The Missionary Review of the World — January 1898
OF FIVE HUNDHED GODS, CANTON
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOl,. XXI. No. 1.-Old &rWs.-JANUARY-VoL. XI. No.1.-New &ries.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY.-· THE REVIVAL of THE PRAYER-SPIlUT.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The pivot of piety is prayer. A pivot is of double use: it acts as a fastener and as a center; it holds in· place, and it is the axis of revolution. Prayer is the double secret: it keeps us steadfast in faith, and it helps to all holy activity. Hence, as surely as God is lifting His people in these latter times to a higher level of life, and moving them to a more unselfish and self-denying service, there will be a new emphasis laid upon supplication, and especially upon intercession.
This revival of the praying-spirit, if not first in order of development, is first' in order of importanr,e in every really onward advance. Generally, if not uniformly, prayer is both starting point and goal to every movement in which are the elements of permanent progress. Whenever the church is aroused and the world's wickedness arrested, somebody has been praying. If the secret history of all really spiritual advance could be written and read, there would be found some intercessors who, like Job, Samuel, Daniel, Elijah, like Paul and James, like Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, George Muller and Hudson Taylor, have been led to shut themselves in the secret place with God, and have labored fervently in prayers. And, as the starting point is thus found in supplication and intercession, so the final outcome must be that ()od's people shall have learned to pray, if there is not to be rapid reaction and disastrous relapse from the better conditions secured.
These convictions have so been inwrought into the mind of the writer by patient and long continued study of the religious history of the race, that there seems to be no seal of permanence upon any movement, however spiritual in appearance and tenden(}y, which does not sooner or later show a decided revival of the praying spirit.
* This periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philological Association and the Philological Society of England :-Change d or ed fina to "when so pronounced, except when the e affects a preceding sound.-PUBLISHERS.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
There is a divine philosophy behind this fact. Our greatest need is to keep in close touch with God. Our greatest risk is the loss of the sense of the divine. We are in a world where every appeal is to the physical senses and through them. Reality is in direct proportion to the power of contact. What we see, hear, taste, touch, or smellwhat is material and sensible-we can not doubt. The present and material absorbs attention and appears to us solid, substantial: but the future, the immaterial, the invisible, the spiritual, seem vague, distant, illusive, imaginary. Practically the unseen has no reality and no influence upon the vast majority of mankind. Even the unseen God is less a verity than the commonest object of vision; to many He, the highest verity, is really vanity, while the world's vanities are practically the highest verities.
God's great corrective for this most awful inversion and perversion of the true relation of things, is prayer.. "Enter into thy closet." Why? There all is silence, secrecy, solitude, seclusion. Within that shut door, we are left alone: All others are shut out, that the suppliant may be shut in-with God. The silence is in order that we may hear the still, small voice, that is drowned in worldly clamor, and which even a human voice may cause to be unheard or indistinct. The secrecy is in order to a meeting with Him who seeth in secret and is best seen in ·secret. The solitude is for the purpose of being alone with One who can fully impress us with His presence only when there is no other presence to divert our thought. The place of seclusion with God is the one school where we learn that He is, and is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. As Dr. Plummer used to say, the closet is "not only the oratory, it is the observatory," not for prayer only but for prospect-the wide-reaching, clear-seeing. outlook upon the eternal! 'rhe decline or prayer is the decay or piety; when prayer ceases altogether, there is spiritual death, for prayer is the breath of life to every child of God. .
To keep in close touch with God in the secret chamber of His presence, is the great underlying purpose of prayer. To speak with God is a priceless privilege; but what shall be said of having and hearing Him speak with us ! We can tell Him nothing He does not know; but He can tell us what no imagination has ever conceived, no research ever unveiled. The highest of all possible attainments is the knowledge of God, and this is the practical mode of His revelation of Himself. Even His holy word needs to be read in the light of the closet, if it is understood. "And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with Him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony,-from between the two cherubims, and he spoke unto him." Nu. vii.: 89.
THE REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER SPIRIT
And, where there is this close touch with God, and this clear insight into His name which is His nature, and into His word which is His will made known, there will be a llew power to walk with Him in holiness and work with Him in service. « He made known His wallS unto .Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." The mass of the people stood afar off and saw His deeds, like the overthrowing of Pharaoh's hosts)n the Red Sea; but Moses drew near into the thick darkness where God was; and in that thick darkness he found a light such as never shone elsewhere., and in that light he read God's secret plans and purposes, and interpreted His wondrous ways of working. All practical PO'VER OVER SIN AND OVER MEN'
depends on closet communion. Those who abide in the secret place with God show themselves mighty to conquer evil, and strong to work and to war for God. They are the seers WllO read His secrets; they know His will; they are the meek whom He guides in judgment and teaches His way. They are His prophets, who speak for Him to others, and even forecast things to come. 'rhey watch the signs of the times and discern His tokens and read His signals. We sometimes count as mystics those who, like Savonarola and Oatharine of Siena, claim to have communications from God; to have revelations of a definite plan of God for His Ohurch, or for themselves as individuals, like the reformer of Erfurt, the founder of the Bristol orphanages, or the leader of the Ohina Inland Mission. But may it not be that we stumble at these experiences because we do not have them ourselves? Have not many of these men and women proved by their lives that they' were not mistaken, and that God has led them by a way that no other eye could trace?
But there is another reason for close contact with the living God in prayer-a ieason that rises perhaps to a still higher level. Prayer not only puts us in touch with God, and gives knowledge of Him and His ways, 'but it imparts to us His power. It is a touch which brings virtue out of Him. It is a hand upon the pole of a celestial battery, and it makes us charged with His secret life, energy, efficiency, Things which are impossible wit.h man are possible with God, and with a man in whom God is. Prayer is the secret of imparted power from God, and nothing else can take its place. Absolute weakness follows the neglect of secret communion with God-and the weakness is the more deplorable, because it is often unsuspected, especially when it has never yet been known by us what true power is. We see men of prayer quietly achieving results of the most surprising character. They have the calm of God, no hurry, or worry, or flurry; no anxiety or care, no excitement or bustle-they do great things for God, yet they are little in their own eyes; they carry great loads, and yet are
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
not weary nor faint; they face great crises, and yet are not troubled. And those who know not what treasures of wisdom and strength and courage and power are hidden in God's pavilion, wonder how it is- they try to account for all this by something in the man, or his talent, or tact, or favoring circumstances. Perhaps they try to' imitate such a career by securing the patronage of the rich and mighty, or by dependence on organization, or fleshly energy-or what men call "determination to succeed "-they bustle about, labor incessantly, appeal for inoney and, cooperation, and work out an apparent success, but there is none of that Power of God in it which can not be imi- tated. They compass themselves about with sparks, but there is no nre of God; they build up a great structure, but it 'is wood, hay, stub- ble; they make a great'noise, but God is not in the clamor. Like a certain preacher who confest that, when he felt no kindling of inspired thought and feeling, he walkt up and down the pulpit: and shouted with all his might-they make up for the lack of divine unction and action by carnal confidence and vehemence. There is a show of energy, resolution, endeavor, and often of results, but behind all this a lamentable and nameless deficiency.
Nothing is at once so undisputable and so overawing as the way in which a few men of God live in Him and He in them. The fact is, that, in the disciple's life, the fundamental law is "not I, but Christ in me." In a grandly true sense there is but one Worker, one agent, and He divine; and all other so-called" workers" are instruments only in His hands. THe first quality of a true instrument is passivity. An active instrument would defeat its own purpose; all its activity must be dependent upon the man who uses it. Sometimes a machine becomes uncontrollable, and then it not only becomes useless, but it works damage and. disaster. What would a man do with a plane, a knife, an axe, a bow, that had any will of its own and moved of itself? _Does it mean nothing when, in the Word of God, we meet so frequent symbols of passive service~the rod, the staff, the saw, the hammer, the sword, the spear, the thrashing instrument, the flail, and in the New Testament the vessel? Does it not mean that a wil((ul man God can not use; that the first condition of service is that my will is to be so lost in God's as thai; it presents no resistance to His and no per- sistence beyond or apart from His, no assistance to His. George Milller well says that we are to wait to know whether a certain work is God'sj then whether it is ours, as being committed to us; but even then we need to wait for God's way and God's time to do His own work, otherwise we rush precipitately into that which he means us to do, but only at His signal, or we go on doing when He calls a halt. Many a true servant of God has, like Moses, begun before his Master was ready, or kept on working when his Master's time was past.
There is one aspect of prayer to which particular attention needs
THE REVIVAL OF THE PRAYER SPIRIT
to be called, because it is strongly emphasized in the Word, and because it is least used in our daily life: we mean intercession.
'l'his word, and what underlies it, has a very unique use and meaning in Scripture. It differs from supplication, first in this, that supplication has mainly referenqe to the suppliant and his own supply: and again because 'intercession not only concerns others, but largely implies the need of direct divine interposition. There are many prayers that allow our cooperation in their answer, and imply our activity. When we pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," we go to work to eaJ'1~ the bread for which we pray. That is God's law. When we ask God to deliver us from the evil one, we expect to be sober and vigilant, and resist the adversary. This is right; but our activity in many matters hinders the full display of God's power, and hence so our impression of His working. And the deepest convictiolls of God's prayer-answering are wrought in cases where we are in the nature of things precluded from all activity in promoting the result.
It will, therefore, be seen that the objecNon which often hinders our praying, or praying in confidence of results-namely, that we are entirely helpless to effect any result-is THE GRAND REASON FOR PRAYING; and when such praying is answered, the evidence of God's working is irresistible. It is when we are in trouble and refuge fails us, when we are at our wits' end, that it becomes plain that He saves us out of our distresses. Unbelief is always ready to suggest that it is not a strange thing if a prayer for the conversion of another is answered, when we have been bending every energy toward the winning of a soul; and we find it very hard to say how far the result is traceable to God and how far to man. But when one can do nothing but cry to God, and yet He works mightily to save, unbelief is silenced, or compelled to confess, this is the finger of God.
The Word of God teaches us that intercession with God is most necessary in cases where man is powerless. Elijah is held before us as a great intercessor and the one example given in his prayer for rain. Yet in this case he could only pray. There was nothing else he could do· to unlock the heavens after three years and a half of drought. And is there not a touch of divine poetry in the form in which the answer came? The rising cloud took the shape of "a man's hand," as though to assure the prophet how God saw and heeded the suppliant hand raised to Him in prayer! Daniel was powerless to move the king or reverse his decree; all he could do was to " desire mercies of the God of heaven cOlwerning the secret;" and it was because he could do nothing else, could not even guess at the interpretation when he knew not even the dream-that it was absolutely sure that
tJannarS
God had interposed, and so even the heathen king himself saw and felt and confest. All through history certain crises have arisen when the help of man was vain. To the formal Christian, the carnal disciple, the unbelieving soul, this fact, that there was nothing that man could do, makes prayer seem a]m-ost a folly, perhaps a farce, a waste of breath. But to those who best know God, man's extremity is God's opportunity, and hUIUan helplessness is the argument for praying. Invariably those whose faith in prayer is supernaturally strong, are those who have most proved that God has wrought by their own conscious compulsory cessation of all their own effort as vain and hopeless.
George Muller set out to prove to a half-believing church and an unbelieving world t.hat GOD DOES DIRECTLY ANSWER PRAYER; and to do this he abstained from all the ordinary met.hods of appeal, or of active effort to secure the housing, clothing, and feeding of thousands of orphans. Hudson Taylor undertook to put missionaries into Inland China, by dependence solely upon God. He not only asks no collections, but refuses them in connection with public meetings. lIe and his co-workers are accustomed to lay all wants before the Lord, whether of men or money, and expect the answer, and it comes. The study of missionary history reveals the fact that, at the very times when, in utter despair of any help but God's, there has been helieving prayer, the interposition of God has been most conspicuously seen-:-how could it be most conspicuous except amid such conditions?
One of the most encouraging tokens of God's moving ill our days is, ·therefore, what, for lack of any better terms, we have called the revival of the prayer-spirit. This is very noticeable in the numerous "prayer circles" and" prayer covenants," which have been formed within ten years past. In Great Britain particularly, intercession has been unusually emphasized of late. The Keswick movement has been more conspicuous for prayer than for anything else. The whole atmosphere of the convention has been laden with its fragrance, and the intervals between the meetings are very largely filled up with private supplications, or with smaller gatherings of two or three or more who seek further converse with God. There are organizations for prayer alone-some whose members do not know each other, or meet in common assemblies, but whose only bond is a covenant of daily supplication for one another and for objects of mutual interest. Any one who will read the two volumes in which is told that wonderful story of the China Inland MisEion, will find that beyond all else believing prayer is brought to the front, as the condition of all success. It fell to the writer of this paper to spend some weeks at the Mission
THE REVIVAL OF TIlE PRAYER SPIRIT
Home, in London. From morning till night there was one sacrifice of praise and prayer, and at least once a week, with the map of China in fun sight, the various missionaries and stations are mentioned by name, individually, the peculiar circumstances being made known, which incite to earnest, sympathetic supplication. And thus, both in larger and smaller circles of prayer, the spirit of intercession has a markt revival.
This is doubtless the most hopeful signal apparent above the horizon, and it is a signal calling God's people to a new life of unselfish and believiug prayer. Every church ought to be a prayer C'ircle)' but this will not be, while we are waiting for the whole body to move together. The mass of professing Christians have too little hold on God to enter into such holy agreement. May the writer venture a suggestion-the fruit of long and prayerful thought-to his brethren in the ministry, and to all who yearn for a revival of the prayer-spirit? It is this, that IN EVERY CHURCH A PRAYER CIRCLE be formed, without any regard to number.~. Let the pastor nnite with himself any man or woman in whom he discerns peculiar spiritnallife and power, and without publicity or !tny effort to enlarge the little company, begin to lay before God any matter demanding special divine guidance and help. Without any public invitation-which might only draw unprepared people into a formal association-it will be found that the Holy Spirit win enlarge the circle as He fits others, or finds others fit, to enter it-and thus quietly and without observation the little company of praying souls will grow as fast as God means it shall. Let a record be kept of every definite petition laid before God-such a prayer circle should be only with reference to very definite matters-and as God interposes, let the record of his interposition be carefully kept, and become a new inspiration to believing prayer. Such a resort to united intercession would transform a whole church, remove dissensions, rectify errors, secure harmony and unity, and promote Holy Ghost administration and spiritual life and growth, beyond all other possible devices. If in any church the pastor is not a man who could or would lead in such a movement, let two or three, who feel the need, meet and begin by prayer for him. In this matter there should be no waiting for anybody else)' if there be but one belicver who has power with God, let such an one begin intercessory prayer. God will bring to the side of such an intercessor others whom He has made r.eady to act as supplicators.
Not long since, in a church in Scotland, a minister suddenly began to preach with unprecedented power. The whole congregation was aroused and sinners marvelously saved. He himself did not understand the new enduement. In a dream of the night it was strangely
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
suggested to him that the whole blessing was traceable to one poor old woman who was stone deaf, but who came regularly to church, and being unable to hear a word, spent all the time in prayer f~r the preacher and individual hearers. In the biography of C. G. Finney similar facts are recorded of "Father Nash," Abel Cleary, and others.
In 1896 I met in Newport, England, a–praying circle of twelve men, who had met for twenty-five years every Saturday night to pray for definite blessings. Not a death had occurred in their number during the whole quarter century. The first impulse leading to this weekly meeting. w.as interest in Mr. Spurgeon's ministryo They felt that with his greall.a;ccess to men he had need of peculiar power from above, and on the .Sabbath following their first meeting, he began to preach with such- increast unction as attracted general notice. Examples might be multiplied indefinitely. But the one thing we would make prominent is this: that above all else, God is calling His people to new prayer. He wills that "men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting;" that,first of all, snpplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.* And if this be done, first of a,ll, every other most blessed result will follow. God maits to be ask!. He has the fountains of blessing which he puts at the disposal of his praying saints. They are sealed fountains to the ungodly and the -unbelieving. But there is one Key that unlocks even heaven's gates; one secret that puts connecting channels between those eternal fountains and ourselves, that key, that secret, is prevailing prayer. .
In London an enterprising newspaper has a private wire connect- ing with Edinburgh, in order to command the latest freshest news from the Scottish Athens. One night the clerk, who was out to col- lect local items, returned late and could not get in-he had forgotten to take his night-key. He thought a moment. It was of no use to knock at the door-the only fellow-clerk in the building was too far away to heal' him. He stept to a neighboring telegraph office and seRt a message to Edinburgh: "Tell – – that I am at the street door and· can not get in." In twenty minntes the door was unfastened' and he was at his desk in the office. The s7wrtest way to get at the man in the fourth story was by Edinburgh. How long will it take us to learn that our shortest route to the man next door is by way of God's throne! God has no greater controversy with his people to-day thaI;.
this, that, with boundless promises to believing prayer, there are so few who actually give themselves unto intercession.
" And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, That stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee."-Isa. lxiv.: 7.
*1 Tim. Ii.: 1, 8.
1898.J THE PRESENT SITUATION IN ASIA
'l'HE PRESENT SITUATION IN ASIA.
)lY ROBERT E. SPEER, NEW YORK CITY, Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
It is a cJmmon belief among men who are living in the East, and who are, without bias, studying its future, that the Pacific is to supplant the Atlantic as the great sea of commerce and the ocean theater of the world's life and movement. The populousness of the lands bordering the Pacific on the west, the wealth of their undevelopt resources, the magnitude of their markets, the greatness of the empire that is growing up around Australia, the inexhaustible richness of the Spanish-American States, and the promises made by the powerful infancy of our Pacific commonwealths, leaving out of view the yearnings of European states to gain seats of influence and residence in the old East that is becoming the newest West, are but a few of many grounds on which these men rest their belief that the great scenes of future history will be enacted around the Pacific. There is much to lend color to such views. We mistake in thinking of Asia as wholly effete. It is covered with the wrecks of great historic movements. Onr antiquities are as the play of children compared with its hoary age. The forces which have made many of its peoples are spent. But the peoples of Asia are great peoples, and their old life, while devoid of aspiration, of progress, of fertility, has schooled them into a pati~ ence, an endurance, a frugality, a sense of human weakness, that may prove, when the new forces that are at work begin freely to play upon them, an equipment of infinite value, the very qualities needed to enable them to do what has not yet been done.
The new forces have been powerfully at work the past year, and the new year begins with the situation in Asia more interesting than ever to the friend of human progress and the student of history. Superficially the reactionary influences seem, in the main, to have prevailed. Underneath, the solid, progressive forces may be seen not only to have held their own, but to have gained in the great struggle which has begun. Some wonld reckon Russia among the retrogressi ve influences; but Russia stands for order, protection, law; and her industrial ambition means that her political absolutism is constructing its own limits, while emancipation in some form, which must come, may make Russia's influence not so unfavorable to the higher' interests of the Asiatic peoples as has been usually supposed. Sunnee Mohammedanism in the person of the p8eudo Oalif, Abdul Hamid, has risen from the low estate into which it was believed to have been brought, and the Sultan, from being the sick man of Europe, has gained new health and power with which further to curse the nations. The new year sees both :r.ussia and Turkey more securely entrencht than ever in Asia; and in the case of the former, at least, in a position of unassailable strength in fields on which a few years its hold was slight.
On the other hand, the influence of Great Britain, which, while in the main (lirected with purest selfishness toward the absorption and developme,nt of trade, has also ever been the most righteous and just- spirited influence in Asia, is declared by many British residents and papers in Asia, to have declined. The weak and vacillating course of Sir Nicholas O'Connor during the Japanese-Chinese war certainly did weaken the influence of Great Britain in both China and Japan, while it played into the willing hands of I~ussia. And the appointment, two years ago, of Mr. Byron Brennan practically to in vestigate the condition of British trade, and his commission, with a sort of pontifical authority, indicated the. British belief that they were in danger in just that sphere which is dearest to them, and whose protection and enlargement has ever been the particular care of British foreign policy. Many long for the old swash-buckler days of Sir Harry Parkes, forgetting that the Asiatic nations have past through a generation of the most efl'eC-' tive discipline in the ways of western governments since then, and have learned some good lessons in that same school which taught the Sultan to play chess with the suspicions and distrusts of the European states. In matter of fact, the solid influence of Great Britain has not declined so much as the influence of other European governments, and the wit and skill of the Asiatic governments have increast. 'l'he old supremacy and daring aggression are gone. The telegraph renders the Asiatic stage too opcn to the gaze of civilization to allow the old tactics ever to be employed again. Still, e'ven a relative decline of British power means a less favorable political atmosphere in which to initiate and foster missionary movements toward enlightenment and iiberty and life.
But, whether the atmosphere be favorable or unfavorable, the missionary movements will be maintained and enlarged. It is waste time to meditate on their decline or withdrawal. Through whatever difficulties, against whatever odds, at whatever heavy cost of money and life, the missionary movement means to do its work in Asia until its work is done. And steadily during the past year it has prest on its way. Temporary diminution of receipts has led it to re-examine its methods and to increase their efficiency. Each year's experience has shown it how more fully to avoid all irritation of the people, and to win their friendship and confidence. Political confusion has given it the opportunities for which it is ever looking to show the people that it is free of all political entanglements, and is a clear and untrammeled enterprise, whose kingdom is not of this world. Fi'om Turkey to Korea the year has witnessed the solidifying of the foundations of missionary work, and its quiet and steady progress in numbers and 1898.) '1'l1E PREBEN'f SlTUATlON IN ABlA. 11 power, while it closes with the forces of decay and retrogression emerging in many places, and in some apparently predominant.
In Persia the new Shah has shown himself incompetent to de{L1 . with the problems confl'onting him. When he degraded the Sadr-azam, the powerful prime minister, and reorganized the cabinet, some thought that he was showing the master hand of which Persia is in need; but all later developments have corroborated the first impression of his weakness. 'fhere is no hope for Persia in the Kajar dynasty, nor in any force or party within the state. The timidity with which Muzafi'r-i-din began his reign led to the abandonment, during the year, of his proposed trip to Vichy on account of kidney trouble, and it seems to be leading him now to adopt a weaker atti- tude with regard to the mollahs, and to' hold, with looser grasp, the lin es of control over the more distant sections of lJis empire. He recently appointed a serparast, or governor, for the non-Moslems of Ramadan, with instructions to warn th em against heing misled by the missionaries, who were the more dangerous because of their kindly acts of charity and beneficence. This may have been only a sop to the ecclel:!iastics, but sneh sops have become too numerous. How weak the government's authority is has been well shown by the recent propaganda of the Greek Church among the Nestorians. For years the Nestorians have lookt for political snccor from some foreign source. They coquetted with the Catholics in the hope of French protection, then with the Anglicans, looking toward England. Long ago, tho, they saw how vain were these reliances, and have been turning toward ~ussia, wondering when the Greek priests would como. Last spring they came, and hundreds flockt to them, hailing them as their deliver- ers. Under the illusion that they were now secure, they taunted the Moslems, boasted of their security and the coming day when their heels would be on the necks of their Mohammedan masters, and the lands of the faithfnl wonld be their portion. The Moslem authorities were dumbfounded, and not knowing how true the pretensions of the new proselytes to the Russian Church were, hesitated to take vengeance, or to enforce the old order. Feeling their way, however, they have discovered that Russia is not ready yet for arny aCtiveinterference, and the last state of these poor Nestorians is now far worse than the first. It is to the credit of the solid work done by the American missionaries, that the great majority of the members of their churches resisted the allurements of the Greek priests, and kept a temperate mind. The whole episode, taken with many others illnstrating the general weakness of the country, the rottenness of the village system, the injustice and extortion of the whole scheme of taxation, and the incapacity of Persian and Turk alike have increast the longing of many Mohammedans as well as confirmed the desire of all non-Moslems for the intervention of Russia or England. 'fhere are some strong men in Persia, most of them as unscrupulous and wicked as they are strong. Some of them might develop, for a little while, an apparently stable government, but PERSIA IS ROTTEN.
Her village population has great possibilities under a just government, but it is absolutely futile to hope for a just government from any dynasty that can be establisht in Persia, or as long as the Mohammedan ecclesiastics have influence over administration or are left with any of the large judicial authority they now possess. Whoever hopes for progress or righteousness from Islam in this or the coming century, is expecting grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. There is no political hope for Persia save in Russia or England, and there is no moral or social hope save in that vital regeneration which only Christianity of all the forces in the world can effect. As Mr. Curzon, no favorable critic of missions, declares: "Those philosophers are right who argue that moral must precede material and internal exterior reform in Persia. It is useless to graft new shoots on to a stem whose own sap is exhausted or poisoned. We may give Persia roads and railroads; we may work her mines and exploit her resources; we may drill her army and clothe her artisans; but we shall not have brought her within the pale of civilized nations until we have got at the core of the people, and given a new and a radical twist to the national character and institutions."
It must be admitted that in Persia and 'furkey the mission mttlook is not bright. The abandonment of Mosul as a mission station greatly weakens the force at work in Mesopotamia, all of the lower and central portions of which now are toucht only from Bagdad by a small force of C. M. S. missionaries on the south and from Mardin on the north. The magnificent work of the American Board of Missions has been tried as by fire. In Arabia there has been general quiet, but the few Scotch missionaries at Shiek Othman,. near Aden, and the Americans at Buzrah, Bahrein, and Muscat are as drops in a bucket. The chief grounds of assurance regarding missions in the lands of Islam must be found in a prophetic vision of the future, and in a calm faith fed by the very spirit of Islam, and vindicl]:ted daily, that there is o"ne God, and that Jesus Cbrist is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and that ·he will be the Savior of Islam because there is none, other. Islam simply can not endure modern life and light. When these are turned fnll upon it, the old religion of a nation of Arab tribes, full of the shackles of a narrow life, yet full of the bigotry of a universal claim, must crumble of its own contradictoriness.
What shall be said of that great territory between Persia and the west, India and Tibet on the east, Russia on the north, and the Persian Gulf on the south? Where are the heroes who will essay to enter this field? What is to be its destiny? Is it to be barren and waste, curst by the jealousy and anger of the two great .empires that glare across it at one anothcr? The past year has seen no advance made toward the evangelization of these lands-Afghanistan, Beluchistan, Turkestan, and Bokhara, which, howeVEr, is Russia.
THE CONDITION OF INDIA.
In India famine has followed plague, and war and unrest have followed famine. Plague slew its thousands, and threatened to turn Kurrachee and Bombay into cities of the dead. Famine slew its tens of thousands, and filled the Northwest Provinces with agony and suffering, in comparison with which the quick fatality of the plague was merciful. How many died of famine or plague, many will say, but none can know. Of what account are the numbers when set against the millions who remain, as sick and hungry almost as the multitudes who have gone? On the heels of these miseries have come new mutterings of discontent, ncw exposures of the dark tides that are always running under Indian life, new difficulties on the northwest frontier. And many speak as always of the cruelty, the oppression, the tyrannical impositions of the British power. Which is both uutrue and unjust. All that any power on earth but Christianity could do for India, England has done. But what is that? Fine roads, a great and non-religious educational system, newspapers, enlightenment, political equality and equality before the law, railroads, abolition of cruelties and enormities practist in the name and under' the sanction of religion, national peace, 'and order, these are great blessings, and some of them run deep; but equality and enlighten- ment and justice and righteousness run just as deep in India as the layer of British integrity extends, and no deeper. Below that, and that is not far, all the principles of Oriental life, so distorted, so evil, 80 wondrously persistent, rule with unshaken sway. To think of India as civilized, and to propose to deal with it so, is to toy with high explosives. A new mutiny, if it ever comes, would show the spirit of the old in the same opulent extravagance of savage and treachei'ous brutality. Why shonld this be so? Simply because Eng- .
land's work has been on the sur- face of Indian life. New institu- tions, new courts, new laws, all these are the expressions, not the creators of a spirit. England has not given India a new moral spirit or a character of integrity, because she could not. When she might have done so, if sh,e could have done it at all, by a system of free Ohristian education, she refused to do so, politically she was not fit to do so. India will not be a better India than was revealed in the days of Chandra J apta, of Akbar, of the Sepoy Rebellion, until the only force in- the world that can do it gives to SON OF THE GANGES, BENARES, INDIA.. India a new character. Julian Hawthorne's testimohy, growing ThIs Is the Image of the River God, which 18 out of his study of the famine covered at high water.
conditions, warmly corroborates the judgment that irresistibly obtrudes itself. He says: "The only salvation of India, even from the economic poinL of view, is, in the opinion of those wllO have longest and most deeply studied it, its Christianiza.- tion. Hindu idolatry and Islam are the blights that are destroying the country. The pa.rnlysis of caste on the one side, and the fetters of bigotry on the other, delay civilization and obscure enlightenment. England bas not fulfilled her duty to the souls of her dependents; and, therefore, as Edwardes foresaw, her administration has measurably failed to rehabilitate tbeir minds and bodies. . . . Let her inspire India with a veritable Christian faith, Rnd nine-tenths of the present difficulties would spontaneously cease."
It will be for the peace of India and of Asia to recognize this. He who contributes to enlarging the missionaries' work in India uuring the coming year, is not only saving souls from death; he is strengthen- ing the only force that is working for the life and redemption of the world. Whatever else is done for India, in plague prevention or famine relief, or secular education, is but external and tertiary.
The King of Siam has been visiting Europe during part of the year. Perhaps the pleasant intercourse he had, as it is reported, with President Faure of France" accounted for the absence of serious, trouble over the boundaries between Siamese and French territory, though the Siamese appear to have made some aggressions. Much may be hoped from the visit, The work of the missionaries is held in as high favor as ever and explorations by Dr. McGilvary and Dr. Peoples in the extreme north, above the Laos States, reveal a great country and accessible peoples whom missions have not -yet reached.
Ohina has moved slowly during the year; but it is a great thing to move one-fourth of the human race at all. Politically there has been little change, Russia holds such a position with reference to Man- CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION HALLS, CANTON.
In these examination booths, each of which is only large enough for one man, the students are examined in the Chinese classics. They are not allowed to leave them until each examin· ation Is over, but attendants may bring them food and water.
churia as to be able to absorb that territory whenever she is ready to do so, and her sharp, decisive action, during the war, in securing Chinese territory from Japanese appropriation, and in pursuing one clear, strong line of policy commanded the respect and confidence of the Chinese government. In the south, France wants Hainan, and makes little concealment of the desire, while the opening of the West river to trade pours British influence into Kwang tung, Kwangsi and Yunnan, and so places an effective bar across the northward advance of French aggression from Tonquin, while it establishes a belt of British control, in fact, along the northern boundaries of Tonquin, Burmah and Assam. British commerce and so British influence are now predominant in the two great valleys of China-the Yang-tsze and the West. 'l'here have been no serious outrages during the year, save the murder of the two German missionaries in Shantung, where the Rhenish society were just establishing a new mission, and on the whole, the anti-foreign feeling seems to have mellowed a little. The German aggression, which followed the murder of the Rhenish mis- sionaries, however, may feed the slumbering hostility into heat. From Peking not a little pressure has been exerted on provincial author i- ,ties to provide facilities for the study of English and western sciences; and in many provinces such schools have been establisht.
The Imperial University at Tientsin under Mr. Tenney has been enlarged, and, crowded with students, seems to be on solid founda- tions. A passion for English has grown np in the ports. Schools and colleges which offer it are thronged with pupils, and even those which do not, but have a reputation for solid work, have also leapt from an almost languishing condition to new prosperity. The railroad from Tientsin has been pusht to within three miles of the gates of Peking, and the great line from Peking to Hankow, and from Hankow to Canton seems to be fairly well assured. Puny shut" and geomantic superstitions have shown that they are powerful, but not powerful enough to stand against the demands of progress. Bicycles and foreign restaurants are fads of the young Ohinese of sportsman- like tastes in other cities than the coast ports. Some think the foun- tains of the great deep are about to be opened. It is not so. Ohina is moving, but her central government is corrupt, and lacks the capa- city to lead the country forward, wbile the people are the same in character that they have ever been. There will be ebb and flow in China.
SPASMS OF PROGRESS'
'will be succeeded by reactionary falls. Permanent change for the better will only come with permanent improvement of character and the play upon Ohinese life of the redeeming, restorative forces of Christianity. If there is any harder task in the world to set before the Ohurch than this, of subduing the mind of Ohina, which has been forming and hardening into its present amazing distortion through thirty centuries, to the mind of Ohrist, it has not been discovered yet, unless it is to be found in the Mohammedan missionary problem, aud the proclamation of religious liberty in the lands of Islam will give to this problem a totally new face. It may b~ doubted whether, on the whole, the m-tss-ton cause in China has ever before had so successful year as this last. The move- ment in Fuh-kien may be discounted by some in suspicion of the motives of the inquirers, on whom the power of foreign nations shown in the punishments inflicted for the outrages at K ucheng has made a deep impression; but such a criticism is of second causes only, and not of results. A great gathering of sincere Christians will be the fruit of this movement. The growth in Manchuria seems to con- tinue without abatement. The-missions are pressing out into new territory. The work in southeastern Hunan, carried on for several years without ostentation, seems to be better establisht, several churches having been gathered there, and persecution having been brought to an end for the present. Generally throughout the Eighteen Provinces missions have surrendered nothing, but have strengthened their stakes and enlarged their borders.
In the missions in Japan the worst seems to be past. The reac- tion which had its roots chiefly in rationalism and nationalism has tried the churches severely, and has sifted out a great deal of chaff.
Now, the general ..,,-'-~"""""~""Oi'''''''_ii''?';;;; testimony is, that the people want pure and positive presentation of the Gospel, and not the arid spec-"
ulations and va- garies which, for awhile, many were in danger of su pposing consti- tuted that real and adapted Christianity for which Japan was seeking. The A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL AT NANKING, CH.INA. dangers w h i c h assail the Japanese church have by no means been left behind, how- ever. The new industrialism which has increast the product of man- ufactured goods so as to absorb trade formerly in foreign llands, and which is represented by imports in 1895 of yen* ] 38,674,842, as compared with yen 37,637.38 in 1886; and of exports in 1895 of yen 136,186,328, as compared with yen 48,870,532 in" 1886, has made the.
commercial spirit the spirit of the country. While the elaborate and thoroughly .organized system of government education pours out steadily its irreligious torrent of influence. Combined with this. is the spirit of war, which has been fed and nonrisht the past year among all the people who are toucht by the modern movements at all, and which is striving toward the end of doubling both army and navy within the next decade, in preparation, the young Japanese will tell you, for the meeting they propose to have some day with the * A yen is equal to about 50 cents gold. Russian power, which, with its advancing railroad across Siberia, its Asiatic fleet, and its one hundred thousand troops at Vladivostock, so ominously overshadows them, and so sharply checkt them in their designs upon China and robbed them of the foothold upon the Continent-one of the most disavowed but most desired fruits of the war. The flurry over the Hawaiian question in the summer soon died away. Every level-headed Japanese knew that it was nonsense to offend the United States, which buys nearly one-half of their exports. But there has been not a little friction, and a great deal of talk about friction between foreigners and Japanese in the ports. 'fhe missionaries, as a rule, make no such complaints. Their relations with the people are now well adjusted. The difficulties arise with those who so distrust the Japanese that the prospect of coming into force of the revised treaties is most unpalatable to them. 'fhey do not wish to be subject to Japanese laws and courts. On the whole, the year has been one of comparatively sober and solidifying progress in Japan. The people are enamored now of industrialism and military power as the real secret and gist of civilization, but many are coming to recognize that a nation is fouling the springs of all true power and stability which traduces religion and trains men to live as tho there were no God and no law of God. But this mad self-deception is only A STAGE IN JAPAN'S PROGRESS.
The country is honestly seeking for what is best, and its fickleness is due to its superficial judgments, which lead it with apparent captiousness from one thing to another, before the first has been thoroughly tried. When the people find what is the best, and see it, they will be stable enough. One who knows them as well as anyone living, writes privately regarding them: "One often hears the Japanese charged with extreme fickleness, especially in comparison with the Chinese. This charge, I think, requires to be somewhat qualified. During the feudal regime, for about three centuries, they surely were sufficiently steady and conservative. The Chinese as a nation have not yet emerged from that kind of stagnancy, whereas the Japanese have entered on the path of human progress. The present generation of Japanese lives and moves in an age of change in all departments of life, in an age of transition from the old to the new. In things material as well as immaterial, they are making for something better and something higher than what they were, and had by heredity and transmission from of old. The Japanese are quick witted, and apt to jump to a conclusion without sufficient knowledge or examination; hence, they readily enter upon a thing quite new to them. It does not take them long to find out that they have made a mistake, or, perhaps, they are disappointed, while at the same time it is likely that another" good thing!' has attracted their attention. And so they go in for that, and so on. But, by-and bye, when they have finally hit upon the right thing, they are quite steady and often splendidly persevering."
The process of galvanizing the national religions into some sort of vital obstruction to Christianity has been carried on vigorously during 1897. Societies for adapting Shintoism to modern philosophy, and for advancing the interest of the worship of the fathers of the empire, have been formed. The Buddhist papers have beeu full of forebod- ings as to the effect of throwing the whole country open to foreign residence. " What will happen," they ask, "when the simple-minded country folk, with their quiet and trustful faith, are brought face to face with this disturbing, scrutinizing, iconoclastic spirit of western civilization? Would that the treaties had not been revised, and that the people had been left in the peace of their ancient ways!" 1'0 prepare for this change the more advanced Buddhists, who have already adapted their ethics and philosophy to the needs of the new situation, are seeking now for some adaptation in prepara- tion for the struggle with modern science. In the missions, the rupture between the ultra liberal men in the Kumiai churches and the American Board missions has been made complete. The Church of Christ now stands first in evangelical membership, and with the cooperation of the seven mis- sions which work with it, has decided to take what it believes to be a large step forward in the !
matter of self-support. Its prac- tical position is, that no church should be organized that can not be self-supporting, and t hat churches already organized on a different basis shall be given two years in which to attain self-sup- A BUDDHIST PILGRIM IN JAPAN.
port or forfeit their privileges as fully organized churches. Deeply in sympathy with the nationalistic aspirations of Japan, and strongly affected still by the influence of liberalism ll:nd scepticism pouring in from America and Europe, the native preachers of all the churches are struggling toward firm evan- gelical foundations, and the people are everywhere demanding such preaching as supplies them with true spiritual bread and drink. '['he Unitarian propaganda is not gaining any power. Mr. Clay Mac- Caulay, its leading American representative, declared at the seventy- second anniversary of the American Unitarian Association in Boston lately,that the Unitarian body is more widely known in that country than any other foreign religious body, and that the name Unitarian has become incorporated into the Japanese language as signifying reason in religion.
It is an interesting comment on this, that in reporting their work to the Rev. Henry Loomis, of the American Bible .Society, for his annual table of statistics, the Unitarian missionaries omitted this last year the one church they had reported the year before. What had become of it? Did it become incorporated into Japanese Buddhism or eclecticism?
Light and shade have played over Korea with inconstant alternation during 1897. The new year begins with the missi.on outlook brighter than can be described, and with the dark clasp of Russia tightened to mastery. On the evening of October 7, 1895, Japanese influence was absolutely supreme in Korea. But it was an external power imposed, which· had wrought great reforms in the most obtuse and provocative way, but had built up no party ~n the state to whose interest it was to sympathize with Japanese authority. Early in the morning of October 8, 1895, the queen was slain at the direct instigation of Viscount Miura, the Japanese minister. It was a stupid blunder, showing the complete diplomatic pnerility of the Japanese representatives. By sunrise, the influence of Japan in Korea had been wiped away as floods sweep away straws. Japan had won and Japan had llndone. The king fled to the Russian legation, and so without the lifting of her hand, Russia found Korea separated from China, cleaned somewhat and a little purified, and placed in her lap by the blunder of Japan.· The war with China was undertaken by Japan to secure the independence of Korea. So she boasted. She was establishing civilization in the East. To start Korea on the high way of emancipated enlightemnent was her great aim and ambition. And now she has closed her first chapter with the utter collapse of these pretensions, and has succeeded merely in doing a piece of not very clean work for Russia. As long as Mr. Waeber was the Russian Minister, and Mr. McLeavy Brown, an Englishman, was superintendent of the customs and &dviser of the treasury, there was not much to fear. Mr. Waeber was a broad-minded, honest man, who wisht for the good of Korea, and did a great deal to this end. His wife was a Lutheran, and they showed no unfriendliness to evangelical missions, while Mr. Brown, with absolute veto power over all expenditures save those of the royal household department, was a guarantee of integrity and honesty, and an assnrance of such progress as could be madeagainst the odds of a worthless king, an opera b01~(fe government, and as corrupt a set of officials as could be found outside of Persia and China. However, Mr.Waeber was promoted to be Minister to Mexico, and in September Mr. Speyer, a man of different methods, with whom it was believed the interests of Russia would have precedence over those of Korea, was transferred from Tokyo to take his place. Does the fruit begin to appear? A recent telegram announces the removal of Mr. Brown, and from time to time news comes of slight increases of the "staff of Russian officers, who now have charge of the Korean troops. If Mr. Brown has indeed been removcd, it is as heavy a blow as could well be struck at the cause of progrcss in Korea, altho even he was unable to stay the tide which was already running back to the old days of office buying and selling, unjust, irregular taxation, official squeezing, and geueral corruption. In any event,1898 opens with the reactionary tendencies dominant in politics and government in " Chosen." Buddhism has no hold In Korea, when compared with Japan or A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, SEotTL, KOREA.
Asia, or Burmah, or Siam. What religion the people have is Shamanism, and Shamanism unorganized, unarticulated, with no framework of bone or gristle is a very flabby opponent to such a force as Christianity launches against it. The spirits proved quite inefficient in the China-Japan war, and the spread of Christianity has emboldened many to throw aside their fear of them, even while unprepared as yet to accept the high requirements of Christian discipleship. A great transformation has past over the country since the war, destroying the old spirit of exclusivism and distrust, which seems to havc been the inevitable fruit of Confucianism everywhere, and disposing the people with peculiar favor to missionaries, especially from America, which has had the good fortune to be well represented diplomatically, and whose political disintercstedness, at least, is in a measure under-
"REJOICE, YE IlEAV)j;~NS ! "
stood. The missionaries have been helpt by these conditions, but have known their supe1"ficial value too well, had they not been ai!lling at altogether different results, to do other than ground their work on solid spiritual foundations. Nowhere else in the world have I met native Christians of more joyous and simple faith, who were more vivi(Uy reproducing in our own time the apostolic days, when "the word of the Lord had free course and was glorified"; and "there were added to the Church daily such as were being saved," visibly delivered from day to uay from the grip of old errors and evils, and led on into ,evident light and life. Over and over again we thought of the exclamation which in the early days of Christianity was in the mouths of the heathen, "Behold, how these Christians love one another!" It is scarcely to be dou bted that there will come, perhaps soon, a time of great trial and sifting in the Korean Church. The new year dawns, however, on a wonderful opportunity to reach an open people.
The Siberian railway slowly creeps across ARia, working from both the east and the west. Russia has been given a coaling station at Fusan, anu an open port is hers on the Gulf of Pe-chi-li when she wishes it. Germany is pressing her trade, and before the end oithe year several new Japanese steamship lines, or old lines enlarged, are promist to bind Japan more closely to America and Europe.
This is a rapid view of the conditions with which the new year begins in Asia. The forces of men flare and fall. The old faiths of men are declining, or so far surrendering to the pressure of the new times as to betray themselves and to compromise their true principles in the effort to meet Christianity on ground where it is invincible. But throughout Asia the great movement of missions has forged steadily on. Nothing can stay it-neither its own blunders nor the apathy of hom8 Christians; neither slander, nor misunderstanding, nor opposition, coldness of heart or warmth of passion. A cool, just measurement of the situation leaves as a conviction more firm far than that of designs and power of the Russian government, this of the pertinacity, the virility, the permanency of the enterprise which begins this year under brighter anspices than ever, and which believes in the face of all doubt and denial, that it is the movement of God upon the nations.
"REJOICE, YE HEAVENS! "-Rev. xii. : 11,12.
REV. F. B. MEYER, B. A., LONDON, ENGLAND.
We will not attempt to locate i~ the prophetical chart, the incident referred to in this paragraph; whether it has been fulfilled, or has yet to be fulfilled, is immaterial to our present purpose. The casting out of Satan is not confined to anyone incident in the history of redemption, but is, probably, a long process which commenced when Jesus said: "Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out," (John xii.: 31), and will reach its consummation, when he shall have been driven from heaven to earth, from earth into abyss, and from the abyss into the lake of fire and brimstone. The 'principles, therefore, which appear at anyone stage of the casting out of the old serpent, the deceiver of the whole earth, are applicable universally, and we may obtain valuable lessons for our own share in the process, by carefully studying the statement, that "they overcame because of the Blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their life even unto death."
One point of exegesis must be settled before we can feel the full force of this sublime announcement. Weare told that they overcame. Who are these? Obviously, not Michael and his angels, for it could be hardly said of these celestial combatants that they overcame because of the Blood of tlie Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, nor, that they loved not their lives unto the death. The pronoun evi- dently points to the previous noun, the brethren, who had been accused before their God day and night. And who were these brethren, con- cerning whom the great voice in heaven speaks? Can they be other than the saints who were dear to God, and who, face to face with the.
fury of magistrates and crowds, stemming manfully the hatred and opposition of their times, were bearing persecution and reproach in every city of the known world; and without knowing it, by their vic- tories, were bringing success along the entire line of the hosts of light.
THE SOLIDARITY OF THE ARMIES OF GOD.
The conflict thronghout the universe between good and evil is one.
The saints on earth are brothers in arms with Michael and his angels.
Each soul, however lonely and obscure, plays an important part in the issue of the fight, jnst as sometimes an entire position may be gained or lost by the fidelity or otherwise of a single sentry at his post.
For a moment let us consider this great conflict. It must have begun with the first uprising of pride and rebellion in Satan's heart, when for the first time he abode not in the truth. There was, prob- ably, war in heaven long ages before it broke out in the glades of Eden. It may even be that the earth herself bears marks of that an- cient conflict, though it became more markt and determined when man's destiny became the gauge of battle. It may appear some day that much of the carnage of creation, the ferocity of the tiger and the hawk, the violence of the hurricane, and the casualty of the earth- quake, are due to a disturbance introduced into God's creation by the sin of the archangel, who had been appointed the vicegerent and prince of the world, but who violated the first law of his creation, by assuming the prerogative of independence. It is enough, however, for us to learn the consideration of the malign effect of his fall on nations for the more certain and scriptural conception of its effect on man.
The inner thought of the fall was the successful assertion on the part of Satan of his superiority over the new creature which God had built up from the dust of the earth. By a lie he seduced him from the allegiance which he had so often plighted when he walked the glades of Ed"en in converse with his creator; and in that first act of rlisobe- dience Satan acquired a supremacy over Adam and his race which he has never failed to press to its utmost capabilities.
Since the fall, the government of man has been hcld by the prince of the power of the air, who is also the God of this world. and the entire system of idolatry, which is co-extensive with the family of man, is in its essence, demon-worship. This is clearly stated by the apostle, "This, I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God" (1 Cor. x. : 20), a statement which is corroborated by the universal witness of missionaries, that "the whole system of FetiEhism, is really demon-worship, and that the gifts of idol-votaries, are really presented to propitiate the evil ·spirits, which in their experience are only too much to be feared.
It is pl.'obable that heathenism is the dark veil beneath which the prince of evil enshrouds himself and his trusted emissaries. Daniel tells how the angel that came to him had been resisted and stayed by the Prince of Persia, in evident allusion to some strong evil spirit which hac delayed his progress (Dan. x.). And Ezekiel uses of Tyre words that, in their full meaning, are only applicable to the dark spirit that mled the city (Ezek. xxviii.). In perfect harmony with these two statements, the Apostle tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places (Eph. vi.). Putting all these statements together, are we not clearly taught that before headway can be made in the evangelization of any country, or the overthrow of any idolatry, the strong man who holds his goods in peace, has to be bound by the cords of faith and prayer. Probably, if the story of missions could be written from the heavenly standpoint, we should fini! that each advance was simultaneous with some casting out of the evil spirits that had been too long entrencht . in the dark superstitions and idolatries of the heathen-the casting out which was due to the faith and prayer of humble saints, who may have been removed from the scene of conflict by vast spaces of land or sea.
This thought may be carried even further. It is almost certain : that behind every strongly entrenched wrong in Christian laws, such as the liquor-interest, the betting-ring, the gigantic system of impurity which holds its myriads in thrall, we have to deal not with flesh and blood, but against evil spi:'its that hold and rule the hearts of men. Hence the necessity of having spiritual men engaged in the conflict. If we are contending with spirits, it is preposterous to use carnal weapons, such as rhetoric and human learning. You can only conquer spirit by spirit. And no man can hope to succeed in this fight, who has not already learnt the secrets of the overcoming life, and applied them successfully for the regimen of his own spirit.
Hence the importance also of prayer, because in this ~oly exercise lonely souls are able to throw their weight into the conflict, and the supplication or intercession offered in loneliness and solitude may avail to turn the scale in some distant place, as an ounce-weight cast into the scale, where two hundredweights are in balance, will make the one preponderate over the other.
Heaven and earth are in close sympathy. The angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. Satan is beheld falling from heaven, when a handful of humble disciples cast out a few demons, and perform a few other miracles. The heavens are bidden to rejoice, and Satan is cast out of some position of advantage, because the brethren on earth overcome with the blood of Jesus, and the word of their testimony.
Do not undervalue yourself. Do not underestimate the effect of your successes or failures. The position of every grain of sand affects to some extent the position of every other sand gra.in throughout the world. The weight of every asteroid reads on the balance of the spheres. The addition of every drop of moisture is felt on every tide on every beach around the world. We can not be neutrals in the great fight. If we are not for Ohrist we are against Him; if we do not gather with Him, we scatter abroad. It will make a real difference in briuging in the kingdom of God, whether we have fought a good fight, and finished our courEe. Let us, therefore, appropriate the memorable resolve of S. J. Mi1ls, of the Haystack Covenant, so to live as to make our influence felt to the remotest part of the world, and not here only but through all worlds, and all ages, to the glory of Christ, so that through us may come salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ.
THE ESSENCE OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL.
By every artifice which Satan can employ, moral beings, whether among the ranks of angels or men, are being blinded to the secret of blessed and healthy existence. In order to win and help his power, he endeavours to show that there is no policy comparable to that· of self-pleasing. To be one's own mastel', to follow the sway of inclination, to do good things from a selfish motive, to oppose even the power of Satan, because of the price to be paid with self-interest, this is the policy to which he uses all his arts to persuade. In the first temptation he told Eve and her husband that the tree was to be desired to make them wise, and its fruit would make them become as gods. In the temptation of our Lord, Satan strove to show that He had a perfect right to gratify appetite, to act 011 impulse and presume on the :Father's care, and to acquire the Kingdom by methods of selfpleasing, from which the cross and shame were eliminated.
In our Lord's words to Peter, when he answered his suggestion to spare Himself by the severe command, " Get thee behind me, Satan; " we may infer that in his apostle's advice, the Lord detected the same spirit against which He had so often contended in his conflicts with the evil one. 'The great enemy of rilan was always suggesting to the Son of Man that He could achieve his life-purpose by easier· methods, than by laying down his life.
When on the evening of His death, the Master said: "The Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me," His consciousness of the certainty of victory was determined by the knowledge that He had no will or way or purpose of His own, to which the evil one could direct his suggestions, or from which would emanate the least likelihood of yielding to his power.
The Christ spirit is, therefore, forever victorious over all the power of the enemy. It is as impervious to the attack of evil, as carbolic acid is to the fructification of spores of disease. When a spark comes to the ocean, it finds nothing in the briny waves on which to feed or kindle, and when the spirit of selfishness appeals to a nature in which there is nothing but perfect love, in which there is absolute selflessness, it rolls back paralyzed and conquered_ If we may dare to say it, the Divine Man has establisht in Himself a perfect antidote to the power of evi1. The spirit of love and life and entire devotion to the will of God in the service of man, is a rock on which the waves of hell break in clouds of spray. And just in proportion as we imbibe that spirit, are inoculated with that nature, and partake of that rock-like character, we, too, shall be more than conquerors. Good is love, the highest good is the most perfect love, and love is selflessness. There is none good but One, that is God, and God can not be tempted with evil, because He is good, and in Him is no darkness at all, no taint of self.
Evil is in some form or another the manifestation of the selfprinciple in which is darkness, hatred, misery, hel1.
Christ in our nature has lived a life of perfect selflessness and love. Thus He has overcome the power of the enemy, and is raised far above all principality and power and might and dominion. Through the ages He is living a life of pure and intense benevolence, goodness, love. Selflessness is regnant in our King; through Him love reigns over all spheres, and is carrying forward its blessed victories to the overthrow of the empire of darkness. And in so far as we ally ourselves with him, substitute His nature for onr own, repeat in our poor life something of the mighty music of His matchless natnre, we, too, shall overcome. The Christ-spirit in us will master the selfish spirit of the devil. Love must gain supremacy over hate. Those that follow the cross, and count not their lives dear to the death, must finally tread on all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt them. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world."
THE THREE-FOLD TALISMAN OF VICTORY.
The Blood of the Lamb.-The oue sufficient answer to the accusations of the great accuser before God, is the propitiatory death of the Lamb of God, for which the word Blood is the sufficient synonym. Let him say what he will against us, and he can hardly exaggerate the truth, there is one sufficient and satisfactory reply, " The Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed our hearts, and blotted out the handwriting that was against us, and contrary to us." There is uothing more to be said. 'rhis word ends the I1trife.
But, probably, there is even a profounder meaning. The Blood of Christ stands for His perfect love, His entire subordination to the will of His Father, His supreme devotion to the great cause of human salvation. And in so far as we drink of that blood, and are baptized into that spirit, and even fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of ·Christ, we learn the secret of perennial victory, and are able to stand in the evil day. We possess a thin red line that keeps the enemy at bay. In preaching it we let loose 11 principle throughout the world, the principle of selfless love even unto death, before which the powers of hell can not stand.
Again, as we proclaim the Blood of Christ, and all it means to the children of men,we emancipate them from the dread of the consequences of sin, which is Satan's most potent instrument of thraldom, we secure peace from the terrors of conscience, and the accusations of a broken law, and Wfil inspire them with desires to learn the secret of love as selfless, self-sacrifices as perfect. Thus we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb.
The Word of onr Testimony.-Weare sent to the world to resist the devil's lie, by bearing witness, as our Master did, to the truth. There is no such way of defeating error, as by presenting truth alongside. Suppose the artists of a given era are possest with false conceptions of nature, and of painting, a great critic may arise, who shall detect and criticise their mistake, but his words will not produce the same effect as if he were to present nature on his canvas with the faithful portraiture of a true witness. Let him hang his picture on the wall, and without a word of comment, it will show the inaccuracies and inaptitude of the school he desires to dispossess.
Such is the vocation of Uhrist's servants. When Satan presents men with a travesty of true peace, making it to consist in circum-
RECENT MISSIONARY BOOKS
stances and surroundings, we are called upon to show it consists in a state of heart, which outward conditions can not affect. When Satan makes joy consist in the hilarity of perfect health, or the stimulation of the stage, the music-hall, the dance, it is for us to bear witness that the unseen and eternal are the only true ministrants of enduring gladness. To this end we were born, and for this we came into the world that we might bear witness to the truth, and in doing so, refute the lies with which Satan deceives the whole world. Finally, the conscience which is within every man must recognize the voice of -ehe true Shepherd, and reject the false for the true.
The Prod1:gality 'With 1()7ticlt the Saints regard their L(fe.-" They loved not their life even unto death." In the great war we must follow our Master in absolute self-surrender. The resistance against evil must be carried even to blood. Like Paul, we must be willing to be poured out as a libation. There must be but one purpose-to do the will of God; one aim-to deliver men from the power of the devil; oue supreme and over-mastering love to which no hardships are too great, no expenditure too costly. Like our Master, we overcome in apparent failure, we conquer in apparent defeat, we are crowned and ascend the throne when our enemies think they have put out our name from under heaven.
RECENT MISSIONARY BOOKS.
BY THB EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
What furnishes a more abundant proof of t.he prominence of missions in the present age than the number, variQty and value of the books and periodicals which either treat of mission work directly or recognize in it a factor too mighty to be disregarded? The Literature of Missions is fast assuming a manifold form and a yet more manifold bearing; not only historic and biographic, it is becoming in effect also apologetic-presenting in itself a body of evidence that makes cavillers appear irrational and even ignorant, and proving Ohristianity to be of God by its divine effects.
The mere mention of good books issued during the past few years along the lines of missionary enterprise or in some way linkt with the work of a world's evangelization, would require more space than is consistent with the pressure of other matter. But we here bring to the reader's attention some books which have been submitted for review, or have in other ways compelled attention by their high merit and excellence. We give here a partial list of recent books bearing on missions, some of which have been already referred to in these pages, but are now mentioned in a classified list, for more convenient reference.
I. GENERAL.
Christian Missions and SociaIProgress..Jas. S. Dennis…………. Fleming H. Revell Co. $2.50 Strategic Points in theWorld's ConquestJno. R. Mott. ………….. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.00 Concise History of Missions ………… E. M. Bliss, D.D………… Fleming H. Revell Co. .75 Short History of Missions. (5th Ed.) …. Dr. Geo. Smith ..·……•… T. Clark, Edinburgh .. $1.00 Hand Book of Missions ……………… A. McLean ……………. Chn. Pub.Co. , St. Louis .50 Picket Line of Missions …………….. By Eight Authors ……… Eaton & Mains •.••…. $UA) In Lands Afar ……………………… Edited Dr. E. E. Strong … A. B. C. F. M………. $1.25 A Century of Christian Martyrs …….. Rev. F. S. Harris……… Jas. Nisbet, London… .75 Child Life in Mission Fields….. . .. ….. Barby & Smith…….. ti.oo Methodist Episcopal Missions. 3 Vols .. Reid·Gracey …………… Eaton & Mains… …. .00 Church Missionary Society Workers … Emily Headland ……….. Jas. Nisbet, London… 1.00 Hist. SketchesPresb.MisslOns. (New Ed.) Pres. W. B. F. M… … 1.00 Philip Melanchthon ………………… David J. Deane………… Fleming H. Revell Co. .75 The Growth of the Kingdom of God ….Sidney L. Gulick ……….Fleming H. Revell CO:'!,50 Chosen of God ……………………… Rev. Herbert W. Lathe … Fleming H. Revell Co. 1.25 Dictionary of Treatment…………. Wm. Whitte, M.D ……… H. Renshaw, London.. .00 Autobiography ofChas. F. Deems, D.D.By His Sons ……………Fleming H. Revell Co. 1.50 II. AFRICA.
Chronicles of Uganda ……………… R. P. Ashe ……………. Randolph & Co., N. Y. i1.50 Seven Years in Sierra Leone ………… A. T. Pierson …………. Revell & Co……….. 1.00 Wril. & Louisa Anderson. (Old Calabar).Wm. Marwick …………. And. Elliot, Edinburgh 1.50 Madagascar of To·day ……………… Rev. W. E. Cousins…….. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1.00 Madagascar Before the Vonquest……. James Sibree………. , … Macmillan & Co ……. $2.00 Africa and the American Negro…….. Prof. J. W. E. Bowen….Gammon Theo. Sem.. '11.00 Pioneering in Morocco ……………… Dr. Robt. Kerr, M.D ….. H. R. Allenson, N. Y.. 1.50 David Livingstone. (New Edition) …. Dr. W. G. Blaikie ……… Fleming H. Revell Co. 1.50 III. TURKEY AND PERSIA.
Letters from Armenia …………….. Prof. J. Rendell Harris. .Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25 Conversion of Armenia: ………: ……. W. St. C!air Tisdall……..Fleming H. Revell Ce:>. $1.40 Turkey and the Armeman AtroCitIes … E. M. BlIss…………….. Hubbard Pub.Co.,Ph,1. $2.00 Persian Life and Customs ………….. Rev. S. G. Wilson ……•.. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25 IV. INDIA.
Twelve Indian Statesmen …………… Dr. Geo. Smith………… John Murray, London. fi'OO Missionary Pioneers in India ………… Jno. Rutherford ………. And Elliot,Edinburgh 1.00 Life ofT. Valpy French. 2 Vols …….. Rev. Herbert Birks……. John Murray, London. 3.00 In the Tiger Jungle …………………. Jacob Chamberlain, D.D.. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.0t) Chn. Service Among Educ'd Bengalese. R. P. Wilder …….•. .- ….. Gazette Press, Lahore. $1.25 Letters from Ceylon…. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fannie Gregson . . . . . . . . . . . Marshall Bros., Lon … $1.00 V. CHINA. A History-ofChina …………….•…. Dr. S. Wells Willial!'s ….. Chas..Scribner's sons"I~'oo A Cycle of Cathay…………………. Rev. W. A. P. Martm, D.D.Flemmg H. Revell Co. 2.00 26 Years of Miss'y.Work in China……. Mrs. Grace Stott………. Am. Tract. Soc., N. Y. 1.75 Eye·Gate, or Native Art in the Evangel· ization of China …………………. Dr. Wm. Wilson ………. Partridge & Co., Lon. .60 China and Formosa ……………….. Rev. Jas. Johnston ……. Fleming H. Revell ('0. $1.25 Sister Martyrs of Kucheng. . . . . .. . …. Letters of Miss Saunders. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.50 VI. KOREA. Korea and Her Neighbors…………… Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop.Fleming H. Revell Co. $2.00 VII. JAPAN. The Gist of Japan ………………….. R. B. Peery …. , ……….. Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.25 Rambles in Japan ………………… Canon Tristam ………… Fleming H. Revell Co. $2.00 From Sunrise Land ………………… Amy Wilson·Carmichael. . Marshall Bros., Lon … $1.25 Religions of Japan …………………. Rev. Dr. W. E. Griffis ….. Chas. Scribner's Sons.. $2.00 VIII. ISLANDS OF THE SEA. Hawaii, Our New Possessions………… Jno. R. Musick ………… Funk & Wagnalls Co.. 1.75 Pioneering in New Guinea ………….. Jas. Uhalmers …………. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1.50 Een Yaar op Reis in Dienst Der Zendig .Fe Leon Cachet…………Amsterdam…. '" …. .00 IX. AMERICAN INDIANS. On the Indian Trail ………………… Rev. Edgerton R.Young.Fleming H. Revell Co. $1.00 Conquest of the Sioux ……………… D. C. Gilman …………. Carlon & Hollenbeck.. .75 X. EUROPE. Robt. W. McAll ……………………. Mrs. McAll ……………. FlemingH. Revell Co. $1.50 Christian Life in Germany ………….. E. F. Williams, D.D …… ,Fleming H. Revell Co. '$1..50 The foremost in rank is "Christian Missions and Social Progre'ss," before referred to ill these pages. 'fhe extent and magnitude of this work may be inferred from the fact that the one volume so far issued, embraces over 4GO pages octavo, and a second, of like dimensions, is being prepared. This work gives evidence of no hasty preparation. It will take first place among sociological treatises on missions, which are not numerous. It is scholarly, as became lectures first given in the halls of colleges and seminaries of learning, and is made doubly attractive by its artistic and unique illustrations, over sixty pages being thus adorned; while its value is greatly enhanced by the pains and patience expended in securing accurate statistics-a department where exactness is so difficult to attain. This book every student of missions, CLASS IN CARPENTRY, LOVEDALE INSTITUTE, SOUTH AFRICA.
(By courtesy of Fleming H. Revell Co. From" Christian Missions and Social Progress,") and of Christianity, will want to study; no other so broadly covers the field of its special survey.
The contributions to missionary biography are remarkably complete. If any man of modern times deserves to rank among the biographers of good and great men, surely it is Dr. George Smith, whose golden pen has given such masterly portraits of Duff and Carey and Wilson and Martyn and Heber. Here we have his latest, just at hand -" Twelve Indian Statesmen "-Charles Grant, Henry and John Lawrence, James Outram, Donald McLeod, Henry M. Durand, Colin Mackenzie, Herbert Edwardes, John C. Marshman, Henry Maine, Henry Ramsay, Chas. Aitchison-the empire-builders of the nineteenth' cen- tury. All but the first, the biographer knew personally, and some of them intimately. Dr. Smith has rare power of historical analysis and synthesis. He separates, classifies and combines, with equal skill. He sees events and men in their succession and in their procession. His eye takes them in, in the individuality that belongs to each, and sees the providential relation that each sustains to all; and thus he becomes a true philosopher of missionary history. This new volume we hope will have an American edition. Those who would test its value should read for example the splendid monograph on John Lawrence, the third of these pen portraits. The description of the great pageant at Agra on Nov. 20, 1866, is itself a masterpiece of word painting.
"The Life and Correspondence of Thos. Valpy French, First Bishop of Lahore," is in two volumes, each embracing 400 pp., octavo, superbly gotten up and a credit to author and publisher alike. This biography verifies the saying, that the world knows nothing of its greatest men. Bishop French was a C. M. S. missionary in North India for 18 years, and bore remarkable resemblance to Henry Martyn. One was honored by Oxford, the other by Cambridge; both were men whose one aim was to be holy and useful; both labored among Mohammedans and both finally left India and died in Arabia in the service of missions to Moslems. Bishop French's grave, like Keith Falconer's, is both a milestone and a stepping stone for missions to the Arabs.
Here we may add a word about" Brief Sketches of C. M. S.Workers," containing 25 biographical sketeheH in one volume of over 300 pages, which are both readable and valuable. How could it be otherwise where you have a gallery of portraits of Henry Venn, Dr. Krapf, Bishop Crowther, A. M. Mackay, and others like them!
" William and Louisa Anderson" is a record of life and work in Old Calabar. Mr. Anderson we ha.ve persona.lly known and loved for his own, as well as his work's sake, and his wife was, indeed, an hell)- meet for him. This godly man had the rare honor of having presented to him a "Jubilee" address from the U. P. Foreign Mission Board of Scotland, on the completion of his fiftieth yeal' of mission work. The presentation was made by our dear friend, Hon. Duncan McLaren, in 1890. In 1892 Mr. Anderson visited his relatives in America, and at the advanced age of 80 years, still kept preaching. Also on his return to Scotland, where we last saw him we found him as ready as ever to go back to Old Galabar, and having all the enthusiasm, if not energy, of youth. On September 29th, 1895, he actually sailed for the beloved home of his life's labors. He had his heart's desire, but it also proved to be the closing scene. After his death some facts came to light that illumine his saintly character. For instance, after his retiring allowance of £120 annually was voted him, he "complained (?) that it was too large" and askt that half of it might be given to the aged ministers' fund and the foreign mission fund! This is a fair specimen of the man, one of the noblest missionary patriarchs we have ever seen, and one who reminded us of Robert Moffat.
"The P:cket Line of Missions," is the happy name of a book con- taining nine sketches on Livingstone, Mackay of U gallda, Keith-Fal- coner, Sia Sek Ong, Dr. Kenneth Mackenzie, Bishop 'l'hobnrn, Mary Reed, John Williams and John Hunt. 'l'hese sketches are from eight different pens-with an intmduction which has on it the marks of that Johannean man, Bishop Ninde. Eaton and Mains have given a cheap but-most attractive book to the Epworth Leaguers, in these portraits of the Advance Guard. The spirit of holy heroism burns in the book and is contagious. Variety is consulted, as may be seen when the difference is considered between the great missionary explorer of Africa and ~he humble convert of China, or between Mary Re,ed in India, and Keith Falconer in Arabia; and every Christian reader m'ay find his" affinity" here, and get a new impulse and inspiration.
Among other biographies, not bearing directly on missions, we may mention" Philip Melanchthon," a delightful sketch of the " John" of the Reformation; and" Scripture Photographs," by Dr. J, Elder Cum- ming, who never writes a puor book or preaches a dull sermon. (Drum- mond's'l'ract Depot, Sterling.) "The Chronicles of Uganda" is a specimen of the historical books which deal with special jielils. '['his country, in the interior of the dark continent, is the cynosure of all eyes. Never, since apcstolic days, has there been a miracle of missions surpassing what has occurred there withiu fifteen years, and particularly within the last five. It seems beyond belief that since Bishop Hannington was shot, such revolutions have taken place; and such transformations in the whole religious aspect of the pe.ople. Uganda is the great modern answer to doubts about the living God and the living Book of God. Mr. Ashe, in his "Chronicles," has given an interesting and valuable record of the religious and political conditions and changes of the country. '['he book abounds in well selected half-tone illustrations.
"Twenty six Years of Missionary Work in China" is a book of • which Hudson Taylor says he found not a dull line in it. Mrs. Stott has a right to be heard. She has something to say: it is a story of faith, prayer, and patience. When her husband fell at his post, she bravely took up his work and carried it on, even to the preachingj and the mission she conducts is so well shepherded that Mr. Tayloi' finds it practicable to let it alone, scarcely supervising it. Those whv think a prayer-hearing God is dead, or that the old Gospel is, like Samson, blinded and shorn, should read Mrs. Stott's charming story.
"China and Formosa" is from the pen of a man well known to many as the Secretary of the World's Conference of Missions at Exeter Hall in 1888, as well as by his missionary work and writings. He is careful, scholarly, able, with modesty as great as his merit. There are some men whose imagination holds the brush when they paint; Mr. Johnson's fancy does not play with fact, or robe it in illusive attire. He is a mathematician in preciseness and accuracy, and his book is one on which the reader may rely. But, with all its carefulness of statement, it is by no means lacking in all that means an interesting volume. Numerous illustrations add their charm to the narrative.
"From Sunrise Land" come the letters of a charming woman, put into the usual beautiful form in which the publishers present matter to the public. Those who read this book become companions of a most lovely worker for God in her daily ministries in the Sunrise Kingdom, and are taken into her confidence. There is no attempted "style" or eloquent" periods"-simple as she is, is the story she tells, but it is full of the aroma of Ohristliness.
"Letters from Oeylon ,; deserves to go side by side with Miss Carmichael's book. The two are alike, and the authors are not unlike, but this sorrowful contrast is suggested-our dear brother, Rev. J. Gelson Greggson, has laid' his daughter to sleep in Ohilan, and her husband (Mr. I .iesching) followed her less than a month later. These are the last letters that this saintly woman's hand will ever write.
A valuable account of mission work in Java is" Een Yaar op Reis in Dienst Der Zendig," covering a department of mission work which needs just such a full presentation. The book has 800 pp., and glows with fine illustration. We hope some good translation may make it accessible to English readers. It is a matter of regret that so much valuable matter should be lockt up in the chambers of a foreign tongue.
If the writer be permitted to mention his own work in this connection, "Seven Years in Sierra Leone" is the story of W. A. B. J oh.nson's marvelous labors, between 1816 and ] 823. The fact that the original memoir is out of print, and that the narrative is of almost unequaled interest, constrained the Editor of this REVIEW to put it forth in this new form, which he hopes may bring it to the knowledge of many, llnd pro-ve a divine impulse to a like holy life.
"Rambles in Japan" and" The Gist of Japan," both beautiful and artistic pieces of presswork, are what they claim to be-only that the "rambles" are by no means rambling. If anything more than has been written could be said about this little empire near the sunrise, it is here suggested. History changes so fast in Japan where a sudden Rennaissance has come to pass, that while a book is going through the press, events make it half antiquated. The" Gist of Japan" is an excellent digest of what one wishes to know in regard to th~ country, people and missions.
The book market presents also some very useful and marvelously condenst text booles, suc~ as the "Handbook of Missions," (Bethany Reading Course Oommittee, Cleveland, 0.), whose writer is himself an able missionary secretary, and author also of a volume of fourteen "Missionary Addresses;" both books being meant and fitted to quicken and direct intelligent zeal for a world's redemption.
"The Short History of Christian Missions" is out in a fifth edition. Of course, every student of missions has that; and now comes a new "Concise History of Missions," which packs about as much information into 300 pp. duodecimo as can often be found. This will be a favorite text book and is one of the modern helps to study, eminently suited to the student volunteers and others who want multwn in parvo.
Not every record, however, can or ought to be so condensed; and it is a "matter of great satisfaction to see Dr. Reid's "Missions of the M. E. Church" enlarged by our true yokefellow, Dr. Gracey, into three volumes of 500 pp: each. Here is an encyclopedia of "Yethodist Missionary Societies and their work, and it is well worth its theme and gifted author and editor. It is embellisht with maps.
"Historical Sketches of Presbyterian Missions" is an old friend in a new dress. It always was first-rate and is now, if possible, better in its new and enlarged edition.
"The Growth of the Kingdom of God," is an attempt on the part of a missionary to the Island Empire, to present, primarily before Japanese young men, the proof of Christianity's power in the world. 'fhe book is confessedly an apologetic: it exhibits the growth of God's mustard seed-in numbers, uuderstanding, practice, and influence among the nations where it has been planted. The charts are a distinctive feature. Mr. Gulick puts the results of his study in a form t.o be easily graspt and retained.
"In Lands Afar" is a series of sketches already charming the younger readers of the Missionary Herald, gathered now in a preservable form for reference. Those wh() have been accustomed to find in the Herald a feast of fat things will know what a banquet is here spread.
" Christian Life in Germany" is a much-needed book, treating of one of the great thought centres of the world; what happens there concerns the race. Dr. Williams has sought to acquaint us with this nation, to give the key to the life of a great people, especially intellectually, morally, socially, and religiously. He helps us to' understand them, to sympathize'with the sceptical tendencies and to interpret the socialistic sentiment so prevalent. We have been especially interested in his sketch of Pietism and the" Inner Mission," but we have as yet found not a page that had no charm about it. Whether or not one agrees with Dr. Williams, he always finds that the writer's converse is uplifting and instructive.
" A Dictionary of Treatment" is a comprehensive therapeutic index of 1000 pp., a copy of which the author has sent free to fifteen hundred "missionaries, as a help and guide in medicine and surgery, where often skillful attendance is not at hand. It is the work of a lifetime to present such information in a form so portable and useful; and it is a noble service to humanity to send such a book as a free gift to the ends of the earth.
" Eye-Gate or Native Art in the Evangelization of China," is the title of a unique and attractive book recently prepared by William Wilson of the China Inland Mission. The object of this book is twofold, appealing alike to missionaries in China and to those at home interested in the spread of Christ's Kingdom in heathen lands.
Missionaries, in China as elsewhere, realize the value of Scripture prints, magic lantern illustrations, etc., to instruct native Christians.
THE PRODIGAL SON. SCENE 11 THE DEPA.RTURE.
Among those unfamiliar with Christian truth such means are of little value and often prove a positive hindrance because the foreign character of the picture distracts the mind from the truth. In" Eye-Gate," Scripture stories. and parables are illustrated with pictures designed and executed entirely by a Chinese artist, so that these are Chinese in every detail. One of these illustrations we reproduce here.
These pictures are printed in colors and were originally painted in large cartoons suitable for open-air preaching. The subjects delineated comprise The Prodigal Son, The Good Samaritan, Noah and the Flood, The Horrible Pit, and The Miry Clay and The Burden of Sin. Each subject includes several scenes, and is accompanied by an explanatory key. The book contains, in addition, several chapters on the progress and prospects of missionary work in China.
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
n.-MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT.
JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INDIA.-I.
The Oosmopolitan presents a vivid and awful picture of the horrors of famine and plague in India, in the valuable series of papers publisht in the July to the November numbers from the graphic pen of Julian Hawthorne, the Oosmopolitan}., special commissioner to India. Mr. Hawthorne was deeply imprest with what he saw and heard, and has written in candid, clear and convincing manner of harrowing conditions prevailing, the inadequate methods of relief, and the outlook for the future.* We are obliged to reserve perhaps the most striking part of Mr. Hawthorne's account for our next issue. He says in part: THE PLAGUE CITY (Bombay) is built on a round flat-an island-the greater part of which hardly rises above high water mark, and even sinks below it here and there; but an acclivity, about one huoored feet in height, called Malabar Hill, occupied by the government house and the bungalows of wealthy people, extends in the form of a promontory into the western sea.
The population of the "Bazaar," or native town, is about nine hundred thousand, but the buildings containing it are crowded together in a very small area; some single houses are occupied by as many as two thousand persons. The site of the Bazaar is the least salubrious on the island. To the north is spread out the European quarter, with large and handsome public buildings. The streets are wide, connecting immense squares or open places. They are constantly swept and watered. Everywhere passes to and fro a mixt and incongruous population, Asiatic and European, naked and clothed. The thermometer in Bombay seldom shows a temperature above ninety· eight degrees, but the atmosphere is always miasmatic and fevedsh, and the humidity makes the heat far more debilitating than th(j scorching suns of the arid interior country. No white man living in Bombay can ever be or feel entirely well. The air is poisonous. The poison may act quickly or slowly on individuals, but it alw:;tys acts.
I began my investigations with a drive through the Bazaar, or native quarter. The narrow, irregular streets lie between queer buildings, misplaced, uneven, grotesque, salient with odd features; some low, some high, their fronts and roofs balconied, hooded, gabled, crowding upon the sky, the eccentric lines of structure defined in various colors; over them glared down the blinding Indian sun, casting strange shadows. Upon the door-jams were painted innumerable red circles and crosses-plague and death. These sinister marks were by no means restricted to the poorer houses, many of the most pretentious were scarred with them. Death unseen and silent was all about me; it burrowed in the soil; it hid in the walls; it hovered in the air; it lurkt in the squalid nudity of the swarthy figures that thronged the narrow ways, squatted -at the street corners, croucht within the shadows of booths. Hunting down the plague is a ghastly business. The circumstances and details of the pursuit could hardly be more redoient of horror and loathsomeness.
A house was markt down for visitation in the midst of the Bazaar. You could not see anything of it from the street; it was screened by other houses; but it was large enough to contain six hundred people. It was built round an interior court, perhaps five and twenty feet square; the four walls inclosing it went stag- • Send fifty cents to The Cosmopolitan, Irvington, New York, for July to November numbers, and read these articles in full.-Ed.
1M8.] JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INblA
gering upward, story above story, so that we seemed to stand at the bottom of a well. But what a well! The place even here, beneath the open sky, smelt like a -cesspool. The ground under foot was boggy and foul, it was composed of dung and rotten matter of all kinds, and upon investigation proved to extend down- ward to a depth of no less than five feet. This huge and festering mass of coagu- lated filth had been accumulating uncheckt, deep down in that pit of human habitations, for fifty years past. The heat, quite apart from the poison of the atmosphere, was stifling and intolerable; there could never be any movement of air in this place, nor could the sunlight penetrate its hideous depths. But the windows of three-score living-rooms opened upon it, and this was the atmosphere which the inhabitants drew into their lungs day and night. / The people who crept and peept about the place assured us that sickness of any kind was quite unknown in this savory retreat. At the same time they admitted that several families were at that moment on a visit to their friends in tile country, and had lockt up their apartments. Hereupon orders were given to inspect the house from top to bottom, and to break open all closed doors unless keys were promptly forthcoming.
The harvest of disease and death reapt in that single house was terribly large.
Every room entered was dark, and the breath that came from it was uubreathable.
Some were empty; three contained each but a single occupant-two were dead and one was dying. In one room, at the end of a stifling and lightless corridor, down which we had" groped and stumbled, feeling along the filthy walls for pos- sible doors, we found a mother and her baby lockt in and left to die alone. The woman was barely able to move, but with her last strength she covered with a fold of her sari the body of her infant, lest it should be seen and taken away from her. There was no food or water in the room; there was a number of rats, all dead. The floor was uneven with the compacted grease, rubbish, and excre- mentitious filth of years, and in the dull flash of the lantern there could be dis- cerned an obscure scuttling of obscene insects, disturbed at their banquet.
Now, the family and neighbors of this mother and her child had complacently lockt them up there in the darkness and horror to die a lingering and tortured death; they had done so with the victim's full consent, and the reason was that both parties to the transaction preferred such an end to accepting the light, air, cleanliness and devoted nursing which the government offered them. If caste, superstition and ignorance can bring the descendants of a mighty race to this, what lower depth remains for them? And is this the ultimate goal of our clever contemporary Theosophists? One wishes the Mahatmas would come to Bombay and demonstrate to these turgid English how much better than Christianity is the esoteric doctrine.
How many hospitals there may now be in Bombay I know not. New ones were being added weekly and almost daily while I was there. Three'big ones in different quarters of the city would have been enough; but the difficulties of caste had to be met, and each person relegated, so far as possible, to his or her own kind. The cooking must be done either by persons of the same caste as the patients or higher-I suppose the Brahmans could have cooked for anybody except for some of themselves. No doubt one might be too sick to know whether they were being profaned or not; but it is wonderful to note how vital the caste instinct is in this people; it seems to die, if at all, only just before the body, and not seldom it might be said to survive it.
The so-called Servants' Hospital, on made land adjoining the docks, consists of four sheds, made of matting stretcht on Bamboo frames and whitewasht.
These constituted the hospital wards. A range of smaller huts behind them served to accommodate the friends of the patients, the workers, the dispensary
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
and the kitchen; the dead-house was removed a few rods to the north. The aspect of all was clean and airy. Each ward contained four beds and could have held many more. The nurses-men and women, native and European-past from cot to cot, taking temperature, dressing bubos, adjusting coverings, giving medicine or food.
In the first ward lay a middle-aged Hindu, with a blanket drawn up to his shoulders, and a piece of white mosquito-netting thrown over his face to shield him from the flies. He was drawing his breath with difficulty, in stertorous gasps, which heaved up the folds of the blanket under which his wasted body lay. The attendant pulled aside the netting, there were patches of black on his pincht brown face, his eyes were open and shining, but fixt; he did not notice us or change his posture. " He will die before sunset," remarkt the doctor, replacing the netting; "the disease has taken the pneumonic form in his case."
THE BANDORA . PLAGUE HOSPITAL, INDIA.
(By courtesy of The q081nopolitan.) So far as a visitor could judge, all the arrangements and proceuure of this -little hospital were as well-conceived and as efficient as they could be. All was done that could be done for the people. Often the latter come for treatment too late; often they refused medicine or inoculation, and by far the greater part of them die-there is no cure for the plague. But the almost hopeless fight is steadfastly maintained; and, at least, it is bett& that the victims should die here than in the hideous surroundings which they would choose for themselves.
The newly started government hospital at Parel, given for the purpose by Lord Sandhurst, isa huge, irregular builuing, with spreading wings and a lofty columnal portico. This place had been for many years the palace and headquarters of the governors of Bornbay, but for a long time past had stood unoccupied, the governors preferring more salubrious qlarters on the seaward promontory of Malabar Hill.
A native attendant with whom I talkt, said that altho the people were so unwilling to come to hospitals, yet.after having been brought there they became unwilling to leave. Mauy arrive, he said, who have not got the plague; but their houses have been destroyed and their furniture and clothing burnt; they have nowhere to go; their relatives were dead or had got away to the country.
JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INDIA
STARVING INDIA.
The only persons of white blood who know what is actually going on are the missionaries, for they go about quietly everywhere, see everything, and can not be deceived or put off the scent by the native subordinates. Nor are the latter much concerned to deceive them; for they know that what a missionary says would not be accepted by the government if it contradicted the reports of its own agents. A missionary, in the eye of the government, is a worthy but sentimen~al and unpractical personage, whose sympathies are readily workt upon, and who knows nothing of political economy. The weight attaching to their assertions is, therefore, the government thinks, entitled to the respect which belongs to good intentions, but to little more. Now, anything further from the truth than is this prepossession on the part of the government it would be hard to conceive. It was my great good fortune to be thrown with the missionaries from the start, and I was able to compare their methods and knowledge with those of the government people.
Let me most emphatically declare that the English in India are doing all that wisdom and experience can devise, and heroic energy and devotion execute, to combat and diminish this stupendous calamity; they are sparing neither time, money nor life itself. But whatever they do as a government is voided of a moiety or more of its effect by the strkt necessity they are under to employ native subordinates. The moment their white backs are turned, the native sub- ordinates pocket a part (as much as is safe, and often rather more) of the money. It is impossible to stop this wholesale robbery, for the simple reason that there are not white men enough in India for that purpose. The area affected by the famine is nearly half as large as the United States; the means of transport are still inadeqnate to enable one to reach the greater part of it; and the climate is terrible beyond the belief of anyone who has not experienced it. No white man can live in the plains of India; all he can do is to survJve until he can get away to the hills, or back to England.
Millions, literally, of the people starve to death without the government hav- ing any knowledge thereof. Eight millions-eight times the popUlation of New . York, nearly twice that of London, have already died of the famine in India. Think, if you can, of this number of persons slowly turning into skeletons and dying for lack of food-and no one knowing anything about it. And were it not for the hero!:! and unselfish efforts that England is making, this stupendous total would be multiplied l1y two, or even three. Nor does the mortality by any means stop with the immediate deaths; for millions will be left, after the famine proper is past, with no means. of cultivating crops-their bullocks have died, and their tools have been sold for foC)d. And millions more will have been so weakened that their constitutions can never recover from the shock; they will droop month after month and year after year. Children especially, after having reacht a certain stage of hunger, never recover; they will not appear upon the books that record the mortality of the famine, but they will die of the famine none the less, even tho when they die they may be in tIle midst of plenty.
There is one thing we can do to help India, and only one-we can send money. If we would (and how easily we could) raise a hundred million dollars here. and cause as much as possible of it to be distributed through the various missionaries on the ground, we would almost dispose of any further danger of starvation in India. The missionaries do not work through native officials; the money they distribute is given by them directly into the hands of the starving persons themselves. Of course, the number of missionaries is very limited, and the number of persons they can reach is correspondingly so. But with means in their hands, the area of their activity would be greatly increast. Let each of
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
us remember that one dollar, properly applied, will keep a human being alive in India for a month. How many of us can afford to let that one dollar stay in our pockets, or go in tips to waiters, or in peanuts at a baseball match, or in cocktails and cigars? A score of persons have died in India of starvation while you have been reading the above passage.
Jubbulpore was my first stopping place. I drove through the native city- a crowded, huddled up, uneven mass of buildings. looking older and more primi- tive than Bombay. The inhahitants throng the winding streets and the houses, and squat or sit directly in the roadway in great numbers, getting up and moving aside reluctantly to let my ghari pass. They are more, and more generally, naked than the Bombay people. In the grain.market section of the town quantities of grain were spread out on the streets, with venders and buyers squatting beside and upon it. The latter wel'e mostly bony remnants of human beings; the former were uniformly plump and often fat. Near a fountain, surrounded by worship- ers, sat an old fakir, his face smeared with ashes, his hair matted with filth, clad in a dirty twist of a rag; he was eating raw grain with an expression of crazy self-complacency. Further on was a Hindu temple, with two or three priests under the portico, calm and clean. At the door of a mud hut a lusty young woman sprawled naked on her back, nursing a naked baby, which scrambled over her bare stomach. 'There were many women whose arms and legs were loaded with silver bangles; and many more who tottered along on bony limbs, and were recognizable as women only by stature and head-dress.
After tiffin, Mr. Johnson, the resident American missionary, drove me to the relief-camp and poor-house, where are kept persons who are unable, from weak- ness or disease, to lab01' on the government relief works, All are under the supervision of white inspectors, one of whom should visit them daily.
We first entered an orphanage, being met at the gate by a native supervisor, a shrewd and hard.looking oriental of sixty. There were hundreds of children, mostly under ten, standing or sitting about the large inclosure; they had lost their parents either by death or desertion-for at a certain stage of starvation the' parental instinct disappears, and fathers and mothers abandon their offspring with a terrible apathy. Indian children are normally active, intelligent and comely, with brilliant eyes, like jewels. A few of these little creatures, who had been taken in before starvation had gone too far, lookt fairly well; but the major- ity-death walkt among them and would sooner or later carry them away. You could count the ribs in the least emaciated of them; but there were scores of figures there upon which I could scarcely endure to look. The abdomen, espec- ially in children, is often largely distended, and tight as a drum, as if overloaded – with food; and I have heard persons, looking at photographs of such, remark that these, at any rate, mnst have had 8. hearty meal. But it is not food, but the lack of it, which causes this distension; there is disease of the liver, which becomes enormously swollen with wind. A child who reaches this condition hardly ever survives. The contrast between this abnormal rotundity and the emaciation of the limbs, chest and back is grotesque and horrible. As for the faces of these children, nothing childlike remains of them. The dark skin is stretched on a fieshless skull; the lips are mere skin, and shrink back from the teeth, the eyes glimmer dimly in hollow sockets, unless, as is often the case, they have been eaten away by the ophthalmia, which is among the consequences of starvation. Creatures thus reduced are not seldom fed by the native supervisors on insufficiently cooked or even raw grain-the result is diarrhea, dysentery and cholera, of which every camp of this kind contains many cases, Well, this is starvation !
From the orphanage we went to the general poor-house; here were men and
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY
older children. They had lost, literally, everything. All was gone-all, except the rag which bound their loins. They showed us their hands, worn with toil, but now bloodless and shriveled. They showed us their bellies-a mere wrinkle of empty skin. Twenty per cent. of them were blind; their very eyeballs were gone. The joints of their knees stood out between the thighs and shinbones as in any other skeleton; so did their elbows; their fleshless jaws and skulls were sup- ported on necks like those of pluckt chickens. Their bodics-they had none; only the framework was left. A certain portion of them lookt in better condi- tion than the others; but it was at best a sorry exhihit. Yet this Jubbulpore poor-house is consiuered one of the best conducted of them all.
We went to the women's poor-house. There were fewer women than men; I askt the missionary why. " They die quicker," was his reply. I can not portray their aspect; everything womanly had disappeared, and with it all womanly modesty. We began to make the round of the sheds. Most of the women here were lying down and could not rise; they tried to lift their heads and mutter some· thing; but the effort was too much, and they fell back. The missionary, used to trying sights, turned abruptly away, and said to me in a choking voice, "Let's get out of this." One can endure the sight of a great deal of pain and misery, if one is capable of relieving it; but otherwise it is hard. – I went home with the good missionary, who had invited me to spend the night at his bungalow; and when, before we went to bed, he knelt down and askt God to bless the poor heathen, I silently joined in the prayer with all my heart.
(To be Oo?Wluded in February.) THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY.
REV. R. M. PATTERSON, D. D.
In the year 1000 the number of nominal Christians in the world was computed at about only 50,000,000; in 1500, 100,000,000; in 1700, 155,000,000; in 1800, 250,000,000; and now, in a world population of about 1,430,000,000, 477,000,000.
As to the different governments of the world and the people whom they rule, nearly 800,000,000 of the 1,430,000,000 inhabitants of the world are under Christian governments. The progress, at first slow, has been with an ever-increasing ratio.
As to the different forms of Christianity. In the year 1700 there were 90,- 000,000 of the inhabitants of the world under Roman Catholic governments; 33,000,000 under Gteek, and 32,000,000 under Protestant; and now the number under Protestant is about 450,000,000 of the 800,000,000 who are under Christian governments.
As to the Uniteu States, the latest reports (of 1896) give 25,424,333 as the number of communicant members in all the churches of all kinds, and about 10,- 000,000 children in all the Sunday-schools, which figures seem to leave a large proportion of the popUlation beyond all direct ecclesiastical connection, not connected in any way with any of the churches or schools, tho, of course, many of those who are not members of any church may be in families some of whose members are in the churches and schools and attendants upon the services, and, in some measure, under their intIuence.
The contrast between the little Ante-Pentecostal Church in Jerusalem of 120 members and the millions upon millions among almost all nations now is great in the arithmetical figures, but the Omniscient One alone knows the number of the saved for eternity-the multitude of true and obedient believers in the crucified
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
Jesus, and the incomparably greater multitude still of all the infant dead, who have been taken to the glory of heaven during the terrestrial strife and progress. And as to the intellectual, moral, social, restraining, elevating influence which Christianity has had upon society at large in the nations it has reacht, and not merely upon those who have been eternally saved through it, what human pen can describe it all ?-Condensed from Trea,8ury of Religious Thought, PENTECOSTAL TIMES IN SOLTH AFRICA.
Last year (1897) George Weavers, of Tabor, Iow::1, U. S. A., a plain man of God, with little education of this world, but a faithful student of God's Word, and a man of much prayer, has been used by the Holy Spirit to begin the work which since his departure for America in February has swept like a mighty tide over the whole mission (Natal). There is no leader of the movement except the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He uses a missionary to utter His message, and some- times He uses a school girl or boy, or calls an ignorant kraal girl just out of heathenism. No matter what the instrument, men listen and act as though their lives depended on it.
The revival has swept through our schools with great power. The 180 girls at Inanda Seminary have been shaken like leaves in a tempest. The boys in Amanzimtoti Seminary have been wonderfully stirred. Sleep was abandoned to afford time for confessions. The teachers stood amazed to see the work which they had struggled so hard to accomplish, done so easily and thoroughly by the Spirit's power. The Inanua church, where a division had arisen that split the church from end to end with fearful hatred and lying, has been through the fire of the Holy Spirit's searching until men have forgotten their personal animosity in their fear for their personal salvation, and now .seems welded together in brotherly love and service. In the entire history of the mission there has been no such awakening among the people.
WONDERFUL WORK IN NATAL.
Mrs. Cowles sends the following account of the work in the Boys' Normal School at Amanzimtoti:- " The work of the Spirit became manifest on Saturday eve, March 13th, in the boys' Prayer Meeting. The next day, Mr. Cowles in his usual Sunday evening talk to the boys, took repentance for his subject. When Mr. Cowles dismist the boys he askt any who would like to talk to him to come to his office. The room was soon crowded and adjournment was made to the boys' study. Then began a never to be forgotten scene. Such confessions! such a pouring fortll of sins! Lying, stealing, social vice, immorality of every sort. Every sin, except murder was confest. The meeting continued until 3 A. M., and that was the beginning of this wonderful work. After several meetings of confession, there came a great crying unto the Lord for forgiveness, followed by earnest seeking for the gift of God's Holy Spirit-His indwelling. Then came the conviction that ere this blessing could come, W1'ongS as far as possible must be righted and reparation made.
" A very markt feature of this movement on all the stations has been the giving up of the use of tobacco, it being included in the same category as love charms and evil medicines. We hear of piles, literally bushels of pipes, snuff boxes, and charms, being brought into the meeti~g, and at one of the stations they have had a great public burning of these implements of Satan. That God's spirit could not dwell in a polluted temple has been a foregone conclusion. The fUllness of blessing tlle boys felt they must have. For this they wrestled with
PENTECOSTAL TIMES IN SotrTlt AFRICA
God in prayer, and many whole nights were spent with Him, till the rising bell at 5.30 called them to study or to chop wood or draw water. It seemed almost impossible for the boys to do anything but pray and study the Bible, so a whole day was given up to prayer and fasting. Football and their favorite debating society have given place to the prayer-meeting, and every evening between sup- per and 7 o'clock study hour there is a voluntary resort to the hillside back of the house, and this recreation hour is spent in calling upon God.
" As a result of this constant and earnest seeking, many have received great blessing. Their hearts are fairly on fire with love to God. They love the word. One boy, hugging his Bible to his heart, exclaimed, "0, this is the book for' us now! We have had enough of other books. The Bible, oh, only t.he Bible now!" With God's Spirit in their hearts, His Word in their hands, the boys began immediately to ask if they might not go out to tell their friends of their changed lives, and induce them also to give up all for Chrlst. And so every Sunday morning more than hl;tlf of our school scatter in little bands all over the hills to take the glad message to their heathen friends. Some start at 4 A.M., returning at 7:30 P.M., having walkt thirty miles or more.
"They are truly converted. Their danger lies in their emotional and imaginative dispositions. They measure their religion by their feelings. We need divine wisdom to guide them right ..
Miss Phelps writes of God's wonderful work AMONG THE ZULU GIRLS at lnanda. The school has 168 boarders. Each class spends half of the time in lessons, and the other :lalf in work in the laundry, sewing.room, garden, or in general houscwork. A large number of these come directly from the kraals, and many come unable to read, and most of them without clothes. Some had been aroused to seek the Lord at their homes in attendance upon special service, and had found pardon and peace.
The first signs of the deeper interest were noticeable in connection with some very serious talks by Dalita, a native teacher, and one or two of the older girls_ One Sunday evening the teachers heard loud crying and sobbing, and on going to them found nearly the whole school in an almost uncontrolable state of emo· tion. After awhile, a number made definite confessions of sin, and this was God working in our midst before he sent Elder Weavers to be the instrument of bringing many souls into the kingdom of Heaven. The arrow of conviction went deeply into many hearts. And with strong crying and tears, confessions of sin were made before God and men.
The weeks and months that have gone by since this blessed work began have borne witness of the genuineness of it. Some have been much used of God in strengthening and helping their mates, and they have been an inspiration and a support to their teachers. They see that a Christ life within them must touch their lives everywhere, in the class-room, and at the laundry, as well as in the prayer-meeting. The deep concern of the girls for their friends in heathen darkness, and the earnest desire to tell the good news to others have been noticeable. Some have gone to the kraals or out-stations to tell the people what God has done for them, and in several cases the Lord has blessed their words, and sinners, old and young, have confest their sins and turned to the Lord.-Mission .7I{ew8 Letter, publisht at Wellington, South Africa.
From The South African Pioneer we also take the following account of this wonderful work as described by Rev. W. C. Wilcox: Last year I could hardly see a ray of light in the dark clouds that seemed to overshadow us. But this was only the darkness which preceded the dawn.
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
I think God has been preparing the people and missionary for it, in various ways. The scourge of locusts which had destroyed the food of the people for two seasons, had been taken by many as a judgment of God for their sins. Then there was the rinderpest threatening to come in at almost any day. The missionaries also had been quickened by the "Keswick" Convention held at Durban last year. So there were in many ways the signs of a shower. .An early morning prayer-meeting had been begun on this station, which was surprisingly well attended for the time of the day. Just at this time God sent Elder George Weavers from .America. He at first attempted to preach without interpretation, and there were very few who understood him, yet it was evident that the Spirit of God was present from the start, and after a few days, as he began to have his sermons interpreted, the revival took hold of the people with great power. It was especially characterized by great grief for sin, confession, and restitution, and the forsaking of sinful habits and customs. .At one time the feeling reacht to such a pitch that the meeting was kept up all night long and all of the following day. Many laid aside snuff, pipes,heathen medicines, and ornaments. Two heathen men cut off their head rings. Many would about as soon have consented to have their heads taken off, as it is a mark of rank and honor among the men. One man confest to a murder. .All this was at Mapumulo. But a similar work had begun at Umvoti. We also went over into Zululand to another station in our connection. Here again we saw the same manifestations of divine power. We only stopt about a week in Zululand, but when we came back we brought with us fifteen snuff boxes, one hemp horn, three pipes, three bottles of heathen medicines, all of which had been renounced in the meetings. One old woman claimed to have had her appetite for tobacco taken away from her in a remarkable manner. .A witch doctor confest his deeds, and promist to give up his practice.
The revival did not stop, as so many do, when Elder Wea-:ers had returned to .America. It went on in many places with even greater power than before. From Inanda it spread to .Adams, where is the boys' school, and they being aroused carried it on to Infumi and other outstations. Not only the boys but many girls and even children were used of God to spread this new salvation as it was called by many. It was carried up to Table Mountain (Natal), where there was a wonderful work done notwithstanding most violent opposition from the adversary and some of his minions. .As this account must be brief I may not go any further, but let me give here a summary of some of the results.
(1). First, great spiritual blessings to the missionaries. Many of us have come into a deeper experience than we have ever known before, and have come to realize the truth of doctrines which we have held before more as theory than as an actual experience.
(2). Increast number of meetings. On some of the stations there have been as many as ten meetings a week kept up now for over six months.
(3). Increast attendance. Notwithstanding the greater number of meetings the attendance is much better and the interest deeper than when there were fewer meetings, and at the present time there seems to be no flagging in interest.
(4). Peace and harmony in the church, long standing feuds and quarrels having been made up. In many cases these were made up simply by gathering together and continuing in prayer till God gave them to see eye to eye.
(5). Increast contributions. Notwithstanding the almost total loss of crops and the blocking of traffic by the rinderpest quarantine, the contributions to the Lord's work have been largely increast. Many have gone away to Johannesburg and other towns to earn money that they might have something to give.
(6). Large additions to the church and the restoration of backsliders. The
THE GOLDEN AGE OF MISSIONS
additions to the churches under my charge have been hundreds more for the past – six months than for any time since my coming to the field. But it is not the number so much as the character of the converts that is encouraging. I believe none have been admitted who have not only renounced all customs and sins that are in any wise connected with heathenism, but also dancing, beer drinking, and tobacco in all its forms. They are, almost to a man, workers ready to preach or pray with sinners and visit the sick.
With all this that is good I do not overlook the fact that while the Spirit of God has been with us the devil has been present also. Never in my life have I seen such exhibitions of his power. In some places it has appeared in violent opposition on the part of some old backslidden members. Again it has been in the counterfeiting of the experience of some who have received the Spirit. At other times it has been the circulating of mischief-making lies. Perhaps the greatest wonder of all is that notwithstanding such persistent and violent opposition on the part of the adversary, there has been so mueh that is genuine and lasting. "0 that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men."
THE GOLDEN AGE OF MISSIONS.
The Church at home is now going through much the same experience that comes to very nearly every missionary on the field. It is a common, if not uni-'
versal experience there, that after two or three years of work an earne&t man or woman, who has gone out full of enthusiasm and ambition, comes to wonder whether, after all, a mistake has not been made, and whether better work could not be done somewhere else, perhaps at home. The work is so different from what was anticipated, and they seem to make so little progress. Sometimes they yield. More often they hold firm and find that their grandest, most successful work is yet before them. They take it up with new heart, new energy, and, a little later, look upon withdrawal, if for any reason that becomes necessary, as the greatest possible trial.
So it will be with the Church. It is now in its trying time. It is facing as never before the real problem of the Christianizing, not merely the evangelizing of the world. If it holds true, if it supports the work it has commenced and enables it to be carried on, it will find a golden age before it such as it has not dreamed of. If it holds back, the story of the Middle Ages may be repeated, and the world may wait for evangelists from Africa to do in America what Americans are now doing in the Levant.
Let us look for a moment at the immediate possibilities. The battle with the great systems is on as it has never been. Buddhism in Siam, in China, in Japan, is bestirring itself to resist the encroachments of Christianity. Hinduism is looking anxiously at the signs of its weakening power, over not merely the educated, but the common people. Islam shows an, as yet, undivided and apparently unconcerned front, yet recent events make manifest its realization that it has at last met a foe the strongest it has ever encountered. While this is true. however, it must not be supposed that the end is near. Such systems are not conquered in a generation. They survive many severe wounds, and rally even after they appear to be conquered. That they can be conquered, however, and that they will be, is as true as Christianity itself. When they yield, then will be the golden age of missions. , How soon that will come depends very much upon the attitude of the Church toward the work during these coming years. If the vantage-ground is to be kept and inmeast, the daS' of success will be hastened. If work already done is to be given up, if the orders to those at the front are to be Retreat, instead of Advance, then the delay may be indefinite. Now is a time of test, not a time of crisis, for crisis implies a possible failure, and God's work knows no such possibility. It may, however, be delayed through failure of His appointed means fully to meet the demands upon them. To meet them requires effort, patient, persevering, persistent effort; but that will win.-Tlte independent.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
III.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Anglican Oonferenoe and Foreign voluntary body, and itsutterances,while strictly non-official, except as they are Missions. those of a company of officials, have, perhaps, all the wider swing, and really What one hundred and ninety-four gain in moral effect by the accident of bishops, whatever church. they repre- being a concensus of view instead of sent, have to say on the subject of for- an official pronunciamento. eign missions, might well attract atten- tion in any part of the Christian world; It would be impossible to make room but when these bishops represent the in this magazine for even a full synopsis foremost evangelical forces of the cen- of the utterances of this widely repre- tury in a great body, like the Church of sentative body on the subject of mis- England at home, with delegates from sions. Some of these have reference to all the British colonies and also from matters pertaining to the internal history affiliated bodies like the Protestant Epis- or economy of the Episcopal churches copal Church of the United States, as here met. They note that theevangeli- did the Fourth Lambeth Conference, cal impulse is a comparatively modern and when such a body occupies a whole one, even in the Church of England, the month in council on its own, and on Book of Common Prayer having but related interests, whatever they for- very meager allusions to the subject of mulate as a concensus of their views, or missions, the whole subject scarcely express in resolutions looking to activi- being present to the minds of the great ties, ought by all means to secure the leaders who compiled that book, while serious consideration of the whole Chris- they declare for themselves the judg- tian church, whether Protestant, Roman ment that "no ordinary service should or Greek. be considered complete which did not plead amongst other things for the Less than a decade before (1888), a spread of the Gospel." There is a re- similar conference made no reference to cognition also of the fact that the mis- the subject of Foreign l'IIissions, in sionary impulse in the Church of Eng- markt contrast with which the Fourth land arose by the independent action of Lambeth Conference thrust missions its members, who, recognizing the into the fore~ound, creating for their failure of the Church as a whole to consideration the largest of all the many realize her bounden duty for the world's . committees which they appointed, and evangelization, formed themselves into making it as representative as possible societies within the Church to do the of all the interests of missions at home work of the Church. The Church, it and throughout the British colonies, as concedes, owes to these great societies a well as of the missionary energies of the debt of gratitude for the work which Protestant Episcopal Church of the they have been enabled to do, not only United States. Not less than ten directly in evangelization abroad, but bishops actually in service in the several in supplying a providential stage in mISSIOns of the Church Missionary leading the whole Church to a higher Society were members of this com- conception, though this has never yet mittee. been adequately workt out in church history. This they assume to be only a This body has no organic relation transitional stage and that the Church under constitution to any branch or as such must come to the front to plan branches of the Episcopal churches re- and to prosecute its own work in seeking presented in its composition, but it has the additional freedom and force of a the redemption of unchristian races. races which must continue to expand The Protestant Episcopal Church of independently. In China and Japan the United States may be said to be the proportion of white races present, conducting missions in its official capa- and even their great influence over city through a Board of Missions ap- the social, political and religious life of pointed by the General Convention, these people, will, probably, never in which board appoints as its executive a any way materially affect their racial Board of Managers. The Conference independence of the Chinese. In such declares, however, the individual right cases they would encourage the develof donors to offer funds for missionary opment of national churches. The purposes, either for special localities or practice of the Church varies in different special work alld on special lines, and localities, but mainly along the lines of that the missionary societies should these distinctions. The Protestant accept all such when not inconsistent Episcopal Church of the United States with the belief, order, and discipline of has a native African bishop of Cape the Charch. Palmas, with two African assistant bishops consecrated in recent years. One In the matter of the development of formal resolution of the Conference denative churches, they take a very liberal clares that the establishment and develview as to the measure of autonomy opment of native churches is of the utwhich should be recognized under pro- most importance and' 'from the very be· vidential developments, encouraging ginning the idea that the Church is their native churches to work toward the goal own, and not a foreign Church, should of independence, bound to the mother be imprest upon converts, and that church "by no other bonds than the a due measure of the management and one faith and one communion in the financial support of the Church should Church Catholic." The Church in India be theirs from the first." It would not, has already made great advance in the however, encourage ultimate autonomy direction of this autonomy. There are until the Church had reacht a stage 9f no bishops of the Indian race, and the financial independence. They assume number of ordained native missionaries that it is only a question of time when directly engaged in evangelizing their the Church in Japan will become selfown countrymen is small, yet the devel- governing and self-supporting. The opment of the Indian ministry in most English and American Episcopal miscases keeps pace with the growth of the sions in that country have already Christian community. A good deal of united to form one Japanese Church, sound philosophy underlies the general having its own constitution and canons, scope of aim, however, in this direction. with a strong body of Japanese clergy, It would not be wise, for instance, to though as yet having no Japanese anticipate nor aim to secure autonomy bishop. for races which are rapidly diminishing, or that will be absorbed in white races, In the matter of comity as between such as the Maoris of New Zealand and the churches organically connected with the Indians of North America, as there the societies and independent churches would be no prospect of their per- of the Anglican communion, they demanently maintaining themselves as a clare that there ought to be a recognichurch, separated from the white races. tion of the equal rights of each other But there are other races which will when establishing foreign missionary continue, even under the dominance of jurisdiction, and that there ought to be white races, to so far outnumber them the utmost care to avoid conflict of inthat they can never be absorbed, or to terest in creating any new missionary any preponderating degree amalga- jurisdiction, and particularly where mated with them; while there arc other signal spiritual blessings have atraces lying contiguous to the white tended the labors of Christian missionaries not connected with the Angli- through the lens of Christian thought.. can communion, special care should be The practical outcome of these religions taken to avoid any encroachment on is by no means what might be anticieach other's territory, and to avoid pated from these favorable excerpts, whatever would tend to interfere with the very religion itself being often the the" due growth and manifestation of avenues of vice, and its leading reprethat 'unity of the spirit' which should sentatives too often conspicuous exever mark the Church of Christ." amples of evil. Noone of them nor all of them can furnish any substitute for Perhaps nothing on which this Con- Chlistianity, while, philosophically ference made a deliverance is of wider speaking, several of them or most of interest than, what would be popularly them have an underlying base which is called, comparative retigiontl. Though Pantheistic, Atheistic or Agnostic. the Conference itself is not holden for the utterances of its committees except Perhaps no part of the proceedings as form~lated in resolutions, yet it cer- touches a more crucial question than that tainly is responsible for a concensus of relating to the duty of the Church to the judgment on these related topics. It follower8 of Islam. Estimating the goes further than to merely admit that population of the world at fifteen hunthere are glimpses of theological and dred millions, they make it liberal commoral truth to be found in the several putation for the proportion that falls to systems, and recognizes a measure of Mohammedans, distributing them as direct and divine inspiration in the follows: in Europe five millIons, seven origin of these truths. It would seem hundred and fifty thousano; in Asia and· that in this they recognize something the Eastern Archipelago, one hundred beyond the mere migration of truth and sixty-nine millions; in Africa, forty from thG original inspired utterances. of millions; in Australasia, twenty-five the Hebrew and Christian literatures, millions, making an aggregate of two for they frankly admit that the existence hundred and fourteen millions, seven of these truths is owing to the work of hundred and seventy-five thousand, or the Holy Ghost, which would at least one-seventh of the entire population of warrant the inference that they concede the world. We do not know what the direct inspiration of the authors of authorities they followed in making so these several ethnic cults, of that which liberal an estimate, and it certainly is excellent in them. Of course, they must be by a very charitable allowance assert the insufficiency of any and of for countries where populations are only all of these several systems as furnish- estimated, that they can accept such ing an inadequate degree of· light and figures. It is scarcely possible to comtruth about God and about man's rela- pute with anything like accuracy, what tion to him, and their failure to give the Mohammedan portion of any popuany competent motive for well doing, lation might be where a strict Euro· or to furnish anything like a sufficient pean census is not taken. It is of help to man's weakness or consolation interest, however, to note that with in his troubles. They declare that for even this high estimate, more than the most part these sacred literatures one-fourth of the :Mohammedan populathemselves are but little known amongst tion of the globe are citizens of the the people who profess them, and that British Empire, amenable in its courts the Christian world at large overweights and under its political sway. India the extracts which are culled for pre- alone contains over fifty-seven and asentation to Christian communities out third millions of Mohammedan popUlaof an Qverwhelming mass of foolish, tion. It is a deplorable fact that until fallacious, or immoral material, and the present century, no effort worthy that even these excerpts are interpreted the name to evangelize the Mohamfrom a Christian standpoint 01' se~n medan world was ever made; and even that within the present century has zibar, as well as amongst the Hausa been local, weak and spasmodic. The people of the Central Soudan. The opportunities and obligations now rest- conference made special mention of the ing upon the Christian Church to inau- Student Volunteer Movement and allied gurate a systematic and well-organized organizations, and also remarkt on forward movement, for the conversion the rapid increase of the number of of the Mohammedan world, as recog- women giving themselves to the service nized by the conference, includes such of the missionary church, as well as to facts ~s the awakening of the Christian the increast employment of medical misworld to a sense of the iconoclastic sionaries to the progress of west Africa element of Islam, its immobility and toward self-support; to the evangelistic inadaptability to all modern progress, fervor of the native Christians in Uganda and to the blood of the martyrs all of which have been imprest upon in China.
the civilized world by the Armenian Our space does not permit a further massacres. This, and the peculiar poli- presentation of the interestint. _hr-TIO'~. tical relations of the Turkish Empire nor of the formulated utterallt 0: – tnil! with the Christian powers of Europe, Conference. To some they ~ave aphave turned the attention of western peared as the utterance of mere plati- Christendom to Islam to a degree never tudes, but whatever may be thought of known since the crusades. There is, them, favorably or unfavorably, every -however, it is asserted, a growth of a honest Christian throughout the world spirit of dissatisfaction within Islam must rejoice in the declaration by so itself in parts both of Europe and of widely influential a body of scholarly Asia, which is not without encourage- men, that the work of foreign missions ment, while, at least amongst the sixty " at the present time stands in the first millions of the l'Iohammedans of India, rank of all the tasks we have to fulfill." there is enforced toleration on the part of that community to any agencies J. T. G. put in operation for their enlightenment. The Conference, however, re- Ohinese New Year Notes. cognizes further that it requires no ordinary energy in attempting to com- BY REV. ARTHUR H. SMITH, P'ANG y'ANG, bat Islam or to secure any modification of its prejudices towards Christianity. CHINA. It believes that for this purpose missionaries must be extraordinarily fur- However little attention he may pay nisht by a patient study of Moham- to the Chinese calendar, every foreigner medanism and knowledge of Arabic, of in China is sure to be reminded in a the character of Mohammed, and that very effective way of the approach of absolute fairness must be the rule in the close of the Chinese year, long bedealing with the doctrines of Islam, fore the edge of the New Year is to be while emphasis should be put upon the seen above the horizon. At some time correspondences between Christianity during the twelfth moon, the "boy" and Islam, in discussing all points of makes his appearance, and with an undifference. It believes that men should usual animation in his unanimated face, be put in special training for this work explains that owing to a combination of and that missionaries should not be sent circumstances which seem to be to a singly into this part of the field. Special large extent incapable of elucidation to us, he is obliged to request the advance at opportunities are named the present of his wages for the current month, and also for the one to come. This may be time in the districts of which Lahore, contrary to rule, doubtless is so, but Lucknow, Delhi and Hyderabad in owing to the combination above alluded' India are centers, and also in eastern to, is an imperative necessity. Otherand western equatorial Africa and Zan· wise ruin impends. It is not long before a similar statement is made by the upon. One reason for this is the fact cook, with regard to his affairs, and by that it is very difficult for them to the various coolies as to theirs. In each accumulate a reserve, and another case the necessity turns out upon in- equaLy potent is the fact that there is vestigation to be so real, and the pres- nothing which can safely be done with sure of the combination of circum- it pending its ',[se. There are no savings stances so powerful, that we are, in a banks, and there are no investments manner, forced to do violence to our which are safe. The only thing which own judgment, in order to avert the can be done with ready money, is to imminent ruin of those who are in our lend it to those who need it, which is employ, and in whom we feel, perhaps, generally done with some reluctance, as some interest. But it is a long time be- the lender jnstly fears lest he should fore it occurs to us to look into the never again see either interest or princimatter more deeply than sufficiently to pal. Whoever has a wedding in his ascertain what everybody knew before, family, is liable to have to borrow that Chinese New Year is preceded by money to carry it through, and if it be a universal season of debt-paying from a funeral the necessity will be still more which no one is exempt. If we insist urgent. He needs money to start in upon following up any particular case business, and he needs more to settle up with a rigid examination into its re- at the end of the year, when, if their moter causes, we soon learn from the own accounts are to be trusted, nine principal party such facts as appear to Chinese out of ten who engage in "busijustify his assertion of an emergency, ness" in a small way, find that they and also that there is nothing peculiar have lost money, though this often in his case, but that other people are in signifies that they have not realized so the same predicament. If these in- much as they had hoped. In short, it quiries are carried far enough, they will is hard to find a Chinese to whom the bring to light the seven deadly sins of loan of a sum of money at any time Chinese socialfinanciering. would not be as welcome as "water to a fish in a dry rut." It is this all-pre- I. Everybody always needs to borrow.- vailing need which smoothes the sur- That the business of the world, even in face of the spot where the pit is to be western lands, depends upon the borrow- dug. ing of money, and that credit is the largest factor in trade, are positions II. E'1!erybody is obliged to lend money. which we do not ·for a moment forget. -We have just remarkt that the man But Chinese borrowing is of a different who happens to have a little surplus type from that with which the great cash does not like to lend it, lest he expansion of modern commerce has should never see it again. But there made us familiar. We do not affirm are various kinds and degrees of presthat there are not Chinese who do not sure which can be brought to bear upon need the mon!)y of other people for the the capitalist. One of these is connected conduct of their affairs, but only that with the solidarity of the Chinese these people are so rare that they may family, or clan. If one of the members as well be disregarded. We never saw has money which he might lend and any. We have, indeed, never heard of another is desperately in need of it, the so much as one. The whole scale of latter will get a member of the genera- Chinese living and the whole system of tion higher than that to which the capieconomics are of such a sort, that, as a talist belongs, to intercede for him. rule, there is but one narrow margin of This may be done unwillingly, but it financial reserve. With all their prac- will probably be done. To a sufficient ticality and skill in affairs, it is a con- amount of pressure of this ancestral de· stant source of wonder that so few scription, the capitalist will find it best Chinese ever have anything to fall back to yield, though not improbably against his financial judgment. But every V. No Chinese ever pays a debt till he is Chinese is from infancy accustomed to dunned.-To us this also seems a strange the idea that it is seldom easy to have practice. Most of us have grown up one's own way in all things, and that with a fixt idea that as a debt must be when one can not do as he would, he paid, "if it were done when 'tis done, must do as he most. If the borrower then 'twere well it were done quickly." does not belong to the same family or The mind of a Chinese operates in quite clan as the lender, the difficulty will be a different way. His view is, if it must greater, but it may, perhaps, be over- be done, it were best done when it is come by the same description of pres- done as deliheratelY'as the case admits. sure, by means of friends. A wouldbe borrower is often obliged to make a VI. It seems also to be the rule, that great many k'o·fous before he can se- No Oltinese will pay his debts till he has cure the favor of a loan (at an extor- been dunned a g1'eat number of times. tionately high rate of interest), but he Here again he is at the opposite pole is much aided in his efforts by the from that which we occupy. We do Chinese notion that when a certain not like to be dunned, and would rather amount of pressure has been brought make considerable sacrifices than to to bear. a request must be granted, just have needy persons dogging us for the as one of a pair of scales must go down collection of debts which we honestly if you put on enough weights. Thus it owe, which we must ultimately pay, comes about that in all ranks of Chinese, and not to arrange for the payment of the man who has, is the man who must which at once is more or less of a disbe content to share his wealth (for a grace. By" we " we mean, of course, handsome remuneration). the average foreigner, for it is not to be denied that Western lands have their III. From the foregoing propositions, full proportion of impecunious and it follows with inevitable certainty shameless rascals who" live off the inthat Everybody owes some one else. terest of their debts," and who swindle There is never any occasion to ask a all those whom they can. But the Chinese whether he owes money. The Chinese, of whom we are speaking, do proper formula is, "How much do you not belong to this class. The mass of owe, and to whom, and what is the rate the Chinese people we believe to be of interest?" honest, and they fully intend to pay all that they owe, but they do not intend IV. No Ohinese ever pays cash down, to pay until they· are ready to do so, unless he is obliged to do so.-To us this and neither gods nor men can tell when that will be. It is a current saying, that may appear a most eccentric habit., but when a person has many debts he is no it seems to be almost a law. The longer concerned about them, just as Chinese has learned by ages of experi- when one has many parasites he ceases ence, that he no sooner pays away to scratch. money to satisfy one debt, than he needs VII. In a large proportion of cases, the that same money to liquidate three other Ohinese who pays a debt, pays but a Pa1't debts. In their own figuratively ex- of it at a time. The rest he will try to get together in the ., third month," the pressive phr~se, a single cup of water "ninth month," or "at the end of the year." The practical outcome of these is wanted in three or four places at once last three peculiarities is, that the and the supply is always as inadequate twelfth moon of every Chinese year is as the classical "cup of water to put a time of maximum activity all over the out the fire in a cart-load of fuel." empire. One would suppose that a Knowing tbis with a keenness of appre- vast amount of work was being accomhension which it is difficult for us to plisht, but the facts are otherwise. appreciate, the Cbinese holds on fast to his cash till it is wrung from him by a force whicb overcomes his own tenacity of grip. One is reminded of the witch in " Alice are a time of rejoicing, but there is no Behind the Looking-glass," where the rejoicing 80 keen as that of a ruined child was hurried along on a broomstick debtor, who has succeeded by shrewd at such a rate as to take her breath devices in avoiding the most relentless away. She thought she must be travel- of his creditors and has thus postponed ing illimitable space, but when this idea his ruin for at least another twelve was communicated to the witch, the months. For. once past the narrow latter only laughed, and replied that strait at the end of the year, the debtor this was nothing at all, for they had to finds himself again in broad and peace~ go like that to "keep up with things," ful waters, where he can not be mo- and if they were really to get ahead to lested. Even should his creditors meet any extent, the rate of travel must be him on New Year's Day, there could be enormously faster .than that. The no possibility of mentioning the fact of racing around of the Chinese in their the previous day's disgraceful flight and la-yueh, or final moon, is just to "keep concealment, or, indeed, of alluding to up with things." Every shop, no mat- business at all, for this would not be ter how trifling the sum total of its busi- "good form," and to t.he Chinese ness, has its army of runners out, each "good form," (otherwise known as "demanding debts," or rather endea- custom), is the chief national divinity. voring to do so; for to achieve it is no such easy matter. The debtor is him- The National Reform League of Ohina : self a creditor, and he also will be A Girls' School. occupied in the effort to call in the sums which are owing to him. Each separate Miss Gertrude Howe, of Kiukiang, individual is engaged in the occupation China, sends us a translation of a proof trying to run down the men who owe spectus of a proposed school or college money to him, and compel them to pay for Chinese girls, which is in contemup, and at the same time in trying to plation to be establisht at Shanghai. avoid the persons who are struggling to Whether it shall be establisht or not, track ltim down and cork-screw from the very proposition is significant of a him the amount of his indebtedness to new movement in Chinese thought. them The dodges and subterfuges to We give the text in full, in what Miss which each is obliged to resort, increase Howe calls a "rough translation," as, in complexity and number with the so far as we are aware, this is the first advance of the season, until at the close time attention has been called to the of the month the national activity is at subject in any way, outside of China. fever heat. For if a debt is not secured The paper was brought to Miss Howe then, it will go over-till a new year, and by" His Excellency Wen," and Miss no one knows what will be the status of Howe remarks: " It shows evidence that a claim which has actullly contrived the project is essentially Chinese and to cheat the annual Day of Judgment. that the leaders have not sought any In spite of the excellent Chinese habit foreign help in formulating. it, but are of making the close of a year a grand themselves toucht by a spirit of reclearing-house for all debts, Chinese form. J.Jet us hope and pray that they human nature is too much for Chinese may give themselves to this spirit's custom, and there are many of these guidance until they recognize it to be postponed debts which are a grief of no other than God's Holy Spirit." mind to many a Chinese creditor. In a note Miss Howe says: "Yester- We have but to imagine the applica- day two influential Chinese gentlemen, tiop. of the principles which we have members of the National Reform named to the whole Chinese Empire, League, sought out our Chinese girl and we get new light upon the nature doctors with the exprest desire of of Chinese New Year festivities. They placing their young daughters in our home, to have them brought up with employed, two for Chinese and two for unbound feet and given a thorough edu- English, all of whom are to be Chinese cation. No objection was offered to the ladies. In general each teacher will girls becoming Christians. Our Chinese have twenty pupils. This refers to the lady doctor, Dr. Kahn, recommended beginning of the literary department. the M. E. Church (South) school· for As funds and pupils increase more the daughters of official and "high teachers will be added. class" (so called) families opened in Shanghai. The gentlemen objected to 3. There shall be one foreign and one having their daughters educated by foreigners ! There seems to be a wide- Chinese Superintendent, who will live spread suggestion of opening a highgrade school in Shanghai of which our at the school, and have general over- Chinese lady doctors are to be invited to take charge. These gentlemen men- sight of pupils and employes. They tioned and seemed to be anticipating it. They deprecated the doctors' hesitating shall receive salaries. . to fall in line, saying: "If one has one objection and another another to taking 4. Eight Directors shall be chosen hold, what will become of our poor from the number of contributors who country?" The greatest wisdom is shall visit the school by turns, inspect requisite at this point to keep in touch the studies and assist those in charge. with this eminent progressive element They shall receive no salaries. and put it in touch with the one invincible "power that makes for reform." 5. Twelve men shall be chosen from This great National Reform League the families of contributors to solicit and seems to appeal to the best there is in collect funds, appoint teachers and printhe people, but it needs to be led to cipals, decide on course of study and Christ. I regret, for some reasons, to manage finances. They shall receive see the distrust of foreigners, especially no salaries. of foreign missionaries. The intelligent Chinese can eMily discover that we 6. There shall be two Treasurers have no politieal axe to grind, nor com- chosen by the twelve male directors, . mercial greed to satiate. Perhaps, it is who shall be honest and economical not so much distrust as that we have men and good accountants to have failed t9 win them. Very probably we charge of receipts and disbursements. have failed to divest ourselves suffi- They shall receive salaries. ciently of the oft-vaunted spirit of "An- The above five rules appertain to the glo-Saxonism. " management.
PROVISIONAL PROSPECTUS FOR A GIRLS' 7. The school will open with forty SCHOOL. pupils, and the members shall be in- 1. In opening schools for girls we creast as funds increase. are reverting to the illustrious custom of the three dynasties. In order to open .8. Pupils may enter between the ages up the intelligence of the people we of eight and fifteen. must, certainly, make the women free and afterward customs can be changed. 9. Pupils between the ages of eight That the reality may correspond to the and eleven must be able to read a cername, all funds and plans for this tain amount on entrance. Those beschool are to be under the control (super- tween twelve and fifteen must know vision) of women and the teachers are something of composition and be able to to be women. read letters. Teachers shall decide upon the eligibtlity of candidates for The above is the fundamental idea in admission. the establishment of the school. 10. Foot·binding is a very vile custom 2. Temporarily four teachers will be of the Chinese. Persons of culture should not continue it. Since this is only a beginning of the school and the customs are not yet establisht, for the present pupils shall be admitted with- out regard to whether their feet are bound or not, but after a few years there will be a limit and no one with small feet will be admitted.
11. It is the intention of this school to make no distinctions of rank, but since in the future pupils from this school will be leaders and teachers in other schools, only daughters of reput- able families will be admitted. .
The above are the five rules for the admission of pupils.
12. The course of study will be half English and half Chinese. First reading and composition shall be learned, ceive a diploma which empowers them and later all elementary branches of to follow those professions for which learning; afterward history and science, they have prepared. handicrafts and professions may be taken up. 22. Girls taken from' Foundling A1!y- lums can not be given ill marriage as 13. There shall be three special cour- concubines; much more shall the pupils ses of study; mathematical, medieal of this school not be given as concuand law. Each pupil may choose which bines, but shall be more highly esteemed she will pursue, but those who study in the world and loved by their parents, medicine and law must first have a good and not by being given as conCUbines general knowledge of the mathema· tarnish the purity and disgrace the high tical. standing of the school. – 14. Besides these courses of study 23. All countries prohibit the sla.vethere shall be a Kindergarten depart- trade. China should gradually do away ment, the teachers of which must have with the system of slavery. Any pupils a wide general knowledge. who have been in the school, however poor they may be, may never be sold as 15. The Industrial Department shall slaves. Anyone violating th{s rule include spinning, weaving and drawing, shall pay a fine of five hundred dollars. as soon as there are funds sufficient to engage teachers in both foreign and The above are the three rules for native methods, as these matters are of those who graduate from the school. great importance to women. 24. Each contributor will please hand 16. Monthly examinations shall be in the official rank and residence of her held by the teachers, who shall give the husband or son, and her own officiaL markings. Quarterly examinations shall rank with her subscription for the be conducted by specialists who will record. give the marks and award prizes. 25. Make the contributions payable The above are the five rules for by the month or year according to the studies. custom of western countries. In order that the funds of the school may not 17. All those in control, from teachers run short, contributions should be reguand superintendents to servants, shall lar. Our great hope is that the ladies be women. Rigid discipline shall be within the four seas will observe the enforced. Nomen shall be allowed to annual and monthly contributions. enter the doors. If the male directors have anything about which to consult, 21. All SUbscriptions, whether from they shall meet in an outer building. natives or foreigners, small or great, from one dollar upward, will be alike 18. Little children, whose homes are received. We would not hinder cheernear, may attend the school without ful giving. living in it, but must be regular in attendance. When the homes are dis- 27. In the beginning, while funds are tant, children may live at the school. limited, it has been decided to open a It is decided to build ten rooms for their school in Shanghai. but it is hoped that accommodation. afterward the work may be pusht for- ward into every province, and prefec- 19. Fees shall be g,aduated similar to ture and township. those paid by foreigners (or expenses will be about the same as in western 28. The teachers of western branches schools). The rich shall pay liberally to first to be appointed, are the learned help the school, but if the family is in women from the Kiang Si province, moderate circumstances, the fees shall Ida Kahn, and from the Bupeh pro· be less. In case of extreme poverty the vince, Mary Stowe. The teachers of fee may be entirely remitted. A poor Chinese are yet to be sought out by the student who has ability and application superintendents. may not only have fees remitted, but may be prOvided with board, clothing, 29. The men and women directors books, etc. shall be elected by ballot by those who are instituting the enterprise. Since 20. Clean. honest women-servants those interested are widely scattered, shall be employed to attend to all the those instituting the work will go forwants of the pupils. Pupils may be ward and act temporarily until such allowed to bring servants from home, times as directors can be elected. but such servants shall be subject to the authorities of the school. 30. For the present all contributions may be sent to the office of the Chinese 21. Whoever completes one of the Progre8s. Each issue will contain names three courses of study in the Kinder- of contributors with amounts contrigarten or Industrial course, shall re- buted, also all disbursements. Everything being made public will insure effectually through the school-house confidence in the enterprise. door.
31. This is an experimental schedule " A long row of graves in the little giving the general scope of the enter· Protestant cemetery, at S. Paulo, t-estiprise. After the school opens, the ties eloquently to the faithfulness of the teachers, superintendents and directors men and women who have given their will formulate the details. lives to this work during the last 30 years. With a knowledge of Brazil Horace M. Lane, M.D., President of and Brazilians growing out of forty years' experience with them, I would the Protestant College at S. Paulo. not attempt to discuss this plan of reaching eighteen millions of people in Brazil, in a note at hand says: four years. God bless every effort everywhere and by every process to " A contributor, in a recent number spread the light of the Gospel through- out the world!-nor would I say a word of the REVIEW stated it to be his belief to dampen the ardor.of those who advo- cate it; but I can not help feeling that that with 100 men all Brazil could be the gentleman who made the statement had not carefully studied the conditions evangelized in four years. • With under which the work must be done;"
God all things are possible,' but with [The editors of the REVIEW also took poor, weak, erring man there are cer- exception to the feasibility of the plan tain limitations, even in the work of proposed by Mr. Olsson, as was stated evangelization. . in their editorial note following his ., In a very restricted sense the evan- article.-ED.] gelization of Brazil might only mean Babism in Persia.
the preaching of the Gospel to the one Some tifty years ago a new prophet arose in Persia claiming to be the only million Indians to be found in the true representative of God. Many Mohammedans were dissatisfied with forests and on the plains of that vast their own religion, and gathered round this prophet, who has to-day 800,000 couI)try, who have never heard of it, or followers, notwithstanding government persecutions and imprisonment. The to the so·called tame Indians living chief difference between the orthodox Mohammedans and' the new sect is along the great water courses, who are that, while the former say the Bible is not reliable, the latter admit the New equally ignorant of Christian truth, Testament to be the Word of God. Most of them believe that Jesus Cllrist though catechised in some of its forms. has come again in the person:of their prophet. These scattered peoples, speaking a be· Then; is much in the new teaching wildering variety of dialects, derived that is sad, but it has opened the door to the Gospel as nothing else has done. from the eight principal Indian lan- Bible circulation is almost doubled every year. It is computed that in guages, would have to be taught Portu- many towns and villages half the popu- lation are Babis. This is a clear indiguese, or the missionary would have to cation that the people of Persia are already, in large measure, wearied with aequire a knowledge of Indian tongues, Islam, and anxious for a higher, holier, and more spiritual faith. Almost all before they could be told the story. through the country the Babis are quite friendly to Christians. The rise The von den Steinen brothel'~ spent the of this faith is in a large measure due to the spread of the Gospel, the best of best part of two years, with a well their doctrines are borrowed from it, while they openly reverence our Scripequipt expedition, in acquiring an tures and profess to be ready to reject any opinion they may hold when once imperfect knowledge of a comparatively proved to be contrary to the Bible.
small region of the Xir•.qlt, embracing a few small tribes. hitherto unknown.
In the populous states along the sea- . board there are still vast areas of unex- plored country, while the great central plateau is practically terra incognita.
" In a wider sense t!J.e evangelization of Brazil would mean not only the preaching of the Gospel to the Indians, but also to 16 to 17 millions of civilized- and nominally Christian Brazilians, Italians and other foreigners, including about a million of freedmen. When we consider that no less than four or- ganized evangelical missions have been working in Brazil for many years (the Presbyterian mission was establisht in 1859), and that only a comparatively small portion of the nation has been toucht, we may have some idea of how difficult and complex the problems are which confront the Protestant mission- ary. The idea is rapidlj' gaining ground that these high strung Latins can only be reacht permanently and
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III. -FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
The Outlook,* Sta.tistics,tLitera.ture.t BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
Monthly Topics for 1898. SEPTEMBER.
JANUARY. Japan. Korea. The Outlook. Shintoism. Statistics. Medical Missions. The Church and Missions. Self-Support of Mission Churches. Missionary Literature. OCTOBER. FEBRUARY. Greek Europe. The Chinese Empire. Mohammedan Lands. Tibet and Formosa. The Greek Church. Confucianism and Taoism. Mohammedanism. The Opium Traffic. NOVEMBER. MARCH. South America. Mexico. Frontier Missions in America. Central America. Mormonism. The West Indies. Young People's Work. City Missions. Foreigners in America. DECEMBER.
APRIL. Syria and Palestine. The Jews. India. Educational Work. Burma and Ceylon. Industrial Missions. Hinduism.. Woman's Work for Woman. "A Word to the Wise." Na~ive Agents. Every year the editors are flooded MAY. with manuscripts entirely unadapted to their use, while many others could be Siam and Laos. vastly improved by a little thought and Shan States. care. Many are indeed "opened with Malaysia. expectation and closed with profit," Unoccupied Fields. but not in the sense which Alcott in· Buddhism. tended. Perhaps a word to prospective Work Among Lepers. contributors to the pages of this RE· VIEW may not be out of place. JUNE. A.frica. The subjects are, for the most part, Madagascar. suggested by the list of topics for the Freedmen in America. present year, but within this range Fetichism. there is a vast opportunity for variety The Slave Trade. of treatment. The specific topic must, Missionaries. of course, be determined upon by the peculiarities of the field and ~he definite JULY. object in view, but what readers of missionary periodicals usually desire to The Islands of the Sea. know is the peculiarities of countries Arctic Missions. and people with which they are unfami- North American Indians. liar, the methods of awakening interest The Liquor Traffic. . and bringing to the light those who are Work Among Fishermen and Sailors. in the darkness of sin, the trials and triumph~ of missionary life, the con- AUGUST. trasts between Christian converts and heathen, the special needs and oppor- Papal Europe. Romanism. Bible and Tract Work. Reflex Influence of Missions.
• See p. 9, 45 (present issue). t See p. 41,70 (present issue). An article by Dean Vah! on the subject comes too late for use in this issue. ~ See p. 28 (present issue). tunities of the field, as well as any dis- least two months previous to the date cussion of missionary policies or methods of work which may be attracting of issue, and if their value is in any present interest. An excellent list of suggestive topics, possessing the possi· way dependent upon immediate inserbility of almost endless variety of application in connection with the various tion, it should be so indicated. mission lands, is that of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions for In sending manuscripts, kindly in- 1898.* Under the general subjects: The Bible and Foreign Missions, The Un- close stamps for return, and give full believing World, Evangelistic Work, Missionary Administration, Nat i v e name, address, and the name of the Church, Missionaries, The Printing Pre~s, Reflex Advantages of Missions, society, church, or mission field with Civilizing Influence of ~nssions, Relation of the Home Church to Missions, which the writer is connected. etc., a great variety of SUb-topics are suggested which present a fruitful field The editors do not hold themselves for study and discussion. responsible for opinions exprest, but But the selection of a subject is less difficult than the manner of its treat- will do all in their power to insure the ment. The style of an article is of vast importance in securing a hearing and reliability of statements made and the in producing an impression. Adefinite purpose is a prime requisite to the clear worthiness of objects indorst. and forcible presentation of a subject. Accuracy, interest, and brevity are, of Missionary Donations. course, important. There is no necessity that articles on missionary subjects The editors of this REVIEW are always should be either dry and tiresome on the one hand, orfrivolousand puerile fln the glad to receive and transmit to their other. Incidents should be used as much as possible to illustrate points destination free of charge any sums and to add specific interest; statistics which may be forwarded to them for should be tabulated and condenst as any cause presented in these pages. It much as possible, as they are thus more is their endeavor to give place to no usefnl, and, while none the less weighty, appeals for objects which are not in are much less heavy. every respect worthy of the confidence and S1; pport of the readers of this REo Photographs are desired to accompany VIEW. It is impossible to give space to and illustrate articles as much as pos- every such appeal, but we rejoice at sible, and add much to the interest and the evidences of Christian love, which instructiveness of description and nar- come in response to physical and spil'itratives. Views of people and places ual needs of those who have a claim are always acceptable, especially those upon our sympathy and assistance. showing characteristic customs of natives, the results of Christian missions, All donors will hereafter receive and the machinery and methods of numbered receipts for all sums sent to missionary work. us for benevolent purposes. Such dona- tions should be sent to the Managing Articles intended for special numbers Editor, D. L. Pierson, 944. Marcy Aveof the REVIEW should be in hand at nue, Brooklyn, New York.
* See Church at. Home. and Abroad for In addition to sums already acknowl- edged we have received and forwarded December, 1897. the following: No.100-For Rev. J. C. Denning, India, $5. No. 101-For Pandita RamabaPs widows, India, $35.00.
According to Rev. Dr. Daniel Dor- chester, the growth of the Roman Catholic population in the United States 1870-94. was from 4,600,000 to 8,806,- 000, while the increase of the commu- nicants of Protestant churches was from 6.673,400 to 15,218,000. During the same period the popUlation connected with these churches has increast from 29,029,000 to 45,654,000. The growth of Protestantism as indicated is greater than appears on the surface, and is in advance of t1lat of the Roman Catholic denomination, for while the latter in- cludes all the children of Catholics, the former includes only the actual com- municants.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
V.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
In the January issue of 1897, page 2, possest but a corner of the land, which the editor stated his calm judgment far away to the north and east invites that, because "the giving of the peo- the standard bearer of the Cross. In ple of God is so utterly inadequate and Africa there is actually no limit to the disgracefully disproportionate, missions possible establishment of new stations to the heathen have at no time during by the heroic men and women whom the last half century been at greater our Church may push to the front. peril of utter collapse." One phrase from this sentence, taken China is softening in its prejudices, apart from its connection, lias been and growing more accessible every day quoted with severe criticism, and, as to the messengers of salvation. Reports we think, most unfairly. We did not from Persia are fragrant with the say that the danger of collapse came record of precious revivals of unprece- from any source but the inadequate dented power and fruitfulness. The giving of the Church and the conse- very attitude of defiance of enemies of quent emergency of debt and retrench- the Cross at some points in the world is ment. no less a bign meant of God to stimulate For example, one. religious journal the zeal of the Church. And shall we thus refers to it: "If that high and excellent au- not recognize yet another divine sign in thority on foreign missions, who not the manifest yearning on the part of long ago, in a public meeting, gave the great body of missionaries for a • utterance to his belief that the cause of more thoroughly spirit-filled life? It missions was on the verge of collapse breathes out in many of their letters. It and failure," etc. If the quotation gathers volume in many special meet- had been fully given it would have ings held to seek this blessing. It is been seen that the deficiency of funds was the point of warning, and, at this revealed in increasingly intense work very time, the American Board and for soul rescue in many lands. .
most other societies are sounding the SECOND FAcT.-The all-pervading interest in the cause of foreign missions same note of warning, as is evident which ruled at the sessions of the last from the following extracts from a general assembly at Winona, is an in- spiring summons to the whole Church. model appeal from the Presbyterian It was as a solemn response to the Board of Foreign Missions. unmistakable call of God's providence for a forward movement, . . . The FOUR PRESEN'l'-DAY FACTS. enthusiasm of the assembly in this cause should be accepted as setting the Real and effective interest in foreign pace for the Church in enthusiaRm and missions can only exist as the facts devotion in the months before us. pertaining to them are well known. The board of foreign missions calls " He that hath an ear, let him hear attention to four such facts now con- what the Spirit saith unto the Churches." fronting our Presbyterian Church. THIRD FACT. – Notwithstanding FIRST FACT.-The trend of divine these signs of the divine intention that providt:)llces to-day unmistakably calls the Church go forward, the startling for a forward movement in foreign fact confronts us that the foreign mis- missions on the part of the Church. sionary work of our Presbyterian Signs abound in many lands. . . Church is to-day crippled beyond pre- which summon to immediate duty and cedent. The financial straits of the conquest for Christ. Grand opportuni- board have compelled it to order severe ties for missionary effort fire the zeal of retrenchmcnt on all its mission fields. our brethren and sister.~ in foreign This reduction in their appropriations lands. Korea flings its doors wide open has struck our missions like a cyclone. to the march of the conquering hosts of The missionaries from one station, Christendom. In the Laos country ex- writing of the cable announcing for plorations disclose that as yet we have them a reduction of $6,000, say, "We were simply stunned." To meet this cut, college and girls' seminary, hospital and press, and village schools must ap- parently be side-trackt for a whole year. J…arge contributions from the missionaries' salaries were the only re- sources in sight to keep some depart- ments from absolute stagnation. From another mission a brother writes: "The situation is, in some respects, simply may be found, vol. iv., new series, p. hearthreaking. My wife and I have decided to give ~200 of our salary to 320,325. help out the cut in our field." Every mail from abroad is multiplying such The editor of the O. M. Intelligencer distressing statements. Furthermore, the board has called a halt in the send- makes a reference to the fact that this ing out of new missionaries. motto, "The Evangelization of the FOURTH FACT.-After this unparal- leled retrenchment has been made the World in this Generation," has lately board still' needs for the current ex- penses of the year on which it has been animadverted upon in terms of entered $830,000. This amount it has virtually pledged for the support of severity by D1'. Wm'neck (a recognized au- its 708 missionaries actually on the field, for its 2000 native workers who can thority on missions), in an article on not be ;ummarily discharged, for its vast itinerating work, and for other "The Modern Theory of the Evangeliza- vital departments abroad and at home. Besides this amount necessary for cur- tion of the World." He says in reply: rent expenses, there was a debt at the outset of the year of $97,454.47 to be "Regarded as a vindication of the provided for. In short, the board must old and tried methods of missionary receive during the present fiscal year work the article in question has un- $118,1'525.95 above w~at it. received last doubted value. But while individual year in order to satIsfy Its full fiscal advocates of the motto have laid them- obligations and unforeseen dema~d8. selves open to Dr. Warneck's criticisms, This certainly is a large undertaklllg, the Volnnteer Union itself has dis- "but not an impossible one for such a tinctly disavowed either that the watch.- Church as ours. word is a prediction, or that 'evangelz- eation' means on their lips a mere Here are the facts. What will the hurried proclamation of the Gospel. On Church do with them? Who cau the contrary, in a memorial to the ignore the claim they establish upon 'Church of Christ in Great Britain,' every church member's personal atten- which the Union issued this late spring, tion? "My Missionary Work," "My it defines 'evangelization' as meaning Board," "My Share in its Outlay," 'tl;(lt the Gospel should be preacht "My Portion in the Bl~ssed Reward.:' intelligibly and intelligently to ef!6ry Which link in this cham of holy oblI- soul in such a manner that the regation would you wish to renounce? spon~ibility for its a.cceptance shall no Will you not take the cause home to longer rest upon the Ohristian Ohurc1t, your heart with new affection, to be but upon each man for llimseif·' " manifest in more ardent prayers and To this Dr. Wameck says in effect, laro-er gifts in its behalf? "Then this evangelization is not possi· . ble in this generation; " and the S. V, .'j'The people rejoiced for that they M. U. is in agreement with him on offered willingly." this point, with an im portant qualifica- tion. It says, "With heathenism so The question is often askt of the edi- vast and so strongly intrencht the 'Evangelization of the World in this tor how, and when, he was led to sug- Generation' is an impossibility, unless t116 Ohurch cease8 to be so engJ'ost with gest the motto, since adopted by the things of time." And herein the true aim of the Union and the great service Student Volunteer force both in Ameri- which in God's Hand it has been privileged to render to the Church and ca and Europe, and now by the Church the world is brought into. view. Its object is to emphasize not a theory but a Missionary Society in the forward duty. There is no part of Dr. War- neck's paper which we regret 80 much movement, viz.: "The Evangelization as when towards the close he deprecates appeals for large acces~zons to the b~n~s of the World in this Generation." of missionary evangelIsts because It !s not acc(Yl'ding to t',e law of growth zn The motto, so far it can now be nature, and 'becal;se the Christians at home are not able to increase the numtraced, was first suggested in an address, ber of missionaries so suddenly, and if they did the money for their support Feb. 27, 1891, before the Student Vol- would not correspondingly increase. We should have thought that Dr. Warunteer Convention iu Cleveland, O. neck would have agreed with us that the Church of Christ, whether in Ger- It was in May of the same year put into many or England or America, has been a printed form in the leading article in THE MISSIONARY REVIEW, where it asleep to its duty to evangelize the The outlook in India is brightening. world, that it is only partIy awake now, Rains have been more abundant and that those who are awake ought to try the famine is wellnigh over for the their utmost to awaken the rest, and present. The number of its victims, that what the Christian Church can do will, however, run up into the millions. when it is awake will be out of all pro- The need is still great, for 5,000 portion to what it has done while for famine children must be cared for or the most part asleep." they will die of starvation.
The Recent Revolt in Uganda. The outlook for the coming winter in Armenia, says the Independent, is by no It was on Tuesday, July 6th, 1897, means cheering. There has been no that the capricious and fickle King disposition apparent on the part of the Mwanga ran away. Government to institute reforms and altho there have been no serious dis- The King's action is not hard to turbances, there has been no substantial explain, especially when one fact is progress. The harvest of 1896, an ex- understood. The King's party repre- ceptional one, is nearly exhausted. The sents the distinctly irreligious class, fall sowing did not bring forth much who wish to be free to live openly and fruit, the crop in no case being more than without restraint according to their fair, and, in many instances, scarcely lusts. Two things combined to bring returning the seed sown. The relief matters to a crisis. In May the failure work has been carried on through the of the rebellion involved Mwanga, who summer, care being taken to give the was in the plot, but turned "state's greatest aid to those who had no pos- evidence." His share in it was con- sible means of self-support, and even doned, but he feared results. Secondly, then to use them so far as practicable about one hundred of his pages, with in the industrial department. In this whom he had been guilty of the grossest way some 5,000 persons in Van district immorality, were banisht from court alone, have been kept alive, who, so far by the government, and this led Mwan- as is apparent, must have perisht with- ga himself to raise a revolt. He sent out this assistance. The care of orphans emissaries in every direction to stir up has developt in many important ways. strife and promote rebellion against the The schools for them have increast, English government. If he had suc- and there is constant demand for new ceeded, all the Bible readers would have departments, especially in the different been killed, and the Europeans driven trades. Shoemaking, weaving and out, and the reign of heathenism re- some lighter forms of iron work are establisht. All Uganda lookt on among the lines needing to be pusht. with intensest interest to watch the Great efforts are being put forth to care issue of the first engagement in Budu. for these children, who are to be the Nearly all the police deserted and chief strength of the next generation. joined the King, and the war became distinctly a religious one, between The twenty-fifth anniversary of the those who serve God and those who Jerry McAuley Rescue Mission, 216 serve him not. Mwanga and the hostile Water Street, New York City, was . chiefs and pagan people hate Christians eelebrated in Carnegie Hall on Sunday, because sensuality, slavery, polygamy, November 21. This is the original etc., find no encouragement under the rescue mission which has given the im- rule of Christ. The only faithful pulp!) to many similar efforts all over natives are the Protestants. Happily the lforld. The remarkable story of the battle of the 24th of July was fought the conversion of McAuley has often and won at Krango, in Budu. It ended been told. Sent to prison at nineteen for in a panic for the heathen party and great rejoicing for the Christians. fifteen years and six months, he profest of memorable sayings, for example: his conversion under preaching in the prison chapel. On coming out of prison "The Lord is ever looking for cothere was no one to care for him, and he fell to drinking. At last he was workers: He gets on-lookers." The fully reclaimed, and four years later started the Water Street Mission. The Bishop of Newcastle, the main speaker, story of the conversion of S. H. Hadley, who for eleven years has had charge of made a strong plea for a revival of true the work, is scarcely less interesting and striking, and is well nigh as missionary interest in the officers of familiar. At the anniversary exercises in Carnegie Hall, a number of eminent the Church, and especially the clergy. men spoke, among them Bishop C. C. He said: McCabe and President Moss of the Police Board. A large number of rescue "Since the cal1 to evangelize the workers from all parts of the country world came to the whole Church, then, also came together, and made the even- as the officers of the Church, the clergy ing exercises most interesting. We are primarily responsible. We must hope to give an illustrated account of not suppose that missionary ardor is this and other rescue work in our March universal in the Church of England. issue. Those who are really on fire are a dis- tinctly small minority, even in a congre- After a t.rial, lasting several weeks, gation which might have a reputation the Session of the Fifth Avenue Pres- for missionary zeal. Whose fauIt is it? byterian Church, New York, of which We clergy are very much to blame. 1 Dr. John Hall is pastor, found Mr. do not know of a single instance of a Hermann Warszawiak guilty of the clergyman really interested in foreign charges made against him aud dismist missions, praying and working for him from the membership of that them, who has not met at length with church. l'ir. Warszawiak appealed the a real response from a certain number case to Presbytery. The Presbytery of his parishioners. I have once wisht has recently sustained the action of the that all ordinary deputations might be Session of the Church,'but Mr. Warsza- suspended for a Whole year, and dewiak threatens to carry the case before putations be sent to the clergy alone. the Synod. It is stated that Dr. Hall Until the clergy are afire, it is useless and others still believe in Mr. Warsza- to expect the laity to be so." wiak's innocence, which we hope may be made manifest. At present a dark On October 12th uIt., Exeter Hall, cloud rests on his name. London, again witnest the outgoing At the recent Church Congress, in Nottingham, England, the Bishop of of C. M. S. missionaries. Rev. H. E. Southwell, in his presidential address, declared its "speciality to be its mis- Fox stated that including 12 who had sionary character." At the clerical breakfast, 170 sat down, the Bishop of sailed, 97 were going out during the Sierra Leone in the chair. He gave a thoroughly spiritual address on the autumn. 85 were on the platform, " first missionary breakfast"-John xxi. He said the key words were of whom 30 were returning to their LOVE, FEED, FOLLOW, and his address, like all Bishop Taylor-Smith's, was full work and the rest going out for the first time. Out of the 63 located during the year past, 52 were to be supported by special cont1'ibutions of individuals or groups of friends, 4 were honorary or so in part, leaving but 6 to be supported by the general fund.
Bishop Ingham, among other good'
things said, quoting one of the" Hints to Stewards" for the Missionary Ex- hibition about to be held at Guildford -" Be fresh to each person." When they got into the mission-field how could they be fresh to all amid the ad- verse influences around? He remem- bered how surprised he was when he first saw at Sierra Leone the marvelous greenness of the trees, while all the shrubs and herbage were parcht. It was owing to the faCt that they were 1897, 323. And this is beside, and not deeply rooted down in the levels kept instead of, sUbscriptions to the general moist by the last rainy season. Again, fund. We feel constrained to say that those who escaped from the Benin mas- we believe some such plan would do- sacre had depended upon the dew-drops more than any other one thing to relieve to quench their thirst in the forest. the present debts of the Boards and pre- The inference was obvious. We needed vent other debts being incurred.
not only deep roots but heavenl,!/ dews if A legacy amounting to probably £180,000($900,000) has been left to Rev. we would befresh every day, to each per- J. Hudson Taylor for the work of the son, and to every duty: China Inland Mission. Laus Deo !
In 1890, in July, a letter from several The Kongo Balolo Mission, of the East friends in Keswick was sent to the C. M. London Institute (Dr. Guinness) is in S. Committee, urging that an appeal be sore need of funds to carryon its prosput forth "for no less than a thousand perous and growing work in the heart additional workers, who will be needed of the Dark Continent: $7,000 to go out into the various fields withiu (£1,400) are needed immediately to the next few years. The prayers of nieet expenses. Eight new missionaries many friends of the Society were di- have recently been sent out and are rected toward sending forth 1,000 new worthy in the highest degree of our missionaries in the last decade of the prayerful sympathy and financial supcentury. To not a few it seemed little port. short of presumption at that time to ask for such a thing, but now is there any About two years ago a few of God's one who thinks an average of a hun- children had the continent of South dred a year a visionary aspiration? America, with its thirty-seven millions What has been the experience? The of perishing souls, specially laid upon number added to tluJ li.~t between May 1st, their hearts. arid longed, in some way, 1890, and May 1st, 1897, including to aid – in the work of preaching the wives and missionaries in local connec- Gospel to these people. ~<.s it was not tion, was 666, an average of 95 for the permitted any of them at- that time to seven years, the average for the first three take the Word of Life to the inhabityean having been 83, and for the latter ants of the " Neglected Continent," four years 104. These numbers do not they decided to remember daily before include those sent out in July last, the Throne of Grace these poor deand more lately, which would add 83 to graded souls, and also the missionaries the total given, making a grand total laboring among lhem. Thinking that of 749. Clearly we are encouraged to others would like to join with them in plead with enlarged desires and expecta- prayer for Sonth America, they were tions." led to form what is now known as the &uth American Missionary Prayer Again, about the same grand society Union. The prayer of faith is necesthat leads all Christendom: sary in the great work of spreading the knowledge of Christ. and while" Some Twenty years ago Rev. V. S. Stanton can go, most can give, aU can pray."* initiated the "Substitute for Service Fund," not only the idea but the exam- * Any further information regarding the ple, for he himself gave, during eight years after, the sum of £250, which was Prayer Union, or membership card for the doubled afterward in the time remain- same, may be obtained on application. In ing before his death. In June, 1893, order to defray the necessary expenses of the appeal was made for such offerings. printing, postage, etc., there is a small fee In May, 1894, 48 were thus supported; of 25 cents on entering the Union, which, in l'Iarch, 1896, 146, and in November, however, is optional. The secretaries are A. E. Robinson, 1 Hepbourne Street; and A. E. Armstrong, 927 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ca- nada. It is reckoned that during the year strumentality of the Salvation Army 1897, the cases of lynch-law being put into execution have averaged more into the enjoyment of the higher than twelve a month, and some one has arranged the list in the order of promi- Christian life, the whole course of his nence thus: Texas takes the lead, and is the black-banner State"":then Ala- life was changed. As a thank-offering, bama, Mississippi, Georgia and· Louisiana, Tennessee, Florida, South Caro- he gave one hundred thousand dollars lina, Kentucky and Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Maryland, Arizona, Cali- for the work of the army, and liberal fornia, Ohio, Nevada, Alaska and Illinois conclude the list with one each, contributions followed each year there- While Texas heads the list with nineteen. It will be seen that all but five of after. these lynchings have occurred in the South; eighty of the victims have been Being convinced that he must make negroes, and three Indians, and the great majority of cases were supposed a change in his whole mode of life, he murder cases, and now Indiana comes in the list with five victims at once in abandoned his handsome dwelling to the late tragedy at Versailles. take up his abode among" the slums."
He bought an old theater in one of the worst parts of the city, spent one hun- dred thousand dollars in fitting it up for mission purposes, with a hall for meet- ings, Rescue Home, etc., and a home for his family, and there the rest of his life was consecrated to lifting up the fallen. His wife, being in accord with him, they together lifted up the cross, where sin and sorrow and death had held undisputed sway. God put the The following letter is of such inter- seal of His approval upon him, both est to the general public, that we pub- temporally and spiritually. " Star lish it, and invite further suggestions as Hall" deserved its name as a great to its proposal: center of light and life. .
DEAR DR. PIERSON-In preparing a Some of us have followed this devoted missionary address on Africa to-day, it man in his walks of usefulness through occurred to me that, perhaps, the RE- those lanes and alleys, where crime was VIEW could inaugurate a movement rampant. His Mission Hall has been whereby. on the last day of the century, all missionaries and societies might the place of holy'convocation for many publish a statement, or send to some saints and for new campaigns against central committee a statement, of the sin and hell, and for the deepening of'
then present condition of tIle world the spiritual life. One who was with and position of the work, that might be placed in the hands of suitable editors, our dying friend, says he closed his and a volume publisht the first month earthly life "full of the sweetness of the new century, or as early as con- and tenderness of Jesus-no care, no venient-a volume that would review struggle, no fear-and the last· hours the growth of missions from the begin- ning, and state the actual position of were a veritable heaven on earth." It affairs in the missionary world. These was a real translation. The work goes are crude id~as, but can you not mark on. The beloved wife and coworker the century in some such form? Yours consecrates herself to the Lord's work truly, . D. SPENCER, LL.D.
with redoubled energy, succeeding her Mr. F. W. Crossley, of Manchester, glorified husband in the sowing as she England, who died March 25th, ult., was a man of large business, who will join him in the reaping. abode in his calling with God. He had taken the Lon]. into partnership as the Dr. John H. Barrows, has given Head of the firm, and used the profits for His glory and the extension of His most unequivocal testimony to the work. work of missions in India. He says: Having been led through the in- "The objects most worth seeing in India, to my thinking, are neither the Himalayas, nor the Taj Mahal, the Tomb of Akbar, nor the Temple of "Women in the Mission Field; Madura, but the varied triumphs of mis- Pioneers and Martyrs," and " The sionary effort. What a prodigious Heroic in Missions; Pioneers in Six amount of toil has gone into the Chris- Fields," by the Rev. A. R Buckland, tian vernacular literatures, and what secretary of the Church Missionary splendid triumphs of faith have enriched Society of England, are both interestthe church universal! I have heard ing narratives of life and work in formuch less of the discouragements of eign lands. The various chapters (each missions than I expected. I know how complete in itself) Me -excellent material hard workt and, in the truest sense, for reading at missionary gatherings, self-sacrificing are the Christian mis- mothers' meetings, girls' friendly society sionaries. I know their temptations meetings, or any occasion where a stirand sorp trials. But I have not heard ring narrative of missionary work a single word of doubt with regard to would be effective. (50 cents each, or the ultimate evangelization of India. two, postpaid, 80 cents.) Thomas Those who have been here longest Whittaker, New York.-D. L. P. have seen the most wonderful changes." Without the Oamp, the organ of the Books Received. "Missions to Lepers in India and the East" (17 Greenhill Place, Edinburgh), ENCYCLO;PEDIA OF SOCIAL REFORM. is full of interest to all true followers of (Large 8vo, 1439 pp.) Edited by Christ. It is an illustrated quarterly Wm. D. P. Bliss. Funk & Wag- (15 cents a year), which should be naIl's Co., New York and London. widely circulated and bear fruit in $7.50 (cloth), $9.50 (sheep), $12.00 hearty support of this truly Christian (half morocco), $14.00 (full mor- enterprise.-D. L. P. occo). Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop's" Korea THE STUDENTS' STANDARD DICTION- and Her Neighbors" (Fleming H. Revell ARY. (8vo, 915 pp.) Edited by Company), is a valuable contribution James C. Fernald. The same. both to missions and to general litera- ture. Mrs. Bishop resided in Korea for CLERICAL TYPES. (12mo, 217 pp.) By over two years after the China-Japan Rev. Hames Mann. The same. war, and made frequent excursions $1.00. into neighboring states. The reports of the condition and outlook in this THE STORY OF JONAH in the Light of land at such a critical period in its his- Higher Criticism. (16mo, 120 pp.) tory by such an experienced observer By Prof. Luther Tracey Townsend. must certainly commend themselves to The same. 50c. the student of the Eastern problems.
THE OLD TESTAMENT UNDER FIRE. Mrs. Bishop writes graphically and (12mo, 246 pp.) By Rev. A. J. F. intelligently of the Kur Dong and the Behrends, D.D., S.T.D. The same. King, of the assassination of the queen, $1.00. of the Japanese occupancy and suzer- ainty, describes a great Manchurian THE CONVERSION OF ARMENIA. (12mo, flood, as well as curious customs of a 150 pp.) By W. St. Clair-Tisdall, people little affected by Western civili- M.A. Fleming H. Revell Co., zation as yet. New York, Chicago, and Toronto. $1.40. The illustrations, about thirty in number, are all reproductions of photo- SISTER !'[ARTYRS OF RU-CHENG. graphs taken by the author. Two new (12mo, 120 pp.) Letters and Me- maps are also provided, as' well as moir of Eleanor and Elizabeth index and appendices.-D. L. P. Saunders. (Illustrated.) The same. $1.50.
THE AINU OF JAPAN. (12mo, 175 pp.) By Rev. John Batchelor. (Illus- trated.) The same. $1.50.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.- GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD', D.D., OBERLIN, OHIO.
Extracts and Translations From Foreign mation of a various interest in human Periodicals. and Divine knowledge. Perhaps this makes the matter so much the worse. BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, Great numbers of the upper-class Eng- MASS. lish look upon India simply as existing to provide lucrative salaries and honor- INDIA. able places for younger sons of the gen- try. As an Englishman, quite apart -Mr. Harold Frederic, in a recent from any thought of criticism, has dispatch to a Boston newspaper, calls laughingly said, great numbers of his the zenana missionary ladies propaga- countrymen in India, if asked what tors of "the gospel of discontent," and their duties are, would be able to give questions, on the authority of old gen- no other answer than that given him erals and other Indian functionaries, by a very subordinate official, whom he whether as much harm has been done askt what he did: "Sir, I hold the in India by famines and other plag ues position." The natives know that Engas by them. It is interesting and land gives them peace, justice, humane rather amusing to notice this restric- administratiun and care, and enlightention. Formerly, it was all the mission- ment. Still, the more widely developt aries in India that were a danger. their intellects become, the more likely Carey and his fe!lows were put out of they are to persist in asking whether all British territory, and compelled to take these objects might not be accomrefuge in Serampore, which was then plisht just as well by a great reduc- Danish. Mr. Thompson, and we sup- tion in the complexity and expensivepose others, were sent out of the Penin- ness of the pllblic service. Such sula altogether. In 1857 the cry was questions might be very uncomfortable raised for a moment that the Sepoy for aristocratic young England. The Mutiny was the result of missionary old stoHd and stupid acquiescence in propagandism. But as the missionaries whatever the "Sahibs" please to do, were plainly not in the least responsible might be preferable, rather than that for greased cartridges, and as the .. niggers " ane. "black devils" should Hindu merchants of Calcutta indig- begin to ask such questions. It· must nantly declared that the missionaries, be confest that a few more million so far from being answerable for the Christian and educated Hindus would, mutiny, were, above all other foreign- without a word or thought of violence, ers, winning reverence for their religion compel a very fundamental revision of and. their courtesy, and were esteemed Indian administration, ami a far more by the Hindus as fully the equals of profound respect for themselves; and, their own saints and sages, this cry as a certain Right Reverend English soon died down. Now, for some inex· Bishop has suggested, that Joseph Arch plicable reason, perhaps because these might well be duckt in a horsepond modest women are not much given to for insisting that even farm-laborers controversial self.defence, it is the have rights, it is no strange thing if that zenana ladies that have to bear the Bishop's cousins to the hundredth genbrunt of the attack. To be sure, they eration think the same of zenana can not enter the zenanas without the women. There seems to be only one full consent of the husbands and fathers. way of suppressing this inconvenient These, then, have not discovered the growth of intelligence, namely, to danger of quickening the monotonous life of the female recluses into the ani-
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
disestablish Christianity. So long as this "The gods Vishnu and Siva," says subsists, it has an uncomfortable way Mr. Phillips, "the highest ideal of of working itself out in various direc- Hinduism, have committed every imations, some of which provoke Anglo- ginable sin magnified to the utmost Indians to a very free use of profane extent." language. The German missionary, Frohnmeyer, The Rev. Maurice Phillips, in the quoted in Le Mi8sionaire, remarks: "At Harvest Field, remarks of the minor the present time one meets with but a poems of Hinduism: "The minor poems cold reception in Germany to speak· are of a very late date, evidently writ- about England. There are political ten after the introduction of Christian- reasons for this; I shall not undertake ity into India. Some time ago their to judge of their force. For all this, it teaching was represented in one of the pains a German missionary laboring in English monthlies as 'Latent Hindu- India, to hear the English described as ism.' What was quoted from them is nothing but a nation of shop-keepers. not Hinduism at all, but reflections We, on the other hand, see them under of the teaching of Christ! .. a very different aspect, and we love to say of them: 'They are the nation of As the excessive predominance of the missions; the nation of the Bible.' The priesthood in Roman Catholic countries. English take pains to bring the Bible especially in Italy, has called out a into every house and into every heart. violent atheistical reaction, so it was We know, for instance, that in India the absolutely unendurable tyranny of you can find in every railway station a the Brahmans that called out the athe- Bible in English, and another in the lanistical religion of Buddhism. As Mr. guage of the country. The English Bible Phillips says: " About the sixth century is read assilluously by the employes and B. C., it appears that the tyranny of the also by the travelers." The Hindus do Brahmans had become so oppressive,· not venture very much into the waitingthe burden of the daily sacrifices had rooms, but as we know, they read the become so heavy, and the fetters of Bible a good deal at home. caste had become so tightly riveted that the people, unable to bear them any MADAGASCAR. longer, revolted, and that revolt found expression in Buddhism. Buddha de- The German Ultramontanes endeavor nied every doctrine of the ancient creed, to weaken the force of the damning aIexcept the doctrine of transmigration, -legations brought against the French which he modified to suit his own sys- Jesuits in Madagascar, and their viotem. He declared that there is no God; lent ways, by urging, among other that the Vedas are of no authority; that things, that common prudence would priests, prayers, and sacrifices are use- not allow the French authorities to less; that caste is a fiction; and that permit outrages against the EngUsh there is no soul in the sense of a spiritual mISSIOns. To this G. Kurze, in the entity distinct from matter. Thus he Allgemeine Mi8sions Zeitschr(ft, very swept away, with one stroke, the foun- pertinently answers: "The French govdations upon which the tyranny of the ernment has not the slightest occasion Brahmans was built, viz. God, the soul, to take any account of England. in the Vedas, prayers, sacrifices and caste." these last years Protestant Albion has shown herself wretchedly timid when- Yet, as Mr. Phillips remarks, "the ever she was called to vindicate English system of the void," as the Brahmans Protestant missionaries. And, now rightly called it, could not prevail in the again, when Gallieni is so contemptuousend. and Brahmanism, deeply modified ly treading under foot the rights of the by Buddhism into Hinduism, recovered Congregational, Anglican, and Quaker jts sway among the devout Indians. missionaries in Madagascar, England is
GENERAL MISSIONARY' INTELLIGENCE
playing as pitiable a part as ever. We How many others which have disap- can not help querying whether the two peared, replaced by those of the Jesu- powers have not struck a secret bargain its! I am here speaking only of the in the political sphere, on the principle three most threatened districts, known of Give and Take, by virtue of which to me personally." England is fain to look quietly on, while her missionaries in Madagascar M. Ducommun writes; "The peo- are maltreated." ple are so put beside themselves that the strongest means succeed. For ex- What else could be expected from ample, the priest traverses the villages that unworthy descendant of Elizabeth's with two registers, a red for the Catho- Burleigh, who now misdirects the lics, a black for the Protestants. ' The atrairs of Great Britain? An Armenian Protestants, "says he, •will have to make friend tells me that some years ago the all the roads, railroads, and telegraph Marquis of Salisbury said; "If the Ar- lines, then they are to be shot, and will menians do not want to be ill treated go to hell. The Catholics will have by the Turks, why don't they turn nothing to do, and heaven stands ready Mohammedans?" It may be doubted for them.' And such means succeed!" whether these were his words, but they exactly express his cynical and con- "Is it surprising that a missionary temptuous spirit. How much less should write thus to us; 'There are would he care when the 1<'rench shoot now not more than twenty persons in a few score Malagese, to frighten the my church. The rest have all heen rest into the French Church! shot, chained, imprisoned, or banisht, and these twenty are every day expect- M. Delord writes; "The Jesuits are ing their turn, fClr the priest has taken far from abating their efforts. They their names.' " receive, almost by every steamer, new reinforcements, and we have the cha- We see the spirit of St. Bartholomew grin of learning often that they are oc- is still as fierce as ever in the veins of cupying new positions. There are these fanatics. strange illusions as to the nature of our work. It is imagined that we are real " The situation in Madagascar, with- pastors, almost bishops, having the su- out showing any particular sign of im. preme direction of solidly constituted proving, is now becoming more clearly churches, composed of a certain num- defined. The animus of the French ber, relatively considerable, of Chris- authorities is now seen to be directed tians. Alas! such notions must be against the missionaries not as Protes- given up. At bottom we are, and used tants, but as English. and against the to be, real missionaries. There are L. M. S. in particular. The London many things to do, to undo, and to do Missionary Society has not been known over. In easy days things went as they by any distinctive name in the island, might, but since the tempest has risen, but being the first in the field, and, by all is disorder, confusion, chance-med- far the largest of all the Protestant ley. Desertions, churches burnt by the societies at work, i.ts converts have been Fahavalos, stations disorganized by the called 'English' Christians, while the Jesuits; a general recrudescence of de- Romanists have for a parallel reason lations, of calumnies, of false witness! been called 'French.' A similar state How many persons thrown out of their of things prevailed in Uganda a few wits, and seeking rather the approba- years ago. The L. M. S. has thus tion of the government than of their loomed up before the eyes ofthe French own consciences! How many schools as a great oppossing force, and all the . there are, once humbering hundreds of more so because in previous colonial pupils, which now number but units! extensions, in Tahiti and the Loyalty Islands, the French have found the same society at work before them.
ENGLISH NOTES
Needless to say, they are quite unable to probably live until disease or heartbreak grasp the idea that English missionaries does its work.
are not political agents. Theirs are, as witness Monsignor Hirsh in Uganda, English Notes.
therefore ours must be. The BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A.
compulsory acquisition of the Normal North Africa Mission. – Another School building and other educational year of service in connection with the establishments by the French Govern- above mission is completed, and looking ment is narvely justified by Le Temps as at the work as a whole progress and in- 'an injury done to the prestige of the crease seem to mark the year. The be- Society, for it is thereby deprived of its ginning was saddened by the murder of most powerful means of propaganda.'" Dr. and Mrs. dLaerakcahnadnmd ythsteeirrioliuttsleevseonn~' but even this -C. M.lnteUigeneer.
The treatment of Queen Ranavalona has been the means of good in the by General Gallieni is a characteristic hand of God. mixture of brutality and hypocrisy. The unhappy sovereign lmd not a fore- The storm of opposition from the boding of what was impending, when, French seems now to have benefited in the evening of February 27, she was rather than interfered with the work. suddenly informed that she was de- The work of the Lord is specially felt posed, and must set out for the island in Algeria, where signs are continually of Reunion early the next morning. being manifested, several having re- Utterly overcome, she threw herself at cently confest Christ. the knees of the subordinate officer who brought the message, but, of course, to The receipts of the mission show an no purpose. The man who had judi- increase of income every year on that of the previous year, which is felt to be encouraging.
cially murdered her uncle, doubtless The China Inland Misswn.-Mr. J.
praised his own clemency in letting the R. F. Pledger writes from Yun-nan niece live. That her passage to the stating the difficulty which he and Mr.
coast took place in the unhealthy season Stevenson experienced at Yun·nan by of course signified nothing. Had Rana- reason of anonymous placards posted valona perisht, it would simply have about the town denouncing missionaries been one inconvenient life the more out and ~her foreigners. These posters of the way. made the people generally very unfavor- After this manly deed, Gallieni put able, although, fortunately for the mis- forth this ponipous and mendacious sionaries, the chief man of the district proclamation: was favorable to them and issued orders " Since the Government of the Re- commanding the people to behave public has declared Madagascar a properly to them, giving permission to French colony, the regal dignity has the missionaries "to build, buy or become superfluous in Imerina. I have rent" where they liked. Difficulty still therefore invited the Queen to abdicate exists because of the popular feeling the exercise of the same, and at her re- being against foreigners in the district, quest have authorized her to repair to and it is unsafe for missionaries to go the Island of Reunion, where she will unprotected about the city.
enjoy the fullest hospitality of the Miss :M:uir writes from Tsin-chau: French authorities." "Miss S. Garland, while visiting Tuh- The French are not poisoners, and it siang, a city one day's journey from is not likely that they will guillotine Tsin·chau, Kan-suh province, was talk- the poor woman, which would raise her ing to some wome who seemed specially to an unpleasant likeness to their own interested. Presently one of them turned Mari!' Antoinette. She will, therefore, to the others -and said, 'This is quite
GENERAl, 'MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
true; my baby has been very ill for a before its close, as there are three or month and after trying everything I could think of I remembered what Koh four persons who have already applied Tai-t'ai had told me, and prayed to this God, and my baby got well quickly," for baptism. We believe that God has Tidings from Hankow rel~te the sad wrought His work of grace in their death of Mrs, Fishe, who has been connected with the C. I. M. since 1875. hearts, and we are praying that they All acquainted with her hold her in great esteem, and her loss will be keenly will be a power of good in this land of felt at home and abroad. darkness_" Four lads have recently Baptist Missionary Society_-A private letter to Edwin C. Curtis, of South offered their services as itinerant work- Wales, from the Rev _Timothy Richard, of North China, contains matter of ers, and the little church feels able to fresh interest in its bearing on China's future. According to Mr. Richard the bear the expenses which this will necesrecent marvelous awakening in China through the Japanese war, and the re- sarily involve. markable direction which has been given by the China Christian Literature The Church Missionary Society,-The Society to tbe minds thus awakened, Church Missionary Intelligencer for call for a larger support to the operations of that society, and an extension October contains a specially interesting of those operations. The design is to establish in each of the capitals of the report of the Medical Mission in Rana- 20 provinces of China an institution which shall consist of a library and ghat, Bengal, under the direction of Mr. 1ecture-hall, to serve as a nucleus of enlightenment" for their respective 20, :MuDl'o. The workers endeavor to fol- 000,000 of population, who are now asking for the light of Christian civili- low our Lord's ministry of preaching, zation." Mr. Richard now reports donations and sUbscriptions for this object teaching and healing, and the work is from the Baptists of the United Kingdom, amounting to £1,590; and also re- lleing most signally blessed. The ports that a merchant from China (Mr, Thomas Hanlevy) has promist to build spiritual needs of the people must come a central institution in Peking, which will cost some thousands of pounds. first, and continually there are services Mr. Timothy Richard, who left for the United States on August 25th, will being held in the waiting-rooms and doubtless be heard in person in many of the important centers of this great verandahs of the dispensary. "Men and republic. women have listened with attention- Stanley Pool.-The Rev. S. C. Gordon writes from Stanley Pool: "It is a Illany have admitted the truth of the great joy to me to be able to report that yesterday we baptized two persons in words spoken-many have gone further the Congo River here. This is our second baptism since the beginning of and have stated their belief in Jesus the year, and we hope to have another Christ as their Savior; but beyond this none have gone."
The teaching in the school does good satisfactory work-the standard taken is the three R's up to the Bible. The little Hindus are very much in request by the people around, because of the hymns they sing. In this way the Gos- pel is becoming known in the neighbor- hood round the school.
The daily visits to the hospital have been 180, and many cures have been brought about. The people are becom- ing quite favorable to the foreign doc- tors, and bring their sick from aU parts_ Lady-doctors attend serious cases among the women at their own homes-thus doors are opened for the truth.
Work on the Niger.-" On Easter Sunday last, an interesting service was held at Onitsha, when fifteen boys, the first, fruits of the work at Immanuel church, were baptized by the Rev_ P. A. Bennett in the River Niger, in the presence of all the native Christians and a large crowd of heathen people, who had come down from' Onitsha town to the waterside in order to witness the ceremony." Statistics of thc Missionary Societies of the [THESE tables include only Missions to non·Christian and non·Protestant peoples, and so they Japanese in the United States. The figures are derived almost wholly from annual reports, and leave the fewest possible blanks, and hence where official figures were not at hand, conservative .Missionaries. Native Laborers. .; qo…-,t:.eS ~~ '"d ..,.~ od .~g NAMES OF SOCIETIES. §§ .; .n -~SS.·~$u·;~i ai _.n " "… A"'<~: <"Qa [o§ 0 .~ <l 0"..". "S .":: ~ .5 ",,, §~ ~.e; j~ 1;' ~ p ~ E-<Ol ~ ~ 0 Z — —————— American Board …………………….. 1810 $688,414 174 13 176 175 543 234 2,956 Baptist Missionary Union……… ……. 1814 467,202 163 2 161 102 428 283 1,984 Southern Baptist Convention …….•…. : 1845 125,682 35 0 33 12 80 38 100 Free Baptists ………………………… 1836 30,432 5 1 6 11 23 7 229 Seventh·Day Baptists………………… 1847 9,000 2 0 2 2 6 0 4 Christian (Disciple) ………………….. 1875 96,811 24 5 24 12 65 0 76 American Christian Convention ………. 1886 5,100 4 0 2 1 7 4 11 Protestant Episcopal.. ……………….. 1835 237,326 28 7 22 20 77 70 353 Society of Friends……………………. 1871 32,100 9 11 13 23 56 7 83 Lutheran, General Council ………. .. 1869 20,803 7 0 7 3 17 1 143 Lutheran, General Synod …………….. 1837 48,238 11 0 8 7 26 2 442 Methodist Episcopal. ………………. 1832 948,938 230 18 225 194 667 606 5,223 Methodist Episcopal, South …………… 1846 225,297 56 1 49 5 111 99 262 African Methodist Episcopal. …………. 1876 6,814 6 10 12 3 31 0 7 Methodist Protestant…………… · ….. 1882 12,000 5 1 6 4 16 4 10 Presbyterian………. ……………….. 1837 808,929 231 51 241 185 708 182 1,802 Presbyterian, South ………………….. 1861 143,500 56 9 50 38 153 36 134 Cumberland Presbyterian ……….. …. 1820 31,430 7 1 6 13 27 8 33 Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) …. 1856 18,838 … 2 9 6 24 0 37 Reformed Presb. (Gen. Synod)…….. , .. 1836 5,000 2 11 6 8 22 4 29 Associate Reformed Presbyterian ……… 1879 8,413 3 0 3 8 9 4 5 United Presbyterean…………………. 1859 120,520 89 2 39 34 114 32 705 Reformed (Dutch)……………………. 1836 111,112 32 4 30 20 86 82 431 Reformed (German)………………….. 1878 29,789 6 1 5 3 15 12 42 German Evangelical Synod….. … ….. 1883 12,124 7 0 4 0 11 0 49 Evangelical Association ………………. 1876 9,000 2 0 2 0 4 14 46 U nited Brethren …………………….. 1853 11,077 8 10 8 7 28 2 20 Canada Baptist………………………. 1873 50,018 18 0 18 14 50 13 206 Canada Congregationalist ……………. 1881 5,500 1 0 1 2 4 0 4 Canada Methodist.. ' …………………. 1873 148,499 28 29 45 15 117 26 65 Canada Presbyterian …………………. 1844 159,000 36 18 37 40 131 7 243 Twenty·three other Societies…………. …. 628,300 135 -38-0 271 312 1,098 38 – 460 Totals …………………………… -…-. — — — — — — – 1,372 592 1,521 1,269 4,754 1,767 16,194 $5,255,006 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _-C.-_ _ ~–'- _______ ~_ United States and Oanada for 1896-97.
omit work done in non·Oatholic Europe, while covering that in behalf of Indians, Ohinese, and relate in the main to 1897, tho sometimes the year includes a part of 1896. The aim has been to estimates have been made, based upon former reports.] 'Oc0fSl.'"'~ 2 bIl ~~ ~~ ~ Ol '" ";." .'."-", " <Ii .<.I.i Countries in which :3~ ol "ol Missions are sustained. -~(!) ''0O"~ Cl)·…. cts "0 ~ olOl<> "ol"" .S:! .E0..-,·!0…. ~'0"~ :"g,."$" ~+=I …. ,.0c:: ,.c:: 0…00 Ol ~ <> ~ ,."c'::oZl·;'!"l "00 00 "ss ~~~ 0 0 0 — — —- ——- — 8,499 1,227 44,606 8.919 1.~8,445 1,184 54,615 Africa, Turkey, India, Ohina, Japan, 2,412 1,128 127,128 6,594 1,285 Micronesia, Mexico. Spain, Austria. 500,000 180 236 4,824 660 25,000 85 28,997 Africa (Kongo), India, Burmah. As«am, 252 15 782 72 2,500 . 95 China, Japan, France, Russia, 'etc.
1,103 Ohina, Japan, Africa, Italy, Mexico, Brazil.
3,238 India (Bengal).
10 2 89 22 250 4 120 China (Shanghai).
141 64 1,418 286 4,550 19 784 China, Japan, India, Turkey.
18 22 317 60 1,200 4 118 Japan (Tokyo, etc.).
430 200 4,074 140 18,000 125 4,598 Greece, Africa, China, Japan, Haiti, In- dians. 139 . 2,500 32 1,106 Mexico, China, Japan, Jamaica, Alaska. 160 57 1,029 234 2,719 India (Madras). 198 2,002 170 5,100 113 466 13 5,283 230 16,000 212 5,870 India (Madras), West Africa.
5,890 504 63,650 4,560 146,767 1,587 43,470 China, Korea, Ja:&an, Africa, S. America. 873 Mexico, Italy, ullfaria, Malaysia. 38 8,756 908 26,000 62 2,096 China, Japan, Brazi, Mexico, American 164 Indians. 257 West Africa, West Indies. 12 360 45 1,000 5 26 14 290 60 1,000 1 34 Japan (Yokohama).
2,510 904 80,644 3,140 120,000 724 25,592 India, Siam, China, Jspan, Korea, Africa, 287 Syria, Persia, S. America, Mexico, etc. 60 86 8,156 508 10,000 25 726 0hina, Japan, Korea, Africa, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Brazil. 8 tOO Japan, Mexico. 11 773 188 2,500 61 11 245 20 800 14 620 Northern Syria, Asia Minor.
51 25 876 172 2,500 4 273 India (Northwest Provinces).
14 14 276 39 600 4 90 Mexico (Tampico, etc.).
819 277 7,677 1,271 25,000 358 17,488 Egypt, India (Northw~st Provinces).
517 281 5,806 391 15,000 182 6,904 China, Japan, India, Arabia.
57 34 1,985 197 5,000 2 206 Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, etc.).
60 13 675 240 2,227 15 1,182 Africa (Sierra Leone).
50 21 807 52 2,000 1 8 Japan (Tokyo, Osaka).
48 12 5,000 300 12,000 9 700 Africa (West Coast, Sherbro, etc.), China 256 76 8,920 505 10,136 74 1,480 India (Te!ugus).
8 2 30 4 200 3 100 Africa (West Central).
182 50 2,850 180 12,000 40 2,500 Japan (Tokyo, etc.), Indians.
874 188 8,054 426 10,000 177 7.086 China, India, .Ne" Hebrides, West Indies. 1,558 290 26,048 324 27,000 20,946 6,091 856,880 I750 30,000 6,672 241,180 26,283 1,143,275 THE KINGDOM. corrupts, or the light that splendidly illuminates, and the salt that silently -" Ye know the gracc of our Lord operates; but, being dead or alive, Jesus Christ; that, tho He was rich, every mnn speaks.-Ohalmers. yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might -Society is recognizing the debt of be rich."-PAur" THE ApOSTLE. strength to weakness. The man who -One of the missionaries in British has skill in speech is becoming a voice Columbia reported the prayer of an to the dumb. TlJOse who have skill Indian after hearing of the Ku-cheng towards wealth are becoming the al- massacre: "Say again, dear Jesus, moners of bounty towards art, educa- 'Father, forgive them, for they know tion, and morals. Men who selfishly not what they do.' 0 gracious Spirit, . get much and give little, who have be- Thou art not quencht by blood; let it come Dead Seas of accumulated treas- make thy garden soil strong to gr01J! ure, are losing their standard in society.
Oltinese believers in! " More and more cities are bestowing -High words and disagreeable on their honors and esteem upon those the streets of Chiningchowabout "for- who serve their fellows. Men are beeigners stealing Chinese children," were coming magazines, sending out kindsilepced last July by two official procla- ness everywhither. Men are becoming mations. In one of these the citizens gardens, filling all the air with pungent were told that it "would not be fair to fragrance. Men are becoming castles kill them without a warning, and, in which the poor find protection. The therefore, they were being warned;" floods of iniquity have long covered the earth, but love is the dove bringing the but if they continued to spread false reports about the foreigners "I shall olive branch of peace. Love sings the take your heads off." dawn of a new day.-REv. N. D.
HILLIS.
-The Otis legacy, which yielded -Thomas A. Edison has discovered a $1,500,000 to foreign missions, was process whereby he is able to extract, given by a deacon of the First Church, by the use of powerful magnates, iron in New London, Conn., whose interest in paying quantities from low-grade ores. the cause was developt from seeing If, now, that busy brain of his would some missionaries, who had landed in invent some kind of magnet which New London the day previous, after an would extract withheld gifts from lowabsence from home of twelve years, grade givers, he would be one of the walk down the aisle of the First noblest benefactors of the world.-Ad- Church, Sunday morning. in their old- vance.
time and much-worn garments. Their -We have been privileged to read a moral heroism so toucht him that his remarkable letter from one of the honinterest in the mission world from that ored bishops of the Moravian church. hour knew no abatement. He commenced housekeeping about -Every man is a missionary now 1859 on a salary of $350. He at once and forever. for good or for evil, began to tithe, and has continued the whether he intends or designs it or not. practice ever since. He has not li~ited He may be a blot, radiating his dark his gifts to the tenth, but has often influence out to the very circumference given more. This bishop has a family of society; or he may be a blessing, of 8 children. The youngest is twelve spreading benediction over the length years old, and all have adopted the sys· and breadth of the world; but a blank tern of tithing. The bishop writes: he can not. be. There are no moral " I have never known want, tho I have blanks. there are no neutral characters. often had more in the Lord's treasury Weare either the sower that sows and than in my pocketbook. We have had many luxuries, too, not the least of pal Caven, on the' study of the New which is knowing the blessedness of Testament, and one by the Rev. Progiving." His private means are very fessor Geo. L. Robinson, on the study slender; he is worth but $500, and yet of the Old Testament. he has been able for the past three years to keep his son at a theological semin- -Every night 1,000 women are ary. He is receiving now only $500 a housed in the Salvation Army shelters year, but declares cheerfully that he and homes in Great Britain. During the has all he needs, and has nothing but last twelve months 1,633 past through hearty gratitude for God's providence the Rescue homes, of whom 1,432 have in his life.-Golden Rule. been sent to situations or to friends, and enabled to make a fresh start. Mrs. -A wealthy manufacturer in Bahia Bramwell Booth's 250 helpers visited (Brazil) has recentiy turned over to the 1,068 women prisoners, and spoke to use of the Presbyterian mission a new nearly 5,000 women on the streets. The school building, completely furnisllt Army's investigation department has and equipt with material from the traced 708 missing persons during this United States, to accommodate 150 year. Self-denial week in Australia pupils, and will support the teachers resulted in the collection of £25,000, required for kindergarten and primary which is more than was received in grades, on condition that it be made a Great Britain. model school like the "American" school at S. Paulo, the mission to have – Intelligence comes of the appointabsolute control of the work and the ment of Miss Hu King Eng, M.D., as selection of teachers. first physician in the household 'of Li Rung Chang, viceroy of China. Miss -The British and FOl'eign Bible Eng was born in Foo-chow in 1866, Society has publisht 151,000,000 vol- and was the second of five children of umes at a cost of $60,000,000. The Hu Yong Mi, one of the most efficient American Bible Society has publisht Methodist native workers in China. 63,000,000 at a cost of $27,000,000, and Her grandfather was a military manother societies 51,000,000; making a darin, who embraced Christianity early total of 265,000,000. in life, his five sons also accepting Christianity, and the family being the WOMAN'S WORK. second one in China to embrace the -If one would get a glance at the Christian religion. She took a special marvelous, because multifarious and course of study in the Ohio Wesleyan multitudinous, tasks which the women University preparatory to adopting the of the W. C. T. U. have undertaken medical profession, in 1890 was admitand are pushing with great vigor, let ted on examination to the Woman's him traverse the more than 100 pages Medical College of Pennsylvania, and of the New Crusade for October last. was soon rankt among the leaders of The table of contents is fairly bewilder- her class. After completing the full ing. medical course she spent a year and a -The Methodist women (M. E. half in post-graduate and hospital work, Church, North), raised $313,938 for and was practicing in Foo-chow when missions last year, an advance of $28,- this high honor came to her. Dr. Eng 000 beyond the year before. To the 170 is the first woman in China to be gradrepresentatives in the foreign field 13 uated from a medical college. were added.
..!-In Toronto was recently opened YOUNG PEOPLE.
the Ewart Woman's Missionary Train- -The Y. M. C. A. has 127 railroad ing Home. The curriculum includes a branches, with 30,000 members, and no course of lectures, to be delivered at less than $140,000 are contributed by Knox College, one by the Rev. Princi- . railroad companies for their maintenance. The New York, New Haven and charitable objects, shall at the end of Hartford Railroad has granted $30,000 that time prove to the satisfaction of for a building. the United Society that he has not been financially prospered far beyond the -The first Young Woman's Chris- sum paid out by him." tian Association Home in London was opened in 1855, and now there are in -Fully 500 poor mothers and that city 23 homes and restaurants for children were carried on each of the young women, while in the provinces free excursions given by the Junior there are 100, in Scotland 11, and ill Christian Endeavor union of Camden, Ireland 14. These minister to all classes N. J., during last summer. of workers-teachers, clerks, shop as- sistants, and servants. AMERICA.
-According to the Congregationalist United States.-How strangely it 120 of our colleges now support as came about. D. O. Mills laid the foun- many Christian missionaIies. Last year dations of a fortune upon the Pacific Wellesley gave $1,050 for missions; Coast, and now he constructs a hotel, Yale, $1,200; Mt. Holyoke, $549; Cor- costing $1, 000, 000, in the" down town" nell, $500, and Oberlin, $650. But our section of New York City, whose design students do not begin to sacrifice for is to furnish for 1,500 a clean, comfort- this purpose as do those of the Canadian able room for 20 cents a day, bath in- colleges. Thus the 80 students of cluded, and meals and laundrying at McGill University last year gave $1,- similar rates. He proposes also to build 833, and only 5 out of the 80 are exempt a second hotel for the same purpose. from the necessity of earning their live- lihood, in some measure at least, while – In the twelve years of its existence they are students. the Chicago Training School has sent out 98 foreign missionaries, 935 gradu- -Kin Leon is a bright young China- ates engaged in deaconess work in this man who has spent a number of years country, and 70 who are occupied with in the United States, and coming under some other form of home missionary or the influe!lce of Christian teaching was evangelistic work. With its fine new led to accept the" Jesus doctrine," and building, Harris Hall, and the recent ' joined the Presbyterian Church and the extension of its course, it seeks with Endeavor society. For some time he renewed courage to fulfill its part in has conducted a laundry .at Oxford, supplying the large and increasing Pa., but now he feels that the Lord has demand for trained workers at home other work for him to do, and is about and abroad. to give up the laundry for the purpose . of devoting his entire time to study, with -Hampton (Va.) Institute opened its a view of some time enteriJ?g Lincoln thirtieth year with an attendance of University to take the regular course about 1,000. A new building for teach- necessary to fit him for missionary work ing agriculture and domestic science is in China. in process of erection, to cost between $50,000 and $60,000, of which $35,000 -At least 700 Endeavorers of South have already been subscribed. Hamp- India met a short time ago in convention ton has done more for the negroes of at Madura. Out of 65 societies 37 sent the South than can be estimated. Its delegates_ work for the Indian IS of the same character, only more limited for the -A Louisiana insurance agent, in want of material. Yet there are about . joining the Tenth Legion, makes this 140 Indians connected with the school, 40 of whom are new students, mostly bold proposition: "I will pay $1,000 as from Western tribes. – a forfeit to any young man who, having -There are now 22,799 Indians in during three consecutive years given – honestly one-tenth of his income toward schools of all kinds, 68,000 own lands. Spanish America.-The uneducated in severalty, and the government ap- Mexicans are not exempt from the propriation for 1897 was $2,631,000. usual prejudice which obtains among ignorant classes concerning the use of -Two sons of a Zulu chieftain have water for personal cleanliness. The recently reacl1t this country. This two things the sick are most carefully chief is not a Christian himself, but he guarded against in the homes of the desires that his successor shall be one, poorer Mexicans, we are -told, are fresh and, therefore, he sends. his sons to air and clean water. A teacher says: America "to learn and to believe. " "Children sometimes come to school The oldest son, who is the natural heir, with dirty faces and hands, and when I is not a Christian, and has two wives speak to them about it, they tell me whom he leaves behind. The younger they have colds, ()!" are not very well, brother has been in the mission schools and it would make them sick to wash at Lindley and Amanzimtote, and is a themselves."-Horne Mission Monthly_ lay preacher. The father pays all cost of sending and supporting the boys. -Primitive customs. prevail in' the more remote Mexican plazas. "It is -The Methodist Episcopal Church, amusing," says our teacher at Embudo, South, is rejoicing in the complete pro- "to see the threshing of wheat. A cir- vision for its missionary debt. The cle of ground is first swept clean, the entire amount of $145,000 has been wheat is placed in the center and scat- secured by personal pledges, and the tered llbout the circle. The goats are Church is free to go on with its work driven around on the wheat, while as it has not been in the past No pub- boys guard the goats from straying_ lic appeal has been made, but the work After being thus thresht, the wheat is has been done in a private way by in- carried home and washt hy the women dividuals, laymen, benevolent women, before it is sent to the mill_ The corn and church officers. Of that sum $50- is husked, then baked in the oven, and 000 have been given by 9 persons, afterwards ground between stones by $100,000 by 200; and the contributors the women, as in Bible times.-lOid.
to the debt have been less than 4,000 -Nov. 10 the Congress of Peru, in in number. spite of the utmost the cleJical party Canada.-The Grande Ligne Mission could do to pI'event it, past a bill legalwas founded, in 1835, by Henriettll izing non-Catholic maniages by sanc- Feller and her associates, who came tioning a civil ceremony. Great was from Switzerland and opened a small the excitement attending.
school, with the object of doing what EUROPE. they could to give a pJimary education, and a knowledge of the way of salva- Great Britain. – The Ohurch Mis- tion, to the French-Canadian people of sionary Intellig, nCe1' calls attention to Quebec. The mission maintains some the fact that offers have been made by 15 or 20 colporteurs and Bible-women. individual friends or groups of friend~ 6,000 persons are known to have been to sustain the personal charges of converted through the agency of this neal"ly all the new missionaries who do mission, and it has sent out 50 mission- not go forth at their own costs. " Of aries, several of whom have gone to the 63 (excluding wives) sent out since the foreign field. The income is not May 1st, 4 are honorary, one partly derived solely from Canadian Baptists. so, and offers have been made for the Of the $19,000 expended last year, support of 52, leaving only 6 to be a nearly $3,000 came from the United charge on the ordinary funds of the States, and nearly $2,000 from Great Sodety. The totalnumher of mission- BJitain. aries Oil the roll for whom special" provision is thus made is 305, of whom administering Lutheran baptism to the 188 are men and 117 women. Indi- children of Lutheran fathers and vidual friends are responsible for 94, mothers who had married members of parochial and other associations in Eng· the Greek Church. land and Ireland for 87, the Gleaners' Union and its branches for 43, various ASIA. county organizations for 11, the Dublin University Fuh·kien Mission for 8, Islam.-The Turkish Government other bodies of friends for 30, and has demanded the recall of 2 mission- Colonial Associations for 32. Besides aries from Aleppo, on the ground that· these 305, oifers are to hand for the sup· their distribution of relief is likely to port of 18 others, making a total of cause disturbances. The American 323." legation has ignored the demand pen- ding definite charges, fearing that this The Continent.-The Order of is the first step toward the expulsion of Jesuits numbers 14,251, who are dis· all the missionaries. tributed among 22 provinces, which cover the globe. Germany has more -We continue to have cheering than any other country, though Bel.. words from Turkey in respect to the gium, Spain and France are not far be- spiritual work. Little allusion is made hind. in the letters of our missionaries to the political situation, but they write -The Danish Missionary Society held almost uniformly of progress in their its annual meeting recently in Copen- several fields of labor. Mr. McNaughhagen. It comprises 600 branch socie· ton, of Smyrna, says: "The prospect tics, with an active membership of for the future in all departments of our 20,000. The receipts for the past year work was never brighter. The reports amounted to about $27,500. The first from the out·stations are uniformly mission field of the society was in hopeful, and some of them most inspirsouthern India; but since 1892 mission ing." It is a most remarkable fact, reo work has been begun in China, 4 mis- ported by the Smyrna station, that the sionaries are ready to be sent out, 16 contributions from native sources missionaries are employed. The ques- within that city and district for the tion was discust whether a third evangelical work amount to more than mission, in middle India, should be twice the appropriations received from undertaken. The president of this the Board.-Mis8ionary Herald. society is Dean Vahl, the veteran missionary statistician of 72 years. For -U. S. Consul Wallace at Jerusalem a half century he has studied mis· reports to the State Department that, sions, and has in his home a missionary according to the consular records of his library of 11,000 volumes. office, it appears that there are 530 citi- zcns of the United States residing in – The Norwegian Missionary Society Palestine. Of this number 438 are sent out last year to Madagascar 12 Jews, who are only nominally Ameri· Norwegian missionaries, 2 French mis- cans, having lived in the United States sionaries, 2 French teachers, 1 printer, just long enough to obtain citizen and two women teachers.-Norsk Mis· papers and passports. The majority of SW1UJtidende. these emigrated from Russia to the United States and thence to Palestine. -It is reported from Russia that the Of the other 92 American citizens, Czar has granted full pardon to 200 nearly all went there because of pecu- Lutheran pastors of the Baltic provin- liar religious views, and among them ces, who, on a variety of charges, have may be found all possible shades of been deprived of their churches and Christian beliefs. The one idea, which deported to other parts of the Empire. seems to possess all to a greater or less Among the charges has been that of extent, is that of the second advent of local Islamia College, who is reading in our Lord. This is by all considered to his second, or sophomore, year. For be an event soon to take place in Jeru- some two or three months he was very salem. The Spoffordite colony or regular in attendance at all the services "Overcomers," as they call themselves, of the Hindustani Church, including have recently been increast by an ad- all the meetings of the Christian En· .
dition of 117 Swedish Americans, deavor Society. Then he was baptized mostly from Chicago. on confession of his faith in Ghrist_ -Missions t.o Mohammedans have, of His father is one of the leading Moham- late years, found a special advocate in medans in Lahore, and, moreov~r, a .Pastor Faber, a Lutheran minister in preacher of Islam. His brother is a Saxony. His efforts resulted in the man of liberal mineI, quite different sending of 2 German missionaries to from the ordinary Mohammedan. If .Persia. They settled at Ooromiah, the young man stands fast and proves were received in a friendly way by the Mohammedans, and were cheered by himself a genuine Christian, there are hopes of his father and mother also.
finding a spirit of inquiry. But the -Some time since an Englishman in Persian Ambassador at Berlin, a fanat- Ceylon announced his conversion to ical Moslem, had become acquainted Mohammedanism and immediately with some of the writings of Pastor claimed the privilege of polygamy, Faber, which he sent to the Shah, and taking unto him a second wife in the secured their expUlsion. One of them person of an English girl of excellent died from exposure and malaria, on family, who also announced her con- his way through Asia Minor, in March version. The first wife sued for a of last year. This defeat has only had divorce. The man protested that as a the effect of stimulating to further Moslem he had a right to two or even efforts, and now 4 theological students four wives. The matter has come up of great promise, and a fully qualified in the courts, and it has been decided woman doctor, have placed themselves that his status in Ceylon is that of an at the disposal of the mission. Englishman upon whom the obligation -India. The statement is by no of monogamy is binding, whatever his means new, but it is true, and will bear religious belief, whether he be Chris- repetition: "The people in India, hold- tian, Jew, Buddhist, Mormon or Mo- ing hands, would reach three times hammedan.
around the globc at the equator. Put -The Rev. Ruttonji N owroji, of the people in single file, allowing three Aurangabad, in Western India, writes feet of space for each to walk in, and, thus of the actions of the Hindus While walking at the rate of ten miles a day, suffering from :famine: "The Hindus it would take them forty years to pass had hired Brahmin priests to keep up a given point; or, walking five miles a their noisy worship before the village . day, with the present increase of popu- idols, and fully expected abundant rain lation by birth-rate, the great proces- as the result of their worship. But after sion would never have an end." And waiting for days and weeks, they re- . China has a population larger by one- solved to punish the gods who had third. . received costly offerings without giving them the lookt-for blessing in return. -The Indian famine is said to have In some places they indignantly be- caused a pecuniary loss of $50,000,000. smeared their idols all over with mud, Great Britain, her colonies and America and closed up the entrance of the tem- contributed some $7,500,000 for relief.
-·An interesting baptism recently ples with thorns. In otbers they filled took place in Lahore. It was of a up the temples with water and blocked young Mohammedan, a student in the up the doors, so that the idols m!ght shiver in wet as a punishment for keep- vance movements of the church, espeing their fields dry." cially that of self-support, has just suc- cessfully past the examinations for the China.-In a certain village, called "First Degree," and has received his San Yuam, which is known as the degree from the official. One of his "Gospel Village," the native converts brothers, also a church member, has were anxious to secure a room to hold just received the same degree. services in, and so they undertook to build a· place themselves, and also find -The Rev. Timothy Richard, the the material. A chapel was in this way eminent Baptist missionary to China, erected to accommodate 300 or 400 per- was greatly cheered on the eve of his sons, and the cost to the Baptist Society return thither by the promise of £5,000 was only £15. When Mr. Shorrocks from a Mr. Hanbury, for the purpose was returning to England the people of establishing an institution in Peking presented him with a silk banner, bear- to consist of a library and lecture hall. ing the inscription in Chinese characters, "Blessed is pe that cometh in the -Rev. S. H. Chesler, now on a visit name of the Lord," and their spokes- to the Celestial Empire, writes: "If I man said, "We can't give you a big should sign my name and title as present, but we wili contribute 500 arranged for me here, in Chinese, it days' labor in building a school where would be Mei Kwoh Nan Changlao our leaders can instruct us." .. On one Tso6hg Hwuy Pudao Shook Keh-szeoccasion," narrates Mr. Shorrocks, teh; which, being interpreted, means, ., my colleague and I were much sur- "American Kingdom Southern Presprised to see some men coming towards byterian General Assembly Mission us with wheelbarrows. We soon dis- Secretary,-the man who meditates on covered that they were bringing a num- virtue." The last two syllables, "szeber of petitions from 200 villages, urg- teh" are the nearest approach the laning the missionaries to go out to teach gnage affords to my name. them." Japan.-The Nippon gives the num- -In an article on the" Present Sta- bers of students in some of the most tus of Missions in the Fuh-kien Pro- noted pri'DUU schools of Tokyo. It may vince," the Ohinl!86 Recorder gives a be possible to arrive at an idea of the statistical table of th(j work of all the principal aims of the rising generation churches in the province, including, of from a study of the figures given. In course, the L. lL S. and the. English the Semmon Gakko (Count Okuma's Presbyterian Mission in Amoy, the school, where politics, law, economics American Societies and the C. M. S. and pure literature are taught) there are The missionaries (male and female) 937 students; in the Meiji Law School, number 171, and there are 133 ordained 932; Tokyo Law School, 1,200; Nippon native pastors. The adherents number Law School, 854; Franco Japanese Law 55,000; 3,441 adults and 1,817 children School, 525; Saisei Medical School, 700; were baptized in 1896. There are 697 Tokyo Commercial School, 288; Arschools, with nearly 13,000 scholars; tisans' School, 937; Senshin Gakko and the contributions for church pur- Baron Tajiri's – vice-Minister of Fiposes for the year amounted to $38,167. nance-School, where economics alone The latter show an increase on the pre- is taught), 250.-lndependent. vious year of $9,000, and the adherents have advanced by nearly 16,000. -Writing concerning .the first ordi- nation service held .by him in Japan, -At Foo chow Mr. Ling Muk Gek, Bishop Awdry, of Osaka, says: "All a teacher, a member of Geu Cio Dong went very well, but it was curious to church, the first Christian Endeavorer have no music at all. . As II sign of in China, and a leader in all the ad- public mourning for the empressmother, all music is forbidden for a which has been a crying scandal for term, lind though it was explained that years, has doubled during the past this was not intended to apply to music seven years. Unless measures are taken in religious servic_es, yet, on the whole, to restrict the traffic the most disastrous it was thought best to show the fullest results, he says, will ensue. possible sympathy with Japanese feeling by havin'g no singing. The J apan- -" The capture of Benin," says ese are excessively sensitivl) as to for- Bishop Tugwell, "opens up a large eigners disregarding their feelings, district lying within my diocese. This especially in matters connected with city has long .been notorious for its patriotism. " atrocities committed with the Ju-Ju worship; it is now thrown open to the -A correspondent of the London Christian world. Meantime, I am Tim6s writes from Japan: "Japanese anxious to organize a band of from 20 women are for the most part comely to 30 men. We need ordained men, layand engaging rather than handsome. men and medical men. Ere long, ladies It is the combination of grace, dress will be able to proceed to these counand manner that makes up the sum tries with a minimum risk to life and total of attraction. The apparel of a health. Proceeding further, as we Japanese lady is not the least agreeable should now be prepared to do, to Sokoto feature. It is artistic, healthy, and and Gando, and other important censuited to the beautiful fabrics of the ters, we should necessarily need concountry." siderable sums of money."
-Under the title, "Low Life in -Dr. Taylor Smith, Bishop of Sierra Tokyo," the Japan Times has an inter- Leone, speaking at Norwich, EnglllJld, esting article, illnstrated by actual sta- described the horrors of Ashantee and tistics. After saying, "Few of the Benin, including human sacrifices. well-to-do people have any idea of the King Prempeh, who had revelled in all number of their fellow-creatures who this blood shedding, was now one of struggle for existence in the poorest his congregation in Sierra Leone, and quarters of this great metropolis," the only shortly before the bishop left he 1 imes gives the number in each dis- had taught him, at his own request, the trict of the city engaged in various Lord's Prayer. lowly occupations. There are 42,328 jinrickisha men; 3,061 waste – paper -A missionary writes: There is a buyers, 834 waste-paper gatherers, 797 list of goods which was recently paid shoe keepers, 2,348 broken glass buyers, by a young man in our employ to a and 1,040 potato sellers. The waste- father-in-law who had an eye for busipaper collectors are chiefly poor, weak ness before the young man secured his children, and shoe keepers are a "class wife. And the time will never come of persons engaged in taking charge of when his father-in-law will not regard wooden clogs at the entrance to theatres it as his perfect right to ask his son-inand all places of assembly, and arrang- law for anything more he may want. ing the footgear, ready for departure." The list is thus: 80 neptunes, 5 guns, 32 marks (about $8) worth of cloth, 3 AFRICA. goats, 5 cases of gin, 3 kegs powder, 2 zinc trunks, 2 umbrellas, 1 coat, 2 -Shades of Rameses and Pharaoh! chairs, 2 tall hats, 3 felt hats, 1 flag, 4: Are we awake. or do we dream? A shirts, 1 tin of sugar, 8 drinking glasses, traveler writes of "a fine bridge across 12 plates, 1 lamp, 2 brass kettles, 4 the Nile," and "the rush of electric small iron pots, 1 knife, 25 pipes, 2 jugs, cars" in the streets of Cairo. 1 large iron pot, 30 brass wires, 4: pairs of scissors, and about 23 marks in cash West_-Bishop Tugwell points out ($5.50). that the liquor traffic in West Africa, -The battle of Bida opened the long now stands the house of the O.M.S. misclosed doors of Hausaland, or the Central Soudan, says the Missionary, and sionaries. The tree has fallen, and its thus gave the Christian world access to 15,000,000 of the finest people in wood has been ttsed in the building of a Africa, a hundredth part of the world's inhabitants_ This country is more ac- Ohristian church. cessible than was Uganda, and British authority insures protection of life_ -Bishop Tucker, speaking on Ugan- Moreover, the Hausas excel in physique da, before leaving England for Africa, and intellect, are famous as traders, said the natives are now able to receive have a vernacular with no mean litera- in tbeir own language the Bible, the' ture, and possess great cities, such as prayer-book, a hymn-book, and "Pil- Kano, Sokoto, and Gando_ The Church grim's Progress." Missionary Society has entered upon the work of evangelization_ ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
East.-The English and German -Societies in Victoria, Australia, are missionaries in East Africa introduced already represented in the mission field the custom of hoisting a whiteftag with by 24 workers, while 15 others are prea red cross upon it in their stations on paring. From one society 5 members Saturdays, to remind the natives that have gone to China and India, while the morrow would be the Sabbath_ The another has 6 members now at work people have consequently come to call and another in preparation. Sabbath "Flag Day_" -The variety of races to be found in -The Berlin missionaries in Konde- both Singapore and Penang is extraland, on the north of Lake Nyassa, in ordinary. The bulk of the population German East Africa, lately made a tour is Chinese, but there are Malay, Ben- 'of exploration through Wahehe-land, galese, Parses, Arabs, Japanese and which was brought into SUbjection two Jews, besides English, French, Dutch, years ago. Mission work is now madc Germans and Americans. Men-of-war possible. There are 11 male and 4 fe- and trading vessels of many nations male Berlinmissionaries in Konde-land; crowd round their beautiful and extenthey are enjoying good health, while sive harbors, while Mohammedan the English and Scotch missionaries on mosques, Chinese joss-houses, Hindoo the east coast of the lake have suffered temples, and Christian churches are several losses by death. prominent in the well-kept streets and park-like spaces. The Chinese form by -It is fifteen years since Mr. Wray far the most conspicuous part of the went out to East Africa, to work among population. To be in Singapore or the wild Taitas. He had found their Penang is like being in China. A deck country, he said, a hard field, but passage from Hong Kong to 8ingapore nothing was too hard for God, and the can be had on some of the best steamers Spirit of God was, indeed, working for 5 dollars, and on second-class among them. He held in his hand steamers as low as 3 dollars, enabling some pieces of wood from that far thousands of Chinese to migrate from region. "I wish," he said, "these the overcrowded cities of South China pieces ·of wood could tell their own year by year. Many of the Chinese story. " At Sagalla, among the Taita merchants in Singapore are rich and hills, was a hill held once so sacred that prosperous, and the run of Chinese no woman was allowed to set foot upon emigrants both industrious and successit. The wood came from a tree which ful. stood on the hill and was worshipt as the god of the country. On that lLilt -There are now at work in the New Hebrides mission 256 teachers; 13,084 people are attending more or less regu- larly at Sabbath services, and 5,463 are attending the day-schools; 207 adult baptisms and 142 Christian marriages were celebrated, and 231 were added to church membership last year; and there are now 239 candidates asking for baptism. Thirty-three teachers were settled, and the total contributions for mission purposes were £424, 6s. in cash, and 17,683 pounds of arrowroot, equal to .£884, 3s., amounting together to the sum of £1,308, 9s. All the above fi~ ures are exclusive of the island of Efate, from which no returns were received.
The Missionary Review of the World — March 1896
HUT NEAR CORDOVA, VERA-CRUZ
GIRLS' SCHOOL, PRESBYTERIAN llISSION, SALTILLO, MEXICO. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIX. No. S.-Ola Series.-MARCH.-VoL. IX. No. S.-New Serle,.
THE MISSIONARY STATUS IN TURKEY.
BY REV. JUDSON SMITH, D.D., BOSTON, MASS.
The political aspects of the grave internal commotions which have prevailed in the Asiatic portion of the Turkish Empire for a year and a half are easily recalled and have commanded wide attention. The fearful massacre and outrage of August and September, 1895, have been far outdone and almost forgotten in the wild, swift march of robbery, arson, and massacre throughout the six eastern provinces, from the Black Sea down through the Valley of the Euphrates and westward to the Mediterranean, during the last three months. Constantinople has been the scene of active and varied diplomatic discussion j the Sultan has made sudden and frequent changes in his Cabinet, has greatly increased the armed force of the empire, and has well-nigh exhausted his credIt at home and abroad. The whole area of Asiatic Turkey, and especially its eastern portion, has heaved and fermented, as if a radical revolution were in swift execution. The Armenian question held a notable place in the Queen's speech at the recent opening of Parliament j it was equally conspicuous in the President's message at the opening of Congress. No topic has been more prominent in the news of the day or in elaborate magazine articles, in England and in America, than the new phases of this Eastern question.
All this agitation has an indirect but important bearing upon the missionary work established in Turkey, and gives a special interest to the present consideration of this work. The fields swept by massacre and pillage ar.e among the most important occupied by our missionary enterprise. The people especially attacked and crushed by these repeated disasters are of that very nation, the Armenians, in whose behalf this missionary effort has especially been made. In the ruin that has overtaken scores of cities [,!ld hundreds of villages, schools and churches connected with our mission, and a vital part of the enterprise, have gone down along with the homes of the people around them. If it had been the intention of those who directed these attacks to break up the missionary work in
THE MISSIONARY STATUS IN TURKEY
Turkey and to make its further prosecution difficult or impossible, the blow could scarcely have been aimed with greater effect. The dimensions of this work, the length of time during which it has been carried on, the eminence of the men and women engaged in it, and the results already attained would of themselves, at any time, command general attention. Set against the backgrouud of massacre and cruel suffering which fill the land, the dark and wayward course of diplomacy in the capItal, and the concentrated attention of Europe and the civilized world, they assume a new character and attract an almost world-wide Interest.
But we hasten, in the first place, to say that this mIssionary work has no direct and Intended relation to the polttIcal affairs of Turkey. The missionaries of the American Board in Turkey have always been sent out under explicit instructions to abstain from all political activity, from all connection with political movements j and they have faithfully observed those instructions from the first to this day. They act in loyalty to the existing government, they inculcate loyalty thereto upon all who come under their influence in church or school j and the TurkIsh Government has had no truer friends in all its dominions these seventy years than the missionaries of the American Board. They are to a man enthusiastIc lovers of their native land, and intelligent admirers of its government; they have doubtless seen many thIngs in Turkish life and institutions which, in their judgment, were susceptible of improvement. But they have not felt themselves called upon to undertake or advocate a change of government or the introduction of free institutions j but have devoted themselves with all their hearts to the religious and educational work for which they were sent out. The natural effect of their labors and influence is to foster piety and conscientiousness in the individual life, the spirit of brotherly love in all social relations, industry and thrift in business, public spirit and patriotism, and a nobler type of manhood and womanhood. And this has been the real effect to some degree in every city and town, in every hamlet and home, where they have lived and labored. There is no risk in saying that the sum total of human virtue and happiness has been notably increased wherever their influence has been felt, and has varied in close proportion to the effectiveness of that influence. The Porte, in its efforts to promote the welfare of its subjects and the prosperity and greatness of the empire, must have felt itself upheld at every point, and seconded in a noble way, by the missionaries of the Board In their personal influence and in their proper religious labors.
The missionaries have not always been fully credited with such careful limitations of labors or with the loyal attitude they have in fact maintained. More than once they have been accused of fostering a seditious spirit in their pupils, of favoring revolutionary projects among their fol. lowers, and of disturbing the peace of the empire. Sometimes these charges have been made by persons who did not know the missionaries, or were misinformed in regard to them j more often they have sprung from suspicion and enmity. But never in a single instance have these charges been proved; there has never been sufficient real force in them to induce the Porte to give them a thorough official investigation. And to-day, when these accusations reappear in diplomatic conferences, and are widely circulated in official newspapers and documents, and are telegraphed to the press in foreign countries, they are met by the same absolute denial and a fearless challenge of investigation. The few scattered voices, in America and in Europe, that in this hour of cruel wrong and bloody outrage which the Porte has not once disowued or publicly rebuked, still speak in praise of those who are responsible for these deeds and in detraction of the missionaries who repeat in our day the deeds of a Polycarp and a Cyprian aud add a new luster to the Christian name, gain no credence and win no applause. Through all these dreadful weeks and months of regulated and unrepressed murder and robbery, the missionaries have sought peace and not tumult, have counselled submission and n….t rebellion, have maintained their loyalty to the government, and stand to-day without fault and without just accusation. In truth there has been no rebellion to be suppressed, no rising of the Armenians against lawful authority to be put down. The testimony of eye-witnesses proves beyond a question that in everyone of the principal outbreaks murder and pillage broke upon the unarmed and unsul:lpecting victims like a thunderbolt from the clear sky, that there was little resistance, and that Kurds and soldiers shared in the murder and plunder, that the soldiers offered no protection while the havoc went on, aud that when the time for license was ended the authorities were able to put an end to all disorder at once. It was not a wild mob that broke from restraint and worked its mad will; it was regulated murder and robbery, with fixed bounds of time and object. Usually the deadly work began with a signal at noon, and ended at sunset. None but Armenians were attacked or robbed. The missionaries were not directly attacked save at Harpoot. Mission property was guarded save at Harpoot and Marash, where mission buildings were looted and burned and property to the value of above $100,000 destroyed, in Marash by the active efforts of the soldiers who were nominally set to guard that very property. The Sultan again and again has promised protection to the missionaries at every point, and has never once declared them guilty of any wrong, or undeserving of his favor.
The missionary operations in Asiatic Turkey have been no inconsiderable part of the entire volume of work carried on by the American Board. The missionary force and the annual expenditures in this field have been nearly one third of the total amount reported each year. Up to the present time the total expenditures on this field exceed $6,000,000, and the mission plant has a value of at least $1,500,000. The missionary staff from the first days, when Fiske and Parsons and King were the pioneers, through the middle period, made illustrious by such names as Jessup and Van Dyke, Goodell, Dwight, Hamlin, and Bliss, down to the noble company of men and women at the present time, has been a roll of honor, of able and trusted men and women, household names in the churches from which they went forth, and widely known in all missionary circles. To- day the list contains 152 men and women, dIstributed through some twenty chief cities and towns from the Bosphorus to the Russian frontier, from the Euxine to the Mediterranean, among them Constantinople, Brousa, Smyrna, Sivas, Erzeroum, and Aintab. This work has been con- fined to the Armenians, Greeks, and other nominally Christian people in the empire. The Armenians are distributed throughout the empire, mingled with Turks in the same citip.s and towns, being more numerous relatively in Eastern Turkey, but confined to no one section. The Greeks are less widely scattered, being found chiefly in the regIOns bordering on the lEgean Sea and OIl the Black Sea, and in the capital. The aim of missionary effort has been to give to these people the Bible in a language intelligible to all, to awaken a true faith in Jesus Christ, and to develop a genuine Christian life. The reform of the old churches has been sought, and the separate Protestant organization, the result of persecution and not of missionary influence, has always been deemed a temporary adjustment.
The Turkish Government has never cordially welcomed this effort in behalf of its Christian subjects, has looked with more or less disfavor upon the methods employed in making the Bible accessible to all, opening schools for the youth of both sexes, and cUltivating the self-respect and manhood of all who came under their influence. Sometimes this disfavor has been expressed in words, sometimes in a greater or less interference with the work. Of necessity a modus vivendi has been gradually worked out, expressed in treaties and diplomatic correspondence, mutually recog- nized by the Porte and the government at Washington. It is one of the anxious features of the present situation that for some time there has appeared a growing disposition on the part of the Porte to ignore thIS sanction, and to question the validity of the rights so long enjoyed and so fully secured by general and parl.icuJar treaties. American missionaries are now in Turkey, and have been there for seventy years, on the same ,grounds as European missionaries have been there for one hundred and sixty years, on the same grounds as Christian people of various races have been in the Ottoman Empire since the conquest of Constantinople by Mo· hammed II. No diplomatic pressure has opened the way, no specific con- cession of the Sultan on their account has been made j they have come as the citizens of other friendly nations come, and have remaiued in the en- joyment of the common rights belonging to the citizens of friendly powers. In the course of their long residence in the empire, and of the gradual ex- tension of their enterprise to nearly all the most important cities and towns in Asia Minor, many occasions have arisen for defining the rights of these American missionaries, and the action of the Turkish Government in these cases is a further and explicit recognition of their legal standing and the legitimate character of their work. Specific treaties have also been made, guaranteeing to Americans all the rights and privileges yielded to the citizeni'! of the" most favored nation." The occupation of the missionaries has never been made a ground for exceptional treatment, and does not differ from the recognized occupation of the citizens of other friendly nations who reside in Turkey. The missionaries in large numbers are teaehers, in charge of schools of all grades, in which tuition is charged and from which revenue is derived. Several of their number are engaged in the manufacture and sale of books, a business yielding a profit, and as legitimate as any other commercial enterprise. Th:!lt their personal influence ' and efforts are also directed to the encouragement of virtue and piety, honesty of life and conscientiousness of purpose, neither destroys those other aspects of their occupation nor exposes them to the just displeasure of a sovereign who desires the improvement of his people. In a word, the American missionary in Turkey is there by the same right as the American merchant, pursues an occupation as legitimate, and is entitled to the same protection.
The material interest involved in the missionary enterprise in Turkey is by no means inconsiderable. At least $6,000,000 have been expended by American citizens in developing the plant and maintaining its operations for the last seventy years. The annual expenditure of American funds upon this field is now above $160,000, and the annual receipts from various sources on the ground, which are also spent upon the development of the work, amount to at least $70,000 more, making the total annual expenditure $230,000. The greatness of the enterprise itself and the significance of the interest at stake is suggested, but by no means fully expressed, by this annual investment of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. When we consider in what forms this expenditure is expressed, how many churches and schools of various grades, what a volume of literature and text-books, and what a weight of personal and social influence are represented by this sum, the value of the American interest in Turkey, and the validity of it15 claim to immunity, and the importance of its ample and efficient protection, must be clear and convincing to every mind.
It is a grand success which missionary labors in Turkey have attained. It needs but a few statements to make this plain.
The territory of Asiatic Turkey is substantially covered by the labors of the missionaries. Twenty cities and towns are occupied as places of missionary residence, and about three hundred other towns and villages are centers of evangelical teaching and preaching. There are but few considerable places in the whole empire that are not thus reached and blessed by missionary influence. This is a significant fact, and full of promise.
The first evangelical church was organized at Constantinople in 1847, a necessary step after t.he evangelicals were formally excommunicated by the Armenian Patriarch. The last reports from these fields show 111. churches, with 10,935 members, 90 of them having native pastors of their own. The average congregations in all these fields number 32,092, and 24,132 pupils are in regular attendance on the Sunday-schools of the missions. Widely distributed as these communicants and students of the Bible are, it is a very effective leaven which is thus cast into the religious and social life of the nation. In close relation to all this, and still further revealing the happy results of evangelical teaching, is a widespread movement within the bosom of the old AJ'lllenian churches toward a pure gospel, cvangelical preaching, a righteous life, and better education, a movement which the missionaries rejoice in and foster as far as they can. This advance toward the evangelical position is marked at many points in Eastern and Southern Turkey, and is noticeable in every part of the empire.
The schools of the missions are among their most striking and hopeful features. The people are of quick minds, capable of high culture, and ready to welcome it. Education is used by the missions as an indispensable auxiliary to the great end of missionary effort. A native ministry must be raised up capable of sustaining itself and of leading the churches, or there can be no great or permanent result. Christian schools alone can train the men and womcn who are necessary to the self-supporting, self-directing, and self-propagating church, which is the consummate fruit of missionary effort. In Turkey schools undcr the care of the mission have beeu found to be the best centers for evangelistic effort, and the evangelical communities are constantly reinforced therefrom. These schools range from the kindergarten up through day schools, high schools for boys, boarding-schools for girls, to the college and the theological seminary, where the preachers and teachers are trained. It is well-nigh impossible to overestimate the significance of these schools to the vigor and fruitfulness of the missionary movement as a whole. The mind is sharpened and enlarged, manners are softened and refined, character is built up according to the Christian ideal, manhood and womanhood are developed, and the whole life braced and inspired by the, sentiments of duty and loyalty to God. In no respect is the success of the evangelical movement in Turkey more evident than in the place these schools enjoy and in the influence which they wield. In Asiatic Turkey there are four theological schools, with 20 students, 28 high Rchools for boys, including three colleges, with 1213 students; 20 boarding-schools for girls, including three colleges, with 1206 students; 350 common schools,. with 15,555 pupils. Adding to these 1793 pupils. in other schools, we have a grand total of those under instruction amounting t.o 19,812.
The Bible has been translated into all the principal languages that are spoken in the empire, and is widely distributed and read in every part of the land. Text-books for the schools and a Christian literature of no mean volume are also available everywhere in the vernacular of those who desire them. A weekly religious newspaper is published in Reveral languages, and widely circulated in the evangelical communities. In a word, the missionary enterprise in Asiatic Turkey has attained a great suceess. It has gathered a great plant and establish",d itself at strategic points all over the land j it has organized a select and influential evangelical com:- munity, represented by numerous churches and flourishing schools, and is continually enriching its character and widening its influence by the example and instructions of the missionaries, by its own Christian activities, and through the circulation of the Scriptures and a Christian literature. And it stood thus in strength, working only good and peace to the empire and to all its people, when the dire deed at Sassoun was wrought, when the more direful scourge of massacre and robbery swept over the whole eastern section of the land in October, November, and December just past.
We will now briefly mark the salient features of these disasters, and the condition in which for the present they have left the missionary work around them.
There has been serious disturbance of the regular order of things in. every place j in some places only a part of the usual work is now in progress, and in a few instances everything is at a standstill. The massacres, which have fallen on eleven places occupied as stations or places of missionary residence, and upon scores of towns and villages where mission schools and chapels were located, have not only destroyed great numbers of the people among whom our work was carried on, and left those who survived homeless and destitute, and thus have struck at the very heart of the work, they have also destroyed for the time being that confidence in one another which is the necessary basis of social life and industry and trade, and temporarily have thrown many places into anarchy. In these places public worship is suspended, schools are closed, free movement from place to place, and even from one part of a city to another part, is unsafe, and the conditions of effective and continuous missionary work are wanting for the time. In Marsovan and Aintab the colleges and girls' schools are in operation, but the excitement and disorder that surround them seriously interfere with the effectiveness of the work. In Sivas some forms of evangelistic effort are still carried on, though under embarrassing restrictions. In Harpoot and among its villages all ordinary labor is at, an end for the time being j the disaster was too widespread, too destructive, to permit the resumption of work in college or seminary or field for some time to come. In Bitlis and Marash the missionaries are safely guarded, it is true, but are practically cut off from all opportunities of labor. In Trebizond, Erzeroum and Van the entire energies of the missionary force are directed to the administration of relief to the suffering and perishing thousands around them, and the usual missionary labors for this time must take a secondary place.
In a few places there has been serious loss of mission plant. Eight out of twelve buildings belonging to the missionaries in Harpoot were burned, and all the buildings were plundered. At !vIarash the building devoted to the theological seminary was burned, and other school buildings were plundered. And in village after village around Sivas and Cesarea, Trebizond and Erzeroum, Harpoot and Bitlis, Van and Mardin, Marash and Aintab, Oorfa and Hadjin, from the Black Sea southward through the Euphrates Valley and westward to the Mediterranean, chapels and schools in great numbers have been plundered or burned to the ground.
But in the midst of this dire destrnction and thronging danger there are relieving features, heroic deeds, stedfast faith, and in many a case the martyr's glorious crown. When offered the choice of Islam or the sword, Christian men and women not a few, young and old, pastors and people, have chosen death rather than the denial of their Lord. The native pastor in Sivas was caught in the market when the havoc began, and was shut up with several of his people for some hours. He knew thal; death was imminent, and he prayed with hiR people and preached to them, and comforted them as he could. At length the soldiers found him, and at once demanded that he abjure his faith. He refused, and they smote him. Again they called on him to accept Islam, and upon his refusal they struck him again. When the third time they asked him to recant, he answered, like Polycarp, "Not only am I a believer in the religion of Christ, but for years I have been a preacher of it. I cannot give il up. If you' wish to kill me for this, I am ready." And with that he fell, twice pierced by Martini rifle balls.
The true grace of martyrdom has shone out in all this lurid picture as fair as the star in the front of the raging storm, and the glories of the early church have reappeared in our own day and have lifted an oppressed people into the admiring sympathy of lhe civilized world. Christian faith has been put to the last and sternest test, and has not been found wanting.
The missionary ranks also have shared the experiences of those among whom they dwell; they have looked on danger in many a form, and have refused to flee from the post of duty ; some of them have faced death again and again, and in spirit have triumphed over their impotent assailants. Offered safe escort to the sea or to the capital, to a man they have chosen to remain where they are, thrice clad in innocence, and cheered by the all-repaying smile of Duty and of God. They have done no wrong, they have kept faith with the government, they have abstained from every unlawful act, they have sought the good of the whole empire and tb,e peace of its sovereign; and they will not acknowledge a fault of which they are guiltless, nor will they leave a post that is rightly their own. They choose to identify themselves with the stricken people around them, who look to them for example, for help, for comfort, for protection from despair and dealh. They love the cause to which their lives are given, and personal safety with the loss of this seems to them no boon.
No thoughtful person can observe the situation of these missionaries, and mark their course, and note how they choose duty with danger and count not their lives dear unto them if they may testify the grace of God and maintain His cause, without exulting in their manly courage and un-
GREAT CONVENTION OF STUDENT VOLUNTEERS AT LIVERPOOL
daunted faith. Manhood and womanhood with this definition and exercise mean more than heretofore ; the term missionary comes to be almost synonymous with hero and saint; and the movement which can command such devotion and exhibit such sublime virtues is placed beyond successful assault in the honor and respectful veneration of mankind.
There are not wanting signs that these days of strife and blood are to be the prelude to a new expansion of Christian work. In the height of the Arian controversy, when Julian was striving to restore heathenism and displace the Christian faith, Athanasius uttered this brave and foreseeing word: "Nubecula est, transibit j" it is a little cloud, it will pass away. In like assured faith we believe that this night of storm and death will soon give way to the gracious dawn and a glorious day. The mission churches are being sifted, their Christian faith tested, their love confirmed. The missionaries are binding the hearts of the people to them with hooks of steel, by sharing their f~rtunes, by giving them the protection of their preseuce, and by thc ministry of relief. In the coming days their words will have unwonted authority, 1heir persuasions and counsel will be wellnigh resistless. And the Christian life, thus deepened and sublimed, will overflow on every side, will fill the land and make the empire a kingdom of righteousness and peace.
THE GREAT CONVENTION OF STUDENT VOLUNTEERS AT LIVERPOOL.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
One of the most significant gatherings of this century, if not of all the centuries, held its opening sessions in the Young Men's Christian Association hall on the evening of January 1st, with the Lord Bishop of Liverpool (Dr. J. C. Ryle) in the chair.
A more representative gathering of young men and women, having in view the foreign missionary field, has doubtless never before convened. This alone sets on this convention the special mark of a unique distinction. A thousand delegates were present, representing at least thirteen different nationalities, and all branches of the Protestant Church and the whole wide world. It stirred one's deepest emotions to see them filing in, one by one, Chinese and Japanese, Hindus and Armenians, Africans and Americans, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Germans, Swiss-all shades of complexion, all varieties of race, all peculiarities of feature, all languages of earth, finding representation in one great assemblage, and all forgetful of minor differences and diversities in the great unity of the Spirit, acknowledging one Lord and essentially one faith. One could only think of the words of our Lord, "They shall come from the East and the West, from the North and South, and sit down in the kingdom of heaven."
It was an awe-inspiring gathering. It seems to mark a new era and epoch in modern church history, and no human forecast can calculate the future outgrowth of this movement. Its momentum is already tremendou8, and well-nigh irresistible. As the eye glanced over this vast assembly, mostly composed of young men and women, and saw only here and thcre a gray head, the possibilities of the next thirty years loomed up grandly and awfully; for who can foresee or foretell the diverse spheres, forms of eervice and suffering, varieties of ministry to human ignorance and want, heroic self-denials and valian1; examples of faith, unselfishness, and holy living which are destined to frame themselves into the structure of the ages out of the raw material here brought together for the Master's shaping hand?
Great were the expectations that centered about this opening meeting, and they were not disappointed. The Lord Bishop who presided is known to many of Christ's dear people as the author of that tract which has shaped so many lives for God, "Come to Jesus," and his pen has done more than one distinguished service to the cause of Christ. Having reached his fourscore years, his eye seems undimmed and his natural force little abated. His opening address was brief, but full of evaQgelical tone and hearty sympathy. He referred incidentally to a simple-minded negro who was daily wont to pray that there might be " a full heaven and an empty hell," and encouraged his younger brethren to go forth seeking to realize this prayer.
One memorable sentiment of the Lord Bishop will find echo in many a true heart outside of that Liverpool gathering. He earnestly deprecated any conflict or dissension between these two great countrie8, Britain and America, as well he might. Certainly such alienation and antagonism could create a jubilee only in hell. These two nations have a history and a destiny that are singularly interwoven. In the woof and warp mingle the same threads of language and literature, of manners and customs, of character and culture, of moral principles and religious faith. The very names inseparable from British territory are embedded in American soil- Cambridge, York, Oxford, Birmingham, Worcester, Leicester, etc. The great men and women of Britain belong to America, and the family life of these two nations is so interlinked that they are inseparable. War between England and the United States ought to be-and we believe is-impossible; it should be inconceivable, It was said of Michael Angelo and Raphael that, altho their preeminence in the fine arts and the entire tendencies of their times were toward mutual distrust, jealousy and rivalry, each of these great men rose so high above the common level of the men of his day that, like twin mountains rising from a level plain, they could not but look each other in the face and feel themselves necessary companions to each other. And so these two great nations, rising on opposite sides of the sea to such superior heights, are necessary to each other, and should not forget that both stand for the same Protestant Christianity. From their summits flashes the light from the same cross; and let us believe and hope that, instead of war between them, they will unite in war against common foes of God and man, and all the powers of darkness. To rend such nations asunder is to rend the cross itself, inwoven with their common fabric Qf histQry Qut Qf crimsQu tlneads dyed by the blood of martyrs which belong alike to both countries.
To follow a five days' meeting or series of meetings and gi'e a detailed account of them is of course impracticable in these pages. All we aim to do is to sketch the main features of the gathering as a whole, reproducing wholly or in part some of the main addresses or papers, and especially giving the solid nuggets of suggestion and information which constitute the richest contribution to the general cause of missions. The Philharmonic Hall, where these monster meetings were held, was found singularly adapted to the purpose. It has a capacity for about three thousand, and was filled at each service. Mr. Donald Fraser, himself the main organizer of the convention, and a student, presided at the general meetings, and very simply and sensibly, without self-intrusion or needless ceremony. This relieved the meetings of the useless form, so often a weariness, of having some distinguished man in the chair, who is expected to make a speech and to whom some vote of thanks, with one or more speeches in support of the motion, must afterward be made.
The exercises, promptly begun and carried on without delay, in few cases outlasted one hour and three quarters at anyone session, averaging three half-hour addresses at each meeting.
Every day opened with an hour of prayer, and uniformly these meetings proved fully attended and of deep interest. This was one of the most hopeful signs of the whole conference. Wherever a spirit of grace and of supplication is not first poured out, no other blessing of a permanent sort evel· follows. The Church is slow to learn this; but it is one of God's primary lessons. He will be inquired of, and recognized as the source of all blessing. If our dependence is on human planning and organizing, on eloquent speaking and literary attraction, on elaborate entertainments and artistic music, on human patronage and secular methods, there may be apparent succesS and a demonstrative enthusiasm, but iti is all like a flash from powder in the pan, and carries no lasting propulsive force.
In no convention to our remembrance hag every step seemed more manifestly a step !orwa.l·d, and it must needs he so where the spirit of prayerful dependence on God is first of all cultivated. Noisy applause, which so frequently begets uproar and confusion, and both interrupts and sometimes confuses a speaker, became more and more distasteful as tho presence of the Spirit of Gou grew more vividly real, and both speakers and hearers seemed to feel His invisible control. There was also singular freedom from all attempts at ambitious intellectualism-the display of rhetorical fireworks, set speeches, learned essays, grandiloquent orations-none of these have had any place in these assemblies. Simplicity, solidity, spirituality, the practical truth fitted for young men and women ernerging into actual life of duty and sacrifice-these were the controlling features of all the addresses to an almost unprecedented degree.
Of course sectional meetings had to be resorted to, as the time would not suffice for large public and general assemblies in the interest of specific phases of mission work. India, South America, China and Japan, Africa, the Jews, etc., had each a separate meeting on Thursday, January 2d. On Friday morning the conference broke up on phases of work, as, on the day before, on fields; and in as mauy sectional meetings, evangelistic, medical, educational, and" Bombay Settlement" forms of service received separate treatment from most competent hands. Then on Saturday afternoon the societies were the basis of the cleavage, and nine separate assemblies convened to consider the work of the Church Missionary, London Missionary, Presbyterian, Calvinistic Methodist, Baptist, Wesleyan, China Inlaud, and Zenana societies.
Whoever doubts that beneath all the diversity and variety of denominations there is real unity among true evangelical believers should have been present at these great meetings. Here Anglicans anti Wesleyans, Baptists and Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists, Lutherans and Moravians were all found sitting together in loving fraternal counsel. Not a discordant note was struck. And, as one of the speakers at the opening meeting remarked, unity in diversity is the Lord's mode of operation everywhere. God forms man in families with vast variety even among individuals, not in regiments, where there is little to distinguish one from the other. Uniformity is monotony. The mother who hugs her babe to her breast and declares" there never was such a child" is right; there never was and never will be ; and one reason for seeking to save every child is, that every child unsaved represents a type of character unique and solitary; to let any child perish is to permit to be lost by neglect one child like whom there was never to be any other.
Never have we felt the substantial and vital unity of the true body of believers more than during these five days that opened this new year. Not a speech was made or a prayer offered or a hymn sung that could not have been equally well made in all that constituted its real core and heart by any other of the speakers or almost any other of the audience that represented the evangelical body of believers.
Another impression that grew with the progress of the meetings was the entire capacity and competency of the Ohurch to carry out our Lord's last command, and to do it promptly and within the lifetime of our own generation.
Mr. C. T. Studd, so well known as one of the famous Cambridge band that ten years ago, in connection with Stanley Smith and others, went to China, gave some startling figures to his audience as he contrasted the nearly 400,000,000 of Chinese with 2000 missionaries, half of whom are women, and the 40,000,000 inhabitants of Britain, with 30,000 ordamed clergymen in the Church of England alone, and in all denominations an aggregate of 50,000'; and this besides all the numerous so-called lay workers, who far outnumber the total of ordained preachers. He had undert~ken, he said, to estimate the total number of Christians engaged in various forms of evangelistic and soul-saving work in Great Britain alone, and before he had got two fifths of the way through the Wesleyan body alone the estimate reached seventy thousand, and he found it impracticable to ascertain the real aggregate, because so many were engaged in work that has no definite classification or reported form.
It is well to linger, perhaps, on this contrast for the sake of the lesson it teaches. Here is a great Oriental nation with a population numbering nearly one third of the world's population-certainly one fourth. It has not more than one regularly qualified missionary for every 30,000 people. Great Britain, with 40,000,000 people, has one ordained minister to every eight hundred souls; and if we count in all competent Christian workers engaged in evangelistic effort, there is one to every two hundred, if not more than one. When it comes to average wealth, what shall we say ~ Another speaker told us that from a careful estimate of the aggregate wealth of Protestant disciples the world over, it was calculated that not more than one quarter of a farthing to the pound-i.e., or about one cent out of every nine dollars and a half-goes to the mission cause. We can only recall the emphatic testimony of Caleb and Joshua to the children of Israel: " Let us go up and possess the land, for we be well able to overcome it."
How many times must it be reaffirmed ~ There is nothing in numbers or wealth to prevent the Protestant churches of the world from at once taking possession of the world for Christ. As to numbers, we have only to send to the field one out of every hundred church-members to put a working force of 400,000 men and women into the work; and we have only to give one tenth of the wealth in the hands of Protestant disciples to the support of those workers to have at disposal an income of £75,000,000, or $375,000,000 annually to apply to the world's evangelization.. Of course facts and figures, however marshaled before disciples who are asleep, apathetic, indifferent, will not alone ever suffice to awake, arouse, and transform them into active workers and liberal givers. But these possibilities must be submitted for the consideration of God's people, even tho, like all other rejected, neglected truths, it ends only in deeper condemnation.
No more awe-inspiring conception ever occurs to my own mind than that of the judgment-seat of Christ, as already erected just within the veil where He has entered, and as a tribunal to which may at every instant be now referred every perplexing question or ensnaring allurement, for a clear, decisive, conclusive judgment. To hold up every motive, word, thought, habit, indulgence, or purpose of life before that invisible tribunal, survey it in the light of its searching inquiry, and test it and weigh it as in the scales of eternity-that is to learn to look upon every matter which now engages attention as it will be looked upon in the solemn review of the last day. The melancholy fact is that very few of us, and in very few of our affairs, subject our c~lUrse to such divine arbitration and decision. We consult the tribunal of public opinion or the still more corrupt court of prevailing custom. Weare content to do as others do and be as others are. We measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves among ourselves, which is far from wise. To take an imperfect standard is both to justify and perpetuate imperfection j and as all imperfection on our standards tends to degeneracy in the product, even our standard itself gets lower and lower. Ve must erect anew the standard of God, and measure and weigh by that. Thl3n we shall begin to see that a revol'ution is necessary before we shall bring our preaching and praying, our living and giving back toward the divine idea and ideal. Let everyone of us dare, in secret, to hold up his own daily conduct and hidden promptings to the bright light of the omniscient eye and the holy touch of God, and as He judges may we judge, for no other decision is safe.
Now that this great gathering has dispersed, one naturally looks back, in review of its proceedings, to get one last general glimpse of it as a whole j and it does not suffer in comparison with any missionary convention held within our recollection.
One impression, quite emphatic, is that the whole ordering of this five days' conference was singularly faultless. One scarcely expects to find younger shoulders surmounted by wise heads. vVhen a thousand young men and women meet in such assembly, and the whole conduct of the meetings is in comparatively inexperienced hands, it would not be surprising if serious blunders were made. We often see enthusiasm rampant, overriding better judgment; more "action" than "counsel," more impulse than self-control, more excitement than moderation, displayed in large gatherings of young people; but throughout this colossal convention's sessions there was a calmness, self-repression, freedom from intrusive and ambitious declamation, a wise forethought, discreet management, that we have never -seen surpassed.
For example, at all the great central gatherings, one man, himself a Student Volunteer, just on the eve of departure for Nyassaland, presided. With simplicity, dignity, modesty he took the chair, made no speeches, quietly kept track of time, and without offensive mannerisms held speakers to their limits, and so kept the meetings from becoming burdensome by tediousness. Mr. Donald Fraser, by common consent, uniformly presided, and it was certainly a model of presiding, eliciting universal approbation. He made no flattering introductions of speakers, in not a single case indulging in that common vice of great assemblies; he quietly discouraged all noisy, demonstrative applause, counseling all to "listen as in the silence of God;" he emphasized prayer and praise, and had no session open without a brief and singularly pertinent reading from the Scripture, generally only a few verses, read by himself, but with much care in selection and tenderness of manner; he counseled his brethren to do all things quietly, in order, avoiding haste and confusion, and bade them remember that their own calmness and peace and prayerfulness would have much to do with the general tone of the gathering; and, in a word, we all felt that, behind this visible leader was Another, far greater than himself, who was actually and invisibly condncting the great assembly.
One or two instances may be mentioned of the singular felicity with which Mr. Donald Fraser guided the convention. When, on Saturday night, it seemed necessary to take a large offering to meet the expenses of the great conference, at least nine hundred pounds were announced to be needed to cover outlay, and help in the work of the year to come. Many foreign delegates needed aid in meeting the heavy cost of their own travel, and in establishing on the Continent branches of the Student V01unteer Movement Union. Mr. Mott, now going around the world to kindle new missionary fires, had appealed for help in visiting Australia to encourage the Volunteer movement there; the cost of securing speakers from afar ought, of course, to be paid; and so a large amount was needful. How to raise it, without undue urgency, or repeated appeal, or dependence upon unscriptural and unwholesome methods, was a matter of much prayerful thought. Mr. Fraser, before the meeting began, quietly instructed his corps of helpers how to conduct the whole business as before God, without any hurry or worry, and with a contagious spirit of consecration. Theu, with blank forms of subscription, these young men to@k their stations, scattered at regular intervals through the audience; at a given signal, after announcement, from the chair of the intended gathering of offerings, a clear statement by the financial secretary of the exact sum needed and for what, and a simple earnest prayer for Divine prompting in all hearts, these young men with military precision moved about among the audience, until everyone present had a subscription paper. Then there was a pause for prayer, and all were requested to give as God might lead j then the papers were partially collected, and the amounts read from the platform without announcing any names ; then another pause, another season of prayer, and the work of subscribing aud gathering offerings was completed, and the whole mass of uncounted subscriptions passed into the hands of collectors, the result to be subsequently announced ; then another prayer, with praise to God for the accomplishment of the desire previously presented at His throne of grace, while as yet the result was known only to Him, and the Doxology was sung and the meeting quietly dispersed. Anyone present could have had little doubt that God would honor such expectant faith ; and it proved that, instead of the nine hundred, pounds desired, some seventeen hundred were realized-enough, beside the necessary sum required for actual outlay, to distribute eight hundred pounds to the continental contingent for a forward movement among the European universities. Mr. Fraser had remarked, before the gifts were collected, that, in this act of offering consecrated substance to the Lord, the very " climax of such a meeting might and should be reached ;" and it was. There was not a session wherein, notwithstanding the feature of the" collection," which is often so unpleasant if not offensive, spiritual joy and power were more regnant. And the great Giver of all good showed how, when He moves on His own dear people, they bring the tithes in, so that there is abundance of meat in His house, and abundance of blessing outpoured on givers.
Another striking feature of Mr. Fraser's conduct of these great assemblies was seen in the closing session of Sunday evening, January 5th. He naturally made the address in which the last words were spoken. He was very brief, occupying not over fifteen minutes, and spoke as quietly as he had done all else. The seed thought of his address was that key to the Acts of the Apostles, " It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us" (Acts 15 : 28). He referred to the great fact of the presidency of the Spirit in the primitive Church, to His indwelling and inworking in disciples, so tha.t when Peter spake at Pentecost, it was the Holy Ghost and Peter, and when disciples at the first Church council at Jerusalem drew up their deliverance it was the joint verdict of the Holy Ghost and tb,em. Then he besought the brethren present to remember that, as they went forth, they were to go in partnership with God; back to the college, as Spirit-filled men, into fields at home aud abroad, to do and suffer for God and with Christ. We hope yet to produce this simple, cha.rming address in full, but meanwhile we leave this on record, that it was a fit close to a great gathering in which the one prevailing impression was that God was there.
The hidden history of that convention some of us happen to know. It was conceived in prayer and nurtured in prayer. Every step has been taken in waiting dependence on God, and if wisdom was not given the step was delayed until it was manifest what God's will was. The reward was great, for from the opening hymn to the closing benediction we can now look back on no wasted time, no vain speeches, no note of discord, no unhappy blunders. There were many wheels within the greater wheel of the convention, but they all moved in one direction, and we felt the Spirit of the living God to be in the wheels. Mr. Fraser succeeded in his presiding because God was in him and with him, and hence we are not complimenting the man, but honoring his Master in commending the conduct of the meeting.
Most noticeable is it also that in this gathering there was no attempt to spread before ns a great array of distinguished names. Hundreds of men and women in the kingdom, whose reputation is world-wide, might have been asked to speak; but there was no announcement of speakers beforehand, no sensational subjects, no substitution of fame for spirituality. The one thought seemed to be unity of impression and the power of God. The speakers were not orators, but men and women who were known for sanctified common sense, true devotion to missions, and soundness of faith. Such men as Eugene Stock and Dr. George Smith, C. T. Studd, Rev. Edgerton Young, Rev. H. P. Beach, Sherwood Eddy, Bishop
MEXICO, HER NEEDS AND OUR DUTY
Ryle, Rev. Charles Garrett, and Rev. F. B. Meyer, and such women as Mrs. Duncan McLaren and Miss Gollock and Miss Selincourt are a sufficient proof of the sort of speaking sought for; and the result proves that the whole effort to supply flashy and brilliant orators for such occasions is a mistake. We heard nothing approaching a "star speech." Dr. Smith's grand historical review of the century, condensing the studies of thirty years into half an hour, was a magnificent marshaling of facts, rhetorically complete, yet there was no finish about it, but the unconscious completeness of truth put in crystalline clearness and beauty before us. Eugene Stock's discourse on "character tested and trained" was a mine of jewels, but there was no artificial lustre about it ; and so all along the one grand impression was that we were hearing God speak through divers mouths but one harmonious message. We thought of those words: " The Lord gave the Word ; Great was the company of those that published it."
We turned away from Philharmonic Hall Sunday night, marveling what new and greater surprises God may have for us in the coming career of that thousand select and elect young men and women.
Let unceasing prayer go up to Him in their behalf !
MEXICO, HER NEEDS AND OUR DUTY.
BY ROBERT E. SPEER, NEW YORK CITY.
While the world is the field for all Christians and Christian nations, there are special fields for each. In a peculiar degree Great Britain is responsible for the evangelization of India, France for the evangelization of the Niger Valley, while we have confessed ,our responsibility for the nations to the south of us by the famous declaration of President Monroe in his annual message to the Eighteenth Congress on December 2d, 1823 : " With the governments (on this hemisphere) which have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration and just principles acknowledged, we could not view an interposition for oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power in any other light than as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." This assumption of political responsibility, as the tutelary power of this hemisphere, 'we have at no small pains maintained. But by it we have made ourselves responsible for much more than the independence of the American republics from European aggression. We have charged ourselves publicly with the obligation of giving to these neighbors the only secret of stability and strength for a free nation. This at least the Christian man dare not refrain from reading into the Monroe doctrine, as in its highest sense, a mission~ ary declaration. By the traditions of the past and the necessities of the present we are more closely bound to Mexioo than to any other American nation, and we owe to her on many counts a pure faith and a Bible for all.
A pure faith for a corrupt-this is Mexico's need. Christ's Christianity was not brought here when the pious soldiers of Cortez subdued the Jand in " the holy war" of 1521, and his priests baptized four million people in a few years, one man baptizing about five thousand in one day, and not desisting until he was unable longer to lift his hands. The effect was inevitable. "The introduction of the Roman religion," declared Humboldt, "had no other effect upon the Mexicans than to substitute new ceremonies and symbols for the rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has not succeeded dogma, but only ceremony to ceremony." On such a church feasted a corrupt and crafty priesthood, the support and product of the tyrannical political system which lasted from Cortez's conquest for three centuries. In the struggle for freedom from the ecclesiastical bondage which lasted even after the yoke of Spanish authority had been thrown off, Sefior Lerdo compiled, in 1850, as Minister of Public Works, a statement of the wealth of the Mexican hierarchy, showing that it owned 861 estates of the value of $71,000,000, and 22,000 city lots valued at $113,000,000. This was but a partial revelation. The yearly income of the priests was estimated at $25,000,000, while the whole banking business, loans and mortgages, was in their hands, and a bankrupt government was helpless before them. Of nearly half the property in the City of Mexico the archbishop was the virtual owner. The Church possessed wealth in other forms. Three bejewelled petticoats of the Virgin of Remedios, a figure of the Virgin Mary, in the Cathedral of Puebla, were believed to be worth $3,000,000. The profligacy and corruption consequent upon this wealth were fearful. Twelve bishops in 1793 had an income of $539,000.
In this luxury and wealth Mexicans had but little share. The priesthood was a Spanish incubus, working ever' toward the subjection of the native peoples and the maintenance of European control. From the beginning the Aztec had no part in it, and at the end of its supremacy it was alien to the people whom it had oppressed. It was a heavy oppression. There were at one time more than fifty monasteries and convents in Mexico City alone. Robertson says: "In the year 1644 the City of Mexico presented a petition to the King of Spain, praying that no new monastery be founded, and that the revenue of those already established might be circumscribed, otherwise the religious houses woul': soon acquire the ,property of the whole country." In Mexico City the monastery of San Francisco covered four large blocks, while at San Luis Potosi was another nearly as ~arge, many of its walls still standing, six or eight feet thick. On one corner of the property is now a Presbyterian church, while in Mexico City the Methodist church and printing establishment occupy a part of the great monastery-the greatest in the New World, and peopled at the time of its confiscation by fourteen monks! The heavy walls of many of these old monasteries furnished safe and secret sepulcher for the victims of the Inquisition. Corruption was the fruit of this evil supremacy. Butler, in " Mexico in Transition, " one of the best books on Mexico, quotes the testimony of the Abbe Emanuel Domenech, chaplain of the French expedition- ary force, who published in Paris in 1867 a report of a tour of observa- tion he was required to make before leaving Mexico, to investigate the rumors of the low moral and religious condition of the clergy and Church of Rome in Mexico. The report is entitled " Mexico as it is, the Truth Respecting its Climate, its Inhabitants, and its Government." The abbe was a prominent clergyman of the Romish Church of France. His report is one of the most damaging revelations to be found anywhere of the life nourished by the Church of Rome in lands completely under her control.
" Mexican faith is a dead faith. The abuse of external ceremonies, the facility of reconciling the devil with God, the absence of internal exercises of piety, have killed the faith in Mexico. It is in vain to seek good fruit from the worthless tree, which makes Mexican religion a singular assemblage of heartless devotion, shameful ignorance, insane superstition. and hideous vice. . " The idolatrous character of Mexican Catholicism is a fact well known to all trave~rs. The worship of saints and madonnas so absorbs the devotion of the people that little time is left to think about God. Religious ceremonies are performed with a most lamentable indifference and want of decorum. • .• One day I was present at an Indian dance, celebrated in honor of the patron saint of the village. Twenty- . four boys and girls were dancing in the church, in the presence of the priest. An Indian, with his face concealed under a mask of an imaginary divinity resem· bling the devil, with horns and claws, was dil'ecting the figures of the dance, which reminded me of that of the Redskins! I remarked to the Driest. who for all that was an excellent priest, that it was very incongruous to permit such a frolic in a church.
" , The old customs,' he replied, • are respectable ; it is well to preserve them, only taking care that they do not degenerate into orgies.' . . .
" During holy week I ha ve seen processiolli! of three thonsand persons stripped and covered only with sackcloth, so coarse as to show that the individual had not even a shirt. The different phases of the passion of Christ were represented by groups of painted statues large as life, and by men and women placed upon stages, borne on the shoulders of hundreds of Indians. The bearers, bending under the weight of their burden, would go, from time to time, to refresh them· selves at the liquor shops, leaving in the middle of the streets the groups representing the Passion. Jews and R'Omans, decked with helmets of tin plate, breast· plates of pasteboard, and breeches embroidered with silver, made a part of the procession. ,.
The Church c01ltrolled marriage, and fixed the fee so high as to force the mass of the people into concubinage. Formal marriage was beyond their means. She controlled education, and was happy to ensure the per- manent ignorance of the people. She controlled baptism and burial j held the keys of life and of death, and by all the curses of the life that now is and of the world to come drove into darkness those whom she should have led into light. At the outset she substituted for the living Christ an image of the Virgin, a wooden figure, "Virgin de los Remedios," brought over from Spain by the army of Cortez. On the Nacke Triste the imagedisap_ peared, but was miraculously preserved and became increasingly the deity of the Spanish party. The enmity between the conquering Spaniards and the conquered natives made it desirable to have a Virgin who would com- mand the loyalty of the people. Most opportunely just such a Virgin was miraculously provided. With some modification and apparent seriousness Archbishop Corrigan told the story of the revelation of this Virgin of Guadaloupe in a sermon in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, on December 1st, 1895 : " It was on December 9th, 1531, that Juan Diego, a Catholic Indian of little education, while passing among the hills on the outskirts of the Mexican city of Tlaltlolco, waR suddenly accosted by a beautiful woman who seemed to descend from the sky. She addressed him in friendly terms, and told him that it was her desire that he should tell the bishop of the diocese that it was the will of Heaven that a temple should be erected on the spot in honor of the Madonna. She then disappeared. Juan went to the bishop and related what had occurred, but his story was listened to with incredulity. He was told to go away and obtain more convincing proofs of his statements. He visited the same spot the next day, and was again confronted by the apparition. The same request was made of him, and he again told the bishop of it. The latter was circumspect. He nevertheless told Juan to pass the place of visitation once more, and if he saw the woman to ask her for some substantial evidence that she was commissioned from heaven.
" On account of the sickness of his uncle, Juan, on the succeeding day, was hurrying past the place, when he was for the third time stopped. On this occasion the woman was more beautiful and resplendent than before. When Juan told her, in humble terms, what the bishop had said, she told him to go to a spot where nothing but weeds were known to grow, and that he would find there bushes of roses in full bloom. She told him to take them to the prelate. She then vanished.
"While proceeding to the spot indicated, Juan was surprised to find that the rough cape he wore was imprinted with an exact likeness of the person who had visited him. To his great astonishment, he found the roses in bloom and took them with the cape to the bishop Both were convincing proof that something of a very extraordinary nature had happened. The news spread far and wide, and t.he place was thronged with wondering persons from all over Mexico. The cape with the wonderful imprint was the object of much veneration. It contained various colors, and appeared on both sides as if inwoven. There were the stars that Juan had seen around the wonderful woman's head, and the halo of light which surrounded her. It was hung in the church and afterward in the temple erected on the spot where the miracle occurred. As early as 1666 the matter was brought to the attention of Rome, and an investigation was made. Since then other investigations have been made by the Sacred Congregation of Rights at Rome. All of these investigations strengthened the belief in the miracle. The final one was approved by the Holy See on March 6th, 1894."
For all this Archbishop Corrigan is willing to vouch! Three and a half centuries have not brought emancipation.
These two virgins are the deities of Mexico to-day, with the Christs, white for the light skinned, and black for the dark skinned, that each may have a suitable image, a new idol to take the price of the teocalli and the stone idolll of old j for the priests had no thought of conversion of char- acter. They aimed only at a degree of external conformity. The old habits, modes of thought, religious ideas were not interfered with. New idols for the oli, new priests, new ceremonies, new incantations-that was all. The effect of the mixture is picturesque, but it is not Christianity_ It is doubtful if it is religion. Whatever it is, however, it has many fea- tures wholly superstitious, half pathetic, half grotesque. I cannot describe one of them as il~ustration better than by a quotation from my own diary : .. ZACATECAS, MEXICO, January 17, 1894. .. Perfect afternoon. Every afternoon perfect in this land. The bluest of skies, and earth matching heaven in the richness of its coloring. Took a picture of the finely carved brown-stone front of the cathedral from a roof opposite. The criminals from the penitentiary, who were working merrily on the street, looked up interestedly. At four went to the baptism of the animals at the picturesque little Church of Jesus. This church was built by voluntary work from voluntary offerings. After his day's labor a man would bring a stone from the quarry and leave it at the church. So the material was gathered. It is built on the side of a hill overlooking a deep. dry valley, beyond which the sun. goes down in a perfect wealth of glory. This is the day of San Antonio the Abbot. He was the animals' friend. They understood his sermons. On his day the animals go to church and are baptized and blessed. " On the way to the church we saw people with bird cages gayly decorated with colored papers and tinsel streamers. Almost no one at the church when we arrived, altho there was much expectation in the air. I had scarcely taken a seat in a corner, with the sun properly placed for picture-taking, when the crowds began to come, the poor people bringing their own animals, and servants the animals of the rich. Chic'kens, pigeons, all kinds of birds, doves, cats, dogs, 11 little brown pig who trotted in and out with pink paper pennons flying all over him; a dog with a gilt crown with feathers in it, and a long, lace paper dress; a big black dog with green and pink papers; roosters with pasteboard stove·pipe hats; a cat with a bonnet and a finely worked velvet short coat; rabbits in arms and in cages; a guinea pig dressed in gold ; two dogs with each quarter painted a different color; a sheep and three rams (one black, one white, and a small, rambunctious one painted pink, who stood up frequently to view the proceedings when tormented by some small boys); a green parrot with a yellow head; wee girls holding pigeons-all these animals were led into the church and arranged in two long rows in the body of the church. The Mexican churches in the main have no seats. As soon as the church was full the people who had charge of the animals knelt down, and a young priest, clad in a long black robe, went up and down the space between the kneeling lines, reading Latin-to which some of the animals made intelligible responses-and sprinkling water with a long tin sprinkler, which he filled from a bucket carried by a small boy in a long red gown. A large horse came to the door of the church, together with several donkeys, decorated with bronze frontlets and tin pieces on their hips. When the baptism within was completed, the priest came out into the church-yard, where he held a special service over the burros, but his speech was unintelligible. One fine horse stood in the street just outside the gate, and the priest stood in the gate and sprinkled it, lIexican law not allowing any religious service outside of church grounds. On our way home met scores of people carrying or leading all sorts of animals grotesquely decorated. Some of them seemed to see the ludicrousn~ss of it. Small boys respond at once to a wink. On the whole, the animals seemed to object to the ceremony. The big black dog was drenched with water, his fine green and pink papers soaked. The roosters could not refrain from crowing with exultation, and the other animals also had evidently not been to church frequently enough to be properly quiet. The small brown pig nar· rowlyescaped destruction at the mouth of the large dog. It was evidently a gala day. Everyone was dressed up. This did not involve in most cases, however, any excess of garments. What a diabolically ludicrous scene it all was! If only it meant larger love for the dumb brutes one could understand it and sympathize with it; but the poor burros and horses are treated outrageously. Their religion is meaningless, whether regarded in its bearings upon animals or upon the souls of men.
" At Santa Clara animals when sick are taken to church, and for a compensation the priest exercises them in the church or the church-yard, and praying for them, exorcises them too.
"The meaning of the baptism is this: people think the animals have evil spirits, and try to have the evil spirits driven out by this ceremony. San Antonio is painted accompanied by a pig. They call the pig' Cochina de San Antonio.'
" Three soldiers guard one or two convicts working on the street. Employment must be found for the standing army, or President Diaz-a Dios. The convicts look up and beg as we pass by."
Mary and the saints constitute the Mexican pantheon. The living God is not known, and the Christ is afar off. If there was a true faith ill the past, only its corpse or its ashes remain. If we lift the covering to-day, as Hopkinson Smith says, the dead body can be seen. Liberalism is the religion of the men who rule Mexico, while the Indians worship their Christian idols and the women tIle Virgin's form. The roulette wheel spins at the church fair, and tawdry bull and cock fights afford Sunday delight. Apparitions of the Virgin are still discovered on the leaves of the maguey plant and worshiped. Idolatry is not forbidden by the Ten Commandments as given to the people by the Church. In the Mexican decalogue the second commandment is, "Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain ;" the third, "Thou shalt keep the feasts;" and the tenth commandment is divided into two to make out the number, the second command as given to Moses being wholly omitted, and the fourth distorted into the injunction to observe the feasts.
These generalizations can be abundantly verified in any community in Mexico. At Parras, an old town, three centuries old, with some of the original bnildings still standing, in the State of Coahuila, twenty miles by diligence from the railroad, there is a little white chapel perched on a high rock overlooking a rough plain studded with maguey and mesquite. The " Capilla del Madero" is visible from a far distance, and is a shrine of great sanctity. The local belief, held unshakably, is that upon this rock a cross miraculously appeared one night years ago, when two prieE'ts were visiting the village, and that the priests at once ordered the chapel to be erected over the cross. This was done, but immediately several great fissures appeared in the rock, through which the conquered devil escaped. Pilgrimages have since been made annually to the cross, which grows an inch or so yearly. This growth is cut off and sold as precious relics. On the pilgrimages people have measured this length wearily, slowly, over the plain and up the hill, bleeding and worn, to seek blessing at the cross, and the walls of the chapel are covered with votive tablets, rudely drawn, testifying to miraculous assistance and cures. In the chapel of the Virgin of Guadeloupe, near Mexico City, where Juan Diego's blauket with its miraculous picture is preserved, there are many similar tablets. One of these represents a man falling by accident from a housetop, suddenly checked and suspended in midair by a happy thought of the saint of the chapel. Another was the offering of a man spared from death by robbers because gazing raptly at a picture of the Virgin, while his innocent children were murdered in bed, the tablet gorgeously presenting the whole scene. There are thousands of such tablets in Mexican churches, aud their storage rooms are littered with crucifixes, and virgins, and Christs, graven images, the work of men's hands.
The marvel is that after three hundred years of this, the oppression of the Spanish tyrants and the deadening paralysis of the Church of Rome, unchecked by the atmosphere of freedom, any manliness, or strength, or spirit was left in the Mexican nation. The conquest had been most cruel and repressive. Even Clavigero, the Jesuit historian of Mexico, confessed that the Spaniards "in one year of merciless massacre sacrificed more human victims to avarice and ambition than the Indians, during the existence of their empire, devoted in chaste worship to their gods." The soldiers of Cortez destroyed the records of the Aztecs-records of untold value. A system of peonage was introduced that was slavery. One good priest, Las Casas, is remembered now, almost a solitary exception to the great mass, as the protector of the Indians. From Cortez until 1821 sixty-one viceroys in succession governed Mexico, enforcing legislation devised in Spain, destroying all industries which might compete in Spanish markets or shut Spanish goods out of home markets, ruining the land under forms of law, or robbing it without law, pillaging its mines of silver and the hearts of its people of the joys of life and the peace of death. It is a testimony to the strength and worth of the nation that all this did not destroy the spirit of liberty, did not crush from them that passion after right which makes true children of a living God everywhere readier to fight and die for truth and justice than to live in the tame bondage of a lying peace. Mexico won her freedom against odds, and in a contest compared with which our struggle for independence was child's play. Hidalgo, Morelos, and Nicolas Bravo are names to be set beside any of ours. They show that there were some, at least, even among the priesthood, who loved liberty, and counted the far-off vision of it sweet.er even than the breath of life. If they failed, yet over their dead bodies the cause of Mexican independence moved steadily on, and at the last they failed not.
.. They never fail who die in a great cause."
Benito Juarez, a pure Indian, in 1855-57 established free institutions, a free constitution, religious liberty, free speech, free schools, the secularization of the ill-gotten wealth of the Church, and, in advance' of the Emancipation Proclamation, freedom and protection to all slaves who entered the national territory. The Maximilian fiasco was only a sad episode. Mexico had a better destiny.
Before his death, Juarez, whom Mexicans reverently and rightly regard as their Washington, declared: ' , Upon the development of Protestantism largely depends the future happiness of our country." Protestantism had entered Mexico in 1847 between the covers of the Bibles carried in the knapsacks of American soldiers. It entered to remain and to increase. Melinda Rankin, from her seminary at Brownsville, Tex., sent Bibles and Christian pupils into Mexico, and in 1864, after ten years' work, crossed over herself to Monterey. In 1865, in Mexico City, Francisco Aguilas, who had withdrawn from the Roman priesthood, gathered those who were seeking to follow a pure religion, and on the coming of the Rev. Henry C. Riley, in 1869, sent by the American and Foreign Christian Union, this company formed the first Protestant church in Mexico City, which was soon mightly reinforced by the conversion of Manuel Aguas, a Dominican friar, who had been chosen as the antagonist of Mr. Riley. This church jn Mexico City was not the first Protestant church in the country. In 1867, as the result of Miss Rankin's colporteurs' work, an independent evangelical congregation was formed in the house of Juan Amador, at Villa de Cos, a village fifty miles northeast of Zacatecas. The field was ripe to the harvest, and in 1872 the Presbyterian missionaries entered, the Methodists in 1873, the Congregationalists in 1880, and the Baptists the next year. The spirit of God had gone before the missionaries. Independent congregations had sprung up in many places, the fruit of scattered Bibles. In 1871 a Mexican opened a bookstore in Zitacauro, and offered for sale four hundred Bibles and tracts. The .state of Michoacan, in which Zitacauro is situated, has always been peopled with bold and independent men. The liberators were born there. Its people were most stubborn in their resistance to Spanish oppression, and most fearless of Romish superstition. In the war for independence they took the images out of the churches and piled them up for bonfires, saying, "If these are gods they won't burn, and if they are not gods they might better burn." The Bibles spoke the needed message to them, and congregations sprung up in a score of places. Sr. Rodriguez, au aged and blind preacher, able and refined, living at Zitacauro, said he could remember the early days, when the Bible was wrapped up with the lunch to be taken to the day's work, the noonday prayer-meetings, when laborers gathered for their meals, and the moving lights nightly on the hill-sides, marking the course of the people
CHURCH OF THE VIRGIN OF GUADALODPE
2. FRONT OF THE ZACATECAS CATHEDRAL.
3. CAPILLA DEL MADERO, PARRAS.
MEXICO, HUR NEEDS AND OUR DUTY
gathering for worship and praise. These were days of apostolic fervor, when those who had learned of Christ went everywhere preaching Him.
The fervor and devotion of these early days, yet to be revived, were met by fierce hostilities and persecution. In the excitement aronsed by the preaching of Manuel Aguas, forty Protestants were killed. In 1873 the Rev. J. A. Stephens, a Congregational missionary, was shot at Ahualulco by soldiers while appealing to them for protection, and his body was barbarously abused. Preachers or members of Presbyterian churches suffered martyrdom at Acapulco, where six were killed; at Almoloya, at AhuacualtitIan, where Abraham Gomez, the newly ordained preacher, was beaten to death with his own large Bible, which was then put under his head in mockery for a pillow, and at El Carro, a hacienda near Zacatecas, where Gregoria Monreal was stoned to death and then decapitated. One of the missionaries declared five years ago that the martyr-roll of the Protestant Church in Mexico included sixty-five names.
The days of martyrdom have perhaps also passed away, but it requires courage still to be a Christian in Mexico. The entrances to some little meeting-places in the slums of Mexico City, where the elders of the Church of Divina Salvador go of their own accord to conduct services on Sundays, are so arranged as to make the attendants secure from the stones and dirt thrown in from the street. A poor little girl, Amalia Fuentes, was offered by the wife of ex-Governor Modera, of Coahuila, a trip to the World's Fair two years ago if she would give up going to the mission school for girls at Saltillo. The wealthy woman offered to take her in her carriage if she would go with her to mass. But the child preferred usefulness to pleasure, and said she would rather walk to the humble Protestant service than ride to mass.
There are discouragements and difficulties, many and serious, but neither more nor more serious than the encouragements and the boundless opportunities. The evangelical churches of Mexico are meeting the three tests which every church must meet; and some may think they are not meeting them less faithfully than the evangelical churches of our own land. They are reaching the poor. They are reaching the sinner. They have a place for the child. If they lack much that we possess, it must be remembered that they are emerging from a night which has lasted for three and a half centuries. They are moving ahead toward larger light. A native preacher showed us a picture of his little daughter taken with the great family Bible in her lap. It was not fetishism. He loved the book. He wanted the picture to tell of the family attitude. The Bible lies in a conspicuous place in most Christian homes, and tho these homes are humble, so was the manger where the Lord of life was born. Christ Himself has been planted in Mexican life. One poor man, weak and erring, but earnest, declared to us at Venado, speaking a more general truth than he knew, "The kingdom of God is in my heart. Tell the Christians of America that the kingdom of God is in my heart."
THE INDIANS OF CENTRAL AMERICA
It is said, to Mexico's shame, that it is the country of delay, of postponement, the land of " manana." The larger charity turns the reproach into praise, and anticipates for our Southern neighbors the nobler " manana," the to-morrow of purer faith, of larger life, of closer loyalty, the better day that comes.
'THE INDIANS OF CEN'TRAL AMERICA.
BY REV. C. I. SCOFIELD, D.D., SECRETARY OF THE CENTRAL AMERICAN MISSION.
In the inception of the work of the Central American Mitlsion an effort was first made to gain a clear idea of the poptilations of the five republics which were to constitute the field of operations-their distribution, habits of life, religious state, numbers, means of a(".cess to them, and, generally, of whatever facts might enter into the intelligent direction of missionary effort for their evangelization. We had not long prosecuted inquiries in this direction when we became aware that an indeterminate number of aborigines were scattered throughout the entire region in question, and it soon became evident that anything like complete information concerning them was, by ordinary means, unattainable.
For the most part occupying either the higher and more inaccessible mountains, or else the low-lying hot lands along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, they entered so little into the political and economic life of the countries that even the respective governments felt but a languid interest in them, and possessed bnt the vagnest information upon all the points of greatest interest to us. Such facts as were within governmental knowledge were cheerfully placed at our disposal, but these were too few and too indefinite for the basis of rightly directed missionary effort.
In short, it became clear that only by means of laborious and expensive explorations could the data for such effort be obtained.
Mcantime, work was begun at San Jose, capital of Costa Rica, among the intelligent inl1abitants of that beautiful city, and soon after another station was opened at Naranjo de Alajuela, westward from San Jose.
The missionaries at these points were from the first instructed to gather by every means information looking toward the evangelization of the aborigines. 'The motive for this can scarcely require statement. It was deeply felt that the descendants of the interesting and lovable peoples who had received with guileless hospitality the discoverers whose advent was to bring to them centuries of unspeakable outrage, should be in a very especial manner the objects of solicitude to Christians laboring in those regions.
Accordingly, soon after the establishment of the mission at San Jose, Mr. W. W. McConnell, the first missionary, undertook a toilsome journey, fraught, too, with no inconsiderable danger, to visit the Talamanca Indians, inhabiting thc low, swampy region of Southeastern Costa Rica, bor- dering on the Caribbean Sea, and the Republic of Columbia. Much in- teresting information was gathered, and some opportunity was found for Gospel teaching. The results of this journey, published in the Central American B1tlletin, were graciously used of God to draw attention to the condition of the Indians of Central America, and we felt encouraged to go forward in 'the work as rapidly as means and men might be raised up.
At this juncture the attention of that well-known friend of missions, Robert Arthington, Esq., of Leeds, England, was drawn to this great opportunity to carry the Gospel to a people as absolutely heathen as any in Africa; and, after some preliminary correspondence, Mr. Arthington proposed to bear the entire expense of a thorough exploration of the five republics for the gathering of exhaustive information concerning them.
The Lord's blessings ne,er come singly. Simultaneously with this provision for the expense of the undertaking, Rev. C. H. Dillon, one of the most capable and devoted of our missionaries, and a man in every way fitted to carry forward a work requiring courage, persistency, and the tact to deal with uncivilized tribes, became available for the work. He was at once put in charge of it, and, with the fellowship and invaluable assistance of Senor Quesada, one of the converts of ~fr. McConnell's work at San Jose, has now so nearly completed it that I am enabled to lay before the readers of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE "VORLD the greater outlines of the resuI1;. The details will be published when the explorations are finished. It may be said, however, that Mr. Dillon has done his work so effectively that the mission is prepared to send missionaries direct from this country or England to any tribe, and to inform such missionary as to their numbers, habits, language, degree of civilIzation, religion, and disposition toward white men. And not this only, but also the best route of travel, all things considered; the prevalent characteristic diseases of the region; what clothing and, supplies should be carried; and the expense both of the journey and of support on the field.
This result has been achieved by the intelligent and patient execution of plans carefully elaborated before the actual explorations began. In all the preliminary w.ork, and from time to time during its progress, the suggestions of Mr. Arthington have been of great value.
In the present article it is proposed to do no more than generalize the results achieved.
It may be well to remind the reader that the entire population of the five republics approximates 3,250,000, distributed as follows: Costa Rica, 243,205; Guatemala, 1,471,025; Honduras, 431,917 ; Nicaragua, 312,- 845 ; Salvador, 777,895. Speaking broadly, this population is composed of pure whites, inconsiderable in number, but of great influence; pure Indians, of whom hereafter; and mestizos, or people of mixed white and Indian blood, and thesc are in numerical majority over both the other classes. In religion, the whites and mestizos are Roman Catholic, but with this qualification: that the better educated of both classes are deeply tinctured with modern forms of scepticism, open infidelity, and spiritism. Alienated from the traditional faith by the shameless lives of many of the priests, and by the childish superstitions which they impose upon the people, and knowing little or nothing of the simplicity that is in Christ, they follow the unfaith of the German, Swiss, and French instructors in the state colleges. The number of those of this class who have already been converted affords proof of the readiness with which they will hear the pure Gospel.
Turning nO"W to the Indians, and premising that this article deals only with that part of the popUlation which is of pure or greatly predominant Indian blood, the facts may be broadly stated as follows : In some parts, notably in Nicaragua, the Indians have practically lost their tribal organizations, and have not only merged with, but actually compose the mass of, the population. Of this class the Masaya, Mata- ga1pa, and Ometepe Indians of Nicaragua are examples. In every politi- cal and religious sense they are indistinguishable from the mass of the Central American peoples. From them come many of the priests, of whom their towns are full, and they are the soldiers and minor officials of the republic. As objects of missionary solicitude they afford indeed a most interesting and promising field, but this they share with the other inhabitants of the republics. In Nicaragua the only distinctively Indian tribe is the Mosquito, among whom the Moravians have long conducted a heroic and fruitful work.
Beginning with the southernmost of the republics, Costa Rica, the expedition visited the Chiripo, Talamanca, Tucurique, and Coj tribes. I wish it were possible within the limits of a magazine article to reproduce Mr. Dillon's vivid account of these journeys. They were often perilous and always arduous.
1. The Ghil'ipo Indians.-This interesting tribe, which has furnished the firstfruits unto God from the aborigines of Costa Rica, inhabits a high mountainous region in East-central Costa Rica, and is accessible only by narrow paths through the dense tropical jungle, and across rivers which are deep, swift, and destitute of bridges. The expedition was so fortu- nate as to find at Turrialba, the point of departure for the Chiripo coun- try, a competent guide who was of that tribe, and who spoke Spanish as well as the Chiripo language. It is gratifying to record that before the exploration was finished, this man, Rafael, had received baptism, having given most gratifying evidence of conversion.
The Chiripo were found to be about five hundred and twenty in num- ber; to have a well-defined tribal organization, with first and second chiefs, whose authority within traditional lines is absolute; to live in scattered . habitations simply built, with roofs of grass thatch; and to subsist by small cultivatious in part, but mainly by hunting, fishing, and by the natu- raj growths of edible fruits and vegetables. In character they were found to be suspicious of whites j but, their confidence once gained, open, cheerful, and hospitable. They seem to be almost destitute of religion, having turned from their immemorial idolatry without having been as yet indoctrinated with the corrupt form of Romanism prevalent in Central America.
Mr. Jamison, who had gained among the Talamancas some experience in Indian mission work, accompanied the expedition, and, finding an extraordinary openness of mind among these simple Indians, elected to remain among them. One may easily imagine the feelings of these brethren, Dillon, Quesada, and Jamison, as they clasped hands in parting-the two former to retrace their steps to civilization, the latter to remain alone among these remote and little-known people.
A most remarkable work ensued. Through an interpreter who knew some Spanish, Mr. Jamison began at once to speak of the true God and of the manifestation of His love in the gift of His son to die for the sins of all men, and in a very few days the power of the Spirit was revealed in a wonderful way. Runners were sent out to bring in outlying members of the tribe, a comfortable grass house was built for Mr. Jamison, and in a few weeks twenty-five of these children of nature received Christian baptism after giving clear evidences of conversion.
Mr. Dillon's account of this interesting people recalls the stories of the kindliness, courtesy, and hospitality of their ancestors at the time of the discovery. Mr. Dillon says: "During our visit the Indians brought us more than an abundance of such food as they had, and in every way that they could show kindness tht,y did so. For example, they never use tables j but, learning that we had been accustomed to such extravagances, the second chief came, on the morning after our arrival, with two young men, and spent a half day making one for us. They are strictly honest j anything under any circumstances is perfectly safe. "
It would almost seem that this primitive tribe had been preserved in their mountain fastuess to afford an impressive object lesson by contrast with such Indians as the Guatosos on the one hand, and of the Coj on the other of the evil inflicted upon the aboriginal peoples of Central America by whites who have either shamelessly degraded them or turned them into sullen fanatics.
2. The Talamanca Indians.-This numerous and degraded tribe, living in the low-lying lands and foothills of Southeastern Costa Rica and Northeastern Colombia, present in most respects a striking contrast tt> the Chiripo. There is some affinity in the languages of these two tribes, but they are otherwise most dissimilar. The Talamancas are about two thousand in number, live in clusters of huts, which are little more than thatched roofs, avoid contact with the whites, from whom, in the persons of runaway sailors, rubber hunters, and cattle thieves, they have suffered unspeakable outrages. They have a tribal organization j but a representative of the government lives among them and is the real ruler. Some slight attempts at the most primitive agriculture are made; but the Indians subsist principally on fish, wild animals, and wild fruit.
Very few of them speak Spanish. To the vices of heathenism have been added nameless degradations, brought in by the bestial whites who have been among them. Fortunately the rubber trees have mostly disappeared, and they are now spared the incursions of the rubber hunters, who are to the Indians of Central America what rum traders are to the native African.
The climate is trying and dangerous. Fevers prevail, even the Indians having no immunity, and poisonous serpents are numerous. Yet these conditions have not prevented the residence in Talamanca of white persons, impelled by greed or lust, and it cannot be conceded that the trader can go where the missionary canl).ot. Mr. Jamison lived and labored among these Indians until withdrawn by the mission, because it was felt that such isolation was inexpedient. Into such regions missionaries should go two and two.
Access is had by open boat along the Caribbean coast from Port Limon, Costa Rica, to Cahuita ; and from thence over an execrable trail forty miles to the first of the villages. Another route is by Old Harbor, but is the more difficult of the two. There are to-day no missionaries among these Indians. Who will go q 3. The Tucuriqui Indians.-These Indians, numbering some five hun~ dred, live in a river valley in Eastern Costa Rica, and may be reached on horseback by a ride of seven miles from the railroad station of Tucuriqui on the railroad connecting San Jose with Port Limon. They are settled in one village, have some slight admixture of Spanish blood, and are mostly nominal Romanists, and are visited at intervals by priests from Cartago.
The climate is good, if care is taken about exposure to night air, the elevation above the sea being about twenty-five hundred feet. No missionary has ever resided among them. Who will go ~ 4. The Goj Indians.-This tribe, inhabiting the very high lands of Central Costa Rica, have a considerable mixture of Spanish blood, live by agriculture, are nominal Romanists, and inclined to be fanatically so, and have almost lost the native language, speaking Spanish instead.
They are reached with comparative ease except for the last few miles of the journey, which is a mere trail through the jungle. They number about twenty-five hundred. They have no distinctively tribal organization, and have a resident governor. No missionary has gone to this tribe. Who will go ~ 5. The (}uatoso8 Indians.-This tribe. numbering perhaps twelve hundred, and living for the most part along the Frio River, in Northwestern Costa Rica, is reported by Mr. Dillon to be the most pitifully in need of the Gospel-the dirtiest and lowest of all the Indians whom he visited.
Very few of them speak Spanish; they have had no chief for thirty years, and are so remote, degraded, and useless that the government has been able to accomplish but little in their behalf. For two hundred years they were able to resist the incursions of the whites, killing even priests in their efforts to penetrate their country. But the rubber hunters-those pitiless scourges of all tropical America-overran and subdued them and taught them th~ unspeakable vices of the degraded white man. Now their spirit is thoroughly broken, and the country is defended only by its inaccessibility. Perhaps no natives in all America have suffered more from the whites than these Indians j but once assured that the expedition meant good and not evil toward them, they were found to be friendly and hospitable. Their religion is a rudimentary belief in a future state, and they are wholly uncorrupted by debased forms of Christianity.
Of the many routes by which this tribe may be reached, the best, all things considered, is up the river Frio from Lake Nicaragua by canoe. Under favorable circumst,ances, the trip can be made in five days from the mouth of the river.
This tribe was visited in March, 1895, by Mr. William A. Arthur, of Philadelphia, who has since founded the Central American Industrial Mission.
The purpose of this mission is to plant colonies with the view to self· supporting mission work in that needy region. The Guatosos are eRpecially the object of the immediate solicitude of this infant mission, which is "represented in this country by the Philadelphia Missionary Council, Fifty.fourth Street and Lansdowne Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., and by the Central American Mission, of which the writer is secretary. The former has exclusive charge of industrial or self.supporting work j the latter of the missionary work in Central America which is supported from abroad.
6. The Indians of Salvador.-What has been said above of the Indians of Nicaragua will, in the main, apply also to the Indians of Salvador. Indians of pure blood form the bulk of the population, have no tribal organization, are, in fact, the people, tho neither so well educated nor so influential as the whites of pure blood among them. They are the laborers, soldiers, petty officials, and agriculturists of the country.
In religion they are fanatical Romanists. To the lasting disgrace of this great Protestant land be it said, there has never been a resident mis. sionary in this republic. The population is dense, eight hundred thousand living in a territory of twenty thousand square miles extent. In the capital and larger towns a liberal element is found which earnestly desires that missionaries be sent. Who will go !
'I. The Indians of Guatemala and Honduras.-As the final reports upon the Indian peoples of these two republics are not completed, and as by far the greater number of the pagan Indians in the five republics are found in theRe two, an account of them is, by consent of the editor of the REVIEW, postponed to a subsequent paper.
It may be here said, however, that the explorations just approaching a conclusion have disclosed a mission field among the aborigines of these two republics, which is of great extent and surpassing interest. The reports of the expedition, tho not ready for publication even in this brief, summary way, are so definite and comprehensive that the Central American Mission is now fully prepared to induct at least twenty missi()naries into fields as absolutely untouched by the Gospel of Christ as any on the whole earth. That the reader may have some more definite conception of the greatness of the field thus opened in Guatemala and Honduras one tribe may be mentioned.
The Xicaque Indians of Honduras, for example, whose country lies northward from Tegucigalpa, the capital, among the high mountains in which the rivers Guayape, Aguan, and Sulaco take their rise, number between twelve thousand and sixteen thousand, of whom three fourths are in some sense Romanized, but who number at least four thousand of absolute pagans. These are neither inhospitable nor revengeful, but their distrust of the whites is so deep that it was a matter of the greatest surprise to the tribe when their chief gave his hand to Mr. Dillon at parting.
It will be seen that there are many contrasts between the Indians of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Salvador, and those of Guatemala and Honduras. Tl,te tribes of the last-named republics are strong in numbers and are spread over fast spaces of mountain and forest. In the former the tribes are small, and many languages must be learned before they can be thoroughly evangelized. In the latter, one language will often give access to from ten thousand to seventy-five thousand souls.
While the churches of America have been sending missionaries into the remotest parts of the world, they have strangely neglected this tempting and destitute field at their very doors. And this in plain disregard of the spirit of the Divine plan of campaign of missions given by the Lord Himself in Acts 1 : 8, which contemplates the moving out by concentric circles from strategic centers, and-by implication at least-forbids the overpassing of unevangelized regions.
With the opening, through the Arthington Explorations of the Central American Mission, of this vast Indian field, within four days' sail of New Orleans, it is hoped that the response in men and means will be commensurate with the need.
At least in the beginning it will be inexpedient for lady missionaries to attempt work among these tribes. Not alone nor chiefly because of the difficulties of travel, but because they can at first be more effectively reached by men. With the gathering of a few converts, however, this objection will disappear, and a great door and effectual will be opened to women missionaries among these peoples, so near, so needy.
THE ARMENIAN CHURCH
THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. * BY REV. FIDLlPP VOLLMER, FH.D., PHIL A-D ELPHIA, FA..
Armenia of old and that part of the Turkish Empire where the majority of the Armenian race still lives is situated in the western part of Asia, not far from Palestine, between the Black, the Mediterranean, and the Caspian seas, remote, inaccessible, and isolated. The fact that in the northwest, Turkish Armenia is bordering on Russia is at present the cause of much uneasiness and concern in English diplomatic circles.
In extent Armenia is a country as large as New England, constituting a plateau of 7000 feet high, which is for the greatest part barren and rough, but not without many fertile spots in the numerous valleys. The highest point is Mount, Ararat, on which Noah's ark is said to have descended after the flood. Many theologians and not a few archroologists also strongly assert that in Armenia the cradle of the human race must have stood; and with a great array of learning they have proved to their own and many others' satisfaction that the very spot is to be found in the region where the fonr great rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Araxes, and Kur, take their rise, these being in their opinion identical with the four rivers, Pison, Gihon, Hidekel, and Euphrates, which, according to Gen. 2 : 10, " went out of Eden. "
The name of the country, Armenia, is derived from the name of one of their ancient kings, Aram, who was a contemporary of Abraham. The Armenians themselves call their country Haichia, from Haichun, the name of their ancestor, who was a great-grandson of Japhet, one of the three sons of Noah. In outward appearance, however, the people show great resemblance to the Semitic type, having a brown complexion and eyes of a yellowish brown.
The Armenian people are not confined to the territory of old Armenia, but are to be found almost everywhere, preserving, however, with great tenacity, their national unity and individuality, wherever they are found, almost equal to the Jews. With this people they have, moreover, in common, their dispersion, their pohtical dependence, the oppression endured in all ages, and their occupation as tradesmen. The Armenians number, according to the last census, 4,000,000, over three fourths of whom st,ill occupy the same territory as their forefathers did, ~,500, 000 of them being Turkish, 1,100,000 Russian, and 100,000 Persian subjects, while the rest are scattered all over the entire globe, our own country not excepted. But wherever they live, they enjoy the reputation of being a quiet, int.elligent, very polite, temperate, and extremely frugal people. The majority of them are engaged in trade-almost the entire commerce of the * As the Armenians are just now in the public thoughts of the civilized world, owing to cruel massacres of thousands of their nnmber, a brief statement as to their conntry, their character, and their religion seems timely. Turkish Empire being in their hands. This occupation accounts mainly for theIr almost universal dispersion. The Armenians under Turkish sovereignty are, of course, everywhere surrounded by fanatical Mohammedans, ruled by 1hem, hatp.d by them, constantly annoyed by them, and from time to time massacred by them. These outrages are no mere ebullition of violence, temporary and transient in its nature. They show, on the contrary, a settled purpose on the part of the hordes of Eastern barbarism to suppress a civilization that is based on the Christian religion. Positive proof of this are the four bloody persecutions of the present century-in 1822, when 23,000 were slain and 17,000 sold into slavery; also in 1860, 1876, and the one at the present time.
The ancient history of the Armenians is, like that of most old nations, shrouded in obscurity. First they were a constituent part of the Assyrian Empire; then they were ruled m succession by eight mdependent kings; later Cyrus made them part of his Persian Empire, and afterward the Seleucides subjected them unto Syria. For more than seven bundred years Armenia was the bone of contention between the Romans, the Persians, the Parthians, and native rulers, till the Arabs subjugated one part in 650 and the other in 950 ; in 1574 the whole became a part of the Turkish Empire. Part of the ancient Armenian territory has belonged to Russia since 1829.
Circumstantial evidence proves that Oh1'istianity must have been introduced into Armenia at a very early date. The first church historIan, Eusebius (died 340) found in the library at Edessa a manuscript in the Syrian language containing a very remarkable correspondence between Jesus Christ and Abgarus, an Armenian prince. These are the words of the letter f)f Abgarus to Jesus : " From Thy miraculous healings and raising of the dead, I conclude that one of two things must be true: either Thou art God HImself, descended from heaven to do such deeds, or Thou art the Son of God because Thou performest such acts. )ome, therefore, to me and heal me from a severe sickness. ' , Christ answered this letter in the following words : " Abgarus, blessed art thou because thou didst beheve in Me without , seeing Me. For it is written that those who see, Me shall not believe in Me, in order that those who do not see Me might believe and lIve. In reference to thy request that I should come to thee, I say that I have here among My own people to fulfill all for whIch I am sent. After having ful- filled it, I will be taken to Him who had sent Me. But when I shall have been taken np, then WIll I send to thee one of My disciples that he might release thee from thy sickness and give life to thee and to those with thee."
Eusebius goes on to say that in the year 30 A.D. Thaddeus, one of the seventy disciples, did actually come to Abgarus, did heal him of leprosy and convert him and his subjects to ChrIstlanity. Legend has it that Christ even sent him His picture through Thaddeus, and thlS pieture is still shown in one of the churches in Rome. Another historian, Moses Chorensis (died 470A.D.), communicates also a correspondence between the same Abgarus and the Roman Emperor Tiberius. In this, Abgarus brought charges against; Pontius Pilde for condemning Christ to death. Tiberius, in his answer to Abgarus, says lhat Pilate had written to him about the miracles and innocence of Christ, and it was only the Senate's fault that divine honors were not rendered unto Christ.
The genuineness of these letters may well be doubted. Their existence at so early a period goes far to prove, however, that Christianity must have been very early introduced into Armenia. This was actually done during the first and second centuries of the Christian era ; and in the third century, the people accepted Christianity generally, thus becoming the first in the world's history to accept Christianity as a nation. Tertullian in the second century already speaks of flourishing churches in Armenia; and in the middle of the third century a bloody persecution under Tiridates III. is reported.
The real apostle of the Armenians, however, and the actual founder of that ancient church is Gregor, calJed the Illuminator, because through his activity the night of heathenism vanished and the light of the Gospel began to rise brilliantly over Armenia. He was the son of a prince, and was born in 257. In the afore-mentioned persecution his whole family suffered a martyr's d()ath, notwithstanding their high position, Gregor, then two years of age, b()ing the only member who was almost miraculously rescued by an old nurse, who fled with him to the neighboring province of Cappadocia. Here Gregor received a Christian education, and after returning to his native land, he labored so successfully, in spite of persecutions, that at last his work was crowned by the conversion of the persecuting king himself and by the general acceptance of Christianity by the great majority of the people. In planting the Armenian Church, Gregor proceeded with much prudence, circumspection, and wisdom. In admitting young men to the schools which he opened aJ] over the country, he gave preference to the sons of the heathen priests and their relatives, his intention being to make them well disposed toward the new doctrine. In the year 302 A. D. Gregor was consecrated bishop of all Armenia, and in 325, he received a cordial and very pressing invitation to the famous first ecumenical council at Nice, where the doctrine of the eternal Godhead of Christ was promulgated. However, he did not go personally, apprehending that too much honor might be bestowed upon him for having been a confessor during the persecution. As his representative he sent his son, to whom he also, toward the end of his life, entrusted the supervision of his diocese. At his death he left the church which he planted in a very flourishing condition, in which it remained for a long period after his death, notwithstanding political upheavals. Gregor was also a very able writer, of whom sermons and prayers are still extant. Thus by his own example, he kindled a profound interest in education and learning, so that after the invention of the Armenian alphabet, the golden era of Armenian literature was ushered in by translations of almost the entire Greek and Syrian literatlIre, as well as by original works.
One great hindrance in spreading Christianity was the lack of a transla- tion of the BibLe into the vernacu1ar of the country. The preachers were compelled first to read the text in a foreign language, and then translate and expound it. There was not even an alphabet of the Armenian language. To overcome both difficulties, Mesrob worked incessantly day and night 1.0 invent first an alphabet for the Armenian tongue, which would then enable him to translate the Bible. For a long time all his exertions remained fruitless. Seeing that human ingenuity and wisdom alone is not sufficient, he took refuge in prayer. One day, when he was again engaged in earnest prayer, he beheld a rock and a right hand engraving upon it several signs. These imprinted themselves so clearly upon his memory that afterward he could recall and imitate all of them; and thus, Mesrob's disciples tell us, the origin of the Armenian alphabet was found. Immediately he began work, and in the year 410 A.D. the translation of the Bible was completed.
Soon after Mesrob's death, the then ruling Persians instigated a bloody persecution with the intention of converting the Armenians to the Persian fire-worship. In a hotly contested battle, in 451, on the river Dechmnd they were ~tterly defeated. But in spite of oppression following this defeat, the Armenians remained steadfast till their oppressors, the dynasty of the Sassanides, were overthrown.
Up to this time, the Armenian Church constituted an integral part of the Church universal. In 451, however, they adopted in open synod the doctrinal errors of the Monophysites, who deny that in Christ two natures were inseparably united-a truly divine and a veritable human nature. Since that time they constitute an independent church and are affiliated with none of the three great bodies into which the Church is divided. They know nothing of Protestantism, not having been in the least influenced by that great movement; but both the Roman Catholic and the Greek churches have been trying to secure their adhesion. A disruption came in 1439, and one part joined the Roman Catholic Church, acknowledging the Pope as their spiritual head and adopting the distinctive Roman doctrines, yet retaining in their services their native tongue. This portion of the Armenian Christians is called the United Armenians, while the old monophysitic paM; goes under the name of the Orthodox Armenians. This schism revived the old persecutions, and about the middle of the eighteenth century the Armenian patriarch sought and obtained the intervention of Peter the Great of Russia. Since then the orthodox part of the Armenian Church has found shelter under the protection of Russia.
The doctrines of the Armenians are almost identical with those of the Greek Church. They have the seven sacraments; in baptism the child is immersed three times, it is then anointed with holy oil, confirmed, and partakes of the Lord's Supper in both elements. Prayers are said for the dead; but the Church does not believe in purgatory nor admit of indulgences. There is a threefold order of the clergy-bishops, priests, and deacons; and there are three degrees of episcopal rank-the archbishops (chief among whom is the patriarch), the bishop, and the teacher of theology. The clergy are further divided into the black and white, the black being the monk.s and the white the parish priests. This la1ter class is permitted to marry before ordination, but not after.
The Armenian Church teaching then, as we have seen, the same errors of the two medieval churches, has justly been regarded by the Protestants as a proper mission field for the dissemination of a purer gospel. Consequently missionaries of the American Board of Boston began work among them in 1831. For many years it was hoped that they might quietly and without formal church organization exert an influence that would reform and spiritualize the ancient church from within. Persecution reluctantly compelled the missionaries to seek protection by forming a separate -Protestant Church in 1850. At about the same time, the Missionary Society of Basel, Switzerland, also established a mission among them. There are now three missions in Armenia, comprising 281 stations, 944 foreign and native laborers, 112 churches with a membership of 11,481, 264 Sundayschools, with 46,864 adherents, and a number of colleges and theological, high and boarding-schools with a total of 19,886 persons under instruction. It is hoped that these native Protestants may be instrumental in arousing this ancient but fossilized church and raise it to a more spiritual type of Christianity; and a beginning of this uplifting work has alreadybeen made.
How necessary this missionary work is in Armenia, may be gathered from the very unfavorable reports that reach us touching the religious and moral condition of clergy and people. Very recently one of the Protestant missionaries, trying to impress an Armenian bishop with the duty of the Armenians to work for the conversion of the Mohammedans, was startled with the reply : "What are we to preach to the Mohammedans? They believe in God like we and have good prayers. We could only preach to them about the Trinity and the divinity of Christ." "But," said the missionary, "the difference between Christianity and Islam is truly very great. The heaven-e.g., which the Bible teaches-is a far superior conception and a much purer ideal than that of the Mohammedans." To which the bishop replied: "If I were certain that the paradise of the Mohammedans really existed, I would wish to be there." This proves better than many words the low condition of the Armenian Church, and the urgent necessity of working among them.
The first evangelical Armenian Church was organized July 1st, 1846, after those who had accepted the Protestant form of Christian belief had been excommunicated from the Armenian Church by the anathema of the patriarch. It was the original desire of the missionaries to bring about a reform in the Armenian Church, but the attitude of the patriarch made this impossible. At the beginning of 1895 the evangelical Protestants numbered nearly fifty thousand.
A NEW MISSIONARY UPRISING
A NEW MISSIONARY UPRISING.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS, ASSOCI.A.TE EDITOR OF "THE GOLDEN RULE."
One whose ears are open to "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees" must have heard the premonitions of a new and mighty movement among the young people's societies of our churches. I think that I speak well within the truth when I say that this revival, or " advance," is of greater importance to the cause of Christ than anything that has concerned the youthful members of the Church since the discovery of the Christian Endeavor Society fifteen years ago. Yet this new movement has spread so imperceptibly that only he whose ears are quickened by the Spirit may have noticed it.
I speak of the marvelous awakening in practical evangelIstic effort and deeper spiritual life that has possessed the Christian endeavor movement within the past year. Already this spirit has resulted in thousands of conversions outside of the usual line of the Society's work, and it has spread itself abroad throughout the length and breadth.of the land as a sweet savor. of the pure Gospel. Vithout comment upon it, let us briefly follow the history of this" new endeavor."
Two years ago, in the city of Reading, Pa., the State Christian Endeavor convention was held, and Rev. Charles Adamson, a pastor zealous for the salvation of souls, conceived the idea of having the delegates share their blessings with the work people of the city who could not get to the meetings, even if they so desired, and most of whom knew practically nothing about the joys that filled the hearts of the Endeavorers. There had been little preparation for such a campaign, yet permission was secured from a number of employers to hold meetings during the noon hour in their shops and factories. Companies of willing workers were soon formed, and at the close of the morning sessions of the convention the delegates would march, with songs on their lips, to these places of employment, where the Gospel story was simply told by the earnest young people. The result was most marked. The Endeavorers themselves were thrilled with something of the joy of the missionary, and the cordial attention and intense interest of the work people surprised even the most ardent advocates of the plan.
One year later, at the wonderful convention of Pennsylvania Christian Endeavor societies, held in York, this evangelistic movement was made the predominant feature of the convention. Rev. Charles A. Oliver, a Presbyterian pastor of the city, whose chief ambition is the salvation of men, took charge of the work, arranging for evangelistic meetings each day in mills, factories, shops, the jail, the almshouse, in the public square, etc. Vhen the convention met, the delegates were formed into companies with experienced leaders, and each was assigned a p1ace of duty. More than a score of meetings were held each day of the convention, many souls found the light, and a general religious awakening of marvelous character was the result. This determined the place of practical missionary work in the Christian Endeavor conventions. .
With the experience of York (1894) in mind, the United Society arranged for a similar Gospel campaign in Boston during the convention there last summer. So, when the Endeavorers came up from all parts of the land, they not only reported direct missionary gifts of $340,603.54, and the glad news that 202,185 of the associate members had been led to Christ during the year, but they also showed the practical nature of their religion by entering heart and soul into this movement for practical evan- gelism. Rev. James L. Hill, D.D., of Salem, Mass., a trustee of the United Society; Rev. Charles Roads, of Philadelphia, Pa., ex·President of the Pennsylvania Christian Endeavor Union and a leader in this work, and Rev. Charles A. Oliver, of York, Pa., were appointed a committee to arrange for evangelistic meetings during the Boston convention. It was felt that if this sort of work could be carried on with any degree of success in Boston, with its abnormally difficult conditions, it would surely succeed . in any other city in the land. Therefore, altho hindered in many ways, the committee arranged for evangelistic companies of Endeavorers from many States, organized and instructed them before they left their homes for Boston, and had them ready to begin their splendid campaign of wit- ness-bearing on the very first day of the convention.
Fifty-five different places were secured in the city. These were of almost every sort-wharves, shops, missions, stores, institutions of various kinds, and favorable points in the open air. Notice was given through the press and by direct communication to the working men of the time, and place, and character of the services. Since most of the evangelistic com- panies were from distant States, the very novelty drew together large audi- ences.
Perhaps I can in a word describe the character of one of these Chris- tian Endeavor evangelistic meetings. It was held in a mill. The Endeav- orers gathered at the noon hour. After the work people had eaten their lunches they assembled in the weaving-room, among the looms, and as near to the visitors as possible. The leader (Mr. William Shaw, one of the three executive officers of the United Society of Christian Endeavor) stood on a bench for an improvised pulpit, and after telling in a few words who the Endeavorers were and what they represented, the company began to sing the bright Christian Endeavor songs. There was much praying, and a few practical words from the leader proclaiming " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," and one after another, the dele- gates testified what this Jesus is to them. Then, the engine having been set in motion some minutes earlier than was expected, the leader gave the Gospel invitation to the music of whirring pulleys, belts, and shafting, and ten persons accepted the offer of salvation.
More or less similar were the 120 evangelistic meetings held by the Endeavorers during the Boston convention. The audiences were interested to a remarkable degree, many of the toilers putting themselves to great incon- venienceto be present. When the opportunity was given each day for all to share in the services, 284 attendants, most of them Christian employees, testified or took part in some other way. Twenty thousand persons were reached by the Gospel message, and 585 delegates, from more than a score . of States, participated in these services during the days of the Boston meeting.
Of conversions it is impossible to speak. It is not always well to eount on visible manifestations. Certainly the number of those professing to accept Christ reached more than two hundred. As many as twenty per- sons in a single meeting took the decisive step. This magnificent show- ing, marvelous as it is, does not reveal on its surface the greatest good of the meetings, for from this taste of the joys of preaching the Gospel, hun- dreds of Christian young people went home to their churches and societies in all parts of the land to partake more fully of the feast of consecrated work for souls.
Such an influence permeating the societies of the land could not be without tremendous effect; and now, as I write, I have before me the reports from some of the last of the Fall State conventions of Christian Endeavor societies. These tell the glad story of Boston, 1895, over again. The majority of the State unions made practical evangelistic work by the delegates a chief feature of their great annual meetings. Pennsylvania surpassed its noble record of the previous year; California witnessed pentecostal times; Maine held thronged Gospel services; Wisconsin, Nebraska, Indiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, Delaware, all report in the same jubilant strain glorious Christian Endeavor meetings for the unreached masses. Massachusetts, the conservative Bay State, went into the work at her State convention with a zeal and enthusiasm that resulted in an untold harvest of redeemed ones, and now her societies have gone forth to practically fulfill the year's motto, " Saved to serve." Each of these great meetings has increased the influence of the evangelistic spirit, and has sent the Endeavorers home to their individual societies to carry out in their own churches and neighborhoods this practical effort for those who do not come within the scope of the usual methods of preaching the truth.
One single society in Glenholden, Pa., upon the return of its delegates from Boston, appointed an evangelistic committee; services were held weekly, and the first seven meetings resulted in 50 conversions! York, Pa., the place where this movement received its first great impetus, is at this writing carrying on a Christian Endeavor evangelistic campaign. The Methodists of Philadelphia, in their great revival in Armory Hall, adopted the same method of using organized companies of their young people. In like manner, in many parts of the land, these convention efforts have been but the starting-points of mighty radii of evangelistic influence.
There is not space to comment on the striking lessons that these bare facts so eloquently tell. Above all else, they show the power of a living Gospel. The plain, blood-stained cross of Jesus Christ has not ceased to be the greatest magnetic force of all the ages. The Lamb of God has lost none of his beauty and power. No topic is of such vital interest to man everywhere as that of Christ and salvation. I could repeat instance sfter instance to show how this simple Gospel story has been sough~ with utmost eagerness. Listen to this! During the Boston convention a company of delegates from a distant State were lost in the labyrinth of streets and failed to reach their appointment on time. The workmen were so eager for their presence and their story that they hired a carriage and sent one of their number to the Convention Hall to see if some Endeavorers might not come down and hold a meeting with them. Who of us thought that such a story could be told of a great Christian city?
One other truth that I desire to merely indicate is that the young people of the Christian Endeavor Society and of the Church in general have no greater enthusiasm than that for practical missionary work. There is nothing in all Christian Endeavor that has met with the response that has been accorded this" advance." Invariably the delegates report these evangelistic meetings as the very best sessions of the convention ; and if you could see them, as I have seen them, trudging for miles to a remote factory, beneath a burning sun, simply for the privilege, not of making speeches or of winning applause, but simply of bearing humble witness before a company of untutored men of the power of God unto salvation, you would with me praise the Lord for this new crusade:; Coincident with this evangelistic enlargement has been the outreaching after spiritual power manifest in Christian Endeavor circles. Thc Society has always stood for spirituality, but in an unprecedented degree there is being witnessed at the present time a seeking after those things of Christ that lie deepest in the spiritual life ; an outreaching for a fuller consecration, for a richer abiding of the truth. In line with this Dr. Clark has proposed to Christian Endeavorers a " World's Christian Endeavor Prayer Chain," to be joined by all those who feel the need of a better spiritual life, and who are willing to pray daily for spiritual blessings upon the cause of Christ everywhere, upon the Christian Endeavor Society, and upon the members of this prayer chain. Within one week after the covenant had been proposed Dr. Clark received more than two hundred letters from Christian Endeavorers asking that they be enrolled as members of this World's Prayer Chain. Thousands of persons, in many lands, have already become" links," and each day witnesses further enrolments. Here is the covenant to which all Christians, whether Endeavorers or not, are asked to affix their signature : " Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and realizing the untold blessing of fervent, united prayer, we, the individual links in the World's Christian Endeavor Prayer Chain, covenant and agree to make it our practice to offer a petition for one another and for the cause of Christian Endeavor
ELSIE; OR, THE GRACE OF GOD
every day. We also promise to endeavor to bear in mind, at the usual time of our daily devotions, the particular cause which is brought to the attention of the Prayer Chain each month as the object of our united petition."
There is no form of organization. The memberR are asked, but not required, to send their names to Dr. Clark, that they may be enrolled on a private list in order that the members may be known and the faith of the members increased. Dr. Clark's address is 646 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.
Who shall say that these two new and twin endeavors-the enlargement of spiritual life and the practical evangelistic crusade-shall not have a great part in ushering in that glorious day when all the kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ ~ ELSIE j OR, THE GRACE OF GOD.
BY MRS. E. M. WHITTEMORE, NEW YORK CITY.
Mission work in the slums and in the upper part of New York City is very similar in many respects. Lives of sin, hidden behind brown-stone fronts, are, if anything, more difficult to correct, and following the Master to fine-appearing haunts of sin is beset with more difficulties than amid the poverty and coarseness of the slums. Sin is the same whether it is enconntered on the top rung of the ladder, where the devil temporarily blinds the senses of his victims behind a whirl of tinseled finery, or when, descending lower and lower, the lowest step is reached, and the weary, reckless tread of vice and crime is heard in the slums. It is worth while, however, to follow sinners through their various stages, amid repeated discouragements, if finally one may rescue them by the grace of God.
From a beautiful home of comfort and refinement there stepped forth one day a poor, silly, foolish, but exceedingly pretty young girl of fOllrteen. By her side was a noted villain, who, through lying and deceit, had passed himself off as a person of title. By the time that SuspiCIOn was aroused in the minds of those who entertained him he had in subtle ways gained the love of this mere child, and he managed so to control her every thought that it was comparatively easy to gain her consent to elope with him. Once married, he thought that the parents would speedily relent, and thus he would be reinstated in the household, and later would have at his disposal whatever wealth the family might possess.
Contrary to all expectations, the dishonored family most emphatically resented all efforts at reconciliation, and with breaking hearts closed their doors even to their own child. Through gambling aud other evil pursuits the newly married husband kept up appearances for a few short years, during which time no attempts succeeded III turning poor Elsie to the Savior, tho many regrets and much shame and sincere remorse filled her heart.
The wild excitement of the life she led gradually produced and strengthened in her the taste for wine, until at last it gained such a mastery over her that, tho dressed in silks, she was powerless in the hands of companions who led her still lower into the sinful ways of the corrupt world.
The once apparently fond husband, under whose influence this formerly pure girl had become so changed, became not only a tyrant, but with great brutality -too awful to record-caused her to submit to his diabolical whims, until she no longer sent for liquor to give her a pleasurable gratification, but that it might, if possible, render her oblivious to his cruelty. In desperation she made six attempts 1.0 leave him, but each time she was captured again before the night passed. Finally one day, more than ever crazed with grief, she succeeded in carrying out her purpose, and be- came a wanderer upon the streets of New York. Agam she was found, and was urged to accept of the love and salvation of Jesus; but through false reasoning she again rejected the way of escape from the life which quickly followed.
Disheartened by ill health and repeated failures to secure light occupa- tion, she yielded more than ever to her craving for drink, and for weeks at a time was comparatively unconscious of her surroundings or companions. One -night, after a dreadful debauch, she was arrested with others; she was tried and senteuced to prison, and was placed on a par with the very low- est characters from the slums. She was made to realize very forcibly that the devil is no respecter of persons. The refinement of former days only intensified her misery, and the recollections of the past at times almost bereft her of her reason. Incensed beyond measure at all this additional disgrace, her parents, at the time of her release, had her again committed to avoid future publicity.
A few days after her second sentence the Door of Hope was opened at 102 East Sixty-first Street j and after the opening exercises were over and friends had left I knelt before God and reminded Him that all was in readi· ness, that even the beds were prepared, but that no inmates had come to find shelter there. I asked that He would graciously send those whom He saw were in need of such a home. The following morning a note came from Elsie, in which she asked that we would for God's sake give her a chance. With some difficulty, consent was obtained to have that second committal withdrawn. Those who knew her best sadly shook their heads, aud said that the experiment was certain only to meet with failure, and that it might materially reflect upon the work just being started. Nevertheless, by God's guidance, provision was soon made for her reception, and it was not long before she was introduced to the Head of the home-our blessed Lord. She gladly availed herself of the oft-spurned love, and it proved sufficient not only to convince her of sin, but through its purity the sin . was washed away, and in the strength of that love she has daily proved His effi0acy to save and to keep.
Not many months later the death of her husband was reported, and some two years ago one of God's ~servants was prompted to give her his hand. Under cover of his name she has now a dear little home of her own. Not only has this happiness been bestowed, but her family (so greatly injured) have relented and have welcomed her back.
Feeling in her heart a strong desire to work for God, she, with a few others, have opened a place of worship in the town where she lives, and there they gather regularly, with heartfelt gratitude 10 God that He is no respecter of persons, and that He wills to save even unto the uttermost.
Surely this instance will suffice to prove to the most skeptical the advisability of persistency in service for Christ. Never be in such haste to further God's cause as to pass by even one who has ca~ed discourage- ments and disappointments without number. Opportunities are granted to us to sow seed for which we will not later be held responsible. To be effective workers in the slums or in less conspicuous places of vice, we must keep in such close touch with God as to catch His divine thought, to act upon it, and to give Him the glory for all that may be accomplished. Never be influenced even by blessed results, but trust in God, work by God's strength and guidance, and definite fruit will then be gathered for God.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Attitude of the Turkish Empire When the American missionaries first toward Ohristians. entered Turkey seventy-five years ago, they did so under cover of these" capito BY J. T. GRACEY. ulations," which had thus been in usage for more than three hundred 1. UniJer the ., OapituZations."-The years. Rights of worship and educa· Roman Empire recognized" extra ter- tion, according to their own convictions ritoriality" in the government of for- and pleasure, were recognized as be· eigners settled within its bounds, and longing to all Christians entering, or extended the privileges under it by a resident in the Turkish Empire. Unsort of fiction according to which these der this general concession Christian communities, smaller or greater, were missionaries prosecuted successfully treated, within limits, as if non-resi- their distinctly professional business In dents. various parts of the Turkish Empire. They established schools and colleges, Five hundred years ago, when the set up printing establishments, and ex- Turk. entered Europe, he adoptcd this ercised themselves in all religious func- Roman fiction toward non-.Moslems tions incident to their vocation, not as a within the territory of the empire. privileged class, but in common with Theoretically, as a good Moslem, every merchants and others, cach within their Muhammadan ruler is obliged to put to own sphere. the sword all who refnse to accept the Quran and the Prophet. As a matter 2. Under the Berlin Treaty. – The of fact, no Moslem conqueror or ruler Christian Powers sought from time to has found it within the range of practi- time to incorporate the privileges rec· cal politics to thus far" unify" the in- ognized in the "capitulations" into habitants of the geographical section rights, secured by treaty with the Ottohe claimed to govern. There never man Empire. The object of the Berlin has been an instance where all the sub- Treaty of 1878 was to perpetually bind jects of a Muhammadan ruler were the Turkish Empire by compact to an Moslems. The preservation of these unalterable observance of these privnon-Moslems has been essential to the ileges, save as they might be modified commerce or other fixed necessity of the from time to time, with the consent of country. Hence, under restrictions, the Christian nations. The representa· they have always been suffered to re- tive of the Sultan at Berlin declared it main, the right of the realm to compel to be the full intent of the Ottoman all subjects to accept Islam, as a the- Empire to maiutain the principle of the ory. never being vacated. The fiction "capitUlations" in force. It had, unof " extra territoriality" in the Turkish der the law of internal necessity, for Empire adopted from the Roman Em- centuries made such concessions, alpire was an invention to a~·oid the con- ways, however, as an act of clemency, cession that any subjects of the empire subject to modification or suspension at were not Moslems. It was thus simply the pleasure of the sovereign. The in accordance with ancient usage, al- Berlin Treaty stripped the S.ultan of ready recognized in the territory, that this privilege, as we have said, save non-Mussulmans continued, possessed with the concurrence of the other naof liberty under slight personal restric- tions of Europe. The Sublime Porte tions, tho not exempt from taxation or became only a vizier governing these tribute, and some other obligations to races, subject to a consensus of Christhe government. tian sentiment. That this was the plain while reserved till the Treaty of Ber- understanding is shown by the fact lin.
that very many reasonable modifications The Treaty of Berlin took away from have been from time to time agreed the Sultan this fiction of sovereign clem- upon, till they have become quite a ency. Henceforth forever these were department of international and Otto· to be rights which not even the Sublime man jurisprudence. It was a humilia· Porte might deny. Under the galling tion to the Sultan to have thus thrust humiliation of that treaty the Turk did upon him a limited monarchy, subject not rest. He signed the treaty as a war to an outside congress of nations. Ac- necessity. It was his duty to violate it cording to Moslem law the Sultan is as soon as possible, and Abdul Hamid Pope as well as king. This struck II. chose to set himself to the task.
from him all his powers as Pope over This he has done by administrative all except his Moslem subjects, and at acts and by interpreting in a new way one blow blotted out his right as a good sundry laws and treaties. The authori- Moslem to put to the sword all who zation of presses and their publications would not accept the Quran and the by the Turkish authorities was a req- Prophet-a right never conceded till uisite accepted by the United States in then, the exercise of it, we reiterate, the treaty of 1870, but administration being a matter of expediency. The under it had been reasonable. Now it Berlin Treaty became the magna charta was extended to minutest cavil. and the of Christians in the Turkish Empire. work was obstructed by the most trivial Great Britain became security that the detail. Permission to print a work Turk would carry out the compact, and was annulled an hour after its publica- received the island of Cyprus in lieu of tion, and all the outlay was a loss.
the guaranty. Even Gospels long in circulation were 3. How has the TU7'k kept the compact 1 prohibited because they contained the -1. American missionaries, under the word "liberty" or the words "king- axioms of the" capitulations," had con- dom of God," the Sultan not wanting ducted enterprises of publication and any other .. kingdom" but his own; education, also charitable work of medi- and the ridiculous incident is vouched cal treatment, free instruction of the for of the suppression of Paul's letter poor, and maintained religious exercises to Galatians, as being addressed to the in their houses, in hundreds of cities, people of Galata, a suburb of Constan- towns, and villages in various parts of tinople, where they have been resident Turkey during the sixty years from from the time of the Roman Empire 1824 to 1884. All these privileges were under its "capitulations." When the exercised under ancient principles of censor was assured that the author of political administration of 'l'urkish law the letter had been dead many years, and usage, gradually extended from he demanded the certificate of Paul's the Edict of Toleration of 1453. '.rho burial! One would not quote such an Moslem law prohibits peaceful relations absurd instance but that it is matched with non-Moslems, nevertheless it was in hundreds of similar cases of obstruc- the right of the Sovereign Khalif to spare tions of recent date. The" Christian whom he pleased. By various decrees, Endeavor" constitution was not suf- enactments, and usages the Sublime fered to be printed, because the people Porte confirmed the privileges of non- would be thereby trained in organized Moslems in the empire under this gen- action, and "Onward Christian, Sol- eral policy of suspension. The right to dier " was interpreted as a seditious break treaties, cancel the edicts, and re- document. Similar repressive meas- verse the usages, whenever good policy ures were imposed on schools. History permits the resumption of war measures and general litbrature were eliminated for the extension of Islam, was all the from curricula. Graduates of Christian schools were debarred from gov· caused a lack of Moslem unity in the ernment service for the sole reason that civil service, and the Sultan set himself they were such graduates. A Christian to <:hange-not the treaty, but-the ex- teacher en route from Marash to Tarsus isting Christian majorities. The Chris- in September, 1895, with four pupils tian increment must be removed from was arrested on the road, and conveyed the civil service within the impositions with great indignity to Adana, where of the Berlin Treaty. It could be read- they lay in prison six weeks, no charges ily accomplished by a revival of the of any kind being made against them, ever-present principle of the Moslem after all their belongings had been right and duty to put to the sword all searched in vain for any objectionable non-Moslems, a principle, as we have matter; and after this they were sent seen, never abrogated, only suspended back to Marash and forbidden to leave first by the "capitulations" inherited the city for a year. Another preacher in Europe and then at the cannon's was thrown into the Adana prison for mouth at Berlin. four and a half months, with no charges of any kind against him. He was re- How could he superinduce this de- leased and again seized and condemned struction of Christian majorities? The to a year's imprisonment for having a tale is already thrice told. Nineteen copy of Shelley'S Poems in his posses- months ago, in the early summer of sion. His aged father after thirty 1894, the robber hordes on the northeast years' ministry was condemned to pris- border of the empire, the Kurds, were on for a year for having in his library incited to raid Armenians, with renewed an old hymn book which contained vigor, carrying off their cattle, their the hymn•. , Soldiers of Christ arise !" crops, and their women. The Arme- nians lived in seventy-five villages on These are not rumors; they are vouch- this plateau. They naturally went to ed for in Dr. Christie's report of St. the rescue of their women and their Paul College at Tarsus. property. Some shooting wall done; some Kurds were kill(;ld. The Knrds For half a century the proclamation did not bury their dead, but carried of religious liberty of worship was in· them and threw them down before the terpreted to include the exercise of this governor and said, "Is this the way function in any property of which the we are to be treated 1" The massacre perso!). was possessed, special sanction of Sassoun ensued. Ten thousand only being required if the property was Turkish troops were sent to " put down to be exclusively used for this purpose. the rebellion," with orders that the Shortly after the edict of 1892 was is- " dogs" were to be slaughtered-man, sued, it was interpreted to require that woman, and child. whenever a Christian purchased or ac· quired property, he must sign a bond The troops were dressed like Kurds, that whether house or lands, the same and the Kurds led the attack, thus de- should never be used for the education ceiving the Armenians into resistance of children or for purposes of religious which they hoped might be successful; meetings. This has been rigidly en· but presently they discerned from the forced against Christians, and against way the troops handled their weapons, no others. It was not made retroactive from the weapons themselves, and the in general, but an old law was inter- way the forces were manceuvered, that preted at will to apply against exist- they were not Kurds at all, and panic- ing institutions, as having been begun stricken at facing 10,000 regular troops, , .. without permission." they precipitately fled. Four hundred . Under the Hatti Humayoun,the com- women took shelter in a church, where they supposed they would find protec- . munity in which the school or worship tion from the sacredness of the place. was to be established was made the sole They were all murdered, and the blood judge of the need thereof. Under the ran over the floor of the church into the edict of 1892 the absolute authority was streets. A few of the more beautiful transferred to the government official, women were offered Islam as the alter- and an imperial firman was required to native of death, but they promptly said, authorize it, which of course could only " Kill us I" and then When men were be obtained by those having "influ- defiled to dig the trench to bury them, ence" (?) at court. they were all thrust, the living with One of the "reforms" promised by the Turkish Government was the ap· the dead, into the trench and kerosene pointment of local governors from the poured over them, and all were burned. class which were in the majority in any One mother with two children was given district. This would secure threatened that her children should be Armenians the civil rule when Arme- destroyed if she would not accept nians were in the majority; but this Islam, She refused; they tore one child to pieces before her eyes, and the British consul in thrt rity, "The asked her again, only to be repulsed Turkish Government can only maintain again. They killed the other child, its supremacy by cutting down its and again asked for her decision. She Christian sects," and the Grand Vizier's again said she could not" deny Christ." assertion is quoted, " To get rid of the and then they murdered her, and dying Armenian question is to get rid of the she said, "I cannot give up Christ." Armenian people." The Sultan is not, The soldiers boasted that they had as some affect, playing a new role; wit. slaughtered 15,000 in Sassoun. The ness the massacre of 50,000 Greeks in telegraph wires were cut, and it was Scio lIes in 1822, of 10.000 Armenians in two months before the news reached Mosul in 1856, of 11,000 Syrians in Europe. When an English commission 1860, of 14,000 Bulgarians in 1876, of was appointed to investigate these mas- the slaughter of other Armenians in sacres it was hindered for two months 1877 and 1879. Hamid II. is the Pope more. It never got to Sassoun at all. of a religious fraternity and king of a Witnesses were threatened with death political empire based on the forty-sevif they gave testimony against the enth chapter of the Quran, " When yo Turks, and for a year and a half the encounter the unbefievers strike off Sultan played one European power their heads, until you have made a great against another. Persecution was no slaughter of them." He will teach longer confined to remote districts. Europe that the theory of all survival The fall of 1895 saw a thousand Chris- of Christians is stilI an act of clemency tians murdered about Constantinople, of the Sublime Porte, and that the right and a hundred-nobody knows how to compel all to become Moslems was many-driven into the Bosphoros, their never yielded, not even in form. till bodies in many cases washing ashOl'e. the Berlin Treaty, and this principle Trebizond came next. Erzroom, Har- of the Moslem faith the Sultan now re- poot Aintab, Marash, Diarbekr, and affirms, Berlin Treaty or no Berlin others followed. The killing was au- Treaty. That the principle is a perma- thorized.all day some days, and for nent one he emphasizes by the slaughter four hours on other days. Then the of 2000 Yezedies at Mosul in 1892, and troops were to be called out and go by all the fierce fury of the Armenian through the farce of suppressing the massacres of 1894-96.
riots. No Turks were sbot. The offi- European navies were massed in the cer assured Dr. Barnum that the mis- DardaneIles to ask after the Berlin sionaries and premises at Harpoot were Treaty, and the Sultan's answer was in all safe, and tbat no Kurd should enter the appointing a Kurd to tbe office of the city. When the assault began Dr. Vizier of the empire I It is not likely Barnum appealed to him, only to re- they were obtuse enough not to under- ceive the reply, " What can I do against stand what that meant. The gauntlet 15,000 Kurds ?" At no time were there was thrown down, and an uncontrolla- more than 300 Kurds. A sheIl burst ble Moslem fanaticism was threatened in Dr. Barnum's study. Nine hundred if it was accepted. The violation of Christians were killed that day. treaty rights, and the suppression of The missionaries fied to the college Protestant interests, systematically and buildings. They were ordered to come openly on the increase for several years, out. Their reply was, "No, we will was deliberately inaugurated by the not. Kill us here." There were 17 Ottoman Government, because they adult missionaries on the staff. Their saw the success of Christian missionary eight houses were piIIaged and burned influences, especially of Protestants.
to the ground. Diarbekr was eighteen was steadily nndermining, and ulti- hours from Harpoot; 900 people were mately destined to overthrow the power killed there. In Southern Armenia of Muhammadanism in the empire.
three pastors were kiJIed, the wife of They recognized the struggle as not one carried off with his three children ; merely for ascendency, but for exist- two of these were killed, one rescued. ence. Selfishness impeIled them to reo The girls of the school were canied off sist all efforts, to interfere with their to Kurdish Villages. One pastor had his methods, and expose their corruptions.
hands cut off, and he was shot. Thus All missionary work has been seriously the unifying of the Turkish Empire has menaced, and much of it prooably degone on till a conservative estimate stroved, unless defended by force from makes 50,000 Armenian lives to be lost, witliout. and half a million reduced to starvation Russia has no sympathy with Prot- estantism, and Ahe is inevitably behind in midwinter. Nejib, Pasha of Damascus, is credited every scheme of the Turk to oppose rewith saying to a confidential agent of ligious liberty or education or reform. During all these eighteen years not a and have ceased to exert an influence blow has been struck because the Turk upon the communities where they are disregarded the Berlin Treaty. Prop· located. Sometimes the fault has been erty of American citizens has been de- with the inexperiencc or lack of zeal stroyed. and indemnity, tho it may be of the teacher. Generally the mission- promptly promised, will scarcely be ary has been unable to visit these paid, unless in the presence of force of schools often enough or to stay long threatening magnitude, probably of enough to advise the teachers how to greater force than the United States improve in their methods, or to enable without England can bring to bear them to gain that cooperation in its upon the Porte. An astute statesman- patronage and support from the local like friend of the writer said to him, community which assures it a standing.
after the Berlin Treaty, "They have Primary schools, in the nature of the sowed dragon's teeth." Mr. Salisbury case, are so comparatively inexpensive is quoted as affirming that Abdul Ha- that this has often led to their being mid has fixed the fate of the Turkish established where there was not a suffi- Empire, because Divine Providence cient demand. While one of the dis- will certainly avenge its cruelty and tincti ve features of Protestantism is the crimes. But what about that same fostering of the education of the masses, Divine Providence in its dealings with the masses, beyond the mere rudiments a body of Christian nations, who in or- of reading and writing, have very little der to perpetuate a buffer State between understanding of what an education is.
themselves, have perpetuated the exist· Without the stimulus of desire to read ence since 1878 of the most monstrous the Bible or the newspaper, or opportutravesty on all government and justice nity to apply their learning in definite and humanity of modern history? It ways which yield a money return, they is a case not merely of sustaining a buf- are apt to sink back to the verge of il- fer State, but one whose merit as a buf- literacy. At first a primary school may fer State is, that it is not Roman Catho- attract many pupils whose parents are lic nor Greek Catholic nor Protestant, possessed WIth a more or less sentimen- but that it has a religious complexion tal desire to have their children edu- which will not assimilate with either of cated ; this is the opportunity for the these to the political advantage of any mission to begin work and put in a one as against the other. Christians teacher, one who has the capacity to perpetuate Islam becau8e it is I8lam! make a primary school an evangelizing center, and who, at least, can prepare the way for public preaching services. The Outlook for Protestant Schools in As a general rule, after the first or Mexico. second year, unless the school has an BYW. HENRY GRANT, NEW YORK. unusual amount of attention or a spe- cially qualified teacher. there will be a In estimating the value of education decrease in the number of scholars enas a method of propagating and estab- rolled and a falling off and an irregulishing a pure Christian faith among larity in the attendance. If before this the Mexicans, it is necessary to discrim- occurs the school has not been utilized inate very particularly between the sev- to the full extent as an evangelistic cen- eral grades of schools and the condi- ter, resembling somewhat a mission tions under which each is operated. Sunday-school held six days in the For instance, some would do away en- week, its opportunity will have gone, tirely with primary schools, and confine perhaps never to return. In this view their attention wholly to providing the primary school is used somewhat higher Christian education for students to break down prejudice and to gain who are aiming to become teachers or access to the homes of the pupils.
preachers; some devote themselves ex- The later and more general demand clusively to combinations of boarding for education will be marked by the and day-schools, teaching the primary desire on the part of the Christian par- and higher branches to those Roman ents to have their children well taught, Catholics and .Liberals who prefer the and fitted for the part in life they are American schools, and are willing to to fill. It is quite safe to establish pay the school fees, M well as to such schools under this demand, providing pupils as it is expedient to take free. that the people benefited bear a full halt Perhaps the reason why many mis- of their support and are primarily re- sionaries consider the primary school sponsible for the salaries of the teach- as needless or wasteful of mission funds, ers. The conducting of such schools is that they have inherited a good many will, however. be very largely gov- of these schools which have run down. erned by whether or not there are already public or private schools estab· first of all it provides only for a favored lished of the proper character, without few. selected by fallible men, and not any adverse religious teachings. In by the Holy Ghost, and that it often Mexico, where there are good primary fits these few to be stumbling-blocks to schools already established in any 10· those who might come to the light. cality, it would be folly to start others Many missionaries who have made perunder Protestant management, unless sonal sacrifice to go to' foreign fields fully supported by the local Protestant have felt that practically they were im- community. proving merely the mental faculties of Higher education proceeds or should the heathen, and effecting little toward proceed with a somewhat different aim. the conversion of the world. It proposes not only to give the scholar High schools in Mexico to some ex- the mechanical vehicle for receiving tent have already come into active comand communicating thought, but seeks petition with State normal schools.
as well to guide him in his inquiries, These well-organized, well-equipped, and to develop his thinking faculties, and steadily improving State instituinducting him into a study of the order tions, with all the backing of the State and laws of nature and human society. government and all the favor of institu- Goethe says, " It is good to knowevery· tions belonging to the people, must be thing ;" and on this principle that edu- reckoned with in the long run. It is cation is a good thing in itself, it has safe to say of Mexico, ae of Japan, that often been accepted as incumbent upon the cases are few where the well-to-do missionary societies to provide for a class will choose the mission school in scheme of liberal education for their preference to the State school, the Prot· converts. The question of maintaining estant in preference to the Mexican and a hi~h school, however, cannot be de- non-religious, so that the mission must termmed merely upon its merits as hazard considerable, with a good pros· being" a good thing," but must rest pect of ultimately withdrawing.
upon the foundation of being essential As an essential to the progress and to the permanency of the Church, or a permanency of the native church, high practical aid in opening the minds of schools must be adapted to meet the the scholars and their relatives to re- needs of the local community from ceive the Gospel. which the students are drawn, and so Before considering the high school as must qualify those who take the full an essential to the permanency of the course of study for the work they have Church, we shall consider the high to do after their school-days are over.
school as an aid to evangelization and And this must be more carefully guard- the peculiar dangers of its failing of its ed in the case of those who are aided object. High schools may unfit the by being exempted from paying the poor for the part in life which they fees, or whose parents are making con- have to perform (uI).less carried suffi- siderable sacrifices that their children ciently far to practically provide them may be better qualified than they were with a profession). To be profitable in for getting on in the world. The prep- the sense of providing the education aration of teachers for mission schools demanded by those whose parents can or for entrance to the theological class pay the fees, high schools must gener· has often resulted in throwing almost ally adopt such a curriculum as to be the whole burden of education upon the utterly unsuited to the needs of the mission, and subsequently the support great mass of those who go from the of both the schools and pastorate upon schools back to manual labor, or who the same sources.
are to become teachers or preachers. It would not seem wise at presen t to Without the element of personal con- discontinue the conducting of high tact of an experienced missionary, whose schools already well established which influence over the scholars is great- have a strong Christian basis of work and this is rarely secured in large in the number of active Christian pu- schools-the factor which counts for pils, and which are successfully prepar- most in leading the students to faith in ing teachers to occupy positions in the Christ Is the life of the Christian schol- government and mission schools. It ars. No mission school should be al- would, however, appear wise to have lowed to grow out of proportion to the an outlook upon the future, and seri- number of active, earnest young disci- ously study what is likely to be the de- ples it contains. We do not say it will mand for the next ten years. Two do harm, but that under such conditions plans suggest themselves as modifica- It does not justify the expenditure of tions of those already in operation: mission funds. The expensiveness of First, that instead of providing ad- this method of evangelization is that ditional institutions for the preparation of teachers, or continuing those not Oonference of Foreign Missionary Boards fully established, good Christian homes of the United States and Oanada.
migbt be opened in cities wilere there are first-class State normal schools, under the supervision of the missionaries One of the most helpful and potent wilo are qualified to develop the spiritual means of forming and enforcing mis. life and Bible study of those residing in the home. As the government pro- sionary policy, for bringing about comvides in many cases for the board of ity and cooperation in the foreign field, pupils, it is not unlikely that the Prot- and for awakening interest at home is estant young men and women might the yearly conference of the representaavail themselves of Christian homes set up for their benefit; 01' where the mis· tives of American missionary societies, sion provides for such scholarships, it which held its fourth session this year, would be vastly less expensive, and in January 15th and 16th. in the rooms of some respects more broadening. to the Reformed Church of America. The subjects discussed included the conduct educational work on this problems of finance, methods of work, plan. The second, and probably the scheme that would be most readily accepted at relations of missionaries to governments, present, wouLi be to have such a curric- and the means of increasing interest ulum in the high schools as would make and efficiency at home and abroad. them effective training agencies for There were present 63 delegates, includ- Christian workers; thus those who did not study the full term or were support- ing 51 representatives of 23 mission ed by the mission would be able in their boards, 10 mi.sionaries from India, own c:>mmunities to superintend the China, Japan, Persia, Arabia. and Mex· Sunday-schools and do such educatiDnal ico, and editors of the T11e Independent work as their people could afford to pay for. Such is now the effort mak- and lIIssIONARY llEVIEW OF THE ing in several of the missions. At Zitacuaro the Presbyterian mission de· WORLD.
signs to have a training institute in We give the substance of the REPORT which it is designed that those who OF THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE as C(lUcannot pay the fees shall devote the taining some of the most importaut larger part of their time in industrial work. It. however, seems probable features of the discussions.-D. L. P.
that after this school is fully organized, it will inclu–le a course of preparation The first subject on which recomfor theolugical study, as the native mendations were presented was the church seoms to demand a more highly Study of lliissi:JJt8 in Tlleologica,l Semi- na1·ies.-a theme on which Dr. H. C. educated ministry.
The conclusion is that the school best Mabie, of tIle Baptist Missionary Union, suited to Mexico has not yet been read an able paper. evolved; that a few schools like the The following resolutions were ree- Presbyterian girls' schools at Saltillo ommended for adoption: and Mexico City and the lIethodist 1. That in our larger seminaries the Episcopal schools at Mexico City and time has come for the establishment of Pueblo are measurably meeting the a full missionary professorship. . . • needs of the Mexican Protestant com- It might be suggested as the function munity ; that most of the other high of this chair to unfold the nature of the schools are in a more or less transitory Christian religion as fundamentally and stage, not fully definable, and doing essentially missionary-missions are not unquestionable good, tho perhaps not incidental, but are constitutional to in the most profitable way; and that Christianity; they are incumbent on the American Protestant school as a pri- Christians at home, priVate or official, mary, preparatory, or high school quite as really as upon the missionary should be thorough, both in training who goes abroad-to exhibit the his- the intellect and in culti vating the spir- tory of specific missionary movements ituallife; that tho~e who pass through of the past, and having special reference these schools shonld be living witnesses to the missions of the denomination con- to the fact that Christianity is the very cerned ; to wisely treat the subject of foundation of a well-regulated manhood comparative religion and cognate phi- and womanhood. profitable for the life losophies; to present the geographical, that now is and for that which is to physical, climatic, political, and social come. features of the countries occupied by the denomination concerned; to lead in pentecostal devotion will ever avert the the study of methods; of moral ap- vital evil. proach to the peoples studied; how to build them up when won, iu s~If-re Something may be done by students specting, self-supporting, and self-gov- among themselves in the way of carry· erning Ohristian churches and commu- ing out a prescribed course of reading nities ; charged with the further duty recommended by the Student Volunof extending the Gospel received into teer 1'Ilovement. the regions beyond. Where such a pro· fessorship is impracticable, . . . each Regarding the Ejftcieney ~f Missionaseminary should at least have a mission- ries. upon which subject Rev. R. P. ary department in connection with some other chair. Sm'vice thus rendered, McKay, of the Oanadian Presbyterian however, should never be a perfunctf)r.v Board, read a paper, the report conservice. It should be assigned b some tinued : man of contagious spiritual vitality, who will perform the service as a real While expressing the most cordial aplabor of love with as much abandon preciation of the great ability, high and devotion as should characterize a character, and deep devotion of the mismissionary to Africa or the South Seas. sionary body, this conference would ex- press its conviction of the obligation 2. That in a few of our older and resting upon the missionary boards and stronger seminaries a special course of societies, to strive in every way to ingraduate or elective undergraduate in- crease the efficiency of the mission struction be provided, for which the ordinary curriculum does not afford op· force. To this end it would suggest yet portunity. This course might have greater care in the selection of new mis· particular reference to the detailed study of comparative religion and the philoso- sionaries ; firmness in discouraging the phies underlying; to methods of deal- return after the first ret urn to America ing with the adherents of various sys- of missionaries who have proved un· terns; to the subject of the relation of adapted to the work; greater prayer on education to evangelistic movements in the respective countries; and to the the part of boards and the home chUl'ch subject of languages and literatures in in behalf of the workers; a bringing to which the great ethnic systems have ex- the attention of the missionaries as may pressed themselves. be possible or practicable the results of 3. That in some cases in which the the experience of missionaries in other financial resources are more limited, fields; and also helpful books both eduseveral seminaries might combine to cational and practical-e.g., Dr. Nevius' support one professor or lecturer who should visit the several institutions in " Methods of Mission Work ;" high recourse, and in such a way thllt each quirements in the acquisition of the lanoutgoing class would secure the benefit guage b.v new missionaries; and a of the lectureship at some period in its greater effort to instruct appointees becourse. Where the seminaries are of fore leaving for the field in the main the same denomination, a joint endow- principles of missionary policy. . . . ment fund might provide for this at a The conference would suggest to the minimum cost to any single institution until such time as each could afford to missions that the work, however urgent, have its own. be so kept under control as to leave the workers time and opportunity for that 4. No seminary should be content Bible study, prayer, Ohristian conferwith less than securing occasional lec- ence and communion with God without tures from returned missionaries, secretaries of boards, and pastors apostolic which activity will be without power in tOlle on the great theme of missions. and earnestness withl'llt the conscious and sustaining presence of the Spirit 5. We think that all will agree that of God in His fulness. . . . the very' spirit of missions might be fairly required in the characteristic As to Self-SuPP01·t in Mission ChU1'elW8, influence of every professor in the theo- a subject di,cussed in a paper by Dr. logical institution, in whatever depart- Judson Smith. of the American Board, it was recommended: . . . ment he lubors. . .. The thing always to be feared is the human ambition to 3. That . . . in the judgment of the maintain a relatively higher intellectual conference the true ends of missionary than spiritual stanllard. Nothing but work are the preaching of the Gospel to a holding to New Testament ideals and every creature for the salvation of souls and the establishment among each peo- ple of an independent, self.sustaining, self-pr"pagating church.
4. That these ends are frnstrated or their attainment postponed by a system of prolonged, excessive, and debilitat- ing support of native pastors and eva.n- geIist~ from mission funds. Such sup- port attracts needy men and stimulate::; insincerity, cultivates a mercenary spirit, of its proper congregational and school and increases the number of mercenary expenses, and report what it has done Christians; it tends to stop the volun- to the mission or missionary in charge tary work of unpaid agents; it encour- each year before a further grant is recages the habit of dependence on for- ommended. eigners, and discourages the spirit of Discriminating Use of Mission Funds self-reliance; it makes it difficult to was discussed in a paper by Dr. S. H. judge between true and paIse preachers Chester, of the Presbyterian Board and church-members; it makes it proba- (South). The committee recommended ble that we will establish wrong stand- (1) that gifts for special objects outside ards of remuneration, causing distorted the regularly. . . authorized appro- ideas as to pay, and projecting the na- priations for the mission work are to tive church on a scale beyond the ability be strongly discouraged. Such gifts of the native Christians to maintain it ; involve unjust discriminations, subordi- it tends to lower the character and les- nate the judgment of the missions to sen the influence of the missionary en- private judgment, aqd interfere with terprise in the eyes of both foreigners the regularincome of the boards. Such and natives. It limits the work by diilcriminations, if right for one are right making it depend upon the neces- for all ; they militate against the pursarily restricted supply of funds from pose of the establishment of the boards, abroad. and are demoralizing to the work; . • .
5. That the time has come for definite (S) that it is desirable that some form of and united action in the direction of a statement showing the relative expendi- larger measure of self-support. This ture for each branch of mission work can be reached by establishing new should be published in the annual rework on II. self-supporting basis from ports of all the societies.
the outset. or upon a basis of partial The question of Ma'l'1'iage oj Mis- but diminishing assistance, which COll- sionaries was given a full discussion in templates distant self-sustentation. Both a paper by Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, of in the establishment of new work and the Presbyterian Board (North), and by in the reconstruction of old much can the conference as a whole, during which be done (1) by our general recognition the advantages and disadvantages of that self-support is both desirable and marriage were fully and fairly presentpossible, and by persistently instilling ed. It was finally resolved: into the minds of the converts the 1. That the Protestant position in reo thought that they must extend the Gos- gard to the marriage of missionaries pel, and that no money will be given should be maintained; that the effi- them for doing what they ought to do ciency of the missionary force as a themsel vas; (2) by such an adjustment of whole will thus be increased.
our ecclesiastical ideals as will form a 2. That there may and should be ex- system suited to the condition of the ceptions; that it is desirable in many country, and to wide, rapid, and volun- cases, especially in pioneer work, that taryeffort ; . . . (4) by recognizing that the missionary should remain for a lim- the result we aim at does not depend on ited period unmarried, and that mission- complex machinery and complex teach· ary boards and societies may wisely call ing. but on a few simple, deep truths for a greater or less proportion of volun- well enforced, and on sincerity rather teers who shall be sent to their fields than exactness and definiteness; (5) by with the understanding that they re- recognizing the slowness of growth, by main unmarried for from three to five avoiding precipitancy, or the ambitious years, or until the language is learned desire to make things as they are in the and the foundation of a prosperous American churches; (6) by trusting to mission is laid.
the real power of religion, its inherent S. That it may in some instances be vitality and ability to endure and to sup- wise for those who are so led by the port whatever is necessary for it; (7) Spirit of God to follow literally the high by spending time especially on the im- example of the Apostle Paul in devot- portant men and centers; (8) by re- ing an entire missionary life to the wor k membering that too little aid is better of a single missionary for the Master's than too much. It is always easier to sake.
recede in the direction of more aid than How to increase the EjJicierwy of Offi- of less. The dangers of less aid are cers of Foreign Mission Boards was the blessings in comparison with the evils subject of a very able paper by Dr. W.
of more…. S. Lambeth, of the Southern Methodist 7. That each board be requested to Episcopal Board. The committee re- adopt a rule whereby each Christian ported: community shall bear a definite share " Painfully conscious of our insufficiency for the wisest administration of that generous gifts be promptly-sent to this vast work, it is our conviction that the relief of that suffering.
we should seek in all the ways suggest· Resolved, That we authorize an ap· ed-by more frequent visitation of the peal in the name of the foreign mission- mission field, and by constant study, ary boards of the United States to the watchfulness. self-discipline, and prayer Government lit Washington to exert its -to meet more nearly if we may the hIgh full influence in all legitimate ways to demands of our office." bring the massacres to a speedy end, and On the Relations oj Missiona1'Y Work to guard the missionary interests imto GO'Ve1'nments, the conference listened perilled thereby.* with great interest to a paper by Dr. The conference heartily approved of S. L. Baldwin, of the Methodist Epis- the plan of a simultaneous missionary copal Board (North). and heartily en- campaign proposed by Dr. J. R. Davies, dorsed the principle that Christian mis- and it was recommended that a commit- sionaries are entitled to the same pro- tee be appointed with full authority to tection that is accorded to citizens of carry out this campaign. The conferthe United 8tates and Canada in China ence closed with an evening session in who are engaged in trade or other the assembly hall of the new Presby- seenlar pursuits, and this both with terian building, when Dr. G. W. Alexrespect to personal safety a!ld as to mis- ander (Presbyterian) and Dr. Crawford sionary property. It approved also the (Methodist Episcopal) delivered ad- wise discrimination between extreme dresses on "How to Increase the Effi- views which have been advanced in ciency of Members of Missionary reference to the claims which may Boards." wisely be used by missionaries or the consular agents who represent them in A Mission Oruise in the Pacific.
cases where mob violence or other causes have led to the destruction of property We have often queried why someor injury to life or health. body did not organize a tour for the special study of missions in foreign With respect to the complaint that parts, and 10, here we have it projected by the Evangelist, of New York, which missionaries have sometimes trenched is guarantee enough that it will be wiseupon the function of the local authori- ly conceived and faithfully conducted. ties in their efforts to protect native It is a boldly projected plan to provide for the conduct of a small party on a converts, it was resolved: tour of missions bordering on and lying 1. That the conference would urge in the Pacific Ocean. The starting- point is New York, April 8th, thence upon all missions in China which it rep- across the continent, leaving San Franresents to respect the powers that be, cisco for Japan, Yokobama, Tokyo, and to avoid all appearance of forcible Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasa. measures taken in the interest of those ki, and other points; thence to China, who are lawful subjects of the Chinese Shanghai, Foochow, Hong-kong, Can- Government. ton, etc. ; thence to Singapore. Bata- 2. That while thus refraining from via, New Guinea, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, etc. The details all resort to force, the conference would of the tour and expenses are published approye of the use of all persuasive and in a prospectus, which may be obtained intercessory means to secure from the from the Evangelist, 156 Fifth Avenne, New York. We do not see how fifteen authorities fuJI justice and protection to to thirty intelligent persons can make native converts. this tour without its resulting in a fresh impetus to the missionary cause. They The following resolutions also were will not" know it all," and may fecI passed regarding Armenian sufferers .- afterward that they are only just pre- pared to begin the study of tbose mis- Whereas, The sulfering in Turkey re- sions ; but-well, we envy those who sulting from massacre and robbery, in- shall take this tour. Alaska can be in- cluded in the itinerary if desired.- volving hundreds of thousands of home- J. T. G. less and destitute women and children, is vast in amount. and is daily increas.- ing as the winter deepens. . . .
Resolved, That, in the judgment of this conference, the appeal for relief is most urgent. and lays a sacred obligation not only on every Christian, but also on every citizen of the civili.zed world.
Resolved, That we recommend to the pastors and churches of the several de- * Gifts may be sent to Frank H. Wiggin, Esq.• nominations which we represent that earnest prayer to Almighty God in be- treasurer of the American Board, 1 Somerset St. Boston, Mass., or to Messrs. Brown Brothers & half of that suffering land be made, and Company. Boston, New York or Philadelphia,
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY, BY D. L. PIERSON.
Mexico,* Central America,t West Indies,+ City Missions.S MEXICO. can press; (2) the disposition to imitate many of the good points of Protestants; In spite of the many difficulties en- (3) the increase of brotherly kindness countered in the evangelization of the and charity; (4) the increasing demand Republic of Mexico, Protestant Chris- for Bibles, and (5) the entrance or Gos- tianity is growing in extent and influ- pel truth into government schools.
ence. Twelve evangelical denomina- The g,)vernment college of Guanajualo tions have established congregations in has fo~ its motto our Saviour's …..ods, various parts of the country, and these, t< The truth shall make you free."
numbering over six hundred in all, are Thirty years ago there was no orgau- centers of light and fruitfulness; over ized evangelical church or school hOllse eight hundr-eJ pupils are in Christian in Mexico; the statistical result of day· schools, some of them of higher twenty-five years' systematic work is grade, and about twelve thousand as follows: scholars are gathered in Protestant Sab- Centers of operation, 90; c(lngrega- bath-schools; medical missions are em- tions, 615; ordained missionaries, 60; ployed to some extent, and religious assistant missionaries and wives of or- literature is circulated everywhere on dained and assistant missionaries, 60; an average of nearly twenty-seven thou- lady teachers, 67; native preachers, sand pages daily; the American Bible onlailled, 111; natil'e preachers, Ull- Saciety reports over twenty-nine thou- ordained, 164; native teachers, 177; sand copics of the Bible in whole or other native helpers, 94; grand total part sold during the year, besides thou- of foreign and native workers, 782; sands of copies given away. TlJis churches organized, 444; communi- shows that multitudes of Mexicans will cants, 17,000; probable adherents, not only read the Gospel, but will pay 50,000.
for the opportunity. But success always arouses opposition, .. The wlwle country seems to be in as was manifested in the" burning of expoetancy, waiting for the Gospel," heretics" at Taxacapo not long since.
says Dr. Sibberts, of Queretaro. The Ten Protestants were dragged from indirect influence of the work of evan- their houses, shut up in a small room, gelization is manifested (1) in the toler- and burned to death, the torch being ant and conciliatory tone of the Mexi- applied by the local constable. The reason given was that tl18 missionaries * See al.,o pp. 1,'7,208 (present issue). BooTes: had denounced the worship of .. Our U About !ttexico: Past and Present," Hannah Lady of Guadaloupe." Even many of lfI'Jre Johnson; "A Mexican Ranch," Mrs. J. ,the Romish priests are brought under the power of the Gospel, and this great- P. Dugan; H Sketches of :Mexico, '1 J. 'V. But- ly arouses the enmity of the papal ler, D.D.; "Story of Mexico," Hale. Articles: bishops and their adherents. •. 'rl.le Republic of Mexico," The Ohanfauquan (October and November, 1895). The needs of this field are many and t See also p. 186 (present issue). Books: urgent; among them llre especiaJly (be- B The Gospel in Central America." F. Crowe. sides more lIlen and money) increased Articles: .~ The ~loskito Coa~t." MOl'avian facilities for the pUblication and dis- + Periodical Accounts (December, lh95.) tribution of Christian books and papers. See H Cuha's Struggle for Freedom, " C08- and increased efforts along educational mopolitan (Oct:)bcr, 1895); H Cuba Libre," In- lines.
dependel<t (December 5). is,svu.e)f.r. Banks: § See aL;o 202 (present Elsing, H rrhe Poor in p. Great Cities," Our Jacob O. Riis, and others; "Handbook of 80- ciologicrJ lteferences for New York," V. II.
'folman. Articles:" One Way Out," CentuJ'Y, (December). CENTRAL AMERICA. The missionaries are extending their work in the face of all difficulties, and The Mo.~qlU:to Ooast is now under the the blessing of God is still manifest. control of the Nicaraguan Government. so that the Moravians carryon their THE WEST INDIES_ work under the jurisdiction of a Catholic State, fruitful in revolutions. Thus The result of the revolution in Ouba far, however, the work has not !Jeen is still uncertain. There can be no iuterrupted, since the liberal party is in doubt that the people had many causes power. The hard times are not over, to complain of Spanish oppression and and the prosperous condition of two misrule; whether or not the natives years ago has not yet been restored. are capable of self-government may be ~Iostof the Moravian stations appear to a question in the minds of many, but have suffered little by the change of they could not make matters much government, but the effects of the worse than they have been under Spanish change were soon felt. These have ad- l·ule. There is always a temptatil)n for vantages as well as disadvantages. On a country to make use of a colony " for the one hand, the new government has revenue only"-a temptation which the power to enforce as well as to enact Spain has by no means withstood. The laws-a power which the Moskito Gov- Church in Cuba is at a standstill. but ernment had not. Many Indians cared the truth is still ali ve, aud will conquer neither for la ws nor for threats of punish- in the end, benefited in thc longrun. we ment for tbeir infringement, but they doubt not, by the results of the present cannot disregard the decrees of Nica- war. The Home :Mission Board of the ragua. When the Nicaraguan official Southern Baptist Convention has concame to Ephrata for the first time, the nected with its work in Cuba 24 misfirst words he spoke were, " This place sionaries and 2698 church mcmberE. is dirty; within one week every cne must cut down the bush on his ground. Christianity in Jamaica has progress- Whoever fails to do so will be fined 1" ed steadily through the workers of the The" head man" of 1he village had told Church of Scotland, the English Bapthe Indians that many times, and had tists, the English Presbyterians, Lonthreatened them with punishment, yet don Missionary Society, Wesleyans, nobody moved a finger. Three days Free Methodists, Moravians, and after the Nicaraguan uttered the em- others. 'fhe contrast between the nephatic word" dirty," almost every man groes of this island and those in the Reand woman in the place came out, public of Hayti is a striking testimony hatchet in hand, and began to clear to the value 1)£ missions. A century away the bush. On the other hand, ago tbe two islands were equal in social the heavy duties imposed by Nicaragua and intellectual degradation, and elIorts press very severely upon the Iudians. at evangelization awakened only ricli· The import duties have doubled the price cule. In Hayti, where papal and pagan of most goods, and especially clothing, superstition have prevailed, we still and the export duties have crippled some find commercial bankruptcy, physical of the industries by which they were sq!lalor, moral rottenness, inl,eIlectual wont to earn a livelihood; but the people stagnation, and spiritual deadness. In seldom complain. We believe that God, Jamaica, on the other hand, tho thcre who loves the Indians, means this trou- are still many thousands in neeu of lhe ble for their good. Formcrly many Gospel, even a casual visitor will notice spent their time in idleness, they did not the signs of prosperity, education, and need to bestir themselves; everything reJigious life. The progress of Chriswail cheap, and consequently they would tianity in Jamai~a answers, once for all, nell work. N uw they ha va tu work hard the query. "Can the African be Christ.:J cal'll sc;.i.L!;mt to c1oi,hc themselves. tianized 2"
Brazil is at present seeking to recover TTinidad from Great DJitain. The result is not yet certain, but will not, daily devoting themselves to a life of in any great degree, effect the progress of missions in that island. The inhab- self-denial and self-sacrifice for the sake itants number abont two hundred thousand, about sixty-five thousand of of their Lord and their unsaved brothwhom are Indian coolies employed in the plantations ; there are also a small ers and sisters. But the Church should number of Chinese; all others besides the Europeans are negroes. The Mora- do still more to send out godly men and vians, Canadian Presbyterians, and others are laboring here with increasing women into the shIms, who will tear success. The Moravians also 'carryon work in Jamaica, Tobago, 'St. ,Kitts, down those vile tenements (not main- St_ Croix, :St. Thomas, St. Jan, and Antigua. tain them and grow rich by them), and * CITY MISSIONS. who will put up something better in Various people look at the city from their place. It is ten 'thousand times different standpoints. To some it is a mart of commerce; to others it is the better for the little babes to die at their seat of learning; to others it is a combination of brick and mortar, a vast mothers' breasts in many ,conditions anetwork of streets. But the city is also under which they are born, than to vast battle-field crowded with the dead and the dying; it is a storm-swept grow up to have their lives blasted by sea, throwing multitudes of immortal souls into the breakers of the life be· the flames of lust and passion, and be yond the grave; it is a vortex in which human hopes and peace and joy, and damned for time and for eternity. everything else that men love and hold dear, are being swallowed and swept The Church needs to have a larger away_ The modern city, multiplying itself so rapidly, and with its congested knowledge of existing conditions. damnable conditions, is to-day, in some respects, one of the greatest foes of the Many of God's people find their city Christian home and civilization, and unless we master the problems which life limited to the avenues of fine resiit offers, and regulate it according to the principles of the Gospel, it will dences and magnificent business estabsooner or later overwhelm us with a ruin darker and deeper than ever came lishments; they know nothing of the to the Roman Empire. vast districts where sin and shame and But in the midst of our modern city we have something which the ancient sorrow are a thousand times more comcities of the forgotten empires never had, and that is the Church of the Lord mon than righteousness and joy and Jesus. The Church of Christ stands to-day in the midst of the city, and peace. Unless we come face to face pours out a consecrated stream of godly men and of devout women, who are with the existing conditions, sooner or * The substance of an address by Rev. Dr. later the unchurched masses will rise John R. Davies. up ; God alone can foretell the result.
The Church of Christ needs better organization for city mission work_ Our evangelical churches are for this reason overlapping each other in their efforts to reach the ma.sses. One mis- sion works for years a few doors from where another magnificent mission plant is being built, tho there are other crowded districts where no one is work- ing. There is much to be done, and we need to exercise wise discrimination. This need would be met if all those who believe in the simplest essentials of Christianity should form a vast confed- eracy and portion out the entire city, placing men, women, and money where they are most needed, as they are guid- ed by Divine grace and wisdom.
The Church also needs a larger ap- preciation of and enjoyment of the pres- ence of the Holy Ghost. Look at the Church's machinery for this work- wealth, intelligence, numbers, experi- ence, and power. But we need the fill- ing of the Holy Ghost, so that all this vast machinery may move with one purpose and with almighty power.
The city contains the possibilities for almost unlimited evil, and also for boundless good.
EDITORIAl. DEPARTMENT. 21'7
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
MarQh of Events. has so long derived a revenue. Italy carries on a desultory warfare in Abys- The great student missionary conven· sinia, and Russia is said to be massing tion at Liverpool (January 1st-5th) has troops on the Korean frontier, and to now passed into history. but the influ- have entered into an offensive and deence exerted upon those privileged to fensive alliance with Turkey-in fact, be present snd upon the whole world there is scarcely a nation of the earth cannot but be deep and lasting. On which is not either threatened with war another page of this issue of the REVIEW or which has not recently been engaged will be found a careful "bird's-eye in one. What blessed results might not view" of this notable gathering, to be be expected if earth's rulers were only followed in a subsequent issue by as zealous to care for the interests of the " choice nuggets" from the addresses kingdom of heaven as tbeyare to main· by the world-renowned speakers who tain their own honor and extend their were there present.-D. L. P. own possessions I-D. L. P.
Another convention of great interest Armenia's cry still goes up to God, and importance-that of the Representa- the Turk still carries on his bloody tives of the Mission Boards of the United work, the rulers of Europe still delay States and Canada-was held in New to force the Sultan to terms, and Chris- York, January 15th and 16th. A par- tians are very, very tardy in contributtial report of its proceedings will be ing the necessary funds to relieve the found on page 210 of this issue. suffering brothers. Miss Barton has started for Armenia to institute the reo While the Student Volunteers of the lief work under the direction of the world and the Mission Boards of Amer- Red Cross Society, tho the Sultan reica have been in session to confer as to fuses to recognize that Order as such. the best means of extending the spir- Every day's delay meanS untold sufferitual kingdom of Christ on earth, the ing to 350,000 destitute Armenians in nations of the world have seemed on the dead of winter. "Inasmuch as yo the verge of becoming embroiled in did it not unto one of the least of these bloody strife to maintain or extend My brethren, ye did it not to Me." their own selfish temporal interests. England, in addition to the trouble Resolutions have recently been passed with the United States and Venezuela in the United States Senate urging the over the Venezuelan boundary, has been Powers to stop the outrages, and promthreatened with war with Germany on ising to support President Cleveland in account of Jamieson's raid in the Trans- the most vigorous action he may take. vaal, and has sent an expedition to bring the King of Ashantee to terms-an ex- Rev. Thomas L. Gulick writes that pedition not involving a battIe, but cost- Senor Ximenes, whom F. Hopkinson ing the life of Queen Victoria's son-in- Smith, one of the few Americans who law, Prince Henry of Battenberg. Bra- seek to excuse the Sultan and his zil and the Argentine Republlc also wish butchers, gives as his authority for the to settle accounts with Great Britain by statement that missionaries" sow seeds demanding the restitution of Trinidad of rebellion," is "a man without charand the Falldand Islands. Spain still acter and utterly untrustworthy, and spends men and money in seeking to lived by swindling." Mr. Gulick says: suppress the Cubans, from whom she " I am credibly informed that Senor Ximenes obtained photographs of the frightful effects of the Sassoun massacres, but wag induced by the Turks bad and partly destroyed other villages. by potent considerations to suppress Three hundred persons perisbed in the the photographs, and to become the several villages. On the following Sunadvocate of the Turks against their day there was another and severe shock, which destroyed the small town of Goi, victims." and did great damage in many of the villages in the district affected. Eight How are we to view the following hundred persons are said to have been "Official Declaration of the Sublime killed in Goi alone. Large numbers of Porte [publisbed in the REVIEW for cattle and sheep perished. September, 1894], relinquishing the practice of Executions for Apostasy," Intelligence reaches us from Lima, in the light of tIle recent massacres? Peru, that the mayor of San Miguel a few w('eks since seizerl and burned in (TRANSLATION.) the public square of that city all the Bibles and stock of the local agent of .. It is the Apccial and constant inten- the American Bible Society. There is tion of His Highness the Sultan that bitler opposition in Peru t:J the distribu his cordial relations with the High lion of Protestant Bibles. They have Powers be preserved, and that a perfect been burned there before, and only two reciprocal friendship be maintained and years ago the Bible Society'S agent was increased. imprisoned several months for no other offense than distributing Bibles. It " • THE SUBLIME PORTE ENGAGES TO only shows what fanaticism is capable TAKE EFFECTUAL MEASURES 'ro PRE- of in a country dominated by the Ro- VENT THENCEFORWARD THE EXECU- man hierarchy, and that the spirit of TION AND PUTTING TO DEATH OF THE the papacy is the same that was mani- ()HRISTIAN WHO IS AN APOSTATE . fested in the days of the Inquisition. The cause of Rome is weakened rather .. • March 21, 1844.' than strengthened by making fuel of God's Holy Word. .. To this must be added the following declaration of His Highness the Sultan to Sir Stratford Canning, at his audience on March 22d, 1844 : " • Henceforward neither shall Christianity be insulted in my dominions nor shall Christians be in any way persecuted for their religion.' "
We acknowledge the sum of $10 re- Gtah was proclaimed a State on Janceived from J_ H. Beck, of Waynes- uary 4th. Christians are anxiously burg, and forward to the relief of the watching the result. The laws pro- Armenian sufferers. What is to be hibit polygamy, the Mormon Church done to feed and clotbe these starving has for the time suspended the ordiand destitute fellow-Christians must be nance for plural marriages. Will the done immediately / every day's delay laws of the State, which are against the means untold suffering to thousands of laws of~the Church, be enforced? men, women, and children; before the winter is passed thousands will have Commander Ballington Booth and perished unless immediately relieved. hie wife have been recalled to London Contriblltions !lent to the editors of the from tl.e command of the Salvation REVIEW will be immediately forwarded A.rmy in the Uniteu States. No official to the relief committee.-D. L. P. reasons have yet been given. Com- mander Booth has had charge of the News comes from Persia of two Stl- Army here for nine years, and has built vere earthquakes, causing the loss of it up from a struggling, fanatical band 1100 lives in the Khalkhal district. of people to the great body of religious 'rIle first shuck, which was experienced workers that now commands respecton January 2.1, was severe. It com- ful consideration all over the United pletely destroyed the village of Zanza- States. Mrs. Booth is a ,refined and intplligCllt lady, whose influence iu the At present the laws of Japan l'rol,ibit greu.t work achieved in this country has the 'owning or leasing of real estate by not been surpassed even by hei' hus- foreignprs except in the treaty ports band. They have come in personal (the revised treaty becomes operative in touch with the members of the Army, 1900)_ In consequence of tbis, all sllch property purchased by the different and with many persons not identified boards has been held in the name of with the organization. They 1Iave so Japanese_ With two exceptions no loss endeared themselves to all that uni ver- has been suffered through mi.placed confidence. This arrangement WH,S satsal regret will be expressed over their isfactory to all parties until the political departure. campaign of 1893, when one of the party issues related to a more atrict €Ilforct)· Report of the Deputation to Jrtpan.* ment of the treaties. Tbe holders of mission property were denounced as After an absence from home of about lacking in patriotism, thus being caused four months (August-December, 18ilG), cOIlfiiderable )neasine~s. The introducth2 Deputation sent out to Japun by the tion in the Imperial Diet of a bill im- po,ing severe penalties npon Japanese Prudential Committee of the American holding real estate for foreigners so ex- Board has snbmitted its report as to the cited those who held the property for conditions of the missions to that em- the Board, that they appealed to the mis- sionaries to be relieved of it. The mispire. and the policy to be pursueu in sion authorized the transfer of tne propthe future relations between foreign erty outside the treaty ports (except and native workers. The Deputation that in Kyoto, MatsllYllma, Osaka, and consisted of Rev. James L. Barton, Kumamoto) to the trustees of the D.D., of the American Board; :Hon. Doshisha for the endoViment of a theo- William P. Ellison, of the Prudential logical department. CaDc€l'ning this Committee; Rev. James G. Johnson, property there is no misunderstanding. D.D.. of Chicago; and Rey. A. H. The Board also has purehused at vari· Bradford, D.D., of Montclair. We ous times lots of land in Kyoto upon hope to givc further consideration to which it has built nine hOIlSES for the the report in a subsequent issue of the use of its missionaries. Afler the Doshi- REVIEW, but at present can notice only sha Company was organized. all of this a few of its salient features. D. L. P. property was transferred to the trustees. Concerning this property there is a seri- The points of investigation pertained OilS misunderstanding. the Board beespecially to the tenure of property. the lieving that it was given for the use of condition and managemf'llt of Doshisha missionaries, and the trustees claiming University, and other institutions in that it was for the" foreign teachers." which the Board is interested, and the Altho there were many conferences, no best methods for the further prosecu- result was reached, and the deputation tion of evangelistic and educational left the Whole matter to the honor of work, together with plans for coopera- the truRtees_ tion with the Japimese. The report is, in part, as follows: Becllllse of the peculiar conditions in Kyoto making medical 'Wol'k DO longu Interviews were accorded by the Sec- essential, the Deputntion was not a,hle to retary of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary advise the return of Dr. Berry to Japan, of Education, and by various eminent altho it fully recognized the unique S('reditors, edueators, professors, and mis- vice which he had rendered in the pa~t. sionaries of different boards; prolonged conferences were also held with 154 Jap- There was marked concurrence in tbe anese. The Deputation visited nearly opinion that a change had talu'n place all the missif)t1 stations of the American in the theological attitude oj the ])osltisha, Board in Japan and of many other b'larus_ The subject of missions in and that in its Christian character and Japan was never before studied so thor- spiritual tone it was far less posHi ve oughly ; in ·making its report the Depu- than formerly. The Deputatbn was tation was unanimous. especially impressed with the unusual way in which the trustees used the word * The full text of this report may be seen in " Christianity," which in the Constitu· tion of the Doshisha defines the char' the Independent for January 30, 1896. acter of the institulion. The clause reo ferred to is: "Christianity is the foun- dation of the moral edncation promoted by this company_" It was asked if they would affirm as among the beliefs for which the Doshisha stood in Japan. 1896 is paid, the sum given by the the personality of God, the divinity of Board be reduced annually. so as to Christ, and the future life. They de· cease at the end of the year 1898.
clared that as individuals they could Mission work in Japan, to be efficient affirm their acceptance of those beliefs; must be adjusted to the changes whicl; as trustees they could not, since differ- are there taking place. In a land where ences existed among Christians, and schools are provided for all; where dis- they must not ally themselves with any pensaries, hospitals, and trained nurses party_ 'fhey declined to accept the are provided, either by the State or by creed of the Kumi-ai churches in defini- individual enterprise; where even Chris- tion of the word "Christian," saying tians are only a quarter of a century that they would thus identify them- from the Buddhism, Shintoi~m, and selves with a single denomination. Confucianism of their ancestors, the When urged t:> make some statement, missionary problem is serious and com- however brief, of what they meant by plicated; the wonder is that divergence " Christianity," they said that, having from the traditions of Christendom is declared their purpose to maintain a not greater. The question forccd upon Christian institution, they should be us by our investigations is not, How trusted so to do_ They said that theo- may the American Board withdraw its logical opinion in Japan was in a forma- missionaries from Japan? but, How tive state, and beliefs were unsettled; may it help them to work more wisely that it would be disastrous to them to and efficiently? That can be best ac- act now under appearance of compul- complished not by an increase of the sion, therefore they could make no state- resident missionary force, but by certain ment except that they should maintain changes in methods. Therefore we a Christian university. They said that recommend that the number of mis- tho some professors in the university sionaries in the service of the American were not Christians, effort would be Board in Japan be not increased at pres- maLie as changes occurred to secure such ent. The time has come for a slight professors only as would be in harmony change in the method of conducting the with the Christian spirit of the institu- work. The opportunity before Chris- tion. Careful inquiry showed but a tians and preachers who are not only small number of pastors in the Kumi-ai consecrated, but also learned and wise, churches who held agnostic position in was never more inviting, and we believe regard to the fundamental truths of that the people were never more willing Christianity, concerning which the to recei ve them. Evangelistic work can Doshi.~ha trustees were unwilling to be better done by the Japanese, but the speak. The Doshisha is a Japanese in- training can better be gi ven by profes- stitution, and its trustees must be, under sors and pastors from abroad. What is the laws of the empire, citizens of now most required is instruction in Japan. While most of the money for apologetics and the philosophy of Chris- its erection and maintenance has come tianity. and direct aid in evangelistic from America, it has not failed to h9ve work by those whose position in the support from the Japanese. In the ris- Church and among scholars will secure ing of the national spirit there has come for them the respectful cousideration of sensitiveness on the part of many in the men who must be the Christian close relations to the university lest it leaders in Japan during the next gen- should seem too much controlled by eration. We therefore recommend that foreign influence. The Bible has place the Prudential Committee send annu- in the curricul um ; professors amI stu· ally to Japan men of established ability dents are required to attend daily ser- and reputation to speak on various sub- vice; the president preaches evangelical jects in furtherance of missionary work, and fervent discourses; the trustees and that in this plan they endeavor to pledge themselves that, should the secure the cooperation of other mission· Doshisba cease to be a Christian insti- ary societies.
tution, the property shall be sold and Your Deputation has found a desire the proceeds returned to the donors. for a more scholarly Christian literat1lre The Deputation recommend: (1) That than is now within the reach of those· the teachers supplied by the Board be who read only the vernacular. Other continued, if desired by the trustees; religious bodies, Budahists, etc., are (2) that while the men sent by the Board flooding the empire with cheap books are connected with the theological de- in favor of their religions. As one way partment, our cooperation with the of meeting this demand, the mission has Doshisha in the training of pastors and already taken steps for starting a Reevangelists be continued; (3) that, after view in the vernacular, which shall aim the reduced appropriation for the year to provide the best results of modern Christian scholarship. We approve this been done since 1871. The non:Chrisaction, and recommend that the project tian leaders in Japan now recognize the be financially aided by the Board. worth and power of the Christian char" (Jooperation between the mission and acter, and honor the true Christian life. the Kumi-ai churches, your deputation The missionary is now free to go at will is of the opinion, is desirable. Pastors into all parts of the empire. The Bible whose radical views in theology make and Christian literatulc have free cir- fellowship ditlicdt are exceptions, and culation. The prisons are open for the they should not be allowed to disturb Christian evangelist. Christian teach.
the fraternal relations between the mis- ers are in many of the Government sion and the churches. Churches schools. Persecution is a thing of the should still be organized according to past except as it occasionally appears in the usage of the Kumi-ai body. If the disguise. Christianity has already put church becomes self-supporting, the mis- its stamp upon the laws of society, of sionary will have no l'elation to it ex- the army, and of the State, and is mak- cept that of love and fellowship; but ing itself felt in literature and forms of if the church expects :hom the Board thought. Nevertheless, we must bear financial assistance, then the missiona- in mind the fact that, compared with the ries must take measures to satisfy the entire population, the number of Chris· Board that the money given by it is not tians is small. Including those con- used to aid or to support those who are nected with the Greek and Catholic not evangelical. On self-8upport, the churches, the highest number claiming Deputation recommend that the mission the Christian name is less than one plan to reduce its expenditures for evan- fourth of one per cent. of the Japanese gelistic work as rapidly as is consistent people. Even the best of these have with the success of the missionary cause. only a few years of Christian experience We suggest that those regions where and training. Under these circum- there are strong Kumi-ai churches be stances the marvel is that Christianity left as far as possible to the care of those has been able not only to maintain itself churches, and that the mission devote during these Jater years which mark the its attention to the more remote and less rise of the new national and intellectual spirit, but also to make signal progress. developed localities. It is now a generally accepted princi- The time has not yet come, and for ple that the evangelization of any land many years may not come, to leave the should. so far as possible. be committed evangelization of the empire to the Japto the hands of native Christians. 'fhis anese churches. Of the ninety-nine is peculiarly true in Japan. In so. far Kumi-ai churches and provisional as practicable, we urge conference with churches, only thirty-nine are self-supthe Home Missionary Society of the porting. All are young; some have a Kumi-ai churches (which is entirely in- small membership.
dependent of the Board) as to the best The members of the Deputation feel that such visits as they have made to places for beginning new work. The condition of the Kumi-ai churches Japan ought often to be made to the and of the missionary service in Japan various mission fields, both for the sake on the whole is very encouraging. The of the missionaries and still more for the abnormal movement of multitudes tow- sake of those cbarged with the duty of ard Christianity has given place to a carrying on the work. The problems slow and healthy growth. The churches of missionary policy in almost all lands are not so well attended as formerly, are so complicated that study on the but those who do attend are more faith- ground alone can give promise of satisful and are developing a stronger faith factory solution. Therefore we unite in suggesting that occasional visits be and doing better work. Concerning education, it advised that made to the various missions of the the attention of missionaries should Board by the secretary and members of rather be directed toward evangelistic the Prudential Committee, and by such than educational effort. The educational pastors and laymen as may be selected, system of Japan is excellent, and reaches in order that the Board may better understand their responsibilities, and into nearly all parts of the empire. While Japan is a smail country in that the churches may better appreciate area, yet when we regard its popUlation the difficulty of the service committed of more than forty_one millions, with to their representatives in foreign lands.
its political, social, and religious impor- tance in relation to the problems of the Far East, it is of the utmost moment Rev. Nathaniel G. Clark, D.D., that we give to this nation careful consideration. Christianity entered in 1859. LL.D., who until the fall of 1894 was but the most of the work in Japan bas Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Society for the Suppression of Vice, died at his home in West Rox bury, reports as a token of the efficiency of Mass., on January 3d. Dr. Clark was the society for 1895, 2044 arrests, 19 born in 1825, and for twenty·nine years tons of gambling paraphernalia seized, worthily filled the office of Correspond- and 47 tons of obscene matter destroyed.
ing Secretary of America's oldest for- It is well·nigh appalling to discover eign missionary society. He was re- how much of this moral filth is cap- markable for the beauty and symmetry tured ; it might be still more appalling of his character, for his rare executive to know how much is now in circula- ability, and for the breadth of view and tion or on the market.
the foresight which he displayed. His entire consecration, strong faith, and Mr. S. H. Hadley has been the Super- great practical wisdom rendered him intendent of the Jerry llcAuley Water an invalnable counsellor in anyemer- Street Mission for nearly ten years.
gency ; the impulse which he gave to This good old mission was the first dis- the cause of missions will long survive tinctive rescue mission in the world, him,:and make his memory precious for and from it have sprung hundreds of generations to come. other soul-saving works which are now established in many parts of Amer- As a result of the report of the com- ica and in foreign lands. Its op- mission of investigation of the Kucheng portunity for usefulness was never ma~sacres, 26 were executed for murder, greater than now, and yet it is in sore 17 banished for life, 5 imprisoned for need of funds to carryon its noble work life, 27 banished for ten years, 5 impris. of saving men's souls, redeeming their oned for five years, 5 chained to a stone bodies from the curse of rum and for three years, and 5 for six months, 2 vicious habits, and helpiug them to lead placed in a canguc for two months. In a noble and useful life. The miracles all, 92 persons were punished; only of grace which have been witnesed in those actually proved gnilty were sen- that old Water Street Mission have set tenced. Mr. Banister (C. M. S.) says that God's stamp of approval on the work, we may learn the following lessons from and should call forth unceasing funds the experiences of the commission in for the work. Mr. Hadley is ready to Kucheng: respond to invitations of pastors and 1. That any future commission which others to hold evangelistic and rescue may be appointeflshould have full pow- meetings in any of the larger cities and ers and explicit instructions. 2. That the towns, where he will relate his own Chinese authoril.ies should appoint a wonderful experience, and will tell of special commissioner with full powers, the transformations wrought in that without reference to the local officials. dark quarter of New York. No sub- 3. That there should be some tangible ject is of greater interest or more imevidence of the serious local results fol- portance than this work of rescuing lowing refusal of immediate justice, or moral outcasts. The work calls for of duplicity on the part of the local offi- your prayers and your gifts. Mr. Hadcials. 4. That it is possible for the ley may be addressed at 316 Water Chin{)se authorities to discover and Street, New York City. D. L. P. promptly apprehend the real offenders iu any outrage on foreigners in whatever part of China it may take place.
" Please remember this great Honan Rev. D. M. Stearns haa shown an inplain in prayer, with its 8,000,000 and terest in foreign missions as well as in 62 chief cities, all unreached by the Bible study which might well be imi- Gospel"-so writes Howard Taylor, tated by all the Ohristian pastors of the from China. world. His report of the collections made and distributed through him tl) Anthony Comstock, of the New York missionary fields shows a total of $19,- 094.18 for the past year, and a grand The American Tract Society issues total of $55.868 for the past seven years. " The Islands of the Pacific," by Rev.
The contributions have come for the James M. Alexander. It claims to be- most part from his own church in Ger- what it is-a compendious sketch of mantown, and from the members of his missions in the Pacific. It traces the Bible classes in various cities. history and development of these mis- The Student Volunteer Fund has reo sions from their origin on, and ends ceived contributions from Rev. J. 1. Seder, of .Tapan ($5), Mrs. McEwen, of It- with the "glance at the future of the Paaly ($50), and Mr. Charles T. Riggs, of Constantinople-himself a student vol- cific Ocean_ Its maps and illustrations unteer-($10). If friends in foreign lands recognize the call to enable needy are of a high order, and of themselves student volunteers to ;keep pace with the problems and progress of mission- constitute a marked attraction. It is ary enterprise. should there not be more response from Christians at home? The worth while to have in one comprehen- Volunteer Fund is very much in arrears, and the publishers of the REVIEW are sive but not too bulky volume such a in danger of being compelled to limit their offer of the REVIEW at a nominal story of a triumphal march of missions_ price to volunteers, owing to the growing debit to the account of the Volun· He who reads this book will feel as teer Fund. never before that the Isles have waited Rev. Henry Stout, D.O., has returned to his native State, New Jersey, for God's law. A. T. P. after twenty-seven years' absence as missionary in Japan, under the aus· Few books on the subject of missionpices of the (Dutch) Reformed Church. ary policy show greater imight into the present-day problems in the mission field, or more consecrated wisdom as 10 how they are to be dealt with, than Dr. John L. Nevius' " Methods of Mis- sion Work," * the first edition of which was printed from the Ohinese Recorder ten years ago. Dr. Nevius was a man with a genius for missions, and possessed the rare combination of good judgment, firm convictions, anu courteous defer- Publications Noticed. ence to the opinions of others. The Among recent issues of the press, METHODS set forth in this little book are F. H. Revell Company have added to their already comprehensive list, " Nad- " flexible, and so wise and discriminatya, a Tale of the Steppes," by Oliver lI:I:. Norris, which will be very interest- ing," as the PresbyterianBoard says in its ing to those who wish a glimpse of Hussian life, and especially of the Stundists, introductory note, ., that the spirit of tho who are to Russia what the Moravians have been to Bohemia and Saxony. method is clearly evidenced as the meth- The same publishers have issued" Parsian Life and Customs," by Rev. S. G. od itself. It removes one wholly from "Wilson, M.A., whose fifteen years' service in the land of Esther fits him to the spirit of dealing with hirelings to one write with intelligence and appreciation of this country and its people, of which of blessed privilege of working with so little comparatively is known. The book is a valuable addition to our mis- brethren in the Lord for the glory of sionary literature. It contains a condensed account of modern missions, God as supreme." The book discusses, briefly epitomized within some twenty- among olher things, how to deal with new convcrts, begiuning wOlk, and the founding and governing of out-sta- tions, illustrated by his own work in Central Shantung. The appreciation of the :Methodist and Presbyterian boards (North and South) is evidenced by the fact that they have sellt copies of the book to all their missionaries in the field.' D. L. P.
three pages, which will be especially • Published by the Presbyterian Board, 156 helpful to students of missions. Fifth Avenue, N. Y.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign thew's, Melbourne, Victoria, has re- Periodicals. signed his charge in order to go to Per- BY REV. O. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, sia, as Bishop Stuart, of New Zealand MASS. lately resigned his diocese for thc sam; purpose. "Naturally enough many UNITAS FRATRUM. doubts and questionings prevailed in -The Moravian missionaries in Lab- Melbourne at first regarding such a rador gave no encouragement to the project. Mr. Blackett's own congre- scheme of transporting Eskimos to the g~tion were aghast; but after hearing Chicago World's Fair. They have hIS assurances that God's call had come been sadly justified by the result. The to him, they rallied round him in warm returning wanderers brought back with sympathy, and Ii remarkable farewell them a contagious sickness, apparently gathering took place in the spacious typhus, which has already carried off Sunday-school buildings of the parish, at Nain, the mother station, 88 persons. when 900 persons were present, and To tthhiastisthaeddmedisaerfyaiilsuraepipnatlhlienfgis,hearlitehs~ Archdeacon Henry Langley, his predso ecessor in the incumbency, presided.
the brethren are doing their best to Subsequently a still more imposing mitigate it by large distributions of meeting, attended by two or three thou- food. sand people, was held in the splendid " And how does our congregation re- town hall of Melbourne. The new ceive this visitation? It humbles itself dean, Dr. Vance, presided, and spoke under God's hand, and thankfully ac" out vigorously. • Some,' heconsdauicd~ • might call Mr. Blackett's cepts the chastening. At no one death- quixotic, and say that he was sacrificbed have I heard a word of murmur- ing service to sentiment, and a higher ing against the Divine leading. They duty to a lower; but the whole history are resigned to God's will; indeed, of the Church and the evangelization many thank God for the sufferings He of heathen nations gave a refutation to has laid upon them. "-Rev. ALBERT that idea. The men who had shown MARTIN. in Mission8-Blatt. the fervor and the faith to make im- Mr. Martin's own little boy llernard pressions upon the heathen and Mohamwas also called away. "He was so medan populations were bound to be patient in his suffering, so thankful for men of special ability and mark-the every little loving attention, which, very men who, if they had remained at alas! how glad we were to show him home, would have probably won for and he exhibited even to the last mo: themselves front places in the Church ment in a touching manner his love and and in the world; of such men Mr. attachment to us. During the Christ- Blackett was one."-Ohurch Mi8sionmas festivities he was still particularly a1'Y Gleaner. joyous, as If, as it now appears to us in the retrospect, already a foregleam of MISCELLANEOUS.
the heavenly glory illuminated his -" There is at present a great temp- tation to an extension of the missionary whole being. 0 Lord, Thou hadst commission, confusing it either with a • purely external ecclesiasticizing of the given him to us, Thou hast taken him masses or with a mere civilizing of them. While the Roman Catholic misfrom us, Thy name be blessed !" sions stand inextricably under the ban PERSIA.
-The Rev. A. B. BLACKETT, rector of the important parish of St. Mat-
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
of the drst of these dangers, the latter the early Jesuits. And we have no to-day threatens the Christian missions reason to doubt that their first purpose of all confessions. If the diffusion of in secluding themselves with their Ind- • Christian culture' is stamped with ian converts in Paraguay was that of the dignity of the missionary commis- protecting these against the cruelties sion, missions come into danger of their and the corrupting influence of the very life, for their religious end is adul- whites; but once established in Para· terated thereby, and a foreigu element guay, and endowed by Spain with regal substituted. Doubtless Christian cul- prerogatives over the natives, the essenture is a self-evident result of the Chris- tial vices of the Jesuit institution could tian work of cbnversion; but if this re- not fail to unfold themselves. It is sult of missions were substituted for true, the accusation that the Jesuit con· their proper end, this would signify the stitutions authorize a superior to comsubstitution of a secular purpose for a mand an inferior to sin is a gross calpurpose of the kingdom of God. Such umny, originating in an ignorant misan impulse to the secularization of mis- interpretation of a phrase which is sions is rife in the present, and has re- shown by that learned enemy of the ceived new nourishment, especially Jesuits, Dr. Steitz, to have throughout through the economical interests and all ages of Catholic theology one uni· national jealousies of the most recent form sense-namely, " to bind to obedicolonial policy, and it has recalled into ence under penalty of sin." The Jesuit life a medireval misuse of missions for rule expressly reserves to every memo the ends of the temporal powers. In ber the right" to refuse to sin." Nevview of this danger, which threatens ertheless, the whole effect of the Instithe innermost life of Christian missions, tute is to develop most portentously the the present time above all stands in the instinct of domination, of the highest most pressing need of a clear exposition over the higher, of the higher over the of the religious character and ends of lower, of the lower over the lowest. A missions."-Dr. WARNECK, in Evan- necessary result of this is the instinct gelische Missionslehre. of suppressing intelligence in inferiors, and of reducing Christianity itself as -" Missions have not the primary nearly to a mechanism as is possible. purpose of civilizing the barbarous It is no wonder, then, that Dr. PFOTENpeoples. Whatever goou is implied in HAUER, quoted in the Zeitschrift fur culture, missions may very well make Missionskunde, is able to show, by the serviceable to themselves, but they will amplest documentary evidence, how never confuse their proper end with a well justified was the unfavorable judgsimple result of their labor. . .. All ment finally formed by Spain and also the splendor of culture is too weak to by Rome concerning the Paraguay Misblind their eyes."-P. E. STEIN, quoted sions. Spain and Rome were little in Zeitschrift fur Mis8ionskunde. likely to be scandalized by an excess of ceremonialism, but they were scandal- -" Missions, above everything, are ized by Jesuit rebelliousness, and by appointed to follow God's ways, which the extreme harshness of the Fathers are very often indeed ways of long ex- toward the Indians. Benedict XIV. pectation. "-ibid. tried reform, but as this proved ineffect- ual, Spain tried abolition of the mis- -It would be unreasonable aud un- sion, and finally Clement XIV. tried just to judge all Jesuits by one stand- abolition of the order. There was ard, or all Jesuit missions, or the much gained and nothing lost. .. Un- Jesuit missions of all ages. The En- der all the speciousness of outward' cyclopllJdia Britannica says that the guise there was concealed in Paraguay Brazilian nationality owes its very ex- an abysmal emptiness. Not a trace of istence to the awakening influence of
G1l:NERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
inward apprehension of Christianity, of really so, it becomes us to bow in deep the worship of God in spirit and in humility, and to exclaim, 'Not unto truth, everything only a performance us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy of eeremonil'l externalities, not a trace Name be the glory.' If in the guidof instruction aiming at the winning of ance of our society we are firmly persouls, nothing but crossings, chattering suaded of one tlting, it is of this, that of catechisms, genuliexions, repetition such a blessing of God is a wholly unof rosaries, not a trace of labor aiming merited one; but we will therefore be at moral de-velopment, or at the awak· all the mOle thankful,"-Bericltte der ening of self·confidence and personal Rlteinisc7.en MisBions-Gesellscltajt. activity, nothing but idle imitation: the inferiority of the natives-relig- -" Before there were German coloiously, morally, economically -most nies it was a matter of course with every rigidly maintained, so that the absolute German missionary that in taking leave authority of the Jesuit Fathers might of his home he must also, in a certain remain uninfringed. The whole work measure, take leave of his own Germanof the Fathers not imbued with the ism, of his national habits of feeling, of pure spirit of ministering love, but la- all manner of inherited and dashing boring unweariedly and in the falness views and customs, in order to become . of holy earnestness on the souls and all things to all men. Moreover, it was hearts of other men. What a harsh- universally accepted, as a peculiar adness of temper, when the Fathers speak vantage, that the German missionary In of the natives as • wild beasts, for all English, Dutch, or Danish colonies was the world like monkeys,' , mere stupid free from all suspicion of coming with cattle, forest demons,' 'a horde of political ulterior views. Now this bedirty, mast·fed swine rather than a rout gins to be treated as an antiquated poof reasonable men'! What a frivo· sition, and men begin to insist emphati. lous, indeed criminal apprehension of cally that missions must bear a national the missionary work enjoined by the character. German missions in German Lord, when the natives were heaped colonies, that is the only sound state of with presents and provisions, with the things, they will have it, We fear that remark that' the way to the heart only there is a great danger involved in this. goes through the mouth,' and when This easily brings the missionary into a accommodation to heathen religions hybrid position, prejudicial to hisactlvwas carried so far that a Jesuit says a ity as a herald of the kingdom of God Christian mass in the morning, and in and as a witness of Jesus Christ. Things the afternoon a mass for the old gods secular and spiritual, national and Chrisof the land." The Jesuit accommoda- tian, are thus confused, and finally Gertions to heatbenism in China, for which manism comes in the place of Christian- Rome inexorably broke up their mis- ity. It is our duty to testify against sions, were nothing to this. this tendency, and to emphasize the in- ternational character of all evangelical -The Papuans of New Guinea, it is mission work. We rejoice that, for insaid in the Berieltte de1' Rlteinioelten stance, the Bremen missionary inspector, Miaaiom·Gesellacltajt, are distinguished ZAHN, has done this again and again. by a peculiar depth of feeling, and a This alone would have merited his late relatively high morality. This renders honor .of Doctor of Theology, for it is a the work among them much more hope- fundamental character oftrue theology to ful. distinguish, with Luther and with Paul, between too kingdom of the world and -" It hM been occasionally said to the kingdom of God, and to take Christ's us of late, that our Rhenish missions word in earnest: 'Render to Cresar the are at this present the most richly bless- things that are Cresar's, and to God the ed among those of GerlP..:1uy. If this is
ENGLISH NOTES
things that are God's.' "-Calwer ~lfi8· not what it ought to be. Even if some aionsblatt. Christians had theological doubts, this should not prevent them working We observe that this excellent sheet heartily for the benefit of humanity. does not flare up and accuse those of Then some said of the heathen: • These hating German missions and of being are in the hands of a merciful God.' no Christians who venture, after German So were passengers and sailors on a sources, to represent that in Germany, sinking ship; so were the sick; so as well as elsewhere, there are those who were our children; but this did not wish to make missions a servile hand- prevent us from taking such steps as maid to ambition and commerce. In our natural feelings called for. Some, Germany, a1l elsewhere. the true friends again, objected to missions because they of missions set themsel ves against this had (so it was said) inculcated the dread elIect, and there, as elsewhere, they of eternal torment. He did not think have abundant occasion to do so. this was so. He did not find it in the early records; and the founders of this -" Rev. E. P. RICE, B.A., Chik society were not narrow, but broad· Ballapur, South India, said his only minded men. Contending, in answer reason for being a missionary was that to recent criticisms, that it was no more he was a Christian. The two things unreasonable to correct the erroneous lay very close together ; and he could beliefs of the heathen than their crude not understand a consistent Christian views of geography and other things, who was not a missionary at heart. If Mr. Rice closed by saying: 'In our it could be proved that Jesus Christ preaching place at Chik Ballapur, we never spoke the words, ' Go ye into all have inscribed on the wall, " One God the world,' the injunction would still for all mankind; one Savior for every remain both in the Commandments and sinner; one brotherhood to all races; the Lord's Prayer. We could not do one law of duty for every man." This our duty to God and our neighbor if we continually asseverate. What we we neglected missionary work, and we preach is not only a white man's re- could not consistently pray. ' Thy king- ligion ; it is a universal truth, and it is dom come,' if we failed to put forth adapted to all ages and all time.'''- our utmost elIort to promote its advent. The Chronicle. We were called upon to give to the world our best, and our best was our -Dr. Glover (in The Chronicle) hopes knowledge of Jesus Christ. This was that Great Britain will not go to war to the best thing in our li ves. We could avenge the death of any missionary. part with our wealth, our health, our Fill up the gaps. friends, and our reputation; but so . long as we had God for our loving English Notes. Father, guiding our lives, we had the secret of eternal peace; and we should BY JAMES DOUGLAS. no more be able to keep silent about this than we could stifle a sweet per- Baptist Missiona'I"JI Soeiety. MU8soorie, fume by placing the hand over it. We India.-The Rev. Thomas Evans, in re- should manifest the love abroad as well porting the baptism of several soldiers, as at home, because the brotherhood to tells also of the baptism of one named which Christ calls us is a world·wide Sobha Sing. who is a native of Tibet, brotherhood. Britain had a world·wide and who has a great desire to be the empire, and had now to show itself first to open up that dark land so long worthy of it. If they considered the barred against the heralds of the cr05S. relative population and needs at home He is described as a man full of energy, and among the heathen, they would and as having no fear of man or the see that the proportion of workers was want of means. At present he is a
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
zemindar in Tizhoot, but is going to palling. Kuti, a native catechist, says; devote himself entirely to the Lord's " Gin has invaded the country, and is work. He has great hopes of being al- determined to ruin and desolate it, if not lowed to enter Tibet, and there shed put a stop to. There is no distinction abroad the light of the grace of God. -men, women, and children drink; and, what is worse, infants and suck- :North Italy.-Interesting particulars lings have the gin-glass held to their are furnished by the Rev. W. K. Lan- mouths by their parentl!." Later on he dels, of Turin, concerning the forma- says: .. Drink is a great impediment tion of an evangelical church in Haena. to the progress of the Gospel, and a The circumstances which resulted in great barrier to a betterment of the this were peculiar_ The people of this condition of the people. It renders futown having quarrelled with the priest, tile and abortive all the civilizing agenand unable in consequence to procure cies sent forth to make us YOMaa rise his services, determined to ask an evan- and improve our condition." gelical minister to hold a religious service, and communicated their wish to Ranaghat MedicaZ Mi8sion, Bengal.,- Mr. Landels. On arriving at the sta- From the report of this mission it trantion of Haena "we were met," says spires that 28,000 people have heard the Mr_ Landels, "by a band of music, and Word of the Lord within a few months. escorted to the place of meeting." On Many attribute the cure of their bodily that occasion some 1500 people heard ailments to the Lord Jesus. May the the Gospel, and the wish was unani- time soon come when they will acmous that the preacher should again knowledge His power and His grace as come. This led to the opening of a hall the Savior of their souls! and the holding of services every Sunday. There is now an evangelical South India.-The Rev. F. W. N_ church in Haena consisting of 12 mem- Alexander, who has labored long in bers and some 50 declared ndherents. India, has had a fresh reaping time in Including the immediate district, the Po7.aanipaUi, where he was the first to number of the baptized is 25. plant the Gospel 33 years ago_ On that occasion-his first missionary tour Shensi, Ohina.-Mrs. Moir Duncan where never missionary foot had trod sends an account of a gracious revival before-a boy heard aDd believed, and in her girls' school. As the result of others were converted. "Now," he addresses and earnest appeals, a spirit says, " we have had a movement among of intense prayer was developed. the heathen remnant, and 16 adult men "Night after night," says this lady, have joined us after long holding out, .. they prayed, sometimes till midnight, and are now in the fold of the Good for themselves and each other, with Shepherd. " the result that most if not everyone of the 40 odd professed conversion. The Presbyterian Ohurch oj England. That many of these have truly been -Four new missionaries have recently born again we have no reason to doubt, been inducted at Highbury to their rebut that many may grow cold we must spective positions in the foreign field. fear. Still there has been an outpour- Their career thus far is bright with ingof God's Spirit on the whole school." promise. Mr. Campbell Moody, M.A., The whole atmosphere of the school has done yeoman missionary work in seems Changed, and the villagers re- the Gallowgate, Glasgow, after a dismark on the difference. tinguished university curriculum. He was also, during his last year in the Ohurch Hi8sionary Society. – The Glasgow Free Church College, Presinews this month as to the havoc dent of the Students' Theological Sowrought by drink in Weat Africa is ap- ciety. Associated with him is Dr. Lands-
ENGLrSH NOTES
borough, another youth of· great prom- and others, bearing the Christian name, ise. These brethren will settle in the have had to fiee. For the time being, Chiangoa country, Formosa. Mr. An- at Kagi and some other stations, the drew B. Neilson. M.A., is appointed to regular services have been suspend· take the place of the late lamented Mr. ed.
Thow, in Taiwanfoo. !fr. Neilson's London Mi88ionary Society.-Anxiety purpose to devote himself to the mis· in respect of Madagascar is intensified sionarylife became definite at Northfield by the news of the murder of Mr. and in 1889, when he attended Mr. Moody's Mrs. Johnson, of the Friends' Mission Summer School for Students as a dele- which occurred on the last day of No: gate from the Glasgow University Chris· vember. The sympathy of a very large tian Association, of which he was after- circle has boon deeply stirred, for these ward the secretary. The fourth name missionaries were greatly beloved, and is that of Dr. John M. Dalziel, who is were known as most devoted to the ~a to be associated witl1 Dr. Lyall, at Swa· cred cause of the Gospel. Probably tow. and who is well reported of alike for months to come there will be much as it regards professional qualifications unrest in country districts. Still the and missionary spirit. ultimate outlook is not so unpromising Japan and Formoaa.-It is interesting as was at first threatened. For one to find that Japanese Christians have tiling. the French Chambers have retheir thoughts already turned to mission solved to sustain the treaty made with work in Formosa, the new possession the Queen of Madagascar; and further, of their country. The Presbyterian the appointment of a Protestant, who Church has taken the initiative. At is known to be in sympathy with Protits recent General Assembly in Japan estant worship and missionary work, as it was resolved to take steps toward the the first Resident-General in Madagasfounding of a mission in that island. car, is another and clearer indication of Pessibly the East Coast work will be the same pacific purpose.
handed over to the Japanese Church. Woman'8 Work.-With the new year 'fhe likelihood is that among the a special niche is to be reserved in The aboriginal tribes of that part a happy Ohronicle for the latest intelligence conand fruitful sphere would be found. cerning woman's work on the mission field. This is designated .. Our New Recent commotions in Formo8a have Departure," and it is confidently hoped involved the Church of Christ in no that the ladies will be able to give a small tribulation, attempts having been good account of themselves in their made, not without some melancholy own department. The advance in success, to direct ill-feeling against the woman's work during the past 30 years Christians as in league with the Jap· has been wonderful, but when it is conanese. Mr. Ede, Presbyterian mission- sidered that out of a female popUlation ary, had this accusation fiung at him in in India of over 128,000,000 there are the streets of Taiwarifoo; while in Kagi only, according to the last census 197and elsewhere the Christians have had 000 girls under instruction, a giimp;e much more than hard words to bear. is given of the reigning d!,stitution, One of the members of the Kagi church educational and religious. was beheaded on a trumped·up charge of having assisted the enemy. His poor wife died immediately of shock and THE KINGDOM. fear, and the home was plundered. As several of the hearers of the Gospel in -A missionary writes: "The Chi· Kagi are missing, it is feared that one· nese have been known to raise an ob- or more of them have been made away jection to going to • mansions in the with. Not a few have lost their all; skies' after death. On being asked
GEl"ERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
their reason, they an~wer that we try in its place a Dew religious heart which to get everybody to go there, and they does not lust for anything." know the place will be crowded !" -It appears from the last Bibliotlteca -On his recent journey home from Sacra that some missionaries, who are Persia, Mr. E. T. Allen traveled 500 also sons of missionaries, afe of considmiles OD his bicycle, arousing conflict· erable account, and even in realms ining emotions along the road-admira- tellectual and scientific; for we find tion, resentment, and terror. A case Professor Romanes, of Oxford, who of the latter was a man ghastly pale, had been" :;,hattered" by rationalism, who stood by the roadside and drew pronouncing Rev. J. T. Gulick, of Ja· his dagger as the wheel came up. Dis- pan, "the most profound of living mounting and proffering a few human thinkers upon Darwinian topics," and inquiries. Mr. Allen discovered that he writing to him in this fashion: "How had been taken for the angel of death. is it that you have retained your Chris- – Woman's 'Workfor Woman. tian belief in the midst of your scien- tific researches? Looking at your life, -Once when Bishop Taylor passed I feel that you have done 80 conscienthrough Pungo Andongo, a king from tiously; and looking at your logic, I the interior came to open up trade; so know that you have not done so withhe arranged a cot in his own room for out consideration." Later the learned the repose of his majesty. Next day professor abandoned rationalism, and the king said to Mr. Shields, the mis- found peace and hope in the Gospel. sionary: "I heard in my own country of the bishop with the long beard. lIe -The foreign field contains Christian is not a man at all; he is a god come heroes by the hundred, and of both down to men. Last night when he sexes. Take these two as specimens. came into the bedroom I saw him take Rev. Dr. Barnum, of Harpoot, in a prioff his head (wig)" and lay it down by vate letter written before the massacre, his bed, and yet he had a head same as said: "We are glad to be here, what· beforo. I was scared nearly to death, ever may happen. If the Lord permits and trembled all over. If he had us to be cut off in an uprising of fanatitouched me then I would have died. cism, it will be because we can bless He is the god that piled up these great the country more in that way than in Pungo Mountains. If I could have any other. Perhaps something of the got out of the room I would have run kind is necessary. If so, for my part, for my life, but the god was between I am ready. '1'he people are excited, me and the door, and I couldn't get but we are not, for we are sure that out. When I go home to my people I God's hand is in all this movement, and will tell them that I saw a god, and that whatever may happen He will see came near to the end of my life." He that no grave mistakes are made." could not be induced to risk his life in And Mrs. Montgomery, without the that room again. presence of any male missionary, held her post at Adana, tho urged to come -When one of the Uganda natives away, and wrote: "While we hear of was to baptize certain candidates, a dire massacres in many directions, and crowd gathered to witness the cere- know not to what ollr own people may mony, and departed saying: .. It is all yet be liable, still faith says it is but a lie they told us about eating snake's part of the coming forward of the kingtails and human flesh." He found also dom for which you and we have prayed it was reported that baptism consisted and worked so long; and to be on the. in " making an incision in the head and ground now, I count the crowning privrubbing in a powerful medicine which ilege and joy of my life, partly because kills the old heart, and then there comes our presence here means so much to the people in their fears and distres84ls, 000 in three great cemmlmions of ChrIsand partly because the occasion reveals, tendom who bear His name. PraiJle as nothing else could do, the quality of God for such failures." the Lord's material in them. Surely the faith, love, and genuine spiritual -Tho not all Germans are reliable grasp that many of them evince is noth- witnesses in things which relate to the ing less than Divine." Gospel, it is yet pleasant to hear that when Major Leutwein, the new gov- -Among the antiquities of modern ernor of the German Protectorate in missions this incident may be set down. Namaqualand, had been a short time As far back as 1717 we find Ziegenbalg, in office, he said to the missionary at the first Protestant missionary in India, Keetmannshoop : "I am perfectly addressing a letter to "Cotton Mather, amazed at what I have seen since I Boston, Weat Indiea(!)," and asking came into this country. I thought I bow work was carried on in America was coming into a heathen land, but among the pagan natives. In due season instead of that I find a fully Christiana reply was sent, with the accompani- ized land." This remark, which is rement of a money contribution. This p;)rted in the ..Allgemeine Mi8siom·Zeitmissive was 14 months on the journey, seMift, is of special interest to English and Ziegenbalg died before it reached readers, because Namaqualand was Tranquebar; but Grundler, his succes- the scene of one of the early missions sor, returned hearty thanks, as well as of the London Missionary Society. several books just printed in Tamil. The correspondence was held in Latin, -Not since the Sepoy outbreak in and is to be found in a volume which India in 1857 have Christian missions Mather published, entitled India Ohris- experienced such severe reverses as were tiana. witnessed in 1895. The expulsion from Szchuan Province, West China, of -During a few months of last year nearly all the missionaries, to the num- 6 societies sent out no less than 250 ber of more than 100; the massacre missionaries to the foreign field, three near Ku-cheng; the conquest of Madafifths of them going out for the first gascar; the war between China and time. Japan, and the destruction of mission property and massacre of native Chris- -A writer in the Okri8tian Observer tians in Turkey, with the large debts muses and figures in this fashion: resting on nearly all missionary soci- "There are but 5994 missionaries in eties, form a series of events which the world all told. This is about one profoundly affect the progress of the missionary to every 6000 communicants. kingdom of Christ throughout the At this rate the Federal armies to sup- world. press the rebellion could never have exceeded 8000 men of all arms; while the -The saints cannot but rejoice and Confederate soldiers from Richmond be glad over the recent furious war to the Rio Grande could never have talk in relation to the Venezuela-Guiana numbered more than 1265. A country boundary question, and if for no other thus defended would be laughed to reason, because of the hearty expresscorn. sions of affection which by the ten thou- sand ha ve crossed the sea between Great -North and Weat exclaims: "The Britain and the United States. "The failure of missions! At the first Easter pulpits of the English.speaking world, there were 120 Christians. N ow there east and west of the Atlantic, have are 120,000,000 Protestants, who rule spoken with clear and unfaltering note. most of the area of the world. There Bishops and divines, leading merchants, were 500 brethren who saw the risen authors, editors, and statesmen have Lord at first. Now there are 500,000,- joined in a chorus, claiming commu- -To the same ancient city where nity of race and interest as a ground Florence Nightingale won immortal for deprecating war, and calling for fame, and ona kindred errand of merthe continuance of peace." Bloody cy, an American woman has bent her strife between these two foremost of steps. God bless and prosper Clara Christian nations, to which the world's Barton in carrying food to the starving redemption has been committed, would Armenians. The request to act in the constitute a crime and disgrace far more case was sent to the Red Cross Society colossal and damnable than any to be from the American Board and the Presfound upon the pages of history. byterian Board, endorsed by the State Department at Washington. Tho the WOMAN'S WORK. Sultan declares that her heavenly mis- sion will not be tolerated on Turkish -I never yet saw a missionary's wife soil, yet even he has been known sudwhose companionship did not double denly and utterly to change his mind. her husband's usefulness. I have known more than one whose face as the years of life increased took on that -Yes, and Japan also has her Florcharm, that wondrous beauty, that ence Nightingale. For" a Chinese youthful features never wear – the naval officer, captured by the Japanese, beauty of character disciplined by suf· has recently given to a newspaper corfering, of a life unselfishly devoted to respondent high testimony to the gentle, the highest ends. One of the choicest unostentatious labor among the Chinese things of missionary work is the unwrit- prisoners in Japan of an American misten heroism of missionary homes. It is sionary, Miss Talcott. She had a mys- the missionary's wife who by years of terious happiness, whose fountain they endurance and acquired experience in could not understand; and her sunny the foreign field has made it possible face, aglow with an inward delight, in these later years for unmarried wom- soothed and blessed the sorrowful and en to go abroad and live and work broken-hearted. The conservatism of among the people of Eastern lands.- these men was proverbial, yet the most Dr. Herrick. stubborn hearts yielded to Miss Tal- -Archdeacon Wolfe gives this em- cott's simple·hearted love. Tho relucphatic testimony to the value of wom- tant to acknowledge the superiority of an's part in the world's evangelization: anything foreign, their prejudice was .. A mission without a large staff of de- disarmed and their wrong impressions voted lady missionaries, 1 have no hesi- dispelled." – Ohurch at Home and tation in saying after 34 years of ex- Abroad.
perience, is destitute of one of the most -The Helping Hand, organ of the potent agencies for the conversion of Woman's Baptist Missionary Society, China to Christianity. The vast masses in the January issue celebrates the quarof Chinese women can be reached only ter 'centennial of that organization by by lady missionaries. Even our Chris- various appropriate articles, and be- tian congregations, on account of the sides, a " dress" all radiant with silver ignorance of the wives and daughters, and most attractive to the eye.
are sadly lacking too often in devoted- YOUNG PEOPLE. ness and zeal. The presence of lady missionaries is the only remedy for this -The King's Daughters began with state of things, and I can bear testi- 10 women in New York less than ten mony, with deep thankfulness to God, years ago, and now have a membership to the improvement seen everywhere in of over 400,000. They aim to work our Christian congregations which have quietly, to take up new work quickly.
had the privilege of their presence and and mcite others to royal deeds of love teaching." for the King. A society bearing this euphonious name in Burlington, Vt., resented is 570. The largest has 39 achas a .. Sunshine Circle" in a hospital. tive members, 19 associate, and 12 hon- orary, the Chinese names for these -The young people of the United classes being" real members," "learn- Brethren Church volunteered to raise ers," and " guests." One of the soci- $5000 to build a church in Los Angeles. eties sends 2 members every Sunday Success is about to crown their efforts. afternoon to speak in adjoining villages.
-The Christian Endeavorers of Clar- endon Street Baptist Church, Boston, AMERICA.
gave $1900 to missions last year. United States.-The Chicago 'J'ri- -Among the Friends the Endeavor- bune'8 record of gifts to benevolent in- ers number about one fifth of the entire stitutions in this country in sums of membership of the denomination. Dur- $10,000, or over, for the year 1895, ing the past year those in California shows a total of $28,943,549, an in- and Ohio gave for missions $1 each, on crease of over $9,000,000 from the gifts the average, and those in Canada $1.50, for 1894. The gifts of less than $10,- while 15 who are now engaged in for- 000 were correspondingly larger, and eign work are partly or wholly sup- may be estimated at $15,000,000 more.
ported by those remaining at home. It is safe to place the voluntary benevo- -The New York City Endeavor lences, not counting the support of local Union numbers 135 societies, with a churches, at a total of over $40,000,000 membership of 6500, and the Chicago for the year.-The Interior.
Union has now increased to 410 soci- -January 4th. by proclamation of eties, with a membership of about 18,- President Cleveland, Utah, after nearly 000. German, Dutch, Norwegian, 50 years of waiting and knocking, has Swedish, Welsh, Bohemian, and Chi- been admitted to the Union. The first nese are languages in which meetings application for statehood was made in are regularly held in societies belong- 1849, the second in 1855, the third in ing to the Chicago Union. New York 1862, the fourth in 1867, the fifth in also has Bohemian, Italian, French, 1872, the sixth in 1887, and the seventh and German societies, besides several -the successful one-in 1894. Until among the sailors. The German work 1887 all petitions had been made in the in Chicago has been made a distinct de- name of the " State of Deseret," lind in partment of activity, with a special su- 1849 the State was to comprise all the perintendent in charge. country now covered by Western Colo- -The annual convention of the Foo- rado, Western. Wyoming, Southern chow district, China, was to have been Idaho, all of Utah, Nevada. and Ariheld in a church, but it was seen that zona, and California as far west as LOB the building would not accommodate Angeles. The new commonwealth nearly all that would attend, so the En- comes with a population of about 250.- deavorers secured cotton cloth and put 000, and an assessed valuation of propup a tent on the lawn of the Ponasang erty amounting to $97,900,000. The compound belonging to the American governor is a Mormon, and was born Board. The first native Endeavorer, in Salt Lake in 1859.
Mr. Ling Muk Gek, presided; 700were -Mrs. Phineas M. Barber, of Phila- present, and 300 of these had little or delphia, widow of the late Phineas M.
no knowledge of Christ. The tent was Barber, has devoted $40,000 for the fastened on one side to an idol temple, building and equipment of a seminary and a short distance away men were for girls, to be located at Anniston, making objects connected with idol Ala. It was given to the Presbyterian ,worship. The total membership rep- Board of Missions for Freedmen, will be completed by October of this year, more than for the 12 years preceding , and be known as the •• Barber Memo- 1884.
rial Seminary." Mr. Barber, who died Canada.-This is a specimen part of two years ago, made a bequest of $113,- the story which Bishop Newnham has 000, which will probably be increased to tell of travel through his hyperborean by another $100,000 for the benefit of diocese of Moosonee: •• For a large the churches and ministers of the Freed· part of the way I only had two Indian men. lads, which means that I paddled myself for many hours in the day. besides -Cornelius Vanderbilt and his wife helping to carry over the portages, to have transferred as a gift the property haul at the' tracking-line,' or tow-rope, on the north side of Forty-second Street, and to make camp at night. I have 155 feet east of Third Avenue, to the been traveling in canoe and open boat St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episco- for over three months, sleeping in a tent, pal church, this city. The property or in open boat without even that shelwas purchased by Mr. Vanderbilt for ter, for the whole of that time, except $60,000, and will be used as an insti- for three weeks altogether at the diftution for missionary, religious, char- ferent Hudson's Bay Company's posts, itable, benevolent, and educational in almost tropical heat of midsummer work.
-Behold how an Indian church can and the frosty nights of the autumn, grow. The Standing Rock Congrega- sometimes plagued with myriads of tional Church was organized December mosquitoes and other venomous flies; 8th, 1889. January 1st, 1890, it had 12 at other times, on the Bay, surrounded members; in 1891, it had only 16 mem- by vast ice-floes from arctic regions, bers; in 1892, it had 24 members; in much of the time wet through from in- 1893, 116; in 1894, 170; and January cessant rain or from wading in rivers ,1st, this year, there were 2 churches, and through swamps; exposed somewith 78 members in one and 152 in the times to the risks of swift rapids, at other, making a total membership of others to gales and tides; rising daily at 230. 4 or 4.30 A.M., and retiring to my bed on the ground at 10 P.M."
:- -If all the Methodist home mission -And the Intelligencer (Church }<Iisconverts could be brought together in sionary Society) for December last has a conference we should hear them speak long and intensely interesting quotain Welsh, German, Swedish, Danish, tions from the diary of Rev. E. J. Peck, French, Portuguese. Italian, Bohemian, who is gladly self-exiled for the king- Hungarian, Chinese, .Japanese, Span- dom's sake among the Eskimo of Cumish, and various Indian tongues. berland Sound far to the north of Hud- -Remembering that he includes all son Bay. What he narrates of adven- who have joined on probation, and all ture and endurance from the climate (!onver~s gathered in Protestant Europe and the natives certainly leaves nothing from the Lutherans, etc., these figures to be desired (1).
of Rev. C. C. McCabe are deeply inter- ., People busy cutting up whale.
esting : In 1883 we had in all our for- The total length of this huge creature eign missions 43,100 communicants. is about 50 feet, height fully 15, and In 1894 we had 135,833. Estimating breadth of tail 12. Both dogs and peo- the gain in 1895 at only half what it ple are now feasting away to their was in 1894, we add 8000, giving us a hearts' content, and they seem quite total of 143,833, making a gain in 12 elated at the prospect of having many yellrs of 100,733, more than two thirds a hearty meal. Busy during day speak- of the whole number. The missionary ing to the people, and teaching them in income for 12 years has been $5,000,000 our little church. .. We were startled this morning at joicing and wonder: Does everyone about 3 A.M. by a pack of hungry dogs. know that there are 350,000,000 of peo- These crcatures had managed to climb ple who are not Christians in British up on the roof of our skin church, and territories or under British dominion?
to our dismay were tearing the edifice – During the first week of the year a to pieces. Hastily slipping on our fur conference convened at Liverpool uncoats, Mr. Parker and myself rushed der the auspices of the Student Volunout in the bitter cold. Here, in the teer Missionary Union, which was the dim light, we could make out our po· largest and most representative gathersition. We were literally besieged by ing of Christian students ever held in dogs, and they must in all have num- Britain. Some 620 British students, bered over 100. Most of these were on men and women, representing about the roof, some had fallen through the 65 colleges of various denominations, same, others were devouring pieces of gathered, with representatives of the volseal-skin, and altogether such a con- unteer movement in America, France, fused mass of dogs-young, old, bruised, and South Africa, as well as students and wounded-it would be hard to find from the Continent, belonging to inanywhere else. After a sharp battle stitutions in Germany, Switzerland, we managed to put these unwelcome Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, visitors to flight, and we then man- and Denmark. aged, by the help of our Eskimo friends, to patch up with some old canvas the -Our missionary societies are extri- holes in our little church." cating themselves from their burdens But for some time services were held of debt. The London Missionary So- in a structure which could not be de- ciety has already raised a centenary voured: to wit, in "a large circular fund of more than £90,000, and hopes wall of snow about 6 feet high. The to make it at least £100,000. The Wes- seats were made of blocks of snow leyan Society has cleared its debt, and placed close to the wall." At his call is aiming at an addition of £20,000 a "quite a number came to hear the year to its income. Besides which, in Word of God," and sat" with nothing this society there is a revival of the mis- between us and the blue heavens." sionary spirit among the students in .. We had a grand time together." the colleges, many of whom are offer- ing for work abroad. We shall pres- EUROPE. ently learn also to economize our -England has a great many citizens strength at home, that we may have all of wealth and handsome incomes. The the more for foreign service.-London income tax reports recently published Ohristian. show that 66 Englishmen enj oy incomes above $300,000, and that 2000 more -The latter half of the year which have incomes ranging downward from has just closed will be memorable in that to $50,000. Those who have missionary annals for the number of the $25,000 to $50,000 a year exceed Lord's servants in the mission field who 3000 in number, 5000 are taxed on in- have fallen victims to the violence of comes of $10,000 to $15,000, and nearly lawless and wicked men, for whose 15,000 are reported as enjoying an- spiritual welfare they were laboring. nuities of from $5000 to $10,000. Our own party and that of the C. E. Z. M. S. in China; Mr. Atlay, of the Uni· versities' Mission, in the region of Lake -In a recent address the Bishop of Nyassa, East Africa; and now Mr. and St. Albans put this tremendous inter- Mrs. Johnson and their daughter, of rogatory, which every Christian in the the Society of Friends, in Madagascar- United Kingdom may well ponder with 15 in all. The S. P. G. missionary at fear and trembling, as well as with re- Ramainandro in Madagascar, with his family, appears to have very narrowly in the vicinity of the Vatican. "As escaped a similar fate in November, late as 1861, when Minister Marsh en. leaving the mission premises only a tered the papal dominions, his Bible few hours before they were attacked was taken from him by papal officials. and destroyed by an anti-European And now the walls of Rome contain 11 mob. It is a feature common to all the Protestant churches." -Jolfiah Strong. outbursts, that they were prompted by anti-foreign rather than anti-Christian -The Florence correspondent of feeling.-Intelligencer. Evangelical Ohristendom affirms that there is no book so widely spread in -Next to that of women's work, no Italy at the present moment as the department of the missionary service Bible; that of all books, none finds so has witnessed so marked a development many buyers. This is owing to the in recent years as medical missions. persevering and successful work pur- The first qualified medical man sent out sued in this country, for now nearly 40 as such by the society was Dr. Elmslie, years, by the British and Foreign Bible who sailed for the Punjab to open the Society and the National Bible Society medical mission in Kashmir in 1864. of Scotland. These societies have Since that year 45 have gone out under now spread throughout the length and the Church Missionary Society, and 29 breadth of the land about 3,000,000 European medical missionaries (besides copies of the Word of God, in whole or 3 qualified native doctors) are now on in part. The figures of last year's cirthe active list. During the 12 years culation are: Bibles, 7662; Testaments, from 1864 to 1875,5 were sent out; dur- 16,926; portions, 165,085; total, 189,- ing the 10 years from 1876 to 1885 the 633. The total for 1893 was 169,937 number was 15; and during the last copies; the increase, therefore, is about 10 years it was 25.-Idem. 20,000 copies.
-The Free Church of Scotland has -In Rome the Catholic Professor sent forth 28 medical missionaries, of and Doctor of Theology, Filippo De whom 5 are women, and supports 2 na- Lorenzi, has become a Protestant. He tive missionaries, at Madras and Tana, has addressed a letter to the committee making 20 medical missionaries in all. of the Free Church, in which he has Besides these, at Blythswood and other given the reasons for this step. After stations, chiefly in Africa, simple medi- stating that he was born in 1863, and cal cases are attended to by the mis- had been a priest and a professor of sionaries and their wives. About 120,- dogmatics in various colleges in Rome, 000 cases, surgical and medical, were among them also that of the Propatreated by 17 of the missionaries who ganda, he applies for admission to the have reported, besides the large num- Free Church. He acknowledges that ber of women dealt with by the physi- for years his heart has been filled with cians and surgeons of their own sex at unrest, and states that he has found Madras and Nagpoor, and the many're- peace in the Evangelical Church, lieved unprofessionally. At least 150,- .. whose faith is based solely and alone 000 men, women, and children, suffer- upon the Word of God, and which ers, of all Asiatic and African races and lives in accordance with this Word." creeds, annually receive healing and sympathy, and have the love of Jesus ASIA. Christ preached and read to them in our Church's dispensaries and hospitals, Ialam.-Sublime Porte means literin zenanas, and in the tented camp.- ally lofty gate, referring to the gate of Free Church Monthly. the palace at which justice was admin- istered, and so easily came to designate -Verily, "the sun do move," even the chief office of the Ottoman Govern- ment. -The mission to Syria was begun' in ly. They seldom or never visit them.
1828 by the occupation of Beirut. They know hardly anything about Twenty-five years ago, in 1870, it was them. They often speak unkindly of transferred from the American Board them in the mass, because of some ex- to the Presbyterian Board, and within perience of an untoward kind in con- this last quarter of a century there has nection with a few individuals. They been encouraging progress. In place pray little for them. They do not wor- of 18 American missionaries there are ship with them, and almost in no way now 40; in place of 63 native helpers, do they show sympathy with or for there are 219. In 1870 there were less them.-Indian Witnes8.
than 800 communicants; now there are -Miss Annie Taylor has entered 8048. The pupils in the schools have increased from 167 to 7352. The mis- Tibet as a bona, fo1e trader; she deals In sion press at Beirut issued over 22,000,- 000 pages in 1894, of which nearly one medicine, for which there is great dehalf were portions of the Bible. mand, and meantime loses no opportu- nity for missionary work. The Com- -Some months ago we published an missioner of Customs at Yatong is Mr. appeal from the Rev. George A. :F'ord, Taylor, and the missionary at Yatong of Sidon, Syria, for a well-boring ap- is Miss Taylor. The Tibetans naturally paratus for the Sidon Academy. We conclude that both Taylors belong to are gratified to learn from Dr. Ford the same firm, and the poor commisthat in response a friend, who insists sioner is afraid lest he should be held upon remaining unnamed, has sent in responsible for the deeds of the other a check for $3400, in full payment of Taylor. the apparatus I Dr. Ford writes: .. This is a magnificent gift, and I doubt -The last engineering feat performed not that it will also prove such to the by Britons for the benefit of Hindus is work at large. Our first concern in known as the " Peryar Project," and this connection now must be the task, consists in turning the course of a large by no means light, of finding a com- river, which ran worthlessly down the petent, experienced, and Christian man, Western Ghauts of Southern India to select the necessary apparatus, and into the sea, by a tunnel down the eastthen come out and manage it until he ern side instead to irrigate large barren has trained some native mechanic to wastes, and to feed hosts of the huntake his place."-New York Evangelist. gry. The dam is exceeded in height only by the new Croton dam in New York.
India.-It is by no means a palatable -The latest weapon forged against piece of information that the Indian caste and the seclusion of women is Christians suffer considerably from un- found in the (to Hinduism) pestiferous, happy influences, negative and positive, because so attractive, zenana car. Let which their European neighbors bring the mothers, wives, and daughters of to bear upon them. Negatively, the India move about swiftly by steam and growth of spiritual life in Indian Chris- see the world for a few years, and they tians is harmed by the isolated and will raise a successful rebellion in beunique position which is accidental to half of their rights. the profession of their faith in Christ.
The Hindu casts them off. The Mo- -This is how the Salvation Army is hammedan regards them with horror making assault: "Our methods are as deserters from Islam. The Parsee getting more and more wholesale-we closes the doors of his home to them. pioneer and prepare a given district for The Europeans, generally speaking a few weeks; experienced • sappers (missionaries excepted), pay but little and miners' deal with the villagers heed. to them. They regard them cold- treat with the group of headmen who rule the community (called the panch) work of the Ku·cheng Commission apand make them willing to accept our pointed to investigate the Hwa·Sang teaching. Then a large party is organ· massacre sat 74 days, and its labors reized, of from 40 to 100 officers and ca- sulted in the execution of 26 criminals, dets, living in rough huts, etc., and including the 5 leaders; 15 are to be camping in the open. With drums banished; 27 to be imprisoned for 10 beating and colors flying, they attack years; 5 to be imprisoned for 5 years, village after village, summoning them 5 more for 6 months, and 4 others to to surrender in the name of King be chained to a stone weighing 133 Jesus. Often the inhabitants come pounds, for 3 years. In addition to over en maS88 praying for pardon."- this it may be said that Vegetarianism The Oonqueror. for the time has been crushed.
China.-Of the 1500 missionaries, -A dispatch to the New York World men and women, now in this empire from Chun King says: "The Cheng the Church of England has about 210. Tu Commission, it is generally admit- -One of the significant signs of prog- ted, has achieved a complete success.
ress in China is a new university and The results have met with the approval preparatory school in Tientsin, under of the Cheng Tu missionaries, who are control of Chinese officials, with Mr. now recognized by the Chinese officials, C. D. Tenney as its first president. from the viceroy down. The mission· The English language will be taught aries were publicly banqueted wilh the and the new institution developed along commissioners. Everything possible is American lines, but Mr. Tenney is to now being done to obliterate remem- be assisted by competent foreign pro- brance of the late viceroy's misdeeds.
fessors. It is proposed to open prepara- The claims of the Methodists have been tory schools in other localities in North settled…
China under the management of the' -An interesting communication university to a certain extent. In the comes from Minister Denby, at Peking, course of time the university will pro· to the effect that a reform club has vide besides a general scientific conrse lately been started in that capital. The special courses in civil engineering, plan includes a daily paper, a readingmining, mechanical engineering, and room to be supplied with papers and law. books bearing on science, politics, and progress, a library, lecture courses, -Bishop R. E. Hendrix, of the Meth· etc. Rev. Gilbert Reid has been asked odist Church, South, who has just re- and has consented to assist the club in turned from China, brings this message carrying this scheme into execution. from Li Hung Chang: "Say to the American people for me to send over more men for the schools and hospitals, Ja-pan.-A. Japanese church at Kyoto and I hope to be in a position both to has adopted individual communion aid and protect them." He had asked cups, Il,nd all the members consider it how many American missionaries there an improvement. A deacon and a were in China. "There are about 600," deaconess served the cups, and another replied the bishop. "More are need- deacon and deaconess followed and ed," said Li, and in a moment he re- gathered them on trays.
peated the same words, "more are -As a result of 25 years of labor in needed." He then expressed the great Japan there are now in that country obligation of China to American mis· 400 Protestant churches, 50 Young sionaries and the spirit which has sent Men's Christian A.ssociations, 57 Christhem, and ended by asking the bishop tian Endeavor Societies, 18 circles of to convey the message. King's Daughters, and 6 home mis- -Rev. P. W. Pitcher writes that the sionary societies. -The progress of Japan in cIviliza- Christianity in the total he placed at tion may be illustrated by the following 5,550,000.
recently published statistics: In 1870 -Tropical Africa has its Hying frog, there was not a mile of railway; to- whose legs terminate in a sort of fan, day there are 1750 miles in operation, and with these'the little reptile paddles and 850 miles more about to be con- the air like a locust, or like a partially structed. These railways carried, in fledged bird testing its pinions for the 1894,36,000,000 passengers. There was first time. Altho somewhat awkward no post·office in 1870, but in 1893 the in its flock, the winged frog can dart Japanese post handled 277,000,000 let· through the air at a speed of about 10 ters and newspapers. In 1890 there yards per second, and can keep itself were no Japanese steamships; to-day going forward at that rate for from 10 there are 700. The ultimate secret of to 15 seconds. The average distance this progress is to be found in the work covered by these spurts of grasshopperof 470 evangelical missionaries, backed like Hight is from 75 to 125 yards; but by 111,000 native Christians and the Bishoff mentions instances where the schools they support. flying frog cleared sandy stretches 200 -According to intelligence from yards in width. And then, as if this Formosa, the capitulation oCTai-wan- were not enough for one continent, a fu, the ca.pital of the island, and the flying mouse is to be found in the Cam- pea.ceful entry of the Japanese, which eroons, which is a link between the bat brought the long campaign to a con- and the true mouse, has a tail like a clusion, were due to the gallant con- mouse and heavy gray fur, while its duct of two Scotch missionaries, Messrs. wings are not so well developed as Ferguson and Barclay, who at the criti- those of the bat.
cal moment, when the excited popula- -When Bishop Taylor first went to tion were expecting the worst, ap- Liberia the only small currency in use proached the Japanese and led them in in portions of the Kroo Coast was leaf peace into the city. tobacco. Two Methodist missions used it in the purchase of rice for absolute -If these statements are true, there needs and for tbe landing of supplies is trouble ahead: "Watches which sent from New York. The bishop incost $20 to manufacture here are made troduced laundry soap as small curin Japan for $3; 10 boxes of excellent rency, and his son, Ross Taylor, has parlor matches sold here for 5 cents can sent from a firm in New York from be bought there for 1 ; a piece of silk 3 to 5 tons at a single shipment, fair tapestry for which French artists de- quality and full weight, 8 and 16 ounces manded $10,000 has been duplicated in to the bar, to serve the purpose of cur- Japan at a cost of only $700, etc. An rency. No tobacco has been used in American firm has recently purchased 9 carloads of buttons made in Japan. trade since the stations were opened.
Business men on the Pacific Coast are -Speaking of Lutheran (General becoming seriously alarmed at this Synod) Muhlenberg Mission, West Afrimenace to almost every line of produc· ca, Dr. Scholl states that" as a result tive industry." of Christian learning and training, the AFRICA. native boys have built a steamboat of -In a recent paper on the Dark Con- their own, and 35 years ago those peotinent Fred Perry Noble brought down ple had never seen an ax. They have the number of Mohammedans to 40,000,- sent to America 25,000 pounds of 000. He made the native Protestant coffee."
communicants 255,000 and the native -A French missionary journal gives Roman Catholic 250,000. The force of an account of the progress 01 misslonary work in the Congo Free State in expected way. Eight missionaries are 4 great felds-namely, the Lower Con· laboring there, and since 1891 4 sta~ go, the Upper Congo, the Basin of the tions have been founded. A small Kassai River, and in the Katanga steamer, the Paulu8, has been sent out, country. There are now 1500 native and is doing good service, carrying the Christians in all these various regions. missionaries from shore to shore, en· In the Lower Congo there are 15 sta- abling them to preach the Gospel in tions, and 34 missionaries, and about the villages lying there. The mission- 1300 converts, of whom 225 were bap- aries have gained the confidence of the tized the past year. In this region the native population in a very remarkable International Missionary Alliance has degree.
the largest number of workers. On the Upper Congo, above Stanley Pool, there -Letters from Bishop Tucker an- are 12 stations, with 45 missionaries and nouncing the arrival of his party in about 100 converts. In the Kassai Val- Mengo on October 4th are received.
ley there is one station connected with Three weeks before they reached their the Presbyterian Church, South. The destination greetings began to arrive last of these mission fields is under the from Uganda chiefs, and from that care of Mr_ Arnot, at Lake Moero, in time forward proofs of the interest the southeastern part of the Congo re- with which their arrival was awaited gion. multiplied day by day. At Ngogwe -Dr. Thompson, who is one of them, in Kyagwe, the station from which the a.nd 80 ought to know, writes thus of Rev. G. K. Baskerville has just come how luxuriously the pampered mission- home, the joy of the women was unaries live at Mt. Silinda, East Africa: bounded. "They ran along by the "The work we are obliged to do on sides of the ladies' chairs," the bishop these temporary 'wattle and daub' writes, " grasping their hands and uthouses is highly unsatisfactory, because tering all manner of exclamations of it requires to be done over again so fre- joyful and loving greeting." A thanksquently, and because it does not result giving service was held in the church, in comfortable quarters for civilized at which 600 were present. When at man. I have been obliged to spend len5th Mengo was approached, the 6 weeks in repairing, rethatching, and scenes baffled even the bishop'S powers altering our house, building chimneys, of description. "As we drew near to etc., to make it at all comfortable for the Chagwe market we found every another rainy season. This ti,me I very place of vantage from which a good much needed for work on the perma. view of us coulQ. be got occupied by nent house, which the mission have re- interested spectators – Mohammedan quested me to build. And now that and heathen, as well as Christians, both the work of repair is done, it is not Protestant and Roman Catholic. The done, for the mud is constantly falling mass of people was now so great that from the mud walls, thus opening it was difficult to get along." On Suncracks which have to be filled again, day, October 6th, a congregation of at the sun-dried-brick chimneys are wash- least 6000 people assembled in the ing away, and will soon have to be re- church aud in the barazzas outside. paired again," etc. Nearly 300 afterward partook of the Lord's Supper. The bishop's letter -Rev. A. Merensky, director of the states that 2000 people were baptized Berlin Missionary Society, reports that during the first 9 months of 1895 in its mission in German territory at the Mengo and its suburbs alone, that liDO north end of Lake Nyassa, at the foot candidates in Mengo alone were await· of the Livingstone Mountains, in the ing coufirmation, and 300 others at Konde country, has prospered in an un- Ngogwe. – Intelligencer.