thus sums up his of His life was one long sedes of impressions: incomprehensible self-denials, and He 1. Japan is more ready for the Gospel than ever before. The official classes has left us an example that we should are more favorably disposed, and the follow in His steps. masses are more ready to hear than at any time before or since Japan was The Situation in Japan. opened. 2. The era of doubt and rationalistic Mr John R. Mott who has recently discussion has past its zenith. Many of the pastors and workers, and most of completed his world-tour in the inter- the Christians who have held on to their ests of the student movement, gives us faith, realize their need of a positive faith, and are hungering for spiritual some very lucid and suggestive "Im- food. '
pressions of Japan" in his account of 3. Wherever earnest men are preachhis visits in the various Asiastic coun- inl! a positive gospel, churches are alive tries.* He says in part: and souls are being gathered into the kingdom. 1. The work of the missionary in 4. The great lack of workers. That Japan is not dnisht. What was seen great rich Aidzu valley, with its 800 and heard in Japan created the convic- square miles of villages, has no missiontion that the present missionary force ary and only three Japanese evangelists is not only needed but should be wisely at work. Echigo, over 100 miles long increast. Three-fourths, or 30,000,000, and half as wide, has two missionaries of the Japanese have not yet heard of and only eight to ten Japanese workers, Christ. Missionaries are needed to all told. reach these unevangelized_ They are 5. Now is the time to pray for Janeeded to help solve the problem which pan. Pray that its force of workers confrot the Church in Japan, to pro- may not be further depleted, but rather mote the development of the Japanese restored to its former strength; that the church and to train the native ministry. rising spiritual tide may sweep over the 2. Japan calls for missionaries of land, filling the hearts of all the Chrisunusual strength, mentslly, and sphit- tian workers here, and bringing the uaall.yT. he greatest peril to Japan is the Doshisha University and every band of Christians back to their former earnest secular character of her institutions of faith and active service for Christ and higher learning. 4. Buddhism as a religion is doomed for these millions who wait. in t.he land where it has greatest vigor. It is rent with internal dissensions, and Dr. H. Loomis says: The one thing needed at this time is shows man;r signs of decay. the work of the Holy Spirit. There 5. The SIgnS indicate that the cause are men and means enough now em- ployed to work a great change in the of Christ in Japan is entering upon a country, if only accompanied by power new and remarkable era. The rational- from on high. Meetings have been istic wave is receding. The Japanese held in Tokyo to pray for this. A are more friendly toward Christianity. '. deep interest has been awakened, and services are being held in the churches • Strategic points In the World'S Conquest, to arouse and stimulate the believers, as well as gather in the unconverted. by John R. lIlott. Fleming H. Revell Co.
l&DITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Vic- In gold and silver designs. On the left toria's accession was, of course, a great of the Archbishops were the clergy of occasion. The interest of a great em- the various churches, and other invited pire, in the longest and best reign gues,ts, in all about five hundred. After known in its history, found its highest the Te Deum, and a special prayer preflood mark in the celebration of June pared for the occasion, the Hundredth 22d. By the courtesy of Sir George Psalm was sung, the whole of the vast Williams, we had the opportunity to company that filled and surrounded the witness a pageant unsurpast in its way church-yard taking up the holy strain in modem times, from one of the win- of praise; it was as the sound of many dows overlooking the very steps of St. waters, and the 3upreme moment of the Paul's where the main ceremony was Jubilee celebration. Then, of course, performed. followed " God save the Queen," after which the Queen's carriage resumed its The procession occupied about two onward progress. Millions of people and a half hours in passing, and the lined the route of the procession, and whole Empire was represented, and all the moral order of the whole pageant its colonial dependencies. Five conti- was something to evoke thanksgiving nents, the isles of the sea, and every and was a fine proof of the self-regreat nation from sunrise to sunset, and straint of the British people. from pole to pole, had their representatives. The costumes were brilliant and On the Thursday of the following costly, beyond description, and the eye week, at Albert Hall, we saw a sight seldom looks on any scene so magnifi- even more significant in its way, for it cently grand and imposing as was wit- was an exhibit of the work of woman nest that day in the semicircle that for her own sex, as represented by the fronts the great master-work of Sir Y. W. C. A. Lord Kinnaird presided, Christopher Wren. and Canon Fleming, the Dean of Nor. wich, the Archdeacon of St. Paul's, the When the Queen's carriage entered Bishop of Sierra Leone, Lord Overtoun, the inclosure and halted before the and myself made addresses, or took other steps of St. Paul's, the attendant royal parts of the service. The hall, which is carriages, with the highest dignitaries vast, held probably 10,000. Dr. Barof the various royal families, stood out- nardo, who has a genius for such specside the railing, drawn up in line side tacular displays, organized a procession by side, and the Prince of Wales and in which we should judge a thousand others on horseback, within the railing, young women may have taken part, all facing the Queen's carriage; in front representing by detachments with banof1hem and likewise facing her Majesty ners all the departments of the work were the primates of Canterbury and carried on by the Young Women's York with the Bishop of London, all Christian Association in this and other in the most superb vestments, with their lands, each detachment wearing coscroziers, etc., and the lesser clergy tumes appropriate to, and indicative of about and behind them with the grand their work. The" Flower Girls " orchestra and choir. On their right the lookt like a procession of moving high civil dignitaries of the Empire, flower-beds, and the "Foreign workwith the various Ambassadors from ers" were drest in the costumes of foreign lands, and all in robes of office the various lands among whose women of the most elaborate and gorgeous they are carrying on their work. The material and decoration, including the procession moved up the middie aisle, Hindus in cloth of gold, and the Chi- mounting the stage, and then filing to nese in sumptuous silk heavily wrought right and left, past through the corridors held in July, in San Francisco, and and took their seats in the center of the was attended by immense crowds. The hall. But anyone who witnessed that reports of it would more than engross score of bannered regiments, each repre- all the pages of this REVl1tW, and all senting a different department of we can do is to call attention to some woman's work for woman, must have of the salient points in this history. felt as never before how much the Vic Five thousand new societies within the torian Era had done to develop woman, year, with a world enrollment of 50,- to bringher out of comparative obscurity 747 local societies and 3,000,000 mem- into her true, normal sphere of organ- bers; in sixteen years, a multiplication ized and independent service for her of the original single society into over Master and for human souls. It is 50,000, and the members nearly 60,000 probable that no one occasion has ever fold. hitherto presented so effectively the wide work of Christian women. It was Dr. Clark, in a masterly address, or in the highest sense a great success, and " message," luminously sets forth the left impressions not easily effaced. The following propositions as to this world- Queen, had she been present, must have wide movement: been greatly gratified at the exhibit of the multiplied spheres of usefulness in· 1. It must be true to Its fundamental to which God has ushered her sex since Idea, raising the standard among the she began to reign. young of outspoken devotion and con- secrated service. The first convention of the Federation of Ohristian Students, recently or- 2. It must be a unifying movement. ganized, met at Williamstown, under 3. It must be a pervasive force the shadow of the famous •• Haystack" 4. It must be essentially sacrificial, monument, July 6-9, and was repre- and missionary. sented by twenty-seven nationalities- 5. It must listen to and continually China, Japan, India, Syria, South obey God's voice. Africa, and Scandinavia, Holland and He gives a four· fold motto: Germany, France, etc., as well as the British Isles. This latest development The world for Christ, of the Christian College movement will The nation for Christ, receive ample reference in these pages The family for Christ, hereafter; but we can not but wonder, Myself for Christ. as we watch the Providential interposi- And we can only add, may this holy tions of our day, what is to be the next message prove a message from God, of God's great movements in connection heard and heeded. with organizing the forces of the Christian Church for the last grcat We had the pleasure of meeting Miss onset against the powers of darkness. Annie R. Taylor at Keswick, with But what united prayer should now Puntso, her faithful Tibetan servant, rise from millions of holy hearts, lest and Siggue, his wife, who are now with we be found unready for the combined her in Britain. The sight of a Tibetan advance. man and woman will, as Miss Taylor says, better enable friends to pray for The" World Encircling ~Iovement " the Hermit nation, and claim for Christ of the Y. P. S. C. E. excites more and the followers of the grand Lama. l'Iiss more amazement at the rapidity of its Taylor was expecting to stay in England progress and the almost wild enthusiasm some three months. She hopes to pick it evokes. The sixteenth international up volunteers for the work of occupyconvention of the Y. P. S. C. E. was ing this long shut up land. All eyes are now turned toward Tibet.
Our friend, WellesleyC. Bailey, Esq., of Edinburgh, who is superintendent of the Mission to Lepers in India and the East, sends from Edinburgh a copy of the address from the lepers of the Almora L~per Asylum to Her Majesty and to honor the principle of faith the Queen, Empress of India, on the wherever dominant in His people; occasion of the diamond jubilee, by H. second, to evangelize the Continent of H. Raja Harnan Suiha Ahluwalia, who Africa directly by the missionaries, IWd was also bearer of an address from the indirectly through the training of native native Christian community of India: preachers, who shall be able to live and work in those interior districts where " We, the lepers of the Almora the climate is fatal to the white man.
Asylum, having heard that our fellow- Three qualifications are to be empha- sized as absolutely essential: a passion- Christians are uniting in presenting an ate love for the Lord Jesus Christ; a firm belief in the plenary inspiration, address to her Most Gracious Majesty infallibility, and divine authoritr. of the Holy Scriptures; and a recogmtion of the Queen Empress of India, wish to the supremacy of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual, and in the be allowed to join in expressing our conduct of the assembly. No one will be askt to join the movement, the same gratitude to God for having given us Spirit by whom the plan was originally conceived, being trusted to call out such a beneficent sovereign. Perhaps laborers into His service, whether preachers, teachers, doctors, nurses, or in no time during the history of the humbler tradesmen. Only such simple organization will be formed as seems world has the sad lot of the poor leper really necessary to the effectual and harmonious cooperation of a body of been so sympathetically considered as people spiritually united. Finally, it is assumed that if the movement be during the reign of our beloved Queen born of God, He will supply such funds as are needed for the inauguration of Empress, whose ears have always been the work without His servants solicit- ing or borrowing the money, or incuropen to the cry of the poo.r and t~e ring debt in any way whatever.
afflicted. We thank God WIth all our Jared H. Randall, '97 Brown, ex- pects to leave about the middle of heart that He has so long spared her, September, under the auspices of the Brown Young Men's Christian Associaand we pray Him to continue her reign tion, to begin work in Natal.
and make it still more prosperous. We The Utility of Missionary Effort.
are poor and helpless, and can do The following appeared in the Mie- sionary Herald: nothing to add to her royal mag- Among the recent contributions to the nificence, but we can and do pray London MansionHouseFund ,for famine relief in India, is one of a little over for her. May our humble prayers be $4,000 (.£844) from the Fiji Islands. In connection with this gift, the English accepted. . magazine Work and Workers may well call attention to the fact that when "We beg to subscribe ourselves the Queen Victoria ascended the throne, sixty years ago, the Fiji Islands were grateful tho helpless subjects of our inhabited by pagan cannibals, to whom not one ray of light from the Christian beloved Queen Empress. world had come. These people were peculiarly ferocious. The Wesleyan "The inmates (120) of the Almora Society, which in 1838 had planned to commence work within the group, de- Leper Asylum. N. W. P., India." clared in its report of that year that the missionary must prosecute his work A Twentieth Century Mission. " before the sailor and the merchant will dare to frequent those now inhos- A few young men met in a room in pitable shores." And now we have an Brown University, April 24th, to dis- illustration of what the missionary has cuss a new plan for missionary work in accomplisht. The Fiji Islands are the coming century. Most of them had christianized, for out of a population felt the practical failure of the present of 125,000 about 100,000 arc reported in business methods used in carrying out the Lord's world·wide purpose, and were persuaded that the nations can be successfully evangelized only by a revival of the 8pirit oj faith and prayer. A new movement, if the Lord will, will be inaugurated in the spring of 1900, and with respect to Africa. The key to the Dark Continent is undoubtedly its southern end, and here a missionary colony is to be establisht, interdenominational and self·supporting. South Africa is extremely fertile, and the sheep-raising industry is attended with fair profit. There the colony of missionaries may undertake self-support, and thus be independent of all mission boards and like agencies.
The purpose of the mission is to be twofold: first to exalt the name of God by furnishing a living witness of His power IWd willingness to answer prayer the government statistics as Wesleyans. art. A few specimens might be here The whole face of societr has changed. In place of brutal orgtes there is an exhibited from this Museum of the orderly and thriving community, and now the grandchildren of the cannibals, Inferno. whom it was seriously feared would slay and eat the first missionaries, have A victim's hands and arms were cut sent $4,000 to feed the poor of India. off, and the eyes gouged out; a slash across the breast, and another across A Missionary's Striking Operation. that, making a cross, with the taunt, ,. Where now is your Christ I " One The Rev. R. Swallow, M.D. (China), man at Malatia riddled with bullets in related at the sixth anniversary of the form of a cross, that ., Christ might U. M F. C. Deaconesses' Institute, at find him if He wanted him." Exeter Hall, London, on May 17, some instances of his work in the mission A house took :fire, and when help hospital at Ningpo, China. "On one was needed, instead of a water barrel, occasion a girl was brought to our hos· the hose was maliciously attacht to a pital with her leg doubled up. The petroleum cask that the :fire might be father askt me whether I could do any· more inextinguishable. Wives were thing for her. After carefully examin· compelled to witness the slaughter of ing the limb, I said I thought the husbands and sons, and a deliberate deformity could be cured in about two attempt was made throughout Armenia months. He said I would have to doit to slay every male over ten years, that quicker than that, or not at all. In a the Armenian families might hence· fortnight he came again, and seemed forth be impossible. disappointed. I askt him if he would allow me to take a piece of flesh out of The slau~hters were by wholesale, his arm to put it in his daughter's leg. 100,000 havmg perisht. In one church , Oh, no,' said he, and he went off. I at Ourfa from 2,000 to 3,000 were slain askt the mother the same question, and or burned, 1,500 killed were dra~ged she replied, ' No; I would rather she to a long trench and piled in prOlruscustayed a little longer.' Then I called ously and buried in one grave. In the man, and told him to take my in- Malatia, that natural paradise, between strument and cut a piece of flesh out of 2,000 and 4,000 Christians suffered my arm. He took the scissors lip, but martyrdom. The flesh of the chief stammered, 'I can't do it.' I then men was carried round the market pickt up the instrument, cut out a piece place for sale at less than a farthing a of flesh from my arm, and planted it in pound. There alone are over 1,500 orthe girl's leg. In a few weeks she went phans and 500 widows. home cured." Of course, some outrages were worse The horrors of Armenia have never than death, and to avoid them, a short distance from Harpoot, 32 women, led yet been adequately told, nor so far as by one of peculiar nobility and intelli· gence, drowned themselves in the Eutold, have they reacht the knowledge phrates. 600 ~irls and brides were in one case carrIed off to Kurdish and of even the intelligent and conscientious Turkish homes. Mothers in despera- tion first flung their children and then body of Christians. Professor J. Ren· themselves into the flames which con- sumed their dwellings or churches. del Harris and his wife, Helen B. Har· . After orders had come to stop the massacre one of the noblest men of ris, have pUblisht a volume of letters, Eghin, venturing out of his hiding- place was assailed by stones. He prodescriptive of their experiences, while tested, "You may not kill me now;" but the brutal answer was, "No, not traveling through Armenia and dis· with guns-we are forbidden to shoot; hut stoning is a different thing and so tributing relief. Those letters ought they crusht hi,s head with heavy stones.
to be read and pondered by every dis- Not one village is yet rebuilt out of over 150 pulled down or burned round ciple of Christ, by every lover of hu- Harpoot. 'fhe women's eyes are always full of tears and the men's voices seem manity, as should also Prof. Lepsiua' to have a tearful quality. "We can't sing," they say; .. we have not sung book. since the massacre." At Biredjik not one Christian is left-all dead or turned The enormities they chronicle exceed over to Islam's tender mercies.
for hellish cruelty and refinement of The needs of Armenia are corre- torture anything known to modem history. Outrage, rapine, malice, murder are reduced to a science and an spondingly great. Here are 60,000 ing in the old Gregorian churches and orphans to be fed, and 5 cents a week in the midst of the long and tedious will keep them. Twenty-five dollars a Gregorian Ritual. year will not only provide for any 0-':- phan, but leave a margin for the For every missionary who fell in widow. It is possible to provide for China in the massacre of 1895, God has 400 boys and 300 girls and supply 10 already given at least 1,000 converts, teachers at less than 400 dollars a year and there are many more inquirers. (school year of 10 months). If not So in Armenia. Already the divine provided for these orphan children harvest from the seed sown in this will inevitably get under control either bloody soil begins to appear. Will not of Romanists or Mohammedans. Christians hasten to the help of the 60,000 orphans that need immediate The animU8 of this massacre; is not provision for their food, and shelter, hard to trace. The civilization of Asia and instruction? When was there a ~Iinor is American. The missionaries like opportunity and obligation? have spread over the whole conntry a network of religious and philanthropic TluJ Oentral Sudan Mi88ion, whose institutions and influences. The Armenians have been getting wealthy, headquarters are in London, t calls thrifty, skillful, intelligent, and influential, and this has provokt the hos· attention to the open door into this tility of the Turks. There has been a secret plan, prompted by the Sultan, long closed country. They are much without doubt, for the extermination of this whole people, and it still moves in need of financial aid to take adon towards its accomplishment, with the Turk as the upper and the Kurd as vantage of this opportunity to preach the nether millstone. Christ where He has not been known. There are off-setting and relieving lights even amid this horror of deep Mr. Hermann Harris, the director of darkness. What heroism I Who will ever forget those heroines of the mas- the mission, is at present in Gabes, sacre, Miss Shattuck, of Ourfa, and Dr. Grace Kimball, at Van, not to mention Tunis, Africa, from whence he writes Dr. Barnum and his associates in the American mission at Harpoot? Every as follows: one of this mission band faced death without fear or flinching. Dr. Barnum We have a hall for Gospel meetings, showed Professor Harris the remnants of the shell that burst in his little study. with good shop front on the main road. Professor Harris askt some of them what were their feelings just then. The Overthe entrance we have written in answers sound like primitive martyrs. " All fear was taken away, and death large Arabic characters the words, seemed nothing." Others said-" We had no fear. We expected to be directly "House of the Gospel of Jesus, the with Jesus, tho the flesh trembled a little. " Messiah, the Crucified;" and on the There are other compensations. A side wall in French is written, .. Maison religious awakening at Aintab has been the result. Various bodies of Chris· de l'Evangile." tians have been drawn together as never before. Protestants are preach- In the windows we display Scrip- tures, Tracts, and text·cards in several languages, and many people come in- side to read more, and to hear the Gospel; to some we give Scriptures and Tracts. Many of the natives, however, can not read, and even those who can, do not easily understand the standard version of the Arabic Bible, which is in high.class Syriac Arabic, well suited to the native Christians of Syria and Asia Minor, but not adapted to the Moslems of North Africa. We long to have a revised version of at least one Gospel in simpler language suited to the people of this province.
• Address Miss Mary W. Ranney, lM5 Masonic Temple, Chicago.
tMr. R. Caldwell, r eFe.Rt,.LGo,Sna'JoSn,t.E.MCa. rt i n' . House, 1 Gresham St Our work may be well described and return to their regular ways of life. under two distinct headings: 1st, the The t woman' of the dead man changes French or European work. This con- masters often before the funeral. Every sists of meetings held three times a imaginable vice exists among the white week, conducted chiefly by Mrs. Harris. people who are the exemplars of the na- On Sundays, at 6.30 P. M_, the hall is tives. The immoral lives of the Euroalways well filled by soldiers. Many pean merchants and officials make hard have been brightly converted, and ale work for the missionaries. To say that bravely standing the test of persecution the missionaries are hated by the white in barracks. On Wednesdo.y evenings a people is putting it mildly. To be sure, Converts' meeting is well attended, they turn to us when there is sickness and the men give bright testimonies. among them, or their dead must be On Thursday8, at 3.30, dlere is a Chil- buried, but at other times they hinder dren's Class, when illustrated Bible our work wherever they can. lessons are given on the black-board. t t Protestant missionaries seldom get 2nd, Arabic or native work. This consists of (1) reading, conversation, credit for the work they do. At least, and personal dealing every morning officials and explorers hardly ever give with visitors at our hall, individually them their just dues, altho they often or in groups. (2) Four or five after- praise the Catholic missions_ It is true noons every week are spent in visiting the surrounding villages, and the popu- that the Catholic missions, in most lation scattered in the oasis_ The more places, have nice buildings and a large distant places I reach on my bicycle. school, and these outside appearances Sometimes I have a group of from ten give rise to glowing reports. The exto twenty or more men and lads (Arabs) plorers remain only a few days at a to hear the Gospel. (3) Twice a week station, and have not time to find out a service in Arabic is held in our hall, the inside workings of the different consisting of singing, prayer, reading missions, nor the treatment which the of the Bible, and preaching. These children receive. The whip of hippo meetings are attended by both Jews hide which is the means of persuasion and Arabs; at some the numbers have in the Catholic missions and is frequentbeen very encoural,>ing, and the atten- ly used on the natives disappears when tion and behavior of the audience ex- vi~itors are present. More than half of cellent. the children hardly learn to read, but have to work hard on the farm. The The evident sign of God's presence brighter ones are exhibited in the schooland blessing with us have been accom- room to the passin~ stranger. The panied by strong opposition from the natives are not slow In finding this out, authorities against our work. In November last we were forbidden to and the Catholics can not &,et freeborn sell or to give away any Scriptures or native children in their neIghborhood. Tracts either inside our own hall or So they carryon a slave trade with the elsewhere, and for continuing to do so, interior. The slave children are comwe were summoned and prosecuted pelled to stay in the mISSIOn until of both in January and February, and age, and in most cases even longer. fined sums varying from one to three These things can not be learned during dollars. We have committed the mat- a short visit, and since the hospitality ter to God in prayer, trusting that these of the Catholic missions and the quality things may turn out rather to the fur- of their wines are famous all along the therance of the Gospel. coast, explorers and others sound the praises of these establishments. A lady, recently returned from West- "Explorers carrr black girls with ern Africa, writes concerning the life them into the interIOr and bring them back with them, if convenient. I know of European settlers there: whereof I speak and can confirm it at any time. Civilized nations would "Nearly all the traders, officials, and have stricter laws if they only knew, explorers rule the natives with a rod of but it seems as if they did not want to iron and commit the greatest cruelties, know, about the true state of affairs, especially upon the girls and women. and if the real facts reach the ears of It is no wonder that death often cuts them off in one of their sprees, and European Governments they are quickaltho this happens often, it has no effect ly husht up, and the public at large upon those who remain. They are a knows nothing about them. The only little subdued until the funeral is over, remedy for these outrages seems to be but even when returning from the for white men to take their wives with grave they joke about their dead friend them, and through the influence of educated women a different atmosphere will be found in African society."
GENERA.L MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI(i:ENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D., OBERLIN, omo.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign apt to be divinatory, not reasoned. Periodicals. 'l'herefore it fiashes out first here, then there. Like themselves, it is genial, BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, but not stable. First they are national- MASS. ists, then idealists, always inclining, JAPAN. however, to materialism, not coarse, but decided. They do not worship Mam- -Pastor Karl Munzinger, has a pro· mon, they rather despise him. Fame, foundly instructive article in the Zeit- lligh position, are their idols. The 8d~riltfilr MissWnskunde (xii. J ahrgang, world of invisible truth and good has Heft 2), on the intellectual and spirit- scarcely any meaning to them; even uallife of the Japanese. It ought to Christianity is viewed by them largely be studied by every Japanese mission- as a mere refined substitute for Con- ary. fucianism, a simple support to social Theauthor remarks that accommoda- and national life. The author says he tion to the inner life of a people is has been repeatedly told by Christians, much more important for missionaries of whose perfect orthodoxy he had than accommodation to their ways of never doubted, that they did not and living. The latter, in Japan, is not could not believe in immortality, and expected. and would not be well re- moreover saw no use for it. They ceived. But it is of the utmost import- could be' good parents and citizens ance that the missionary should learn, without it, and they seemed to have no for it is only by slow experience that further use for it. That they were he can come to know, the inner temper citizens of eternity as well as of Japan of a people, and their fundamental way seemed to them unintelligible and of thinking. Are they idealistic or ineredible.
materialistic, religious or merely ethi- Nor do they regard themselves as cal, patriotic or merely domestic, in- citizens of mankind. Japan is the be- dividualistic or gregarious, patient or ginning and end of things to them. It fiighty and impulsive. A very differ- is what Athens or Sparta was to an ent way of dealing is requisite accord- ancient Athenian or Lacedremonian.
ing as these questions are differently Whatever aggrandizes it is good, from answered. an aggressive war to an assassinated The fundamental intellectual trait of statesman. Macchiavelli's maxims have the Japanese character, says Herr become flesh and blood in Japan. They Munzinger, is impatience of thorough do not even say, like our heathenish research. They want results, they statesmen in the Mexican war. .. Our want to be spared processes. They are country right or wrong." Their coun- extraordinarily quick and keen in the try can not be wrong. Christianity it- apprehension and application of knowl- self gives way too much to this pro- edge, especially technical and physical pensity. Romanism is antinational.
knowledge. They have done wonders Protestantism is national, but Chris- in this. Nowhere are processes and tianity, in no form, has a right to be- methods, from the working of the come absorbed in politics. Its first steam engine to that of the State, more WOl'k is Personal Regeneration; its sec~ skillfully appropriated. But a deep. ond, Universal Brotherhood. So far intellectual assimilation of knowledge, as nationalism will not minister to hu- step by step, genetically, is something manity, the Gospel must be against it. '
they do not l!'ve. Their knowledge is Much of the late brilliant patriotism of
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Japanese Christians has been much generacy by confining marriage within more Japanese than Christian. narrow circles.
Should Christianity, by a sudden 5. It has been a source of conserva- lurch, become the national religion tism in everything.
of Japan, Herr Munzinger thinks it 6. It has supprest the development would fare with it as with Buddhism. of individuality and independence of Japanese Buddhism, he says, is not the character.
true Buddhism at all. Its metaphysics 7. It has helpt in developillg other and mysticism have almost disappeared. injurious customs, such as early mar- Its atheism has become idolatry. Its riage, the charging of heavy matri- nirvana has become a sensuous heaven monial fees, etc.
and hell. A suddenly adopted Japanese 8. It has successfully restrained the Christianity, the author says, would growth and development of national simply be the Gospel dechristianized. worth; whilst allowing opportunity of Happily this danger seems past. A mental and spiritual culture only to a "holy seed," of elect souls, spiritual, limited number of privileged people, it steadfast, patriotic, indeed, but refus- has denied those opportunities to the ing to let the Church, like Shintoism, majo~ity of the lower classes, conse- become the mere handmaid of tile quently it has made the country neg- Mikado. and owning fellowship 'only atively a loser.
with those who are striving after that 9. It has made the country fit for .. true fount of life, our native land on foreign slavery by previously .enslaving high," would slowly but steadily re- the people by the most abject" spiritual generate Japan. All other successes tyranny."-O. M. Intelligencer.
are illusive.
The Japanese are so easily carried -Oscar Flax, in the Allgemeine Mia- about, that they have an instinctive 8wns Zet"tschrij't, gives a pleasing de- craving for organization. Nowhere is scription of the famous Indian lotus, a thoroughly constituted congregation which, from of old, the Hindus have more beneficent, and more indispens- so enthusiastically admired. that they able. The pastor must to them, far esteem it the embodiment of a goddess.
more, than to us, represent Christ. A " On a slender shaft, four or five feet thoroughly constituted national Church, long, sways gently on the surface of not afraid of a strong government, the pond a half-opened bud, whose would be a tower of strength against outer leaves yet cover over mysterious- the winds of misbelief and unbelief. ly the inner cup, whose dark rose color The author thinks, and with good rea- already becomes visible through the son, that the exaggerated American clefts of the leaves. The fully opened notions of democracy need to be very blossoms reveal the complete enchant- essentially tempered in Japan, if they ment of this wonderwork, which stands are not to work anarchically. unique in God's creation. The petals, INDIA. at the tip of a radiant rose color, grad_ ually paling below, and melting by the -" The following are the heads of a most delicate gradations into the purest lecture by Pundit Siva Nath Gastri, white, gird in the unveiled magnificence on ' Caste,' viz :- of the cup, in the midst of which, like 1. It has promoted disunion and an inverted obelisk, rises the velvety discord. flower gently touched with yellow 2. It has made honest manual labor and red, whose upper rounding is contemptible in this country. strewn with violet, rose-colored, white S. It has checked internal and exter- and gilded points as with stars. Around nal commerce. it wave in a circle the barriers of the t It has brought on physical de- stamens, which, white beneath, golden
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
yellow above, balance snow-white pol- -" The Hindu people is a poo~ 'peo- len-cases. Upborne by dark-green ple, and poorer, seemingly, it becomes sepals, and profused with the magic every day," says Herr Jensen. The charm of interblending colors, there it great reason, probably, is the enormous rests, the pearl of Hindustan, the moot and unmanageable increase of the popu- imposing, most delicate, fairy-like im- lation.
age of absolute beauty that our earth -Mr. Jensen says also: "The mis- has to show. What wonder that the sionary, having come to bring India Hindu honors it as a flower of heaven, Jesus and the Dible, is apt to give hirp.- that in his glowing phantasy he makes self very little concern about what he it to have grown out of the bodies of regards as all her trumpery literature. his divinities of love, lind when he Yet he is pl'obablynot without pride in seeks an image of utmost beauty and his acquaintance with the Greek and gloriousness, finds it in the Kamal, the Latin authors. And yet all this is dead Lotus! and gone, and has only historical worth, while our Indian Iliad and Odyssey "The Hindu Temples, there they still live upon the tongue of every rise before our view, the mighty Hindu child and every Hindu woman. colossal fabrics, with their pillared The missionary often fails to underhalls and balconies, pyramid cones with stand that what culture he brings with their decorations of uncanny idols and him from home does not at all pass curcobolds, the little gloomy filthy 'tika- rent here, but should be regarded only nas,' in the midst of the city throngs, as increasing his facility of appropriatthe mysterious shrines in the midst of ing the Indian culture. The ultimate the pathless wilderness, bathed in the truth may well be. that the Hindu depurple of the setting sun, the beautiful spises us, because we both openly and and noble Sikh temples, and the king tacitly have made it so thoroughly eviamong them, the golden temple in dent, that we despise him. What does Armitszar, the sight of which trans- it signify to ft. common man what we ports us into 'The Thousand and may have learnt in Europe? All he One Nights: Yes, interesting and ro- inquires about is, whether we know mantic are they to him who only knows anything about India, whether he can the outside, but devilish and accursed feel, in any measure, that we would to him who has gained a deeper view. gladly adapt ourselves to him, whether Jesus must conquer. In Bombay, be- we are willing to become Hindus to tween two temples you see a handsome save the Hindus, or whether we think house, inscribed 'Wesleyan Chapel. ' it enough for this that we are Euro- It is not yet true that wherever Satan peans and believers." builds a temple, the Christians build a church alongside, but we may say that the Standard of the Cross now rises -The Damk MiBBions Blad, for everywhere, and that Christianity b,- March, 1897, reports some statements of gina to be a power in India." the president of the Indian Natio~al Congress at its last meeting, which sug- -We notice that Herman Jensen, in gest the question whether England is the Danak MiBswns Blad, gives the pro- governing India in the interest of India, portion of the casteless to the Hindus, or in the interest of the younger sons of the various castes, as being, in South of the English gentry. For instance: India about one to six. In North In- .. Poverty ,is increasing, and a third dia, he remarks, the proportion is much part of our husbandmen are in debt; less. So long, therefore, as missions the land is pregnant with wealth, and work chiefly among the casteless, they every seventh' man has to fight with can not be said to be taking hold of the famine.
Indian people. .. The government, in view of the
ENGLISH NOTES
depreciation of silver, advances the pay long been in weak and failing health, of the high-paid English officers, but was called home on December 6. The not of the poorly. paid native non-com- bishop, in a long, touching letter of her missioned officers, although the prices last few days on earth, writes: 'She of provisions are rising daily-this was taken to church the Sunday before makes bad blood. in Mr. Hogan's strong arms, when it was noticed that she lookt much .. The larger the foreign element is, changcd. In the afternoon of that day which, of course, must have larger pay she was taken into the chapel, and she to be able to serve in a foreign land, took hcr women's class as usual. . . . the deeper and wider does this dig the For a long time she has been unable to channel through which wealth and stand alone or walk, but she never re- prosperity flow out of the land. mitted any duty, or missed pnblic wor- ship. Four races at the same moment "I can not refrain from mentioning held her in their hands and mingled the lack of justice which our tribunals their tears as she blest them all. Beoften show, as between Englishmen sides all the mission party kneeling and natives, where Englishmen are de- around, the room, a very large and airy fendants and natives the plaintiffs. one, was covered with silently-praying Such partial judgments awaken discon- crowds of Indians. For the three days tent among the masses, and weaken and nights when she lay a-dying, often confldence in the government. nearly choked, the prayer-meeting in the chapel adjoininu; ~ur house never .. The crushing poverty under which once flagged. It was always full, and our land sighs, and which nothing is the overflow in other rooms. Every done to mitigate, is the mother of many ten minutes messengers past from the public aberrations from morality; for a bedside to the supplicating crowds, repeople which gro~ns under the heavy porting her actual condition. They yoke of want, and for whom existence had changed their pctition when they is a suffering, has no interest in main- saw that it was God's will to take her, taining morality." and prayed that she might have a peaceful, painless end, and that I might MISCELLANEOUS. be upheld by the everlasting arms. Itfany souls found the light during the The O. M. Intelligencer, referring to death-struggle. In her death she, by the cordial letter written by Archbishop her beautiful and tender work, and Wake, Jan. 1, 1719, to the missionaries patient endurance of agony at times of Denmark (themselves Germans), through choking, drew more souls to Ziegenbalg, and Grundler, remarks that Jesus than ever. It was victory on while then the primate, tho most victory, triumph on triumph. Quite cordial in his recognition of these two hundred souls shrored in the blessbrethren's labors, does not seem to ing.'''-Ohild1·en's World. have a thought of any similar responsibility of the Church of England. English Notes. Archbishop Temple and Bishop Browne, in similar letters or speeches, BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M. A. "address themselves to the home clergy, and seek with all earnestness to T1U! Ohurch Mi88ionary Soczety.-The arouse in them a realization of their Rev. C. H. Gill writes with reference own duty in the matter." to the Indian famine: Since my arrival home from Jabalpur, I have Little Denmark has since been over- frequently been askt, "How long will past, perhaps even relatively, by the the famine last?" With regard to those mighty England, yet she remains, districts where it is acute, one may among Protestant nations, one of the pioneers in missions.
"The wife of Bishop Ridley, of the British Columbia Mission, who has
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
!lIl.fely assert that the famine mU8t CQn- Eaatern Equatorial ..Vrica.-The Rev.
tinue till next &ptember 0'1' October, F. Rowling, of Busoga, has just sent because there can not be any harvest home a copy of the Gospel of St.
tm then. The success of the harvest Matthew, printed in the mission in the depends on many conditions, but if language of the people. He is hoping these be fulfilled, and the famine in its soon to start the Gospel of St. Luke, acuteness be ended, it will even then and by degrees the whole of the New take years to wipe out the disastrous Testament will be in the common traces, and set things right again. The tongue of the people of Busoga.
fund raised at the Mansion House is Presbyterian Ohurch of England.- being used to supplement efforts made Conferences for studying the Word and by the government in trying to cope instructing native teachers, are being with the misery caused by lack of food. organized at Siong si, a large fishing A large number of orphans and waifs village at the mouth of the Chinchew are left on the missionaries' hands who River. Mr. Campbell Brown superinwill require continual provision and tends these gatherings, and the occamaintenance until they are grown up, sions are employed both for the systemand it is for this that funds are urgently atic study of Scripture and evangelistic needed. Surely the maintenance of work in the district. famine-orphans, rescued by Christian missionaries from certain starvation, Medical Mi8sions in Formosa and and brought up and trained in the China are prospering. Dr. Maxwell nurture and admonition of the Lord is writes hopefully concerning them, tella most fit and appropriate object for ing of many instances where closed Famine Relief Funds to be expended doors have been opened to the medical on, and one on which our Savior will missionary, which would have resmile. mained closed but for the healing art Hang-OllOw Medical Mi,sion.-The practised. work done during the past year in this He concludes his letter to the Monthquarter has been fully maintained, advance being made as far as circum- ly Messenger by saying, "The pioneerstances would permit in every direction. ing power of the medical mission is The work is now very great and daily unquestionable. Its abiding power for on the increase, the double nature of strengthening, extending and consolithe mission providing for the whole dating a Christian mission is also a being of man. Many times opportunies great fact. The medical missions of the occur for speaking the Word while Presbyterian Church of England have ministering to the physical needs, both done much to bring to the front and to in the dispensary and hospital of this commend to the whole Church of Christ center of work. the manifold value and power of this agency."
The native missionaries in Western -Baptist Missionary &czetll.-The Africa are being much blest in their Rev. T. Richards, of Shanghai, in work. In the station of W orawora, speaking of mission work in China, on the Gold Coast, the king has been states that what is most needed by won to Christianity by native agency, Christian missions in order that they and consults and largely acts on the may prosecute their work most effectu- advice given by the native Christian ally is;- teacher. Several of the distinctly 1. That the Christian Church should heathen observances are no longer re- send out the best men of her colleges as garded in this district, and Christianity missionaries.
,in its ,essence of love is being felt and 2. That the natives may be helpt to realized. provide suitable institutions for training the Chinese themselves to become London, E. C. Two Harley students missionaries. are preparing to proceed to :Madeira, Mr. A. Robson and Mr. C. Pike. Miss He fnrther states, that the cbief dif- Meyer has also been accepted for the ficulty in working In China is the fact same :tield and will accompany the that foreigners have no right to settle mission party. In the int(lrior of the country, and are only legally allowed to travel. No THE KINGDOM. missionary can settle down in a district without :tirst having gained the good -The editor of this department of will of the people 01 that district. the MISSIONARY REvmw will esteem it a special favor if secretaries of mission- Mr. Richards is one of the oldest ary societies, whether in this or other missionaries of the Baptist Society, hav- lands, will send him copies of their aning workt in China during twenty- nual reports, and any items of intelliseven years. He purposes returning gence from the world-field. very shortly to his much-loved sphere of labor in Shanghai. -Not a little embarrassment and perplexity come to the editorial mind -Gospel Mission to Madeira and and heart in connection with obituary Porto Santo.-Among the modern sur- notices. Not a month passes without prises in missions, is the attempt now on intelligence arriving of the departure foot to evangelize the Madeira Islands. from life of a half dozen or half score For almost two years Mr. and Mrs. of Christian toilers in far off lands, Jefferd llave been spreading the glad whose names are precious. It would tidings in those parts, and have found be easy to cover the entire space at the work, notwithstanding the malig- command with the story of their lives, nity of the priests, delightful. Mr. and an estimate of their character. But Jefferd has told his story in vivid such a task can very easily be overdone. words. Speaking of the people he Whoever considers the matter, and resays: "Many of them are tired of Rome calls the fact that there are some 15,000 and her deceptions, and to them the men and women at work abroad, can words of a free salvation that can be easily see that only a very few of the known and enjoyed here on earth, are most eminent names can be mentioned especially welcome. You can tell them when the Master gives them their final a Bible story without t1leir knowing discharge. whence it comes. How astonisht they are to find that it comes from a book – How painful almost to the shocking which is forbidden them; and when is the contrast between the tidings they become further acquainted with which come from the" foreign" dethe Gospel, and know by experience partments of our societies, and those how exactly it suits their needs as sin- from the "home" department. In ners, great Is their indignation as they well·nigh every case, while the former realize they have been robbed of the tells continually of deep interest, very words of life by those who pose as growth through conversions and need of the representatives of God." Mr. Jef- enlargement, in the latter the main ferd has reluctantly left Madeira for a mention relates to lack of funds and season, that he might get the help the like. That is, tho among the needed for the thorough evangelization heathen the outlook is most cheering, of the island. A council has been where Christians abound the prospect formed in London to assist him, and is gloomy. 0 Lord, how long! among others who will gladly receive gifts for the work is W. Roger Jones, -There is no evidence of a crisis in Esq., Secretary of the )fissionary Pence missions. All movements, religious as Association, 186 Aldersgate Street, well as commercial and industrial, have their periods of enthusiastic ad ranee and of conservative delay. The cause Indian printers.- Woman's Work for of missions, not merely foreign but Woman. home, is at present in the latter, but It will not remain there. It is as firmly -The Rev. R. W. Gurd, of Kitkatla, seated as ever in the conscience of the British Columbia, writes to the Church Church, and it has as strong a hold as Missionary Society: "No annual letter ever upon its affection and dcvotion. would be complete without a reference There is need for work, but none for to Chief Sheuksh. The change in him discouragement.-~he Independent. is really remarkable. His very looks and features indicate what he is-a -The trained statistician, F. W. whole-hearted believer in the Lord Hewcs, contributes to the Outlook a Jesus Christ. Those who knew him in valuable article showing what 14 of the days of darkness-Skeuksh the the leading denominations have been autocrat, the severe, the proud, the lion contributing to missionary work by ten- -ean not but extol the power which year periods, beginning as far back as has transformed him into Skeuksh the 1815 The object of his study was to gentle, the true, the lamb. find out whether the present generation is giving as liberally to missions as our -As a beautiful standing illustration fathers did. The conclusion is estab- of Christian unity, Benito Station, lisht by outline maps that the decade Africa, bears off the palm. Three wo- 1885-1894 greatly surpast its predeces- men missionaries and 1 man, a teacher, sors-not only in the absolute amount constitute its membership. Among given, but relatively as compared with them there is 1 American, 1 Germanthe incr.ease both of property and of Swiss, 1 Norwegian, 1 French-Swiss; 1 population. His maps show a steadily is Baptist, 1 Lutheran, 2 are Reformed. increasing growth of contributions, All are one in heart and aim and cheer- ($40,000 in 1820, $860,000 in 1840, $2,- ful adoption of the Presbyterian forms. 481,000 in 1860, $7,780,000 in 1880, to No wonder their school-children from $13,887,000 in 18ll0); with a decline, antagonistic tribes, the KomM, Mabeya. sharp, tho temporary, in 1857, during and Fang, are learning to dwell together the Civil War, the panic 1872-9, and the in unity.- Woman'8 Workfor Woman. current one 1893-7. The per capita contributions have also increast from $0.04 -Thirty-two years from the landing to $0.22 for each man, woman and child. of the first missionaries in the Sandwich .And in like manner, the giving of the Islands 15,000 were found in the schools churches has grown much faster than and 21,000 in the churches, a foreign their wealth. missionary society was contributing more than $6,100 annually, a limited -When Rev. John Newton went to monarchy had been set up, and a legis- India in 1835, he took out an old-fash- lature with two houses. ioned wooden printing-press. It was the foundation of a publishing estab- -The ignorance of missions which lishment which, in the course of fifty prevails in seafaring circles generally is years, issued 267,000,000 pages in 10 amusingly illustrated in the following different languages. The earliest relig- anecdote: The sailing ship, &ottish ious literature in Punjabi was the fruit Dale, was wreckt on the Batoa, or Turof Dr. Newton's labors, and of Rev. L. tle Island. The crew took refuge in Janvier, afterwards associated in the the boats, but saw, to their terror, that same. The works produced included a native boat with a brown matting sail the New Testament, a Punjabi gram- was bearing towards them. They rowed mar, dictionary, and numerous tracts. with all their might to escape these That press at Lodiana. as well as another supposed bloodthirsty savages, and in Allahabad, were long ago rented to thought themselves lucky when they distanced them. After a course of 240 miles they reacht the haven of Suva, -The gifts to foreign missions during where there is a British governor; but the past year in the Presbyterian they were astonisht to find that when Church, North, which .came from the they related their narrow escape from churches, were $270,497. The Women's the cannibal Batoans, it was received Boards and societies contributed $299,· with bursts of laughter! and they were 115. The women have beaten the men told that they would have been safer in by nearly $30.000. Batoa than in any civilized European State. The Batoans are Christians, and -The managers of Woman's Work have saved many shipwreckt crews and for Woman (Presbyterian) have made given them food and lodging free, and that magazine such a splendid success, have preserved stranded goods and re- that out of a surplus in its treasury they stored them faithfully to their owners. have been able recently to contribute to -Allgemeine ~l[i8siom Zeit8chrijt. the Assembly's Board more than $3,000, of which $578 was to pay for the type WOMAN'S WORK. for the Bangkok Press, and $2,500 was to reduce the deficit in the year's re- -The W. C. T. U's. of Cape Colony ceipts. have been very much in evidence lately. Port Elizabeth, as usual, supplied tem· -Mrs. George S. Hays, formerly a perance refreshments at the agricultural missionary in China, says: "The religshow, and 801d thousands of cups of tea ious feelings of Chinese women vary and coffee, taking £l1i8. From all over greatly in different localities. In some the country reports came in of other places they are distinctly religious, visit· Unions in the smaller up-country towns ing temples, worshiping daily at a having taken up the same work, while private shrine in the home, fasting. the number of permanent ,booths on praying. and endeavoring by good sports' grounds is increasing. The works to lay up for themselves a regard Unions of Kimberley arranged and in the future world. In the eastern part carried through an industrial exhibition of Shantung province this is not the on a large scale in April. The exhibi- case. The women, as a rule, never visit tion lasted two days, and was an all· the temples, and worship no private round success. £100 profit was made, gods. They are, of course, filled with part of which was devoted towards many vague and dark superstitions. erecting an Inebriate Home in Cape Hard-workt,improperly nourisht, easily Town. Mrs. Fehr, of Britain, is tour· distracted, and excited by the little de· ing the Colony and holding meetings, tails of daily life, they seem to give little and Miss Moody, the Colonial organizer, if any thought to their future after has given several successful lectures in death." various towns. YOUNG PEOPLE. -Over $8,000 has been sent in to the -Foreign Mail, representing the In- W. C. T. U. national treasurer for the ternational Committee of the Young Armenian relief, and it is still coming Men's Christian Association, for June; in, $26.54 having been received from has most impressive articles upon "An Tasmania. The India relief fund has Appeal for Reinforcements in Japan," also been increast by W. C. T. U. sub- " The Present Situation in China," and scriptions. Through the influence of " The Indian Conferences of 1807." No the national officers the national India phase of missions just now is more relief fund committee has voted and worthy of serious attention than this sent $500 to Pundita Ramabai, to be which relates so largely to students. used at her discretion for the relief of TIM Student Volunteer for the same the women in her school, and those month finishes volume 5 of the maga· under her personal direction. zine, which chronicles the progress of that thrilling movement. ~The great conventions of the cur- UNITED STATES. rent year indicate that the young people are still "marching on " in their united -Alaska cost $7,000,000 when pureffort to do great things for Christ and chased 30 years ago. Its gold mines the Church. First come the Christian are expected to yield $10,000,000 the Endeavorers, 24,000 strong to San Fran- present year, and the values of furs and cisco in July, one-half from outside of of fish are expected to bring up the California, and representing 3,000,000. yield to twice the original cost of that A few days later Toronto was fairly country. A heterogeneous American ftooded by theEpworth Leaguers stand- popUlation are fiocking up to that land ing for half as many more, and the of varied climate and wealth, increas- Baptist Young People's Union gathered ing its importance as a mission field. In Chattanooga. -"You must not be discouraged," -In opening his address at San said a Kiowa, "if we Indians come Francisco, Rev. F. E. Clark said: slow. It is a long road for us to leave "During the past year I have been our old Indian ways, and we have to journeying in many lands, among peo- think a great deal; but I am sure that ple who speak many tongues. One all the Indian people will come into the factor I have found constant in all these Jesus road, for I see that these white limds. I have found Christian En- Jesus people are here to help up, and I deavor principles everywhere the same. thank them for coming. Tell the Chris- The same pledb"ll, the same consecration tian people to pray for us. Weare meeting, the same general lines of ignorant, but we want to be led aright effort for the Master. Societies that are that we may come into the Jesus road." as widely separated in miles and manners as the Bengalis who live in the -It is a tribute well deserved, but swamps of the Ganges, and the Kaffirs one not always rendered, when the of the up-lands of Africa, from the Ohristian Advocate says: "If we were Endeavorers of the Golden Gate, called on to specify the institution now have subscribed to the same cov- at work in the United States that has enant pledge, and better still, are keep- done the most for the promotion of ing it." Christianity in the world, we should without hesitation name the American -A "missionary roll of honor" was Bible Society; and were we personunrolled in one of the meetings. Upon ally reduced by some insurmountable it were the names of 10,468 Christian force to contributing to but two in- Endeavor Societies that have given stitutions designed to benefit mankind nearly $200,000 to missions through and to promote Protestant Christianity. their own denominational missionary the American Bible Society would be boards. And these same societies have one of them." given an equal amount for other benevolences. The largest gift to missions -The Baptists, South, are doing misreported by anyone society is the sion work in Africa, China, Japan, $1437 of the Clarendon Street Society Brazil, Italy and Mexico, have 80 misof Boston. The Calvary Presbyterian sionaries in the field with 110 native Society of Buffalo is second, with assistants, 75 churches with 4,324 mem- $1017; and a Chinese society in San bers, and baptized 660 last year. Francisco, in he Chinese Congregational mission, stands third, having -The American Board has medical given nearly $700 to its own denomi- missionaries in almost all of its 20 mis- 'national missionary board, and is sup- sions, and a total of 39, of whom 11 are porting 6 missionaries in the field. women and 15 are ordained. It also has 10 hospitals and 30 dispensaries.
-The Presbyterians, South, rejoice that 6 individuals and nearly 50 churches are each supporting mission- Scripture were circulated by the society aries of their own, and are able to say: in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Nothing "It means a great deal that one-third could be done in Austria.N ow the of our foreign missionaries are support- society has an agent in each of these ed either as • substitutes for service' or countries, and they reported an aggreas the foreign counterpart to the home gate issue in 1895 of nearly 400,000 pastor." copies, chiefiy through the labors of 102 colporteurs. -F. W. Hewes, mentioned on an earlier page, finds that the rate of giving, -Naturally at the present time in according to the financial ability of Great Britain reference is constantly each, in 14 denominations l'anges from made to Queen Victoria's reign of sixty $6.87 among the Congregationalists years, and the Church Missionary Soto $1.04 among the Disciples (" Camp- ciety recalls the fact that when she bellites"). The 4 which follow the came to the throne there were in conbest are these: United Presbyterians, nection with the society only 3 natives $5.98; Presbyterians, North, $4.84; ordained to the ministry, while during Reformed (Dutch), $3.44; and Presby- these sixty years 540 have been ordained. terians, South, $2.67. Ascending from Ten years ago, at the time of the the lowest we have, Cumberland Pres- Queen's Jubilee, the society had sent byterians, $1.33; Free Baptists, $1.35; Ollt 900 missionaries, while during this Reformed (German), $1.70; aild Epis- last decade nearly 700 have been added copalians, $1.72 to the roll. It was in that year, 1887, that the committee definitely adopted EUROPE. the policy of refusing no candidate on financial grounds. The past year has Great Britain.-The British and witnessed the lurgest number of adult Foreign Bible Society, at its recent an- baptisms on its records, namely, 7,700, nual meeting, reported its receipts as a fact accounted for by the great innearly $11,000 in excess of those of the gathering in Uganda, where 3,751 present year, amounting to $642,000. adults have been admitted to the The total issues of the society since its church. organization in 1804 amount to 151,- 142,802. The committee report that The Continent.-Some weeks since they have "thus far taken up with a party of French Protestants left Marglad alacrity every item of translation seilles for Madagascar, consisting of 3 and revision work that has been brought _pastors, 2 professors, 3 women, and 6 before them with sufficient evidence as children. Four Malagasy students were to its excellence and missionary useful- present, and .. one of them exprest their nes8." gratitude and confidence in a French speech which won the sympathies of -When Queen Victoria began her the whole audience. No one would reign, the British and Foreign Bible have believed that his stay in France Society had only 9 agents working out- had lasted only four months, so easily side England and Wales. Two of does he manage the language." these were located in the West Indies and 1 in Canada. The others were in -The mission schools in the German Frnnce, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, colonies have become a great power. Greece, and China. There are now 20 At the beginning of last year there were foreign agents, besides 6 secretaries of in these colonies 279 schools, all but 53 auxiliaries in India and South Africa, of them sllstained by the gifts of evanwhose salaries are provided by the gelical German Christians. Since 1884 parent society. In the year before the more than $1,125,000 have been spent Queen's accession it was with difficulty upon them. They are of four grades, that probably less than 3,000 copies 0 the lowest, in which reading and writing with religion are taught, elementary -The British Weekly tells of a schools, intermediate schools, in which " quiet but remarkable work in France in addition to what are termed common in the provision of an asylum for train- branches at least one European lan- ing priests who are leaving the Roman guage is taught, and high schools, or Catholic Church." Of 40 who applied the seminary, in which natives are last year, after very careful investiga- trained for the best work of which thcy tion, 12 were accepted. Some are pre- are capable These schools have been paring to be teachers, and a few arc of untold benefit to the colonies. Inas- already at work as Protestant ministers much as the government has as yet and missionaries. In most cases the done nothing for education in them, it change was "attributed simply to the is quite natural that it should now be study of the New Testament." There askt to make Bome provision for their is a clearer, freer religious atmosphere support in the way of grants, as Eng- than 25 years ago.
land Holland, and even Spain have ASIA. done for schools in their colonies. The policy of the German government has Islam.-We have often been forced been to follow the settlers rather than to observe that the whole Mohamme- to lead and to do no morc for them than dan world is connected by' secret is necessary for their protection. But threads, and that a defeat which Islam the managers of missionary work think suffers in any part of the world, or a the time has come when government triumph which she can claim either may reasonably be askt to share in the really or :fictitiously, has its retIex expense of educating children born in action even on the work of our misthe colonies.-Oongregationatist. sionaries in the Mohammedan part of Sumatra. Thus the recent massacres -The McAll Mission was begun a in Armenia have filled the Mohamme quarter of a century ago, and now it dans in this part of Sumatra with pride. can be written: In 25 years the one They say to the Christians, "You see room in a shop at Belleville has been now that the Rajah of Stamboul" multiplied until there are 35 places of (that is, the Sultan of Constantinople) meeting in Paris and its environs, and "is the one whom none can withstand; nearly 50 scattered throughout France and he will soon come and set Sumatra and in Corsica. From the :first tiny free, and then we shall do with the plant have brancht out Sunday and Christians as the Turks did with the Thursday schools, Young People's Armenians." And it is a fact that a Meetings, Christian Endeavor Societies, considerable number of Mohammedans Mission Churches, the Mission Boat, who were receiving instruction as can- Mothers' Meetings, dispensaries, tem- didates for baptism have gone back perance work, reading-rooms, work for since the receipt of this news.-Bericl,t soldiers, house·to-house visiting, a der Rheinischen MisaionsQf!8el18chajt.
monthly paper, that has proved a sec· -Considerable surprise will be felt ond "Bon Messager," with its glad at the news that a steamer has been motto, "The Gospel for All," a hymn- placed on the Jordan, to run between book, from which children learn to the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.
sing wor9s that, long afterwards, may It is said that the voyage can be ac- cheer their dying hours, a book that has complisht in 5 hours. The current come to Ameriea, and is used by the idea has been that the river is too rapid French from Canada to New Orleans, to allow of such a feat. But if it is and has been welcomed by French true that the two seas arc now con- soldiers in Madagascar. There seems nected in this way, there should be an no end to the possible shoots from the added attraction to traveling in the seed sown a generation ago. Holy Land. Another thing is mentioned in this connection-that 4 Jew- open door and immense need for It ish families have settled in Jericho, greater work.
and have rented for 5 years from the -India.-Sixty years ago the govern- Sultan a large area of fruitful land for ment of India forbade its officials to cultivation, the land to be irrigated employ native Christians in the public from the Jordan.–Jiree OhurchMonthly. service. Brahmins and :M:oslems were preferred. This year a Bengal Chris- -Miss Mattie R. Wylie, of the mis- tian, a pupil of Dr. Duff, was appointed sion of the Reformed Presbyterian chief justice at Raepore, in Central Church, at Latakia, Syria, writes: India. "Perhaps an outsider would say, there is no longer work among the Ansairyeh.
Last spring the Government ordered -The Bombay Guardian says: "We the parents of those who had children could mention several Christian women in the boarding-sehool here to take who are receiving starving widows or them out, and threatened them with orphans by the dozen on their ,own re- imprisonment if they refused. But we sponsibility, without any guaranteed do not know how much seed is being means for their support, but in faith in sown in a quiet way. There is 1 evan- Him whose book says, "Pure religion gelist, and iu villages where there are and undefiled before God and the Protestants they meet on Sabbath for Father is this, To visit the fatherless prayer and praise and the study of the – and widows in tlleir affiietion, and to Word, and the members make an effort keep himself unspotted from the to attend communion scrvices at Latakia. world.' One of these heroines is clear- The schools arc full. There are preach- ing her drawing-room to increase her ing services twice every Sabbath, and a accommodation for those who are Sabbath-school with an cnrollment of 'ready to perish,' and is selling its 380. There is a weekly prayer-meeting furniture to help support them."
and also a mothers' meetiug. A Bible -Rev. J. E. Robinson, of Calcutta, reader visits from house to house. There is well assured that grell,t accessions to are 2 Christian Endeavor societies, 1 the Christian population will be made for the young men of the church and as a result of the famine, basing his extlle other for the schoolgirls. Dr. pectation upon experience. He says: Balph has also commenced hospital Out of the great distress of 1857 in work on a small scale. We also hold Northern India, and in Southern India clinics 3 times a weck, in which there in 1877, a host of valuable mission is an average attendance of over 60. A agents were gathered in process of Bible woman is employed to read and time. One large, well-establisht mission talk to the patients, both in the clinics has drawn the greater portion of its helpand in the hospital, and to visit the ers, teachers and preachers, from the sick in their homes." orphans gathered in during famine. Christian communities are formed -Mr. Robert E. Speer, of the Pres- byterian Board, writing to the Inde- more rapidly during famine times than pendent from Persia, speaks of 5 dis- under ordinary circumstances-in some tinct impressions he has received in instances formed where efforts, under that land: the general decadence of all ordinary circumstances, would prob- things from forces inherent in the ably prove unfruitful through a long Persian character and the religion of term of years. Indeed, there are Islam, the power of the ecclesiastics of strong missions in India to-day whose Islam; the influence and fanaticism of foundations were laid in the troublous the officials, the increase of religious times of famine, consisting largely of feeling against Christians, the power orphans and rescued victims. In this and hold of the missionaries and the connection nothing can be more instmctive than the experience of sundry missionaries, 192 laborers in all, 18,000 missions in South India after the Christians, and 3,400 pupils; the Herfamine of 1876-7. With much hesita- mannsburg mission among the Telugus, tion, and many misgivings, not less, I with 10 missionaries, 1,000 members, think, than 60,000 persons were received and an increasing number of baptisms; by five or six missions as a direct result the Leipsic Society's mission among of the famine-persons who, in all hu- the Tamil people at Old Tranquebar, man probability, would never other- with 27 missionaries, 76 other ministers wise have become Christians. After a and helpers, 353 teachers, 5,400 pupils, few years Bishop Caldwell publicly and 15,000 confirmed native Lutherans, stated that this famine element, which and branch missions to Tamils in Burhad been incorporated into his mission, mah and Ceylon; the Schleswig-Holdeveloped more satisfactorily than the stein or Brecklum Society'S mission, old "hand-picked" section. in northern Teluguland and J eypore, with 10 missionaries and not more than The Rev, J. Parson, of Jabalpore, 500 converts; the Basel Society's misfurnishes an apposite illustration of sions in Malabar and among the Canarthis point. He says: "We havc not ese, Marathis, and Kurgs, with 75 only taken compassion on orphans and missionalies, 152 native pastors and widows, but when strengthless, help- catechists, 265 teachers and 12,500 less men, in a few cases with their 'adherents; the Gossner mission among wives, occasionally with a surviving the Kols, with 23 ordained missionarmotherless child or two, came begging ies, 20 native pastors, and 40,000 conus to take compassion on them, I felt verts; and the Scandinavian Santhal that I could not say no and leave them mission in South Bengal and Assam, to perish. Between 30 and 40 such are with more than 10,000 converts. now with us. They came ignorant of Smaller missions are those of the Danthe way of salvation, but now rejoice ish Society among the Tamils, with 8 in God through Jesus Christ. Where missionaries and 1,000 adherents; the there were only a few preachers and Swedish Fatherland Institution's Misteachers less than ten months ago, we sion among the Ghonds in Central have now a rapidly increasing Christian India, and the Missouri Synod's mission community. They have utterly aban- in the Tamil country. In all there are doned idolatry, and so broken the bonds 170 European and American missionarof caste in pieces, that people from at ies, 50 native pastors, nearly 1,200 naleast 25 castes of Hinduism, from the tive teachers and catechists, and more Brahman and Rajput down to the than 100,000 confirmed church mem- Chamar and Basor, with J'rlohamme- bers and 7,000 children in the mission dans and Gonds and Kols, have all schools. become one in Christ Jesus. Caste questions give us no difficulty what- China.-A Chinese typewrit'er, with ever. And, in almost all cases, they 4,000 characters, has been designed by are living a simple, straightforward, Rev. Mr. Sheffield, a Presbyterian misupright life, growing week by week in sionary at Tung-Chow, and constmcted, the knowledge of Christ." at his order, by an American factory. The characters are cslTied on the edges -The Lutherans have 8 missions in of thirty wheels, each of which is a foot India: that of the General Council in diameter. Two keys must be struck among the Telugns at Rajahmundry, to make un impression, one to turn the with 6 married missionaries, 162 work- wheel, the other to bring down the leters in all, 4,500 Christians, and 1,000 ter or sign required upon the paper. children in the mission schools; that of the General Synod, also among the -Smoking seems almost universal Telugus, at Guntur, with 7 American with the Chinese. They smoke only a very small quantity at the time, but other •foreign devil' will be able to go they indulge so frequently that they by rail from the seashore to the gates of must consume ii considerable amount of the mysterious capital. Thi~ will add their poorly cured wecd. When work- about 90 miles to the 124 miles of the men are hired to build a house it is road from Tientsin to the Kaiping coal customary in fixing the amount of the mines, which now constitutes the railwages to stipulate the number of way system of China. The spell of smokes they are to be allowed per day. prejudice has been broken, and several For unless there is something to regulate other railway enterprises are now on the number of smokes, the work is apt foot. The chief of these, a great trunk to progress very slowly. It is quite liue from Peking southwesterly to Hancommon to see the workmen percht on kow on the coast, a distance of some their heels indulging in a "smoke so- 1,400 miles, has already been started, cial" during working hours.-" Hadji," with a small government subsidy, but in North and West. its rapid construction is not to be ex- pected. A short road from Shanghai -Although in theory the Buddhists, to Woosung is also in progress. If may Confucianists, and Taoists hold differ- be well, however, to anticipate many ent views with regard to the future, yet inquiries by assuring our readers that there is a general impression thnt the there is not at present, noris there likely next world will be very much the same to be for a long time to come, any deas this, that is to say, there will be mand for American railway men in magistrates, law courts, etc., etc. Every China." Chinaman knows that the man who can get to the magistrate first, by a judici- -Rev. James Carson, of Newchwang, ous use of dollars, can generally make reports the remarkable spread of evansure of winning his case. As in this gelical truth in the province in which world, so in the next it is important, he is laboring. Not long since a retherefore, that if a man wishes to injure spectable man from the market town of another he should get to the magistrate Tien-Chwaug-Tai came to Newchwang as soon as possible. Among English to ask that some one might be sent to people angry words lead to blows, and instruct a number of inquirers. The sometimes to murder. In China angry application was backt up, in a most words often lead to one of the men remarkable way, by the proposal to committing suicide, that he may go into pay all the traveling expenses of the the other world and lay a charge against person who should come. This man his enemy there. In the year 1872. was the proprietor of an inn. Later a when Mr. Elwin was staying on the second and special messenger arrived Island of Pootoo with a friend, they to say that a small house had been were called in to save the lives of two prepared and was to be at the disposal Buddhist priests who had taken opium. of the teacher, affording a place in These men had quarrelled, and one of which to meet inquirers. Mr. Carson them took poison in order to go into the says: "Such urgency and such an unother world to lay a charge against his precedented offer it has never been my enemy. When the enemy heard what lot to receive." A similar request came had been done, he took a larger dose in from the city of I:lhuing Yan. These order to get there first.-North Ohina are new cases. Daily News. Korea.-A notable event is the -"The Chinese Government," says arrival in this country of the heir appar- The Railway Age, "is slowly but surely ent of Korea, Prince Eui Wha, who, pushing forward the railway from by the wish of his royal father, comes Tientsin to Peking, and it is expected to remain some years in America and that in the near future the traveler or pursue his education under the special guardianship of Dr. Ellinwood, secre- chumens. In no other mission of that tary of the Presbyterian Board. The Board is the harvest so ripe for the Prince is only twenty years old. reaper_ -During the political excitement in -In Korea butchers have been hith- Korea, a company of Christian students, erto degraded and despised, forbidden chiefly from the country, started out to wear the ordinary costume-virtually one dny to do sight-seeing in the city; serfs; but the Korean Government, a but the appearance of such a body of few months ago, issued a proclamation countrymen moving in company ex- granting them the right to dress like cited suspicion among the military other people, and enjoining that they authorities, and the whole class were be treated everywhere 'Yith respect. An arrested and taken to the barracks_ As interesting evangelistic work is now a confirmation to their claim of being being carried on amongst these men, students, a Sunday-school lesson paper 30,000 in number. A Christian of their was produced by one, and served as the own guild is traveling through the basis of a practical talk about Christ to country accompanied by a colporteur the officer in charge. He soon dis- preaching to them, and distributing missed them all. the Bible and other Christian books. The expenses of the tour are being met -Dr. J. Hunter Wells, PyengYang, by Christian butchers. Korea, in the last year, cut off an arm in the dining-room, performed an AFRICA. operation for cataract of the eye in the bedroom, cut off a leg in the shed. made -From every side the locomotive is use of the kitchen for many minor making slow but sure advances upon operations, and had patients lying all the Dark Continent, and hastening the over the neighborhood in every avail- day of her redemption. England is laying able shed or room. Notwithstanding rails up the Nile, far northward from the lack of accommodations, he treated Cape Town, with two lines westward some 4,000 patients, contributing much from Beira and lIombasa on the East to the advancement of the growing Coast, the latter aiming for Lake Vicwork of that station. Friends Iiving in toria Nyanza; France is pushing Indiana have provided the funds, and a towards the interior from Algeria, Belnew dispensary and hospital on a small gium up past the cataracts of the Kongo, scale have just been completed.- aud Portugal slowly from Benguella in Ol.urch at Home and Abroad. Angola.
-Rev. J. S. Gale, of Gensan, speaks -Including what has heretofore been thus of the difficulty of translating the known as Bishop Taylor's Self-support- Bible into Korean: " 'I am the bread of ing Mission, the American ~Iethodists life,' would seem one of the easiest sen- labpr in 4 districts of Africa: (1) Liberia; tences to translate, but the Korean has (2) The Kongo; (3) Angola; (4) The no bread. ' I am the good shepherd East African Coast Mission. The and know my sheep,' seems simple lan- statistical summary of the work in guage, but there are no sheep in Korea, these districts is as follows: Stations, so it takes much thought. to discover 28; missionaries, 40; native teachers the best way to show the truth to minds and preachers, 2S; membership, 581; whose modes of reasoning and whose children in mission homes, 588; value associations are so entirely unlike our of property, $73,122. own." -Rev. John Howell writes thus of -The Presbyterian churches in traveling in the Kongo country: "So Korea received during the past year away we went, and next day found us some 200 into their membership. and on tramp. I was quite at home at this, have besides enrolled a thousand cate- but my wife, in the hammock, with a black man at either end, found thi'ngs rather strange. Very often she was Christianity is popular. No; but with some distancc in front of me, alone with deep, downright earnestness and child· her new col.ored friends. Once I caught like faith they desire to know and love her up. They were just fording a river the Lord. There is no. excitement. We with her, she being just a few inches are most careful in our examinations above the water; a slip and it would before receiving them into the church, have been a free bath. On the far side sometimes putting them off for months. the bank was at least six feet above the We have 1 station, 3 preaching places, water's edge. The porter at the foot of 9 missionaries on the field, 1 Sabbaththe hammock climbed up; the head- school, 1 church, with 126 communiend remaining down, you can imagine cants, and a day·school with 45 pupils. the position; she was standing on her Mr. Verner left two days ago to open a head, hanging on with all her might to new station at Wissman Falls. My the hammock, or she would have slid- magic lantern has been of great use to den head first into the water. At night me. u our beds were put in a rough shed, with our mosquito net over, to keep off -A remarkable revival of the Amer· ants, spiders, rats, and other abounding ican Board ofMission is now progressing live stock." at all the stations in NataL Such a work of grace as has never been wit- -Not a few will watch the career of nessed in the Colony is now going on, Heli Chatelain and some co·workers, leading to conviction of sin and converwho have just started for Afdca to sion to Christ, with every evidence that inaugurate the work of the Phil-African it is a work of the divine Spirit. The League. The object of this league is year 1897 will hereafter be as memorato bring relief to the large number of ble among the churches of Natal as is slaves in Central Africa and to endeavor the year 1857 among the churches of to break up the slave trade, especially America. among the Moslem tribes, by establishing a series of colonies. The section -It is gratifying to learn that in selected Is the high tableland between Bechuanaland, especially in the terri· BengueIls and Lake Nyassa. '1'he plan tory occupied by Chief Khama, the of work is to acquire fertile lands by distress caused by drought, locusts, and concession from European governments the rinderpest is somewhat relieved. and by purchase from the natives, the Aid has been forwarded from England, adoption and settlement in model Chris· chiefly through the agency of the Lontian villages of freed slaves and natives don Missionary Society. There was an to be educated in farming and handi- absolute dearth of grain, but food was crafts. The station work is to be di· supplied, and especially seed, so that vided into these main departments- now a harvest is being gathered which agricultural, industrial, educational and promises to save the district from further medical or charitable, each in charge of famine. a competent specialist. Mr. Chatelain has had wide experience in Africa, and ISLANDS OF THE SEA. is thoroughly acquainted with the situ· ation. -The French Protestant Church has received a terrible blow in the death of -lIr. Sheppard, a colored mission· two of her devoted and efficient pasary of the Presbyterian Church, South, teurs, M. Escande and 11. lIIinault, writes from Luebo, March 20: .. The cruelly massacred on the road from Gospel Is being wonderfully blest by Antananarivo to Fianarantsoa, the post the Holy Spirit. The people are seek· which the latter was about to occupy ing the Lord, not for what they may as missionary in the disturbed district receive at our hands, and not because of Betsileo. M. Escande had already been establisht in the island as pasteur and missionary for nearly a year. justice note the markt divisions which When, on PlIsteur Laugs's return to prevail among the Chinese. Those France from Madagascar, the French born at the Straits differ from the SocieHi des Missions appealed for some- Chinamen at home quite as much as one to take his place, M. Escande, the Americans do from the English, altho he had but just arrived from Sen- while the various tribes of Chinamen egal with his wife and children in order differ among themselves both in lang- to recruit their health, without hesita- uage and race·feeling quite as much tion offered himself for the difficult and and probably more, than do the differ- responsible po~t.-London Ohristian. ent nationalities of Europe. I was told by one who lookt over the assembly -Police-Inspector Fitzgerald, for- and made a count of the different lang- merly an enemy of missions, reports uages and races represented there, that thus to his superior upon the work of no less than 18 nationalities could be the Herrnhut missionaries at liapoon found in a company of people which on the east coast of the Gulf of Car- perhaps did not much exceed 200 pentaria, Australia. ., As the result of persons.-Bi8hop 2hoburn. personal observation of the manage- ment of the mission station of lIapoon, -The Bremen Mission in New Gui- I can bear witness with great pleasure nea (Kaiser Wilhelm's Land), is still that this mission is in my opinion a sorely tried by the unhealthy climate. perfect success; a proof of what sound To this, according to the latest news, common sense, courage, and goodwill is now added the even worse trial of a can accomplish with savages. It was Romish eruption right into the portion quite a new experience for me when I of the field which the Bremen missioncompared this station with others. . aries have for six years occupied. "The last steamer," write the brethren, . The results obtained here ex- "brought 4 padres and 8 lay brothers ceed all my experience among the to begin operations where our mission aborigines during more than thirty is already at work." Missionary Helyears. I recommend that the Govern- mich writes: "The Romish mission ment should supply the station with a presses itself like a wedge into the good boat and with 400 woollen blank- midst of our field. And, however sure ets yearly. I am glad to have had the we are that no might of this world can privilege of seeing a station which is stop the truth of the Gospel, we can conducted in so excellent a manner." scarcely repress some slight concern for – Allgemeine Mis8ion~zeit8cltrift. our work. Shame on them that they sllOuld plant themselves where our -Malyasia. Missionary work in mission has poured out its blood and Malaysia is interesting for many reasons, its tears, and made many a sore sacriand at Singapore for the special reason lice." that so many nationalities are represented there. Our good friends ten- -The missionary steam yacht, John dered us a reception during our stay, William8, on leaving Sydney, carried and among the many kind people who out 50 tons of building materials for II were present at the Deaconess Home, Jubilee Hall, to be erected at Malua were persons who had come from Su- in Samoa, at a cost of £1,000, all sub: matra, Java, Borneo, Bangkok, Saigon. scribed by the Samoan native Chris- China, and Japan, besides lIalays from tians; 40 cases of Bibles for Savage this region, Singhalese and Tamils from Island, and a large consign:nent of India, and Europeans of various nation- books for New Guinea, in the Motu alities in Europe and America In- language, printed in Sydney under the deed, if I begin to make mention of supervision of Rev. Dr. Laws. In condiffcrent nationalities from Europe, we nection with the Samoan Mission there may with equal and even greater are now 600 members of the Christian Endeavor Societies.
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1897
AND DERWENTWATER
The Town of Keswick, England.
'…. "
THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD..
VOL. XX. No. 2.-0ldSeriu.-FEBRUARY.-VoL. X. No. 2.-N~ &risa.
THE KESWICK MOVEMENT.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Keswick is a town of Cumberland, England, on the sonth bank of the Greta, some twenty-four miles from Carlisle, and having 'a population of perhaps three to four thousand. It has no importance commercially, tho it has manufactures of linsey woolsey, cutlery, ancl lead-pencils, and has two museums, indicating a high average of intelligence. It is but a mile from the foot of Skiddaw, and half as far from Derwentwater; and, even in this famous Lake District, forever memorable by association with Coleridge and Southey and the poets of the Lake School, Keswick's vale is unsurpast for picturesque and fascinating scenery.
But the association which makes Keswick already famous is that which links it with the annual convention of believers which meets in July of each year for about a week, and then during the whole year radiates its blessed influence throughout the 'whole British Empireand the world. Nearly twenty-five years ago a very remarkable movement began in Britain, which in a previous number has been traced to its beginning, and which has ever since been in progress. In somerespects it was a sort of modern Pentecost, having in it a depth of meaning and a breadth of influence, quite unknown and unsuspected at first by those who were connected with it.
An American evangelist, known as R. Pearsall Smith, the husband of Hannah Whithall Smith, a man whose brief tracts and inspiring addresses have for many years been such a stimulus and help to holy living, was proTidentially among those who were connected with the: inception of the movement, as was also his wife.
It is a singular fact that God seldom moves on one section of the Church, or in one locality, alone. Simultaneous quickenings commonly take place in various parts of the world, as the reinvigoration
KESWICK MOVEMENT
()f So human body would shew itself in different members and even at the opposite extremities at the same time.
These various conventions, across the sea, were held, in 1874, at Broadlands, July 17-23, and at Oxford, August 8 to September 1, then :at Brighton, May 29 to June 7, 1875, and the first Keswick Conven- tion followed, from June 29 to July 2 of the same year. With tile convening of the latter the lamented Ganon Battersby is inseparably 'connected, and it was he who invited Mr. Robert Wilson to join him, as he wanted a layman to cooperate with ,him. The first Keswick Convention was not in a building, but a tent, capable of holding a thousand, but attended by between three hundred and four hundred. It is also noticeable, as a part of this history, that both the Brighton and first Keswick gatherings were for ten days, and that at Brighton about 8,000 were present.
About the time that these meetings were thus being held in such rapid succession in Britain, and on the continent, there was in more than one quarter a similar gathering in the United States; for example, at Oberlin, Ohio, and in Maine, on the borders of Canada, where a great company of disciples assembled for a purpose precisely similar to that of the Oxford meetings. The railways sold some 40,000 special tickets in connection with this latter conference alone.
For the present, however, we confine our attention to the so-called '" Keswick" movement, which is just now compelling such attention from its widespread and deep-reaching results, that we are constantly :receiving letters and attempting to answer oral inquiries, as to the origin and character of this remarkable revival or reformation.
It may be well to let Rev. Evan H. Hopkins tell our readers how the Keswick Convention began, as he has been very closely identified with it for many years. In the Life oj Faith, he has recently spoken on this subject, editorially. We quote, at some length, as all -our readers may not have access to the admirable periodical from which these extracts are taken.* In a brief outline of some of the 'Chief events that preceded the holding of the first convention at Kes- 'wick, and were closely connected with its origin, he says: This remarka:ble movement, iD. connection with the experience of a fuller spiritual life, did not have its rise in the Keswick Convention. The first convention held at Keswick was in July, 1875; but, during the year 1873, small meetings 'Were held in London, where great and definite blessings were realized by a few. These led to larger gatherings, and in the year 1874 special meetings for consecration, for two or three days at a time, were held at the Mildmay Conference Hall, and.at the Hanover Square Rooms. These were followed by similar meetings in -Dublin, Manchester, Nottingham, and Leicester. On the Continent, too, meetings for the same purpose and on exactly similar lines were held. The result was that very many of God's children, both at home and abroad, were awakened to '8 deep sense of need, and to an expectation of larger and more definite blessing• • Life of Faith, July 22, 1800. such as they had never conceived to be possible in this life. The uplifting of soul experienced by many who attended these meetings was one of the most striking features of the movement, and the effect of their testimony upon thos~ who came within the sphere of their influence, was one of· the chief factors in arousing the Church to seek the realization of its privileges in the matter of triumph, usefulness, and power.
In the summer of 1874, the first convention at Broadlands was held. Its origin was in the desire that a number of young university men, who had found paliial blessing in some meetings for consecration held at Cambridge, during term time, should have a few days of quiet meditation and prayer in some secluded spot, keeping before them the following definite aim: The Scriptural possibilities of the Christian life, as to maintained communion with the Lord and victory over all known sin. This suggestion was made in the presence of the late generous proprietor of Broadlands Park, near Romsey; and he at once said: "My place is at your service if you will accept it." The plan was extended to the invitation of about a hundred persons for six days-July 17 to 23-all of them to be the guests of the then Right Han. W. Cowper-Temple (afterward Lord Mount Temple).
The meetings were mostly held beside the river or under the beech trees, or in the Orangery. Such was the absorbing interest felt by all, that no di1ll.culty was found in gathering the guests at seven o'clock in the morning; and it was an effort to separate when the breakfast hour of nine came. At ten o'clock con- versational meetings were held, Bibles in hand, in different places through the grounds, and at eleven o'clock there was prayer, with singing and addresses. Meetings for ladies only were also held; and at three o'clock conversational meetings, followed by a general gathering at four; and after tea Bible-read- . ings were given, till the regular evening meeting. The manifested presence and power of God pervaded every meeting, and many stated that the long periods of silent prayer had been to them the most solemn and helpful seasons of their spiritual life.
One wrote at the time: "We began with the negative side, renunciation of discerned evil, and even of doubtful things which are not of faith, and therefore sin. For some days the company was held under the searching light of God, to see and to remove any obstacles to a divine communion, aught that frustrated the grace of God. We sought to have that which was true in God as to our judicial standing in a risen Christ, also true in personal appropriation and experience. Many secret sins, many a scarcely recognized reserve as to entire self-renunciation, were here brought up into the light of consciousness and put away in the presence of the Lord. We desired to make thorouglt work, so as to have no known evil or self-will unyielded; and we have reason.to hope that those present did so, and that we took the position of solemn purpose to renounce instantly everything in which we should find ourselves 'otherwise minded,' as from time to time' God shall reveal even this unto us. '
" In the intervals of the meetings it was interesting to see groups gathered, in the more secluded places in the woods by the river, on their knees, praying, searching the Scriptures, or speaking earnestly to each other of the all-absorbing subject of our meetings. Some one had proposed to have reading at the meal- times, so as to concentrate our minds; but no such plan was needed to keep the company, even at times of refreshment, to the one engrossing subject."
In a letter received from Pasteur Theodore Monod at the time, reference is made to this memorable occasion. An extract from that letter will be read now with interest: "The difference between those Broadlands meetings and many others that I have attended is just the difference between a flower and the name of a flower. Christians too often meet oaly to talk about good and precious things: peace, joy, love, and so on; but there we actually had the very things themselves. I cannot be grateful enough to God for having led me into such a soul·satisfying and God.glorifying faith. I think I may say that I got all that I expected, and more. .And I begin to suspect that we always get from God every- thing-provided it be good for us-that we ask for, expecting to get it. Oh, for self.forgetting faith, that I may have more and more and more of it, and that the Church of Christ may cease to grieve Him, distress herself, and hinder the coming of His Kingdom, by disbelieving His Word I My French companions have all derived much benefit from the Conference. God be praised for His work I Never mind the world, nor the devil, so long as you have the sunshine of Jesus" smile in your heart."
During this Convention our brother Monod wrote the now well-known hymn, .. The Altered Motto: "
Oh I the bitter shame and sorrow That a time could ever be, When I let the Savior's pity Plead in vain, and proudly answered, " All of self and none of Thee."
It was only a short time before this hymn was written that our brother entered into the" fulness of blessing."
The account of the Broadlands Conference was read far and wide, and awakened considerable interest. Many who had never attended any meetings of the kind were led to cry to God for the fullness of the Spirit, with an expectation and earnestness of desire they had never before known. At the close of the meetings one said, "We must repeat these meetings on a larger scale, where all who desire can attend." And one of the guests volunteered £500 toward the expenses of this effort. But none of this money was found to be necessary when the proposal was actually carried out in the conference that followed. So abundant were the offerings that large sums remained over actual expenses, to be devoted to the extension of the movement on the Continent.
It was suggested by the late beloved Sir Arthur Blackwood, who was present at Broadlands, that this proposed convention should be held at Oxford during the vacation, and it was accordingly held from August 29 to September 7, 1874. The details of the meetings were settled during a mission week in August, at Langley Park, the seat of the late Sir Thomas Beauchamp, Bart., near Norwich, who shortly after passed from an earnest life of service to an eternity of reward. Having received great blessing himself in a similar meeting the previous year, he again generously gathered about forty clergymen, and many others, for five days' waitingupon God for consecration and prayer. The invitation to the" Oxford Union Meetings for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness, .. was issued on the 8th of August, 1874. And, tho the notice was so short, a large and representative number of Christians came from all parts of the king!iom, as well as a great many pastors from the Continent, to spend ten days at this convention.
A few extracts from an able review that appeared immediately after will give some idea of the deep impression that was made by what took place during those ten days at Oxford:- " 'God hath visited His people.' If anyone had said a year ago that we' should see, in the city of Oxford, an assembly of Christians, very largely composed of ministers of the Establishment and various Nonconformist bodies, and including twenty or thirty Continental pastors, gathered for the purpose of seek. ing, by mutual counsel and united prayer and consecration, to reach a higher condition of Christian life, it would have been considered far more devoutly-ta-bewished than likely to occur. An(l if it had been added that we should see early morning meetings of nearly a thousand of these men and women, of all ranks in society, and of all denominations, gathered in prayer, and for the communication of their experiences in the divine life, clergymen and laymen standing up and declaring what God had done for their souls, there would have been not a few to say with the lord, on whose hand the king of Israel leaned, 'If the Lord would open windows in heaven might such a thing be I' But God has opened the windows of heaven, and is pouring out a blessing that there shall not' be room to receive it.' Alld not only so, but 'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; that no flesh should glory in His presence.'
***** "We have attended many conferences, including a ten days' convention in America, the prototype of that at Oxford, but in many respects this excelled them all. It is the fruit and flower of those which have gone before-of those at Barnet, and Mildmay, and Perth, and other places at home, as well as of Mannheim, and Vineland and Round Lake, in the United States. Conferences must be of another type henceforth.
"If it be askt, What is 'the blessing?' it is the blessedness of the man 'who maketh the Lord his trust,' 'whose strength is in Thee,' of them who have not seen and yet have believed, who stand by night in the house of the Lord, trusting where they cannot see Him, who present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, their reasonable service, and who, doing this, are not conformed to this world, but are daily being transformed, by the renewing of their minds, that they may know what that good and acceptable and perfect wfil of the Lord is."
At this Oxford Convention the late Canon Harford-Battersby himself entered into "the rest of faith." But for this event the now well-known Keswick Con- vention would never have had a beginning.* Very soon after the Oxford Conference similar meetings on a smaller scale, but on the same lines, were held at Stroud, under the presidency of the late Mr. T. Croome. Two brethren who had taken part at the Oxford meetings conducted this Conference. At that time the Rev. Preb. Webb-Peploe was not on the platform amongst the speakers, but was seen amongst the listeners. He had not been able to attend the Oxford Conference, and we think it was only at the Stroud Conference, or soon after those meetings, that he himself deflnitely entered into the blessing of the more abundant life. The Cheltenham Conference followed the Stroud Convention, and there for the 1Irst time he actually took part in the movement.
The next great series of meetings was the wonderful Brighton Convention, which was held in the Pavilion at Brighton, from May 29 to June 7,1875. There some eight thousand people, the greater part earnest, well- instructed Christians, met together for ten days in prayer, meditation, and waiting upon God. Addresses were given there during those days, which live to this day in the memories of those who heard them, and have been the means of lasting blessing to thousands. Everywhere-at home and abroad-we meet with the abiding fruits of this memorable gathering. It was at this Convention Canon Battersby arranged for the :tirst Convention at Keswick, to take place in July of that year.
In looking back upon the twenty-one years that have elapst since then, it would be interesting to be able to note the various names of those who now take • "Canon Harford-Battersby and the KeSwick Convention," edited by two of his sons. (Seeley & Co., London.) part in this great annual gathering at Keswick, and to record the particular year, and circumstances, when they each saw for the first time the truth of a fuller life. It cannot be too clearly stated that those who are askt to speak at this and otlier similar conventions are those, and those only, who can bear testimony to a de1l. nite experience of the fulness of blessing.
Every year at the Keswick Convention numbers of God's children are brought into a realization of their resources in Christ, such as they have never before thought possible; and this has given a strength and brightness to their lives which have been felt by others around them. In this way the movement has been continually advancing and deepening, so that its fnfiuence is seen to-day in every quarter of the globe.
In a. memorable series of meetings held by me in Brighton, in 1896, I found many who had been present at the conference thus held at that place for the deepening of spiritual life, where tbousands of people gathered. The main objects were united prayer for the deepening of spiritual life and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power; and at that time, both in America and in England, there was a spontaneous and simultaneous movement among disciples looking toward similar results. In one sense, the greater part knew not wherefore they were come together, except that such a general and widespread longing and expectancy had been created for a new and singular bestowment of power from on high. Worldliness, formalism, apathy, selfishness, were so apparent in the Ohurch and so alarming, that devout believers were driven to the Throne of Grace to seek some help from above. Throughout the whole convention at Brighton this blessing was realized. While engaged in prayer the Holy Spirit often in those days mysteriously laid hold On men and women, and they were swayed as by a rushing, mighty wind. Prayer became more earnest, importunate, believing, prevailing, and it was manifest that some new force was controlling. The first fruits were found in a distinct entrance into newness of life on the part of many who hitherto had been cold or conventional in their religious character, hampered by forms, exclusive and uncharitable, inconsistent and without power as witnesses. Men and women were blest, and clergymen of the Anglican Ohurch were among the prominent parties receiving this Divine enduement. At the time no one suspected the real import of this Divine visitation, and hence the early history of it has somewhat inadequate records.* It is remembered by those w1!o had a share in it simply as a very unusual and quite indescribable manifestation of spiritual quickening and power. Of course, such a meeting could not but be the mother of others, and hence the subsequent gatherings known as the Keswick meetings of which we are now more specially writing.
~ " Record of the Convention for the Promotion of Scriptural Holiness," held at Brighton, 1875. London, S. W. Partridge & Co., and "Account of the Union Meeting," etc., at Oxford,l874. F. H. Revell, Chicago. . The movement at Keswick found both its suggestion and warm sup- port in the Vicar of Keswick, the lamented Oanon Battersby, by whose influence it became connected with and located at that beautiful spot in the English Lake District, and who, as long as he lived, presided over the meetings held there. In the same simple way, the presi- dency then passed by a general assent to Mr. Henry Howker, and a~ his death to Mr. Robert Wilson. But there has never been a fixt com- mittee of leadership; quite without any definite arrangement of man, it remains in the hands of Mr. Wilson so far as any human hand is on the helm.
To a singular extent no deference is paid to men, however high their social or ecclesiastical position. Keswick stands for a peculiar type of spiritual teaching and life. Those who understand it and, exhibit it are askt to take part, and no others. The most renowned minister or evangelist or theological professor from any country might happen in the very meeting, but would not be askt to speak unle~ he was believed or known to have_been led out into this sort of experi- ence and teaching.
The first Keswick Convention, which lasted four days, was held in a large-sized building; but as the meetings became more largelY' attended, they were transferred to a tent. The present accomodations are equal to about 3,000, but 10,000 often attend in course of the con- vention.
In view of all that has been thus far written, it is of some consequence to ask and answer three questions: 1. What is the exact type of Keswick teaching? 2. What is the peculiar method of dealing with souls? 3. What are the actual results reacht ? 1. The Type of Keswick TeacMng.-This is definite, complete, and progressive. It has a definite beginning, middle, and culmination. Six successive stages may perhaps be indicated, all of them being deemed important, and in the following order: (1) The definite and immediate abandonment of every known sin or hindrance to holy living. (2) The abandonment and renunciation by faith of the self-life, or the life that centers in self-indulgence and self-dependence. (3) The immediate surrender of the will in loving and complete obedience to the will of God, separation in order to consecration. (4) The infilling of the Holy Spirit, or the claiming of the believer's share in the Spirit's pentecostal gift of power for service. (5) The revelation of Ohrist as an indwelling presence in the believer's soul and daily life, and as his actual Master and Lord. Beyond these there is always a sixth and last stage of teaching-the privileges and victories implied in this higher or deeper life, such as the rest life of faith, power over sin, passion for souls, conscious fellowship with God, growing possession of promises, and prevailing prayer and intercession.
The basis of all this teaching is, as is very apparent, the con- 'tiction that the average Christian life is too often grievously des- titute of real spiritual power and is essentially carnal, and that it is the duty and privilege of every child of God to enter at once into newness of life, and to walk: henceforth in the power of Christ's resurrection.
1. Hence the starting-point-instant abandonment of sin and of every known weight which prevents or hinders progress. Whatever is wrong or believed t~ be wrong in God's sight cannot be indulged with impunity. It is held up as utterly destructive of all holy living and testimony, as unnecessary because wrong, and as making impossible even assurance oj salvation. How can disciples lead out others into a life they have not themselves found? How can a man help a. sinner to salvation unless ~he knows he is saved? To continue one moment in what is felt to be sin is therefore perilous not only to holiness, but to the hope of salvation itself.
2. Secondly, a deadly blow is aimed at self-liiein its six forms; selfdependence, self-help, self'pleasing, self-will, self-seeking, and selfglory; in other words, a new practical center is sought for all the life to revolve about, and in this way a new step is taken in advance. Beyond the territory of known sin there lies another almost as danger- (lUS, where self-indulgence is the peculiar feature. There is a large (Jlass of pleasures, amusements, occupations, which do not bear the hideous features of secret or open sin, but which all tend to give supremacy to self. In them all the real question is: What will gratify and glorify myself? For example, the pleasures of ambition, grasping after power and position which feed self-glory; avarice, heaping up riches, which is pleasing to self-indulgence; appetite, eating and drinking for the sake of pleasure, which ministers to self-seeking; and other forms of selfishness, such as courting human applause by intellectual preaching, or conformity to worldly maxims.
There are five or six forms of amusement that bear the distinct stamp of this world, whatever may be contended as to their inherent innocence; the theatre, the dance, the card-table, the -horse-race, the 6pera, the wine-cup. These have been felt, for some reason, to hinder holiness and service; and some churches have distinctly made indulgence in them a matter of discipline. Whatever may be said of them, this is true: that wherever this deeper experience of Christ's power has been known it has been preceded or followed by their abandonment. These matters are very seldom referred to specifically at the Keswick gatherings, as the teaching concerns great general principles .. of holy living and serving, yet as a fact, those who attend are brought face to face with this question: how can you do anything primarily to please yourself which does not put at risk your pleasing God'! A high type of holiness always involves two practical rules: (a) I will seek in everything to please my Master as the Lord and Sovereign of my life; (b) I will seek to please my neighbor for his good unto edification. Hence one of the remarkable features of this movement has been, for instance, the abandonment of tobacco, not because its use can be conclusively shown to be inherently sinful, nor because of any direct pressure brought to bear by speakers; but because, where used, not as 8 medicine, but for indulgence of a liking, it exalts self to the throne. Paul gives by the Spirit two or three great all-controlling principles to guide in doubtful indulgences, and in each case he carefully guards the' principle by saying in advance, "all things are lawful for me;" but he adds in one case, "all things edify not, are not expedient i" and in the other case, "I will not be brought under the powe1' of any." Compare 1 Cor x: 23: vi: 12. Three questions are thus to be asked after we have settled the matter of lawfulness. First, is this lawful thing expedient? does it advance or retard holiness? second, does it edify-that is, help or hin- der others? and, third, does it tend to enslave or to emancipate me? A true disciple whose whole heart is set on pleasing God will soon settle all debatable territory on these ,three principles. 3. Thirdly, the surrender of the will to God in obedience. Christ must to every believer become not only Savior but Lord (Rom. 10 : 9, R. V.). "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 12: 3). Hundreds who accept Him as Savior from sin have no real conception of Him as the actual Master and Sovereign of the daily life. In the message to Laodicea we have a hint as to this sort of profest believers. "Behold I stand at the door and knock," etc. Here is Christ outside knocking and appealing for admission. The keys of the house are not in His hands. He is not admitted to His own house and in control. There is a definite act of opening, welcoming, and entrusting to Him the keys which mean government; but so long as one apartment in the house is voluntarily withheld from Him, He never practically assumes control. From the nature of the case it must be all or none i and every child of God knows, or will know if he searches his own heart, whether any part of his life shuts out Jesus from practical rulership. If any part of the body shrinks and shows abnormal sensitiveness under the surgeon's touch, he begins to suspect that there is a lurking place of disease. And whenever a disciple is especially sensitive as to anyone or more forms of indulgence, or shrinks from the candid application of Scripture to any particular practice, he may know that at that point there lurks spiritual disease. On the other hand, if the hidden recesses be opened , up to Christ and He be welcomed to the whole heart and whole life. the very chambers of our previous idolatry will become the chambers of heavenly imagery and Divine communion.
4. Fourthly, the infilling of the Spirit.-Here is perhaps the most delicate and difficult part of this teaching. But it is well not to stop on phrases; whether we agree or nO.t on the exact form of words, we must agree on facts, and conspicuous among the facts is this: that thousands of profest believers, like the Ephe!lian disciples in Acts XIX, do not practically know whether there be a Holy Ghost or not. Dr. Gordon discriminated between sealing, filling, and anointing. He thought the first had reference to assurance, thl'l second to power, and the third to knowledge. The point is this: have you ever claimed and received the power of the Holy Spirit as such? He came down on the day of Pentecost and filled disciples. This was an experience quite apart from conversion. The upper room was filled with a hundred and twenty disciples, some of whom for years had followed Jesus. And yet now suddenly they all received a Divine gift whereby they had new apprehension of all spiritual truth, a more assured witness borne to them as children of God, and a greater power in testimony for Christ. They were somehow filled with light, and love, and life, and power; their tongues were loosed, and they spake even in new languages before nnknown. Now, it may be, and doubtless is, true that this" baptism" of the Spirit was once for all, and that no further such effusion is to be expected in this age. But every disciple is entitled to claim his full share in that blessing and enter into pentecostal life and power or rather have it enter into him.
This is to be claimed by faith quite apart from feeling. Nowhere in the Word of God is feeling addrest, and for a good reason: if God made feeling an evidence or test, we should depend on it, and our confidence would vacillate as often as our feelings do. Man is complex; he is composed of body, soul, and spirit; and body and soul have much to do with spirit. Where the body is not normal, a cloud comes over the higher faculties. What we call feeling is often largely at the mercy of digestion and other physical conditions which do not affect faith or choice. The will may be as unchangingly fixt on God in sickness as health, tho the feelings vary with every change of bodily mood. " According to your faith be it unto you." If you open your heart to the Spirit's infilling and are claiming this blessing, rest on God's faithfulness. He will not fail you.
5. Fifthly, The Revelation of Jesus Christ in the soul as an. Indwelling Presence.-This is the climax of this teaching. The supreme end of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and inworking is to manifest the personal Christ as consciously our possession and in possession of us. ,This is the mystery: Christ in you. The Spirit first takes the things of Christ and shows them to the believer; second, he testifies to Christ, and, third, he glorifies Christ. Note the three parts of this
1R97.] THE SmGE OF TIBET
work as laid down in John 14-16: Manifesting, witnessing, glorifying. He will show you Ohrist iu all His offices and relations to you; He will make Him real to you as your actual possession; and He will clothe Him in glorious charms, so that you will gaze on Him as one enamored of His beauty and love. It is very different to have Ohrist revealed withont you as a historic personage, and within yon as experimentally and really master and Lord. 1'his latter the Holy Spirit does, as the former the Word does.
Rev. F. B. Meyer, who is so prominently connected with the Keswick teaching, has left a special farewell word to his brethren, which we here reproduce from The Ram's Horn.
" I am askt to give a parting message to the beloved ministers of, the Gospel -and other friends with whom I have met during this my fourth and brief visit to the United States. Your country is becoming increasingly a second homeland to me, and I thank you a thousand times for your love. It is an unfeigned delight to find that the teaching of the Inner Life is becoming so widespread in its influ- ence on this side the Atlantic. Union with Christ is His death and resurrection, the reckoning oneself dead to self the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and the Rest of Faith, Life across the J~rdan in the Land of Promise, these are familiar and- deeply prized truths and their wide dissemination and realization on the part of believers, together with the exposition of the Bible, as opposed to merely topical preaching, seems to me the conditions of a Revival of God's work in this land, which shall reanimate the churches. and enable them to act as the cementing bond in your vast and varied population.
" Ever your attached friend, F. B. MEYER."
THE SIEGE OF TIBET.
BY F. B. SHAW, WAKEFIELD, ENGLAND, LATE OF LEH, BRITISH TIBET.
Situated in the heart of a vast continent, guarded on the north by immense deserts and arid plateaus, shllt in on the other sides by the loftiest mountains in the world, Tibet is as inaccessible as any country well could be. Small wonder that its wondrous line of snowy peaks, which glistened so strangely above the mists of the plain, and from which issued the mighty rivers upon which his crops depended, became an object of reverence and religious awe to the ancient dweller in the Indian lowlands. This reputation of the unknown has descended to modern times, when Tibet is almost the only country in the world absolutely and of a set purpose closed to Europeans, the country of the Dalai Lama, a priest-king as wonderful as any Prestor John, the country of reputed mahatmas-in a word, the country of mystery.
But Tibet has not always been the" Great Closed Land." Friar Odoric, of Pordenone, past through the country about 1325; and it is quite in keeping with the energetic character of their order that several Jesuits traveled in Tibet during the seventeenth century, but without making a permanent settlement. This was first done by Desideri, who resided in Lhasa from 1716 to 1729. At first alone, this Jesuit was joined in 1719 by twelve Oapuchin friars under Or~io della Penna. They seem to have had a very flourishing mission; but they had fallen on troublous days. Civil wars and insurrections against the Ohinese having thrown the country into anarchy, the missionaries were expelled in 1760. During the last twenty years of their stay the Capuchins had been practically isolated, and with their departure the land was thoroughly closed. For one hundred years not half a dozen Europeans, none of them missionaries, succeeded in entering the country, and of these only one reached Lhasa. For one hundred years the Ohristian Ohurch left Tibet to slumber into death.
To their honor be it said, the Romish Church was the first to resume attempts. In 1846 the Redemptorists Huc and Gabet penetrated to Lhasa, hoping to be allowed to settle there; but Ohinese influence prevailed, and after only a few weeks' stay they were driven out of the country.
The time had now come for Protestants to take up the work, the Moravians being first in the field. But their work was in so far different from any other attempt, as, when the pioneer missionaries Heyde and Pagellleft home, neither they nor the directing board had Tibet or the Tibetans in their minds. On the contrary, the new effort, prompted by the veteran Chinese missionary GiitzlafI, was directed to the Mongolians. Only after failing to reach Mongolia through Russia was the attempt made to penetrate through Tibet, and only when this attempt, renewed at various places, had utterly failed, was the finger of God recognized as pointing to a settlement among Tibetan Buddhists living around the western frontier of Ohinese Tibet. To this day the visitor can see in the library of the oldest station the Mongol books brought out by the pioneers. Time and space fail to relate in full the story of this mission. Suffice it to say that the missionaries decided in 1856 to settle in the Valley of Lahaul. Attempts to obtain land in the chief village failed, and the pioneers were obliged to content themselves with Kyelang, a village on the opposite side of the valley. This was again a providential leading, for it soon appeared that Kyelang was in every way more suitable than the village originally thought of. The same providence was apparent in the fact that just at that time there was in the service of the Moravian Church a man of rare linguistic talent, H. A. Jaeschke, who was willing to devote himself to the exploratioJ? of the difficult and little-known Tibetan language. The untiring energy of these three men soon made Kyelang a center of light. Not only was the Gospel preacht to the villagers at hand, but long itinerations from village to village served to make it widely known. Quickly realizing the fact that they had to do with a people possest of an alphabet and a literature of their own, they started a lithographic M0 N G 0 L A lQ . S A .IT 0 o 7'
II, O!
O~_ _'fIO ~'lh·()r)l11{,R, 2(~J ~IJO —.±OO 600 MISSIONARY MAP OF TIBET, (Dotted lines indicate trade routes,) The Scaudinavian Alliance l'tIi88ion has aleo l'ibetan Missionaries in Ghoom India, in Baksadnar, Bhutan, and iu Guntak, Sikkim. printing-press, from which school-books, catechisms, hymns, tracts and B,ible portions were issued in rapid succession.
In a few years another station was founded in Poo, in the Upper Sutlej Valley, close to the borders of Chinese Tibet, and on an import- ' ant commercial route. But Ladak, with its capital Leh, on the upper course of the Indus, was the spot which seemed most desirable. Leh is a great center of Tibetan trade, as well as the metropolis of Western Tibetan Buddhism, and no stone was left unturned to secure a regular station there; but its ruler, the Maharajah of Kashmir, tho allowing some freedom of travel through the country, anxiously excluded resideut Europeans from his territories. Not till 1885 did the Maharajah give the required permission, when Leh was immediately occupied. A new feature in the work was a fully equipped medical mission, which has proved a most useful adjunct. Its temporary cessation, owing to a series of adverse circumstances, is all the more to be regretted, as the Roman Catholics saw fit, in 1888, to start a work of their own in Leh. The visible results of the work at all stations are small, very small; but the conviction, caused by the circumstances attending the origin of the work, that the mission is where God would have it, has sustained the directing board at home and the missionaries abroad in their efforts. So far from withdrawing, the Moravians are seeking to extend their work.
An encouraging sign in answer to much prayer for Tibet is seen in the great interest now taken in this field of work. While the Moravians were for years alone, there are now about forty men and women engaged in Tibetan work. The same impulse seems to have come to many minds in various places. Miss Annie Taylor, originally attacht to the China Iuland Mission, naturally demands first attention. Her work in Sining brought her into contact with the Tibetans, and she determined to try what could be done. Proceeding to Darjiling, she acquired some knowledge of the language, and then returning to China, started on her adventurous journey. She had to return, foiled of her hopes of reaching Lhasa; but the journey was not in vain. Her marvelous feat drew universal attention to the people on whose behalf it was made, and in the course of a few months the Tibetan Pioneer Mission was launched. With fourteen companions she returned to Sikkim, there to continue linguistic studies, and, if possible, to penetrate from thence into the country. In and near Darjiling she found several Swedish missionaries belonging to the Scandinavian Alliance Mission (U. S. A.) engaged in similar work.
In the meantime another worker had been made ready. Mr. and Mrs. Polhill-Turner, like Miss Taylor, belonging to the Chiua Inland Mission, had also had Tibet laid on their hearts. When stationed at Sining they devoted what time they could to studying Tibetan, 'but not finding it a suitable place they removed, and after many wanderings settled in Sungpan in the autumn of 1891. A prolonged drought having roused the superstious fears of the Ohinese, (Mr. Turner is careful to say that the Tibetans took no part), a terrible riot broke ()ut and the missionaries were driven away. Here, again, was God's hand working wonderfully; Mr. Turner was taken away from Ohina only that he might take the leadership of some of those who had originally joined Miss Taylor in Sikkim, but now desired to seperate themselves from her. Thus the Tibetan Mission Band was formed. Besides these workers the International Missionary Alliance (U. S. A.) in 1892, also sent men to Darjiling, to acquire the language. All these workers are new, and for this reason little could be said of the work done, even were space to allow of it.
And now let us see how the forces are disposed around the mighty mountain ramparts. Let the reader take a good map. He will find the north of Tibet to be a vast uninhabited region, where the missionary would find no work to do. Ooming round to the west, the Moravians hold Tibetan districts in the higher valleys of the Indus, Sutlej, and tributary rivers. Lower down the Indus and west of the Moravians, the Scandinavians are commencing work in Baltistan. This is an important step, for it means the occupation of a district with 100,000 souls as yet untouched by regular work; Mohammedans by religion, but speaking Tibetan, and members of the Tibetan family. Toward the south, Almora is occupied by the London Society, who have devoted what time they could spare to Tibetans, and where an independent worker, Mr. Agnew, has settled. Nepal is as yet unoccupied, being closed to missionaries. The Scotch mission has long held Sikkim and devoted much time to the Tibetans; but this branch of their work is now presumably taken off their hands by the members of the various societies destined for ~'ibet. Bhotan is unoccupied by Protestants, but the Oatholics have a work in that country. In 1854 they had obtained a footing in Tibet, were ejected four years later, and retired to Bhutan. We finally come to the east, or (i)hinese side, where the Oatholics have several stations, but where no Protestants are working at present.
We hear, however, that Mr. Polhill-Turner has made an arrangement with J. Hudson Taylor, by which his men will form a separate group affiliated to the O. I. M., but set apart for Tibetan work. They will therefore move round to the Ohinese frontier of Tibet, thus completing the ring of attacking forces. The present writer rejoices over this decision, for he is convinced that the road to Lhasa lies through Ohina. The population is densest, the country is most fertile, political jealousies are least on that side. But the strong fortress is not to.be taken at first storm, and many weary years may have to be spent in the trenches. We do not believe that a sudden dash at Lhasa is in any way advisable, inasmuch as it would probably only serve to make
CHINA-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
the people more suspicious. Also the British Government is anxious to establish friendly relations with Tibet, from which the missionaries must ultimately derive benefit. A recently publisht report on the matter shows how difficult this is, and it would be a matter of regret if the missionaries should by any hasty actioR delay the desired event. The advance will be gradual, the whole country being occupied, and every outpost having'a support to fall back upon. This may, probably will, be slow work; but nothing else can be expected. Tibetan Buddhism, however grotesque it may seem to us, has a firm hold on the people, and stands ready for battle. Let us, therefore, while thanking God for the work already done, and the great accession of workers, not imagine that the difficulties are past.' God may be preparing another Jericho; but we must be prepared for much toil before the power of Dalai Lamas is broken.
Any enumeration of the forces arrayed against Tibet would, however, be incomplete without a mention of the Tibet Prayer Union. Originally launched in connection with the Moravian work, it has grown so as to demand a separate existence; and it now consists of a union of those interested in Tibet, being independent of and above every society. The workers in the field expect great things from this union, for when Tibet falls, it will be in answer to prayer. There is no missionary who does not feel himself strengthened by its existence and quiet work. We can only wish that all who desire the good of Tibet-and we are persuaded that very many are regular in their supplications for that country-would definitely join the union, and so enroll themselves personally in one of the regiments-and by no means the least important-detailed for the siege of Tibet.
NOTE I.-The latest books on our subject are (1) "Working and Waiting for Tibet," Moravian Publication Office, Fetter Lane, London, E. C., and Bethlehem, Pa., 1891; (2)" The Great Closed Land," by A. W. Marsten. Partridge & Co., London, 1893. .
NOTE 2.-The secretaries of the Tibet Prayer Union are: Messrs. Ford and Ashton, War- Ington Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, England.
NOTE 8.-There being some confusion as regards the spelling of certain common names, the following may be of interest: (1) The orthography "Tibet" seems to be the best, the form" Thlbet" having no sufficient authority. The name is of doubtful origin, being certainly not Tibetan. (2) The form "Lhasa" would seem to be best, as corresponding most closely in letters and pronunciation with the Tibetan "lha-sa "-abode of the deity. (3) The form "lama" (Tib-" bla-ma," with mute b) is the only correct rendering; the use of the word "llama" rests on confusion with the South American quadruped, which may claim to be allowed the exclusive use of Its own name.
CHINA-PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
BY REV. WlLLIAM ASHMORE, D. D., SWATOW, CHINA.
Some people in Ohina are sanguine of great and immediate advancement. They consider that Ohina has now discovered her need and that, therefore, impelled by the sturdy, practical common sense of her people, she will lose no time in giving effect to her more enlightened views, and will take her place in the great procession of the nations,., Others haveno such expectations. They consider China to be like the sluggard of holy writ, disturbed in its sleep of ages, it has merely rolled over-and merely says: "Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." Her administrative heads are stupefied with conservatism, and will not change without still more violent convulsions 1 And so, after this little spurt of reform has spent itself, things will all fall back into the old ruts, according to the litany of Chinese politics, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be."
Each of these views has much which may be said in its favor, therefore a more correct answer to the question may be arrived at by taking some items on both sides into the account. It becomes a case of general average.
I: The first point to be noted in the consideration of the question as to whether China will now become progressive is contained in the affirmation that slLe has advanced immensely already. This fact is beyond dispute. One who notes the growth of a tree, by the week or the month, will not discover much progress, but by making the observation extend over an interval of several years, he will find that there has been an immense advance. In order to apprehend the progress which China has made, we need to go back and note the state of things before the first war with England, in 1842.
At that time Chinese statesmen knew nothing of the West. Their ignorance was dense. They knew nothing, and they cared nothing. None of them ever went West. To find a Chinaman who had been to London or New York was at once to give him a new designation. " Boston Jack" and "London Tom" were so called because one had been to Boston and the other to London. Of intercourse with Western people, there was none whatever. Europeans and Americans were not wanted, and were not allowed the freedom of the soil anywhere in China. The only place allowed them was that small patch of ground along the river front of Canton, known as "The Thirteen Houses," so called· because there were that many dwellings and warehouses there to be occupied by foreigners of all nationalities alike. Then there was a. garden plot for common use, in which they all had to get their airing a.nd exercise, under the greatest limitation and restraint. If they ventured outside of their "jail-bounds," they were liable to be mobbed and stoned. Inside of the gate of the city no man could go. If he attempted it, he riskt his life. They could also take a little run down the river, for a dozen miles, to Whampoa, where the ships anchored. That comprised their privileges in China.
i~e estimate placed on foreigners by the Chinese was contemptuous to the last degree. They were spoken of as "barbarians," "redheaded devils," who had come to China to beg the privilege of supplying themselves with tea, and who were, as a very great favor, permit. ted to bask under the imperial smile. China was to them the Central Kingdom. All other countries were on the outskirts, and wer~ reckoned as the mere rind of civilization. When dealing with them officially, the mandarins deputed only low-class subordinates, but littl~ above the grade of constables, to "instruct the ignorant barbarians how to demean themselves." Then the most arrogant, haughty, supercilious and utterly unbearable manner was always assumed. Even Lord Napier, when sent out to negotiate a better understanding, was addrest as "a barbarian "-he was called "the barbarian eye" in all official communications-he was snubbed and insulted and treated with an infinite disdain. An attempt to get the Viceroy to use more courteous language only called out a scornful laugh and another kick. England herself was called" a tribute bearer," and was regarded as a distant dependency of China, along with Siam and Tibet, and the regions occupied by wild tribes on the frontier.
The Chinese, then, had no steamers, no sailing ships, no telegraph, no railroads, no ambassadors at their capital, no open ports except Canton, no foreign consuls recognized, nobody to represent them at foreign courts, no books or papers that told them anything about foreign nations, no foreign improvement of any kind; their trade was all done in the old-fashioned junks; their men-of-war were all small and contemptible junks, but little better than their merchantmen, each one armed with several old smooth-bore cannon, full of blisters in the casting, and almost as dangerous to those who stood behind them as t() those who were in front. Their rabbles of militia, without drill, and without organization worthy of the name, still practised with bows and arrows and old matchlocks, and thought to scare their enemy by the flaunting of flags, the banging of gongs, noisy vociferation, and fierce paintings of tiger-heads on their wooden shields. Ohina was a thousand years behind the rest of the world, and, at that time, there was not the least sign that a change would ever come. Would China ever come to recognize the nations, the West, as equals? Never! Would her viceroys ever adopt terms of equality with foreign consuls? Never! Would China ever have any use for Western science and Western improvements? Never! Would the supremely august and" Solitary one" in Peking ever admit foreign embassadors to his presence 1:" Never ! Never! Let the heavens fall first. Would there come a time< when foreigners would have the free range of the empire? Never! Would the proud, stiff-necked, conceited and supercilious mandarins ever be found imploring foreign aid to keep them in resources to run their ship of state ? Never! Would China ever be found sending her most renowned statesmen to carry the respects of his imperial majesty to those despised and so-called tributaries of the West? Never-s() long as the world stands ! Yet all this, and far more, has come to pass. China began to go to school in 1842. She has had several special semesters since. She has been in the public school of the nations and has had private tutors of her own. It is a course of rough discipline that she has gone through. She has rebelled and kickt at the teach- ers, but her stiff-necked mandarins have had to yield to the power of .solomon's celebrated mortar-and-pestel treatment. Braying in the mortar has done them good. They have not got there yet, but they .are on the way, and will "fetch up" by and by.
Now, look at some of the changes that have taken place. That {)ffensive expression, "barbarian," has been knocked out of aU official documents, consuls are the equals of viceroys, ministers plenipoten- tiary reside at the imperial capital; the Chinese have reorganized their army; they have reconstructed their navy; they have rebuilt their forts; they have remodeled their whole commercial marine. The old junks of such enormous size, that used to run to Batavia and Singa- pore and Siam, are all gone. They were crowded out by sailing ships, and now the sailing ships have been crowded out by steamers, and the Chinese own steamer-fleets of their own; they have iron-clads and tor- pedo boats, and arsenals, and huge dry docks of their own. They have the most reliable part of their revenue collected for them by for- eigners; they have telegraphs and railroads. They have started great foundries of their own; they have started silk filature establishments, and cotton-mills. They now have banks of their own and insurance {)ffices. Once they did all their business in the West through foreign houses in Hong Kong and Shanghai; now they have their own agents in London, Berlin, New York and San Francisco. Instead of a stray sailor called" Boston Jack" or "London Tom" they now have able .and wealthy business men of their own-men who have1 become mil- lionaires in the West, and who compel the respect of the whole com- , mercial world. All this is progress. Certainly the tree has grown, if it has been imperceptibly.
II. In the next place it must be noted that these advances make -other advances necessary-advances so great, that aU that has been before will be thrown in the shade! There is an immense amount of 'seed sown ready to spring up; there are vast potencies at work to 'Produce more changes; there is a logic of progress which is bound to :assert itself. One of a kind begets another of the same kind; two different kinds make a demand for a third kind. One successful <:otton-mill means two cotton-mills, and two mills means three mills. One telegraph wire means another wire. Twenty miles of railroad means a hundred miles, and a hundred miles means a thousand in the future. .A short road from Tientsin to Peking, less than a hun- dred miles, means a long road from Peking to Hankow, six hun- dred and fifty miles, and a road from Peking to Hankow, means an extension to Oanton, five hundred miles more-and eleven hu,ndred and fifty miles of main trunk lines means innumerable branch lines, and all that means radical change, industrial revolution, and continual progress.
The most significant indication of progress is the altered attitude of the Chinese science to all things Western. The change of sentiment is not complete, but it is going on, and will continue to go on, till Western ideas will permeate and dominate future Chinese civilization. The most important bureau in Peking to-day is the one which has to do with foreign affairs. Powerful viceroys, like Li Hung Chang and Ohang Chi Tung, have English-speaking linguists attached to their yamen. Forty years ago such a thing would have been pronounced impossible; they have English books translated and laid before them; they have daily newspapers started-a marvel of progress; they have schools for teaching Western science. The emperor has actually issued an edict commending to his people the adoption of such Western improvements as the Chinese may deem advantageous. This is an astonishing stride. It does not say so, but it does mean that China, officially, is getting ready to declare a break with the old. It is slipping the anchor and letting the ship drift into the Western gulfstream.
Then, too, China is being affected powerfully by her emigrants who have gone abroad-have become inoculated with various Western ideas, and have come back to let them germinate. Furthermore, a score of open ports have become luminous and radiating centres. Tens and hundreds of thousands of her people, at these places, are getting their eyes opened. Persons at home can hardly conceive of the change of attitude in the minds of the common people that is now beginning to take place in consequence of the events of the last few years. They have seen the energy and efficiency of the western man; they have seen their own mandarins quail before him. The glamor of superiority, which surrounded these mandarins and literati in their estimations, has begun to fade as a rainbow fades. When John the Baptist came, men mused and "were in expectation." A state of "expectation" is the soil out of which changes sprout. Without exaggeration we may say that, up and down the coast of China, millions of people are" in expectation" of something. So all that enters into the preparation. Not only are they expecting something, but they are longing for something. Things can hardly be worse, they think, and they may be better.
III. It will appear then that the real question is not whether Ohina has progrest or will progress, but it is, at 10hat rate will China now progress? This will call for a reestimate of the forces at work-those holding back and those impelling forward, and their mutual pullings and haulings with each other.
The former come first. Origiually they had the entire field, , adversely to them nobody dared to peep or to chirp. Conservatives they are called, but obstructionists and dead weights is what they really are. The China "Mission Hand Book" gives the number of leading mandarins-that is, of high grade mandarins-at a few over ten thousand. This does not include the large retinue connected with the imperial household; then there are the literati, attending examination still, about six hundred thousand; then there is the large roll of past literati, the number of which it is difficult to ascertain, and certain of the gentry, so-called, with them, who cannot be less than a million. At the outset ~'}l of these classes were of one mind and of one instinct to oppose foreign ideas. They included the edu- cated brains of China; they represented all the power and all the prestige of the nation; they were ben t on resisting foreign encroach- ment, in maintaining the complete isolation of Ohina, and the con- servation unmixt of their ancestral inheritance of civilization. The mass of them hated the foreigner, and were ready to drive him out into the sea. .Out of this immense class began to be born, little by little, the new class-the men of progressive ideas, the men who discovered quicker than others that Ohina was kicking against the pricks. They have been growing, little by little, since the first war with England. For a generation they were but few, without communication or con- ference with each other. Some high statesmen were in this class; they stood where they were compelled to see the truth. But they were not assertive, nor were they at all agreed in the extent of the innovation they would sanction. They took to improved military and naval arrangements first, and yielded to other demands slowly and reluctantly. They still considered China able to dictate her own course. While some of them saw the real advantages of Western methods, and what an immense boom their introduction would be to China as a nation-others of them advocated a limited adoption of Western appliances, chiefly on the principle of fighting fire with fire; they would beat the foreigner by resorting to his own weapons. Small at first, this class has now become large and influential. Great statesmen are now enrolled among them; the influence of traveled Chinese is on their side; foreign diplomacy is on their side; the wars of China have all been on their side; and the whole drift of the gene- ration is on their side. Of course, there is friction and collision, and that is what is the matter with China just now. She is a divided house. The conser- vatives are powerful, and bigoted, and desperate-they cling as for dear life to all the features of the old system of administration and emolument. But the others are becoming powerful too, and are reso- lute, and are coming into touch with each other. Two civilizations are struggling in the womb of Ohina. The second one is Jacob, the Supplanter. First, it is one that is likely to claim the portion of the first-born, and then it is the other. Jacob will start his Reform Society and appear about to lead the host. Then, all at once, his Reform Society will be knocked to pieces by the red and hairy hand of Esau.
Let no one despair of the outcome. It will be Jacob and not Esau that will win at the end. But it may take more time than we pushing Western people are willing to allow. The rate of progression may be slow and tedious. At the same time we are cheered with the hope that, in the Providence of God, events may be accelerated. It may be peaceably, and it may be with commotion and upheaval, but the consummation is surely coming. Conservatism may show its power to humiliate Li Hung Chang after all the honor heapt upon him, but that power is being exhausted with every blow it strikes. It may never be possible to do as bold a thing again.
In addition to all this, allowance must be made for inherent difficulties, which lie in the way of radical and rapid changes in China, even when pusht by willing and unfett;:;::"ed hands. These arise from the crystallized form of society-the time and labor required to move such immense masses of human beings into new lines of thought and action. But into that large subject we cannot enter here.
IV. When it comes to missionary aspects of the question, as to whether China will become progressive, we appeal to a comparison of the present status with that of the past. We look back to a time when Robert Morrison was the only missionary to China. Then he had to dodge about the foreign settlement at Canton to escape observation. Now Robert Morrison and his wife have become twenty-five hundred strong, and he is the most ubiquitous person of the foreigners in the whole empire. Once Leang-A-Fa was the only convert. Now Leang- A-Fa has become seventy thousand strong, and is the growing class of China-he is the man of the future-the coming Chinaman. Others will decrease, but he will increase. Like Abraham, he will become the father of multitudes-those of his countrymen who will come to believe with him, will be like the stars for numbers. Once the Chinese teacher who helpt Dr. Morrison translate the Scripture, had to carry the manuscript concealed under his jacket, to avoid arrest. Now Bible Societies and Tract Societies occupy central points in their great cities and send out their printed pages, by the million. every year for the healing of the nation. Native churches are springing up by the thousand, and native speakers by the thousand. In her pristine state China had no public speakers. Among the incidental things being done by missions for China, is the raising up of a class of men trained to address crowds of people. In course of time, other classes of men than preachers will catch the spirit and learn the artthen a new dynamic element will enter into social and political life.
THE WOMEN OF CroNA-HEATHEN AND CBlUSTIAN
Not to prolong the subject, just rest the inquiry on two things. Oontrast two events in missionary history. In the one the translator, spoken of, appears slipping into the back door of Robert Morrison's dwelling with his contraband manuscript hid away in his clothes; in the other, a deputation of missionaries, headed by a foreign ambassador, marches into the imperial precincts to present a copy of the whole Bible to the Empress Dowager, who accepts it with pleasure and appreciation, while the servants of the Emperor are seen at the book stalls buying copies for themselves. The stride from the little alley in Canton to the palace in Pe~ing is tremendous. Then again, who, of all the missionaries of thirty years ago, familiar with the disdainful manner of even the yamen lackeys, could then have dreamt that the greatest statesman of Ohina would be receiving a deputation of missionary supporters in New York City, and should there put in writing an expression of his estimate of the value of their labors, and pay them an imperial compliment for their moral and personal worth. And yet that, too, has come to pass. Let no one say that missionary work in C~ina does not move. If all this be not progress, then what is progress?
China has been called a hard field. And snch in truth it has been, partly because of the intense materialism of its Confucian ethics, partly because of blind and slavish subservience to antiquity, and partly because its people have been trained for ages to think in bulk. But a freshet has come, the ice is beginning to crack and to break. The world has seen great ingatherings of disciples at many times and in many places, but in our humble opinion, these may all fall short of what may take place in China when the veil of ancestralism shall be torn away from the eyes of her myriad myriads of people.
THE WOMEN OF CHINA-HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN.
BY MRS. GEORGE S. 1LA.YS.
To nnderstand a woman-Ohinese or American-one must have some knowledge of her home, her family cares, and her habits of thought. A typical Chinese family consists of the father and motherin-law, two or three sons and their wives and several grandchildren, all living in rooms opening upon the same high-walled court-yard, and sharing the same kitchen.
The father and sons work for and contribute to the common purse, and so strict are their ideas of impartiality, or rather so jealous is each member of the family of the others~ that a husband may not take even of the money he himself has earned to buy a. present for his own wife, without buying one equally v!l-luable for each of 'his sisters-in-law. The Chinaman has ways and means, however, of evading almost every law or custom, and the fond husband buys a handsome gown and sends it and his wife for a few days to her maternal home. From there she will return triumphantly displaying her gown as a present from her mother.
In the home the mother-in-law is usu~ly-but not always-the head. Sometimes a daughter-in-law of unusually bright mind or vicious temper rules the whole household. The quickest way & daughter-in-law possesses by which to bring her mother-in-law to subjection is threatening suicide. If a woman kills herself her spirit is supposed to return to haunt the mother-in-law, but worse than this to the practical mind of the Chinaman, her living relatives will gather and by demanding a costly funeral, will plunge the whole family into heavy debt that they will be unable to pay for years.
Imagine the situation in a Chinese home, and it becomes at once apparent that peace and happiness can not reign continually. On the one hand is the daughter-in-law, a young girl, perhaps indulged and spoiled from her babyhood in her mother's home, and untrained in housework and sewing. She is suddenly introduced by marriage intoa new home. Her husband, her mother-in-law, her neighbors are aU total strangers. She is miserably homesick; she gets wretchedly tired' doing all sorts of unaccustomed work; she is criticised, laughed at, or' reviled for her stupidity or her indolence.
On the other hand is the mother-in-law. She has perhaps suffered for years under the hard reign of her mother-in-law; she is now ready for her turn to sit on the throne. She expects to be treated with obedient consideration by her son's wife; she expects to take life easily in her old age. Instead of this she discovers that her new daughter-in-law is saucy, careless and wasteful, if not actually thievish; she is above all taking the place in her beloved son's affections which the mother has always held.
Remember, they are two heathen women with hot and hasty tempers which have never been controlled; each with a stock of vile words. and insulting epithets at her tongue's end, and it is easy to imagine the result. When there are several daughters-in-law in the samehouse, and children of different mothers ready to quarrel at a, moment's notice, and each mother ready to take her own child's part to the bitter end, it is often "confusion worse confounded."
It is well in such a household if there be one at the head who can command obedience and at least a semblance of peace. As the daughters-in-law grow older and wiser, as they bear sons to add luster to the family name, and as the various elements of the family become accustomed to each other, terrific outbursts of temper and violent chastisements by the mother-in-law become less frequent. There are, of course, some cases where the mother-in-law and her son's wife live together in loving harmony, but these are, unfortunately, rare exceptions.
The saddest and most hopeless lot in China is that of the" nourished daughter-in-law;" the girl who, yet too young to marry, is sent to her betrothed husband's home because of her parents' death or extreme poverty. Her mother-in-law resents this most vehemently. Why should she be called upon to feed and clothe for years the unfortunate child? .Ail there is no one to take the girl's part, she is usually over-worked, reviled, beaten and sometimes half-starved and driven to sleep with the dogs in her new home. If the mother-in-law goes too far, however, resource may be had to a curious mob-law, as far as I know, only practist by the women of China.
Not long ago an orphan girl was sent to live with her mother-inlaw who had already one daughter-in-law living with her. The child's betrothed husband was an industrious business man a good many years older than herself. He was seldom at home, and even when there, as it was not good form for him to take any notice of his little bride before marriage, he knew nothing of how she was treated. Altho the girl was a gentle, modest child, afraid to say or do anything contrary to her mother-in-Iaw's wishes, she was most cruelly treated. When she was thirteen years old, she 'inadvertently did something to offend her. mother and sister-in-law, and the two women, working themselves into a fiendish rage, killed her with scissors, cutting her :flesh horribly and slitting her tongue, but leaving no mark upon her face. When she was dead they carefully drest her in her best garments, and, according to custom, were obliged to send word of her death to her aunt, her only living relative. This aunt was a desperate character, a beggar-woman who could hope or fear nothing from the magistrates, as she had not enough money to make it worth an official's while to pay any attention to her case. She obeyed the summons at once, and after carefully examining the body of the dead child, returned home, and gathering together thirty or forty women, each armed with an awl or sharp pointed instrument, came to execute vengeance on the murderers. The two women, however, managed to hide themselves, and the infuriated mob were obliged to disperse after being assured by the bridegroom, who was horrified at the dreadful death of his bride, that a grand and costly funeral should be given in her honor.
In another instance within my knowledge, a mother-in-law who had beaten her daughter-in-law to death, did not escape so easily. In this case the murderess was caught by the mob of women armed with awls and sharp metal pins; they dragged her out into the street, stript her of her clothing and prickt and jagged her furiously. Then they .dragged her over the stones the whole length of the street two or three times, and finally left her, after pushing a quantity of briars and small thornes into her flesh. She was carried home by her friends more dead than alive. "No one in that village has dared to kill her daughter-in-Iaw since that time," was the significant conclusion given by the Ohristian woman telling me the story.
It is frightful to see a woman deliberately" nourishing wrath," as the Chinese express it. The word translated" nourishing" can also be rendered "kindle," as in "kindle a fire," and is most expressive in connection with the working-up of anger. It was once my unfortunate experience to see my nurse-maid, "nourish" or "kindle" wrath. One day, after having a quarrel with the washerman, she sat down in spite of my remonstrances, and deliberately gave way to her evil passions. She drew her breath in with great violence at long and regular intervals, until she became wholly unconscious of her surroundings. In this state, which lasted about forty hours, she threw herself about violently, and talkt deliriously, especially after I had applied the mustard plasters which I had heard were effective in such cases. Altho I lean toward homeopathic treatment, on this occasion I made two plasters thick and strong, one foot broad by two feet long, and applied them on her chest and down her back. While I was preparing the plasters my cook told me that the Ohinese would call one in this woman's condition "possest of demons." I am glad to state that by the aid of those mustard plasters, I exorcised the demons, and better yet, that they have never dared to return to that woman!
She came legitimately by her temper. She often told me of her grandfather, who had a long wished for and only son born to him late in life. He was so greatly delighted that he went in and out of his wife's room, exclaiming, "aren't you happy! aren't you happy!" After repeatedly replying in the affirmative, the old lady finally becoming irritated answered emphaticallly, "No, I am not happy." Whereupon the old man "nourished wrath," refused to eat and drink, and died in a few days. Serious illness or death often follows this deliberate giving way to anger.
Women who claim to be possest of a" fox or a wolf god," are much feared and reverenced by the Chinese. I once askt an intelligent Ohristian woman, Su May, whether she had ever known any women claiming this possession. She answered that she had met with very few, and those all claimed to be possest of a "fox god." When a pupil in one of our Christian schools, she had been allowed by the matronwho had not yet given up all her heathen superstitions-to witness the attempted healing of a very sick child by a woman possest of a "fox god."
Several of the school-girls stole into the room while the woman mumbled her incantations-intelligible only to herself-and it was not long before she turned angrily to the matron, and declaring that her god could do nothing in the presence of those believi::J.g the " Jesus doctrine," gave up the case and went away. She afterwards bitterly reproacht the woman who had conducted her to the school, saying, t< you should not have taken me there. Don't you know I have nothing to do with people holding their belief?" She declared that the child would surely die, as she was the run-away soul of a little nun, who had in her previous existence broken a bowl, and her mistress was calling to her to come back and account for the damage done to her property. But the child recovered in spite of this prophecy. .
After Su May left school, her fathel' took her for a visit among old family friends whom she had not seen since a little girl. Nearly every woman and child in the village crowded to see the natural-footed girl, who had been educated by foreigners, and among them came a woman who at once caught Su May's attention from her resemblance to the woman possest of a "fox god." She entered the room in a gli~ing serpentine manner, with averted eyes, which were never lifted in a straightforward, direct look into the face of another. By slipping behind some of the other women, she sought to avoid notice, but Su May said· to her at once, "you are possest of a "fox god, aren't you ?"
"Dreadful!" the woman gaspt," How do you know? No one told you about me, for I have been watching you." .
" I have a way of recognizing you," answered Su May, "but I won't tell you my way."
" Are you possest with a god also?" askt the woman.
"Yes," answered Su May, "I have the true God in me. He is with me all the time. Is your' fox god' with you? Let him speak to us through you."
" My god has gone to Shanghai," confusedly answered the woman, slinking out of the room as rapidly as possible.
Another woman of this kind was for a time in Mrs. Nevius' sewing class, but she declared she could not prophesy before the Christian school-girls. The most striking part of Su May's story was her state- ment that all the possest women of whom she had known or heard, confest at once on hearing the name of Jesus, that" He is true. He is the Son of the true God." And while others around might mock and jeer at the preaching of the Gospel, they either listened with respectful attention, or evaded it entirely.
The women who claim a "wolf god" are of a fierce nature, advis- ing more cruel methods of averting misfortune or curing the sick than those who are under the guidance of a "fox god." A petty mandarin living near Chepoo, having two wives, had the great misfortune to have no children. In great discontent with this state of affairs, he sent for a woman possest of a" wolf god," and askt her to tell him the reason for his ill-fortune. She was a total stranger to him and to both of his wives, so it could not have been an old grudge or wish for revenge that influenced her demands. She told him he would never have good luck as long as he kept his second wife; that she must not be divorced, but killed. The head wife was in real sorrow at this ver- dict and begged the mandarin to spare the unfortunate woman's life, but he remained determined to follow the "wolf god's" advice. Strip- ping the heavy wadded garments from his second wife (with whom, as far as known, he had had no previous quarrel) he drove her out into the bitter cold, where she was soon frozen to death.
The religious feelings of Ohinese women vary greatly in different localities. In some places they are distinctly religious, visiting tem- ples, worshiping daily at a private shrine in the home, fasting, praying and endeavoring by good works to lay up for themselves a reward in the future world. In the eastern part of Shantung Province this was not the case. The women as a rule never visit the temples, and worship no private gods. They are, of course, filled with' many vague and dark superstitions. Hard workt, improperly nourished, easily distracted and excited by the little details of daily life, they seem to give little, if any, thought to their future after death. It is commonly believed that a woman will change at death into a pig-considered the filthiest of animals-to atone for the sins committed during her lifetime,such as polluting pure water, wasting food, cutting cloth, reviling her husband, worrying her mother-in-law, etc. From a pig to a woman, a woman to a pig, the dreary transmigration goes on forever. Others believe in total annihilation, but most women dismiss the question of a future life by a careless" who' knows?" or by the sad statement, "I fear no future suffering. My lot cannot possibly be worse in the world to come than it is in this life."
This picture of heathen womanhood would be misleadingly dark and' gloomy if all bright coloring be omitted. It is indeed a black and bitter life, even among heathen homes that get no ray of light occasionally. Hunger satisfied, tho with coarsest food, a refreshing breeze after a hot day, warmth in winter, a shelter and rest at night, the doubtful joy of having overcome an adversary in a reviling match, or, the relief of escaping with whole bones from a fierce quarrel, make a lining to the black cloud of life, which, if not silver, is at least lighter than the prevailing hue.
But we may certainly call bright silver the joyous smile of an innocent child, the true love which children give to and receive from their mother, vigorous health with few nerves, and the natural love of life, which is the portion of all God's creatures. Add to this an apathetic disposition, an astonishing lack of envy of those in better circumstances, and the fact that a quarrel, which wonld drive an American woman into a long siege of nervous prostration, is but meat and drink to the ordinary Chinese woman, and one has a clearer insight into their lives.
Many deeds of unselfish and even heroic kindness are performed in heathen homes, of which the world hears nothing. In no other land are daughters more carefully guarded from impurity of action- tho purity of thought or word is considered unimportant. Altho the children do not render the cheerful obedience which Christianity demands, yet the care and protection of infirm and aged parents is a rule rarely departed from.
But notwithstanding all these ameliorating circumstances, it is with a feeling of distinct relief that one leaves a heathen home, too often filled with a " darkness that can be felt," and enters the home of a Clll'istian. In this connection a story which I have already told in The Independent, is so apt, that perhaps it is worth repeating. After a morning spent with a Chinese woman, she inteITupted my Gospel message with the question, "Is your mother-in-law living?" " No," I answered. "Does your husband get druuk?" "No." "Does he smoke opium?" "No." "Does he beat you?" " No," I replied. "He has never struck me a blow in his life." It took her several moments to become convinced of this astonishing fact, and then she turned to me saying impressively, "You have been talking to me of heaven and hell in the world to come. Your life now and mine are as heaven and hell."
Those who have seen the changed lives and happy homes of many Chinese women, can testify gladly that nothing but Christianity could perform such miracles. One of the strongest proofs a Christian Chinese woman can make of her sincerity is in unbinding her own or her daughter's feet. In Shantung, with the exception of a few slaves or prostitutes and manchus, all women-whatever their condition of life-bind their feet. It requires an enormous amount of moral courage for.a Chinese woman to go about with natural feet, thus incurring the curiosity, ridicule, and evil insinuations of every one she meets. The change, therefore, is very slow, but it is surely coming, owing to the influence of Christian schools and anti-footbinding societies, or rather to the influence of Christianity.
An old, Godly elder, in the church at Chefoo, who's Christianity was real enough to break an opium habit, strong with the practice of many years, was very fond of telling of the change Christianity wrought in his wife. "Before she became a Christian, she had a most violent temper," he would say in his slow, gentle manner. "She would scold and revile most abusively, and we were all afraid of her. But since she has become a Christian, all is changed. Why now she hasn't even a disposition left," was always his quaint conclusion.
Truly, in a heathen land is most clearly illustrated the truth, " By their fruits ye shall know them."
POLYGAMUS APPLICANTS
POLYGAMOUS APPPIOANTS.-I.
WHAT MISSIONARIES THINK SHOULD BE DONE WITH THEM.
BY REV. DANIEL L. GIFFORD, SEOUL, KOREA.
Toward the close of the year 1894 the church session in Seoul, Korea, had its attention called to certain concrete cases, which raised the question of the status of men with plural wives in relation to church membership. It was not until a year later, however, that any of the members of our mission dreamed that in our copies of "What is Presbyterian .Law," tuckt away under the irrelevant heading of "Who are forbidden to marry," was a statement of the speciallegislation of the General Assembly of 1875, which forbade the admission of men in such relations.
The problem was brought to the attention of the Presbyterian Oouncil, which met about that time, and they were askt to legislate upon the subject. In the debate which followed, it soon became evident that we had upon our hands a question which could not be settled upon the spur of the moment. So its consideration was postponed for one year. From the account of the debate upon this subject at the London Missionary Oonference of 1888, I observed that most of the missionaries from Africa favored exclusion, while quite the reverse was true of most of those from China. I was perplexed and wondered if it might not be true that the social conditions which attended the unhappy practice, might not be different in the different countries.
The first of July arrived, and still no light; then in desperation I decided to appeal to missionaries upon older fields for their advice. A circular letter was prepared and sent to some sixty representative missionaries of various denominations in Japan, China, and India.* So far as I am aware, no such data has ever before been gathered on what is perhaps the most intricate of all mission problems.
The circular letter was as follows: SEOUL, KOREA, July 1, 1895. My dear brother in Christ:-I feel compunctious for taking the time of one, busy with missionary work, to answer my questions. But my justification, I think, will be found in the facts as I state them. The missions in Korea are new missions, and in certain matters need the experience of older missions and missionaries to help them in reaching right conclusions. The three Presbyterian missions working in this country are united in a "Council." At the last annual meeting of the council, the question of the .. They were for the most part people whom I had seen personally at the Shanghai Conference in 1890, and at meetings of the highest ecclesiastical courts of the Congregational and Reformed bodies of Japan, in 1889. admission to church membership of men with plural wives came up for settle- ment. I need not tell you that we found it a very complicated and perplexing question. After an evening of discussion, in which were developt nearly as many opinions as there were missionaries present, it was voted to lay the whole question upon the table for one year, in the hope that we could get more light upon the subject. It is in the interest of "more light," that I am writing to you.
Of course, it is clear that the adopting of such marriage relations after entering the church cannot be allowed; and the Scriptures seem to imply that a man hav- ing once entered into such relations, altho living with only one wife, may not hold ecclesiastical office. But there are other questions for which the answers are more difficult. Allow me to state them.
I. In case a man with plural wives applies for baptism, should he be kept out- side the church as a "perpetual catcchumen?"
II. Or still retaining his wives, should he be allowed to enter the church; and under what conditions, if any?
III.. Or again, should he be required to put away all but one wife?
(a) If so, should the one retained be invariably the first wife, to whom he was married in childhood by his parents, or the wife by whom he has had chil- dren; or ·again. should he be allowed to choose one from the number of first wife and second wives, or concubines?
(b) And should the wife, or wives sent away, be still supported or absolutely divorced? If divorced, what shall be done with the children, if such exist?
IV. Also, what shall be done with a female applicant, in such relations, especially one whose husband refuses to give her up?
In answer to the above, will you kindly tell me (a) what is the rule of prac- tice of your mission in dealing with such cases; and (b) what is your own opinion with regard to the same?
As the council will meet in October, may I request an early reply. Thank- ing you in advance, I am, Yours in the work, D. L. GIFFOlID.
REPLIES RECOMMENDING EXCLUSION.
Japan.-Rt. Rev. Bi8hop E. Bickersteth (English Church Mission), Tokio, quotes the action of the Anglican Bishops: "(1) That in no case shall a man·be admitted to baptism who has more than one wife. (2) That a woman being one among several wives, should not be .regarded as a ban to her baptism."
Rev. M. L. (Jordon, P.P. (American Board), Doshisha College, would require such a man to give up all but the first wife. He should support the divorced wife and children, if possible. "But the wife should be put away with a lump sum and pecuniary relations severed, otherwise temptation and fall may follow." The rule of Congregational Church ("largely in the hands of the Japanese") requires separation. Rev. J. B. Ayres (N. Presbyterian), Yamaguchi. "Should think we might rightly insist on no church member having more than one wife; but let him have his option in chosing that one, and leave it to each one to settle in advance the support of those who have been dependent upon him."
Rev. J. L. Atkinson (American Board), Kobe. "I should incline to leave the choice and decision to the man himself. I could never baptize a man who insisted on bringing his heathenism into the church. The whole Christian scheme is hard for the heathen and the natural man, and it would hardly help matters by making one or two or more things easier. See the Sabbath in Roman Catho- lic countries. I should suppose that any man who has any heart or enlightenment at all, would provide for those who may have been his partners in (unwitting) violation of God's law. If a man would not do this to the best of his ability, I should doubt his con- version."
Rev. J. B. Porter(N. Presbyterian), Kanizawa.
The question of plurality of wives has never been a seriously practical ques- tion in the Christian Church in Japan, as it seems to be with you, because in this country a mall cannot legally have more than one wife at the same time.* Many men have concubines; but no one would be admitted to church membership, as long as it is known that he kept a concubine. I have heard of instances where a man became a Christian who had a concubine with children, whereas his legal wife had none. He had the option of putting away his wife by divorce and retaining the mother of his children as his wife. Or, if this were not practicable, he was required to care for the children and support their mother until he could find a home for her. In other cases I have heard of Christian·men securing a proper husband for a former concubine. But in no case have I ever heard of either plural marriage or concubinage recognized in the Church, even tempo- rarily. Therefore, in answer to your questions, I would say that no one should be admitted to membership in the Christian Church, until he has put away all but one of his wives. Each case should be decided on its merits, as to which wife should be retained,-sometimes the mother of children, or, perhaps, the one best loved. Certainly a man should be responsible for the support of children he has brought into the world, and the mother also as long as she is in a dependent con- dition; but if she is not retained as wife, she should be divorced. Your fourth question •a female applicant in such relations, especially one whose husband refuses to give her up,' is to my mind the most difficult of solution. But I think in such a case I should decline to baptize her, until her marriage relations were changed. It seems to me vastly important that the Church of Christ should make no compromises in the questions of family and social purity. The only way that the Church can lift up the nations from the tilth of heathenism is by occupying the lofty plane of Gospel purity. If we yield in any particular to heathen marriage customs, there is danger that the camel whose nose has come in, may next get in its whole body.
Ohina.-Rev. J. Bates (C. M. S.), Ningpo: "They (polygamists) are only regarded as catechumens."
Rev. T. Barclay (Eng. Presbyterian), Tai-wan, Formosa: " We have no standing for any but simple membership. Others are just counted as hearers."
Rev. W. Gould (Can. Pres.), Tamsui, }'ormosa: "They are welcome *At the recent meeting of the Synod of the United Church of Christ in Japan (Presby- terian), there was a motion to overture the Government to enforce the law of single marriage more rigidly. But, as it was deemed inexpedient to take action, the matter was finally dropt. to come and hear the Gospel, apart from that no standing is granted. But here they are comparatively few, and, so far as I can learn, none have askt for baptism or any church standing."
Rev. J. N. B. Smith (N. Pres.), Ningpo. No experience. Should separate from all but one wife. "He should be allowed to choose the one whom he loves and who by temperament and inclination is best fitted to be his true helpmeet, seeing that in his first marriage he presumably had no choice." The first wife, or woman recognized by her husband as lawful wife, is not living in sin, and is eligible to church membership. Others to be legally separated and supported. "They should be treated as he would treat his own sisters."
Rev. W. M. Ha.yes (N. Pres.), Presbyterian Oollege, Tungchow. Thinks if the man will not live with his first wife alone and will not make provision for secondary wives and their children, would not admit him. "At the same time I would tell him that I could not afford to be lord over another's conscience, and that, while conscientiously I could not do otherwise, my action did not necessarily debar him from an entrance into the Kingdom. I would urge him to be faithful, to study God's Word more and more, to pray for light, and then leave the result with God. To give up his secondary wives may, as you kn0w, be giving them in their weakness over to ruin, and unless they can be provided for safely, I would be very cautious about urging such a man to join the Ohurch, while I would urge him to identify himself with the Ohristians."
Rev. O. Hartwell (American Board), Foochow, refers to the occasion in the fifties, when Dr. Anderson and Dr. A. O. Thompson, of the American Board, visited their missions in India.
After discussion there, the opinion was adopted that bigamists and polygamists should be required to cohabit with but one wife in order to be received to the Church, but that he should be required to support the other or others who had lived with him, unless they saw fit to marry other persons and relieve him of this duty. I have known of cases where second wives have married other men, both for their own and their first husband's benefit. As to the children, of course, the father is responsible fqr their support and for the best arrangements for their training and education. I do not think a cast·iron rule can be made in respect to the arrangements for the children, when a concubine is discarded. In case of her marriage it seems possible that in some cases her ehildren might follow their mother. In others, perhaps, she would better leave them. The good of the children is, of course, the thing to be sought in all arrangements for them. As to receiving a concubine into the church, my idea would be first to see if some arrangement could not be made for her to get a proper husband. Get her mind right on this subject and see if the thing cannot be brought about. It will be hard sometimes for such a woman to be willing to take a poor man for a husband, when she has been the concubine of a richer man. But let grace have its perfect work. In respect to always taking the first wife, this is the only wife according to Chinese law. The children of others all have to call the first wife 'mother,' and their own mothers only 'elder sisters.' . . . Notwithstanding all the difficulties, I do not think a man should be received to the Church who persists in cohabiting with more than one wife. People's feelings and opinions may not; all coincide with this view, but I regard the method indicated as the least of all. the evils.
Rev. David Hill (Eng. Wesleyan), Hankow. Rule of Wesleyan; Missionary Society is that no man with more than one wife can b& admitted to the Church. . Must put away all but first wife and support the others until they are "honorably and properly married to a. suitable husband." Is bound to support the children. No concubin& would be admitted. Legislating for the majority, he thinks the ruler practicable and just.
Rev. A. Foster (London Mission), Hankow.
In China, a man can have only one wife and to marry a second in the life of: first, is a crime. . . . In addition to his "wife," a Chinaman often has a number of women attacht to him in various degrees of loose relationship, some of" whom we foreigners call" secondary wives" and" concubines," but there is in. Chinese law no distinction between these miscellaneous women, such as we make., tho, of course, there is a distinction between the "concubine" and a "prostitute.''' . . • Here is another (point) showing, as I think, the impossibility of drawing iii. line bywhich con'OertlJ from lteatheni8m are to be allowed to keep their extra women and Oliristians are to be forbidden to make such alliances. A Christian takes ~ "secondary wife" and is excommunicated for so doing. That is very simple; but; a year or two later he comes back sincerely penitent, and asks to be forgiven. Whllt is to be done with him? Is he (1) to be received back as a polygamistt If so, other Christians will know how to get secondary wives. (2) Is he to be told to put away this woman? Well, then why can't a new convert be told to act. in the same way? The hardship is not greater on the new convert's concubine than on the concubine of the renegade Christian. If pity for the woman is to> decide the case, it applies to both cases equally and should decide each on the same lines. But (3) you may under the circumstances refuse this renegade Christian readmittance to the Church at all. Is that right? . . . Why should you make the sin of taking a concubine the one sin that must forever debar the man from Church fellowship? • . • To me there seems a very simple way of dealing with the case, but only one way. If under no circum8tances can a man living: with several women be admitted to the Church, the law holds good for every one alike. If you repent, put away the woman? . . . The concubine should be put away in a Christian spirit, in a right, considerate, kind way. . . . The: influence of polygamists will always be on the side of polygamy. Your polygamous converts will leaven your Church with polygamous notions. If you want to create a conscience among your young Christians that makes polygamy impossible, every man who comes into the Church as a polygamist will be secretly working against you. He has not this conscience and cannot sympathize with it, and his influence will insensibly lower the tone of your whole Church.
Rev. Henry V. Noyes * (N. Presbyterian), Canton.
Concubinage is a more correct term to designate the custom among tl16' Chinese, often referred to as polygamy. For: (1) In taking a second partner, the prescribed formalities for taking a wife are not necessary; nothing is needed but. a contract with her parents. (2) The act is deemed discreditable, except in the case of the wife bearing no sons. (3) The sons which the second woman bears.
* For Mr. Noyes' argument in full, see his paper on Native Customs in "Reportof Shanghai Conference of 1890," p. 609. are not legally her own, but belong to the wife. (4) The degradation of the wife to the second place, or the elevation of the second woman to the first place, are alike illegal and void. Thinks that applicants for baptism, who have concubines, should not be received into the Church, without being required to 'put them away. His reasons are two. (1) So far as the custom of taking concu- bines is legal, its root is found in ancestral worship. * If the wife bears no son, the husband may, by Chinese custom, take 'a concubine, in order that husband and wife both may, after death, have male posterity to worship at their grayes.
Not to have such worship is deemed a great calamity. If we require applicants for baptism to abandon ancestral worship, we should also require them to abandon this custom so closely connected with it. If the root be unholy, so also are the branches. Root and branch must both be put away. (2) But the reason which ought to settle the question forever is that we have no right to depart from the law of marriage which Christ has himself laid down. (See Matt. 19: 4, 5, 9). . • Neither by word nor act, so far as the record goes, did our Savior ever relax one iota this absolute and unqualified requirement that marriage must be betwcen one man and one woman, and because this was the original, and-is the permanent and universal law of marriage. TIe calls things by their right names, and tells us that, except for one named cause, the man who puts away his wife and marries another, is an adulterer. :Much more then is he an adulterer who, retaining his wife, takes another woman, without even the usual formalities of the marriage ceremony.
If Christ's language means anything, the simple question to be decided is:- Shall a man, who, while a heathen, lived in adultery, be allowed to join the Chris- tian Church and continue that adultery? It would seem that there could be but .one answer to such a questioD. Whenever the apostles refer to the marriage rela- tion and the duties arising from it, their language always implies that the union is between one man and one woman. If they refer to polygamy at all, which is doubtful, it is only to flYl'bid it, a poor reason indeed for allowing it now. Even if we admit that it had crept into the Church, we have not the shadow of evidence that it came there by Apostolic authority_ . If men drifted away from their original knowledge and practice of duty into idolatry, and ancestral worship, and polygamy, this does not make it right that these things should continue.
• Even if it is proved that God permitted an exception to the permanent law of marriage, in the case of some in the Jewish Church (in Old Testament times) it does not follow that we can in the face of Christ's reaffirmation of the original law, assume our Maker's authority and permit this exception in the Chris- tian Church. God's permission being an exception to the universal law, was surely limited to the time when, and the persons to whom it was given. . He thinks that the fact that Abraham's progeny by his concubine Hagar are the wild slave-raiding Arabs of to-day, is a "mark of God's displeasure" "upon this unhal- lowed union." He doubts whether Moses legalized polygamy and thinks that Deut. 21: 15-17 alludes merely to the existence of polygamy, without expressing :an opinion as to the rightness of the relation. While on the other hand, he -declares that both the old and new translators of the Scriptures give two inter- pretations to Lev. 18: 18. One is, "Neither shalt thou take one wife to another to vex her in her life time." He is therefore inclined to believe that Moses forbade polygamy. The hardship of breaking up a long standing relation is cer- tainly a serious difficulty, but to argue that therefore polygamy or conCUbinage ought not to be meddled with, proves too much. It equally proves that such rela- .. This is important, as showing that concubines taken In days of Gospel Ignorance in ChIna and Korea, were taken under the semi-religious sanction of Confucianism, the highest system of religious ethics that they knew. tions once formed should in no case be broken up, for the same difficulties always exist. . . . A great many difficulties meet the Chinese who wish to keep the hlwof God, but these difficulties only give him an opportunity of making his testimony to the truth all the stronger, if he overcomes them. Of course, in separating from his concubine, it is a man's duty to see that she and her children are properly cared for. . . . In regard to the children, they are, of course, his own children as much as any others, and should bc provided for. In all ordinary cases I should think they might remain under the mother's care, during their childhood life, but I can see that some difficult questions might arise to make this undesirable. For instance, suppose the mother is an out and out heathen, and insists on bringing up the children in the practice of idolatry. A good deal would depend on the circumstances and probably no absolute rule should be adopted.
. . He considers the question of a female applicant whose husband refuses to give her up, as the most difficult of all. " With the power which the husband has over her, at least in China, a woman would seem to be almost helpless in the matter." Yet he thinks that while such a woman should be counted as a Chris- tian, she should not be admitted to the Church. "The Synod of China discussed these questions, long and earnestly, as long ago as 1874, but there was strong difference of opinion, and no other decision was arrived at than to leave the whole matter to the Session of Churches, exhorting them, however, to exer- cise great care in regard to the admission of members."
Rev. Griffith John, D.D. (London Mission), Hankow.
In reply to your circular just to hand, I would say: (1) All polygamists should be kept outside of the Church as "perpetual catechumens."
(2) In the event of putting away, the one retained should invariably be the first wife. She is his Wife, and to ask him to put her away, would be to ask him to violate God's law, and offend the moral sense of the nation. How missionaries can have any doubt on this point, has always appeared to me a great mystery.
(3) There are circumstances in which I should have no hesitation in requesting a man to put away all but one wife. (4) But there are circumstances in which I could not do so. (a) I could never ask a man to put away the mother of his chil- dren. (b) I could not ask a man to put anyone of his wives away unless he saw. his way to make provisions for her future support and safety. To throw her upon the world helpless, would be cruel, and to expose her to temptation, would be immoral. (5) As to the female applicant, she is in a different condition; still my vote would be against admitting her into membership. (6) We do not admit polygamists in this mission. (7) My own idea is this: Did I believe that the salvation of any man depended in the least upon membership, I would bap- tize the polygamist, that is, if satisfied with him in other respects. But I do not take this view of the matter. Then I ask myself, what is the mission of the Church in the world, apart from the saving of the individual? Is it not to teach, maintain, and confirm the great Christian principles of righteousness and truth?
Polygamy is one of the great curses of the East, and it is certain that the East can never rise to true greatness while it lasts. But how can it be ever done away with, unless the Christian Church in the East sets her face determinately against it? The fact, that no one is allowed to take a second wife after entering the Church tends to brand the practice as unchristian. On this point we are all agreed. But I feel that this is not enough. I think it is a matter of vital impor- tance that the Christian Church should be known in China, Korea, and in every part of the East as a Church which does not and cannot tolerate concubinage.
In order to do this, polygamists must be strictly excluded.
(10 be continued.)
BARRIERS TO PROGRESS IN OHINA
BARRIERS TO PROGRESS IN CHINA.
BY REV. A. H. SMITH, TIENTSIN, CHINA.
There is an important sense in which the problems connected with the planting of the Ohristian Ohurch are the same in all times and in all lands, yet there are special features everywhere to be discerned. It is the object of the present paper to point out some of these features as exhibited in missionary work in China.
When once Christianity has got any foothold, it is,not difficult to organize a "church," but to introduce the practice of self-government or even the idea of it, is quite a different matter. Self-government implies a certain amount of democracy, and Asiatics are seldom very democratic, tho there is a strange and an abundant admixture of the popular element in the government even of China. The initial difficulty is generally to make an effective bridge from control by the missionary and his society to some form of local autonomy. The Chinese readily fall into the way of expecting the missionary to take the lead in all cases, and will seldom assume independence until it is thrust upon them, in which respect they differ greatly from their neighbors, the Japanese.
Theoretically there is no caste in China, but in practice there are certain religious Brahmans that make havoc of self-government in churches during the initial stages. There is the man who has been a church-member from the very first-a" charter member"-who must be considered and consulted. There is the aged member, and China is a country in which there is an ideal respect for mere weight of years. There is, as in other lands, the rich church-member, who must be conciliated. There is the influential member, strong in his family connections, who must always be reckoned with. There is the literary graduate, who often carries the infant church in his closed hand. A word from him is the end of all independence on the part of the uneducated. There is also the irrepressible talker, who as a rule is capable of becoming so obstreperous that, as the sayings go, "People do not know east from west," and" Men are worn out and horses exhausted.» No one wishes to arouse, much less to offend him, for there is no adequate social machinery which can cope with him. When he has inserted himself into a church, as not infrequently happens (for is not the Gospel meant for publicans and sinners?) there are dramatic times in prospect. There is in every Oriential country-or, indeed in any country-an instinctive dread of giving offense. There is, also a marvelous instinct of secrecy. There is, for example, a. matter which ought to be taken cognizance of, but no one will take the initiative, nor even impart any information. No one wishes to be implicated in any possible trouble, for all remembre the Oonfucian maxim, that when a word has once gone forth, four horses cannot overtake it. In any country where the differences of intellectual ability are emphasized in the church, those below will follow those above. "When the wind blows the grass bends," and nowhere is this more true than in Ohina. Moreover, the custom of adjusting troubles by giving" face" to one party, requiring the other party to do something by way of penalty, is very likely to hinder real disciplin. "The guilty person is sentenced to do something which he reluctantly agrees to, but which he has no intention of really carrying out, and unless adequate and continued pressure is brought to bear, that will be the end of the matter. In general it may be said that the difficulties in the way of self-government in Ohristian churches are everywhere the same. They can be overcome by the use of the teachings of the Scriptures, as opened to the spiritual understanding by the Spirit of God, but the process will demand that infinite patience without which no spiritual development is anywhere possible.
If New Testament ideals of purity in the Ohurch are foreign to Ohinese instincts, New Testament ideals of the duty of the Ohurch to diffuse itself are no less so. Ohina is filled with societies which have for their ostensible object the" practice of virtue;" but propagandism is not a principal feature, if it is a feature at all. Those join who wish to join, and those who do not join are severely let alone. It is not "good form" to inquire of a member as to the practices or the ritual of his" sect," and thus it comes about that thousands who live in the midst of many "virtue societies" have as little acquaintance with their tenets as with the different theories of Egyptian chronology; and even if they happen to learn something on the subject, they will seldom allow that circumstance to be publicly known. It is the same with the multitude of Mohammedans in China. Beyond the fact that they worship a being known as "Lord,", and that their notions are strange and divisive, the Ohinese know nothing about their beliefs, and care as little as they know.
When Christianity comes as one more "sect .. or "instruction," it is at once placed in the same category as the rest. The outsider cannot comprehend why the insiders should insist upon teaching it, unless there is somewhere a cash asset in the business, and the Ohinese Christian cannot see why he should be at the trouble to diffuse a teaching which he got himself with much trouble, and perhaps at no little cost. We have heard of an infant Ohinese church where the word was past that no more members should be received, lest there should not be enough of some of the incidental benefits to go around! But this is more than matched by the case mentioned by Dr. Josiah Strong, where a clergyman told some working girls, who applied for membership in a stylish church, that he believed there were at present no "vacancies." Oriental inertia is a great barrier to /lelf-propagation of Christianity – Oriental suspicion is an even greater one. "Who knows what drug this fellow has in his gourd?" is a natural and indeed an inevitable question on the part of a Chinese, when a stranger appears recommending some new "instruction." It is not at all uncommon for Chinese evangelists in the quest of some possible "inquirer" to be thrown completely and permanently off the track by the suspicion on the part of those of whom questions are askt, that there lurks some sinister design in this strange thirst to find a wholly unknown person for an incomprehensible purpose.
It is a Chinese custom for the (( roving scholar" to use his Iiterary talents as a hook with which to secure a few morsels of food. Christian colporteurs are supposed to have a like interested motive. C( How much are you paid for believing this? " is the inevitable inquiry on the part of the interested and curious spectator. It is a proverb that the priest, Buddhist or Taoist, " eats the four directions"-that is, that he lives off the land. It is reasonable to suppose that the Christian propagandist means to do the same as soon as his arrangements are completed. The inate hostility of the human heart to the Christain teaching of sin and the atonement is everywhere the same. Intelligent Confucianists, who have gained an outline idea of Christianity, will often say to the missionary, " As compared with our sects, your doctrine is more truej but if you wish to get a hearing from intelligent people, you woulU do better to drop all your talk about the cross and about what you style sin. If you leave this out, we shall be glad to listen to your comprehensive instruction." What Paul called" the offense of the cross" is a permanent factor in the spiritual history of mankind. We have known an expert and skillful story-teller who had a large circle of auditors in the district where he was a peripatetic dispenser of entertainment, to be turned from the doors of his patrons when he began to substitute Christian stories for those which were distinctively Chinese. It is a characteristically Oriental trait that those who have received Christianity stand in a special relation to those from whom they receive the truth. The contention that" I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," is a very real barrier to intercommunication of Divine truth. Christianity, like other forces, is propagated along the lines of least resistance, and no one can foresee whither bread cast upon the waters may drift. It constantly happens that a wise economy of mission forces is prevented by the clannishness of the convert, who refuses to be transferred to the care of another shepherd or to connect himself with another church. Precisely the same trouble is met with in missions to the Chinese in this country, where it is often impossible to change teachers in a Sunday-school class without precipitating a. "strike" on the part of the scholars; but when we consider well the phenomena of denominationalism in the United States and elsewhere, we feel that we can cast no stones at the Chinese. Great as are the initial obstacles to inoculatiug Chinese Christians with the conception of the duty of evangelizing the regions about and beyond, the measure of success which has often been attained is simply marvelous, and is itself the best authentication to the Chinese outsiders of the Divine origin of Christianity.
There are many Chinese churches which are doing more in the way of working outward among their neighbors than nine-tenths of the churches of America. One of the most interesting instances with which we are acquainted of the development of the idea of self-propa~ gation of Christianity in China is to be found in the formation and operation of the Canton" Book-lending Society," composed exclusively of natives of different churches in that city, and wholly under native management. It is colporteur work mingled with a free circulating library of Christian books for the benefit of all who will agree to read and return them. There is no reason why this plan should not be adopterl all over China, as it is peculiarly adapted to the genius of Chinese society.
There are many traits of Chinese life which render the oral proclamation of the Gospel, accompanied with the circulation of printed matter of a suitable description, easy. The Chinese live simply, and can put up with anything. They are in the habit of taking long journeys on foot, and often with loads. The respect for literature is a national and an ineradicable instinct. They have, as already remarked, a great theoretical respect for "virtue," and extensive societies for the diffusion of books for the inculcation of good practices. The minute subdivision of the currency and the cheapness of material and of labor render it easy to get all sorts of books into general circulation when once an impression favorable to their reception has been made. What is most needed for the universal diffusion of Christianity in China is the indefinite m~ltiplication of Christian centers, and the possession of the native church by the missionary idea, "Freely ye have received, freely give." We cannot expect the Chinese Christians to rise higher in the tone of their piety than the average of those from whom they have received their teachings. That our Chinese converts may be filled with the Spirit of Christ, we must be filled with it ourselves.
At first sight it would appear that the self-support of Chinese churches would be a much easier matter to compass than their selfgovernment or their self-expansion. Experience teaches otherwise. It is always difficult for Occidentals to comprehend the poverty of Orientals, however much we may think we know about deprivation in a year of "hard times" and scarcity of money. Poverty in China is the universal rule, with only exiguous exceptions. It is partly a matter of latitude, for the poverty whioh both freezes and starves is more desperate than that which is merely out of food. Until onr present methods of missionary activity are radically amended we can- not get on without the expenditure of money in the introduction of Christianity, and this use is itself a poteut factor in hindering self- support. Many a missionary society might have been saved much'trial had it duly considered the Russian proverb which advises one to ~'measure your cloth ten times, for you can cut it but once." Mauy a missiouary has had to "eat bitterness" during the period in which he endeavors to correct early mistakes by taking in sail which might much better never have been spread. It is a venerable proverb that when it rains puddings one should hold up his dish. In this the Chinese are expert. 'rhe writer once taught a station class imported many scores of leagues from a distant field for the purpose. The pupils were on au allowance, which, like most Ohinese allowances, was perennially "not enough." One scholar only of the whole number was a permanent and valuable addition to the preaching force. Years afterward he remarked casually that the motto of his class whenever a payment was to be made was exprest in the significant words, " Don't spend too little!" In one of the mission conferences in India an experienced missionary mentioned the remark of an old woman who was one of his converts, on the occasion of his revisiting his former tield, and preaching from the words, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." "That was a blessed text," she observed," and yet, tho you have been here two days, you have not given me a single rupee."
Self-support of Ohinese churches can only be obtained by adherence to Ohinese simplicity in the externals and in the inner working of the eystem, and even when attained it may be lost. It is the custom for the temples to have a piece of land which supports the priests. There is considerable danger in the "endowment plan" as applied to lChurclles, lest misappropriation of funds, so common in the case of temples, should work more injury in a year than the Church can remedy in a lifetime.
The way to attain self-support in native churches is for the misilionary leaders to have from the start a clear and comprehensive con- ception of the end at which they aim, and to make every part of their teaching cooperate to the end in view. Unyielding firmness combined with a loving regard for the hardships to which the convert is subjected must be judiciously blended. This is an ideal to which few of us ever attain, but whenever it is attained the result is no more in doubt than is the adaptation of Ohristianity to the wants of every class of men in the world. The essential difficulties are precisely the same as those which are to be met in this or any Christian land, and are due to the intrinsic selfishness of human nature, for which the Gospel is the only cure.
The fact that from communities radically hostile in spirit to the Christian religion there have in such iunumerable places been developt churches which govern, propagate, and support themselves, and that this evolution is at present going on upon an unprecedented scale, is a phenomenon to which the attention of the critiCS of missions may be respectfully invited. Of the facts there ought not to be a rational doubt. Taken in connection with the obstacles everywhere to be overcome, they either constitute a series of effects without any cause, or they show that Christianity is a Divine system which will win its way ~espite the resistance of forces which ought logically to destroy it.
EUROPEAN EXTEl'ISIOl'l OF 'l'HE VOLUl'ITEEB HOVEMEl'IT
EUROPEAN EXTENSION OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
BY REV. DONALD FRASER, LIVINGSTONIA, AFRICA.
One of the chief purposes of the Liverpool Conference was to bring the Continental students into line with the missionary movement, which is spreading through the colleges of Great Britain and America. For some time past signs of a slight spiritual awakening in some of the universities of Europe were evident, and thus a basis for a missionary movement was being formed. For nine months before the Conterence, daily prayer was made to God that He would choose the delegates who should come, and would pour down upon them His fire, that they might, on their return home, set their fellow students ablaze with a new enthusiasm'for the world's evangelization.
The Conference was international beyond our faith. Students were present from no less than twenty-four nations-the most international gathering of students that the world has ever seen. These were days of wonderful power, when the presence of God grew daily more and more conscious.
On the Saturday morning of the Conference, in welcoming the forei~n students, we askt whether they would not join hands with us in formmg a great student brotherhood for the coronation of Jesus in all lands. In the afternoon they met, each nation apart, to pray and discuss how they might best further the missionary spirit among their fellow students. In the evening we had our financial session. Just before it began a note was handed to the chairman from the Scandinavian I delegates, saying they would promote the Volunteer Movement in Scandinavia, and had appointed a committee for this purpose. A minute afterward the German delegates sent an intimation that eleven of their men had signed a declaration and were forming a Volunteer Union for Germany. Then there came another from the Frenchspeaking delegates, saying that they had nineteen Volunteers, and were banding themselves into a missionary union for France and Switzerland. Besides this, there was a note from five students in Madrid University, Spain, asking whether they might be allowed to join the missionary movement. Also a letter from Australia, telling how in March, 1895, at the very time when some Edinburgh men were in daily prayer for Australian colleges, a spiritual revival had begun in the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide, and it was now turning into missionary lines. As these notes were read out, one after the other, what a thrill ran through the hearts of men and women who for years had been praying for this consummation I We had adopted that day as our motto, "The Evangelization of the World in this Generation," and we now felt that God was approving our faith and quickening our hopes in the possibility of its realization.
On Monday, when the delegates were dispersing, a very significant incident happened. About eighty Belfast students sailed from the Mersey in the steamship Magic. Some other men went down to see them off. When the Magic was in the middle of the river the students on board were seen to be lining the bulwark. Then there came a great shout from them as from one voice, "The Evangelization of the World in thiE Generation." And the cry rang across the river and through the ships and along the wharf, making sailors and passengers start and wonder what it meant. Then the men on the quay shouted back, "He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Then in the silence the cry from the Magic came back, " Amen," and the steamer sailed away out into the evening. During the last few months that cry has been ringing up and down the col- leges, through the churches, and across the Continent, quickening men's expectations, and rousing a new endeavor to take possession of the world speedily for Christ. .
Immediately after the Conference I made a rapid tour of some of the colleges of Europe, and I can testify that that movement, which began at Livcrpool, was no temporary affair, born of sudden excite- ment, but an awakening come from the breath of God. In Paris and Montauban the work which had begun at Liverpool was being carried on with great spirituality and energy. In some of the other universi- ties the news of blessing which delegates had received was rousing a spirit of inquiry. At a conference at Geneva, we organized the Franco-Swiss Volunteer Movement, with morc than forty Volunteers, and appointed a French student as traveling secretary.
My next point was Holland. There quite a spiritual revival was spreading in some of the universities. The" Dutch Eleven," who were at Liverpool, had met together at Velp, spent two days in prayer, and prayed one student who was present into the Kingdom of God.
Since then they have started a Dutch College Christian Union, and daily prayer-meetings are being carried on in most of the universities.
Now, many of the leading men are earnestly facing their personal responsibility to the foreign field.
I arrived in Germany too late to do much work in the colleges, as the long Easter vacation W:J.S on. Nevertheless, we held at Halle a little conference of students from some six universities. We formed a German Students' Missionary Union, which seeks to spread living religion among German students, and to call forth men to foreign service. The first step that has been taken is to issue a call to daily prayer for the German universities.
In Scandinavia one found the situation there much more ripe for a missionary work. At all the universities we had large and solemn meetings with the students, which were frequently followed by after- meetings, lasting till past midnight. Hours were set apart for inter- views with men who wanted to know about Christ or about the claims of the foreign field, and they were fully occupied with those who came. A work was also begun among young men and ladies of the better class, and others. Now I hear of no less than nineteen Volun- teers in Stockholm alone. Very few of these, however, are students.
At Copenhagen we organized a Scandinavian Volunteer move- ment and a system of intervisitation was planned, by which the movement may be strengthened and extended.
On our return home, what a day of praise we had for the way that God had answered prayer all along the line! But we were still in the midst of our praise when we heard the news of what had been done among the Indian students through Mott and Wilder's conferences- how eighty-seven Indian students had profest conversion, one hundred and thirty-seven had consecrated their lives entirely for the evangel- ization of India, and more than seven hundred had joined the" Morn- ing Watch! "
Thus God is girding the whole world with a great student-brother-
SINCE THE MASSACRE IN FUIIKIEN, CHINA
hood who have consecrated themselves to go forth into all the earth and claim His inheritance for Him. The marvelous progress of thepast five months, which has b~en swifter than the previous fifty years~ has made our hearts beat sWIfter for the near approach of Ohrist's coronation day. All this, however, is but the begmning.
SINOE THE MASSAORE IN FUHKIEN, OHINA.
BY REV. P. W. PITCHER, FOOCHOW, CHINA.
Eighteen months ago, August 1, 1895, the horrible massacre, which shockt the whole world, occurred at Hwa Sang. As we recall those- solemn scenes may we not, with profit, look back over the past year and ask if indeed the blood of the martyrs has, in this case, proved to be the seed of the church? Or was it true, as some said, that" the time had come to get out of Ohina," that our task was hopeless and should be abandoned?
No, that could not be true even at a greater cost than that which was paid at Hwa Sang. In the face of even more bitter opposition, it would be difficult to find a single missionary ready, willingly to abandon his post. Abandon the work of over fifty years? Preposterous! It has been estimated that 20,000 inquirers have presented themselves at the doors of the churches of the three missions located in the Foochow district. "Hundreds of families have renounced their idols,'~ _ while hundreds of others have been asking for leaders and teachers to guide and instruct them. Manyof these may be moved with little or no conseiousness of sin, but they are nevertheless coming, and may we not be too ready to question motives, but ask for wisdom in dealing with these inquirers, so that they may be led to that true consciousness of sin which bringeth sorrow and repentance. Driven by the storms of oppression and persecution, driven by the thraldom of superstition~ with its heavy burdens, it may be that some of them are coming~ blindly, yet honestly coming to seek shelter in the fold of Ohrist. May we be taught how to lead them to the true refuge where they shall find safety. Of the 20,000 inquirers already mentioned, it has been stated that probably 5,000 have been accepted and have united with these three missions since August 1, 1895. This is an unprecedented record for any twelve months since the establishment of missions in this district, or, in fact, in the whole province.
While the great awakening centers about Foochow, still there are encouraging signs in the Amoy, the southern district, especially along the line of church development. The southern portion of the work is admittedly remarkable for the progress made in the matter of the development of a native ministry, church organization and self-support. In the synod of Amoy (Eng. Pres. and Am. Refd. Oh. Missions) thera are twenty church organizations, which support their own pastors and maintain a home mission work~ while some carryon other independent work besides. The London Mission Society also has seven church organizations working along similar lines, many of them supporting evangelists. Throughout the length and breadth of this whole province the present status of mission work is encouraging, and the prospects bright with hope.
INTERNATIONAL DEPABTlIENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
II A Oyola of Oathay." * he says: "The drug was already con- traband by imperial decree, England BY REV. S. L. GRACEY, D.D., EX-U. S. has made no protest, nor would she have lifted a finger to protect her people CONSUL, FOOCHOW, CHINA. in the smuggling trade, if Ohinese cruisers had driven them from the A few years since, one distinguisht coast. But when commissioners of the literateur askt another, what book writ- Ohinese issued commands to the Queen ten within the last forty years would as a vassal of Ohina, and treated her last forty years; but Dr. Martin's subjects with unjustifiable violence, the "Oycle of Oathay" was not yet pub- question entered upon another phase. lisht. Dr. Martin being askt how long The opium was stored on ships that lay it took him to write this work, answered, outside among the islands, but its own- "forty-five years." If Dr. S. Wells ers were at Canton. Without taking Williams, after twelve years residence the trouble to identify them, the comin Oanton and Macao could write the missioners surrounded the factories •• Middle Kingdo~," which has already with a cordon of soldiers, and threatened survived through forty-five years, why the whole foreign colony with death if shall not Dr. Martin's masterly com- the opium was not surrendered by a. pendium of the political, social and fixed date. To give them an idea of religious movements of that vast empire, what they had to expect, a native as observed, participated in, and patron- opium smuggler was put to death in an ized by himself this forty-five years, open space in front of the factories. together with criticisms which exhibit Oapt. Elliot, the superintendent of his independent judgment and remark- trade, who was at Macao, hearing of able prescience, warrant the expectation these high-handed proceedings, hasthat this volume will remain one of the tened to Oanton to share the perils of chief literary authorities on Ohinese af- his countrymen. He obtained the opium fairs for the next forty-five years. for the service of the Queen, and then handed it over as a ransom for British It is conceded that there has been lives. Over twenty thousand chests, nothing equal to Dr. Wells Williams' valued at nine million dollars, were de- .. Middle Kingdom" in comprehensive- stroyed by mixing the drug with quickness, clearness, and accuracy, down to lime, and pouring it into the river. the date at which it was first publisht. The property having been demanded Dr. Martin's book takes up many of by Her Majesty's representatives for these great topics where Williams' vol- her service, the Queen was pledged to umes closed. Lapping backward on see that the owners were indemnified. Williams' topics, Dr. Martin treats An order in council authorized reprisals, fairly and thoroughly what is called to compel the Ohinese to make amends the " Opium War" with England, and for their acts of spoliation. Thus betho condemning the English for intro- gan a war which was more fortunate ducing opium, the great curse of Ohina, for England than that which followed the destruction of her tea in Boston • A Cycle of Cathay; ~r, China, South harbor, and which' eventually ended in the opening of the five ports of Oanton, and North, with personal remlniscences by Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shangthe Rev. W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., President Emeritus Imperial Tungwen College, Peking,with 7OillustratioDS from photographs and native drawings; a map and inde:x:. Svo, cloth, decorated, $2.00. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, Chicago, Toronto. hai to British trade, and tho not a word the Ten Commandments, and imposed was inserted in the final treaty in favor on all his subjects observance of the of the trade in opium, the result was Sabbath day, on which day their highforeseen, a complete immunity from est officers ascended the pUlpit and interference with the traffic, and the thundered against idolatry and the Tartraffic flourishes beyond measure. Had tars. The washing of the bosom with England, after exacting due reparation, a towel dipt in water in token of the introduced a prohibition clause, there cleansing of the heart, was the form can be no doubt that China might have of ceremony observed for baptism. been free from a terrible scourge. These fierce and fanatical forces were What a contrast between her opium unsubdued for fifteen years, and caused policy and her anti-slavery legislation." the loss of fifty millions of human lives.
The Taiping Rebellion lies on the It is not a new question now, nor can hither side of the date of publication of it at best be little more than a specula- Dr. Williams' great work, so that, his- tive one, what might have been the reo torically, Dr. Martin takes up this sult had the western powers not come thread. where Williams laid it down. to the aid of the Imperial government Later editions of .. Middle Kingdom" at Peking. But Dr. Martin, tho he have mentioned this movement among were first to name it, is not alone in the the Chinese in a few brief lines in the suggestion, that every interest of civilipreface; but Dr. Martin gives the clear- zation and of Christianity would prob· est, most succinct statement of facts con- ably have been greatly advanced, had nected with it, and makes the most the western Christian powers supported satisfactory analysis of any author who and directed this Christian rebellion, has written upon the subject. rather than to have supprest it, to gain the prestige of saving the throne to the Dr. Martin "watcht its waxing and Tartar. Whatever weight of opinion waning with the deepest interest; came may be brought in support of the one in contact with active agents on both view or the other, one thing is certain, sides; and at least endeavored to exert that an opportunity to decide a question some influence on the course of events." so vast an,d overwhelming in its out- It must be borne in mind that, whatever come, is one that "does not occur once its imperfections, this rebellion was led in a thousand years." by a body of native Christians, and that it not only threatened to destroy the His account of what is known as the dynasty at Peking, but to overthrow co Arrow War" follows. A Chinese the gigantic paganism of the ,Empire. vessel known as the" Arrow," and fly- It was a tidal wave of blood. At Nan- ing the British flag, had been seized by king the" Manchu garrison of twenty- the authorities, and its crew thrown five thousand were butchered to a into prison on a charge of piracy. The man." Dr. Martin declares "history British authorities at Hongkong at once presents few pages more brilliant than began negotiations which were blunderthis part of his (Hung's) career. Sher- ingly conducted, and a war resulted, man's march to the sea must be com- which is described most interestingly bined with Garibaldi's successful assault by the author, and all going to show on the Kingdom of Naples, backt by how great a matter a little spark will only a thousand men, to furnish an kindle. One of the good results of the adequate parallel." • . "These in- war was to take Dr. Martin to Peking surgents were known to be Christians as interpretor at the court, to Mr. Reed, not simply fighting for empire, but United States Minister to China. The carrying on a crusade against the pagan- record of his services, the incidents of ism of their country." The chief styled the war, the diplomatic struggles, the himself, "Younger brother to Jesus Chinese peculiarities of statecraft, Christ," called God his father, publisht supply most interesting reading, and· give the outside barbarian a glimpse of curriculum are described, and the final the inner workings of the highest circles triumph of the institution as a recog- {)f Chinese official and diplomatic life, nized imperial college, in which all the not found in any other publisht work modern sciences are now taught, is that has come to our notice. graphically related. It now has nine :Many persons will recall the thrilling foreign professors, with classes studying interest with which the news was re- international law, physics, physiology, -ceived, that the United States Plenopo- astronomy, chemistry, and mineralogy, tentiary, the Hon. William B. Reed, with the French, German, and Russian had secured the insertion in the treaty languages. There are also four native between this country and China, of a professors who teach Chinese and "religious toleration" clause. Accept- mathematics. The number of students ing Dr. Martin's analysis of Mr. Reed's is limited to one hundred and twenty.
interest in that affair, the American This institution, tho under the hearty people will find reason to reconsider the sanction and support of the govern- measure of commendation which should ment, has been constantly opposed by be accorded to him. Evidently Dr. many of the literati, who are every- Williams and Dr. Martin were, far and where the foes of modern methods of ;away, the chief actors in securing the instruction, as well as :of the study of insertion of that clause; and tho it may modern sciences, and cling to their old seem a little ungraceful in Dr. Martin conservative theories of education em- to disclose the vanity of Mr. Reed, yet bracing only the Chinese classics. Two it looks as if regard for exact history of the graduates of the Tungwen Col- demanded it. Mr. Reed told them that lege are now tutors to the Emperor.
he expected they would not only make The author gives us an excellent chap- this unexpected triumph in the issue, ter on "Mandarins and Government,"
widely known in America, but also in which he tells of the higher classes, that they would attribute to him the their training, virtues, defects, powers, honor of its accomplishment, tho he and limitations. He also devotes a ;announced himself as impatiently ready chapter to the influences of some of to sign the treaty without the insertion the most noted mandarins; his charac- of this privilege, and declined all fur- ter sketching is excellent. " China and ther delay to secure it, saying, "Now, her Neighbors;" "The Customs Ser- gentlemen, if you can get your article vice;" "The Audience Question,"
in, all right! But, with or without it, I and "The Mission Question," are sub- intend to sign on the 18th of June." jects with which every student of China It is a little humiliating, however, to should be familiar. The book is beau- find that the United States must be tifully illustrated, and mainly from largely shorn of its honors, since the drawings by native artists, which show other nations inserted a similar clause, considerable merit and the usual de- and were determined to insist on it fects of Chinese art.
without any regard to the contents of It is doubtful if there is any other our treaty, or the prestige of the con- foreigner in China who has the confi- cession to us. dence and appreciation of the official The opening of the "Tungwen Col- class to the degree that Dr. Martin has; lege," at Peking, is described. This Sir Robert Hart excepted was originally designed to train Chinese Dr. Martin arrived in Canton in scholars as interpreters for the diplo- April, 1856, being accompanied by Rev.
matic and commercial service. Dr. Justus Doolittle, (whose name should Martin was called to the charge of the have been, •• Did-great-things ") and institution, by the "Tsungli Yamen," Rev. S. N. Martin, the author's brother.
or Foreign Board. The difficulties ex- The personal narrative, which is exceed- perienced in efforts to introduce a wider ingly interesting, serves only as a thread on which to string pearls of truth con- The Missionary Question in China. cerning native customs, diplomatic struggles, native craft and history for Dr. Martin, in "A Cyele of Cathay,"
nearly sixty years, a Chinese cyele. has a vigorous chapter on the "Mis- It is to the equal credit of Dr. Martin sionary Question," of which he remarks: and the Chinese government that he "For the Chinese government this has been invited to resume the Presi- means, how may we minimize the in- dency of Tungwen College; especially conveniences arising from the opera- in view of the fact that, for one who tions of missionaries? For a party was a guest of the government, he among officials and people it means, treats of national affairs with great free- How may we get rid of them aIto~ dom. It will be remembered that an gether? For the representatives of eminent statesman of our own country, Christian powers it means, How far are designated by our government as Minis- we bound by policy or autllOrity to in- ter to China, was rejected by them as terfere for the protection'of missionaries persona non gratia, because he had and their converts? With missionaries written, or was supposed to have writ- and their supporters it takes the form, ten, unfavorably of their country. How can we accomplish the greatest This will suggest how difficult it always results with the means at our disposal?"
is for one who is in the employ of the To France belongs the honor of in- government, or even one who hopes to augurating the new era of religious labor with success in the uplifting of freedom in China, which dates from its people, to write freely and truth- 'the signing of the French treaty in fully of conditions and actions which 1844, which removed the ban of pro- would expose rulers or customs to ridi- hibition against promulgating the cule. Christian religion. "This was the Dr. Martin criticises faithfully, and first stage in the way of enfranchise- exposes trickery of officials in diplo- ment. Under its provisions mission- matic affairs which came under his aries enjoyed no small privilege, tho observation. He is cautious, but bold, they were still of a nature of 'un- and spares neither Europeans nor covenanted mercies.' Protestants set- Chinese from the scalpel of his analy- tled at the five ports, from which they sis. His association with the leading were able to make long jOUl;neys in- men of the "Celestial Empire," and land, tho nominally restricted to a with the plenipotentiaries and other radius of fifty miles, while Catholics diplomats of all the European nations, journied in all the provinces without under conditions of practical equality, molestation. It was reserved for the 'Ar- furnisht the opportunity for this rich- row War' to complete immunity from est and most piquant of narratives of all obstruction under guarantee of treaty reminiscences of these notable person- stipulations, and Dr. Martin says: 'It ages. There is a remarkable combina- was a sublime spectacle, the great pow- tion of the most ancient history of China, ers of the earth sinking their differ- with the most recent, in which China, ences of creed and joining their shields Russia, and Japan have been concerned, to protect the Church of Christ China and accurate and trustworthy accounts found it to her interest not to reject of the present status of questions still their demands.'" This was in 1858.
pending, which involve the mutual re- " The discrepancy which exists between lationship of Korea, China, and Japan the French text and the Chinese text is with the individual and combined inter- one of the anomalies of diplomatic his- ests of Russia, Germany, France, Great tory. The Chinese text contains the Britain, and the United States. The clause securing to Roman Catholic mis- Greater "Eastern question" lies in the sionarics the right of buying land and Far East. building houses in the interior, tho the French text has nothing of the kind." have conformed to the original type in By whom the attention of the Chinese every particular-beginning with tracts was first turned to the disagreement is and placards as their exciting cause, not known, but twenty-five or twenty- followed by studied negligence on the six years ago, when Dr. Martin was part of mandarins (who always conaskt to translate the article for com- trived to come too late when their aid parison, he supposed the Chinese author- was invoked), and finishing with an ities intended declaring the French text inquiry how many heads and how much the authority on all points of differ- money would satisfy the resulting ence. To this day, however, they have claims. never taken a step in that direction, Dr. Martin says, for the obvious reason "If, in 1870, the French Charge, dethat the interpolation being in Chinese, clining the offer of money and heads, there was no ground for complaint that had waited until he could have had a they had been hoodwinked. But we fleet of gunboats in the Peiho, if then must bear in mind that a Chinese Em- the whole suburb where the riot had peror, or any other chief Chinese au- occurred had been laid in ashes, and thority, could never admit that he had, the ground confiscated for a French even by accident, made a political mis- concession, the government would have take. Witness the instance of our taken care that there should not be a government tendering the Chinese gov- second riot. Being let off cheap, the antiernment the return of a large indemnity foreign mandarins felt that they could fund wrongfully paid by the Chinese to continue the process of fanning the us. On the theory of infallibility they flame of patriotism. These occurcould not and did not accept this, the rences have created an impression on funds remaining in the Treasury at the mind of a public not very well in- Washington for many years, until a formed on the subject of missions, that 'Via media was discovered. for our government to back up the missionaries by affording protection or Dr. Martin says: "If the first stage exacting redress, is equivalent to forc· in the recent history of missions was ing our religion on an unwilling people. then toleration by edict, and the second But is it forcing our religion on the the recognition of their legal status by Chinese to protect our missionaries any treaty compact, the systematic attempt more than it is forcing our commerce to crush them out by mob violence may on them to protect our merchants? No be regarded as a third stage. On this duty is plainer than that of requiring phase they entered in June, 1870, when the government of China to provide for a Catholic mission in Tientsin was de- the secUlity of our mercantile estabstroyed, and sisters, priests and a French lishments, and to leave the people free consul were murdered by the populace, to buy or sell as they may choose. led on by an ex-general of the Chinese The missionary asks the same, and no army. The minds of the people had been more. prepared by the dissemination of false rumors, and when they were wrought H But are the people unwilling to up to the required point, the mandarins have missionaries live among them? stood aloof and allowed the storm to If they were we should have had to take its course. Since that date there count many more than twenty riots have been twenty or more anti-foreign during this quarter of a century. Their -not altogether anti-mission-riots of increase has not kept pace with the sufticient magnitude to be visible across growth of the missionary work. One the seas, culminating this year in the a year in a country of such vast extent, expUlsion of missionaries from the cap- and with a missionary force of over two ital of Szechuen, and the massacre at thousand, is no proof of popular ill- K;ucheng, near Fuchow. Most of these will, but rather the reverse."
From the secular or semi·secular standpoint which Dr. Martin has occu· which there is more to hope thal!l from pied for a quarter of a century, his tes· an excessive multiplication of the fortimony concerning the prosperity of eign element. Foreign missionaries illl mission. work will be read with special large numbers will, it is true, be needed interest. We quote from it as fol· for a long time, and they will find amlows:- ple scope for their energies in the work of education and superintendence. " I can testify that they have made progress. There is, indeed, no better "If it be true, and it certainly is. testimony to that fact than the increast that the grandest enterprise that apactivity of the opposition. I hold that peals to the heart of man is the converthe results achieved afford good ground sion of the world to Christ, it is unfor expecting more brilliant results in questionable that the grandest of misthe near future. Much of the work sion fields is the empire of China. done has been of such a nature that its effect is not visible on the surface. "There is no danger of too many When works were going on which reo entering the field if our missionary suIted in the removal of those dangerous societies encourage none to offer whOo rocks called Hell Gate from one of the are not fitted by superior training. entrances to New York harbor, a care· Weak and ignorant men and women less observer might have reported that are out of place in China. In addition there was nothing to show in proportion to other qualifications, they require toto the expenditure of public funds. Yet, be strong in faith and full of the Holy deep down in the water, the roots of the Ghost:' rocks were being honeycombed with drill-holes, and when the hour came, Ohina Missionaries to Home Ohurches:, after long years of preparation, a spark from a battery sent the whole mass high and to Native Ohristians in Ohina. in the air. Over eighty missionaries, members "There are, however, visible results ofthe different missionary organizations. in full proportion to the means em· conducting missionary work in the Proployed. The one or two hundreds of vince of Foochow (Fuhkien), China, converts whom I found in connection assembled in August, 1896, at Ku-liang. with Protestant churches at my arrival near Foochow, to consider missionary in 1850, have expanded to fifty· five or affairs in their fields. sixty thousand in 1895. This, the low· est estimate, compared with the thirty- They prepared two addresses, one to' five thousand in 1890 (obtained by a the Committees and Boards of the Sosort of census), will give the rate of in· cieties in England and America, with crease. The churches, or organized whom they are connected; the other a. companies of believers, are not far from pastoral letter to Native Christians. a thousand. Some hundreds of these are supplied with native pastors, while The address to the home patrons COil>- the number of evangelists, who have a tains some statements of general intei~ roving commission to plant the Gospel est. They say:- in new fields, is greatly on the increase. Mission schools, some of which take "1. The atrocious crime of Angust. rank as colleges, are raising up large 1st, 1895, which turned the eyes of tha. numbers of yonng men well equipt world upon this part of China, has beem for this work. Numbers of students followed by the undermentioned re-· from mission schools have been drafted sults:- into the new university at Tientsin, and the demand for such is certain to ex· (a.) The fact that neither the Mistend. Here, then, is an agency from sionary Societies of England and Amer"", ica, whose interests were involved, nor the relatives of those who lost their lives at Hwa-Sang have askt for thlt slightest compensation, has afforded to the world a conspicuous example of the. disinterested motives of the missionary the Redeemer from sin under these cir- societies and their agents. cumstances. "
(b.) The abundant wealth of prayer The Pastoral Address to Native Chris- which has ascended from all churches tians, exhorts loyalty to government, in all parts of the world since the mas- and love of neighbors, warns all Chinese sacre of August 1st has been manifestly guilty of crime against seeking refuge followed by a wide·spread and general from Jegal penalties by professing the movement towards Christianity among Christian religion; declares that none .all classes of the population, and in all should expect foreign governments to parts of the province, but especially in compel the Chinese government to alter the neighborhood of Foochow and the its ordinary laws, or modes of execu- northern part of the province. tion of the same. In cases involv- ing religious liberty guarenteed under (c.) The knowledge of this move- treaties with foreign governments, no ment. and the fact that in many places discriminating legislation should be hundreds have joined the local sought; if the case cannot be settled churches, has caused a feeling of un- amicably, and it be found necessary to easi.ness in the minds of the Chinese appeal to the courts, this should be authorities. And parallel with the done in the usual way, no missionary above movement there is noticeable being askt to adopt the case. "Chinese on the part of the local authorities an Christians should remember that in the organized effort to repress and to providence of God, they are Chinese; intimidate the people from joining that the regular government taxes are the Christian churches by harrassing light comparatively, and that the the native Christians and discrimin- present untrustworthiness of the people, ating against them in every possible the system of yamen fees for service circumstance and on every possible oc- rendered is unavoidable." Even if for- casion. eign missionaries and counsels appeal to the officials in behalf of native (2.) "In a Ch,istian land, when a Christians who suffer wrong and loss, man turns to Christ it is because he is they have no official relations or rights ~onscious of sin, and longs for forgive- to interpose, and can only exert a moral ness and emancipation. In a heathen influence in the premises, and even this land the reason for turning to Christ may must be cautiously exerted,· or they will well be more imperfect and more mixt." induce hatred of Christianity and of Christians, among officials for their in- It may be that it is "not hunger for terference. Missionaries at most can spiritual things which gives this move- only appeal to their counsels, and this ment its growing impulse, but certainly should be restricted to cases of perse- .ood's Spirit is at work in those who are cution. invoking Christian help. The desire for freedom, for alleviation in the social Many Christians are persecuted be- scale, for many good things in the world cause of their refusal to contribute like these. may possibly form the main money for the support of idolatry and .spring of the movement." . • • " To for immoral purposes. The mission- .help on such a movement and to make aries remind the native Christians that it Bubserve the highest spiritual interests the treaties of the government with is indeed the grandest work in which it Christian nations pledge the Imperal is open for men and women to engage." government to protect any person, We therefore plead for the absolute official or citizen in the full exercise of legitimacy of this stage of the Chinese his religious liberty, and say that for . Dation's cry to God. Patience with the many years t,he officials at Foochow, crudeness of such a movement, gener- from District Magistrate to Viceroy and ous support, hopeful prayer and stead- Tartar General, have proclaimed the fast labor, will lift the hearts drawn to Christ up to a higher faith in Him as rights of Christians to be exempt from Poverty of Some Native Obristians in taxation for temple service or immoral Ohina. proceedings. BY MISS MARY ELIN CARLETON, M. D., In the case of property rights held in FOOCHOW, CHINA. common with heathen relatives, they say: " With respect to property shared I have wanted to write for a long year by year in rotation, we recommend time on a subject that greatly engrosses that the Christians in the several pre- my thought; that is, what are we to fectures, or in the entire province, unite do for our native Christians who are and present the case to their officials, living in such destitution as defies de- showing the injustice that must result scription. Some are in such poverty in case the Christians on account of because their former means of livelihood moral inability to perform ancestral was connected with idol worship-i. 6.
worship, should be deprived of their making idol-money, commonly called share in their patrimony. To aid in the "Joss-money," also making incense- mlttter, it could be suggested that the sticks. Of course, when they become money for the sacrifices and feasts Christians, they can not continue in should be divided among those entitled such employment. Then again, there to it, and the balance belong to the are many who had DO employment be- party who has the control of the prop- fore they became Christians. Let me erty for the year. Or the proposition tell of a few instances.
might be made that the expenses for I have living near me, so near ~hat I the repair of graves should be provided might practically say living with me, a annually and the rest go to the man- family consisting of twelve persons.
ger for the year, or, that the property Formerly they had been very wealthy, be equitably divided among the heirs. but the head man was an only child, The last course would naturally be the petted and indulged to a fatal degree.
rule if all the heirs became Christians. When he wisht to study, he did so, In such application to the officials, it whenhe wisht to play, he was allowed should of course be shown that Chris· free bent to his will-consequently he tians are not wanting in filial piety, tho grew up unrestrained, undisciplined, they refuse to sacrifice to their ancestors. knowing no will but his own. When " With respect to reforms in marriage he took up opium smoking, his father and social customs, such as the protec- willingly sold field after field, that tion of widows from the power of their he might have the wherewithal to late husbands' relatives; the daughter's gratify his poisoned appetite. A few right to share in her father's property; years ago Dr. Sites, having business the matter of infant betrothals; the relations with this house, got an influ- selling of daughters to be slave girls, ence over this man, then a middle-aged and other questions which may arise, man with a large family, and so poor, the same general method may be fol- that they could scarcely keep body and lowed." soul together. By sheer love and stick- The necessity for the proclamation of to-it-iveness, Sites led him to Christ these directions shows some of the dif- an~ stood by him till opium smoking ficulties in the way of progress of mis- and many kindred sins were conquered.
sions; but the fact that thousands of As his buried manhood was resurrected, Chinese converts, become such at the his conscience quickened, he wanted to risk of the loss of all things, and remain work and support his family, but what such in the teeth of persecution, to the could he do? Totally unfit for any- shedding of their blood in many in- thing, without strength or skill for stances, marks the integrity and stabil- manual labor, without knowledge suffi- ity of the Chinese Christian communi- cient to teach or preach-his children, cants. [J. T. G.] most of them born when his family were in deep degradation, are slender, greatly overcrowded, so most of the miserable, and sick a great deal of the time. It is understood that sixty gold work goes to younger and abler men. cents will provide food enough for one person a month, so that $7.20 would be The mother earned a pittance by taking required to support this family of twelve for one month. But what are their a baby to nurse. You will understand assets? By most careful computation I reckoned they are able to earn from to what extremities they were driven, $2.50 to $3.00 per month; then they have a little garden, about thirty feet when I tell you that when this little square. You may well ask the question I askt of my Bible woman-If $7.20 baby-boarder died, the womanborrowed is necessary for their food, and they have only $3.00, how can they live? a baby once a month and went to the "Well," said dear old lIrs. Huie Mu, "they cook what rice they have, and Roman Catholic Foundling Home, those who have any work in view, eat the kernels of rice, and those who have where the baby belonged, and got her no work, with the little children, have the rice water;" i. e., the water the rice wages. You may say that was inexis boiled in. One glance at this family would convince you of the truth of this. cusable conduct for a Christian woman, Again, I know a woman, who is one but remember, it was to keep her own of our Bible women, receiving $1.00 per month for her services. With that children from starving to death before she must support herself, her invalid husband and an idiotic son. Again, her own eyes-and again, she had only some epidemic or other carried off every member of a family, save a little boy of been out of heathendom a few months. twelve years and his betrothed little wife of nine years. This little girl Well, we heard the other day that the found her way to one of our pastors, saying, she had heard he was a good whole family were nearly starved, so man, but she said to me, "It is too bad for me to impose myself on this good much so, that their heads were fairly man as he has a big family of his own, but what can I do ? My brother," as dizzy for want of food. Now, we can't she calls her be trotht, "can only keep himself." turn these cases off. God has sent Now, one more case, and I will re- them to us. Every other missionary frain, tho every case could be mul- has her hands full-we cannot simply tiplied by a hundred. There is a family Jtive them money and call our duty in Foochow City, consisting of a man done-I cannot tell you how disastrous of fifty years of age, his wife, a girl of it would be to give such Christians sixteen, and three younger children. money. Too often. as it is, we have They have recently become Christians our Christians called "rice-Christians" , by seeing the power of God to save the -we must give them work. Not all sick when this man was at the point of can be preachers, catechists, Bibledeath, and when the daughter was women, or school-teachers. 'Ve canrecovered from ,. devil possession."- not undertake anything along their own The man is a tailor, but that business, lines of work, for already there are ten like all others, especially in the city, is persons to every one required. _ There is a growing demand for knit- ted goods-stockings, socks, children's caps. I want crochet-hooks, knitting- needles, Germantown yarn of bright colors, stocking-yarn – black, blue, gray, and white-but best of all would be a simple knitting machine, with yarn to work it. I feel sure that with such capital provided, they would soon be- come self-supporting.
Now don't fancy I am leaving my medical work and going into the stock- ing business, but I must not leave these needy ones to face the battle of life unaided. "He that bath this world's goods and seeth his hrother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compas- sion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
Two Recent Books on Buddhism.
"Buddhism in Translations," by Henry Clarke Warren, publisht at Cambridge, Mass., by Harvard Uni- versity. 8vo, pp. xx+250, $1.20.
This book meets a distinct need of students of Buddhism who are not ac- the ritual and discipline of the priestquainted with the classical languages hood, and some remarks on the conof India; it gives them a knowledge of duct befitting the laity. the subject which is not only first hand, but also systematic. .Mr. Warren gives The selections cover all important us translations of a series of excerpts points of Buddhist doctrine. }Ir. Warfrom the Buddhistic sacred literature, ren has acquitted himself well in the judiciously selected and carefully ar- difficult task of translating Pali theo- ranged under appropriate headings, to logical writings into English. Not only afford a fairly complete and orderlyac- is his translation exact, but his English count of the Buddha, his doctrine, and is elegant. The book will be of value the religious order which he founded. to missionaries in Buddhistic communi- ties, and to all who have occasion to Mr. Warren's book represents what understand Buddhism.-REV. DAVID is known as the Southern school of GILMORE, PrOfessor Rangoon Oollege, Buddhism, whose sacred literature is Burma. in the Pali language, whose chief seat is in Ceylon, and which prevails Almost directly in contrast with throughout Burma and Siam. The Warren's "Buddhism in Translation" excerpts in this book are taken from is a smaller work, and a popular one, Pali literature exclusively. Most of .. Primitive Buddhism: its Origin and them come from the Tipitaka, the Teachings," by Elizabeth A. Reed, Buddhist Bible; but a number are A.M., already well known as the author taken from the Milinda Pai'iha, and the Visuddltimag.qa-two works which (tho of "Hindu Literature," "Persian Litnot canonical) are accepted by Southern erature," etc. (Scott, Foresman & Co., Buddhists as authoritative statements Chicago,$l). The admiration of Buddh- ()f their belief. ism is just now a "fad" on thc part of a class of persons who have neither the The excerpts in this book are arranged culture nor the earnestness to become in five chapters, each of which is pro- even superficially acquainted with its vided with an introductory discourse. philosophy, its tenets, or its effects on There is also a general introduction and society. The author appositely says, :an excellent index. "theories have been advocated as to the doctrines of Buddhism of which its The first chapter treats of the life of founder never heard, and 'statements Gautama, the Buddha. It is introduced have been made upon the modern platwith the resolution which he formed in a form which could astonish no one 80 previous stage of existence, to attain the much as Gautama and his early follow- Buddhaship. Passing very briefly over his intermediate existences, it recounts ers." fully his birth, his retirement from the The manuscript of this volume was world, his attainment of Buddhaship, subjected to the criticisms of some of his daily habits and his death. Pali the most distinguisht savants of Euliterature affords no account of his life rope, and thoughtfully discust byemibetween the commencement of his min- nent Orientalists. Like Warren's work, istry and his death. it is mainly a compilation of translated texts from primitive sources. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 deal with Buddba's doctrine. Chapter 2, entitled The author rightly estimates Buddha .. Sentient Existence," treats of that as ., the prince of pessimists," who denial of "an ego," of .. a continuous ,, nowhere alludes to the happiness personal identity," of .. an underlying which may be derived from health, persistent reality," which is the chief friends, love, or existence in a world of source of confusion in the study of beauty." Monier Williams affirms cor- Buddhism, inasmuch as it is explicitly rectly when he says, "Buddhism has no creator, no creation, no original germ denied and implicitly assumed in the of all things, no soul of the world, no system of thought. personal, no impersonal, no supermun- dane, no antemundane plinciple." Of Chapter 3 treats of Karma and rebirth. all the dreary wastes which manJdnd have been invited to contemplate, the Chapter 4 treats of Nirvana, and of dreariest, dismalest and surest of rethat system of meditation or trance sulting in disaster and dismay, Buddhwhich is supposed to lead to Nirvana. ism easily stands, unchallenged, the Neither the excerpts in this section nor first. We commend •'Primitive Buddhthe introduction thereto, afford us a ism" to those who feel impelled to definition of Nirvana; yet the book acquire some knowledge of this diBmaZ sheds much light on the Buddhist conception of Nirvana. 8wamp."-J. T. G.
The fifth chapter gives samples of
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY DBLAVAlII' L. PIERSON.
* China,* Tibet, t Formosa, Oonfuoian- ment allegiance; (d) the prohibition of ism, § Taoism, Opium. Tra.flio." the practice of foot binding; (6) the pro- hibition of opium smoking; (f) the pro- THE GOSPEL IN CHINA. tection of a free press. These involve great changes. To secure them outside The war with Japan and the late help is required. A British protectorate tour of Li Hung Chang have recently would :he a boon for China. drawn unusual attention toward China, "2. The construction of extensive railroads, bridges, tunnels, canals, etc., and there is a very general anticipation is tending to upset heathen belief, and of some markt change in China's home Is opening to Europe a trade in China's and foreign policy. Altho the" Celes- 34,000 square miles of coal beds, oil tials" move slowly, and in many respects and mineral products, so that the devel- opment of the wealth and industry of are still' far behind Japan and India, China is assured. they have already made many strides "3. The adoption of Western methsince missionaries first entered their territory nearly a century ago. In the ods and ideas will help her. She is getting her eyes opened. Education is acknowledged as of value and schools opening up of the various ports of the are in demand. Empire to commerce and missionary "4. To-day China is beginning to work, in governmental protection for believe that Christianity is a prime factor in the progress of Western naforeigners, in the general attitude of the tions. "5. Her appeal to our missionaries masses toward Westerners, and in read- for a knowledge of science, art, literainess to accept foreign institutions and tureand general learning is a hopeful inventions, there is evidence of very sign."
markt advance. The future promises The great need of China to-day is two-fold-more believing payer for the still further progress, both in civiliza- preparation of the hard hearts of these idolators, and a more 8eif-sacrijicing 8pirit tion and Christianity. Dr. B. C. Henry on the part of Christians at home, lead- ing them to give themselves and their has thus summarized the reasons for substance, that these ignorant, degraded taking a hopeful view of the outlook: .. 1. The demand for a change in the administration of the central government. A manifesto has already been issued, demaJ;lding (a) a change in the and helpless multitudes may have an constitutional government; (b) the re- opportunity to accept the Gospel. moval of incapable rulers; (c) the removal of the 'cue' as a sign of govern- While there are now some 1,900 Pro- testant missionaries in China, there • For additional Information concerning the would have to be over 500,000 more Ji'ield# of Monthly Survey see REVIEW Index sent out in order to give to China the for 1896 (December number). same proportion of ordained ministers See also p. 46 (January), 95, 102, 116,128,124, 129; 181 (present Issue). as the United States, and were this New Books: " A Cycle of Cathay," W. A. P, republic supplied in the same propor- tion, we should only have 140 ordained Martin; "Alone in China," Julian Ralph; ministers for the whole of the United "Sketch of the History of Missions in China,"
D. Willard Lyon.
Recent Articles: "China, England and'Rus- States I We have 80,000. "If all the sia," Fortnightly Review (Oct.), "Secret Christians but 750 were taken out of Soci~ties in China," Blac~ood's (Dec.); London, and their places filled by Gospel in all Lands (Feb.); China's Millions heathen, scarcely any of whom had (Monthly).
t See alSo p. 91 (present issue). ever seen a Bible or heard of a Savior, :I: New Book: "Formosa," Wm. Campbell. and among them 19 missionaries (in- § New Book: "Proverbial Philosophy of cluding wives) were put to WPrk with Confucius," F. H. Jennings. '''If Recent Article: "Opium Traftl.c in France," some 60 native agents, that would be a Chautauquan (Oct,.). fair representation of what is being done by Protestant Christendom to win Rev William Brewster, of Hinghwa, . China for Christ." China, sends us an interesting account But with all the disadvantages, the paucity of men and means, the un- of a recent tour in Fuh.kien Province. willingness of the natural heart to turn from idols to serve the living and We regret not having space to print the true God, the harvests which have been reapt in China are very encouraging, whole report, but in substance his com.: and show unmistakable proof of Divine approval and blessing. munication is as follows: The Statistics* of Missionary So- "Three years ago Brother Ng long Seng, a good earnest man, with excel.. cieties in China are in part as follows lent sense and immense industry, but with perhaps the least education of any (1894): …~ :.i of our 70 preachers, determined to be- " " ".. g I0i:!'!"l 0 gin work in a new region across the Nllnc 0" SOCIETY. ~~ . o! border of the county of Sing-iu, a half Ii: day's journey distant from his old field in the Heo-Sang circuit. His first and :z: ~ to only auditor at this new place was won – – – ~ pt,<H,~'-);I- to Christ, and is now a very effective ~ E-4 junior preacher on the circuit. From this one genuine convert the work BRITISH, IBISHAND CANADIAN. spread into a large market town, a half day's journey beyond. Last ~larch we h~ftts'hnF~~~~~"nn:~a ~~gl~tloo:: 1807 44 SS 21 98 held a three day's camp-meeting, at 1848 9 7 ••• 16 which the pastor and eight or ten of the Church Missionary Society…•• 1844 46 S1 SS 110 new converts were present. This little English Baptist …..•.•..•…..• 1845 21 17 .•. SS band were all baptized with the Spirit, English Presbyterian..••……• 1847 81 t18 18 67 and went back to tell the glad tidings. Wesleyan Missionary Society•. 1852 16 t8 2 26 Within two weeks after they returned, tMethodlst New Connection… 1860 7 4 1 12 I was asked to confirm the appointment tSri'.~~t);l~~a1fg:.~.t~~.~. ~:. ~:: 1864 55 of II man to a new place. No money was asked for, it having been provided United Presbyterian of Scotl'd. 1865 14 t6 2 22 by the little company of converts. Soon China Inland Mission•…..••••. 1865 241 120 232 593 another, and yet another place was tUnlted Methodist Free Church 1868 8 8 6 opened In the same way. We were National Bible Soc. of Scotl'd.. 1869 8 t6 14 askt to hold another camp-meeting ] Urlsh Presbyterian…………. 1869 4 4 9 on their circuit, and promist to d() Canadian Presbyterian•..••.••. 1871 12 8 22 so during the latter part of May. I i~l:a£ytllw,au~~~oo~ °Jc~g~n"J: 1874 9 2 13 went to Gia-tau, where the meeting was 1879 1 1 2 to be held, and a mile out was met by a !Blble Christians .•••…•….••.. 1885 4 t2 procession of 50 or 60 Christians with Society of Friends…………. 1886 1 1 6 banners and native instruments, and S conducted to the house where the meetoc. for DltTuslon of Gen. II4ld 1886 2 1 8 ing was in progress. Through some Christian Knowledge….•…. misunderstanding the date of the meet- – – – :tCburch of Eng. Zenana Mlss'n1888 5 5 ing had been put three days earlier than 1891 "6 "2 2 10 I had expected, but the people had come Canadian Methodist ••.•.•….•. 1080 together 70 or 80 strong, and when I Total British, Irish and Can. …. 479 274 – reacht there they had already been holding the meetings for four days, 327 four services a day, beginning with a sunrise prayer· meeting. It meant much AMXlUCAN. to these people, mostly poor farmers, t() spend a whole week at a camp-meeting A.B.C. F.M……………….. 1830 47 4S 27 117 during the planting season. The testi- A.B.M.U……..••.•…..•….. 1324 84 26 18 78 mony meetings were remarkable. There Protestant Episcopal •••.•••.••• 1885 18 9 5 27 was no time even to sing, much less the ~~~bJ~~~'l,nl~Nl'~~J: 1885 76 69 S5 160 need of saying' Brethren, don't let the 1DutcIij: 1842 7 7 7 21 time go to waste.' In voluntary prayer, Methodist Episcopal (North) .•. 1847 54 45 41 140 not less than a dozen would pray in Seventh Day Baptist……….•• 1847 1 1 2 4 quick succession, always right to the Sonthern·Baptlst Convention•. 1847 15 15 8 SS point and very brief. A number of the Methodist Ep,lscopnl (South) .•. 1848 16 7 9 32 men are scholars or literary men, con- Woman's Union Mission …. o •• 1859 8 8 verted through the influence of their 1867 '24 'is 8 50 comparatively ignorant pastor, and all r:'~i~::~~b~'1;~~~~ty::::::: : 1876 2 4 look up to him. Nine men testified to 1886 11 2 "s 24 For. Christian Missionary Soc.. 1887 2 10 1 8 1869 1 2 4 i!m. Scandinavian Conrseg't'l "i United Brethren In Chr st.••.. ternat'l Missionary Alliance. 1389 46 4 32 32 – Total American ….••••••••••. 849 257 206 812 CONTINENTAL.
Basle Mission.•••••.•.•••••••.•.. 1847 24 18 1 4S Rhenish Mission…………….. 1847 7 7 7 21 … JPe~rl~nJ;~~~~~~~. 1350 ~~~~~: ::: ::: 1632 11 5 7 8t5 1S … tGen. Evangel. Protes. Mission 1324 1 ••• 1 – – – Total Continental•.••.••..•.•. …. 41 31 – 18 85 Grand Total••••••••.••••…. 869 562 546 1977 • From D. W. Lyon'l .. Sketch of the History of Protestant Missions In China."
*.t Reports In these ca.es were not exbanltlve as to the number of marrIed womf"n. These are the ~ tor 1890. ! baving been saved from the opium hab- territo17, but it will probably be some , it. I baptized over 40 adults, everyone of time before sufficient quiet is restored whom keeps the Sabbath strictly, can , answer intelligently questions regarding to allow missiona17 work to progress as the fundamental truths of God as Fath- er, and Christ as Savior. All are accus- prosperously as before the war. The tomed to testify and pray in public, as sto17 of this wonderful work has been well as in private; and all give of their substance to the support of the Gospel; told in two intensely interesting vol- and, as far as we were able to discover, all have broken off entirely from their umes, which deal both with *tihne work (lId idolatrous customs, and the sins of of the English Presbyterians South their former life. At one place, far up Formosa and that of the Can~dian (In a high mountain, where there is but (lne village with about 60 inhabitants, a Presbyterians t in the north man heard the Gospel, and accepted it at once. The women of his family The Opium Curse. could not attend church on account of the great distance and bad roads, 80 he The following is a translation of a offered to pay $24.00 a year, and fur- small sheet which has been issued late- nish house· room for a pa~tor. Now ly in connection with an Opium Refuge there are a dozen converts in the village, at T'ai Yuen Fu, and is being also used and no doubt it ~ill ere long be a Chris- on other stations :- tian village. This man probably spends SO per cent. of his entire income for the "Of all things in this world that support of the Gospel. He says, 'I harm men, nought surpasses opium; inused to spend much money on idolatry. juring manners and destroying customs; I would be ashamed to spend less money overturning homes and laying waste for the true religion than I did for a patrimonies-eve17where it acts thus. false one.' These people are also' giv- But none appear to think of the mising themselves unto the Lord.' Four chief of opium, which is like a flood of men have already been appointed to poison unrestrained. It is the cause of these new places from among the new anxiety to one's parents and also to the converts. They are all men of educa- wife. When the wealthy take it, it tion and culture; some of them were shortens their years, deprives them of well-to-do, and are making markt posterity, and wastes any amount of tlnancial sacrifices to go into the work. money. When the poor take it, clothes These people seem heartily to believe are exchanged for it, or pawned away, that 'it is more blessed to give 'than to while they suffer from the extremes of receive,' and cheerfully contribute not hunger and cold. Thus do men lay hold (lnly for their own support, but to help of error, and do not awake and perceive their more needy brethren in neighbor- how things are and repent. With such ing towns. When the spirit that is in things God is not pleased, but He sent these men becomes general among the Jesus into the world on purpose to save Chinese native Christians, the church men from their sins, and assist them in will propagate itself. and support itself. their sorrows ; therefore here is the holy • All things are possible to him that doctrine taught that men may forsake believeth.' " wickedness for righteousness, and give up falsehood for tmth, and repent of FORMOSA. everything that is harmful and inju- Since this island was acquired by rious; as the Scripture says (of Jesus), , I came not to call the righteous, but Japan, natives have been in a continual sinners to repentance.' The disciples of Jesus, desirous of imitating His state of ferment, sometimes breaking example, came from the West to China, respectfully desirous of assisting men (lut into open rebellion, and at other to repent. If there are any who, clearly- seeing the harm done to them times only submitting under compul- by OpIUm, determine to cut it short, and will quickly come to the 'Salvation sion to the occupation of the land by Hall,' then, according to proper pre- scriptions, taking the necessary medithe Japanese. The strategic import- cines, from within twenty-one days to a month, whether old or young, with a ance of the island is recognized by the strong or weak craving, they may make a clean sweep of the opium, and, leavnew rulers, and they have now well- ing this false road, return to the true way. This is what we earnestly denigh brought it under complete control. sire."
The Japanese Christians have shown *"Missionary Successes In Formosa," by their zeal by making plans to send their Wm. Campbell.
own missionaries to the newly acquired t"From Far Formosa," byGeo. L. Mackay.
EDITORIAL DEPAUTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The Maroh of Events. because they stand so related to mis- sions. But in every part of the world The plague and famine in India pre· there is at this time a peculiar aspect of sent two of the most important and affairs, which invites ample discussion. weighty facts that now confront us, next The atrocities in Armenia still go on ; to the Armenian horrors which lie on and the appeals for the destitute are so all thoughtful people like a nightmare. emphatic and agonizing that many feel that there can be no attention paid to Toward the close of last September any other calls until these are attended a peculiar fever broke out in a part of to; and yet the need is so great it seems Bombay, attended by a singular fatality almost hopeless to meet it, and almost among rats, and it was soon identified useless unless the Turk can be held in with the plague that two or three years check. ago broke out in Hongkong. Tho considered comparatively mild, about Cuban affairs threaten to involve the two-thirds of the cases are fatal, tho it United States in a war with Spain, and does not seem contagious, nor does it a general state of disquietude and alarm abate. 011e week the death-rate ex- or uncertainty prevails. ceeded by 300 the rate of any period for nveyearspreceding. Within two months The half bankrupt condition of some nearly 100,000 Hindus left the city. missionary boards, and tlle measures of Various precautionary measures were retrenchment which seem to be needful, taken to prevent the spread of the -these are the features of discourageplague, and much prayer was offered ment against which it is hard to conby believe rs. Meanwile outside of tend. Bombay a famine is spreading over a large area. Since the monsoon the Dr. W. A. P. Martin has returned to price of food has in some parts doubled. China. It is nearly half a century since Already there has been a year's dearth he first went, when, with his brother, he in the Hindee neld in Central India, began work at Ningpo, where he spent where hundreds have starved to death, six years, which he looks back on as the and the sight of children, not to say most fruitful of his life, and where he adults, in every stage of disease and was qualified to act as interpreter to the want, is almost too terrible for believers American plenipotentiaries, Messrs. to bear who seek to be ministers of God Reed and Ward, in the treaties with to them. The details are too bad for China. Afterward he determined to reproduction. It looks as tho a large move further north and undertake an section of the Marathi country would educational mission work, and this become a similar scene of suffering. opened the way to the presidency of the Riots have become common where the Imperial Tungwen College and a prostarving people forcibly sieze what they tracted stay at the capital. He now recannot buy, and the police are some- turns joyfully, in his maturest life, and times unable to protect the shops. we wish he might spend there another •• Khandesh is sure to suffer unless rain "cycle" of "Cathay." He is better shortly falls," was the report in the fitted than ever to act as a wise counmiddle of October. Jowari was burn- sellor and competent teacher and ading up with drought, and the north- ministrator. west, north and central provinces seem threatened with a repetition of the suf- Our dear friend, the secretary of the ferings of twenty years ago. Presbyterian Board, Robert E. Speer, has been seriously ill at Hamadan, Per- These events we give prominence to sia, with typhoid. He had intended to sail for India by the middle of De- most effectual ministry to the une~an.
cember, but was detained. Already gelized.
his visit to the East has left a markt The last report, covering 1895,tells the impression wherever he has been. He story of seven years; and this last year thoroughly studied up the countries to exceeds all the others. Some of its facts which he was going, and surprised should be borne in mind as an incentive brethren on the ground by showing in to others to follow his example. 'rhe many respects a familiarity with the missionary money up to Nov. 12 this conditions of field which they them- year, 1896, is upwards of $19,000.00, selves did not possess. of which his own congregation of per- haps 200 people have, without any On October 13th of last year, our be- pressure, given over $4,000.00. The loved brother, Rev. D. M. Stearns, of map of the world is kept ever before Germantown, bade adieu to his beloved them, and they are taught that they are wife, who, after less than two days' debtors tothe whole unsaved world,and illness, departed for a higher home. trustees of the Gospel of salvation, and She had shared all his work for the that each of them iS,to regard himself Lord, and was to him a help, meet for as responsible for bringing the Gospel him. Noone knows the extent of the to every living soul as soon as possible.
loss and sorrow that came to our , What could not be done by a few hun- brother, who nevertheless bears up dred such men as Pastor Stearns, who with a fortitude and patience only would follow this hitherto untrodden learned of God. Some years ago this path in Bible study and missionary brother, in a conversation with me, work? He is now teaching a monthly heard me emphasize the fact that the Bible class at Princeton University, church is not a man's field but his and his influence is constantly ex· force wherewith to work in the world panding. Most of the mission funds field, and this seed of truth found in he collects go through regularly organ- him such a soil as to bring fonh liter- ized channels, and the paper, King- ally an hundred·fold. Witness the wide dom Tiding8, has a circulation of about dissemination of the Gospel through 3,000. Of the nearly $10,000 that the this man, his parish and his Bible synod of the Reformed Episcopal classes now held over so wide a terri- Church of New York and Philadelphia tory. And now in the departure of his gave to the foreign work from Oct.,1895, wife, he is asking whether God means to Oct., 1896, over $4,500 came from to open a new door of wider usefulness; Pastor Stearns' congregation, the other whether in leaving him alone He may twenty or more parishes giving the rest.
not be leaving him free ttl go through They give to the Reformed Episcopal the world-field on a wider ministry to Church; Mr. Stearns' congregation give souls. This 'devoted brother, who to the whole Church.
watches keenly the signs of the times, watches also the signs of God's will in Since the Editor's note appeared in his own life, studying to know the the October issue of 1896, on the Ben- Divine plan and fall into his own lot in oliel Mission in Jerusalem, some vigor- it, ready for any service which his Lord, ous letters of remonstrance have been the King, may appoint. received from parties who consent that ,Certainly it would seem as though their names should appear; and promi- God has for him some increasingly use- nent among them is Rev. Edwin S.
ful future. He has projected what is Wallace, American Consul at Jerusalem, essentially a new method of working a who does not hesitate to express his dis- parish into a missionary agency, and his satisfaction with the position taken by Bible classes are in effect a larger parish the Editor in the paragraphs referred to. rn enlisted in a similar way on a wide and self·defence the Editor will only say that for more than a year-in fact, since brief notes in the October number, he some time before Dr. Gordon's death- will see that no endorsement of Mr. he and his lamented co-editor sought to Benoliel is therein contained, as there trace unfavorable rumors concerning was no personal knowledge on which to Mr. Benoliel to some satisfactory rest iuch sanction. All that is affirmed source, and to obtain some data in the is, what was true, that after a year way of definite charges founded upon spent in diligent investigation, nothing definite facts, upon which to -base an had been found worthy of credence, or intelligent judgment of the merits of sustained by any reliable proof; and the case. But, up to the time of re- that nothing assailing his piety, integ- ceiving Mr. Wallace's letter, not one rity or loyalty to Christ had been sup- clue had been given to the situation. ported by adequate evidence. On the Dr. Gordon had received some com- contrary, the testimony of my friend, munications from a Mr. T. J. Alley, Arthur W. Payne, of London, as wen and Rev. Selah Merrill, which he, with as of R. Scott }ioncrieff, of Edinburgh, the aid of a lawyer, undertook to in- and other parties in Great Britain, some vestigate. He has himself publisht of them connected with work among the result of the investigation, and he the Jews, was entirely in his favor. saw his way not only to vindicate Mr. Benoliel, but to assist him, and encour- In now adding these paragraphs, the age others to do so. Personally, the Editor can only say that he has desired Editor-in-Chief gave no attention to to be fair, impartial and umpirical in these communications, and was not this whole matter, and treat a brother responsible for his colleague's action. who has been accused as entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven When, however, separate letters were guilty. The amazing prejudice existing sent to me, after Dr. Gordon's death, I everywhere against the Jew, the prevailat once undertook for myself to trace inganti Semitic spirit, makes it very easy unfavorable rumors, and find some solid to create a bias against any brother whobasis on which to rest a judgment. I is a Jew, and seeks to work among his· wrote to parties accusing him, and brethren-a bias easier to create than among others to Rev. E. S. Wallace, remove. While thus seeking to do a for whose character and reputation I simple act of justice to a maligned had high esteem, asking for something party, the Editor of this REVIEW must that was worthy to be made the basis not be understood as giving his sanction of such accusation. It seemed to me or the sanction of this periodical tu Mr. then, as now, both unwise and unfair Benoliel, for the sufficient reason that to give currency to damaging reports, he is unable to vouch for him by any where no one was found to make dis- personal knowledge of his work; and tinct charges of misconduct or unfaith- he must leave to those who are inclined fulness; and yet, up to the date of re- to aid him to satisfy themselves by such ceiving Mr. Wallace's letter, about Dec. methods of investigation and through 15 ult., no 'I'e8po7UI6 had ever come to my such parties, as are open to them. It hands. Not having visited Jerusalem, nevertheless remains true, whatever my only way to investigate was by let- may be the reason, that a singular suster or conversation with visitors and picion seems to hang about almost every residents. .And the only party who did man who is a Jew, and who, as a conreply to my communications was R. verted Jew, seeks to carryon mission Scott Moncrieff, Esq., whose endorse- work among his fellow-Israelites. Ament of Mr. Benoliel was as unquali- man lately said to me: "They are aU fied as the charges of some others were Jacoba yet. not IS'I'ae18." hostile. Under these circumstances the Editor felt bound to state just the It should be added, in order to bafacts, and if the reader will recur to the fair to all parties concerned, that no in- tentional reflection was made upon any particular party in the remark of the These schools quietly helped to per- Editor that Mr. Benoliel seemed the vade the country with the Gospel. Por- victim of persecution. The reference tions of the Word were daily learned, was to sundry anonymous reports and and often as regularly recited at home.
attacks which have come to our know- It is an interesting fact that the Queen ledge, but which we have been unable of Spain herself once heard the Gospel to trace to any responsible source. In recited by a child from the Protestant all t11is matter but one conscious desire school, who had been put into a Roman has controlled, namely, to do just as we Catholic school, that was honored by a would have others do to us. royal visit. Some 5,000 children in all had come under the influence of Mr. Albert R. Fenn, whose death, these schools when Mr. Fenn's health Aug. 3, 1896, was briefly noticed in compelled him, in 1895, to withdraw these pages, was born in London in finaIly from the little church in Cham- 1832, and had spent forty-four years in beri.
his Master's service. For some years At his death, a very pathetic com- he was connected with George Muller's munication was sent to his widow from school work, and engaged in various the church. It was signed by all who forms of Gospel work in the neighbor- could write, and bore strong witness to hood. In 1861, he gave himself wholly the marvelous strength and tenderness to evangelistic and pastoral work, look· of the tie that bound this faithful pastor, ing directly to God for support, and loving father and wise counsellor to his until his life closed he continued this people.
life of faith and prayer. Wherever in England he labored, Backwell, Yalton, In the September number of the RE- Weston-super-Mare, Kingsbridge, etc., VIEW mention was made of a medical he left the impress of his catholic spirit, work by Dr. Frank Ross, which would and united prayer-meetings are even yet be sent by· him free to missionaries.
held in Kingsbridge, where he initiated Numerous applications have since then them. 'When the Spanish revolution, been made to the Editor for copies of in 1868, opened the door to the land of his book. To one and all such appli· the Inquisition, he and his wife, with cants the Editor would herein say that four children, went forth, trusting he has not yet been able to ascertain wholly in God. For three years he and Dr. Ross' address, and that, when he Mrs. Henry Payne wrought together in does, he will publish it in these pages.
Barcelona, and then joined Mr. Charles This must serve instead of private cor- Faithfull in Madrid. There, by his respondence on the subject.
holy and blameless life, not lcss than his preaching, he rebuked the abound- In the review of the one volume bio- ing wickedness even of profest religious graphy of John G. Paton, it should guides, and by his honesty and punctu- have been mentioned that the two vol- ality in business, presented a markt umes in one are thus furnisht by Revell contrast to the deceitful and procrasti- at $1.50-one-half of the cost of the nating Spaniard. He was known in the previous two·volume edition. Thisnew little Chamberi Chapel as "the Saint." edition is printed from the same plates, Unti11892, Messrs. Mllller and Wright, and has over 800 pages. If there is any of Bristol, assumed the support of the more interesting book on missions, we day-schools and Sunday-schools, but for have not seen it.
the rest of the work all supplies were in answer to prayer, and yet there was The Editor intends to give ampler no delay in meeting all dues, and the space to the review of books than schools had latterly an attendance of hitherto. Authors and publishers who four or five hundred children daily. have sent on books for examination will kindly take notice that the absence Among medical missionaries, there of the Editor in Great Britain for six are at least two abroad who are the months in 1896 caused all such work to peers of any physicians and surgeons at fall into arrears. But it is his intention home. One is Dr. George E. Post, of to give careful examination to all books Syria, who has performed more major sent either from Europe or America, cases of surgery than probably any man for review, and to send to the parties abroad; and the other is Dr. Kerr, of from whom they come markt copies of Canton, of whom the U. S. Consulthe REVIEW in which they are review- General in that city remarkt that he ed. If those who forward books will undertook cases that Philadelphia sursend them to the Editor's residence, geons would not risk, and is the peer of 1127 Dean St., Brooklyn, N. Y., it will any living surgeon, and has treated prevent delay. The present variety three-quarters of a million of patients. and value of books on missions ex- Both of these men could command an ceed all the contributions made to the income of at least $1,000 a month, and subject in any previous generation, they get little more than that a year. and we shall seek to do a serviCe to our readers by a fair, candid, and careful Miss Clara Barton, who is at the head estimate of all books brought to our of the Red Cross Society, says of the notice, so soon after their reception Armenian sufferers, that according to as time and other duties allow. At careful estimates, not far from 155,000 least forty deserving volumes now Armenian Christians, men, women and await reading. Among the most prom- children, are destitute of shelter, raiinent may be mentioned the following, ment, fire, food, medicines, of the comwhich have had at least a partial ex- forts that tend to make human life pre~ aminat.ion: servable, or of any means of obtaining them save through charitable benefi- " Knights of the Labarum," by Rev. cence. Without such outside support Harlan P. Beach. This is a volume on at least 50,000 of these persons will have missionary biography, prepared for use died of starvation or perisht through in mission study classes, giving an ac- accumulated hardship before the 1st of count of four typical men in as many May, 1897. Money may be sent to the fields and in different methods of work. agency of which Mr. Spencer Trask. of Tho publisht in October, in a little over New York pity, is treasurer. a month 2,500 students were already using'it, and was adopted by the Ep- As to the famine in India, we find in worth League, and by the Woman's our reliable exchanges the following :- Baptist Board in the mission course. Editions are to be had for 40 cents and .. The whole civilized world will 25 cents, respectively. It is publisht in stand aghast at the horrors which the Chicago by the Student Volunteer next nine months are certain to bring in movement, and Mr. Beach is abun- India. According to the statement dantly able to discuss his topic, being made by Rev. Dr. James L. Barton, a returned missionary from China, and secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., this now Educational Secretary of the Vol- famine 18 due to the failure of the wheat unteer movement. The four typical crop, which has trebled the price of missionaries chosen are Judson, Duff, wheat, and the people have not the Mackenzie and Mackay-Judson, the money to buy it. UnUke the famine of Pioneer in Burma; Duff, the Educator, 1877, the present one is general. Then in India; Kenneth Mackenzie, the Phy- rich and poor suffered, as the means of sician in China; and Alexander Mackay, communication had not been opened the Engineer, in Africa. The work is up. Now, however, railways have been done carefully and thoroughly, as Mr. built with the result, as stated, that Beach's work always is. " the rich will not starve, but the mil- lions of the poor must." It is not a question of the scarcity of grain-which can be had from abroad-but of the want of money wherewith to buy it. of worship, both Roman Catholic and The government has appropriated *125,- Protestant, have been burned; aIld 000;000 to be spent on public works as native pastors,. evangelists, and school- a means of relief to the starving people, masters have suffered most. and the missionaries are cooperating with the Buthorities. Nevertheless The Jesuits are trying to make capi- there are 287,000,000 of people to be tal out of. the fears of the people, and 8upported in a country barren of crops, say openly that only under their pro- and "millions will die from starvation, tection can the people expect safety. and within a few months the world will And they are now trying to obtain hear of such suffering and wholesale possession of Protestant churchel!. deaths as it has never heard of before, unless relief is extended." The mis- General Gallieni has issued instruc- 8ionaries of the various denominations tions to the commandants of military are scattered all through the afflicted circles, telling them to see that at least territory and they will do all they- can. half the time in all schools is devoted But most of the native missionanes get to the study of the French language, but $3.75 per month, and it is quite as and to shut up schools that do not commuch as they can do to support them- ply. There were, before the war, 700 selves. Touching this matter, Rev. A. or 800 schools in connection with the B. Leonard, corresponding secretary of L. M. S., and few of the teachers have the Methodist Board, also says: any knowledge of the French language; it is not, therefore, easy to obey this "Letters received at this office give law. Military power, however mighty, an appalling account of the famine now can hardly, with the stroke of a pen, prevailing in parts of India, particularly in the north and northwest. Hundreds turn 700 vernacular schools into French of children are to be seen in the bazaars, schools. Perhaps the Paris Missionary 'Picking up grain or anything that can Society may give aid in this serious be used as food. Some of them stagger crisis, and help to prevent the permaas they walk. The cries of hungry nent weakening of the Protestant cause people for food in the darkness at rail- by the enforced closing of so many road stations is often heartrending. schools. Parents take their children to the mis- 8ionaries, offering to give them away All ordinary civil government meanfor food;" while being suspended, martial law pre- vails. The whole country is divided into Rev. James Smith, of Ahmednagar, military circles, and great powers are writes. that "in the district of India, placed in the hands of the officers comover which famine is now impending, manding. The General's plan seems to there are 80,000,000 of people who in be to lay down principles for the guidgood times have only one meal a day, ance of subordinates, and tben to allow and that 40,000,000 always go to bed large liberty in carrying them out. hungry. To these millions the present Thus in different parts of the country dearth means death, as the increased very different modes of operation may price· of grain has raised the cost of be employed, and a very different attImaintenance per capita from one to tude assumed towards the work of three cents per day, and the Viceroy of Protestant missions. In some districts India has telegraphed to London that the clear instructions of General Galliem '72,000,000 must succumb to famine in reference to religious freedom seem unless assisted." fully carried out; while at the same time in other districts Protestants are A correspondent says as to affairs made to feel that they are at the mercy 1n Madagascar: "General Gallieni seeks of officers who suspect and dislike them. to extend the French outposts and re- A Protestant church at Fiaferana, built store order. Refugees are returning, in part by the contributions of native and Christian services resumed in vil- congregations, has been forcibly taken lages, lately in the hands of tbe rebels. and handed over to the Roman Catho- Tliousands of Christians have suffered lics, and Protestants are forbidden to greatly, many having lost everything enter it. At Tsiafahy another church in but their lands, but they have patiently connection with the London Missionary endured tribulations. Many nominal Christians have in fear joined the rebel Society was taken by the officer in bands, and a few have been among the command and used for a Roman Catholeaders; but the Christians, as a whole, lic service; but it has since been rehave been loyal and law-abiding. The stored. In another district the whole rebellion has taken, from the beginning, of the school teachers were called be- fore the commandant and told, among a distinctly anti-Christiaii form; places. other things, that henceforth no relig- ious instruction is to be given in the schools held in Protestant buildings, and supported. by the native Protestant the great work done among the women congregations and by the London Mis- of the Indian Empire, this magazine is sionary Society. A missionar,Y going to indispensable. It is well illustrated visit a village in a district WhICh he has and full of interesting and informing worked for a quarter of a century, was matter. Those who think that a virtually arrested and charged with monthly magazine contains only mat- collecting the people unlawfully with- ters of transient interest should give ont permission of the officer in charge. " The Zenana" a careful perusal. One notices that all these irritating measures are taken against the work of "'India, and Daily Life in Bengal," English Protestants. Time after time also their churches have been occupied by Z. F. Griffin, is publisht for the by the French troops; but I have not heard of a sin~le instance in which a author at Buffalo, N. Y. Roman Catholic church has been taken for such purposes." It is the object of this book, of less than 200 pages, to give details of life in Oongregational Work. This is the India which are not generally supplied title of the new monthly publication by books. The author spent two and a devoted to the Home and Foreign Mis- half years in travel through the coun- try as "field secretary of our forei~ sionary operations of the Congregational mission work."- He does not explam churches in the United States. whose foreign mission work he means, tho the reader discovers it is the Free It has been started in answer to a Baptists. " He was for ten years a misstrong feeling in the Congregational sionary in India. The last two chapbody, that the missionary intelligence ters on "Hinduism," and " Mission of the denomination has not hitherto Work" contain the gist of the informabeen thoroughly disseminated through- tion found in this volume as to the out its rank and file. One hundred purely religious aspects of Indian and twenty-five thousand copies of the affairs. The rest of the work is, as first edition will be circulated, and in the author says, a bird's eye view of view of the subscriptions already re- this interesting land and people, and ceived from the churches, the watch- will be found well worth a reading. word of the paper "into every family" may soon be realized. Among other books, issued by F. H.
Oongregational Work is attractively Revell Co., N. Y., we would call attenprinted, ably edited, and furnished to churches at the cost of 10 cents per tion to the following as all worthy of a year. place in the fine missionary library that U The Missionary Calendar of Prayer," issued by the Woman's Bap. this publishing house furnishes at such tist Missionary Society, Philadelphia, is a very beautiful calendar with an low cost. exquisite selection of texts, beautifully " J /Iopan, Its People and Missions," by illustrated. To have such a calendar before one day by day is both a re- Jesse Page, a book of 160 pages, well minder and an incentive, along the line illustrated and ful~ of interesting matter.
of missionary effort, giving and praying. "Through Egypt to Palestine," by .. The Zenana:" or Woman's Work in Lee S. Smith, with original illustra- India, the monthly magazine of the tions. Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, published by Partridge & Co., 9 Pater- "Pioneering in New Guinea," by noster Row, E. C., London, England, James Chalmers, likewise abundantly has been issued in a second volume and originally illustrated. This will be bound for 1895, at half a crown. This bound volume contains the numbers found bristling with points; graphic from Nov. 1894 to Oct. 1895, inclusive. and fascinating-a story of real pioneer- To those who desire to keep track of ing.
The American Baptist Publication Society likewise issue "The Lone Star" -the history of the Zelugn Mission. This tale of missions we have long re- garded as one of the great classics of all mission history. No one can afford not to read it, who aims at even a re- spectable knowledge of "The new acts of the apostles," as they are being written in our day.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENcE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
:Extraots and Translations from Foreign -The Annual Report of the Church Periodioals. Missionary Society for 1895-6 gives a full and compact statement of Chinese BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, opposition to foreigners and of the sit- uation generally. MASS. " Anxious eyes have again and aglin CmNA. been directed to China during the year under review. Bishop Moule, speaking -A pious Chinese Christian, Chang at St. James' Hall in May, 1895, with Wang, mentioned in the Damk Mi88ions special reference to the war between Btad, remarkt once: "Solomon was China and Japan, then first concluded, seven years in building the first temple; said: 'Some of us, who are looking Herod forty-six years in renewing the with deep affection on that great nation, second, but Lord Jesus has been nine- are wondering whether it will please teen hundred years already in prepar- God to permit her to pass out of this ing a place for us. How glorious then terrible crisis which has been upon her it will be when He has it finisht I" without further trouble, without inter- nal convulsions and practical anarchy – " The Chinese have the repute of amongst her three hundred millions of being a proud, haughty people. But people.' The potentialities of the situthe more intimate our relations become ation were indeed exceedingly grave. with them, the more completely does A government corrupt to the very core, this prepossession evaporate. Beyond and in every department of its adminisquestion foreigners find the mandarins tration, legislative, judicial, and execuand other oflicials haughty enough, and tive; an armydefeated and disorganized, indeed the literary classes generally, disperst over the land; a people not almost -universally. It is these classes affected by any profound sense of loythat form the chief obstacle to the Gos- alty to the ruling dynasty-such condipel. Li Hung Chang mayor may not tions amply justified the apprehensions have assured the French that their which were entertained and exprest. army, and the Germans that theirs was the best in Europe. At all events such "The first serious disturbance, howa sacrifice of sincerity to courting is ever, has its own causes, not in the discharacteristic of Chinese functionaries. content or ambitions or passions of the And to insincerity most of them add people in relation to their rulers, but in oppressiveness. The people sigh under the hatred of the ruling classes themthe burden, above all those who, on the selves toward foreigners. Before decoast, or perhaps abroad, have become scribing these disturbances, a few words familiar with just government, and if in evidence of this deep. rooted dislike Europe and America do not intervene, may be introduced. Mr. Valentine which in view of the chronic suspi- Chirrol, in his recent book, 'The Far ciousness of the different powers to- Eastern Question,' testifies to the invetwards each other is hardly to be looked erate nature of this antipathy. He enfor, a revolution is likely to ensue joyed the probably unique privilege, as before very many years through Chi- an unoflicial person, of an interview nese hands, which God will doubtless with the Tsung-li-Yamen, or Board of turn to the advantage of His king- Foreign Relations, the regular channel dom and of the poor people."-Mission- for communications between the Forary GOTTSCHALK, in Berichte der rhein- eign Legations in Peking and the Chii8chen Mi88Wn8 Geaell8chtJj't. nese official world. He writes ;-
EXTRACTS AND
" , Outside of its official relations with Hunan, but in other provinces. He; the foreign representatives, the Chinese saw copies which had been publisht in would know nothing, and want to Si-chuan and in Kwangsi, on the covel!' know nothing, of the Western world. of which it was stated that all th6'1 The members of the Tsung-li-Yamen scholars and people of these two provthemselves have scarcely any inter- inces were, in imitation of Hunan,. course with the foreign representatives printing this book and widely distribat Peking, beyond making a few formal uting it. The author of this book i8lo calls on stated occasions and offering Chou Han, 'a disciple of ConfuciuS' th8m an annual banquet at their official and a Minister of the Great Pure Dyresidence. One or two may sometimes ac- nasty,' whose conduct in this respeca. cept invitations to a foreign Legation, was investigated in 1892 by the Viceroy but no mandarin can frequent a for- and the Governor of Hunan, and whQl. eigner's house without exposing him- was then declared 'not guilty,' but self to suspicion and obloquy. Even ,subject to fits of insanity.' Regarding the unsuccessful literati, who are driven this tract, Dr. Griffith John says ;- to accept employment as writers in the European Legations, will not compro- .. 'Of all the Hunan publications I de> mise themselves by showing any open not know one more violent, morer recognition of their employers when abusive, more foul, or more infiamma.- they meet them in a public thorough- tory than this. It finishes up with a fare. The whole atmosphere of Peking song, to be committed to memory by is saturated with hatred and contempt the reader. Were I to translate: of the foreigner, and the street urchins, and send it to you, you could noll who shout opprobrious epithets or fiing print it, it being too dirty and vile fop' mud and stones from a safe distance at your columns. I may, however, givehim as he passes; merely have the you the closing words, which are words. youthful courage of opinions which of exhortation to old and young; .. Let their elders only venture to betray by a fathers and elders teach the children to' sullen scowl or a muttered impreca- sing this song, and thus accumulate tion.' merit and secure happiness. Let the> little boys learn to sing this song, and! " This attitude of strong and persist- thus remove calamity and escape da~ ent and unswerving dislike toward for- ger. Why fear because the demons eigners, though happily by no means (foreigners) are many? We are firmly; universal among the official classes, is resolved to exterminate them utterly.'~ very widely prevalent. In the Annual All the charges brought against foreignr Report for 1891-2, reference was made ers are given in this book in full detail. to one most dangerous form in which The use of the eyes and brains, and it had been extensively manifested in other parts of the human body, for 1891, namely, by the distribution of medicinal and other purposes, is mi.. abominable placards, emanating chiefiy nutely described. The history of Jesus from the province of Hunan, regarding is given; and anything more blallphe– foreigners. To these placards the numer- mous it would be impossible for the ous riots which occurred in 1891 were mind of man to conceive. considered to be largely due, and they led to a joint representation by the for- "'This is the book which Chou Ham eign ministers to the Chinese govern- has been scattering over the fa.ce of· ment in that year. The Rev. Dr. Grif- the land. We know now that ther6'1 fith John, the veteran missionary of the is a Si-chuan edition and a Kwangsi London Missionary Society, discovered edition. It is highly probable tha~ in the course of 1895 that the worst of every province has its edition. Be that these papers were still being printed as it may, there can be no doubt as to> and circulated, and that not only in the widespread dissemination of the book.'''
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
INDIA. character, the religious belief of the -The Ohureh Mi88iona1'1l InteUigencer Hindus has really no single succinct for August had a leading article on Dr. designation. ' "
Miller's recent Madras lecture. It is Dr. Miller, however, neglecting popu- mild and careful, but expresses" genu- lar Hinduism on the ground that no ine regret at the opinions exprest in it, religion is worthy of itself in its popu- which seem to us in some points lar disfigurements. appears to make it to be not only defective, but mis- his place to compare before his pupils leading. the essential Hindu and the Ohristian – "The assumption that all creeds are, ideal, in the hope that they shall ac- In the main, equally worthy of accept- knowledge the immense superiority of ance, is one which lies at the root of the latter, as it appears that many do.
much indifference to the work of For- "But," says Bishop Caldwell, "with- eign Missions. It is one which, as far out any dislike for Christianity as 8.
as we know, is not held by any Chris- religion; regarding it on the contrary tian missionary"-and of course not by as an excellent religion, probably the Dr. Miller-" although there may be best in the world, Hindus are so in- some who are disposed to allow more tensely nationalistic and conservative, value to other religions than we are able and so intensely jealous about ~he re- to allow. To examine the position of tention of their social respectability, these optimists, let us see what Bishop that they will on no account consent to Caldwell says: 'The theism of the a conversion taking place. • • As a Hindu religious system is avowedly or rule, the pupils are quite ready to be in- virtually Pantheism, not the belief held structed, and even to be convinced, by Christians in a God who has made provided only that they are not required the world, and governs it in the inter- to act upon their conviction. . . • ests of righteousness.' Again, Sir M. The difficulty we have to deal with is Monier-Williams says in the introduc- not so much the resistance of the mind tion to his 'Indian Wisdom:' 'Nothing to truth, as resistance to change, the can possibly be more simple than gulf between convictions and actions, Esoteric Hinduism. It is . . spiritual the absence of moral courage, which Pantheism. A pantheistic creed of this so generally ,characterizes the Indian kind is the simplest of all beliefs, mind, and which nothing can overcome because it teaches that nothing really but special grace from above. • • • exists but the one universal Spirit; that To be almost a convert is the highest the soul of each individual is identical point that many well-disposed Hindus with that one Spirit; and that every have reacht at present. "
man's highest aim should be to get rid The InteUigen~r objects to Dr. Mil- forever of having, being and doing ler's talking so much about ideals.
with a view to such spiritual knowledge Christ is not an ideal, but a Living as shall force upon him the conviction Person, coming into the world by the that he is himself part of the One free act of the Godhead, revealing God, Being constituting the universe. (Ex- and through His personal Spirit enter- ()teric or) Popular Hinduism supposes ing into living communion with those that God may, for His own purposes, who receive and confess Him. How amuse Himself by illusory appearances can this be made equivalent with a The Hindu religious creed, misty recognition of Him as a sublime starting from the Veda, ends by ap- Ideal, by those who remain in a relig- pearing to embrace something from all ious community which does not reveal religions . . . It is at once vague- the God whom He reveals, nor the ly pantheistic, severely monotheistic, Regeneration which He imparts, nor the grossly polytheistic, and coldly atheis- Eternal Life. which He promises?
tic . . . In unison with its variable However, Dr. Miller expressly declares
ENGLISH NOTES
that he does not mean to disparage EngliSh Notas. baptism. The precise force and intention of his lecture can probably not be BY JAMES DOUGLAS.
well understood except from familiarity "Latest Uganda StatistiC8-a Dilem- with the conditions of Indian life. ma."-This tractate has been publisht Christian apologists, from St. Paul at by Mr. Pilkington, showing the vast- Athens down, have often allowed them- ness of the population and area of this selves to use language to them without district of Africa, and the insufficiency which was far from expressing the as regards the workers there. Three intimacy of their own convictions and out of the nineteen districts are quite experience. unoccupied by Europeans, and several _H It is the painful fact that those others, having areas of from 200 to who now go to India, whether mission- 2,000 square miles, are occupied only aries or chaplains, as preachers of the by two workers. Mr. Pilkington asks Gospel of Christ, no longer find them- " are all these magnificent openings for selves confronted merely by native fresh Gospel victories to be allowed to champions of Heathenism. They are pass by?" And he adds, "We leave the compelled to meet in controversy Euro- question with those who can give it a peans who have reversed the happy ex- practical answer, which is the onlyan. perience of the Thessalonians, and have swer worth giving…
turned frmn God to idols, to deny even We8tern lndia.-"We learn that the the existence of the True God. " Rev. A. Manwaring baptized at Pasik, -REv. J. IRELAND JONES, in O. M. last August, a somewhat notable con- Intelligerwer • vert, viz., Professor Pandit Gopal -Mr. Bowles Daly, LL.D., of Dub- Chundra Sastra, M.A. The pandit is an Oriental scholar, and was at one time a. lin University, formerly, it appears, a magistrate of the second class. He has traveled widely in India, and has visited clergyman of the Irish Church, but now Burma, Ceylon, Aden, and even Tibet, as a preacher and teacher of Hinduism. a Buddhist, has lately given a report, He attributes his conversion to the Bible only. He says "It is the Book of which Mr. Jones remarks: "Dr. through which God speaks to man; by constantly reading both Testaments I Daly's report indicates how completely have been able to understand the True the moral principles of Buddhism have Religion and the only Mediator." failed to influence the lives of those London Missionary Societg.-The So- most bound to enforce them. He does ciety is cheered by being able to send not allude to, because he does not out eighteen new missionaries. This understand, the reason of failure. does not represent entirely new work Buddhism has in it no living principle, beginning, as several of the friends goand it appeals to nothing higher than ing out have to step into vacancies personal selfishness. It knows no Liv- caused by death, retirement and other ing God. whose commands are those of circumstances. Appeals from various an Almighty King, and whose precepts quarters are constantly coming to hand, are those of a wise and loving Father. and funds and volunteers are still ur· It teaches no chord which vibrates gently needed for the furtherance of the with gratitude in the realization of work. pardon, purchased and bestowed; and in its denial of the existence of a per- Work in Madagaacar.-The Memorial sonal soul in man, it quenches that Church at Ambokipstay, which for over stimulus to believers and purity of life a year has been occupied by the French which lies in the blessed hope of a soldiers, is once more in full possession glorious and sinless hereafter. However subtle its metaphysics, however profound its so-called philosophy, however excellent some of its precepts, such a religion leaves untarnisht mm's moral nature; it fails to reach and influence his heart, and must be, as experience demonstrates that it is, powerless to elevate as it is impotent to Ave.'" ,
GENERAL KISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
of the native church. Very little dam- Samoan Delegates in Oouneil.-The age was found to have been done, and twenty-third council meeting has re- the building and the churchyard were cently been held, and a discussion on left clean and in order. the social condition of Samoa took place, pointing out the great need of the The Rev. W. E. Cousins writes: "We people for further enlightening. The have had an excellent congregation resolution referring to the control of this morning, the body of the chapel the clan over the marriage contract and being well filled. Our service was al- the distribution of native property was most like that usual at the opening of a the great battle-ground of the confer- new church. ence. The three papers read at the meeting were of a very practical and The Faithfulnes8 of a Ohristian Lep- useful character, and these are to be er.-A poor leper, named David, who publisht and circulated throughout the had been an evaugelist beforehis terrible group and out-stations. In every affliction, was entrusted by Mr. Peake way this conference is encouraging in with money and supplies for the in- its promise for the future, altho the habitants of the village for lepers, who resolution referring to the marriage had been robbed and ill-treated by the contract and native property distriburebels. By some means the rebels got tion was not past in the form in which to know that David was the bearer of it stood, but had to be compromised. the money. They seized him, and hav- Still this result is better than that ar. ing stolen the money and other goods, rived at before, and ere long it is to be demanded that he should renounce hoped the natives will, be freed from Christianity. On his refusal, they their self-imposed bondage. most brutally murdered him. Thus perisht another martyr to the faith of Baptist Missionary Society. – Last Jesus Christ. month, at the autumnal meetings at Bristol, leave was taken of nineteen out- From Dr. Griffith John's testimony going missionaries, some of whom are to the late Dr. Lockhart, we cull the fresh to the work. Others returning to following: "Dr. Lockhart was more their spheres after having been in Engthan a physician, he was heart and soul land on furlough.. The valedictory a mIsSlOnary. He took the deepest in- address was given by the Rev. Dr. terest in every department of the mis- Landells-an address full of tender sionary work, and every afternoon he sympathy and wise counsel. At the might be seen rushing into the native close of the address, the missionaries city with his bundles of Scripture and were commended in prayer to the safe tracts, which he gave away as oppor- keeping of the heavenly Father, and tunities presented themselves. On my the congregation joined in singing the last visit to England he said, with much hymn, "God be with you till we meet feeling, 'John, I wish I could go back again." with you, the missionary life is the only life worth living. Looking back upon At Delhi are manifest signs that the my life, I can truly say that the happiest spirit is working among the people. days I have ever known were the days Mr. Thomas Herbert writes, telling of spent in China doing God's work.' the baptism of two young men, sons of When thinking of paying another visit Christians who had been cut off in that to England, the expectation of meeting sad apostasy among Chamar Christians Dr. Lockhart and spending some time in 1890. In one case the father is dead, with him, was one of the main sources but in the other illness alone prevented of attraction. The world is much him from being readmitted to the Lord's poorer to me now that my beloved table on the day when his son, for the friend is no more in it. But we shall first time, was taking the communion. meet again, and that before very long. Presbyterian Church of England.- ures must be taken by the Japanese. A Great distress has been among the For- great mass-meeting of the Japanese mosan Christians and their heathen people has been held to bring about the relatives: many have been rendered change. None will wish more speedy homeless and destitute. Some of the success than the missionaries of the injuries have been inflicted by Japanese Gospel on the island. soldiers, and some were the work of Chinese brigands and rebels, many of Regions &yond.-Dr. HarryGuiness, whom have been specially hostile to in an address on "Shall we Abandon Christians. Extreme suffering and want Central Africa," concludes as follows: is the result of this outrage, and a .. Relief Fund," to meet the more "Belgian', French, English, and Porurgent cases is being organized. tuguese traders do not flinch from en- countering the dangers of the Congo Foreign Schools in Ohina.-There are climate, for the sake of worldly adnow upwards of a thousand schools of vancement. It were a thousand shames various descriptions for natives in China were we to lag behind! " under foreign instruction or direction. They range from the village day-school Another Side of tM PiCture.-There up to high-schools and colleges. Many is, however, in connection with our Qf these schools have been in operation Congo mission, another side to the from ten to twenty years, so that the picture, and one that is full of hope. number of youthful Chinese who have Whilst our trials and difficulties are actually been brought up under foreign undoubtedly great, we have a compareducational Influence of a Christian ative exemption from certain' hincharacter may safely be estimated at drances which are found in other misconsiderably over a quarter of a million. sion fields. Lolo Land offers no religion of antiquity to combat, no ancient sys- A Jubile6 History of tM Mis8ion in tem of caste preventing ready access to Ohina is in course of preparation by the the minds and hearts of the people: Rev. Jas. Johnston, one of the earliest and, thank God, no persecution such as of the Amoy missionaries, whose daugh- in Mohammedan countries frequently ter, 'Miss Jessie Johnston, is in Amoy awaits those who make an open profesnow. Mr. Johnston knows intimately sion of their faith in Christ. the history of the mission and the characteristics of the fleld it occupies, and Moreover, God has markedly proswill, of course,' write it as one whose pered all the efforts put forth, so that heart is in the midst of it. The volume on the Lower Congo there are to-day will be amply illustrated, and is sure to many hundreds of native Christians be of the greatest interest and value. gathered out of the darkness of super- stition into the Light of Christ, whilst FO'f17Wsa Under Japanese Rule.-The on the upper river numbers have been law enacted to put down the sale of baptized, and the cloud is already seen opium in the island of Formosa seems, on the horizon which betokens an unfortunately, to be laid aside by the abundance of rain!" Japanese parliament. The feeling of the people is very strongly against the THE KINGDOM. sale of opium in Formosa, realizing the curse it is in China, and the great good " My life is not my own, but the non-use is to the Japanese. Christ's, who gave it ; And He bestows it upon all the race. The use of the drug has firm hold on I lose it for myself, and thus I save it ; the island, as it was the first part of the I hold it close, but only to expend it : Chinese Empire in which opium-smok- Accept it, Lord, for others through ing was practist; therefore, in order Thy grace." that it be abolisht, very strict meas- -The missionary idea, translated and transfigured into missionary service, is one of the most incontestable evidences [Tmt.JE statistics are designed to include only Missions among either non-Christianor non· reduced. Accuracy has been sought, but also completeness, and hence conservative estimates within the space afforded by two pages of this Magazine, a large number of the smaller and r:i eli . . -. jl l~.8=,.,=.S . ."""!!hi. NaEs OF MISSIONARY SoCIETIES IN ~§ ~·I — o.:a~ ~'.I GREAT BRITAIN AND UPON THE CON' ~ ~ !; "".~d ~B TINENT, AND 8UlIfJLI.RIES FOR ASIA. ~ ~~ ~<I:0t"j AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, ETC. ."!:l t4 1<0:8" ~~ oZ AtlI) ~8~° !~ 0 – – – — — Baptist (England) •••••••••••••••••••. 1792 $411,975 82 64 95 63 S04 68 819 Strict Baptlst._•••••_ ••••••_ •• 1861 4,905 2 0 2 1 5 8 57 London Society (L. M. S.} •••••••••••• 1795 954,580 158 87 158 68 411 411 2,591 Church Society (C. M. S.}•••••••_ •• 1799 1,342,680 883 94 299 218 009 319 5,390 Propagation Society (S. P. G.) •••••••• 1701 611,685 589 70 854 170 1,188 180 3,800 Universities' Mission••••••••••_ •••• 1859 133,105 28 21 1 28 78 9 115 The Friends'••••••••••••- -•••••• 1867 63,860 23 0 16 18 59 13 425 Wesleyan Society._••••_ . _•••• 1816 657,086 180 270 216 195 741 175 2,775 Methodist New Connection•••••••_ 1859 23,000 11 4 11 0 26 0 108 Primitlve Methodist._••__ •••_._••. 1869 22,100 9 0 8 0 17 0 60 U nited Methodist Free Churches._ 1887 46,920 58 0 11 1 70 0 883 Welsh Calvinlstlc._••••_ •••••••. 1841 89,565 14 2 11 6 33 6 209 Presbyterian Church of England•••_ 1847 97,055 80 8 27 17 77 15 147 Presbyterian Church of Ireland•••••. 1840 95,595 95 1 22 12 60 12 216 China Inland Mission.•••••___•••••••• 1865 168,876 89 201 105 262 657 11 842 Established Church of Scotland-•• 1829 1112,220 20 12 21 45 00 8 443 F rae Church of Scotland••_••• -••••• 1848 832,665 64 26 58 56 204 23 1,018 Reformed Presbyterian ••- – -••••-. 1842 18,050 8 0 1 0 4 0 9 United Presbyterian••••__ •___ •••_•••• 1847 100,000 76 20 66 45 207 19 788 other British 800ieti88_ _ _._•••• —… 422,000 87 256 140 512 l95 95 2,589 Parls SOclety.•••••••••••••_ _ _ 1822 94,800 82 5 81 7 75 28 818 BasIe Society_ _ _ _ _••••_ .• 1815 296,391 149 48 117 8 322 85 840 .Berlin Soclety___••••••••••••_._. 1824 189,4112 74 17 69 4, 164 0 164 Breklum (Schleswlg·Holstein).__•• 1877 14,000 10 0 7 0 17 0 25 Gossner's Society.••____••_••_••_ 1886 48,000 18 14 20 8 55 19 440 Hermannsburg Soclety•••_•••_._ •• 1854 60,672 50 7 51 0 108 0 866 I.eIpsic SOClety••••_.__•___••••__ 1886 97,836 89 4 28 3 74 17 611 Moravian Church••__•••••_••_.__. _ 1782 148,678 100 78 157 15 845 23 1,979 North German SOclety•••_••••_•••_•• 1836 27,000 14 5 7 7 33 1 87 Rhenlsh Society (Barmen) ••••••••••_ 1829 123,986 00 11 85 8 194 28 290 – EIght other German Socleties_._••••• 70,000 12 63 88 19 132 4 58 – Twelve Netherlands SocietieS-._ 145,000 152 0 180 0 282 12 672 – F ffteen Scandinavian SOCietie~_ _ •. 298,500 87 48 Il6 71 802 70 1,875 — Socleties in Asla,Africa,Australia,eOO. .. Totals for Europe, Asia, eoo..••___• —- 180 400 -285 -175 940 -287 7,500 2.888 1-,776 2,788 1-,962 – Totals for America._._•••_……….. 9,951 1,816 86,890 – Totals for Chrlstendom•••____ ••••.• 500,000 – – — — – — — $7,889,577 4,825 1,588 15,847 – – – – – – – $5,693,020 1,396 672 1,892 1-,385 $13,582,597 4,279 2,448 4,180 3,297 14,076 8,854 51,787 Protestant peoples, and hence the figures of certain societies doing colonial work have been have been made concerning certain items omitted from some reports. Malnlyin order to keep special organizations have been grouped together.] oS U.",' §. "<"~'I!'.l>.g~.<,j ! I'l"; ~ -;} z] Countries in which ~~ Missions are Sustained. ~.,; …,.~w. …:l ~f~~1· E ~ ,<:l f:;~ "<,!zl'~t6: ~8 0" w. ell "3"1"1" 0 0""
Eo< ——– ——— 43,198 India China, Palestine, Africa, West 1,116 1,016 53,780 3,452 161,340 650 Indies.
68 25 557 89 1,820 80 576 India (Madras, Ceylon).
8,002 867 27,082 1,560 108,929 1,108 44,604 China, India, Africa, Madagascar, 6,882 462 58,564 2,026 217,825 2,180 Polynesia. 4,488 4,500 35,000 4,500 208,000 850 81 1,278 88,205 Persia, China, Japan, India, Africa. 198 168 4,877 44 North America, etc.
88,000 India, China, Japan, Maiaysia. Africa, West Indies, etc.
16,96 Africa (Lake N,assa and Zanzibar).
484 16 2,725 95 14,715 165 12,618 Palestine, India, China, Madagas- 8,516 2,249 52,687 1,979 145,000 car. 2,471 184 99 146 7,400 880 57,000 India, China, Africa (West and SouthJ West Indies.
20 416 China ( iumtung, Tien·tsin).
77 28 986 80 3,000 8 40 Africa (Fernando Po, Zambesl).
453 65 10,614 250 24,000 180 8,000 China, Africa, Australia.
285 292 2,868 828 12,854 260 6,409 N. E. India, France (Brittany).
224 116 4,640 418 13,000 52 5,600 India, China, Malaysia.
276 45 1,020 817 3,200 57 5,000 China, India (Kathiawar), Syria.
929 244 5,211 847 18,000 66 880 China (Fifteen Provinces).
641 151 1,871 167 7,600 206 13;049 India, East Africa, Palestine.
1,207 805 9,017 754 25,000 418 25,877 India, Africa, South and East, Ara- bia, Palestine, New Hebrides. 150 2 165 Syria (Antioch, etc.). 18 2 43 3 945 284 19,949 712 54,000 281 17,576 India, China, Japan, Africa, West 8,559 198 – 9,697 1,120 and South, West Indies.
28,000 120 15,000 898 198 18,868 333 40,000 845 9,428 Africa, South and West, Tahiti.
1,162 474 15,960 1,503 31,708 861 18,796 South India, China, West Africa.
328 201 18,922 700 28,315 120 5,566 Africa, East and South, China.
42 8 55 18 150 7 120 India (Telugus).
495 50 13,020 970 40,000 120 8,140 India (Ganges, Chota Nagpore).
474 184 20,972 884 82,015 60 4,550 India, South Africa, New Zealand.
685 87 7,187 527 15,044 208 5,775 South India, lIurma, British and 82,681 1,555 95,439 German East Africa. 11,824 1 168 1,800 70 25 860 150 258 24,916 South Africa, Australia, Sonth Am· erica, West Indies, Eskimo.
28 650 West Africa, New Zealand.
487 280 18,899 B85 60,144 282 9,608 Africa, East Indies, New Guinea, 190 80 870 ChL1a. 1,000 5 280 45 954 502 88,000 3,420 280,000 150 2,780 1,677 824 81,650 2,500 90,000 415 82,000 – – 8.440 – – – 1,470 240,000 – -4,5-00 – -80-0,0-00 -1,8-00 -4-8,0-00 – – -45-,62-8 14,841 -79-6,8-59 -8-6,8-91 -2-,028-,82-0 -11,5-66 -44-4,4-68 – – – – – – – – 20,142 6,049 815,287 901,648 5,875 212,271 — — – – – – – 25,569 – 65,765 20,890 1,112,146 61,950 2,924,968 17,441 656,739 [February of Christ's presence in the world. It "Come over and help us," "-We, His is Christ in the presence of his servants, servants, will arise and build," •• The loving and laboring and going about Lord hath need of it," .. Workers todoing good, and touching a sin-stricken gether with Him." And some of the world in order to make it whole. Trans- owners of these boxes look beyond· the late that grand word redemption into present needs and opportunities, and action, and it is missions. The Church send with their offerings such messages <can have no such sign of Christ's living as "The heathen for Thine inherit· presence and gracious power in the ance," "The idols He shall utterly world as she has in the existence of the abolish," "The Lord shall be King missionary spirit in her members and the over all the earth," .. Till He come," ~eports of missionary success from the and "To bring back the King."- tields.-Rev. J. S. Denni8. OhU1'ch MiBsionaru InteUigencer-.
-Sister Dora gave up her life to -I assert it to be a fact beyond connursing sick people. At the head of tradiction that there is not a ruler, offiher bed a bell was fixt by which suffer- cial, merchant, or any other person, ers could summon her at any hour of from emperors, judges, governors, :the night. As she rose at the sound of counselors, generals, ministers, admithe signal she used to murmur these rals, merchants, and others, down to words as if they were a charm: "The the lowest coolies in China and Japan, Master is come, and calleth for thee." Siam and Korea, who, in their asso- ciates or dealings with their fellow· -The Friends' Tithing League is men in that quarter of the globe, are the name of a new organization, or not indebted every day of their lives to other, of an added wheel to the Chris· the work and achievements of the tian Endeavorer's work, which was in· American missionaries.-Rear·Admiral ~ugurated at Richmond, Ind., at the Belknap, U.S.N. Christian Endeavorer's annual meeting during the time of the late Yearly Meet- -It has been justly said of Dr. Van. ing. The following is its pledge: derkemp, one of the first missionaries .. Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for to South Africa, that "for combining guidance, I promise to give at least one- natural talents, extensive learning, ele· tenth of my income to support the work vated piety, ardent zeal, disinterested .of the Lord." benevolence, unshaken perseverance and unfeigned humility, he has not -The names of missionary box- been equalled since the days of the holders do not, as a rule, convey much Apostles." Dr. Moffat says of him: to friends outside the parish circle, "He came from the university to teach rutho the sum total collected may inter· the alphabet to the poor naked Hotten- -est them. One long list, however, tot and Kaffir; from the society of which comes from a large suburban nobles to associate with beings of .association, gives much food for thought the lowest grade of humanity; from and scope for imagination. A large num- stately mansions to the filthy hovel of ber of the box-holders prefer to with- the greasy African; from the army to hold their names and to give instead instruct the fierce savage in the tactics eome favorite text or motto. A spirit of a Heavenly warfare under the ban- ()f consecratfon seems indicated by such ner of the Prince of Peace; from the expressions as "For God's glory," study of medicine to become a guide to "For Christ's sake," "For the Master's the Balm of Gilead and the physician use," "For the work of the King," there; and finally from a life of earthly .. Of Thine own have we given Thee," honor and ease to be exposed to perils A deep sense of personal responsibility of waters, of robbers, of his own conn- 4Stamps -the choice of such mottoes as trymen, of the heathen, in the city, in no active zeal for missionary work, the wilderness." which there is not in the Church at large to·day, there is not real prayer, -At a great missionary meeting re- "The Church is in no dire extremity at cently held in Glasgow, Principal all. She is in no position where she can Whitton, of Nagpore, India, said: expect an answer to her prayer.. She is .. This century has taught this at least merely repeating by rote words which -that it is the duty of the Christian she does not feel. She is not praying in Church to go to work among the hea· any true sense of the term. The means then unto the ends of the earth. He for the world's conversion are, to·day, thought, with regard to missions, that in the power of the Church. She can the proper view to take was that the do the work if she will. Why shirk Christian Church had been going the work under the pretense of piety? through an apprenticeship to the work Why transfer her responsibility to the of converting the heathen. First of all, Lord? Weare, certainly, at this day they tried the evangelistic method alone, prepared to confess that if the world is but they soon found that there were converted to Christ, it must be done by very many whom they were not reach· human and ordinary means. It is the ing by that method. Then they intro· business of the Church to do it. She duced the educational method, which was sent for that, and that is the meanwas producing a revolution in the In- ing of her being here." dian religious thought of to.day. Then they introduced the medical method, so -Year by year Dean Vahl is performit would be seen that they were look- ing for Christendom an invaluable ser· ing in this direction and in that direc· vice by the preparation and publication tion, using this tool and that tool to see of his pamphlet, "A Statistical Review which would work best. He was not of Missions to the Heathen." The quite certain that the apprenticeship tables of figures are unapproacht for was ended. Probably they had a great both comprehensiveness and abundeal to learn, but there were four years dance of detail. The fifth annual issue yet to come, and if they hurried up has come to hand, containing statistics perhaps their apprenticeship would be for 1893-4. These are his summaries: finisht by the end of the century. Then, Income of 352 societies, $13,974,915; when they had learned what tools to missionaries, 5,933; missionaries' wives, use, and how to use them, let the next 1,904; unmarried women, 3,341; native century give the results for which they ministers, 3,815; native helpers, 49,796; had been so long working and praying." communicants, 1,060,822.
-Bishop Thompson, of Mississippi, -The famine in India and the rinderasks this solemn question in T lw Spirit pest in South Africa are as grave as any of Missions.- "Is the Church's refusal political problems of the day. In India, to do her work, and the asking of the the pinch of hunger is being keenly felt, Lord in some extraordinary way to do while in Alrica, according to Mr. F. R. it for her-is that, no matter how fre· Thompson, of Matabeleland, the rinderquent and how often the asking, is that pest is the gravest situation any British prayer'! We may say the Church neur colony has ever had to face, and far exprays for the conversion of the world, ceeds in importance the Transvaal war, and challenge the contradiction of the native rebellions, and Jameson's raid. statement." This conclusion is reacht He does not think that one per cent. of thus: an earnest desire for the thing the cattle will be saved. askt for is an essential element of true prayer; slackness in putting forth -The Oong1'egationali8t, in commentefforts proves tbe absence of a strong ing on the recent order for 1,000,000 desire; and consequently where there is of Spurgeon's sermons, says: .. Except the Sermon on the Mount, no sermons have ever had so wide a circulation, nor, -Within the next two decades it will indeed, can any work of secular litera- be decided whether the negro, by dis- ture compare wJth them in the number carding ante·bellum ideas and methods, of probable readers in a single genera- by putting brains and skill into the tion. Ana the power is not in style, common occupations that lie at his door, which is of the simplest, or thought;. will be able to lift labor out of toil, which is neither deep nor subtle, but in drudgery, and degradation into that adaptation of evangelical truth to the which is beautiful, dignified, glorified.
heart and conscience of plain people." Further, it will be decided within this time whether the negro is to be replaced, UNITED STATES. crushed out as a helpful industrial force by the fast spreading trades unions -In his" Conversion of India," Dr. in connection with thousands of foreign George Smith, of Scotland, says: "The skilled laborers, that even now press foreign politics of the United States of hard and fast upon the heels of the America are foreign missions. Starting negro and seem to press us unto the into national life, free alike from the very death.-Booker T. Wa8hington. ecclesiastical bonds, the feudal institu- tions, and the political interests of -To educate 24,000 Indian children Europe, but possessing the full heritage requires an annual appropriation by of British history, literature, and char- Congress of over $2,000,000. There acter, the Americans were from the are, even then, 14,000 unprovided for.
first prepared to become the chief mes- Some of the schools, such as that at Car- sengers of Christ to the human race. lisle, Pa., and the Haskell Institute, at In 400 years they have, by Christian Lawrence, Kans., have been establisht colonization and home missions, evan- away from the reservations, and the gelized their own continent from the training is chietly industrial. There Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, bringing are 22 of these, scattered at different into the Church the remnant of the Red points, and about 5,000 Indian youth Indian tribes, and giving to Christen- are successfully learning self.support in dom its •richest acquisition' in 65,000,- them. But "the backbone of the Indian 000 of Christian citizens, whom every educational system," according to Com- year increases in number and influence. missioner Browning, is the reservation In the whole development of mankind boarding-school. These number 77, during 6,000 years there has been only and have over 8,000 pupils. .. Their one people and one land ready made, influence," says the commissioner, "in as it were, to be itself free, and to all uplifting the tribal life around them is beside the apostle of liberty in its high- wonderful." There isa third dass, the est form, the freedom which is in Christ day schools, numbering 124, which Jesus." probably come closer home to Indian -A Russian college bas just been life than the two first named. The dedicated at Minneapolis, Minn., by teachers in these schools are expected Bishop Nicholas. This prelate belongs not only to care for the children, but to to the Greek Church, and his bishopric do what they can to civilize the parents includes our Northwest with Alaska by instruction in domestic economy and and the Aleutian Islands. in the art of making attractive homes.
-On the 28th of October, 1646, John -" Mormonism as a religion lives and Eliot preacht at Nonantum, Mass., the will live for a long while to come, first Christian sermon in the Indian Mormonism as an advocate and pro- tongue ever delivered on this continent.
moter of polygamy' is dead. and we This was the beginning of a course of need have no more concern about it." instruction which was continued for -BiBlwp F088. forty years. He translated the Bible and several books to aid in practical York and Philadelphia to supervise the Christian living. At the end of one of organization_ Instead of deacons, these books he placed his motto, clergymen, and bishops, it is to have "Prnyer and pains, through faith in captains, majors, generals, and other Jesus Christ, will do anything." Said officers_ Instead of churches it is to Edward Everett, in an oration, July 4, have posts, companies, regiments, and 1855: "He is called the apostle to the brigades. A House of Evangelists has Indians. .An apostle I Truly I know been opened near the Grand Centr&l not who, since Peter and Paul, better Station in New York City, for the train- deserves that name." Eliot's 250th ing of officers, where "instrumental anniversary was celebrated recently in and vocal music will be taught and Newton, Mass. practical rescue work," with "lectures -The centenary of Mary Lyon's birth in elocution, mannerisms, and how to occurs Feb. 28, 1897. She was born in approach and win sinful persons."
Buckland, Mass., a hill-town in the -rhe New York Society for the western part of Franklin County. Prevention of Cruelty to Children, has There and in Ashfield, an adjoining during twenty-two years received and town, she laid the foundations of her investigated 102,501 complaints, involv- career as a great teacher. The Frank- ing more than 307,503 children; ob- lin County Association of Congrega- taining 36.981 convictions, and rescued tional ministers at a late meeting voted 56,160 children from vice, from sufferto recommend to the ministers and ing, and from destitution. Its recep- churches of the conference to observe tion rooms during the past fifteen years the centenary by a sermon on the fourtll of their establishment have Sheltered, Sunday of February on the life and clothed, and fed 24,932 children, and work of Mary Lyon and the taking of furnisht 233,870 substantial meals. an offering for the building fund of Mt. Day and night, in summer and in win- Holyoke College. ter, its doors are never closed. No child has ever .been turned away with- -The American Bible Society cir- out temporary shelter. Two hundred culates the Scriptures in nearly 100 and fifteen similar societies with the tongues_ Missionaries of every name like object have been organized through- are found among its correspondents and out the United States, and 81 others in co-workers. It had last year its regi- foreign lands.
ment of nearly 450 men engaged at its expense as distributors of the Bible in EUROPE.
foreign lands_ More than one-half of Great Britain.-We are told on good its issues in 1895 went into the hands of authority that the annual contributions Pagan, Mohammedan, or nominally of the Church of England for ber own Christian people outside of the United home work are just ten times the States. Not less than 888,898 of them amount she gives for Christian work were sold in China alone, and- about abroad, and that while we can supply 1 5,500,000 volumes in the various dia- woman worker for each 50 English lects of that empire have been printed women and girls, we can only afford 1 during the last fifty years. for each 100,000 in heathen and Mo- hammedan lands. -The Salvation Army idea has been adopted into the Episcopal Church. -Canon Scott Robertson has com- .An "army" which has existed for a pleted his twenty-fifth annual summary year or more has taken an important of moneys voluntarily contributed in forward step by the appointment of a the British Isles by all sections of Church Army Commission, consisting Christian people to the work of foreign of several Episcopal clergymen of New missions. It shows that for the year 1895 the total sum so contributed thus taking the Bible Society's money amounted to $6,938,325. The channels , for this work. Turning to Japan,it is of contribution selected by the support- interesting to know that the society ers of foreign mission work in 1895 lIells a Gospel there for half a farthing were as follows: Church of England -thus $5.00 buy about 500 copies each Socleties, $2,721,~60; Joint Societies of of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. A Churchmen and Nonconformists, $921,- Church Missionary Society woman has 095; Nonconformist Societies in Eng- interested herself in placing these por- land and Wales, $2,229,235; Scotch tions in the shops of Osaka, a city with and Irish Presbyterian Societies, $1,- 500,000 inhabitants.
002,275; Roman Catholic Societies, -The news has been received of the $64,560. From this total are excluded death of the Rev. Henry Buckenham, all dividends, all interest, all foreign pioneer missionary of the Primitive contributions, and all balances in hand Methodist Church to Mashukulumbweat the beginning of the year. Last year land, north of the Zambesi, South Centhese joint agencies received $1,057,550 j tral Africa. More than seven years ago this year, only $921,095. Mr. 'Buckenham was sent out as super- -In a publication of the English intendent of a party of three, to the Church Missionary Society it is stated Barotse country. Not until between that the sum of $60,000 was raised last two and three years ago did the little year by the .. juvenile boxes" which band receive the needed permission are in such common use in Great Brit- from the king to evangelize the natives, ain for collecting missionary money. and then, altho reinforcements were The same publication reports that there despatched from England, the work have been 988 "sales of work," the was of the most arduous kind. Mr. avails of which have amounted to about Buckenham's health began to suffer, $115,000. and he had arranged to return to Eng- land, but on reaching Kanyungala, fifty -The Rev. W. Major Paull, who has miles below Palapye, he became pros- retired from the service of the British trated and died on July 11.
and Foreign Bible Society, says: "As -During 1896 the Scottish United far as langnage is concerned we are Presbyterian Church sent out 22 new able to put at least a Gospel into the missionaries, including wives, 14 going hands of three-quarters of the world's to Manchuria, 6 for Old Calabar, population. Notwithstanding this, at Africa, and 2 for India. the present time we have translations or revisions of existing translations going -George Muller, of Bristol, has on in more than one hundred lan- past his ninety-second birthday, in guages." full vigor of mind and body. In a -The British and Foreign Bible So- recent speech he said he had received ciety offers £144 a year to such mission- $7,000,000. He has had 9,700 children ary societies as will keep 12 or more under his immediate care, of whom Bible-women at work. Some societies 4,000 have been converted. He has avail themselves fully of this-others sent $1,285,000 to missionaries, and has partially. Some find that £144 enabled distributed 275,000 Bibles and 1,460,000 them to keep more than' 12 women in Testaments.
the field. In 1894 the Church Mission- The Continent.-The oldest Protest- ary Society had 17 women j the Church ant mission is the Swedish mission Zenana, 13 j the London Missionary among the Lapps, begun by Gustavus Society, 11; the Wesleyan, 12; the Vasa during the sixteenth century.
Basel Evangelical Mission, 33. Alto- The Swedes were also the first Protest- gether some 30 missionary societies are ants to begin foreign mission workthat among the American Indians in may not be best to make overits Green- 1636. land Mission to the Danish Lutheran Church. The latter has some 8,800 -The Queen of Sweden has been so Eskimos under their charge, who are interested in reading the life of Robert rather increasing; the Moravians, someand Louisa Stewart that she has sent £6 thing over 1,600, who are decreasing. for a native Bible-woman in China, and hopes to send it annually. This sum -The Italian "Evangelical Yearpays food and clothing and traveling book," in its statistical tables of Proexpenses of one of these Chin!'lse mis- testant churches in Italy-including the sionaries. Waldenaians, the Evangelical Church, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Methodist -Rev. J. H. Barrows, in one of his Episcopal Church, and the Old Cathorecent letters from Europe, says as lics-gives the aggregate number as 150 to German uni versities, " It is the organized congregations, with 138 pasuniversal testimony of men coming tors, 81 evangelists, 25,074 members, hither from our richer Eastern colleges 1,880 catechumens, and 9,692 pupils in that there is more real drunken dissipa- Sunday-schools. The Waldensians have tion in these American institutions than 4,864 pupils in day·schools, a theologiin the German universities." cal seminary and a college at Florence, a Latin school, a high school for girls, -King Albert of Saxony, although a 5 traveling ministers in Italy, 1 pastor Roman Catholic, lately gave $3,000 to in Switzerland, 2 in South Africa, and the building fund of a Lutheran congre- 6 in the United States. The theologi· gation in Guttentag, Saxony; and guar- cal school of the Evangelical Church is anteed an annual subscription of $75 closed for lack of students. towards the support of the pastor. -The Foreign Mission Board of the -The German Protestant missionary Southern Baptist Convention began societies are represented in the German work in Italy in 1870. There are lS possessions of East and West Africa, as Italian preachers connected with their follows: The Leipsic Mission has 2 work. These are stationed in Torre stations on the slope'of the Kilimanjaro, Pellice, San Remo, Cannes (just beyond the Moravians have 4 stations in Kon- the Italian border), Milan, VIlnice, Gedoland (northeast of Lake Nyassa); not noa, Carpi, Florence, Rome. Naples, far from them the Berlin Society No.1 Boscoreale (at the foot of Vesuvius), has 5 stations; the Basel Mission has 4 Portici, Bari, Miglionico, Gravina, and stations in Kamerun; the Berlin Mis- in the island of Sardinia, Cagliari, Iglesion No.3 has 7 stations in East Africa; sias and Cuglieri. A station has lately the Bremen Mission has 2 in Togoland, been opened in Palermo, the chief city and the Rhenish Mission has 18 in of Sicily. Besides these centers, many Southwest Africa. other places are visited. There are. about 700 Baptist church members. -The Industrial Company of the Basel Mission was able last year to con- ASIA. tribute $43,000 to the missionary fund. The last report of this mission shows, Islam.-The Indian Standard gives on the Gold Coast, 13,972 church mem- the following item of ne~s: "At 8. bers, 4,126 scholars, 831 baptisms, 10 public meeting of Mohammedans at. stations, 48 male and 26 female mission- Madras the following resolutions were aries. In Kamerun: 1,807 church mem- carried: That the meeting notes with bers, 1,281 scholars, 298 baptisms, 5 extreme regret and pain the foul and stations, 15 male and 5 female mission- abusive language used and publisht aries. by the press with respect to the Sultan -The Moravian Church is seriously considering the question whether it Qf Turkey, who is recognized as the people estimate that not less than 80,000 head of the Islam Ohurch, in connec. have emigrated, and that of this num- tion with the Armenian question ; that ber one-third will remain in foreign Government is respectfully requested lands, one-third return, and one-third to put a stop to the publication of such die away from home. And of those language in the local papers; and, in who return, many are a curse to their forwarding a copy of these resolutions native land from habits of drunkenness, to the Government of India and the gambling and other vices acquired Secretary of State for India, that the abroad. Some maintain their integ- meeting express its deep sense of obli- rity, and there are noble instances of gation to the British Government, which men who have received a blessing and by its voice and liberal policy has always brought a blessing with them. A large respected the religious feelings of its number are studying in various schools subjects." The Standa'l'd remarks that in the United States, but the majority in the case of the Sultau, truth is more are common peddlers, wandering and damaging than the vilest slander could homeless. A large percentage of the possibly be. The curious and awful church members in Syria are now thing is that a ruler who has organized thousands of miles away from home.
wholesale massacres and protected red- handed murderers should be hailed and -India. The appalling extent of the honored as the Head of a Ohurch of famine in India is now disclosed. It God-the infallible Head forsooth of prevails in nearly every part of the em· the only true Church, the Ohurch of pire. In the Punjab the whole vast Islam. Logically enough they ask the triangle of which Lahore, Simla, and government to muzzJe the press in the Delhi are the apices, is destitute, as interest of the great assassin.-Indian well as some other districts-ss.y one- Witness. half of the province. About the same -There are now 3 railways in Pales- proportion of the Northwest Provinces tine, one from Jaffa to Jerusalem, 54 and Dude is suffering. Of the Central miles long, and 2 others centering at Provinces one-fourth is in distress- Damascus, 1 of these being just com- namely, the Nerbudda Valley and Raipleted, and connecting Damascus with poor. In Upper Bengal distress bids Beyrout. Two other railways are in fair to become serious, especially contemplation, also to center at Damas· around Patna and Bagulpore. All cus. When these are completed, 4 dif- Berar is in want. So is !1adras north ferent railway lines will radiate from of the Kistna. In Bombay trouble is this the oldest city in the world, con- most threatening in the central and necting her with the leading points of southern districts, such as Ahmednug. the East. Thus, as has been well said, gur, Kolapoor, Bejapoor, Khandesh, I< Damascus promises to again become and Belgaum. Upper Burma is in one of the great centers of the world." some danger, Hyderabad, Gwalior, .AB a proof of this, the Jews are said to Bhurtpore, Bundelkund, and, indeed, be buying all the land they can secure most of the native States, are in a bad about this ancient city. way. Some 60,000 persons are now employed on relief works, but 60,000,- -Rev. H. H. Jessup in calling for 000 need relief. The trouble has been special prayer in behalf of Syria, gives caused by dry weather. That made this fact among others: "Tens of the autumn crops a failure, and has thousands of Syrian men and women prevented fall sowing for the spring have emigrated from their native land crops. There is no prospect for relief, to North and South America and Aus- therefore, except from outside, until tralia, in quest of earthly gain. They next fall. At least one-third of the are exposed to great temptations. The empire is thusaffected.-N. Y. Tribu1l8. -In a recent issue the Bombay its body straight." Inserting two Guardian has a picture of the famine fingers into its mouth, she raises it up, children from the Central Provinces, as with no other support. This is .. to they arrived at the M. E. Mission, Maza- keep the roof of its mouth from falling gOD, Bombay. Miss Carroll wrote; in." Its nose is prest and pulled, its .. The groans, the bad odors, the cries head rubbed and molded. Finally of hunger are not there. You may steaming water is brought and poured think they look like boys. Miss Frank- over the child, almost parboiling it, and lin has a boys' school, and when these the bath finisht with the administration children were brought to her she had of some hot spices, "to keep away cold, their hair, which was long and filthy, and soothe the child." Many babies cut off, and put on them boys' clothes do not survive their first bath. The for the journey. We dared not give wonder is that any do. them all they wanted to eat at first, but fed them every three hours. For several -There are now about 1,000 natives days they were not satisfied, and their of India ordained to preach Christ to cries for food were very touching. At their countrymen-Hindu, Parsee, and night they cried with pain; earache, Mohammedan. Fifty years ago there toothache, etc. Some of them had such were only 21. What hath God wrought! sore mouths they could hardly speak. One night my servant called me and -John Wanamaker has undertaken said one girl was vomiting blood, but I the entire cost of a building, $30,000, found that it was from her sore mouth. for the Y. M. C. A. in Madras.' By One girl of nine had a very sore scalp, the liberality of friends in England and and her hair was grey. Another had a America one of the best sites in the city sore head which had to be poulticed had been previously secured; and this for some days. In fact, eleven were so handsome gift will permit the comple· very ill that we put them in hospital. tion of a project that is full of promise Oh, I have seen wretchedly poor people on behalf of the young men in and but never before faced starvation. I around this important center. could not but think that if the sights and sounds were so heartbreaking -Rangoon is the great commercial where food, medicine and care were center of Burma, says a writer in given, what must they be in the place Woman'8 Mi88ionarll Friend, and from which these children came." promises to be the door into Western China. Work has already been begun -This is what Annie H. Downie on the railroad which will take one to writes about child·life in Telugu Land; the very borders of that great empire. •• It is the custom," therefore the mother The city has a population of 200,000, must have neither food nor water for made up of nearly every race on earth; three days, nor must the baby be bathed there is an English-speaking community until then. Quite a ceremony attends of 10,000; the Chinese, Hindus, Mothat first bath. Some elderly relative hammedans, Tamils and Burmans make takes the child, and, stretcbIDg out her up largely the rest. Within the boundfeet, lays it between her ankles. It is aries of this little country 72 lanthen rubbed all over with soap-bark, guages and dialects are spoken. and its mouth, nose, eyes and ears, are filled with a pungent oil, •• to keep out -The American Baptist Mission the cold," and the other women look on Press in Rangoon, Burma, employs composedly while the poor child screams about 75 men, and is perhaps the most and sometimes froths at the mouth. important single agency in the Baptist Then the woman grasping the child by missions in Burma, and the largest misboth feet, swings it back and forth, sion press under the control of the head down, a couple of times, •• to make American Baptist Missionary Union. It was first started in a small way more than 75 years ago. From it have been issued many millions of portions of preaching in English I On another Scriptures. The whole Bible is pub- occasion he meant to order a roast lisht in 4 different languages, the Bur- chicken, and told his cook to go out man, the Sgaw Karen, the Pwo Karen and set fire to the street. and the Shan, and portions of Scrip- ture in about 5 or 6 other of the varied -The Peking Gautte publishes an dialects of Burma. As the Press is imperial edict appointing a director of the only printing house which can the railroad to be built between Peking publish books in all the principal and Hankow. The new road will be languages used in Burma, many school books in general use not only in some 700 miles in length, and it will the mission schools, but in government involve the bridging of 27 rivers. It and other schools, have been issued is said that funds for the construction from it; and, in fact, the school work of this line, to the amount of 30,000,000 of the whole country is largely depend- taels, have been advanced by an Amer- ent upon the work of this single estab- ican syndicate. lishment for its books and other liter- ature. -The China Mission Hand·book, just publisht in Shanghai, gives these -E. P. Dunlap writes thus from the latest figures from the Celestial Siam: A few months ago 2 devoted Empire: missionaries reacht our field from an unexpected source. They were sent by Number of societies reported, 44 the native church of Burma, and by Stations, 159 that church to be supported in their Out-stations, 1,054 work. They are Peguans, a tribe of Foreign misssionarles 1,824 lower Burma, and arc here to labor for Native agents (preachers, 1,4(9) 4,174069 the Peguans of Siam, a people that Number of churches, 55,098 have been sorely neglected-thousands Communicants, 21,858 of them war captives, and the descend- Total pupils under instruction, 148 ants of captives, made G.uring Siam's Medical missionaries (women, 47) 71 wars with Burma. This aged mis- Number of hosl'itals, 18,8Il8 sionary and his wife left a strong church Number of patIents, 111 in Burma and a large family of children Number of dispensaries, 228,162 and grandchildren, and made their w.ay Patients in dispensaries, alone for the joy of proclaiming Christ to their fellow-countrymen in this land. Were the wives of the missionaries A few Sabbaths ago 15 Peguans were baptized through their labors. enumerated, the number of foreigners, China.-Rev. J. F. MMters, a mis- male and female, would probably ex- sionary in China, says the Chinese word for heavenly is "teen," with an aspirate ceed 2,000. on the vowels. The missionary left out the aspirate with the result that the Korea.-A man's name, says a mis- word meant" crazy." After Mr. MM' sionary in Korea, is like a bamboo wil- ters had studied Cantonese a few derness-all the same thing, and yet all months he endeavored to preach a different. He has his boy name, his sermon. He wrote it out carefully, hat name, style name, special name, but made so many blunders in tones, and the good or bad name he leaves at vowel quantities and aspirates that some death. . of the Chinese remarked how much the English language resembled the Chi- -Mrs. M. F. Scranton writes of the nese. They supposed that he had been dress of the Korean boys and girls: "The boys, when drest up, have on long pink or red coats and white loose trousers, fastened about the ankle with a band of a bright·colored cloth or ribbon. They wear white wadded socks and wooden shoes. Their long black hair is parted in the middle and hangs in a braid down their backs. and is tied with a black ribbon. The girls generally wear red cotton skirts, with short jackets either green or yellow in color. Their hair is combed like the boys', only they wear a plum·colored ribbon instead of a black ODe,"