The Missionary Review of the World — April 1896
ORIGINAL PIO~EER TIBETAN
u Mi8S Taylor and her'l'ibetan servant Pont:;:o ha ve now separated fronl this Band, Miss Taylor having starttd un intlependent mission. 11 A GROUP OF PUNJAB MISSIONARIES AND NATIVE PASTORS. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIX. No. 4.-0ld 8erie8.-APRIL.-VoL. IX. No. '.-New &riu.
GEMS GATHERED. AT THE LIVERPOOL CONVENTION.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
The Convention has passed into history. In time full records of its pregnant proceedings will be furnished for permanent preservation and wider circulation. Meanwhile it may be both wise and helpful to cull, in brief form, some of the many utterances which made this occasion memorable, availing ourselves of such reports af! that of the Gltristian, of London, which has been prepared with uncommon carefulness and fulness. As it would occupy undue space to enter· into the details, and as a previous paper has outlined the Convention as a whole, we shall now put before our readers what seems most of importance or interest, and can be most easily made of use, in furtherance of the objects for which the Convention was held.
Bishop of Liverpool: "The Church of Christ to-day is often taunted with its divisions, and somctimef! there is too much reason for the taunt. How delightful, then, to find an assemblage like this, representing so many lands and so many varied sections of the Christian Church, all united in the one aim of advancing the kingdom of our Lord and Savior in the distant parts of the world."
Rev. Charles Garrett, of Liverpool: "The essential unity of the ChriRtian Church is seen in the midst of manifold outward variety. From the domains of nature and of society may be drawn many illustrations of this point. To a child all the stars may look alike, but astronomers ~now well that one star differs from another star in glory. Look at the human face divine. In that, as in every department, God is always original; He never makes a copy. A fond mother says of her babe, 'There never was such a child, ~ and she is right. There never was, and there never will be. And one reason why all the churches should unite in saving all the children is because each child is the only one that God has ever made or will make of that exact type. If the Church is God's workmanship we must look for the same characteristics in it that we find elsewhere. The gar-
GEMS GATHERED AT THE LIVERPOOL CONVENTION
dener with his shears can trim dead trees to make them all look exactly alike. Let the trees be alive and he will seek in vain to preserve their uniformity. The day after to-morrow the likeness will be gone." Mr. Garrett, referring to his ten chIldren, said he rejoiced in the diversity of form and character among them; the one supplied what the other lacked; so with the Church of Christ,.
Mr. Donald Fraser, of Glasgow University: "This is not the first world's convention, on the subject of missions, held in thIS city. There was held a great missionary conference in Liverpool in 1888, when one hundred and fifty representatives from British societies came together to receive reports of past work and lay plans for the future. The composition of the present conference is, however, much wider. There are thirteen nationalities represented, while forty-two British societies have sent official delegates. The students are but ' volunteers,' but these workers are veterans straight from the field. Their best contribution will be that they go forth from the conference to spread the fire which the Spirit will kindle, among the home congregations and the missionary stations when they return to their distant fields. My fellow-students, make the most and best of the holy influences and impulses that will be generated during the days of conference, by communion with God and one another. Let us wait for God, not for man, not for crowds, nor for eloquence. Our hope is in the living God; we wait with hushed spirits to hear what He will say, and, in obedience, to fulfil his commands."
Hev. A. T. Pierson: "In introducing me the chairman expressed the hope that when in due time I return to my native shores, I would take back the assurance that between the English-speaking peoples, who read the same Bible, there may be peace as long as the world lasts. I reciprocate to the full these sentiments of amity as to the peaceful relations of the sister lands. If two such closely related nations should be found embroiled in warlike conflict, there would be a jubilee nowhere but in hell. As a visible and tangible expression of my feelings on this point, and as representing the Christianity of the United States, allow me, venerable bishop, to shake hands with you" (a little episode endorsed by the heartiest cheers of the audience). " Turning to the specific business of the Convention, let me call attention to the plan of God in the ages, of which I have long been a most interested student. We find in the Epistle to the Hebrews the magnificent conception that, as God took matter and constructed the material worlds, so He has taken time and is building it up into time worlds, or ages. There are ages of preparation, of experiment, and of transition; by and by there will be ages of completion and consummation. As Christ is the corner-stone of the ages, He is yet to be the capstone of the whole structure.
"With respect to the world's evangelization, we have three features specially exhibited in connection with this evangelistic age. First of all, there is a double universality: first, as to the objects of effort-' Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature;' secondly, as to the subjects addresscd-' Go ye.' Not a man, woman, or child who believes in Jesus Christ as a Savior is exempted from the responsibility or excluded from the privilege of proclaiming that Savior to a dying world.
"The second feature in this plan of the ages is celerity. The King's business requires haste. In His last command, Jesus Christ manifestly contemplated that each generation of believers, while on earth, should undertake the evangelizing of the generation of which they formed a part. And in the primitive, apostolic day, the work was more nearly accomplished than in any subsequent generation from that time to this. As to the work to be done by our own generation, let us note (1) the marvellous modern multiplication of facilities for carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth; (2) the remarkable multiplication of instrumentalities and agencies, such as the epiphany of woman in the service of the Church, the work of the Y. M. C. A., the rise and growth of that marvellous if mixed movement, the Salvation Army, the Y. P. S. C. E., and this Student Volunteer Movement. (3) It seems as if in these last days there is an intensification and a condensation of history, so that centuries are compacted into years, years into days, and days into hours, which greatly intensifies responsibility also.
" The third feature of God's plan in our age is spirituality. He emphasizes not machinery, organization, or carnal energy, but the power of the Spirit. If our dependence is on any other secret of success we shall fail. The Spirit of God is in and with the Church; and the more vigorously we push the lines of missionary activity in dependence on the guidance of the Holy Ghost the sooner will the world be evangelized. Machinery is important, but is only cumbrous, unwieldy, and useless without a motive power; and God's one and only motor in holy service is the spirit of life and power. Without dependence on Him we are hopelessly weak, and no one truth needs to be taught and learned in these days more than this, so thoroughly learned in apostolic days, that God. the Holy Ghost, is in the midst of God's people, ready t.o become to them the sevenfold spirit of wisdom, power, nnderstanding, might, knowledge, utterance, and guidance.
Eugene Stock, Esq., C. M. S. Secretary, at the ministers' meeting: " I am more and more deeply impressed with the conviction that on the clergy and ministers in our churches there lies a responsibility which the great majority of them have as yet failed to realize. In most cases it is anything else first, and the advancement of Christ's kingdom last. The churches exist, not tha1; they may have splendid singing, beautiful services, and such like, but that they may evangelize the world. We call this a great missionary epoch, but there will have to be a much wider awakening of missionary interest in the churches than we have yet seen. One despairs of the older men, but our hope lies in the fact that the youngest of our ministers are the most alive. Every pastor who cuts loose from home ties and goes abroad is a grand example to the others; but those who remain at home may be great channels of blessing to the churches and to the work of missions. In the late visitation of his diocese by the Bishop of London, he urged each clergyman to preach at least twenty missionary sermons a year in his own church for the purpose of educating his people in the duty of evangelizing the world."
Rev. r~. Wardlaw Thompson, Secretary of the L. M. S. : "I do not think that ministers generally are so backward in missionary interest, but they are so immersed in the multifarious and minute duties attaching to the pastoral office that neither time nor strength is left for missionary effort. They ought, as leaders in the work of the Church, to hand over the smaller matters to others, keeping themselves fresh and strong for the greater matters; and this missionary question is certainly one of the great matters that ought to be attended to. People may differ about many. aspects of missionary work, but the thought that it is possible for the men of this generation to make Christ kuown to all in the world at present ignorant of Him, ought to kindle:enthusiasm in the most sluggish heart. H that thought were to get into the hearts and minds of all ministers of the Gospel, the life and zeal of the churches would be mightily quickened. The more spiritual propulsion we put into our efforts the further they will go, and the more effectually they will accomplish the desired ends. Ministers can best discharge their responsibility in this matter by constantly keeping the subject before the people. That would involve much new study and research, but the reflex influence on their own life and preaching would be wonderful, not to speak of the direct effects on the congregations. It would be the grandest thing that ministers could do if they would go through the study required for preaching twenty missionary sermons a year to their own people. "
Rev. W. E. Burroughs, of the C. M. S. : "I believe that not one in ten of the ministers in my own denomination could tell, offhand, what were the last recorded tIJords of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have often asked the question over the tea-table; directing the question, of course, to some juvenile member of the household, but really aiming it at the clergyman, who generally could not tell that the words were: ' the uttermost part. of the earth.' "
Dr. George Robson, of Perth: "Let me give you a few leaves from my own pastoral experience. I was prevented from going to the mission field thirty years ago ; my interest in missions became focused and intensified through the great missionary conference in London seven years since j and that awakened interest affected my influence on those under my pastoral care so that their gifts to missions largely increased, and some gave themselves to work abroad. But first of all it stimulated me to a close, careful, and prolonged study of missionary history and biography, and led me to give my people frequent addresses on missionary heroism and triumphs. At the first of these services only twelve or fourteen were present; but they subsequcntly were attcnded by hundreds of deeply interested hearers. "
Rev. A. T. Pierson: "I desire to urge my fellow-ministers to study four books: The Holy Scripture, the book of nature, the book of Divine Provi- dence, and the book of God's grace, where His energy is seen in transform- ing human lives. We have many works on apologetics; the energetics of God are the greatest apologetics in the world, and these are found glori- ously exhibited in missionary history. There is no proof of the living and mighty God more convincing and accessible than thc history of Christian missions, showing that the lowest of mankind can be reached, moved, molded anew by this Gospel."
Dr. Gillison, of Hankow: "My theme is the desirability of a full medical curriculum for those purposing to engage in medical mission work. I maintain that the work of the foreign field demands the very best and ablest of our Christian men and women. Noone can be too good to go, and very few are good enough. The man who neglects intellectual training is using only five out of ten talents with which God has entrusted him. I strongly advise the cultivation of methodical habits of life and work; these would stand the student in good stead when he reaches the foreign field. I would not say a word against partial medical training if more cannot be had, but am very strong in advocating the full course. The medical missionary has to undertake many things in the mission field that he would not be called on to do at home, where the aid of the specialist may be invoked. People in heathen lands cannot discriminate, and they judge the whole profession by the failures or successes of those who are laboring among them. It would be far better, in the long run, for a man to wait at home the extra two or three years needed for the full course of study, than to go out earlier only partially qualified. Missionary societies ought to have it laid on them as a burden to give the medical missionary full support, and to see to it that a hospital is put at his disposal wherever possible. "
Eugene Stock : "I wish to add some plain, practical words on the training of character. Besides the kind of training to which the previous speaker referred, and even more important, is the building up of personal character. That cannot be done in the mission field. Three considerations I submit to my student hearers as of supreme import: 'I and my work; I and my comrades; I and my Lord. ' As to the first, the student must recognize that there are diversities of operation; and while he believes thoroughly in the special sphere to which God may have called him, he must not belittle the work of others. The second point is illustrated by the apostolic dictum, 'In honor preferring one another.' As to the third consideration, while the work is God's and not the missionary's, there is room for the play of his 'personality. We are to speak and work as if the whole depended on us. Faith and fatalism are not the same thing. Above all it is to be borne in mind that every worker is to be absolutely at God's disposal, and that He is entitled to loving, loyal, continuou:; service. " Mr. Stock's talk was so grandly simple that a fuller outline may be helpful: I. I and my work. 1. Recognizing diversity of gifts and sphere (1 Cor. 12). 2. Believe in your own work as a definite allotment. 3. Be willing to take the lowest place or highest. 4. Think soberly, remembering who it is hath dealt, etc. 5. Do small things first and faithfully. Compare parable Pounds and Talents, one spoken four days earlier to a different audience : one to disciples and the other to multitude.
II. I and my comrades. 1. Appreciate God's gifts and graces in others (Rom. 12 j Cor. 12). 2. In honor preferring one another. A great principle. 3. Learn to fit into your place in connection with them. 4. Don't expect perfection, but allow for defects. 5. If any difficulty must arise, have it Qut, etc. III. I and my Lord. 1. His work, not mine and yet mine (Acts 14 : 1). 2. He is my Lord. He is mine, and I am His. His will and title. 3. He is my example in all my work. 4. He is my Savior (Hom. 12 : 1). 5. He is my final arbiter of reward.
Rev. A. T. Pierson: "This Conference reminds of Pentecost.j but here is a moral miracle greater than the gift of tongues. There believers fou,nd themselves speaking in languages hitherto unknown, proclaiming in many tongues the wonderful works of God. Here many tongues, accustomed to heathen worship and idolatrous prayers, unite in testimony to faith in one God. There the believers were mostly of one nation, speaking in tongues not their own to strangers from other lands. Here believers are from fourteen different nations, speaking in tongues which are their own vernacular, and declaring to English-speaking disciples their recovery out of superstition and alienation from God. At Pentecost the miracle was that of a transformed tongue j here, of a transformed soul and life. No one can estimate the possibilities growing out of this gathering. Who can forecast the work, service, self-denial, heroism, martyrdom, which the next thirty years may develop out of the raw material here gathered Y What wide dispersion over various fields of service and suffering, what testimony to Christ, what missions founded, what schools, hospitals, orphanages, and training institutes for the education and salvation of souls! Only God can look forward far enough to see the final outcome of this great gathering. But a regiment of soldiers in uniform is not a regiment of veterans with torn flags and honorable scars. It remains to be seen how memorable we are to make this convention; how august its place is to be in the plan of God and the march of the ages, by proving ourselves good soldiers, enduring hardness and valiantly fighting the fight of faith. Charles Garrett grandly referred to Sir Charles Trowbridge, who at the distribution of medals in Hyde Park to the heroes of the Crimean 'Val' could not, because he had lost both legs in battle, himself ascend the platform where the honors were conferred; and so the Queen graciously came down to him in his wheeled chair, and with her own hands fixed the medal on his breast. Who among us is to be honored with the Lord's , Well done' ?
"I wish now to add a word to the churches of Christ to support the Student Volunteer Movement by sympathetic recognition of it as a movement under God's leadership and the power of earnest, sympathetic, and importunate prayer. It seems to me that apostolic prayer is almost a lost art in the churches. I believe that the day is comiHg when Christian parents will rear up their children for God and His service as distinctly as the husbandman grows a crop of wheat for the people's bread. Let family life be so hallowed that parental aim and endeavor shall have reference to the proclamation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and not to the amassing of fortunes or the securing of social distinction and titular digni- ties. " Mr. L. D. Wishard telegraphed from Athens: "Let us make the col- leges in all lands mission stations." Five members of the Union, ;now in India, sent a message: "India claims one thousand volunteers." A telegram came from Messrs. R. P. Wilder and J. R. Mott, in at- tendance on a conference of Indian students at Colombo: "Asia's crisis demands thousands of mountain-removing volunteers."
Rev. Egerton Young: "Go with me across the sea to the land of the Red Indians of North America. It is a striklllg fact that the first Protestant mission (in the time of Cromwell) was to these Indians. How deeply interesting are the memories of Eliot and Brainerd, and their work among the redskins! Those to whom they preached have all vanished, and so have their descendants; but their work and testimony remain. Brainerd's journal fell into 1he hands of Carey, Henry Martyn, and John Wesley, and its contents thrilled these men, whose names will never be forgotten in the records of missionary effort. I had my first call to the work in the Northwest, while a city pastor in Hamilton, Onto I counsel the young missionaries to give much attention to the acquisition of the language, so as to be independent of interpreters or interrupters. The advantage to the missionary of having even a little medical knowledge is well illustrated by some of my own experiences among the Indians. My diocese was larger than all England, and I had many rough experiences in travel; but the joy of harvest· in seeing these sons of the chase led to Christ was an ample reward. The power of Christ's Gospel was seen in its uplift of woman. In the old days the Indian men's treatment of the squaws was cruel and terrible indeed. But a change came in the course of years, through the blessed influence of Gospel preaching. " Mr. Young moved and thrilled the meeting by his vivid narration of the wondrous changes thus wrought in the hearts of those Indians, already given to the readers in these pages (July, 1895).
Mrs. Duncan McLaren, of Edinburgh : "Let us ask, ' How the vari- ous nations pray.'" Then Mrs. McLare n pictured the ardent but blind' devotions of faithful Mohammedans, Hindus, Parsees, Chinese, Buddhists 'in Japan-all worshipers of false gods, that see and hear not, and can neither answer nor understand. "How dark would be the outlook if we could look only on such scenes as these; but many of these very heathens have seen the light of the Gospel, and have come to its rising. How ear- nestly the native Christians pray! How they understand the value of intercessory prayer; and they call on us who have long known the Savior to bear them up in our prayers unto God. Their idols have all been abol- ished, and prayers to these are a thing of the past. Many of us in Chris- tian lands might take a humble place beside those native witnesses for the Gospel. Most of the converts in Manchuria are the fruit of the labors of the native converts themselves. How the elevating power of Chrisl;'s Gospel has been seen among the women and the children of heathen lands! God is using even the children to confound the things that are mighty. Does anyone ask if missions pay ~ From far and near the answer comes from lives that have been redeemed and hearts that have been transformed. It is too late to ask such a question. Let our earnest endeavor be to make them pay better in the years to come than they have in the days that are past. If we are faithful His promise is sure-the light shall arise and the darkness shall flee away."
Mr. Charles T. Siudd [after prayer by Professor Simpson,of Edin- burgh, in whose rooms Messrs. Stanley Smith and Studd united in prayer when they spoke to Edinburgh students nine years ago. It was out of that time of revival among Scottish students that the British student movement arose] : " My word to my young friehJs is, 'Do it.' It means something- loss, sacrifice, far more than we anticipate; but if we are not prepared to do it, we must give up saying that we love the Lord Jesus. The sight of so many young men and women stirs one's heart. Let them hear the words of the Apostle: 'I write unto you young men because ye are strong, and have overcome the wicked one.' We must get to know that we can do nothing of ourselves; then the Lord will make His life and power to be manifest in and through us. Think of tbe spiritual destitution of vast regions in China, with its teeming millions of population. ' God is love;' but there is no love anywhere among the Chinese without the Gospel. Think of 400,000,000 souls ignorant of God and Christ; and then think of 40,000,000 of Britisbers who would be insulted if they were thought to be ignorant of these things. What a disproportion in the workers! For all China only 2000 workers, and half of them women; for our own 40,000,000 we have at least 50,000 specially appointed ordained workers, not to speak of private Christians. Think of the cruelty to ani. mals in Chma; worse than that, of the child murders! Still more terri. ble, perhaps, the foot-binding, the occasion of snch nnimaginable cruelty. Notwithstanding these deformed feet, the Chinese wemen, when they get interested in the Gospel, will walk twenty miles with a child on their back to a mission service, being ill treated and neglected all the way. How their lives shame us !
"The wonderful changes that take place through the power of the Gospel are seen very much at the Communion, where you see the people utterly broken down at the fresh view they have received of God's love. I have been asked if I thought the communion was to the Chinese a means of grace when administered by unordained hands; my only answer was, , Rather ! ' [The audience cheered to the echo. ] "God search our Brit. ish hearts as we think of the devotion and self-sacrifice of these Chi. nese converts: of sacrifices, losses, and persecutions endured by those who come out wholly for Christ in a Chinese community. My whole soul goes out in these words, as I think of our Lord's last command: ' Go and do it."
Rev. G. H. C. Macgregor: "Paul's question to disciples at Ephesus was, ' Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed ' ~ We ought to expect a wonderful work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives as Chris· tians, even after conversion, as shown by various incidents in the history of the early Church recorded in the Acts. Wherever the lot of a missionary may be cast there cannot be an adequate blessing on his labors un.less he knows experimentally the fulness of the Holy Spirit. This experience is one that is possible for all believers; it is the birthright of all. Fnrther, it is imperative. God's command is, 'Be filled with the Spirit,' and this command is as binding on a Christian as any other. Do we not need to ask forgiveness from God for the sin of not being thus filled ~ It is our risen and exalted Lord who bestows this blessing. It comes only to the believing, obedient, and snrrendered soul. What hinders 1 Self-will. If we knew in their fulness the meaning of the two words, 'absolute surrender,' most of our difficulties in the spiritual life would vanish. This experience may come to us suddenly, tho not necessarily so. But God can bestow on us an amazingly big blessing in a very short time.
" One of the effects of this bestowment will be an enlargement of our knowledge of the character and purpose of God. The heart blessing of joy is another result. Love one to another, a different relation to the will of God, and to worldly possessions, would also result from this surrender to the fulness of the Holy Spirit. Then it would not be possible for men who had offered their lives to the work of missions to be rejected for want of means to send them forth."
Rev. F. B. Meyer: "This truth about the Spirit needs to be applied in immediate and full submission to God. Those who have an intellectual conception of the enduement of Holy Spirit power must pass on to a conscious claiming and reception of it as a personal experience. Hindrances must be put away, such as lack of separation unto God, power in prayer, consistency in testimony. Before Pelltecost there must come Calvary. We must have our share in the death of Christ before we are ready to be anointed with the Holy Ghost. If there be not a full renunciation of all, it would keep back the soul from claiming and possessing by faith this ineffable blessing of the indwelling, the inworking, and the outgoing of the power of God's mighty Spirit. Take, reckon, and act faith, and as the soul believes so it will be done. This is a deeply solemn and impressive time, and many a soul may here have a silent transaction with God that will color and influence the whole future life."
Miss Gollock (connected with the Bombay settlement, of which more hereafter) : "I spent last winter in India, with its many peoples and its great needs j but since my return I have seldom been able to speak of it, because I feel that missionary inspiration comes more from the personal claims of Christ on the soul than from the needs of any particular country. Paul, in his time of imprisonment, with only his pen free to work, thus summed up his life aspiration: 'To me to live is Christ.' That was the secret of his service j and it forms the deepest consecration text in all the Bible. Those who can underline the text and write their names against it in solemn covenant have learned something of what it is to live. Too many Christians have not realized their right relation to their Lord, If they had, that would settle their relations to work abroad. Not service or success, but Christ, should be the keynote of the Christian life. Christ and the student, hand in hand and heart to heart-that relation lies at the basis of the evangelization of the world. Let every soul face it and see that the Son of God, the Savior of the world, says: 'My son, give Me thy heart.' Before your service He claims yourself. How may this exclusive relationship be manifested in daily life and service, as a preparation for work abroad? There is uo mantle of grace which falls on an outgoing mIsslOnary. He has only what he had before, with many new and strong temptations to be fought. If there has been failure at home there will be failure abroad. If there be not daily and deep communion at home, the habit will not be formed abroad. Give the preparatory years to the deepening of the inner life. Seek to know and walk with Christ by the light and teaching of the Holy Ghost. Then, when the time comes, the student and his Lord will go forth together.
" As to life in the colleges-speaking specially as to women students -some principals and tutors in the colleges will be found to be in sympathy with spiritual things, and others not. In contact with others, remember that Jesus Christ is full of sympathy with everything in formationfar more so than our human teachers. When in doubt on many points, and when seas of thought surge around, remember that Jesus Christ remains ever the same. Put Him honestly and loyally into the center of the life, and He will lead the trusting soul into all truth. When everything else is shaky, hold fast to the Rock of Ages. In the college itself there is a work to do for Christ, beyond and apart from any mental and intellectual calls on the student. From the center Christ we can look out fearlessly in any direction. Returning from India this verse: 'To me to live is Christ,' came with peculiar power to me when in Egypt. The Spirit of God pressed it hon::.e time after time, and it was marked in my Bible. A succeeding visit to Italy, with its artistic seductions, revealed the need of this pledge to look at every phase of life solely from the standpoint of Jesus Christ. College work is not easy work. It may mean reproach, difficulty, and often rebuff; but whoever has said, 'To me to live is Christ,' will go straight on and never mind; not in self-strength, but in dependence on the guidance of the Holy Ghost, looking alone at the glory of Christ.
" This also comes as the motto while working in the Church at home. There is a definite responsibility toward pastor and church organization, and the student who is given up to Christ will seek to manifest Him in all home work. As to the great work of the future, unless Christ is the Life, far better not go abroad at all; but if He is the center of the life at home He will choose the station and the life work. He yearns over heathendom, and there are many posts which only students can properly fill. And the very best equipment is needed. In looking around for a sphere, the well-equipped lady student will perhaps be tempted to think that no post offered is good enough for her capacities! Can we forget that our great Master, with all His powers, human and divine, ' threw Himself away' on Galilean peasants ~ If God has touched our hearts by His Spirit we cannot do better than throw ourselves away like that."
Rev. A. T. Pierson: "This has been a day of the Holy Spirit. I therefore change my intended subject and speak of the relation 'of the Holy Spirit to the character and service of the missionary. We are now preeminently in the dispensation of the Holy Ghost; yet the personality, the presiding presence, and administrative work of the Spirit are very largely ignored. In John 14-16 our Lord tells of the character and province of the Spirit of God. In these chapters we have the foundation of the teaching given in the Acts and the Epistles. He is at once the Spirit of light, of life, of love, and of order. As to character, we are absolutely dependent on the Spirit for all attainments in holiness. Behind all intellectual accomplishment lies character. Holy living is as much the product of supernataral power as was Peter's walking on the water. We are taught in Rom. 8 that the Holy Spirit is the element in which the child of God can alone live, and grow, and prosper.
" We notice about an element five things: "1. It is always greater than the animal that lives in it. "2. It supplies vitality to such animal. "3. It is independent of, yet indispensable to such animal. "4. Elements are contrary one to another, so that the life one nourishes the other stifles. "5. There may be rapid transition from one to the other, as from water to air, etc.
" All these facts have corresponding ones as to the relation of the Holy Spirit and the believer. The Holy Spirit is vaster than any disciple who lives in the Spirit. There may be a transition from one element to the other; but the life of the Spirit cannot be lived in the element of the flesh. , He that abideth in Him sinneth not.' All the great questions about holiness are solved here. There can only be defeat when we walk in the energy of the flesh; but when we walk and live and pray in the Spirit, conquest comes out of defeat.
" As to the service of Christ in the work of missions, we find that the Spirit of God is the channel of Divine activity. He is the organizer of the Church, the edifier of the Church, and the multiplier of the Church. But the Holy Spirit also condescends to guide individuals. As a mother has a care for each member of her family, so. the Holy Ghost, the nursing mother of souls, has a regard for the feeblest babe in Christ. He brings together the seeker and the servant who can give guidance to the inquiring soul. He opens the eyes of the blasphemer, and turns a Saul into a Paul. The Holy Ghost separates every worker to his special work, and sends him forth with a personal authority. He restrains a Paul from Bithynia, and directs him to Macedonia. So in modern times He restrained Carey from going to the South Seas, and directed him to India. So He kept Adoniram Judson from India and sent him to Burmah ; and Livingstone God shut out from China, where he essayed at first to go, and thrust him into the dark continent. If we are wholly given up to the Spirit of God, He will bend the heavens and come down and guide the individual worker to his work. Then seeming failures will -be turned into successes, and we can praise Him through all our diversified pathway. Another thought is that the Spirit gives utterance to the consecrated worker. The God who made man's mouth can take out of it any obstacle to the fullest witnessbearing. There is also the' demonstration of the Spirit,' by which the apostle claimed to speak The Spirit's logical processes are wonderfu1. He reveals God to the unbeliever, and uncovers hell to the accusing conscience. If we have not learned to depend on the Spirit, let us tarry till we do, or our work, whether at home or abroad, will be in vain."
Nothing has been more humiliating than to see European powers stand idly by and witness the wholesale massacre of 25,000 Armenians, with outrages never perhaps paralleled in modern times on an equal scale; and yet all this inertia and apathy due to mutual jealousy! It reminds one of the Jew who fell among robbers, and escaped with his money-bags because the robbers were fighting among themselves as to who should get the booty! Mr. Gladstone's saying describes the situation: "The Sultan triumphant in his dark designs against the Armenians." Cold diplomacy is not the vigorous champion whereby to meet and defeat even the wholesale annihilation of a people and an ancient church.-A. T. P.
NINE CEN'rURIES OF BUDDHISM
NINE CENTURIES OF BUDDHISM.-I.
BY F. B. SRAWE, LADAK, TIBET.
Among the philosophical and religious creeds offered to mankind at the present time to replace Christianity as the road to universal happiness, Buddhism, with its modern offshoot, Theosophy, probably occupies the rforemost place; and it is hardly asserting too much to say that the addresses of Mr. Dharmapala were among the most interesting, attractive, and influential of all speeches delivered at the Chicago Parliament of Religions. The speaker, all alive as he was with fervent belief in his own system, and scathing in his denunciation of what we all know to be the vices of socalled Christendom, could not fail to impart to others a reflection of the fire which he felt glowing within his own breast. But a moment's thought will give us an opportunity of asking: "The Buddhist speaker found enough to blame among us; would we find nothing to blame in Buddhist lapds ?" This is, indeed, a natural question and a vital one, urgently demanding a plain answer. Unless both sides of the question are presented we cannot form a true judgment; and the difficulty for the ordinary European lies in the impossihility for him to live in a Buddhist country and study the daily life of professing Buddhists. Several years' residence in Ladak have placed me in a position to do so, and I propose to note down some of the observations made, placing them for the purpose of easy com- * parison opposite to the theory of Buddhism as stated in Buddhist books.
It cannot be said lhat Ladak is not a fair field for observation, on the ground that Buddhism has not had time to develop its full powers. The date of the introduction of Buddhism into Ladak is uncertain. The great Buddhist King Kanishka, a comtemporary of Christ, claimed authority over Kashmir and Ladak, so that it is possible that Ladaki Buddhism and Christianity are of equal age. But Ladak is at present and has for centuries been in the closest religious connection with Lhasa. In order, therefore, to avoid any overstatement, we will assume that the conversion of Ladak was connected with that of 'l'ibet. Buddhism was introduced there in the eighth century A.D., but probably did not become the ruling religion until the tenth century. Giving Buddhism the full advantage of any doubt, we shall not go wrong in assuming that Buddhism has been established in Ladak since about the year 1000 A.D. , Buddhism has, therefore, had nine centuries to show what it is really capable of. A longer period than this will not be claimed by any religion as necessary to develop its powers.
Nor can it be urged that it is not fair to take for examination a country where the Mahayana form of Buddhism has been propagated. Such would * I must apologize if this method appears somewhat learned. It seems to me to be necessary, if the reader is to fully understand the real state of affairs, and I trnst that my remarks will not be quite devoid of interest, if only on account of the fact that they treat of Ladak, a country the social conditions of which have rarely been treated of by previous writers. indeed be the case if Hinayana Buddhists renounced their Mahayana brethren, much in the same way as a Protestant would object to a purely Roman Catholic country like Spam being taken as an example of a Christian land. Southern Buddhists, however, do not object, and not a voice is raised in Ceylon against the practices of Tibetans. The Maha-Bodhi Society, established for the express purpose of propagating Buddhism, has for its patron the Dalai Lama of Tibet, and for its president the Sthavira (Chief Priest) of Ceylon, while Buddhists from Ceylon, China, Japan, and Burma are mentioned as vice-presidents. Buddhists themselves do not consider Tibetans to be schismatics.
Taking, therefore, Ladak as in every way a fair field for examination, what book shall be taken as a fair exponent of Buddhism ~ Voluminous treatises are unsuitable, but Buddhists have provided short compendiums of their belief. I have before me a Buddhist Catechism by Subhadra Bhikshu. The preface states that the book is written with the express purpose of presenting an epitome of Buddhism to the Western reader. I have not yet met with a disavowal of this book in any Buddhist periodical, and in its tone it is quite what we are accustomed to hear from promoters of Buddhism. * After a short Introduction of six questions, the Catechism is divided into three sections, respectively headed: The Buddha (questions 7-68) ; the Doctrine (questions 69-156) ; and the Brothm'hood of the Elect (questions 157-171). Then follows an Appendix containing the inevitable quotations from the Dhammapada, and finally a number of explanatory notes.
Some remark is called for in regard to the Introduction.
II. 2. What is a Buddhist? Answer. One who reveres the Buddha as thc dispen:;er of spiritual light, the supreme guide and teacher of all living beings; who believes his doctrine, observes his precepts, and has given public and solemn testimony to this by repeating what is called the" Refuge" formula.
If this standard is to be applied, not one Ladaki (or Tibetans generally) can claim to be a Buddhist. In Ladak not the faintest attempt is made to observe the Buddha's precepts, and I have yet to find a Ladaki layman who even claims to know what the precepts contained in the canon are. Some lamas (priests) have made the claim, but failed utterly to substantiate it.
II. 3. What are the words of the formula or declaration so called? Answer. I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doc· trine (Dhamma) ; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood of the Elect (Sangha).
This formula is constantly on the lips of the people, but I have never heard it repeated as a" solemn testimony." It is gabbled over hundreds * I cannot pause to criticise the book at present, bllt take it for what it asserts itself to be, "an outline of the doctrine of the Bnddha Gautama." If each question were fully dealt with, a large volume would have to be written, lind I am obliged to contine myself to what appears to be the most important points. of times in the same way as the celebrated" Six Syllable" :nrayer, to be noticed hereafter. Scarcely any Ladaki can give any meaning for the words; much less is the orthodox meaning attached. On inquiring what the three " Refuges" are, I have been repeatedly informed that they are the so-called Dalai Lama of Lhasa, the Panchen Lama of Trashilhunpo~ and the Dharma Rajah of Bhotan.
Now follows part first of the Catechism-the Buddha: II. 8. Is the Buddha a God who has revealed himself to mankind? Answer. No. II. 10. Then he was a man? AnBwer. .. Yes; but a man far superior to ordinary men; one of a series of self-enlightened supreme Buddhas who appear at long intervals in the world, and are morally and spiritually so superior to erring, suffering mankind, that to the childlike conceptions of the multitude they appear as Gods or Messiahs; The Tibetan word for" refnge" is "konchog j" Buddha is "Konchog," which cannot be equivalent to "God" according to Buddhist theory. But with reference to " konchog" Jaeschke says in his dictionary: "To every Tibetan ' konchog , suggests the idea of some supernatural power, the exio;tence of which he feels in his heart." In Ladak I have often asked: "Why does the rain fall~" Answer." Konchog sends it." Prayers are offered to " Konchog" for snow. In arguing about the origin of the universe, the few thinking laymen and lamas usually admit that the world must have been created by " Konchog." Protestant missionaries use the word " Konchog" for " God," and are never understood to mean anyone of the three" refuges." Therefore tho the single person Buddha, the abstract doctrine, and the purality of persons the " Brotherhood" are each of them "KoncllOg," the Ladaki know of another " konchog" as God far above any Buddha and carefully distinguished from the deities they ordinarily worship, which are designated by the word " Iha." In this case the Ladaki are better than their creed.
In the following questions and answers (13-68) the history of Gautama is given_ Of this history, the Ladaki, laymen or clerics, know absolutely nothing. Nor does this ignorance in any way trouble them. The Buddha is of no importance whatsoever; he is quite pushed aside in favor of a crowd of deities, demons, and saints, of whom the Hindu deities, Shiva and Kali (Durga), and the saint Urgyan Padma are the most prominent. Subhadra has, however, woven into the history of the Buddha a few remarks on his teaching which call for comparison with the actual state of affairs.
II. 28. Did he (Gautama) nevertheless persevere in his ascetic life? AnBwer. No. He was now convinced that asceticism . . . was only a stumbling· block in the way of truth and moral perfection. (In a note to this passage we are further informed:)" For this reason Buddhism rejects all self-torture and mortification of the flesh as useless and injurious.
If this be so, why are hermits looked upon as unusually holy men ~ Both lamas and laymen sometimes take upon themselves vows of silence and retire to caves in the hills. In the autobiography of Mila Raspa, a very popular book, the author tells us that he once retired to a cave, and, placing a butter lamp on his head, he remained motionless until the butter was exhausted-a period of eleven months. In a later period of retirement he was reduced to absolute nakedness, and subsisted entirely upon nettles until his whole body became green like a caterpillar. Tibetan books abound with similar stories of a more marvelous nature, the inference drawn being that the greater the asceticism the greater the moral merit and holiness attained. Such people are, however, only known as Ilaving existed formerly; at the present time cases are not wanting in which a man and woman have withdrawn for such periods. of " meditation" (anglice-absolute mental vacuity and sleep) to caves or huts not very far apart, with the result that the woman has subsequently given birth to a child.
In a note to II. 43 we are informed that Buddhism neither denies nor affirms the existence of gods. Everyone is free to believe in one or a plurality of gods if he has a wish to do so.
Ladaki, and Tibetans generally, know of an infinite number of deities, both male and female (called "lha," not "konchog"). Deities taken from the Hindu pantheon play an important part. But besides these originally Hindu divinities, every village, every hill, every spring has its own deity, whose rights must be respected. A Hindu vVazir of Ladak once caused some stones to be removed from a sacred hill near Leh, and the epidemic of small-pox occurring in the autumn of the same year was universally attributed to the wrath of the god of the hill in question. The gods of springs must be propitiated by offerings, and to remove stones surrounding the spring is a heinous offense. * To cut down or lop certain trees would bring untold calamities on the inhabitants of the nearest village.
Only a short time ago a woman of Leh hit her foot with a mattock while working in her field. As the foot was swollen and painful on the following day, a lama was called in for advice. After consulting his books he replied that the accident had been caused by the local god of the field; for this reason medicines were useless, but religious services should be held to propitiate the offended deity. The woman accordingly went to great expense to pay the lamas for performing services j but as their efforts during a fortnight proved of no avail, she finally came to the missionary for medical treatment.. During this time the wound had ulcerated so badly that upward of six months were required to effect a cure. And all this solely because Buddhism "neither affirms nor denies the existence of gods.". On another occasion a woman came with a very painful fistula in the lower jaw, of which a large portion was found to be detached. She stated that it had been caused by a " lu"-i.e., a snake demon residing in .. With regard to springs, the Ladaki point to the air bubbles rising with the water as eonclusivQ proof that the deity beneath Is alive and breathing.
MONASTERY, LADAK
Palace of the former kings. A VIEW OF THE TOWN OF LEH, LADAK.
NINE CENTURIES Oil' BUDDHISM
springs and running streams. Renewed inquiry elicited the fact that at the time the trouble began a native practitioner had extracted a molar tooth from the same jaw. She was, however, in no way shaken in her idea of the cause of her trouble by the very natural inference that the man had broken her jaw on that occasion.
A curious custom in Ladak is the so-called" pa-spun," by which a number of families join together in forming a sort of burial society under the protection of some particular god or goddess. Once a year the members of this union assemble and present to the image of the deity a goat, together with a cupful of the water and droppings of the animal. It is of great importance that the goat tremble in presence of the image, for if it should not tremble the enraged deity will revenge itself on the members of the union. The goat is henceforth holy, and is neither shorn nor slaughtered. At the same time a sealed pot of barley is placed before the image. On the occasion of the following annual offering this pot is opened, and if the barley is found to have been transformed into wheat, it is a sign that the deity will procure a good harvest to its adorers. I have been repeatedly aS8ured that this miraculous change often takes place! Unbiassed observers will think it a pity that Bnddhism has not; dared to pronounce decisively on the question of a plurality of gods, but has left its votaries open to relapse into or to remain in idolatry and harmful superstitions.
In the note to II. 54 Subhadra says: .. Each member of the Brotherhood (i.e., each priest, lama) is provided with one of these bowls (i.e., alms-bowls), in which he collects the daily food."
On certain stated occasions the lamas do go begging, but this is a mere form. The lamas hve on the revenues of the monastery and never beg their daily food in the sense that they depend upon begging for means of sustenance. When on a pilgrimage they find hospitality in the houses of the laity, but so do laymen engaged in the same way. Nor do the lamas ever carry an alms-bowl. They have a wooden cup designated by the same name and of precisely the same shape and manufacture as those of the laity. Both cleric and lay always carry such a cup about with them. I have, however, more than once seen a sturdy lama walking through the fields dispensing blessings to the bowing people, while a man behind him groaned nnder the burden of huge sheaves of corn which he was carrying home for the lama.
The note to II. 55 reads: " No member of the Brotherhood is allowed to go unattended into the house of a woman." .
Nevertheless they go, often for immoral purposes. In the answer to II. 61'" !le Buddha's words explaining the necessity of his dea1h are quoted as f( llows : .. There is no such thing as eternal duration. Everything born … of neces. eity inherits dissolution. How, then, could it be possible that any human being, yea, even a supreme Buddha, should Dot be dissolved ?"
Ladaki, in common with all Tibetan Buddhists, however, are wiser than the Buddha, and their" avatar" system is in direct contradiction to his doctrine. The avatars are saints who might at any time enter into Nirvana, but who decline to do so, as they would thus be deprived of the possibility of " furthering the welfare of wandering beings." On death they therefore promptly reincarnate themselves in some child and resume their position at the head of their monastery. The most import,ant and celebrated of these avatars are the Dalai Lama of Lhasa and the Panchen Lama of Trashilhunpo, in Central Tibet j but every monastery of importance has its own avatar-usually tlle founder of the institution. The superiority of these avatars over the supreme Buddha is evident. Gautama taught and then extinguished himself forever in Nirvana. He was, therefore, at bottom a very selfish being, while the Tibetan saints in their compassion are willing continually to refuse the repose of Nirvana and to reenter this world of trouble. The above-mentioned Mila Raspa explicitly says that the doetrine of Southern Buddhists is really very selfish, and that the Tibetan form is far higher. Of course the avatars will have to disappear at the end of the present kalpa or world age, when everything comes to dissolution. Strictly speaking, therefore, they also are finite j but as the end may not come for billions of billions of years, they are for all practical purposes immortal, and the forty-five years of the Buddha's career make a very poor show when compared to this boundless perseverance in loving compassion.
The infinite absurdities connected with this system cannot be described here, but two special cases deserve mention.
The head monastery of the red lama sects in Ladak, Hemis, had been for many years unlucky with its avatars. A number of them in succession died young, before their education in Tibet had been completed. In despair a young avatar was finally bought for 1000 rupees from the yellow sect and solemnly enthroned in Hemis in 1891. This story was several times repeated to me, and not till they noticed that it was used to point out the absurdity of their whole belief did the people turn round. Now, of course, it is as stontly denied as it was asserted then.
In the autumn of 1892 there was a small-pox epidemic in Ladak which carried off a large number of people. In the following spring small-pox occurred only in a single village and in the Trikse monastery, the avatar of which died. The 'explanation givon me by a lama was that he had voluntarily died as an offering in order to stay the small-pox. But why did he, then, not die in the previous year, when the small-pox was really bad ~ His death at the time it took place was remarkably post festum. Moreover, the avatar of the Spituk monastery had caused himself to be vaccinated, evidently to avoid death j he must therefore be less compassionate than his colleague at Trikse. Yet both are alike absolutely devoid of all sin and love of life, inasmuch as both of them could at any time enter Nirvana should they choose to do so. Here is a bad dilemma for a Buddhist.
In this Catechism there now follows the famous story of the boar's flesh. By an ingenious disposition of the matter Subhadra gives the impression that the boar's flesh had nothing to do with the Buddha's death, a view which in the opinion of most authorities on Buddhism is contrary to the meaning of the sacred record. But we are here in1 erested in the explanation given by Sughadra of the Buddha's motives. The story is as follows : A certain Chunda offered the Buddha rice, cakes, and boar's flesh. Taking the pork for himself, the Buddha ordered the rice and cakes to be given to his companions. At the close of the meal he said: " Whatever is left over of the meat, that bury in a hole, for there is none in heaven and earth, among Samanas or Brahmanas, among gods or men, by whom such food may be eaten without hurt to himself save alone the Tathagata" –i.e., Buddha. Sudha'-'ra comments: II. 66. What did the Buddha mean by saying so ? Answer. He wished to intimate to his lay adherents that the flesh of ani· mals is no proper food for men and beings of a higher order, and that everyone who partakes thereof does it to the injury of his own body and mind.
This answer involves us in great difficulties. If the Buddha really considered flesh to be harmful, why did he, as stated in the Kangyur, allow its use under certain conditions and not expressly forbid it q The intimation conveyed here is so dark that Ladaki Buddhists may be excused for not understanding it. They are to a great extent vegetarians, not of choice, but of necessity. Meat is too costly to be a regular article of diet, but it is an essential part of every good dinner. The people are so eager for meat that the carcasses of fallen cattle are always consumed. Further, why is this instruction given only to the" lay adherentR" ~ Are we to suppose that what is harmful to the layman is good for the cleric ~ If so, the Ladaki monastic practice of eating as much meat as possible might be excused. Unfortunately, however, one monastery in Ladak does not even allow any meat to be brought ncar the buildings, thus plainly showing that flesh is forbidden food, as indeed it must be, because meat involves the slaughter of animals and the taking of life, which is contrary to one of the fundamental rules of Buddhism.
II. 67. Why did the Buddha take some of the wild boar's flesh himself? Answer. Because he was anxious not to infringe his own precepts, accord-' ing to which the brethren (i.e., the clerics, lamas, monks) are not allowed, to refuse anything that is kindly offered them.
This answer is marvelous. The Buddha pronounces a thing bad j but if it is "kindly offered" it becomes good, or at least indifferent! In other words, if an ignorant layman entice a monk to do wrong, the latter is at liberty to do so with impunity provided the intention was kindly. Can this be Buddhist doctrine ~ Then the lamas are certainly blameless in habitually transgressing nearly every rule of their order. But then why make rules at all ~ They are evidently, like pie crust, " made to be broken. "
(To be continued.)
THE CHANGE OF FRONT IN INDIA
THE CHANGE OF FRONT IN INDIA.
BY REV. JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, M.D., D.D., OF MADANAPALLE, INDIA.
A generation has fully passed since the writer, in 1859, joined the ranks of those attempting the conquest of India for Christ. How different the condition and the outlook then and now! Then India was just emerging from the troublous and turbulent times of the great Sepoy Rebellion. The sway of the East India Company, which had been growing for some two centuries, had recently been merged into the rule of Great Britain's Queen, and religious t.oleratiou had been proclaimed throughout her dominions. Then the first two hundred miles of railway had just been opened; now some twenty thousand miles run through all the provinces. Then Western education was in its infancy ; now fifteen millions of the educated classes all through the land, but chiefly in the large cities, freely use the English language, and are more or less well up in Western science and Western thought, the vernaculars, however, still retaining undisputed sway in the households of all.
Then Hinduism was as firmly seated on its throne as it had been at any time since the days of Moses. It had, indeed, passed through a slow process of modification, of deterioration. The essential monotheism of the Vedas of Moses' age had degenerated into the polytheism of the Shastras and the Puranas, and, farther, into the gross forms of idolatry o! the later period, with its three hundred and thirty millions of deities, named and unnamed. The system of caste, invented long after the Vedic times, and gradually imposed upon the people, binding them hand and foot and preventing all genuine progress, still manifested all its power, and one would sooner die than break caste rules and lose his caste and so his soul.
Then Hindus thoroughly believed and upheld and practised their religion. Then Benares, Tirupati, Sri Rangam, Rameshwaram, and the host of holy places were monthly thronged with their scores of thousands, and in their yearly festivals by their hundred thousand pilgrims, and on all the roadways you would meet the returning pilgrims with two brass pots hanging from their kavadi, or neck-yoke, filled with holy water at the Ganges, and replenished at each of the sacred streams as they wearily walked their thousands of miles to their distant homes. Then they believed in the efficacy of these pilgrimages and penances and tortures.
In February, 1861, I met a venerable Brahman pilgrim who told me of his sixty years of pilgrimages-of twice ten thousand miles-to every sacred shrine in India, all made on foot and begging his food by the way. " And yet," said he, sadly and with disappointment-" and yet the burdEln of sin is just as heavy as when, a young man, I started on this quest. Oh, Rir, does your Veda tell how I can get rid of this burden of sin, and be at peace with God?" One sees no such pilgrims now.
Then hook-swinging and spike-walking and self-torture and immolation were real verities. Yearly the shrine of Juggernaut saw its throngs of a hundred thousand devotees, from hundreds or thousands of miles of toilsome pilgrimage, and thousands gripped the long cables dragging the ponderous car of Juggernaut, while devotees were throwing themselves beneath its wheels.
Now all is changed. Britain's sway, indeed, has put a stop to torture and immolation, but the waning faith of the people in their religion has been putting a more effective quietus to the ancient order of things, until recently Juggernaut's priests issued the dismal wail that not enough pilgrims came to pull the car around its annual outing, and scarce were they able, with all the coolies they could hire, to move it back to its home.
The throngs of devout worshipers, making toilsome journeys with costly gifts, have ceased. Lessening multitudes now go, indeed, but by train, with more or less comfort, to many of the shrines, and perfunctorily engage in some of the less irksome ceremonies, but little or none of the religious spirit is seen.
Then the rich endowments of the temples were yearly increased by the liberal gifts of those who believed they could thus buy release from sin. Now myriads of temples are slowly going to ruin, and a wail comes up from the priests of the most noted shrines at the smallness of the offerings, while the people are openly accusing the priests of squandering in voluptuous licentiousness the revenues from the endowments of the pious dead. But let us note Hindu testimony upon this point.
One hundred of the chief residents of Tirupati, the most noted shrine of Southern India, signed and sent a memorial to the Viceroy of India in May, 1894, calling his attention to the desperate condition of Hindu religious endowments in general and of those of Tirupati in particular, and praying that government would provide more efficient means of safeguarding the interests of such endowments.
The ])aily .Hindu, one of the strongest native papers in India, the organ of the orthodox Hindus of Madras, published the memorial, and thus commented upon it : " We may well feel shocked at the true yet wondrous tales of huge frauds and heinous crimes which the memorialists have catalogued. The glory has departed out of our religious institutions, and what once contributed to purify the minds of millions of men and women are now the grovelling ground of some of the most ignorant and wretched of human beings, . . . who merely wallow in a mire of voluptuous pastimes, wasting the pious contributions of the widow and the orphan, and breeding around them a whole host of idle, able-bodied vagabonds. The vast majority of these endowments are corrupt to the core. They are a festering mass of crime and vice and gigantic swindling."
What a change of front since the leaders of Hindu thought were the ardent supporters and rich benefactors of these very temples !
The Reis and Rayyet, an influential Calcutta orthodox Hindu paper, sneers at Mrs. Besant's ecstallies over the beauties of Hinduism, and justly says: " Vhen an English lady, of decent culture, professes to be au admirer of Tantric mysticism and Krishna worship, it behooves every well-wisher of the country to tell her plainly that sensible men do not want her elo- quence for gildiug what is rotten. . . .
" If the Upanishads [commentaries on the Vedas, etc.] have a charm for Mrs. Besant., she is quite welcome to proclaim her views on the sub- ject. But the Upanishads do not form any part of the religion of the Hindus as it is found in their every-day life. In actual practise they are either Sivites or Saktas or Krishna worshipers. In fact, abomination wor- ship is the main ingredient of modern Hinduism, and we therefore ask Mrs. Besant to study the subject a little more carefully than she yet appears to have done. If she will follow our advice she may, provided she is sincere herself, admit sooner or later that the course she is now pursuing is fraught with mischief."
Of the Brahmanic priesthood in India at the present day, The Hindu, the representative native newspaper before referred to, speaks in these scorching words : " Profoundly ignorant as a class, and infinitely selfish, it is the mainstay of every unholy, immoral, and cruel custom and superstition in our midst, from the wretched dancing girl, who insults the Deity by her existence, to the pining child-widow, whose every tear and every hair of whose head shall stand up against everyone of us who tolerate it on the Day of Judgment; and of such a priestly class our women are the ignorant tools and helpless dupes."
It seems now to be the profound conviction of all thoughtful Hindus that Hinduism as it now exists, as it was when Christian missions began their campaign in India, as it has been for the last thousand years, must go.
" The stanch, orthodox Brahman editor of a vernacular newspaper" is quoted by The Missionary, London, as taking this gloomy view of the situation: " We entertain no more any hope for that religion which we consider dearer to us than our life. Hinduism is now on its death-bed, and, unfortunately, there is no drug which can be safely administered to it for its recovery. There are native Christians nowadays who have declared a terrible crusade against the entire fabric of Hinduism, and many men of splendid education are also coming forth, even from our own community [Brahmans], who have already expressed a desire to accept Christianity, and should these gentlemen really become first Christians and then its preachers, they will give the last death-blow to Mother Hinduism. This terrible crusade is now carried on by Christians with a tenacity of purpose and a devotion which in themselves defy failure."
But while all thoughtful Hindus seem to agree that Hinduism, in its modern form at least, must go, they are not by any means agreed as to what shall take its place. All agree in fighting aggressive Christianity.
They have even borrowed Christian tactics, and have formed in many cities of India "Hindu Tract and Preaching Societies," and are issuing millions of pages of tracts attacking Christianity and scattering them broadcast. Some of them are of a most blasphemous character and filled with grossest falsehood. Others are simply designed to arouse Hindus to a sense of their danger. One of these, as translated from Tamil by Dr.
J. W. Scudder, makes use of the following language, a singular admission for enemies to make : "How many thousands of thousands have these missionaries turned to Christianity. and keep on turning! On how many more have they east their nets! If we sleep as heretofore, in a short time they will turn all to Christianity without exception, and our temples will be changed into churches. Is there no learned Pandit to be secured for money who will crush the Christians ~ " Do you not know that the number of Christians is increasing, and the number of Hindu religionists decreasing every day ~ How long will water remain in a reservoir which continually lets out but receives none in ~ Let all the people join as one man 10 banish Christianity from our land."
There are three distinct trends of thought ou the part of those who unitedly oppose aggressive Christianity.
One party seeks to resuscitate Vedic Hinduism j to purge modern Hinduism of all its undesirable later accretions, and restore it to its pris- tine purity. But no two agree as to what its" undesirable accretions"
are, nor as to what the" pristine purity" should consist in. Some say that it must be monotheistic and without caste. Others wish to retain a few of the more popular gods, and to keep up caste distinctions. There seems at present no prospect of an agreement as to what this" Revival of Hinduism" should consist in, tho there are multitudes of preachers of such a revival. What will be the outcome of this no one can say.
The second trend is toward the acceptance of a Christianity without Christ-that is, the accepting of Christ's teachings as a system of moral- ity, without accepting the name of Christians, and without admitting Christ to be Divine.
The Indian Social Reformer, edited by non-Christian Hindus, in a notice of the American Arcot Mission's annual report for 1894, makes this evident, as in the following extract: "Why does not Christianity progress ~ The situation at present, admits the report, is 'unpleasant and disheartening' to the missionary. 'Why ~ The reason, to our minds, is this: The ordinary missionary attaches more value to the name than to the spirit of Christ, and judges of his labors by the number of his [avowed] converts. The true Christian spirit, which is also the true spirit of all faith, is making way. It is so very difficult for our missionary friends to see that the mind which revolts from the dogmas and extravagances of Hinduism will not accept those of Christianity j that the man who rejects the theory of the incarnation of Rama would not believe in that of Christ. No j no. Emancipation is once for all. A godlike man is still a man and not god. There is our difference with onr Christian brother in a nutshell.
" We concede that Christ is one of the most perfect, the noblest of men. We read the Bible and listen a we-struck to the Sermon 011 the Mount, and pass on to the soul-stirring sacrifice on Calvary. Does It move us one whit less-this immortal heroism-that we believe that the hero was a man ~ And why do you want more /" A few would go still further in their admissions, and in their willing- ness to borrow from Christianity, even professing to believe in the incar- nation of Christ, but, with the same breath, declaring that they believe Buddha and Zoroaster to be incarnations of the deity.
The A1mita Bazaar Patrika, a stubbornly orthodox Hindu newspaper of North India, in an editorial has these words: " There is scarcely an edncated man in India who has not read the Bible. It is impossible for a Hindu not to feel a profound respect for the Bible. The real fact is that every true Hindu is a believer in Christ also. There is not a true Hindu all over India who does not believe in the Avatar [incarnation] of Christ. Indeed, in the matter of devotion to Christ the Hindus and Christians are on a perfecHy equal level. There cannot be the least objection on the part of a Hindu to pray, , Save me, Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ.' "
They would simply add Christ, with His inimitable life and teachings to their pantheon, but remain Hindus or non-Christians all the same. To this end "The Arjya Literary Society in Calcutta, composed of non- Christian Bengali gentlemen," we are told, " are now engaged in translating the Bible into classical Bengali. They have asked and obtained the assistance of representative men of the Christian communities, lest anything should appear in the translation which should make it anti- Christian in tone."
The third distinct, trend is toward agnosticism, and this I regard as the most portentous trend of all, for it exists not only among those who openly so avow themselves, but untold numbers who for social reasons ally themselves with some one of the other parties, have really thrown themselves into blank and cheerless agnosticism, and the number is increasing faster than we know.
There is, however, in spite of all the above-mentioned opposition, an unquestionable undercurrent tending toward evangelical Christianity. There came to me secretly in my tent, when out upon a tour, a native gentleman high in office, in caste, in social position, wishing to have a private conversation with me on the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to be the Savior of the world. After a somewhat extended conversation he said to me, in substance: " Sir, I am not a Christian. I am still regarded as a devout Hindu. I still perform enough Hindu ceremonies to avoid suspicion, but in my heart I dare not deny the claims of the Bible. I see the power of Jesus Christ in the lives of His followers so distinctly that I cannot deny His Divinity. He must be Divine or He could not work such a change in the lives of those who become His disciples. He is not yet my Savior. Caste, wealth, position, family, all hold me back; but even now I never allow Him to be spoken against in my presence. I have long been reading the Bible in secret. The more I read of Christ and ponder over His life and teachings, and the power to conquer sin which comes from embracing His
TilE PItESENT POSITION OF THE AN'fI·OPIUM MOVEMENT
religion, the more do I feel that in the end I shall have to accept Him at any cost, as my personal Savior; but how can I do it now and bring ruin upon my family ~"
There are more such than we have any idea of. The surface currents so often fail tQ tell what the deep-sea movemeuts are.
Sir Charles Elliott, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, for thirty years a close observer of missionary activities and missionary problems in many provinces in India, said in a public address: " There is unquestionably an undercurrent working among the higher classes in India toward Christianity in spite of all the open manifestations against it, and we may look forward with confident expectation to the day when all India shall bow at the feet of Christ, who alone can uplift, purify, and save."
This changed front, then, gives royal vantage ground to work for India's redemption. The old apathy; the old supercilious indifference ;, the old silent, ~ut dogged resistance; the old conviction that naught could shake Hinduism's firm foundations has passed away, and passed never to return. Religious thought in India is drifting hither and yon. The time to rally all Christ's forces has come. Let earnestness of effort and persistence in prayer bring out and energize these secret half-disciples. Thf! currents that are veering away from Christianity may now, by God's blessing on trebled effort, be turned toward the Cross of Calvary, and India yet be won in this generation. The time for work is now.
THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ANTI-OPIUM MOVEMENT.
BY JOSEPH G. ALEXANDER, HON. SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE OPIUM TRADE.
India's upium traffic with China has been the subject of protest from English Christians, and even from upright men who do not call themselves followers of Christ, ever since the year 1839, when the Rev. A. S. Thelwall published a pamphlet entitled" The Iniquities of the Opium Trade with China." That same year saw the temporary stoppage of the traffic by the Chinese Government. Its seizure of contraband opium was abundantly justified by international morality, tho all its proceedings toward British subjects cannot be defended. The result was the Opium War of 1840, of which Mr. Gladstone said at the time, in the House of Commons, that he had never read of " a war more unjust in its origin or more calculated to cover this country with permanent disgrace;" while Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, wrote of it as "a national sin of the greatest possible magnitude." China was humiliated and compelled to pay an indemnity for the opium so righteously destroyed, and the trade flourished more than ever. In 1858, after a second war, not so directly connected with opium, China consented to legalize the traffic and to share the revenue derived from it. How reluctantly she took this step is proved by the dignified remonstrance addressed by the Tsring-li Yamen (Foreign Board) of China to the British Minister at Peking in 1869, in which England was entreated to join with China in joint measures for the total suppression of the poppy culture and opium manufacture in both India and China. To this document no reply has ever yet been vouchsafed.
The first leader of the movement was the good Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1843, while still a member of the House of Commons, and in 1859, after his succession to the peerage, he brought forward motions in Parliament attacking the traffic. The first parliamentary division on the subject was taken in 1870 by Sir 'Wilfrid Lawson, now so well known as the leader of the temperance party iu the British House of Commons. His attack was repulsed by 151 to 47 votes. From that time onward the agitation has been continuously kept up. In 1874 was formed the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, with Lord Shaftesbury as its first president, and for its parliamentary leader Sir Joseph Pease, a member of the Quaker family which is inseparably connected with the name of George Stephenson and the early history of railway enterprise, and himself at the present time chairman of one of our great English railways, the North Eastern. Other organizations have since been formed with similar objects.
In 1885 the movement won its first victory in the settlement of the long-standing difficulty with regard to the opium clauses of the Chefoo Convention. This settlement, under which the Chinese Government obtained a greatly increased share of the profits derived from Indian opium imported into China, proved a barren victory for the friends of morality, as the decrease in the import of Indian opium has been but small, and has been far more than made up by the increased production in China itself. It has, however, greatly diminished the profits obtained by the Indian Government from the trade in opium, and may thus have an important bearing on the ultimate issue of the agitation.
In 1891 the House of Commons virtually adopted, by a majority of 161 to 130, Sir Joseph Pease's motion declaring" the system by which the Indian opium revenue is raised" to be " morally indefensible." This vote led to some concessions by tIle British Government, mainly with regard to the increasing consumption of opium in India itself. This side of the question had recently come into prominence; and there was only too much reason to fear that an unscrupulous and influential section of the Indian Government were desirous of stimulating the consumption of opium in India in order to compensate for the loss of profits from the China trade. Even the modicum of reform announced in the Honse of Commons was very imperfectly carried out in India.
In the autumn of 1892, as the result of the general election of that year, Mr. Gladstone's last administration came iuto power. Most of his colleagues in the House of Cbmmons had voted with Sir Joseph Pease in the division of the previous year; and an early appeal was made to the new Secretary of Statc for India, Lord Kimberley, to give effect to the policy endorsed by the votes of his colleagues. The influential deputation which waited on him could scarcely have had a more unfavorable reception. Lord Kimberley told them plainly that India could not afford to dispense with so important a revenue as that derived from the opium traffic, and he held out no hope of reform, with one noteworthy exception. He promised that in Burma, where the Buddhist priesthood and the Christian missionaries were equally opposed to the traffic, and even the officials bore unanimous testimony to the disastrous effects of opium on the Burmese, a measure of prohibition should be granted. This promise was eventually carried out; and tho the measure is faulty in several respects, especially in being applicable only to the Burmese and Karens, it is undoubtedly a great reform, and the most important positive result yet attained by the antiopium movement.
Lord Kimberley'S hostile attitude rendered it necessary again to bring the subject before the House of Commons. Accordingly in June, 1893, a resolution was proposed which, arter referring to the vote of 1891, asked that practical measure; be taken to carry it out by the appointment of a commission charged to inquire, not into the morality of the opium traffic, but into the best mode of satisfying the legitimate needs of the Indian exchequer while dispensing with the revenue from opium, without any increased pressure on the tax-payers of India. The motion proposed to refer it to the commission to inquire whether a temporary grant from the British exchequer would be necessary for this object. Mr. Gladstone's government, however, yielding to the pressure of the India Office, refused to accept such an inquiry. It met the motion by an amendment proposing a commission for a very different purpose-namely, to inquire" whether the growth of the poppy and manufacture and sale of opium in British India should be prohibited except for medical purposes, and whether such prohibition could be extended to the native States." The inquiry was to include various subsidiary points, as to the effect on the finances of India, the consumption of opium in the different districts of India, and, finally, the willinguess of the Indian people" to bear in whole or in part the cost of prohibitive measures." The Government resolution was carried, after a plausible speech from Mr. Gladstone himself, by 184 votes to 105, the latter figures representing the strength of the anti.opium party in the House of Commons.
The commission was constituted of nine members. Lord Brassey, the president, is a man of enormous wealth, considerable ability, and that kind of reputation as a philanthropist which is not very hard to acquire by a kind. hearted man who can figure well at public functions and can give away large sums of money. He is a man of extraordinary vacillation of purpose; but this weakness is combined with a shrewd perception of the line of conduct likely to lead to popularity and advancement. Since the close of the commission he has been appointed to an Australian governorship. Besides Lord Brassey, the commission was composed of two Anglo-Indian officials; a medical man and a Conservative member of Par- liament, who were supposed to be impartial members; two representatives of the anti-opium party, Mr. Arthur Pease and Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P.; and two Hindu gentlemen of high standing.
The English members of the commission began their work in the autumn of 1893 by a week's sittings in London, where evidence was taken from various ex-officials, missionaries, and others from India, China, and the Straits Settlements. They then proceeded to India, where they were joined by the native commissioners, and made a four months' tour, beginning at Calcutta anu proceeding by way of Northern India to Bombay, taking evidence at various centers along the route.
Bishop Thoburn has remarked that the commission visited India at a peculiarly unfavorable time. The ever-swelling military expenditure on the northwest frontier of India, combined with the continuous depreciation of the silver currency, causing an aggravation of the weight of the" home charges"-that is, the sums payable by India to England, in gold, for pensions, furlough allowances, and interest on loans-had brought about a deficit in Indian finance. At such a time to talk of cutting off the revenue derived from the sale of opium to the Chinese seemed to most residents in India, whether European or native, who had anything that might be taxed, a most untimely display of morality. The official world of India was strongly opposed 10 the anti-opium agitation; and it is difficult for Englishmen or Americans, accustomed to the air of perfect freedom, to conceive the influence possessed by Government in India, especially as regards the nath-e population. Under these circumstances, it cannot be deemed surprising that a great mass of evidence, extenuating the evils of the opium habit, extolling it as "an unconscious safeguard" against malaria, and attributing to it other (sometimes contradictory) beneficial consequences, was brought before the commission. The really astonishing thing is that there were everywhere found witnesses-missionaries, native Christians, and a considerable number of gentlemen from the small but important class of Indian social reformers-who came forward boldly to express the conviction that the opium habit, in whatever form, is a curse and a disgrace.
The majority of the English commissioners readily accepted the crude theories and loose statements put forward by the official witnesses and supported· by the Europeans and Indians whom they had mustered to support them. In the course of their Indian tour, all of them, except Messrs. Pease and Wilson, had plainly shown their bias toward the views prevalent among the Anglo-Indian officials by whom they were surrounded, and frequently entertained. The medical member of the commission, Sir William Roberts, as has been pointed out recently in the Indian Medical Record, an influential Calcutta paper, was strongly predisposed by his own published writings to the view put forward by several leading official doctors in that city, that opium-eating (more properly, swallowing), which is the common Indian form of the habi1:, has some special relation to the racial and climatic conditions of India. He had propounded the general theory tha1; all habits of taking stimulants, such as alcohol, tea, and coffee, are in themselves wellnigh conclusive evidence of some craving which they satisfy. When, therefore, these Calcutta doctors applied his theory of the benefit of " dietetic stimulants" by boldly asserting, on the flimsiest possible foundation of observation,that opium performed just the same service in assisting the digestion of the poor Indian ryot which alcohol had been asserted by Sir William Roberts to fulfill in the case of the English laborer, he readily accepted this opportune confirmation of his own pet idea, and worked it out in an appendix to the majority report. The Indian Medical RecQ1·d has shown, however, that stubborn facts and figures are absolutely irreconcilable with this theory. One of each must suffice as a specimen. The fact is, that the Indian ryot, except in a few districts, which are or have been poppy-growing tracts, does not consume opium at all j the figures show that, on a careful computation (see Mr. 'Wilson's Minority Report, par. 21, and notes M and N), not more than four in a thousand of the total population of India are habitual opium consumers, and that among these the urban populations supply the greatest proportion, while the least proportion is found in some of the most malarious districts.
Before leaving Bombay the commissioners, except Mr. Wilson, who was kept away by an attack of fever, drew up a series of resolutions to form the basis of their final report. The report itself, however, did not appear till fourteen months later, having been drafted in London by a fresh secretary, an India Office official, who had not been with the commission in India, and who incurred the censure of the Secretary of State for India by communicating to the Times, some days before its presentation to Parliament, an extremely one-sided and misleading summary of its contents. This report, which justified the opium policy of the Indian Government in every respect, bore the signatures of all the commissioners except Mr. Wilson. Even Mr. Arthur Pease, Sir Joseph Pease's brother, had been prevailed upon to sign it. Mr. Pease is a Christian man, and had no doubt brought himself to believe that it was his duty to do so. He had not taken a very active part in the anti-opium movement before being placed on the commission j during his tour in India he moved almost exclusively in official circles j and his close political alliance with the liquor interest at home, through whose assistance he has since succeeded in gaining a muchcoveted seat in Parliament, was not calculated to make him enthusiastic for the suppression of the Indian opium traffic.
The two Indian commissioners, who did not come to England to join in the final discussion of the report, appended to it separate memoranda containing important reservations. They both urge the adoption of strong measures for the suppression of opium smoking, a habit which is, relatively, of modern introduction into India, and which the great mass of Indian witnesses, including most of those who came forward in defense of the opium revenue, decidedly condemned. Even. the Majority Report ad- mits that it is generally regarded in India as a disreputable habit. They also urge the need for an improved system of selling the drug in India, one of them proposing to put it into the hands of medical practitioners instead of the " ignorant opium farmers or venders under the present sys- tem," and the other adding the suggestions that, as under British law at home, it "should be sold in bottles or vials labeled ' poison,' " and that " the minimum dose which is likely to be fatal should be legibly printed in the vernacular on these labels."
Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P., presented a Minute of Dissent remark- able for its conciseness and brevity, on the one hand, and, on the other, for its impartial reference to and quotation of evidence on both sides. In these latter respects it forms a striking and suggestive contrast to the Ma- jority Report, which, tho three times as long, does not contain anything like as many references, and does not give one solitary quotation from the anti-opium witnesses except in a few cases where they have made admis- sions that can be turned against them. Mr. Wilson entirely endorses the anti-opium program; he shows that the cultivation of opium is to a great extent unpopular, because unprofitable, among the cultivators; that it is principally produced for export to China ; that " opium in China is a gigan- tic national evil;" and that" it is altogether unworthy for a great depen- dency of the British Empire to be thus engaged in a traffic which produces such widespread misery and disaster." As regards the sale of opium in British India, he makes recommendations similar to those of the two Indian commissioners.
The report of the commission was discussed in the House of Commons three weeks after its presentation, on the last evening of the session of 1895 which was available for other than Government business. The fact that the House had had so short a time in which to master the voluminous documents laid before it was made the most of by the Secretary of State for India, Sir Henry Fowler. But he made no answer whatever to the grave charges formulated by Sir Joseph Pease and his able seconder, Mr.
John Ellis, against the Indian Government and the majority of the com- mission for a series of unprecedented and unconstitutional proceedings calcu- lated gravely to prejudice the inquiry. Tho defeated by a large majority on what was virtually a vote of censure of the commission, the anti-opium leaders have good reason to congratulate themselves on having embraced what has proved to be the only opportunity which they could have had, while their own political party was still in power, to repudiate the authority of the report. .
The debate cannot be said to have produced much effect on public opin- ion ; and it was quickly overshadowed by the fall of the Liberal Govern- ment shortly afterward. The new Conservative ministry can hardly be ex- pected to be more friendly than its predecessor to the anti-opium agitation. The press, only too eager to get rid of a " fad" which is inconvenient to both political parties, has generally followed the lead of the Times, declaring the whole movement to have been founded on a delusion, which the commission has finally dispelled. It is not yet clear how the attention of the British public can best be recalled to the main question at issue, which the majority of the commission has done its best to obscure: Shall the name of Christ still be blasphemed among the Chinese because of Britain's participation in the traffic which feeds her great national cancer ~ Not only have the commissioners overlaid this question by devoting more than nine tenths of their report to the Indian branch of the subject, notwithstanding their own admission that more than nine tenths of the opium produced in India is exported to China and the Straits Settlements, but they have actually stooped to gross misstatements of facts and garbled quotations of evidence in their discussion of the Chinese traffic.
A veteran American missionary, Rev. Dr. Ashmore, of Swatow, one of those invited by British consuls in China to furnish replies to questions issued by the commissioners, is a victim of the latter offense. He had stated: "Some Il,len of vigorous vitality will use opium for many years and not show marked results." In the rest of his evidence, all the more weighty for the carefnl reservation of these exceptional cases, he clearly expresses his opinion that" nearly all of those with whom the habit is fully formed" consume opium " with great injury. " Yet he is quoted in support of the statement that some of the missionaries" take a less decided view" than the majority of his colleagues, by whom, it is admitted, " the use of opium is strongly condemned." He is made to differ from them by the simple expedient of omitting the three important words in italics, the rest of the sentence being quoted without any indication of its incompleteness. The Rev. A. Bone, of Canton, is even worse treated-two disconnected passages being pieced together as if they formed part of one sentence, in order to make him out a dissentient from the general voice of his brethren. Three sentences may be quoted from the report containing three allegations directly contradictory to fact. "It may be added," says the report, "that there is no evidence from China of any popular desire that the import of Indian opium should be stopped." There is, in fact, a considerable body of such evideuce. "In the British consular service the prevailing opinion is that opium smoking in moderation is not harmful, and that moderation is the rule. . . . The medical opinions were in general accord with those of the consular body." Two careful and accurate writer;;, Mr. Joshua Rowntree and the Rev. F. Storrs Turner, have shown that these are untrue representations of the balance alike of the consular and the medical evidence, both of them, in fact, showing a strong preponderance of opinion contrary to that here stated. It is difficult to get the British people to believe that a number of presumably honorable men have put their signatures to a dishonest report; yet when these charges, which ha'e already been publicly made without any attempt being made to answer
XACHIN TRADITIONS AND RELIGION
them, are established to the satisfaction of our fellow-countrymen, as they certainly can and will be, there must be a great revulsion of feeling, and an outburst of indignation which will sweep away the Indian Government's opium traffic forever. In what precise mode this result is to be brought about is a matter which we can leave to Him who has throughout been looked to for guidance and inspiration in our crusade. Meanwhile, we are doing what we can to utilize the platform, the press-so far as it remains open to us-and, above all, the Christian churches, in pressing forward the necessity of putting an end to this great national sin, and removing this serious stumbling-block from the way of the Gospel in China. We believe that our God is leading us on to certain victory, and that, mighty as are the forces of interest and prejudice arrayed against us, " they that be with us are more than they that be with them."
KACHIN TRADITIONS AND RELIGION.
BY REV. O. HANSON, BRAMO, BURMA.
The people of Upper Burma (called by the English Kachins, and by themselves Chingpaws or Singphas) occupy the country extending from the 23° to the 27° 3D' of north latitude, comprising the mountain ranges on both sides of the Irrawaddy. It is believed by some that the Kachins are closely allied to the various tribes residing in the almost inaccessible regions bounding on Tartary. However this may be, if the Kachin traditions are in any way reliable, there can be little doubt as to their original home. Like the Nagas and other tribes on the Assam side, with which the Kachins have much in common, both in language and customs, they must have descended from one of the aboriginal hill tribes of Northeastern India.
The Kachins in their mountain homes are savage, superstitious, easily offended, revengeful, and to strangers unusually reserved. It is especially hard to induce any well-informed Kachin to rev~al the mysteries of his religion. Generally, out of a superstitious dread of the Nats, he will keep back, even when closely questioned, the most important and interesting parts. This religion, altho at present mostly a degraded creation of a degenerated race, must have had a purer source than is at first discernible from a superficial observance of the rites and ceremonies now practised. Confucianism and Buddhism have had little inftuence over these wild mountaineers, even tho they must have been in close contact with Chinese, Shans, and Burmans for centuries. FrQm the Kachin traditions alone we meet with occasional glimpses of a life, knowledge, ideas, and aspirations not now in their possession. It is here attempted to give in a condensed form some leading thoughts found in the traditions, customs, and religious beliefs of this strange but interesting race, Traditions.-(a) The creation. The main points in the lengthy account which a Nat priest can give on this interesting topic are the following: Originally, " before the beginning," only wind, clouds, and a mysterious being, half human and half avian, existed in some unaccountable manner through a self-creative power. From these elements were brought forth, by means of a generative process, the first cosmical matter and the primitive spirits or Nats. These Nats in their turn brought forth vegetation, animal and human life. While the elementary parts of this world still existed in their rudimentary forms, a great Nat, named Chinun, gave birth to a monstrous giant, half spirit and half man, named Ninggawnwa. It took seven years for him to be born, and he held at his birth a great hammer and a pair of tongs in his right hand. With these instruments he in due time gave form and order to the visible earth. As soon as the arrangement of this earth was completed, Chinun brought forth a great pumpkin, which the" omniscient" one (also a later son of Chinun), after the death of his mother, divided into two parts. From the part to the right the first man was made, and the first woman from the one to the left. This human pair dwelt at the central part of the earth, by a beautiful mountain created from the head of Chinun. Man was made immortal, but because of a foolish desire to see a dead being, and having by a lie brought over himself the wrath of the Sun-Nats, death was imposed upon him as a punishment. A number of cattle were sent to eat the "fruit of life," which otherwise would have served as a preventive of death. The first human pair gave birth to another, and so on until the third generation, when nine sons and nine daughters were born to a certain Wachstwa. These are the progenitors of the different Kachin tribes, or, as some would assert. of the Asiatic races in general. The pedigree of white people can be traced to a certain kind of monkeys, and according to some were not found un til after" the great flood." Everything is now existing through itself, and an overruling providence in the Christian sense is not recognized. The Nats at times shake the mountains, thus causing earthquakes, or send a great frog to swallow the sun or the moon, which causes eclipses, but are not otherwise interfering with the regular order of the universe. The Kachins, as far as I have been able to find out, do not believe i~ any interruption of the present order of things. Everything has for them an endless existence.
(b) "The great flood." It has often been observed that the story of the deluge has in some form or another been preserved, with surprising exactness of detail, in most separate countries and by widely different races. The Kachins having no written language, and consequently no literature of any kind, form, however, no exception to this interesting fact. Their unique story of the "great inundation" runs in somewhat the following way: Some time after Ninggawnwa had finished his creative work and appointed to the different races separate places where to live and dwell, an IIottempt was made by him to build a huge bridge, at the central part of the earth, over the mighty Irrawaddy. Nine jealous brothers, determined, out of envy, to frustrate the work, came one day and said to him, " Your mother is dead." This did not greatly trouble him, as he thought it easy to find a stepmother. After some time the brothers returned, saying, "Your father is dead." This caused him great sorrow j his heart was filled with anger, and he crushed in his wrath an adjacent mountain, after which he abandoned his work and returned home. Now he discovered that he had been greatly deceived, and the subject of a most perfidious treachery. In order to take revenge on the nine brethren, their relatives and humanity in general, with which he was now displeased, he caused a great flood to overflow the whole earth, and intended to extinguish every form of life. Two orphans escaped, however, in a great ovalshaped drum. They took along with them nine cocks and nine iron needles. A needle was dropped for each passing day, and on the ninth day they heard the last one ring against the stones. The last cock also crowed, and thus they knew that the earth was dry. One of these orphans some time after this great catastrophe was killed and eaten by a fnrious Nat called Chitong. The other married a being half Nat and half man by the name of Ningcut. A child was born to this pair, which Chitong killed when its mother was absent from home, and prepared its liver for her to eat. The body itself he chopped into small pieces and scattered them over an adjoining field. From this" seed" a new race sprang forth, in everything like the antediluvian one, and is now inhabiting the world.
(c) The lost book. A third tradition deserving attention is the following : After the world was set in order and the different races were settled in their respective homes, Ninggawnwa, at a great feast, met with representatives from the chief and most powerful surrounding tribes. At the close of the feast they all asked him to become their ruler. This he refused, but gave to each of them a book. To the Chinese he gave a book of paper j the Burmans received a book of palm-leaves, and the Kachin book was made of parchment. On the way home the one who had received the Kachin book prepared it as food and ate it. (Some Kachins assign as the cause for this that the man was hungry and had nothing else to eat; others, which I think are more numerous, give no reason whatsoever.) Since then the Kachins have had no book, but the great Nat priests and professional story-tellers can by a kind of inspiration relate its contents. This is always done at their great feasts, when it takes three nights and days to rehearse it all. It contains the only authentic records known regarding crea.tion, the flood, the different human races, the origin of the Nats, and their work and worship.
A number of narratives in the same vein could be given, but the above may suffice to give a general idea of their contents. It would be interesting to know something about the sonrces from which these shallow streams have been flowing.
Ideas 0/ a Supreme Being.-Some writers have been a.nxious to prove that races and nations have existed or are now living who are wholly with· out ideas of a supernatural being. It has, however, always been found that such statements were founded on an imperfect knowledge of the races described, and that behind the crude exterior some apprehension of a supreme power is entertained, altho at times extremely vague. It would hardly suprise us if it was found that the savage and barbarous Nat worship of the Kachins had blotted out all higher ideas of the supernatural. For centuries the vilest practices have been perpetuated in connection with this worship. An educational system, even in its most rudimentary form, is unknown ; any especial worship of a supreme being does not exist. Still, even here it is clearly discernible that God has not suffered Himself to be unknown. The Kachins have ideas of a being higher and more powerful than any Nat. He is called by different names, such as " The one higher than the clouds" (this name has to some Kachins an almost magical power) ; the "Omniscient" one, whose wisdol!1 was especially manifested at the creation of man; the" Creator," who also was active in giving life to man; the "Spirit," or the Spirit above all spirits. Other names, as the" Lord of heaven and earth," may also be given, but the same being is indicated in every case. It is true that a further attempt to explain his ideas of the supreme would bring a Kachin to what a Western mind would regard as an almost hopeless confusion. He would assert .that the same being is indicated in each of the above names, and also that the "Omniscient" one and the "Creator" had something like a human birth, while this would not be admitted in the case of " The one higher than the clouds." To us some form of incarnation, or something resembling an Avatar of Vishnu, would offer the most natural explanation, but a Kachin feels no necessity of solving this mystery. It is enough for him to know that there is f:'ome one greater than the Nats. These Nats, the greatest number of which have once been human beings, are in their present state immortal, but not omniscient, omnipotent, or ubiquitous. All of these attributes are without hesitation applied to the one above all. Beings half Nat and half man were endowed with supernatural power, but were subject to change and death, and exist at present in the same way as any other who has passed into the realm of the dead.
The knowledge of a supreme power exerts, however, hardly any moral influence over the Kachins. It is commonly believed that he ordinarily does not concern himself about human affairs. Only in extreme cases is it suspected that he punishes an extraordinarily wicked person, but when and how this happens no one claims to know. 'When any great calamity befalls a tribe or family; when war, famine, or pestilence is raging, and the Nats do not seem propitious, then supplications are made to the Lord of all, but no sacrifices are offered. That we here meet with a few remaining ideas from the original monotheism of India seems almost certain. God has been forgotten by more' favored nations than the Kachins, but those in closest contact with these wild children of nature have had occa· sion to see that deep down in the savage heart a Divine spark is still flicker- ing, ready at any moment to be fanned into a living flame.
Nat Worship.-The real religion of the Kachins, as far as they have any, consists in Nat or demon worship. These Nats are now innumerable, and occupy almost every imaginable place above and below. Certain Nats rule the sky, the sun and. the moon; others dwell upon earth and are found in every mountain-top, hill, streamlet, river, spring, or well j every field, wood, and even individual trees have their guardian Nats; every tribe, village, and family acknowledge some special Nat to whom they must pay honor. These Nats must not be confounded with Grecian nymphs, naiads, and satyrs, or with fairies or goblins of medieval Europe. Most of them have once been human beings or descend from the early half Nats who took such an active part in the first stages of the world. They are a constant terror to the people. They watch with jealous carefulness every occupied place, and are always ready for revenge if any trespasses are committed. If the usual sacrifices are withheld, if a vessel consecrated to the Nat service has been unduly touched, if anyone out of mistake has stepped in the place set apart for the household Nats, punishment may at once overtake the transgressor. Even if a Nat without any known cause desires a new offering, some misfortune will at once befall the intended family or individual. Houses may be burned, fields devastated by wild animals, "bad luck" will attend every undertaking, and poverty will be the sure result of all. The most common form of punishment, however, is by diseases of different kinds. The Nats alone possess the remedies necessary in case of illness, but do not administer any when offended, unless properly propitiated. As soon as a person is taken ill, a Nat priest is at once sent for. The dwelling-place of the offended Nat is found and the desired sacrifice ascertained. This is done by a kind of divination. The greatness of the sacrifice depends upon the importance of the case. Ordinarily, for slight offenses, a little whisky, a few eggs, some dried fish and meat, or a few fowls will suffice. In more important cases, or if a great work or expedition is to be undertaken, pigs and cattle of any kind must be offered. When larger animals are sacrified, the flesh is prepared and distributed among the inhabitants of the community where the sacrifice is made. As the Nat priest receives a part of the animal offered, the size of the sacrifice often depends on his personal desire of profit in the case at hand.
A few particulars regarding this Nat worship may be of special interest. A large number of Nat altars are always found outside of every Kachin house. They are usually made of bamboo, and are only used as receptacles for certain parts of the offering. The Nats are invoked to come down upon them and to accept the sacrific~ made. A new altar must be built for every sacrifice, even if offerings are successively made to the same Nat. Inside the houses of chiefs and other prominent men a large altar of a different kind is often found, which is used as long as the
GOSPEL WORK IN ISRAEL
house is standing. The sacrifices most acceptable and of greatest worth are those of cattle. A tradition says that when the cattle, after the first transgression of man, ate the" fruit of life," a promise was given that they should always willingly offer themselves as sacrifices for the good of humanity in all ages to come. When such a life is given to the Nat, his anger is appeased and the sacrificer's request is fulfilled. The blood is not of any value as a sacrifice. The Nat receives the life (which the Kachins connect with the breath and not with the blood), while the offerer and his friends eat the flesh. In a case of insanity, when other sacrifices have proved of no avail, a goat is selected, and after appropriate cp,remonies sent off among the mountains. If he does not return it is supposed that the Nat who troubled the insane person has taken his final departure. No one would kill or eat the flesh of such an animal. At the time of sowing and harvest, several days are often set apart for larger sacrifices. No work is being done during such a time. Offerings are made at every birth or death, and I have counted as many as thirty skulls of large oxen around the grave of a chief. In order to prevent witchcraft, to procure " good luck" at any enterprise, if a person begins a journey or ends one -in short, at every occasion of any importance-the Nats are consulted and sacrifices offered.
This sacrificial system has always kept the Kachins in a hopeless state of poverty. They never know when their turn may come to offer up the last oxen, pigs, or fowls. It is not an unusual thing to hear the Kachins complain about the insatiable greediness of these burdensome Nats. But wholesale offerings will soon be a thing of the past, as sacrificial animals are getting more expensive and scarce, and the Nats are even now forced to be satisfied with less valuable gifts. Christianity is also slowly but surely uprooting former superstitions, and only this power can give the help now vainly sought.
GOSPEL WORK IN ISRAEL.
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH.D., COLUMBUS, O.
In a recent number (March, 1895) of Nathanael, the Jewish mission bi-monthly, published by Professor Strack, of Berlin, Lie. Dr. Dalman, of Leipzig, since the death of Delitzsch certainly the most reliable authority on this subject, publishes a detailed survey of the work done during the ycars 1893 and 1894 for the evangelization of Israel all over the globe. A brief summary of his facts and figures will give an excellent bi.rd's-eye view of the problems and data of this species of church work.
The anti.Semitic agitation has during these two years calmed down somewhat, and as a consequence the national movement in Israel, which largely owed its vitality to the anti-Semitic agitation, has also become a less powerful factor in Jewish thought. As yet not a single Jewish mis- sion society has been willing to make use of this agitation for its purposes; and the organizations effected in recent years for the purpose of agitating the re-establishment of a Jewish state in the ancestral country of Israel, such as the Jewish Christian Patriotic Alliance of London, founded in 1892, have not been able to make their influence felt. The Jewish-Chris- tian plans of Warszawiak, in New York, have not materialized, and the venerable convert, Rabbi Lichtenstein, of Budapest, who still declines to be baptized, but aims at the organization of a Jewish-Christian church, has been cast out by his people. Rabinowitz, of Kishnef, has given up all ideas, seemingly, of organizing a distinctively Jewish-Christian congrega- tion, and is virtually a vox clamantis among his people in Russia and the East. Pastor Gurland, of Riga, together with 72 Jewish Christians, went in June, 1893, to Palestine, but no further news has been heard of them.
The most noteworthy fact in this connection is the organization of a Jewish·Christian congregation in Smyrna, in the summer of 1894. The head of this movement is a Karite from Sebastopol named Abram Levi, who, while an inmate of the Scotish Jewish Mission Hospital in Smyrna, through the study of the New Testament learned to know Christ, and began his work by calling together Jews for the study of the Sacred Scriptures. These men organized themselves into a separate congregation, the original number being 64 heads of families. Of these just one half again withdrew, leaving 32 families and 17 young men, or a total of 185 souls.
This association, in its statutes, says that it is "a society of Jewish Christians j that its first principle is the faith in God and in the Trinity of God according to the teachings of the Messiah, but not according to the teaching of any commentary or principles of any other communion [thereby excluding the teachings of the Talmud] j that each one binds himself to live according to the teachings of the New Testament; that circumcision shall continue to be practised, not as a law, but as a national symbol indicating that they are the children of Abraham and of the other patriarchs j that each one promises to live in accordance with the spirit of the Messiahnamely, in love, unity, and truth."
Christians of non-Jewish origin have also recently attempted to organize Jewish converts into separate communions. The principal effort of this kind was made in London by John Wilkinson, the director of the Mildmay Mission, under whose leadership 11 converts were thus united into a " Jewish-Christian Church." A modification of this idea found its exponent in A. C. Gabelen, of New York, who, in his jargon periodical, Tikwath Israel, reports the organization of a congregation consisting of 20 members. His position is practically that of Pastor G. A. Krfiger, of France. His program is more distinctively Jewish-Christian than any other of its kind, and includes both the acceptance of Christ as the Messiah, and also the continuation of the observance of the Mosaic law in so far as this is not contradictory to the fundamentals of Christianity. In his organ, Our Hope, he pleads for the pure preaching d simple "Mes- siahism," without any admixture of Gentile Christianity. These are about the sentiments also put forth by Gedalius in Berlin.
In Germany the work is entirely that of efforts to win individual souls from Israel, the enterprise being carried on by a nnmber of societies, such as the Leipzig, the Berlin, the Bavarian, and others. Representatives of foreign Jewish mission societies are gradually being withdrawn from Germany. Dalman himself has inaugnrated a new enterprise by publishing a Jewish-German monthly called Berith Ain, in which enterprisQ he found emulators in Pastor Werber, of Baltimore, and Gabelein, in New York. The leading mission organs in Germany for Jewish work are the Nathanael, and the veteran journal, founded by Delitzsch, the Saat auf Hoffnung, of Leipzig.
In Austro-Hungary, Norwegian missionaries have begun Jewish Gospel work, especially Pastor R. Gjessing and Philip Gordon, with headquarters at Budapest. Another laborer here is Rev. A. Moody, representing the Scotch Society. Rabbi Lichtenstein is sending out tract after tract, pleading with his people to accept Christ.
In Roumania the London and Berlin societies, as also the Norwegian, are at work; the first mentioned with headquarters at Bucharest, where there is a flourishing school for girls; the second at Jassy ; the third at Galatz. Russia is naturally the greatest field for Jewish mission work, and even the government has at times aided the societies in spreading the New Testament among the Israelites; and fully half-a-dozen depots for this purpose have been established in the empire, the leader of the work being the late Axelrud, a son-in-law of Rabinowitz. Faltin, the veteran of Kishnef, continues in his propaganda, and Gurland has been doing excellent work in Riga. The Orthodox State Church had also entered upon this work, but its chief agent, Joseph Levin, recently died. In Poland, Swedish messengers are busy, and Dr. Ellis, from London, has been able to report a large number of baptisms. For 1892-93 the number was 78 ; for 1893-94 it was 103. In the last three years there have been 235 Jewish converts in Poland.
In the Scandinavian countries the contingent of the Jewish population is exceedingly small; but the Scandinavian Christians have a warm heart for the work, as is attested by other contributions, societies, and messengers sent forth by them.
In France the London Society has been at work, as also the French Protestant Society. Naturally England is the headquarters of Jewish mission enterprises. Here are found the greatest and the most societies of this kind, and by far the greatest liberality for the cause. At least a dozen periodicals are published in the interests of the work, and it is supported by men and means throughout the Jewish diaspora. The Mildmay Mission alone in 1893 disposed of 18,406 Hebrew New Testaments, and 69,657 parts of the Testament in the jargon. Since the beginning of this
HINDUISM AND ROMANISM
literary propaganda, in all 208,313 Hebrew New Testaments have been used, and 467,577 parts in the jargon. In every way the Christians of England do as much, or even more, for the cause of the evangelization of Israel than all the other Christian peoples put together.
The immigration of Russian and Roumanian Jews to the further Orient has made the latter a more important field of operation. The headquarters naturally are such centers as Constantinople, Smyrna,and Jerusalem, and, in a secondary way, Saloniki and Damascus. Fully a dozen societies are found represented in these districts from half-a-dozen sections of Christianity, and laboring in many methods and manners.
In North Africa, the London Society has its stations, especially in Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco. The Falashas, or Black Jew, converts in Abyssinia are being reorganized again under a native leader, Michael Argawi, after a period of persecution in which Jewish Christianity in that venerable land was almost eradicated. In Persia, the headquarters are at IRpahan and Hamadan, and in India in Bombay, where the leading mission worker is J. Henry Lord, aided by the periodical Ha-Mebasser. In America, the work for Israel has been manifold and multifold, being in charge of fully a half-dozen different churches, such as the Episcopalians, Lutherans, Adventists, and others, and partly controlled by individual lovers of the chosen people. Jewish mission journals in English, German, and the jargon are published in considerable number.
In Australia, both German and English societies have stations in various parts of the island.
HINDUISM AND ROMANISM. * In much of its teaching Romanism is far more pagan than Christian; for tho Roman Catholics believe in Christ, it is not the Christ of the Gospel, but either a wafer god manufactured by the priests, or a stern judge ready to punish the guilty (in the same way that the Hindus regard many of their gods), and only to be approached through His tender-hearted mother, or some other merciful saint or intercessor.
Perhaps, placed in parallel columns, the comparison will be more readily understood.
HINDUS ROMAN QATHOLICS are subject to the Brahmans, on are under the power of the priests, whom they rely in the performance by whom they are taught exactly of all religious rites, and whom they what they must believe, and through are taught to reverence and bow whom they receive forgiveness of down to. sins and all the benefits of religion.
• The following comparison was printed in the M iB8Wna1'1l Herald (Baptist), from a letter by :Mrs. T. R. Edwards, of Serampore College. Are not allowed (except Brah- As a rule are forbidden to read mans) to read the sacred books j the Bible, which the priests alone these may only be read and explained may read and explain. to them by the priests.
Regard Sanskrit as the religious Regard Latin as the sacred lanlanguage; it is used in worship and guage; it is nsed in worship, tho ceremonies, tho not understood by unknown to the majority of the the people. people.
Bathe in the Ganges and certain Are taught that they are regener- sacred rivers to wash away sins. ated by water in baptism.
Use Ganges water in various re- Use holy water in the churches. ligious ceremonies.
Bow down to and utter prayers Bow down to and say prayers be- before idols. fore images and pictures.
Dress the idols in fine and showy Clothe the images of saints in and sometimes costly raiment. gorgeous apparel.
At certain festivals have great At certain festivals in Roman processions, carrying the idols. Catholic countries have great pro- cessions, in whiCh sacred images are carried.
Pray to various gods and god- Pray to saints and angels and desses. especially to the Virgin Mary.
Offer sacrifices. Offer the sacrifice of the Mass.
Say that when the priest utters Say that when the priest utters certain words, the image they have certain words, the wafer becomes made becomes alive by the indwell- the very Christ.
ing of the deity invoked.
Are taught that there is a great Are taught that it is meritorious merit in making pilgrimages to vari- to go on pilgrimages to Rome and ous sacred places and shrines. other sacred places.
Believe that at certain shrines Believe that at certain churches miracles of healing are performed and places miracles of healing are by this or that god. performed by this or that saint.
Have great faith in amulets and Wear medals blessed by the Pope charms as a protection against vari- as charms against misfortunes. ous misfortunes.
Are enjoined to fast on certain Observe prescribed fasts. occasions.
Count beads in repeating the Count beads in saying prayers, names of gods and goddesses, to especially to Mary. invoke their assistance.
THE ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA
Use lighted lamps in certain cere- Use lighted candles in religious monies, even in daylight. worship, even in daylight.
Use incense in worship. Use incense in worship.
Some priests (chiefly a wandering Priests are not allowed to marry. order) are not allowed to marry. The aims and ideal of monks and Some Hindu religious orders con- nuns is to become like a corpse in sider that the highest ideal here is the the hand of the superior. extinction of all desire and all feeling, such as joy, sorrow, hunger, pain.
When death is imminent they are When death is imminent, they taken to the river-side, and the face send for the priest to administer smeared with the sacred mud of the extreme unction, which includes Ganges. anointing parts of the body with oil.
After the death of relatives, in After the death of relatives, in order to assist the spirit in the next order to liberate the spirit from world, they perform Shraddha; it purgatory, and take it to heaven, consists of various ceremonies, and they pay considerable sums to the especially large presents to the priests for masses to be performed. priests.
Comparison might also be made between Romanism and Buddhism, as there is much in common, as the veneration of relics, forbidding priests to marry, large houses of monks and nuns, etc.
THE ATROCITIES IN ARMENIA-IS GOD ON TRIAL?
BY REV. JAMES M. GRAY, BOSTON, MASS.
I have recently heard good men-professing Christian men-question the goodness and power of God. They have asked, Is God indeed a God of love while He yet permits His people to suffer such dreadful and prolonged barbarities as those which have been witnessed in Armenia ~ Or does He lack the power to prevent them ~ Is Satan, after all, mightier than God ~ Nottice : 1. Such questions have been asked before. Jeremiah, Asaph, and Job are Old Testament examples. Thousands of years ago the souls of the righteous were vexed with this same problem. But they approached its investigation not from the standpoint of doubt but of faith. God help us to do the same. In all his afHiction Job did not charge God foolishly. Asaph's feet had almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped into open infidelity, almost, but not altogether, because he held to the fundamental postulate that " God is loving unto Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." Jeremiah would talk with God of His judgments, but he begins by affirming his belief that He is righteous. In no other way can we expect light to come to us on this Armenian question.
2. Let us remember that similar atrocities have occurred before. God's people have known these things in all ages. Israel in Egypt under Pharaoh was not essentially unlike Armenia in Turkey under Abdul Hamid II. Compare the current correspondence from Constantinople with the opening chapters of Exodus in proof of this. And what about" the noble army of martyrs" who suffered at the hands of the early Roman emperors 1 What about the tender and delicate women who were thrown to the wild beasts in Roman amphitheaters? What of those who were covered with tar and set on fire to illuminate Roman gardens? What of the heroes of the Reformation? What of the victims of the King of Spain and the Duke of Alva? What of the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day? What of the fires of Smithfield? What of the Catholics, as well as Protestants, who for their loyalty to God were dragged at the cart end, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and burned in "Merrie England" even as late as Queen Mary's day? What of many of the Jews of Europe in the present decade who are realizing the fulfilment of Moses' prophecy that " among these nations shalt thou find no ease" ? . 3. Let us remember that such atrocities as these were not only foreknown, but predicted in the Word of God. " Thoy shall put you out of tho synagogues," said Jesus; "yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. " Paul exhorts the Thessalonians that " no man should be moved by these afflictions" -that is, he should not be moved away from his faith, because" we are appointed thereunto. " Peter warns the "strangers" scattered 1hroughout these very parts of Asia now so much upon our minds that their" adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour," whom they are to " resist steadfast in the faith." John" saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and they cried, saying, "How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fel_ low-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."
4. Let us remember that God gives grace equal to such emergencies as this. Martyrs have gone to the stake with joy. Those who were tortureit in an earlier age would not accept " deliverance." Archbishop Cranmer of his own accord thrust his right hand into the fire because it had deceived him into signing the recantation of Protestantism. We have an illustration to-day of an Armenian in this country recently bereft of his family in Turkey-four of them imprisoned and one murdered-who is nevertheless sustained in his daily calling and enabled to go from city to city and platform to platform awakening our citizens on behalf of his outraged countrymen. Paul had a great affliction, for whose removal he thrice besought the throne of power and mercy. But His answer was, "My grace is sufficient for thee. " The great apostle to the Gentiles found it to be so, and he was able to declare, " Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." There is many a Christian martyr in Armenia at this present moment, man, woman, and child, naked, sick, and in prison, who is saying the very same.
S. Such atrocities as these furnish the strongest evidence of the reality and power of the Christian religion. This conflict in Armenia is between Mohammedanism and Christianity, between darkness and light, between Satan and God. Our Christian brethren in that land could purchase deliverance and peace at the price of apostasy, but they will not pay it. Do the ages show a sublimer proof of the Divine origin of Christianity ~ Men speak of this event as weakening to faith! It would be if the Armenians recanted; but as it is, the event is a wonderful strengthener of faith. Had it occurred eighteen hundred, or even one hundred years ago, it would be employed to prove that; and the Christian apologist or evangelist of the coming century, in his efforts to point men to Christ, will speak of these Armenians who loved Him so as to be willing to suffer the loss of all things for His sake. 6. God is not on trial in Armenia, nor Christianity, but man. Man is on trial there. And it is not man in the persons of the Armenians, nor yet in the persons of the Turks. It is man as represented by the civilized and the Christianized (~) nations of Europe. People sometimes complain of God that He does not convert the heathen; they find fault that so large a portion of mankind are denied the blessings of the Gospel which they enjoy; but it has been found effectual in stopping their murmurings to inquire why they themselves do not convert the heathen. Have they ful. filled their personal obligation in the premises and done all that lies in their power to do to carry out the command, "Go preach the Gospel to every creature 1" It is poor logic which charg-es neglect on God of which we ourselves are guilty. And this principle holds good in the present case. Could we ask God to do more than He has already done to deliver His people in Armenia from the barbarities of the 'l'urks ~ lias He not put the power in the hands of His professing people in Russia, and Great Brit· ain, and Germany, and France ~ Who doubts for a single moment that these nations could stop the outrages referred to whenever they said the word 1 And why do they not say the word ~ Is it anything but selfish. ness that restrains them ~ If all were agreed as to the piece of territory which each should receive in the inevitable division of the Turkish Empire, would there be any longer delay ~ Who is on trial in this matter' Is it God or man' 7. God will reckon with these na1ions when their time comes. The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. General Grant was no visionist ; he was never charged with giving currency to fanciful speculations, but he tells us with all soberness that nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. He cites as an illustration ou,r own Civil War, the most sanguinary and expensive of modern times, as a divinely inflicted penalty for our unjust treatment of Mexico in the annexation of Texas. Turkey will yet pay dearly for her cruelty, and the other nations will have cause to remember that they helped it on.
s. Let us remember that the situation, which seems to us to be so en- tangled, is very clear and plain in the mind of God. In an earlier day, when the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, He had them in derision, and set His King upon His holy hill of Zion. It is with reference to this same King and this same holy hill that the present commotion l·eigns. The cry of America for the Americans, and Germany for the Germans, is soon to be extended to Judea for the Jews. Tbe capital of that nation is yet to be " a cup of trembling unto all the peoples round about," and then "He that cometh will come and will not tarry," and " out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."
9. Let us remember, finally, that there is one who can kill the body, indeed, but after that has no more that he can do. "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." These Armenians dwell where Satan's seat is, but they are holding fast the name of Christ, and they are not denying His faith; and He who once remembered and recalled the name of His faithful martyr Antipas has His loving eye upon 1hem, and to him that overcometh will He " give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name wrItten which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." THE RELIEF OF ARMENIA. * The situation in Armenia is simply appalling! No words can describe the suffering which these Christians in the land of the Turk are experi- encing daily and hourly. In the dead of winter, wounded and weak and weary, many of them without homes or even a place of shelter from the wintry blasts, barefooted and almost naked in the snow, they are likewise perishing from hunger by thousands. All Christendom has been thrilled with horror at lales of robbery, rape, and murder, which has been heaped upon innocent and defenseless men, women, and children. In a single province .a Moslem official underestimates the total killed as nearly 40,- 000 men, women, and children; of these 30,000 were murdered outright, and 10,000 perished in their burning homes. Besides this deaths from cold and hunger (in the one province of Harpoot, remember) number about 10,000 more. Women violated and abused in unspeakable ways number nearly 6000, and those forcibly circumcised (converted to Islam) are over 15,000, besides 1500 women and girls consigned to Moslem harEms. The heroism with which hundreds-nay, thousands-have stood ready to suffer the most horrible and ignominious tortures, and to submit to a lingering death rather than deny their Lord, makes them worthy to be added to the memorable list of the " heroes of faith" (Hebrews 11). Chri.stian pastors have unflinchingly faced death and called upon their congregations to follow them; women have by hundreds sought death rather than submit to a worse fate-surely these are they" of whom the world was not worthy." No one with a spark of Christianity or even of humanity in them can read these tales of persecution without being moved to his inmost soul with sympathy and a desire to help them, and yet there are thousands in Christian lands who have not as yet lifted a finger to relieve the distress of the survivors. In the province of Harpoot nearly 100,000 Armenians are destitute of the bare necessities of life, and in other parts of the country there are three times as many more. Many have generously responded to the call for help, and much has been done to relieve the sufferers. From the first, money sent from America and England has been distributed through the members of the British Embassy and the American missionaries. Amid direst peril these missionaries, men and women, have stood nobly at their posts, and thus have been the one hope of the Armenians. Now that the Red Cross Society has entered the work, the door has been opened to distribute food in new centers. The method of relief work is generally to establish soup kitchens and bread bakeries, employing large numbers of the sufferers in preparing food and clothing. About twenty relief stations are in operation, and $200,000 has already been expended in food and clothing, but not more than one half of the destitute are yet reached. Only about one to two cents a day is needed to keep a man from starvation, but this means $4000 to $6000 a day. At Van alone 16,000 gather each day who have no other means of subsistence than that offered by the missionaries. The need is most urgent; competent and reliable agents are ready to receive and wisely distribute the aid which is so sorely needed. It is heartrending to see the suffering of these people without the means to relieve them. No man, woman, or child can afford to lose the opportunity to give something to this cause; give it NOW· !t * Valuable information regarding the :&Iassacres, Destitution, and Relief Work In Armenla may be found in the following: .. The Rule of the 'rurk," by F. D. Greene (Putnam); Ohrtsttan rAteratu'l'e Magazine (February, 1896); Independent (March 5th, 1896) ; also weekly editions of the (/hrtstian Hsrald (New York).
t Sums in any amounts from one cent upward will be received aud forwarded without delay, if sent to the Managing Editor of this REVIEW, or to Frank g, Wiggin, 1 Somerset Street, Boston, or to Brown Brothers, New York (Agents for Red Cross).
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
The .Rapid Baptisms and Mass Move· years, and multitudes have been think- ing. Thus the present harvest, amount- ment in North India, ing to perhaps 85,000 of a Christian BY REV. T. J. SCOTT, D.D., BAREILLY, community among the Methodists, is INDIA. not a sudden thing without ample The great movement among the plowing and sowing and watering.
poorer castes of North India holds on True. the harvest has been largely gath- unabated. From fifteen to twenty ered in more recent years. Some 65,000 thousand annually are added to the have been added within four years, and Methodist mission alone. The United the number will soon run up to 100,000, Presbyterian mission of the Punjab is and more, if a pastorate to care for the also having a large ingathering. In multitudes gathered in can be raised some cases in the Methodist mission up.
deputations have come in from a long This is no superficial work. It is, to distance asking for teachers to come be sure, not matter for surprise if tares and teach them Christianity and open are found among the wheat in so large schools for their children. In several a harvest. A mass movement like this directions thousands of inquirers are must carry along with it and catch up asking for baptism. One pastor in a good deal that is not altogether good, three months had baptized four hun- and in this it differs in nothing from dred, and was expecting to add at least large revival movements in the home one thousand to his Christian commu- land. But will anyone say such re- nity during the year. The great de- vivals are failures? The weak are mand is for native pastors and evan- strengthened and the utterly worthless gelists to conserve and carry forward are eliminated. So the missionaries the work. The theological seminary deal with this movement which has its at Bareilly is taxed to the utmost to critics in the field, particularly among meet the want. The score or more less successful missions. Those who trained men turned out annually is far know the work realize that a strong below the need. It is much to be re- substantial church is being raised up, gretted that friends in America do not served by a native ministry, and that at once furnish the $40,000 called for effective self-support is being devel- to put this seminary on a larger balis at oped. Tried by the tests of self-sup- once. Instead of eighty at least two port, spiritual life, endurance of perse- hundred students should be on the roll cution, and martyrdom, a true church under training to push and conserve is being founded. Rev. P. M. Buck, this great work. in a recent letter written in the midst This is no sudden movement. For of this work, says, "These converts more than a third of a century the manifest a very encouraging willing- Gospel has been faithfully' preached in ness to do what they can to support the these regions, and many copies of the work among them. Persecution has Scriptures circulated among the peo- been common and persistent. In the ple. They have had the truth held up. region where the greatest Dumber of The sense of sin has been awakened, baptisms has occurred, the leading and the true way of salvation has been men of a large number of villages as- before them. So the baptisms are not sembled in council, where it is said sev- .. hasty" in the sense of some critics. eral hundred were present, and they Preachers, European and native, have bound themselves under a curse to sup- been sounding out the Gospel for press Christianity and prevent its further spread. Petitions were made for moved by the reports brought by the assistance to native government officers. expedition concerning the religious con- Money was freely offered to bribe for dition of the people of that country, I the same purpose, and one of our work- published an article urging the 'misers was asked to name a sum he would sionary society of the Methodist Episbe willing to take and retire from the copal Church to establish a mission in field. Our people have been beaten. Korea. The subject was considered by and were for a time deprived of pastur- the society, but, owing to the pressure age for their cattle, and of fuel for cook- of other claims, it was deemed impossiing their food. One was imprisoned ble to provide funds for the proposed under false charge, and from one village mission. a company of recently baptized converts have been expelled, and the case August, 1882, one of our Japanese awaits settlement in the court. In converts called on me in Yokohama, the face of all this opposition, resulting and requested my wife to teach Engin various other petty annoyances as lish to a class of Koreans, whom their well, I have heard of but one man who government had sent to study in Japan has lapsed from Christianity, and he a the principles and methods of the civlittle later, when we held a meeting in ilization adopted by the Japanese. Mrs. the neighborhood came with his offer- Maclay gladly consented, and soon being for the collection made, which, came interested in the young men, findhowever, his brethren refused, telling ing them to be bright and extremely him he had gone over to the enemy in anxious to acquire the English lanthe time of trial." guage. Shortly after Mrs. Maclay took up this work, Kim ok Kuin, the Korean In all this we have the evidence of a officer who had charge of the students, true work of God. and the home church called to thank her for consenting to may rejoice that great victories are won teach the class, and expressed his dein pushing the conquest of the world sire for the introduction of Western for Christ. civilization into Korea.
Korea's Permit to Ohristianity. March, 1884, while living in Tokio, Japan, having removed to that city BY REV. R. S. MACLAY, D.D., SAN FER- from Yokohama, because of my ap- NANDO, CAL. pointment to the presidency of the Anglo-Japanese College, I received from During the earlier portion of my life the Rev. John F. Goncher, D.D., of in China, commencing with the year Baltimore City, Md., a letter dated 1847. I met in the streets of Foochow January 31st, 1884, in which he wrote City, where I resided, a few ship- as follows: wrecked Koreans who had been picked up at sea by Chinese sailors, and were " Under date of November 6th, 1883, en route to their native country. Their I wrote to the Missionary Committee strange costume, erect forms. and agile that if they deem it expedient to extend movements greatly interested me, and their work to the Hermit nation, and I felt it would be a high privilege to establish a mission in Korea under the carry to the people of Korea the pre- superintendence of the Japan mission, cious tidings of salvation; but at that • . . I shall be pleased to send my time Korea was not open to foreigners, check for, say, two thousand dollars and besides, my time was fully occu- toward securing that result. pied with my duties in China. .. Could you find time to make a trip In the year 1872, shortly after the re- to Korea, prospect the land, and locate turn of the United States naval expedi- the mission? For once we may be the tion to Korea, I spent a sqort time in first Protestant church to enter a pagan New York City, and being deeply land. It is peculiarly appropriate that Japan should have the.honor, and 1t would be a. fitting addition to the ser- some of the Korean and Japanese offi- vices you have been enabled to render cials, enjoyed a season of conversation your church already if you could in- and prayer with a Christian Japanese augurate the enterprise. " colporteur operating here, walked This letter from Dr. Goncher opened through a park-like grove in the vicin- the way for the accomplishment of a ity of the town, and called on Mr. Lov- long.cherished desire, and impressed ett, the American superintendent of me at once as being a Divine call to do Korean customs, who gave us a cordial what I could toward opening Korea to welcome. Fusan is one of the pO1;s at Christian missions. The Japan mission which foreign trade is carried on. In supported Dr. Goncher's suggestion, the portion of the town which we saw, the missionary society indorsed it, and the streets and houses bear the impress Instructed me to go forward. of Japanese influence and many Japa- Communication on the subject with nese families reside here. The place the Hon. John A. Bingham, United with its harbor and surrounding scenery States Minister to Japan, and Hon. presents a cbarming appearance.
Lucius H. Foote, United States Minister Leaving Fusan, we spent forty· three to Korea, satisfied me that the move- hours in steaming round the southern ment was practicable, and, after com- end and up the western side of the pleting the necessary preparations, I Korean peninsula. The fog enveloped embarked June 8th. 1884, at Yoko- us most of the way, and the almost in- hama, with my wife, on board the Eng- cessant sounding of the fog-horn, to- lish steamer TeMm,n, Captain Nantes, gether with the consciousness that we for Nagasaki, where we left the Teheran, were sailing along a dangerous and im- and June 19th, having procured a perfectly surveyed coast, did not con- Korean gentleman to act as interpreter, tribute to the pleasure of the passage; took the steamer Nanzing. Captain Bal- but through all these discomforts the burnie, for Chemulpo. the port of Seoul, Lord brought us in safety, and at capital of Korea. Next morning we 1 o'clock P.M., June 23d. we reached werll off the port of Fusan, near the Chemulpo, the termination of our pas- southeastern point of the peninsula of sage by sea. The following morning Korea; but a dense fog prevented us we landed from the steamer. and being from seeing the land, and it was not till opportunely assisted by T. Kobayashi, noon that the steamer could enter the Esq., Japanese consul at Chemulpo, we harbor, and I felt that at last I waf! procured conveyances and proceeded within Korean territory. up the valley of the Han, a distance of Fusan is a place of historic interest twenty-five miles, to Seoul, where, and commercial importance. It is not 6 o'clock P.M., we were most kindly re- improbable that from it sailed the bold ceived at the United States Legation clans who conquered and whose de- by General Lucius H. Foote, United scendants still hold Japan. Certain it States Minister to Korea, and his excel- is that here landed the military expe- lent lady, under whose hospitable roof ditions of the Japanese, which from the we spent our first night in Seoul. Next eaIlly centuries of the Christian era morning we took possession of a small have harassed and overrun Korea. It building adjacent to the Legation was pleasant and assuring to think that grounds, ~hich General Foote, in ac- times had changed, and that in our day cordance with my request, had pro- tnere came from the shores of Japan cured for our temporary use; and as those who desire to give the Koreans we had brought with us a Japanese the tidings of salvation through faith in cook and some provisions, we were our Lord and Savior. We remained soon settled in our new quarters, and thirty-six hours in Fusan. during which were ready for business.
time we landed, paid our respects to Addressing myself directly to the task before me, I soon learned that the ticipating an emergency so acute as the political situation was not assuring. present one, I had brought with me The party of progress, it is true, con- from Japan. The letter was written trolled the government of the country; in Japanese, and contained an expres- the Korean embassy had recently re- sion of our desire to come to Korea, to- turned from the United States bringing gether with a brief statement of the a very favorable report, and to a fair lines of work upon which it was our degree the business of the country was purpose first to enter. We felt that reviving; but still there was among the if this letter, conceived in the true people an undertone of discontent, a Christian spirit, and expressed in the feeling of insecurity prevailed in many most respectful style, conld be bronght quarters; public opinion was divided, to the notice of the king, he might be and it was matter of common ru.mor moved to grant OUI request. June that the old conservative party, inflexi- 30th I forwarded the letter to Mr. Kim, ble and active in its opposition, was se- requesting him to lay it before the king cretly scheming to overthrow the pres- at his earliest convenience, stating also ent ministry. The entire outlook, in- that our time was limited, and that we deed. seemed so threatening that even must soon return to Japan_ Having my official advisers did not suggest any taken this important step, I felt that method of procedure, or offer me any the appeal had now been made, and encouragement to expect the attain- with prayerful expectancy and ever- ment of the end I had in view. It was brightening faith awaited the issue.
intimated to me that being in all prob- Believing that :Mr. Kim would do every- ability the first Christian missionary to thing in his power to help us, and enter openly the capital of Korea. it knowing that he was in close commu- would be necessary for me to exercise nication with the king, I ventured to extreme caution, both in going about call on him July 3d. He received me the city, and also as to divulging my very cordially, and at once proceeded purpose in visiting Seoul. To increase to inform me that the king had care- and aggravate my difficulties, I discov- fully examined my letter the night be- ered that my own interpreter was con- . fore. and in accordance with my re- nected with the anti-progressive party, quest had decided to authorize our so- and consequently could not aid me in ciety to commence hospital and school communicating with the present gov- work in Korea. .. The details," con- ernment, and, further, that it would be tinued 1:1r. Kim, .. have not been set- difficult, if not impossible for me to tled, but you may proceed at once to procure another interpreter. The situ- initiate the work." The king's favor- ation appeared to be well-nigh hope- able response to our appeal was so less, and for a time I knew not what prompt and complete, that I could not course to pursue. fail to recognize it as from the Lord, " At evening time it shall be light." and after tendering to Mr. Kim hearty "Man's extremity is God's opportu- thanks for his good offices in our behalf.
nity." Fortunately (may I not say I took my leave. repeating to myself, providentially?) Kim ok Kuin, the as I rode through the crowded streets Korean officer already referred to, with of the city, .. The king's heart is in the whom Mrs. Maclay and myself had hand of the Lord, as the rivers of wa- formed a very pleasant acquaintance in ter. He turneth it whithersoever He Japan. was now a member of the de- will. "
partment of foreign affairs in the Ko- The afternoon of the same day Mr.
rean Government, and resided in Seoul. Kim made an official call on me, dur- The problem was solved. Our plan of ing which he tendered congratulations action was easily settled. Among my on the succeSl! of our appeal to the paJ.l6rs was a letter which, without an: king, expreBSed his gratification at the prospect of our society's commencing wanderer from country to country, work in Korea, and stated his readiness with a price on his head, and the sleuthto do anything he could to aid in the hounds of revenge ever on his track, execution of our plans tor the benefit until deceived and betrayed, yet always of his fellow-countrymen. pining for the dear home-land, he fell at last by the hand of the assassin at 'We remained a few days longer in Shanghai, China, in the year 1894, and Seoul to gather information and select his body, cut to pieces, ignominiously a site for our proposed mission. The carried about, oy order of the governelevated grounds near the United States ment. through all the provinces of the Legation impressed me favorably, and kingdom. I arranged with Minister Foote to purchase the house I had occupied as soon It is terrible to think that the gallant as our society could select and send out officer who, on that bright July mornsuitable men to initiate the enterprise. ing in Seoul, announced to me the July 8th we started from Seoul on our king's favorable response to my apreturn passage to Japan, grateful to peal, that the young statesman, filled Him who had thus far preserved us in with the enthusiasm of humanity, who peace and safety, and had enabled us gave promise of a brilliant career as to accomplish so satisfactorily the ob- patriot and reformer, should be overject for which we had come toJrorea. taken by such a fate. Let us hope that during the long period of expatriation, I cannot close this article without re- his heart yearned toward the Savior of ferring briefly to the subsequent sad whom he had imperfectly heard, and life and tragical death of my friend in whose teachings he had become in- Kim ok Kuin. It is difficult to know terested. Let us believe that in the just what credence to give to the ru- time to come, as come it will, during mors that reach us concerning political which Koreans shall rise to a higher troubles in Korea. It is, however, gen- appreciation of the blessings of Chriserally conceded now that in the unsuc- tian knowledge, experience, and civilizacessful emeute which occurred in Seoul, tion, in that noble army of martyrs to December, 1884, the members of the the cause of civic and religious liberty, progressive party were the aggressors, which will then move into a position, and that Kim ok Knin acted a promi- far above canonized warriors and other nent part in the lamentable affair. The heroes, a grateful nation will not fail friends of Kim ok Kuin seek to extenu- to assign a worthy place to him who, ate his conduct by urging that he was knowing the time, in the interest of his acting in self.defence, that he simply country and the truth, procured from availed himself of recognized military the king Korea's permit to Christianity. strategy in striking the enemy, who was preparing to strike him and other Industrial Missions in Afrioa. members of his party. It is stated also that in what he did Kim ok Kuin was Mr. Joseph Booth, who represents acting in accordance with the instincts, the Baptist Industrial Mission of Scottraditious, and precedents of his nation; land, and has been before heard from in and, further, that his proceedings were these pages, a few months ago arrived authorized by the existing government in Scotland from British Central Africa, of Korea. We gladly accord to this to plead for fifty millions of people, acplea. all the force to which it is fairly cessible by the Zambesi and lakes, who entitled, and yet most deeply regret still wait for the glad tidings which are Kim ok Kuin's connection with this at- for" all people," who have a right to tempted coup d'etat. "It was a grievous the Gospel, and from whom we have 1W fault, and grievously hath he answered right to withhold it. it." For ten long, weary years he lived in exile, a homeless, unresting His words are so timely and pungent, we give them a place in our pages and ask that they be well pondered. Tho little. We are made watchmen, and the addressed particularly to Baptists in Book declares their blood 'will I re- Britain, they are pertinent to all. quire at the watchman's hand.' Truly this is an age generous in profession, Of the Central Africans Mr. Booth but parsimonious in performance. God says: is not deceived by our much speaking. If by any effort or self-denial on our ,. They are the constant victims of part we are able to give these the Gosslave-raiding, village-burning, poison- pel, does not our Lord and Judge hold drinking, polygamy, and domestic us responsible for doing so ? In many slavery; yet under Christian and in- cases our churches, houses, ornaments, dustrial influence they rapidly become pictures, investments, and modes of livintelligent, manly, accessible, and tract- ing are a visible evidence that we are able. They voluntarily abandon slave- able to do vastly more. Shall we not catching and selling when employment take up this cross and turn some of is offered them that wJll supply cloth- earth's fleeting baubles into heavenly ing. It is only to buy calico that they and eternal treasure 1 It is written, • If sell slaves. They are both willing and thou forbear to deliver them that are able to work, and prefer doing so to drawn unto death and those that are fighting and trafficking in human flesh ready to be slain. • . . ' 'He that keep- -hence industrial mission centers find eth thy. 80ul, doth not He know it 1' much favor with them because of the • And shall not He render to every man visible temporal good. Great Britain according to his works l' is in no small degree responsible for the slave-raiding habits these people have "We live in an age clever in comfallen into, since history records that promise_ We compound with our duly authorized British ships carried Lord's final and imperative command, fifty thousand slaves yearly from the • Go YE,' by an easily made and modest coasts of Africa for many years prior donation to some society. We flatter to the abolition period. oursel ves that we can thus easily trans- fer our personal liability to service; .. The position of the women in many that we can thus lightly lift the shackles tribes is pitiful: their value but a few of bond-service the Lord has riveted fathoms of calico; their clothing miser- upon us. Our ingenious low-level reaably scant; their children often sonings will doubtless satisfy a self-conwrenched away from them; their bodies siderate and self-centered age whose not their own property; in this life theory is • Seek first the kingdom of they endure oppression and degrada- God,' but whose practice proclaims, tion, and of the life to come they have • Make sure of the comforts of life.' no knowledge. Who is answerablefor these things? Is it not those who have " The inconvenient and pungent utthe remedy placed in their hands and terances of our Lord are too often met withhold it 1 Is it not those who are with an averted gaze, skilfully evaded commanded to carry the glad tidings of and toned down. Nevertheless, the, relief, but tarry at home, with one con- standard He has given remains immovasent making excuse 1 ble. • The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you in that day.' " For thirty years past have the needs Even to the dim vision of time present and claims of this people been solemnly the shame and poverty of our service is registered in our midst by that man of visible in the mirror His words afford. God, David Livingstone, he who died • Whosoever will come after Me, let him on his knees praying for Africa. Let deny himself, and take up his cross, and us have a care that he be not a witness follow Me. ' It may be that some of the against us in that day. As yet not one prayers we offer and the declarations messenger of the cross has been sent by we make before hea ven and earth, in the whole Baptist denomination. A little has been done by others, but only a song and sermon, will become the very … Lovest thou Me more than these ? '
gibbet upon which is displayed to the has a message for us as well aa for Pe- wondering gaze of angels, man's mar- ter. Our artificial standards of great- velous powers of self-deception, and ness will soon shrivel away and give his complacent nakedness. An empty place to the standard of Him who de- offering of prodigious professions with- clares, 'He that would be greatest out the person and possessions, what is among you let him become the servant it before God? • Sell all thou hast, of all.' Upon those who already have • . . come, follow Me, and thou shalt the Gospel in Great Britain forty mil- have treasure in heaven,' is a recom- lion pounds yearly is spent, while upon mendation and assurance worth reckon- those who know it not, and to whom ing with. we are commanded to give it, we ex- .. We are conscious that a thousand pend one and a half millions only. The million beings with an eternal destiny. mariner from time to time adjusts his all entitled to the Bread of Life, tread compass and seeks to detect any deflec- this earth with us for a brief period; tion from his true course. Should we that this great cloud of witnesses will not do likewise ?
with ourselves soon be ushered into .. The baptized believers of this age the presence of the living God; that alone are able to give the Gospel to the the fierce light of the Great White whole lwathen world in this generation.
Throne will soon beat upon the shallow Let them be yielded up unto God, • a8 excuses coined by deceitful hearts, yet those that are ali'1J8 from the dead.' and the pulse of service and surrender beats this shall be accomplished. Only let low. Truly we are a wonderful peo- God have lI'/,8 wall with us, and we shall ple. In scientific or worldly affairs the behold wondrous things. Let us have nineteenth century is vastly ahead of common moral honesty and give to the early centuries of this era; but in God His own, all we are, all we have, the God-given work of a world's evan- all He can make of us. Anything less gelization, with facilities in wealth, than this, and we keep back part of the numbers, and means of transit incom· price.
parably beyond the first and second cen- " In mission expenditure is not' back turies, we are immeasurably behind in to Carey, ' • back to Paul' the watch- proportionate effort. word needed? Carey lived on £4.0 3, .. Generation after generation has had year. while he earned and devoted to its day of probation and passed away, the mission over £1000 yearly for forty- leaving God's great work unfinished; three years. In East Central Africa none has yet arisen which sought' first cost of maintainence is small; £40 per the kingdom of God' with sufficient year is ample. Those who prefer to zeal to tell e very fellow· traveller to permanently support missionaries with- eternity that the Son of God had tasted out industrial effort can accomplish death for every man, and commanded this upon the outlay named. Many are that every man should know it. This able to go with their own means or is our day of probation. God is testing support their own representative. In us. The responsibilities of the present West Central Africa the Baptists of generation are greater and more aw- Britain have an important work on the fully distinct than ever before. Wide Congo. The lives there laid down for open doors, speedy locomotion, ample Christ's sake will surely bcar abundant resources, leave this generation of fruit. There are about thirty mission- Christ's followers without excuse. aries; the yearly total outlay is £15,000 Nothing but the idols of self, of com- to £16,000. Between the Eaat and fort, and of position hinders the com· West Coasts there remains fully one pletion of the great work entrusted to hundred million souls still unreached man by the Son of God. by Gospellight'-one tenth part of the whole heathen world. Let us consider izing Africa is a measurable one. It this definitely and earnestly. HoW' may also ultimately result in supplying shall we give these the Gospel in this vast funds for the evangelization of generation? How give one missionary other needy parts of the mission field. to every five thousand of these? On Perhaps we have too long set aside present and popular methods that would Carey's example and precept. Is it require £10,000,000 yearly. Can we wise to stake all upon one method of hope to accomplish that task ? or shall working-and that an expensive one? we put to the test Carey's principleviz., make missions self-supporting and .. Stations of this class seem to strike self-propagating. Doesnot the greater at the root of the slaving propensities. hope lie in this direction ? The employment furnished is twice as profitable to the African, therefore the .. 'The Africans are a nation of un- chief sends his people to work instead employed. ' Hence their rich country of to war. The words of • peace and lies undeveloped. The country and the goodwill to men' assumes a practical people have both vast latent resources. form in the daily round of duties; the Both are the Lord's; what more fitting influence of cheerful Christian artisan than that men of God shall go in to workers becomes a rapidly convincing shepherd these lost sheep and develop spiritual power-a living epistle the obthe resources God has stored there, and servant native quickly reads and profits devote the same to His purposes. Shall by. Preaching only he views with this great but broken people be left en- suspicion, for he is a born talker himtirely to the. exploitage of the' children self. He asks awkward questions, of the world'? No, by the grace of such as, • If white men have known God it must not be. By the mouth of these great words so long, and believe His servant Isaiah, God has covenanted them, why have they not let all our to give ' the treasures of darkness, and people know them before?' Does not hidden riches of secret places . . . that this foreshadow the charge of the they may know from the rising of the heathen in the Day of Judgment? sun and from the west' His purposes There are already earnest converts concerning them. Let us send men of among tbe Chikunda, Makololos, Manfaith and skill suited to the work. ganja, Ajawa, and Angoni tribes. The God has the men for the work if we do first seven were baptized on July 19th, not sbut them out by human and arti- 1893 . ficial standards. .. Ten stations afe asked for, and an " At present £1500 capital will com- adequate river transport service. Life plete a station on the basis indicated, is sllffrt, and our opportunities will soon and thus put, in three years, six or eight have passed away. The wO'rk is great, workers in the field. This, judging but we are bidden to get it done, countfrom the facts being realized, seems ing not the cost. God is able, and if able to produce a constant revenue suffi- we are found willing in the day of our cient to plant a duplicate station yearly visitation, His power and glory will be after the fourth year, and further, to seen. Let us not stagger through uncreate a reserve fund with which to belief, or seek subterfuges in multituprovide against contingencies. In the dinous excuscs. Where is the church event of time proving this to be prac- to be found that bas put forth its utticable for twenty.one years in steady most ejf01't to give the heathen their progression, each parent station would rights in Christ? by re-duplication give one missionary to twenty-five hundred persons, reach- .. Brethren! let ulf take heed. We ing a population of five millions. If IJhall only pass thi8 way once. Let us only one half or one third of this be work and endure as seeing Him who found attainable, the task of evangel- is as yet invisible, but before whom we shall shortly appear; let us ' give' or ' go ' as may best forward the end Springs. Some fundamcntal qucstion~ for which Christ died and rose again." of polity were discussed. We needed a President and Executive Committee to properly mix things, but we man- Laos Notes. aged without. But our greatest profit was derived from the exchanging of BY REV. W. C. DODD, LAMPOON LAOS VIA spiritual experiences. The unswerving BURMA. faith and unfaltering devotion to duty Rev. W. C. Dodd, of the Presbyterian manifested by our friends for Africa had a tonic effect upon the whole party. Mission, Laos, in a personal letter, writ- Frequent evangelistic services were ing under date December 9th, 1895, says: conducted by us, and well attended.
.. In some of the older stations our " As for the rest of the journey after mission has reached the second stage of leaving the Atlantic, new and old misdevelopment. The mere novelty of the sionaries have united in the study of Gospel message is wearing off in the the Laos language. All the recruits neighborhood of these older stations. can already read the Laos SCriptures There are beginnIng to be Gospel-hard- with some degree of facility. Our ened heathen, and our native churches view has been broadened by contact are beginning to face some of the intri- with the English, the Scotch, Maltese, cate problems of self-support. Some Italians, Arabians, Africans, and the friction is engendering. New responsi- people of India and the Malay penin. bilities call for new graces. The field sula, as well as the already familiar is large compared with the meagre force Chinese and Siamese. Contact with of missions.ries. How shall we dispose these peoples, and later with our own of our forces so as to get two or three Laos people, has served to deepen our men's work out of each missionary? impression of the simplicity, the com- We need the Spirit of wisdom_ So parative purity, the gentleness, and the heathen Laos Christians and foreign docility of the Laos. Weare more missionaries alike stand in peculiar and firmly convinced than ever that God profound need of the power from has here a prepared people, to whom He above. is sending us as prepared messengers.
"Some of us feel that the vacation May He complete the preparation! in the home land, and especially the to During the nearly eight weeks' last annual meeting of the International river journey from Bangkok we have Missionary Union, together with our been in constant contact with the Laos more or less protracted stay in the at- boatmen, most of whom are heathen. mosphere of the Clifton Springs sani- Devotional services every evening and tarium chapel, have prepared us espe- on Sabbath mornings in the vernacular cially for waiting on the Lord for this have been well attended, and some of blessing. the boatmen have become avowed in· " And our long journey from New quirers. Picture charts of Bible scenes York has not been without its store of have been used of the Spirit in blessing spiritual food or its share of spiritual some darkened minds with a I;'msp of uplift. On the Atlantic we were six- Bible truth. We leave the mcrease teen. Seven were en route to Eastern with the Spirit. During all this long Africa to inaugurate the African Inland journey it has been a pleasure to re- Mission for ninety million Africans. member the International Missionary Rev. E. W. McDowell, whom you will Union in daily prayer." remember as a new member of the In- ternational Missionary Union, was re- Progress of Evangelioal Work in Italy. turning to Mosoul, Turkey, without his family, but accompanied by a new BYE. C.
physician, Dr. Hansen. Four of us Liberty of thought in Italy, that has were returning to this Laos Mission in North Siam, Rev. D. G. Collins and in its ranks many unconscious Protes- wife, and Mrs. Dodd and myself; and tants, has lost of late in Ruggero Bough! we had with us three recruits, Rev. and Mrs. L. W. Curtis, and Miss Ghormley. one of its guiding stars. Almost the In London we were joined by Rev. last public act of this Catholic, who William Harris,' Jr., and in Bangkok wrote a Life of Christ placed in the by Dr. McKean and family and Rev. Index, and whose greatest delight was J. H. Freeman. in whetting his brilliant wit and scath- " Altho there were only three mem- ing sarcasm on the Vatican, was the bers of the International Missionary Union among us, we had frequent mis- contribution of articles in the daily pasionary conferences Ii la Clifton per, La Rijorma, and the periodical, I.e Vita Italiana, on that burning ques- found in regiments he had been among tion of the day, the King of Portugal's years before; most gratifying the at- obedience to the Pope's veto to his in- tendance at the services he held before tended visit to the Quirina1. In La the dispersion of the troops. He was Riforma Bough expressed himself thus: able to talk with many of the younger .. If the Government of Lisbon has officers, some of whom had read the bowed its head to the threats of the Bible, " and from their faces joy mani- Vatican, this is not our affair. The fested itself on knowing and being con- threat of recalling the nuncio J acobini, vinced that the wafer and the wine, if King Charles had entered the royal that the actual laws might still olJIige palace of Italy, reveals all the intrigue me, in this century of progress, to adore practised to fetter the free-will of the as God, are really but bread and wine."
faithful king. For us, meanwhile, I glean from the annual report (1894- this clearly follows that Catholic kings 95) of the W aldensian Church of would have no difficulty in coming to Rome: "There were twenty-six new the Quirinal, and that the fable of their admissions. A group of brethren has reluctance to enter the royal palace of been formed to visit tht: sick, the afflict- Italy is destroyed, … and the Vati- ed, the isolated. The Sunday-school can has recourse to threats to keep numbers sixty·five children."
from the Quirinal the sovereigns of On November 5th, in the great hall Catholic States, using the arms of faith of the Palazzo Saloiati, at Florence, to ends most contemptible and not de- the new term of the Waldensian Theo- terred by the responsibility of engen- logical Seminary was inaugurated.
dering revolution in the States of Eu- Signor G. P. Pons presided, moderator rope' that desire to keep in friendly of the table, surrounded by many Ital- terms with us." ian and foreign evangelical ministers, Pas mal for a Romanist, don't you some of whom Clime expressly from think? other cities to be present. Among I wish I could depict to you, happy them were the Rev. Mr. Miller, Dr.
people, my readers, who adore God Gray, and Mr. Brown. of the Free and honor your rulers with a quiet Church of Scotland, Messrs. Shaw and conscience, the condition of a nation Eager, of the Baptist Mission, and that has to choose between its church many others. After the opening prayer and its king, of a country in which to Professor Comba addressed to the adore God without being a heretic one many persons present a most eloquent must close one's eyes to the testimonies and admirable discourse on the Bible of good sense and reason. Is it so in Italy and its many versions. Mr.
strange that atheism, agnosticism, in- Miller, of the Scotch Church at Genoa, differentism, with all that follows in next spoke, and then Dr. Gray, who their train, should be rampant? Oh, if particularly desired to represent the this people, that by its hatred of super- Scotch Bible Society, of which he is stition is obeying the soul's impulse the agent in Italy. He joined Profes· toward the source of all light, could sor Comba in the hope expressed by be made to know the true God ! the latter in his discourse, that from The reports of the work of evangeli- this theological school a new translator zation are most encouraging. I have of the Bible in Italian might arise.
before me a letter of the Cardinal Luigi Most interesting was the testimony of Cappellini, of the Military Church, Professor Castelli, an eminent Jew, to published in the Italia Evangelica of the Bible, especially as regards the New October 5th. In it he gives an account Testament. ",Vith words from the of his work among the soldiers at the Rev. IHr. Shaw and Rev. Mr. Eager time of the grand maneuvers this au- and of the president, and with a prayer tumn in the Abruzzi. Very cheering and the singing of the Te ])eum, the to him were the fruits of past work he ceremony closed.
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PIEBSON.
India,* OeyloD, Burma,t IDnduiBm.t INDIA. cated and outcaste, rich and poor, men, Twenty-three thousand souls pass women, and children. into eternity every day in India. What Work among Brahmins and students are the Christians of the world doing to give them an opportunity for eternal in India offers a tremendous field for life? The population of this great de- labor. The Young Men's Christian ~endency of England is nearly eight Association has recently entered India, tImes that of the BritiSh Isles, or equal and is doing successful work in many to that of all Europe (excluding the of the colleges and universities of that British Isles), or about four and one half land, especially at Calcutta. The Unitimes that of the United States. Among versityof Calcutta alone examines yearthese nearly 290,000,000 people about ly over 10,000 students, of whom more 1700 missionaries are laboring, or one than 6000 are candidates for entrance. representative for about every 25,000 To many the problem of the speedy Protestant communicants in the world ! Christianization of India seems, hu- If everyone of these missionaries could manly speaking, the problem of Chrisreach (in separate parishes) 50,000, there tianizing the young men while they would still be 200,000,000 without any are still young and while they are means of learning the way of salvation. passing out from under the cloud of The call for more workers and more superstition in which they have been funds to carryon the work comes from reared into the light of knowledge. every part of the field and from every Their period of education is a critical missionary society at work there. Con- stage in their career. and only Chrissecrated men and women of almost every tianity can prevent their passing from type may here find opportunity to use the darkness of heathenism to the cold their talents to the greatest advantage, lifeless state of skepticism or atheism: for there are all kinds and conditions of Much success has attended this work of Hindus among whom to work-edu- the Young Men's Christian Association but the leaders are greatly hampered by lack of funds to support sufficient workers and to supply the necessary • See also pp. 21, 41 (Jannary); 260,286 (pres- apparatus to carryon the work sucent issue). Books:" The Cross in the Land of cessfully. the Trident," H. P. Beach; "Bishop Heber," Dr. George Smith; "Modern Missions in the East" Women have an opening for Chris- Lawrence. Articles:" Studies on India," St'u. tian work in India such as, perhaps, dent Volunteer (October, November, December, they possess in no other land. The 1895); "Kashmir," Littell's Living Age (Janu- seclusion of Indian women in zenanlls ary 11th, 1896); Ohurch at Home and Abroad makes it possible to reach a large class (1896) and Gospel in All Lands (April, 1896). of them only through their Christian StereopttcQn Views and Lecture. Address Li- sisters; they occupy a position at once brarian of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. degraded and unhappy-thus making them peculiarly open to the influence of t See also p. 49 (January); t72 (present is· the Gospel-and influential-thus ren- sue). Article: "Burma," Oornhill (Jannary 1896). '
:I: See also p. 280 (present issne). Books: dering their conversion of special im- "The Religions of India," E. W. Hopkins, portance. As wives and mothers they are the mainstay of Hinduism, and, con- Ph.D. Articles: "The Religions Noofn.ICuhdriia~" verted, may become a tremendous power Biblia (Jannary, 1896); .. Studies in for the conversion of the whole empire.
tian Religions," Student Volunteer (February 1896). ' Another important branch of the submitted to the government, is interestwork is the education of the children, the future men and women of India. ing and significant. It shows the selfish- Sunday-school work has been carried ness of the Hindu system and its inabilon with much success. In one year ity to raise the lowly; it is a striking the number of Sunday-schools increased 1775, and scholars 66,396. The acknowledgment of the power of Chriswork is now carried on in 25 languages among 250,000 scholars_ Orphanages tianity and to the success of Christian and schools are only limited by men and missions. means to push forward the work. About $35 a year given for ten years In spite of the many difficulties to be will educate an orphan into an effective native Christian worker. More than 20,- encountered in India and the lament- 000,000 girls of school age in Indiahave able lack of support on the part of the still no opportunity for an education other than their heathen homes afford. Christians at home, the outlook was An unintended testimony to the effi- never more bright than at present. The ciency of the methods of missionary remarkable progress made during the work in India is the imitation of those methods by the Arya Somaj, one of the past twenty years still continues. There societies of Hindu reformers. They is, first of all, a marked difference obspend much money on educational work, have built orphanages, and opened servable in the attitude of the people meeting houses in many parts of the toward Christianity. Even the expoempire, where they hold Sunday services. This society also publishes tracts nents of Hindu systems seek to make explanatory of the Vedas and issues newspapers in which Christianity is their beliefs appear as much lik£' Chrisabused, but idolatry, caste, child marriage, and other evils are also opposed. tianity as possible without being Chris- Another remarkable and more spe- tian. Christian Hindus are also much cific testimony to missions is given by a Brahmin, V. Nagam Iyer, in his chap- more highly respected than formerly.
ter on education in the census report of Rev.•1. E. Scott enumerates the follow- Travancore. He says: ing signs of promise for further ad- .. By the unceasing efforts and selfdenying earnestness of the learned body vance: of Christian missionaries in the country the large community of native Chris- 1. Caste is breaking down. It is seen tians are rapidly advancing in their in the way people eat and drink, dress moral, intellectual, and material condi- and work; in the way they travel, in tion…• But for them the humble their schools, on their trains, steamorders of Hindu society would forever ships, and in their mills. remain unraised. . •. The heroism of raising the low from the slough of degra- 2. The pOOl" are coming up. The dation and debasement was an element coming man in India is the converted of civilization unknown to ancient sweeper. India. . •. Neither Brahmins nor non- Brahmins can c;laim to have done thus." 3. The people are broadening out. The National Congress, the Social Con- Rev. J. H. Wyckoff, of India, in gress, the newspapers, the patronage of commenting on this remarkable enco- Western science, the study of law, medicine, and engineering, all indicate mium, well says that this statement, that. coming from the pen of a Hindu of the 4. Christ is honored more. Many highest caste and in a public document among all classes now look upon Him with favor. Brahmos, Brahmins, and Mohammedans speak well of Him.
5. The Christian missions are 8UC- ceeding. Never before in the history of India were they advancing so rapidly as now. "The workers were never so numerous; the schools never so spir- itual ; the methods never so good; the fraternity and unity never so strong; the converts never so numerous; the Church never so spiritual as now."
6. The native Church is taking hold_ Often it is becoming self-supporting_ The people are appreciating their own pastors. Strong men are being raised up.
7. All feel it is worth the effort. Here are 282,000,000 people. CEYLON. British control, and this has given the work there a fresh impetus. The recog- "India's Pearl" presents a prosper· nition of the Rangoon Baptist College ous field for mission work; medical and by the State as one of its normal departeducational work are especially pros- ments has also given new life to the perous, and the only cloud on the hori- educational work. The pacification of zon is that of threatened failure of sup- Upper Burma has made it possible again port by Christians at home. Everywhere to man the station at Bhamo, and push the call for" retrenchment" brings sor- the work there. In all there were. in row and apprehension to the missiona- 1895, 148 missionaries, 710 native helpries' hearts, for it not only means hhrd- ers, and 600 churches, with 33,337 ship and trial to themselves and inabil· members, of whom 2187 were baptized ity to reap the fields which are white to in 1894. There are in connection with the harvest, but it means that the un- the missions 505 schools, with 13,306 converted will have another occasion to pupils. The native churches contributscoff and heathen communities and weak ed $1.56 per member-a sum that should Christians lose faith in the stability and put to shame many churches in Ameritruth of Christianity. Calls come for ca. The toils, privations, and sufferfunds for medical dispensaries for wom- ings of the pioneer missionaries have en and for schools to educate the youth. not been in vain. Rich harvests have Over 200 have professed their faith in already been reaped in Burma, and we Christ during the past year, and many are justified in believing that still greatothers are inquirers. The mission er triumphs are in store for us in the schools contain 14,868 and the Sunday- near future, if we do not become weary schools 64.05 children. J affqa College has in well·doing. 160 students, and the high school 391. .. The Master is sending patients to One hundred dollars will support for a our dispensary in the most marvelous year four native village school-teachers way. We have 400 out-patients a day in Ceylon. Each teacher would have on to whom the message is given, and the average 50 pupils in his school, so since the dispensary opened, less than a that $100 would prevent the giving up year ago, have preached to nearly 35,000 of four schools, and therefore keep 200 coming from nf;larly 800 villages in this children in Christian schools, under district. To follow up the preaching Christian instruction, for a year. in the villages is what we want to do ; Twenty-five dollars would keep 50 but the work is so heavy at headquarchildren in school; $10, 20 children; ters we have no staff for itineration." $5, 10 children; $1,2 children. "Quick So writes Mr. Monro from Ranaghat help is double help." District, N uddea, Bengal.
The dispensary for women at Chava- A Parsee Christian Association has gacherri (opened in July, 1894, through been formed, with headquarters at Bomthe self·sacrificing efforts of Miss Leitch) bay. Parsee converts residing there has now over 100 patients daily, patients feel the need of a bond of union, and who had previously been shut out from that if all Parsee Christians throughout European medical treatment, owing to the world were so united, it would ennative female modesty, which prevents courage others to join the Christian them from consulting male physicians. Church and openly confess Christ. Rich and poor consult the lady physi- Rev. Dhanjibhoy Nowroji, minister of cian, and receive spiritual as well as tem- the Free Church of Scotland, is presiporal aid. Many evince their apprecia dent. Almost every Parsee Christian tion by their contributions to the sus- in India belongs to the association, and tenance of the work. within six months five new converts have been baptized.-A. T. P. BURMA.
Since 1886 Burma has been under
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTlV:ENT.
While the editor-in-chief is on his May 28-Jnnc 1. …….. Bnrnley. missionary tour in the British Isles it June 2-5 ……………. Birmingham. is his earnest wish that all who hold the interests of the Kingdom dear to " 7-10 ………….. Leicester. their hearts would unite in earnest pray- " 11-12 ………….. Bournemoutb. •• 15……………..Christ Church, London (C. E. Anniversary).
er that God's blessing may attend these " 16-19………….. Exeter HaIl (London). services. We append a list of both past " 20th, sails for America..on "Lucania."
and future appointments, that by united prayer of God's people the Holy Spirit The March of Events, may manlIest Himself throughout the whole tour. Thus far God's blessing The difficulties which have arisen in has been manifest in a marked degree. the Salvation Army in consequence of From one to three services are held the recall of Commander Ballington and daily, the subjects considered being: Mrs. Booth from the United States are 'l'he Inspiration and Authority of the much to be regretted, tho such a crisis Bible; the Personality and Power of in the Army might have been expected the Holy Spirit; the Culture of the to occur sooner or later. Dictatorship Christian Life; Christian Missions and has its advantages at certain periods and Systematic Giving. The list of en- for some people; but when a fallible gagements is as follows: man is dictator, and uses his authority to dictate a course which is against the January 1-5 ………… s. V. M. U. Conference, judgment of independent and strong- minded men, a .. rub" is sure to come in Liverpool. the course of time. None will deny 6-9……•.•••. Southport. 11-17……….Cardiff, Wales. 19-21 .•••..•••• Hereford.
2-2-23 .•••••••.. Abertillery . the successful progress of the Army or 24…………. Brecon and Trevecca the many noble Christian principles upon which it is founded, and according Colleges. to which its work is conducted; neither 26-28 ………. Newport. is the conscientiousness of the General 29-31. …….•. Abergavenny. February 1-6.•….•…•. Croydon and London.
" 7…•..••….. St. Paul's Cray, Kent. or of the Commander and his wife called 9-12 ……. " .Cambridge. 13-14 ……..•Colchester. in question. If the Commander still be- 16-20 •..•…..Oxford. lieves in the principles and practice of 23-26………Dublin, Ireland. the Army, he should abide by the Gen- 27-28 •…….. Waterford, Ireland. eral's order; if he has lost confidence March 1-4………….. Cork, Ireland. in them, it is time for him to withdraw. No doubt there was undue precipita- 5-6…………. Galway, Ireland. tion on the part of the representatives 8-11…………. Belfast, Ireland. 12-13………. Newry, Ireland.
15-17•……….. Londonderry, Ireland. of the London Headquarters, which 19-20………… Aberystwyth, Wales. forced Commander Booth and his wife ~~~ 22-25……….. . Bristol, England. to the step they have taken. They have ., 26-28 …•..••.•• . Exeter. the hearty sympathy of all Christian 29-April1. …..Bath.
April 3………………Croydon people in these trying circumstances. " 5-9……………. Brighton. This is a time for Christian moderation " 10-13 …………..Lewes. Ilnd charity to be manifested by both " 14-16………….Hastings. parties. It is earnestly hoped that " 19-May 9………Scotland. the Army will remain united and con- May 10-13 ………….. Barrow-in-Furness.
" 14…………….. City Temple, London. tinue its noble warfare, tho ready to " 17-20 ………….. Manchester. alter its policy when circumstances " 21-24 …………. Warrington. demand it. When the forces of evil are .. 27………………C. I. M. Annual Meet- united, the forces of Cl1rist's army can- ing, London. not afford to be rent with internal dwelleth the love of God in !tim 1" There strife. must be immediate relief or it will be too late 1* The situation in Armenia remains un- changed so far as the attitude of Christ- Ohina'8 Millions says: " The Moham- endom and the Turk is concerned, but medan rebellion in Kan-suh, far from •it has been growing worse daily and being quelled. is spreading into the ad- hourly in the increased suB'ering and joining province of Shen-si. It has death· rate among the destitute Arme- been stated that the rebels are led by a nians in Asia Minor. Russia and Tur- man of relentless energy and high am- key seem to have made a compact to bition. A great gulf of religious preju- stand against the other European pow- ers. The Sultan has agreed to allow dices and hatred separates the Moslems Miss Barton a.nd her Red Cross workers from their neighbors. The authorities to distribute food and clothing for the are helpless; they have had to deal, not relief of the starving and freezing men, merely with an army concentrated at women, and children. This enables one spot, but with a general rising carthe work to be carried on more rapidly ried out on every hand and breaking and in points inaccessible to missiona- out wherever and whenever opporturies. The central station for the Red nity occurred. To add to the difficul- Cross work will probably be in or near ties of the situation, the secret societies, Zeitoun, where the misery and sickness organized for the overthrow of the Manamong the refugees arc indescribable chu Government, are acting in concert with the rebels. Half the province is said to be in their hands. The slaugh- ter of women and children has been ap- palling, and the people in the two prov- inces are panic-stricken."
and inconceivable. Arecent letter says: II Can you in America realize what it A Presbyterian rally for Home Mismeans to Bee for your lives from a burn- sions was held in Carnegie Hall, New ing home, having lost property and mon- York: City, March 3d, at which nearly ey, relatives and friends; to walk: for four thousand people were present, and miles barefooted and wounded through speeches were delivered by Dr. Sheldon the snow, and then thank God for His Jackson, Booker Washington, and othwonderful mercy in preserving you ers. The meeting was too long and not from death 1" Intelligence and rumors a financial success. Christians need still reach us from time to time telling more than a temporary enthusiasm for of fresh massacres and increased suffer- the spread of the Gospel-they need to ing, and there are fears of further das- be more thoroughly enthused with the tardly work by the Turks during the spirit of Christ and more keenly and holy month of Ramazan. The Sultan constantly ali ve to the needs of the work meanwhile seeks to deceive Europe by at home and abroad. While almost pledges of reform and to stop contribu- every mission board is burdened with a tions from America and England by re- load of debt, they could be supported ports of " Turkish Relief Work." But ten times over if Christians everywhere the Turk is neither able nor willing to gave systematically even one twentieth relieve the Armenians. Whatever funds of their income. are collected are used for Moslem sub· jects-for the Turk seeks to extermi- Dr. J. Henry Barrows sailed on Feb· nate the Christians. Are followers of ruary 25th for India, where he willlec- Christ in America and England content tura on the Christian religion. He will to look quietly on while their brethren endeavor to present Christianity in such and sisters die by the hundreds for want of succor in their distress 1 "Whoso • Contributions sent to the managing editor hath this world's good and seeth that his of the REVIEW; to Frank H. Wiggin, 1 Somerbrother have need and 8hutteth up his set Street, Boston; or to Brown Brothers, New oowels of compasaion from him, MW York (agents for Red Cross.) a light that educated Hindus will recog- "1. That the United States is to be nize its simplicity, its truth, and its the future land of promise to the Jews power. There may be some difference is a piece of national conceit on a par of opinion as to the utility of this tour, with our insular conceit which breeds but let the prayers of God's people at· such a theory as Anglo-Israelism over here.
tend him, that he may be used to con- "2. That there is to be no return of vince men that salvation by the vicari· the Jews to the Holy Land, but only a ous atonement of Christ is the only • spiritual' • return to Christ.' is, to my salvation, and that they may confess mind. dead contrary to IToly Writ. For His name with boldness. I believe that the • most stupendous miracle ever performed' will most cer- Three men of wide influence have re- tainly be performed. cently been called to their reward. Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, S.T.D., LL.D., "3. 'The Christian Church to-day is one of the most prominent Christian the Israel of God ' ! t We had that theministers of New York City during the sis as one of our two subjects at the last past generation, died on February 3d in meeting of the Prophecy Investigation the seventy-seventh year of his age. He Society, and Rev. Prebendary Webbhas seen great changes in the city, and Peploe demolished it beautifully. As has himself been an important factor in John Wilkinson says, • You cannot the making of many of them. He was widely known as a scholar, a preacher, make a spiritual Israelite out of a Genas a loyal and honored citizen, and an tile.' You must have a raw potato beable exponent of missions. fore you can have a cooked potato; you must have a natural Israelite before you By the death of Rev. Sandford Hunt, can produce a spiritual Israelite. D.D., Treasurer of the Missionary Societyof the Methodist Episcopal Church " Dr. Jessup talks of the' literal in- (North), not only that society and terpretation as being extremely improba- Church, but the whole Church sustains ble.' Does he forget that there is a U'D- ing God 1 and that' the things that are impossible with men are possible with God' ?
" To my mind, Dr. Jessup's paper just bristles with controvertible points, all opposed to the prernillennial and per- sonal coming of our Lord and His reign over the house of Israel…
a great loss. For many years he has While the editor gives room to the ably filled his positions of trust and has above remarks-which were not meant left the record of a noble life. for public eye, and thus gives them Dr. H. C. Bowen, editor and proprie- pUblicity in order to show how such tor of the Independent, died on Febru- methods of dealing with Scripture ary 24th, in the eighty-third year of his shock certain reverent students of age. It is largely due to his energetic prophecy, among whom the writer of and able management that the Independ- this letter Is one of the most beloved- ent has developed into one of the fore- we wish our readers to understand that most weeklies of the day. no personal hostility to this eminent missionary in Beirut actuates the criti- If any of our friends think the cism either of the editor or his corre- editorial demurrer as to Dr. Jessup's spondent. Opposition to a view or article on the Jews (pages 889-891, of opinion may be most positive and un- 1895 volume) was uncalled for, it may hesitating, while affection for the party be well to let a very devoted child of holding it is most tender and true. We God from the other side of the sea add regard Dr. Jessup as one of the most his testimony. He says: "I am disap- self-sacrificing and serviceable missiona- pointed exceedingly to see the paper by ries now on the field, and the more do Dr. Jessup in the December REVIEW. we regret that he has fallen into that It is most painful reading and full of ready. and, to our minds, irreverent shocking skepticism. Dr. Jessup's God method of handling prophecy which is evidently dead and can work no mir- leaves men to dispose of prediction acle. It contains these errors: upon the basis of human probabilities. The predictions about our Lord's first You can find no promise in the Old coming seemed even to Jewish rabbis Testament with reference to Israelso contradictory (e.g., Isa. 53) that they their conversion and the outpouring of could only undel'stand them by imagin- the Holy Spirit upon them-except in ing a (lQuble .Messiah-one suffering and connection with their national restoradying, the other reigning and triumph- tion to the land which God ga'e to their ing. And in view of the fact that such fa~hers. In that very chapter in Jereimpossibilities as birth from a virgin mIah, when God says He will make a and resurrection and such paradoxes as new covenant with them and give to prophecy presents were fulfilled and them a new heart and put a right spirit reconciled in Christ's actual career ~ithin them-in that very chapter and should make us hesitate at least about In the subsequent chapters are described saying that predictions about Christ's to us distinctly that, in that very land second advent, and the future of the which He gave to their fathers, all this Jewish nation, are impossible of fulfil- would take place, and also that their ment or absurdly paradoxical. And thus national existence would endure as long to affirm of any prophecy is a blow as the sun and moon and the heavens' against the inspired Book, since it as- and so you fiud in all the prophets that these things remain steadfast and sure .
and Jesus Christ Himself confirmed these promises. the oath which God sware to Abraham."
sumes that the human reader is to judge Dean Farrar has publicly stated that what is possible for God to bring about: 7000 of the English clergy are avowed This is judging prophecy by the proba- supporters of the Romeward movement. bilities of events, instead of determining How that movement proceeds is being the certainties of the future by the in- illustrated at St. Pancras, where the fallible Word of God.-A. T. P. confessional is being openly used ; at A:Canadian correspondent calls atten- Stratford-on-Avon, where a communi- tion to an extract from Dr. Adolph cant was refused the cup because de- Saphir's .. Divine Unity of Scripture" clining to receive the bread in the form apropos of the article by Dr. Jessup on of a wafer; and at the opening of a .. The Jews in Palestine," respecting mission chapel in Landport. A proces- the covenant about the land :* sion was formed, of which the follow- .. The covenant with Abraham em- ing is a description: braces three points, and you cannot take anyone of them away. First, from .. First came a thurifer swingiug the Abraham was to come an exceedingly numerous nation; second, that nation censer, from which was emitted the was to possess the land of Canaan' and fragrant odor of incense. Beside him third, that the seed of Abraham"';as to was an acoly!e carrying the crucible. be the center of blessing to all the fami- Both were attired in red cassocks with lies of the earth. When we look at shoes. stockings, and skull caps to these three points, if it were not for the match; and above the cassocks was middle point of the promise of the land worn a white surplice or robe. Other it might be possible for people to say acolytes, similarly dressed, came next. that when Christ came, and when aSnoomtehebrotrheeacloroftssl.ongFowllhoiwteicnagncdalems~ and Christ by His death became the Savior the of sinners, the promises to Abraham choir, the clergy, and other acolytes were fulfilled. He had become a nu- with an upraised crucifix and a censer merous nation; the Messiah had come' with incense. Immediateiy behind the and through that Messiah blessings had choir came the bishop, and on each side gone forth to .all the nations of the of him walked two clergymen. Most earth. Take all the promises which are based upon this covenant that God of the clergymen wore birettas. The made with Abraham in a literal and company of clergymen was brought up concrete sense, and never for a moment by , Father' Dolling in gorgeous cope forget the land of Canaan in which these promises were to be fulfilled. and alb; and then a large number of worshipers, walking four abreast completed the pageant." '
To offset the extreme ritualistic and Romanizing tendencies of the Anglican *P.304. Church, a course of lectures on " Dif· ferenceS between the Church of Eng- cated classes, that has been so proland and the Church of Rome" are nOUl'lCed the last few years, is on the being given at St. Peter-upon-Cornhill, wane, and there is slow but sure moveby Archdeacon Sinclair, on Tuesdays ment toward the Gospel. The revolt and Fridays. The subjects are" Papal from materialism is as marked here as Supremacy and Infallibility;" "Sin in Europe and America; attempts to and Forgiveness, Penance, Purgatory;" reform Hinduism have ended in ac- "The Sacraments, Transubstantiation, knowledged failure; theosophy has Sacrifice of Mass, Withholding of Cup;" been tried and.found wanting; and the "Veneration and Invocation of Saints eyes of thoughtful Hindus are unmisand Images, the Virgin Mary, Image takably turning to Christ as the one and Worship;" .. Worship of Relics;" only fulfilment of their hopes. Pre- " Prayers in an Unknown Tongue;" cisely in what way the Lord will lead "Pius IV.'s Addition to the Creed." this people to Himself I would not This is an unusual step, and it is to be dare to prophesy-for • my ways are hoped these discourses will be put in permanent form and scattered; among not your ways,' saith the Lord-but that He is moving among the high and the low in this great land, and prepar- ing the way for the coming of His king- dom, is manifest to all who have eyes to see."
the people.-A. T. P.
We acknowledge $20 for the Arme- :Book Notioe. nian sufferers from the Salems congregation of the Reformed Church, re- The systematic study, of missions is ceived through the pastor, J. H. Beck, demanding more and more attention, of Waynesburg, O. ; also $9 from the especially on the part of those who United Presbyterian congregation of have in view work in the foreign field. Saltsburg, Pa., forwarded by Robert H. There is a growing demand for books Wilson. Both of these sums have been which present in a clear and forceful transmitted immediately to the scene of way the state and characteristics of suffering. separate mission fields, but as yet this demand has been but sparsely supplied. As a study of India, we would heartily The murder of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson recommend Harlan P. Beach's series of and son in Madagascar is the more sur- studies, .. The Oross in the Land of the prising and disappointing because not Trident. ,,* These studies were prethe work of untaught pagans, but of pared especially for Student Volunthose wp.o had been in attendance at the teers, of which movement Mr. Beach church and schools of their teachers, is the Educational Secretary, and and who plundered also adjoining abounds in valuable information and dwellings. The heathen mind is prone suggestions as to the land, the people, to distrust, and its suspiciousness is not and the work of Christian missions. always allayed even by self-denying One of the most useful and unique fealabors of Christian missionaries. This tures of the book is the list of .. Sugseems a day of tragedies even in lands gested Readings" from all the best not usually linked with the apprehen- books which treat of Indian history, sion of such deeds of violence. life, and religions. The book is packed full of information; it is a thesaurus An Indian missionary, Mr. Wyckoff, on missions in India. We hope that a expresses himself in the following way future edition will contain one or two about the outlook in India: maps and charts, and some additional tables of statistics regarding the work " I have never in my whole mission- of the various societies in the field and ary life felt so hopeful of the triumph the territorial distribution of missionof the Gospel in India as to-day. Un- aries. less I am greatly mistaken in reading the signs of the times, the antagonism * Fleming H. Revell Co., New York, Chicago to Christianity on the part of the edu- and Toronto. 50 and ~5 c~ntB.
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign You may smile, but I know that not Periodicals. only has that man held that view for BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, years, and still holds it, but that many men hold that same view. Now is it MASS. conceivable that any man, the most INDIA. unfair of men, could long abide in such -The Harvest Field of a few months an opinion except from absolute igno- since had a valuable paper by S. D. rance of the personal character of mis- PEARS, Esq., entitled" The Missionary sionaries as a class? And surely it i.
and Anglo-Indian Society." ?tIro Pears for the missionaries and not for us to thinks that the missionaries in India remove this ignorance."
seclude themselves too much from gen· The Harve8t Field thinks that Mr.
eral society. He says: "I believe that Pears exaggerates the power that mis- far more might be done by personal in- sionaries could have over Anglo·Indian fluence than is done toward converting society, and hardly blings out in its full the great mass of secular society in this force the deliberate and obstinate ,un- country from a mere apathetic dead godliness of much of this SOciety.
weight round the neck of missionary effort in India into an active and -The Basel Report of South India, vital force tor good, if only mission· among other grounds of conversion, aries would bring the power of their speaks of being "'driven into the fold individual personal influence more of Christ by fear of demons." "Early closely into the midst of non-missionary one morning not long ago the old Chris- society. I know that in some stations tian widow Hanna was seen hastening missionaries do belong to the clubs and to the mission station at Padur. It do intermix in the closest friendship must have been something important with lay society, but I believe these that induced her to leave her cottage so are rather the exception than the rule, early and to come to the missionary.
and from my own experience I know Almost breathless she arri ves and tells that there are other stations where the her story. That same morning at day- missionary and the non-missionary sec- break her neighbor had knocked at her tions are as completely apart as tho an door and told her with streaming eyes ocean divided them. In one such sta- that she could no longer bear the fear tion I remember the complaint being of the bhutas (demons). There was her made by a missionary in the pUlpit that son lying sick at home, and all she did the evil lives led by certain laymen to pacify the bhutas was of no avail, were the greatest possible hindrance to her son was growing worse and worse.
their mission work in the town. Was She had long observed that in Hanna's the complaint justified, I ask, seeing house there was peace and no fear of that the missionaries did absolutely bhutas, and she had now made up her nothing to influence or reform the evil mind to come to the Christians with her lives in question? Again, I heard a whole house to serve the God of the man not long ago, not merely in his Christians in order to get peace and to right mind, but of rather conspicuous have her son made well again. Shortly ability, set to work to abuse mission- afterward the grown-up son of the aries, one and all, as a class without house arrives and corroborates her exception. To be a missionary, he story. He is encouraged in the belief said, was to be, ipso jaoto, a hypocrite. that God Almighty hears prayer, and
EXTRACTS AND TBANSLA1'IONS
can save his brother if it be His will. Methusela, Carolina, Abiathar, Abigail, Mr. Singer, accompanied by his cate- Samson, Abithal, Absalom? We know chist, went to the house in question, that after this custom has been intro· which was about two miles distant. The duced by the missionaries, the native inmates were an old widow, aged about Christians of some parts have now taken sixty-five years, with a face in which it up and sometimes select the most griefhad left visible traces; two grown- singular names for themselves or their up sons, one married to a girl-wife, the children; but we are convinced that other a widower; a widowed daughter, the custom can be and ought to be op- and the sick son, aged about twenty, posed by all right-minded persons, be and looking more like a skeleton than they missionaries or natives."
a living man. These folks belong to Ramkrishnapunt was a name that the caste of the IIalepaikaru, Kanarese- emphasized only the more emphatically speaking people who settled here in an- the conversion of the eminent preacher cient times as soldiers. After a short who bore it, and who, like Hermes, address and prayer the paraphernalia Hermas, Phrebe, Demetrius, and many of the bhuta-worship were destroyed, other apostolic converts, never dreamed and then the people were visibly re- of changing it.
lieved and said, 'Now we belong to -Missionary SeLEScR, of the Danish you.' "-Ha7"Dest Field. Tamil Mission, remarks that the Shiva- -The Basel Report says very sensi- ites have 1008 holy places. It will be bly, and we need not say is confirmed remembered that the great sectarian by the Ha7"De8t Field, which always takes division of Hinduism is that between the sound view of things: " We desire Shivaites and Vishnuites, representing to enter a protest against the custom respectively salvation by works and by prevailing in some of our churches of faith. Which represents which the ransacking the Bible or the German present writer is never able to keep in and English dictionaries in order to find mind. A missionary remarks that names for the new converts. We do when a preacher of either sect is holdnot find that the apostles of our Lord ing forth, you may often see the adchanged the names of their converts. herents of the other sect listening with We find that even the names of Roman an expression of fury in their faces and Greek gods, such as Hermes, Apol- compared with which the extremest relo, etc., were retained. Why should ligious animosities within Christendom we pretend to be wiser than the apos- seem mild. It is, of course, understood tIes? Why should we assist in dena- that Vishnuites and Shivaites equally tionalizing our Christians by giving enjoy all the privileges of caste.
them Hebrew, English, and German -" It seems to me that if Hindus of names? Why should we be guilty of English education can be won for our lowering in the minds of our people the Lord, their families will naturally come estimation they have or ought to have over to Christianity with them, and of the holy rite of baptism by giving then first M accessible to personal in- them cause to believe that baptism is fiuence. The relations of Indian fam- only a ceremony of giving or changing ily life assuredly render almost impos- names? Why should we degrade our· sible -or inconceivable-that a wife selves and our converts by giving our should be convinced before her hus- C!),ristians names of persons whose so- band; their want of independence is so ciety we should shun if they were alive complete and pervading, that an un- now, such as Tamar, Bathsheba? Why cultivated Hindu wife will never come introduce foreign names which to their to a resolution, not even in the com· bearers can have no meaning at all, monest every·day matters, not to speak ,"uch as Asuba, Kerenhappuch, Jemima, of questions of religion. Therefore it
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
would be very doubtful, indeed, tional ideas produced by traditional'
whether a European woman, however teaching and by the services of the capable and zealous, would find her- temple and the mosque. As the Chris- self able to influence Indian women tian advocate tries to reach the heart, (that is, such as are bound by family he finds arrayed against him as protec- ties) so that they could be said to be in tive barriers the doctrines of fate, of some measure awakened to a recogni- transmigration, of the use of sacred tion of the misery of sin, so as really to ashes, etc., and no progress toward the seek a Savior from it. I will never call inner citadel can be made till these are it impossible, for nothing is impossible removed. Then there are some who with God; but hard, immensely difficult are dissatisfied with the religious prac- it is, demanding strenuous labor and tices of their forefathers and neighbors, well-fitted instruments in the Lord's and who are in a state of unrest. This hands. If it is immensely difficult for may have been produced by occasional us men to bring Hindu men, even those glimpses of the realms of truth lying of English education. to true conver- beyond the sphere of accepted beliefs, sion-and experience makes only too caught when circumstances brought clear how hard it is-it is a hundred- them to earnest thought about the pres- fold more difficult to lead ignorant, su- ent and the future, or it has been perstitious, servile women to the same brought about by the religious instruc· goal; and such are the wi ves of the tion received in mission schools or from Hindus, even of most of the cultivated Christian publications. Such men have Hindus; therefore, like minor children, been seized upon by some truth, and we must wait for them to come with they can find no rest till they yield to their guardians. "-Rev. ANDREW LAR- it. They cannot believe what their SEN, in Dansk Missions-Blad. forefathers believed, and yet they can Mr. Larsen then goes on to speak of give no satisfactory reason for their various ways in which the missionary disbelief. They are wrestling with ladies can win the confidence and grati- they know not what. When tbe evantude of Hindu women, and so prepare gelist meets with such, he bas to be an the way for their future coming over interpreter of 'thoughts in the air ;' he with the men. has to be in sympathy with the onward movement of religious thought and -" The acute-minded Brahman, feeling; he has to place himself in con- whose studies and knowledge entitle tact with their inner religious life, that him to a place among the disciples of a he may so present the truth that the in- Hindu school of religious thought, is tellectual, moral, and religious facul- in a different mental state for hearing ties of those he speaks to may feel that the truth from the Pariah, whose it is from God and claims their allegi- thoughts seldom rise above the routine ance. Then there are many whose con- of daily life. The man whose mind re- dition is such that life affords them no ceives fresh ideas and stimulus from pleasure, and they have no prospect of the monthly serials that come from Eu- a better state of things. To them the rope and America must have the truth Gospel of hope, of rest, of joy has to presented to him in a ditIerent way be taught slowly, patiently, lovingly_ from the man whose thoughts are lim- Thus to all classes it must be made ited to the range of bis vernacular known as they need it and can receive studies. These distinctions are marked, it ; otherwise it will fail of its purpose.
but there are others quite as definite. -Rev. W. Joss, in Har'0e8t F'ield.
The mass of those around us have their moral natures and their religious sensi- -" The year has brought much bilities protected against the truth of trouble to some members of our con- Obris~ by the hard crust of COIlVen- gregation, who have been subjected to
EXTRACTS AND
perse~utions such as have passed out of ogy, the Anthropology, and the Soteri· memory in English history. The Su- ology of the Vedas. Under each head· dra is able to oppress the friendless ing he shows how his investigations Pariah in a thousand ways, and, shield- bear upon the theory of evolution ed by his caste and wealth, can often [from a lower to a higher religion]. perpetrate iniquities which are only As literature the Mantras, the oldest possible in a land where slavery exists portions of the Vedas, are vastly supe· in all but name. The wealthy Su- rior to the other portions, the Brahdra is practically king of his village ; manas and Upanishads. In the theolhis word is law, and woe to the man ogy of the Vedas we find regress rather who attempts to thwart him. In one than progress. The earliest writings village toward the end of the year a set forth the Divine nature and attri· member of the congregation was bar- butes in such a manner as to suggest the barously murdered by six ryots (it was probability that they contain fragments said) of his own and a neighboring vil- of a primitive revelation, whereas the lage. Among these ryots was a man later writers have a debased conception who is the terror of the country-side, a of the Deity, and in proportion as we rich unscrupulous Kapu, a descendant come down the stream of time, the of an old PQlygar family. So power- number of the gods gradually increases. ful are these men, that altho a warrant As regards the c08mologyof the Vedas, for their apprehension was issued and the most ancient theory is that creation a reward offered, they were able to took place out of nothing. This ac· avoid arrest for ten weeks, appearing count of the origin of the world is given openly in their own villages, altho in one in the 129th hymn of the Rig Veda, of the villages is a police station. They which corresponds in a striking manner were seen constantly by everybody ex- with the first chapter of Genesis. With cept by those whose interest it was to the spread of Pantheism came the nobe blind. It was with the greatest tion now prevalent, that creation is a difficulty that I got the case taken up, phenomenal emanation from the Deity. but it is now under inquiry. "-Rev. Here. again, there is a marked deteriora- F. L. MARLER (L. M. S.), quoted in tion. A study of the anthropology of Ha1'1Jest Field. the Vedas leads to a similar conclusion. The old is better. There is no caste, -The Intelligencer, noticing a work properly so called, in the most ancient of the Rev. MAURICE PHILLIPS, of the part of the Vedas. Lastly, when we London Mission, Madras, on "The consider the 8oteriology of the Vedas, Teaching of' the Vedas," remarks: we find that the farther back we go, "No little sympathy as well as acute- the purer it is. " ness of intellect is required to enable a European to enter into the subtleties " In days of yore, when the Hindu of Hindu speculation. Mr. PhilLips religion was still a living power, possesses these qualities in an eminent princes, priests, and people vied with degree. He deals with his subject in one another in offering their best to the spirit of the motto from Schelling their idols. They decked them with which he has prefixed to his book: costly trinkets, pearls, and precious , The religious instinct should be hon- stones; they gave their best lands to ored even in dark and confused mys- the temples; they filled the temple teries. ' While he respects this instinct, treasury with wealth, so that the he does not shrink from showing how amount possessed by many temples ran grievously it has been led astray by up to millions. This religious enthuthe' dark and confused' system which siasm has long since died out. Since he examines. He passes in review the 1858 the English Government has en· Literature, the Theology, the Cosmol· tirely withdrawn from the administra- tion of this property, and it rests in the
GENERAL :MISSIONABY INTELLIGENCE
hands of Hindus. It is a sure sign of The Lower Congo.-Wisdom in meth.
the approaching dissolution of Hindu· od is shown in the tidings from this reo ism that many temples are the prey of gion. The plan adopted by Mr. W.
robbers and spendthrifts. Even the Holman Bentley has been to gather to idols themselves are no longer safe from the station at Wathen two or three boys the long fingers ot the greedy temple from each of the principal towns, even thieves. In the Indian newspapers, to the distance of sixty miles, the aim the complaints of the bad administra· being not only to educate them and, if tion of the temple property, the dis· possible, lead them to the Savior, but honesty, extravagance, and wantonness also to train them for Christian work; of the temple authorities and priests, so that on their return to their towns, are constantly increasing. The only they may spread the Gospel among remedy suggested is to call ill the help their own people. Mr. Bentley has of the English Government. Last year reaped most satisfactory results from the most distinguished residents of this method. In arranging a mission· 'rirupati, where there is the most fa· ary journey, Mr. Bentley sends on the mous sanctuary of Vishnu in South lads a fortnight or so in advance of India, sent a long petition to the Vice- himself; and by this means finds, in roy of India, in which they entreated many cases, whole towns prepared for him to publish a new law, appointing his coming, and disposed to hear with special officials to protect the property avidity the glad message. he has to de- of the temples, seeing that the state of clare. The plan is worthy of mention, their religious endowments was des- and many may find it worthy of adop- perate. The government in Madras tion.
was attacked on all sides, until it laid Shantung, Ohina.-Speaking on how proposals of the kind indicated before the light spreads in China, Mr. Ernest the supreme power in Calcutta. But W. Burt, B.A., says; "In nine cases the Viceroy firmly answered: • No! out of ten it is through the influence of The Act of 1863, by which the admin- relations who have already learnt the istration of religious endowments must truth." One effect of this is to make be left solely and entirely in the hands the church, usuaUy small, a rather ot the adherents of the religion to "close clique;" for if the people at which they belong, must be main· the north end of a village become tained.' "-Leipziger MissirJmblatt (The Christians, then that is one reason the Ohronicle). more why those at the south end should have nothing to do with Christianity.
English Notes. Another point that Mr. Burt notices is the advanced age of candidates for BY JAMES DOUGLAS. baptism. This, he finds, to be from Bapti8t Mi88ionary Socwty.-The news tifty to tifty·four on an average, wherefrom Shansi, China, shows that while as in England the probability is that 90 the door is, in a sense, open, there are per cent are received under thirty years yet many adversaries. Mr. Towerby of age. The explanation is that in a writes; •• At present it seems scarcely land where there is no Sabbath, and right not to protect our Christians from where the struggle for mere existence persecution when this has been secured is all·absorbing, men have little leisure to them by treaty right." As matters, to think of their soul and the unseen however, now stand,' the mode of reo world till they have passed the prime of dress seems to be the greater evil of the life. Besides in China, the young are two. Despite all, the work goes on repressed, and not expected to have satisfactorily, and inquirers, chiefly opinions of their own. .
through tbe diff uaion of the Scriptures, Londo-n MisaiorUJd'Y Society. -Most en· are springing up. couragi~ reaql.ts ~e reported in con-
ENGLISH NOTES
nection with a missionary tour in Tien- sion. Last Sunday in this city our big Meu, China. In one town, 10 converts church was crammed with men (at the were baptized; in another, 23 candi- men's side) who had come expressing dates for baptism were examined; in their wish to become Christians."
Chang village a service was held at Nothing like this has ever been seen which there were 14 baptisms; while before.
two other places are mentioned where Presbyterian Ohurch of England.- 12 and 29 respectively were baptized. The Rev. Thomas Barclay, M.A., is In addition to all, much public interest able to speak hopefully of the future was shown and the privilege enjoyed of Formosa. Already abundant eviof much Gospel sowing. dence exists that a new era has dawned Thibet.-Considerable interest will for that island, and missionary prosbe felt by many in Mr. F. F. Long- pects are brighter than ever before. man's trial trip into Thibet. Having The Chinese and Japanese alike are labored among the Bhutiya people in sensible of the value of the mediatory their summer quarters in Northern 'services of the missionaries in the inter- Kumaon, Mr. Longman recently ven- ests of peace and goodwill.
tured, under the regis of this wander- Ohina'8 Milliona.-An increasing earing tribe, into the forbidden land. His nestness in listening to the message is conclusion, as tested by experience, is reported from many of the stations of that "Thibet for the present is un- the China Inland Mission. The Chinese doubtedly closed, but through the Christians have proved themselves most Bhutiyas we have an opportunity of true to their Lord, some under circumreaching and influencing its people stances of severe trial, and others under which, under existing circumstances, bitter persecution. In the far-off Provis of unique importance." inces of Yun·nan and Kan-suh, which Ftnancial.-The Centenary Fund have been much prayed for, tokens of now exceeds £90,000, while the gen- coming bleBBing have cheered the workeral contributions are a trifle in excess ers' hearts, and in Ho-nan there have of the amount received under that head been larger additions to the church at the corresponding time last year. In than in any past year, and greatly inone London suburban church the penny creased numbers of hearers.
a week system has yielded over £40.
We8tern India.-A Parsee gentleman THE KINGDOM. has been baptized at Poonah. It was during his travels abroad he was first -The Missionary puts this pertinent" drawn toward Christ, and notably by a question: "Would it not be well for sermon preached in Leopold Rooms, even Christian people to study afresh Ludgate Circus, in April, 1895. The those bits of wonderful missionary hispreacher enlarged on God's method of tory from the Book of Acts? Paul is justifying the ungodly, showing that now a hero, and his name surrounded the prevailing idea of gaining righteous- with a halo of glory. In every pUlpit ness by works was erroneous, and that and in every Christian home his name there was no righteousneBB comparable and career are a watchword and an into that of our Lord Jesus Christ. spiration. Yet he lived that wonderful life amid human ,surroundings just like Suuth Ohina.-Writing from Fuh- ours, and, if he were here to-day, and chow, Archdeacon Wolfe says: "We proposed to go to Kucheng, China, or are already beginning to see the great- Tanna, of the New Hebrides, or the heart of Congo, how many, even of ness of the bleBBlng which. God is about God's people, would cry, 'Tempting to pour down upon the Fuh-kien Mis- Providence I Why this waste? ' "
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
-This is both Christian and heroic. and moralists. Yd Christianity, as it Rev. Mr. Marshall, the father of Miss came in the fulness of time, is itself the Marshall, one of the martyr mission- fulness of Divine revelation. It is the aries of Kucheng, China, said in a ser- complement of the other religions. It mon: "I believe that I shall see the supplies what they lack. It realizes mighty fortress of Satan, called the what they vaguely aspire after. It Empire of China, handed over to the takes up and assimilates whatever is Captain of our salvation, and on that good in them. Christ is the uncon- day, whether it shall be here or in Para- scious desire of all nations. He reveals dise, I know I shalt rejoice tltat the one the God whom they are feeling after.
who called me father WaB a member of In a word, Christianity is the absolute that forlorn hope. And I shall rejoice religion…
when those from the land of Sinim ac- -Our lineage is heathen. Missionary knowledge that the martyrdoms of Ku- enterprise rescued us from paganism. cheng were a large factor in the deliv- Gratitude tor our own emancipation erance of their country from its age- and love for our brethren, the heathen. bound heathenism. Wasted lives are of all countries, should move us with a not to be found in the noble army of mighty impulse to engage in missionmartyrs." ary work.-R. Long.
-In a discourse in behalf of the So- -It took three hundred years to ciety for the Propagation of the Gos- transform old Rome so that Christianpel, the Bishop of Dover declared: "It ity became recognize!! as the nation's is the will of Christ that Christianity faith; and it may take a century to shall be the ultimate religion of the transform South America. The plans world, and not only is it God's pur- of the Church should include the time pose, but it is also self-propagating. element in transforming opinions; and, Therefore, coldness toward missions is while there is and should be preaching nothing but coldness toward God. for immediate conversion, there must Christian missions are essentially a part also be the application of such methods of the Church's lite, and the day when as will more and more prepare the way any faith ceases to extend is the day of for the Gospel in the broader sense of the beginning of its decay and death. national readiness to receive the truth. We have to make disciples of all na- -Dr. J. M. Allis. tions. There are no exceptions or conditions to be considered." -A few years ago a brother and sis- ter in Cuba, having inherited a Bible. -Those who would dissuade us from could dispose of it in no other way than evangelizing countries possessing an an- by cutting it in two and each taking cient civilization get no sympathy from half. And a colporteur tells an interest· Sir Charles Elliott, who, after forty ing story of a Bible he gave to a negro years in India, has just retired from in the mountains of West Virginia. the post of Lieutenant-Governor of The next time he saw it, behold, all the Bengal. For he affirms that it is " im- Old Testament was gone. The owner possible to !lhirk or conceal the feeling being asked to explain. said that an that the Christian religion is the one aunt living five miles away, and a pre-eminentIy excellent, and that the brother nine miles, had visited him, morality of the Christian faith is what and each wanted the Bible. After is most desirable for Inma." praying over the matter, they conclud- -Dr. George P. Fisher writes in the ed to make a division. The owner kept Outlook: "The ethnic religions are not the New Testament, and divided equal- to be denounced as if they were a prod- ly the Old between the others. And it uct of Satan. St. Paul found ethical was found that each had made good and religious truth in heathen poets use of what they had. -" The first thing the Protestant eral of the South Sea Islands become missionary does among the heathen is that it would be quite safe to leave the to establish a home," remarks E. A. natives to themselves, only that they Lawrence in " Modern Missions in the are so troubled and tried by the white East." "He approaches them not as md and his sinful practices, and by a 'priest, not simply as a man, but as his religious divisions and jealousies. the head of a family, presenting Chris- The trader comes with his rum; the tianity quite as much in its social as in Seventh:Day Adventist comes with his its individual characteristics. The peculiar notions, and seeks to reap the Christian home is to be the transform- fruit of other men's labors; the Roman ing element in the new community. Catholic comes with his unscrupulous Into the midst of pagan masses, where self-assertion; the pleasure-seeker, with society is coagulated rather than reor- no fear of God before his eyes, comes, ganized, where homes are degraded by and Iives like a heathen. To strengthen parental tyranny, marital multiplicity, and safeguard them, their old friends and female bondage, he brings the the missionaries still have to dwell leaven of a redeemed family, which is among them."-London Ohristian. to be the nucleus of a redeemed society. All the hallowed relationships of do- -" How to Raise lIoney for Church mestic life are to be exemplified in the Expenses" is the subject of a fine dismission home; all the traits of noble sertation, which we commend to all social character and intercourse here such as think that the Church exists illustrated; all the regenerating influ- principally for the sake of keeping up ences of family life are to flow forth an unbroken series of shows and supfrom this spot into the darkened. de- pers. The words are from Paul, and formed. misconstructed communities thus lay down the three points necesabout." sary in the successful administration of church finance: When to give-" upon – " The teaching of singing is of great the first day of the week ;" who should influence in winning the wild heathen give-" let everyone of you lay by in Sakalava of Madagascar. Long before store ;" .how much 'each is to givethe children can read, the teacher makes •• as God hath prospered him." There them learn by heart the hymn, which can be no satisfactory system of church is sung in several parts, and I have finance which fails to cover these three often been astonished to find how many points. Thus far The Lookout; but the hymns they had learned in this way. suggestion is equally pertinent and Hitherto our school has been held in equally cogent when applied to raisthe open air, since we have no school· ing means to carry the Gospel to the house yet. It has this advantage, that ends of the earth. all who like can listen to the teaching_ Few avail themselves of this privilege -The late T. W. Chamben. tells of for the rest of the teaching ; but when one of the Reformed Presbyterian the hymn begins, quite a number as- churches in New York City which semble round the singing children and numbers about 300 communicants, listen with pleasure. Surely many a "the most of whom are in very humword of conviction and salvation is ble circumstances. A few families are thus taken up by their ears, and finds well to do, but there are very few of its way to their hearts. And I am sure the young people who do not have to that there is just as much missionary earn their own living. A few weeks work done in this way as in many ser- ago their offerings to foreign missions mons both from natives and Euro- were received, and the amount was peans."-NO'I'sk Mis8ionstidende. $2429. Besides this, one of the elders gives every year $500 for mountain -Let 80melxJdy blush tor very shame. schools in Syria, and the women give t< So thoroughly Christianized have sevan equal sum for tbe same purpose. in Eastern Turkey. And of her noth- Also, one young man, a bookkeeper, ing bett·er than this has been said : "Be- contributes, besides his regular offer· fore starting, she deprecated being ing, $104 annually, or $2 a week, for a spoken of as • the noble Miss Barton,' particular form of missionary work, or • the heroic Miss Barton,' declaring and bas done so for tbe past five years. that she was simply a woman, • an ill- This is not all. Some years ago the strument in the hands of a human pubyoung people agreed to support a mis- lic,' willing to do what good she could, sionary in Cyprus for a term of five and determined not to give up the effort years. To accomplish this they deter- until every avenue should be barred." mined to lay aside a few cents a week (3, or 5, or 10, or 15, and so on) over -London has lately enjoyed the presand above what they gave regularly at ence of the Countess Schimmelmann, a other times, and raised in this way not Danish lady of whom it may be said, leBS than $5300. But liberality is not .. her praise is in all the churches" of confined to the foreign field. Their her own country. She came in her gifts for all purposes save bome ex- yacht from the Baltic, in the ports of penses last year amounted to the ex- which during last summer she was entraordinary sum of $10,000." gaged preaching the Gospel and advo- cating temperance principles. In Ger- -Dr. Graves, of South China, once man cities, where such effort on the asked a Chinaman if he felt he was a part of a woman is very unconvensinner. .. Certainly," was the answer; tional, she succeeded in getting a ready .. I have sometimes eaten beef, and hearing, thousands gathering to hear have passed by written paper and let it her. And so it is that even in the conbe trodden under foot, instead of rever- servative Old World woman is forging ently picking it up," ahead and making herself profoundly felt, especially in matters pertaining to WOMAN'S WORK. benevolence and humanity.
-Using some bold figures of speech, – These fonr denominations sustain the late A. L. O. E. named these as 850 women in the foreign field, of among the indispensable articles in a whom 53 are trained physicians, and missionary's outfit: Gold, that is, Faith each in number as follows: Presbyteand Love, in great abundance; Silver, rian, 379, 19 ; Congregational, 214, 11 ; which is Knowledge, including small Methodist, 151, 14; Baptist, 106, 9. change; Steel, or some physical Courage, and a large stock of moral cour- -The Methodist (North) women own age; Leather of the toughest quality- $433,660 of real estate in the foreign in other words, capacity for encounter- field, including 11 orphanages with 450 ing Drudgery; a Letter-weigher sup- inmates. and 13 hospitals and dispenplied with the smallest weights, by saries which minister to 60.000 women which sound Judgment is meant; a each year. The 440 schools have 14,000 White-covered Umbrella, representing pupils, while the teachers, assistants, prudence regarding health; and, final- and Bible readers number '750. The ly, a capacious B~ of Salve for use receipts last year were $289,227. upon rubs, scratches, bruises, and wounds certain to be received both -The Presbyterians have a Mary from natives and fellow-missionaries I Allen Seminary among the Freedmen, and this is a specimen of how the col- -Just now the eyes of Christendom ored girls give: .. Some time ago Mr. are upon Clara Barton and her assist- Smith, the president, asked the girls to ants as they attempt to carry relief to contribute 25 cents each toward a scholthe thousands of perishing Armenians arship for a girl here. Some are giv- ing it by self-denial, others by sewing, washing, and ironing. Our Christian day·schools; held 1836 meetings; se- Endeavor Society works for Siam, and cured employment for 610 persons; one of our girls has decided to go as a gave away 9052 garments, and afforded missionary to Africa. A collection is pecuniary aid to 1836 families at 7580 taken each Sabbath, all of which goes times. Through the fresh-air fund to missionary purposes. In a year these there were distributed 48,205 street·car collections amounted to about $100. tickets, 2070 round-trip harbor tickets, and 9170 persons were permitted to en- -February Woman's Workfor Wom- joy a day's vacation or a visit in the an contains an article of intense interest country, a larger number than in any by Grace Newton, entitled "Chinese previous year. At Thanksgiving 1085 Women, Heathen and Christian." families were remembered, and the Among other things she sets forth the Whole number of persons who shared unutterably cruel and barbarous treat- the supplies was 4722. ment accorded to babies when about to die, and to their lifeless bodies, and all -There are 2 or 8 five-cent restaubecause "if their babies die it is be· rants in New York City which furnish cause they never were their babies at a hot meal of beef stew, coffee and all, but only some evil spirits who came bread, and also sell either 20 ounces of to torment them, and they must hate sugar, or a third of a pound of tea and the devil that caused so much misery I" coffee, or, say, 2 pounds of oatmeal- other articles in proportionate quanti· UNITED STATES. ties-for a nickel. Butter, cheese, and pork are sold in dime lots. The qual. -" Happy will that day be when the ity of the articles used or sold is good. Church shall learn to honor her self- These restaurants are under the auspices denying servants at home as she justly of the Industrial Christian Alliance. honors those who serve in China or Charitable persons and business houses Africa I" This sentence occurs in the buy packages of tickets, and dispense report of committee on home missions them to the needy. On a recent Sunto the Synod of Virginia. It is worthy day 1375 meals were served in one of of careful reflection. The home mis- these restaurants. sionary has no halo of romance, has no security pledged to him by the Church, -The American Seamen's Friend Sogoes largely at his own charges, and to ciety began its Loan Library work in make his own living, has no periodical 1858, and up to December 1st, 1895, seasons of return and public welcome, had sent out 10,264 new libraries, conand is not mentioned in any church taining 529,726 volumes. As many liperiodical, nor written up in books braries go out 3 times or more, there when his obscure life is ended. All have been 11,850 reshipments, By the more honorable is the sacrifice he first shipment and reshipment these makes, and all the more acceptable to books have been accessible to 389,502 the head and Savior of all !-OentraZ seamen; 1118libraries, with 36,857 vol· Pr687;yterian. umes, have been put on United States naval vessels and in naval hospitals, ac- -The Bo~ton City Missionary Society cessible to 117,889 men, while 151 librarecently held its seventy·ninth annual ries have been put in as many life-sav· meeting. Its income last year was over ing stations, containing 5866 volumes, $52,000. There were employed 19 mis- accessible to 1241 keepers and surfmen. sionaries, who made 58,985 visits to Into a neat case, 13 by 26 inches, are 24,311 families, 4549 of the visits being put about 43 well-selected volumes: to the sick: distributed 613 Bibles and books of biography, of travel and ad- Testaments, and 106,720 papers and venture, of popular science, of history, tracts; gathered 827 children into Sun- of story, of religion. Into each library goes a Bible, an atlas, a dictionary, deepest solicitude the events of the last several books in German, Danish, Swed- six months.
ish, and some other language. -Bishop Taylor recently said, "I -By the Chicago Methodists, DI)cem- see the dawn of a new missionary ber 20th, was dedicated, on Indiana Ave. epoch." To his practical eye the signs and 50th St., a beautiful and commo· of better times, a larger spirit in mis- dious building to the service of train· sionary activity, are clear and assuring.
ing young women as home and foreign Are there any such signs in the United missionaries. The land, the gift of Mr. Brethren Church? Are we at the N. W. Harris, is estimated at $20,000, dawning of a new mission epoch? We and the structure, which has cost about think we are, and we rejoice in it.
$30,000, has been provided for by gifts The statistics of last year show $69,915 from other sources. The home will ac- given for the cause of missions in a commodate 160 guests; instruction will single twelvemonth. This is not the be without cost, and the instructors $100,000 aimed at, it is true, but it is even will receive no pay for their ser- approaching it. Then a sanitarium, or vices. Applicants for admission need home of rest, has been provided for in not be members of the Methodist Africa since last May; a new mission Church. field, Japan, has been entered under most favorable conditions; the work is -At the last communion 24 natives enlarging in Africa,-Religiou8 Teleunited with the Presbyterian Church scope. at Sitka, Alaska, a number of them coming from a long distance for the EUROPE. purpose.
-According to Sadlier's Catholic di· Great Britain.-MedicaZ Missions for rectory, official organ of the Roman January gives a list of medical mission- Catholic Church, there are 1405 con- aries in the service of the various Britvents in the United States, with an aver- ish and Irish societies. From this it apage of 60 inmates to each convent, ag- pears that the Church of England has gregating 84,300 " sisters," or nuns. 30 ; the Free Church of Scotland, 29 ; the London Missionary Society, 20; -The Baptists of the Missionary the United Presbyterian Church, 19; Union have 184 men and 283 women in the Presbyterian Church of England, the foreign field, with whom are asso- 14; the China Inland Mission, 10; the ciated 2583 native laborers. Including Church of Scotland, 9; and the Society Russia and the Catholic countries of for the Propagation of the Gospel, 8, Europe, the number of members in the and other societies each a smaller nummission churches is 117,382 (and not ber. The medical profession of Great 102,351, as given in the statistical tables Britain and Ireland is represented by of January). No other American 187 men and 39 women. As there are church has so many communicants. over 30,000 men and 200 women who possess British qualifications, it cannot '-The American Board has expended be said that the number engaged in upon missions in Turkey during the foreign missions is in adequate propor- last sixty years about $6,000,000, and tion. In 1890 the list included only 125 now holds some $2,000,000 of property. names; now it numbers 226. India has It has 325 stations and out-stations oc- 71; China, 70; Africa, including Mada- cupied by 58 men and 118 women, and gascar, 40; Syria and Palestine, 16; 878 native laborers. In the 125 churches other places fewer than 5 each. The are 12,787 members, and in the 423 distribution among the churches is as schools 20,496 pupils. Therefore, well follows; Presbyterians, 87 ; Church of may its friends behold with dismay and England, 51; Congregational, 21; Methodists, 9; Baptists, 7; Friends, their numbers than any other denomi· 4; Brethren, 4. nation. Out of a membership in Great -At the recent conference in Liver· Britain of 19,000, there are 78 missionpool, Donald Fraser reported that, since aries set apart for work abroad, or the Students' Volunteer Missionary nearly one in 250 of the whole member- Union was formed four years ago, 1038 ship, or one in 166 of the adult memhad been enrolled-832 men and 206 bers.
women, belonging to all the divisions -The Calvinlstic Methodists of of the kingdom, and attending many Wales have a notable mission on the different colleges and universities, and northeast frontier of India, in the lofty representing 26 denominations. Out of range of mountains which separate Benthe total number mentioned, 212 have gal from Assam, and among such semisaUed; 66 others have been accepted; savage hill·tribes as the Khasis, the 22 have renounced; 34 have been re- Garos, the Jaintas, the Nagas, etc. jected, and several died. The best Since 1840 the difficult work has been proof of the stability of the movement pushed forward, and now the last reis the large proportion of volunteers port shows 110 churches with 2726 who have actually left for the field. communicants, 250 stations, 11,608 Dr. Duff said that if 10 per cent of the hearers, and 6191 day scholars. men who offered themselves in a mis- sionary revival ever reached the foreign The Continent.-The latest official field, that revival was a great success. Year Book ot the Protestant Church From the Students' Union many who in France-that for 1894-gives the fol- have left college are still engaged in lowing data: The Reformed Church is home preparation; notwithstanding divided into 101 consistories, composed this, 'ffW'l'e than 47 per cent have already of 583 chief parishes and 699 minor par- sailed, and 61 per cent have been ac- ishes, with 259 preaching places and cepted by the missionary Bocieties. 926 churches-a total of 1182; 128 par- The' 212 students who have left are sonages and 638 pastors paid by the working in 42 different societies and State. The Reformed population num- in 29 different countries. bers 540,483. The Lutheran Church -In Night and Day" An emigration numbers only 6 consistories, 48 parishes, retrospect" shows that 8043 trained 62 pastors, and 77,553 members. The boys and girls have now been sent out Lutheran official organ is Le Temoigby Dr. Barnardo's institutions to Can- mage, issued weekly in Paris. Algiers ada and the colonies, where a success has 3 Protestant consistories, 16 parof over 98 per cent has attended them. ishes, 20 pastors-viz., 11 Reformed and Dr. Barnardo says: "One of my quon- 9 Lutherans, and 10,789 membership, dam waifs has been called to the bar; of whom 4500 are Lutherans. The to- 2 are solicitors; a very eloquent and tal number of ProtestLnts in France is widely known clergyman was one of 639,825.
my shoeblacks; several are doctors, -The Prime Minister of Italy resurgeons, or apothecaries; others are cently gave utterance to some plain clergymen, ministers, and missionaries; truths as to the restless efforts of the 4 are well·known musicians and sing- Vatican to regain its temporal power: ers; while not a few have entered busi· " It is not really for the protection and ness of a superior sort and are already prestige of religion that our adversaries in comfortable circumstances. " demand the restoration of the temporal – With the exception of the lIora- power of the Holy See, but for worldly vians, the Society of Friends appears reasons-from lust of power and from to have a larger number of missionaries earthly covetousness." Again:" Chris- in the foreign field in proportion to tianity is a divine institution, which is not dependent upon earthly weapons of time it would Dot be necessary to for its existence. The religion of have such a vessel in the work of the Christ, as preached by Paul and Chry- evangelization of the country. After sostom, was able to subdue the world the service a member of the church, a wIthout the aid of temporal arms. and dame of honor to the Empress and we cannot conceive why the Vatican widow of one of the best·known diplopersists in wishing for temporal sover· mats of Austria, the Baroness Laneignty to exercise its spiritual mission. genau, stepped forward. and said: The Gospel, as we all believe, is truth. • Doctor, you must permit me to pre- If it has been disseminated by apostolic sent you with that launch.' The plans teachings, such teachings are sufficient for the construction of the launch. for its existence." The remarkable which will bear the name of Auatria. feature in these utterances is that they according to the express wish of the do not proceed from a Protestant source, oonor, are now so far finished as to but from one who, in the same speech, guarantee the hope that the work will recognizes the Pope to be "Christ's be proceeding before long." vicar. "-BJoangelical Ohristendom.
THE PLACE OF GERMANY IN FOR- ASIA.
EIGN MIssION WORIl:.-An article in the Islam.-The situation in Tcrkey is January number of Dr. Warneck's thus summarized by the I1i.Mpendent: AUgemeine Missions.Zeitsclt1·ift is de- "Disaster has overtaken the general voted to this subject. The progress equipment of the American Board's which has been made within eleven missions in Turkey. Except Constanyears is shown by the following table: tinople and 3 other stations in the ex- treme west of Asia Minor. all of the M!ssionaries. Contribn· Baptized Na· American Board's stations have suf- tions. tives. fered. Probably at least 100 of the vil- lage chapels and school-houses have 1883 . . 517 2,707,218 marks 193,975 been pillaged and destroyed, or seized by the Mohammedans for purposes of 1894 • . 685 3,705,456 290,899 their own. Five sixths of the stock of the books which the American Board But it is pointed out that these num- and the American Bible Society had bers represent far less than the share placed on sale in scores of the depots which Germany should have in Protes- and sslesrooms in various parts of the tant missions. Together with Switzer- country have been carried off. cast land. Germa.ny represents a fifth of into rivers and ponds, or used, after evangelical Christendom. while it only saturation with petroleum, as convenfurnishes a thirteenth part of Protes- ient instruments of incendiarism. Contant missionary contributions, and a gregations have been scattered, schools seventh of the laborers. " We work are broken up, leading men are dead, much more cheaply than the English and numbers of Christian women and and the Americans, and our share in children are missing. The congregathe success of missions is relatively to tions, in general. are financially ruined. the means employed greater than and their members are among those theirs." now dependent on charity for daily bread." -Dr. Leuring, of the Singapore Methodist Mission, has this to tell of – These solemn words are fitly spoken an incident which occurred during his by the Mis8ionary Herald: "While recent visit to godless Vienna: "In recognizing cordially. as we do. the one of my lectures on Singapore, held efforts of our Government in demandin the Wesleyan Church, I happened ing protection for our fellow-citizens in to mention the numerous islands and places in the coast that can easily be reached by means of a steam launch, and suggested, whether in the course Turkey, and in the sending of national -Arrangements have been made to vessels into Turkish waters, we are yet publish, at Beirut, 1000 copies of Anfrank to say that we cannot understand gel's Christmas. translated into Arabic, why the difficulties in the way of the necessary permission having been reaching El'zeroum and Harput by the granted by the censor at Constantinomen who are appointed to American ple. This will enable the Sundayconsulates in those cities should have school children of Syria to read the been allowed to prevent their going to story in their native language. their posts. These consulates have been established by act of Congress, and if India. – Among Queen Victoria's the Turkish Government will not give New Year honors was a knighthood for them exequaturs, and provide them safe Nawab Secundas Jung Ikbal-ud Dowescort, no greater indignity could be lab Iktadar-ul Mulk Vikar-ul-Umal'8 shown us or our nation. Our Govern- Batadur, Prime Minister to his Highment has clearly the right to demand ness the NizaID of Hyderabad. consular representation at points where American iuterests are at stake, and we -The Darjeeling New8 applies these cannot see why that right should not Scripture verses to Sir Charles Alfred be insisted upon at all hazards. If de- Elliott, late Lieutenant-Governor of nied, why should not diplomatic rela- Bengal, a devout Christian statesman tions with Turkey cease, and its minis- and stedfast friend of missions, adding ter at Washington be given his papers? that nothing else so eloquent and apt In that case American citizens could be occurs to us to say: "And Hezekiah intrusted to the protection of the Brit- did that which was right in the eyes of ish or of some other embassy at Con- the Lord, according to all that David stantinople… his father had done. He removed the high pJaces, and brake the pillars, and -We cannot all of us consent to con- cut down the Asherah : and he brake fine ourselves to prayers fashioned for in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses us and prescribed by ecclesiastical au- had made; for unto tho&e days the chilthority, but who cannot heartily lift up dren of Israel did burn incense to it ; this petition set forth by the Bishop of and he called. it Nehushtan (i.e., 'a New York? "Most gracious God, piece of brass '). He trusted in the whose tender mercies are over all, and Lord, the God of Israel; 80 that after whose compassions fail not; grant Thy him was none like him among all the Fatherly pity and protection to all those kings of Judah, nor among them that Thy children, wheresoever they may were before him. For he clave to the be, who are suffering from the cruelty Lord, he departed not from following of the oppressor, and especially that Him, but kept His commandments, ancient nation the people of Armenia, which the Lord commanded Moses. whose sons and daughters cry aloud to And the Lord was with him; whither- Thee, their God, and to us their breth- soever he went forth he prospered. He ren in Jesus Christ, for succor. Stay hath scattered abroad, he hath given to the hands of those by whom they have the poor; his righteousness abideth forbeen so cruelly wronged and outraged; ever" (2 Kings 18 : 3-7 ; 2 Cor. 9 : 9). strengthen the purpose of Christian nations to arise and contend for their de- -It is said that the native evangelist, fence; enkindle in their hearts a spirit commonly known as Tamil David, has of service and sacrifice in their behalf ; exerted a greater religious infiuence in and so hasten, we beseech Thee, the the city of Bombay than any evangelist day of their deliverance. All which who has visited Bombay for a number we ask in the Name and for the sake of of years past. This illustration of what Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." can be done by a native evangelist fills the heart with longing to see the dar when hundreds of such men shall ap- view, but which hitherto they had failed pear preaching and compelling the peo- to reaIize.-Indian Witne88.
ple of India to receive the gracious message_ Let it be one of the special bless- -Rev. P. H. Moore, of Assam, ings prayed for that God would raise writes: "Sunday, October 18th, we up such men and give the missions and spent at BaUjuri. At eight in the morntJle churches wisdom to refrain from ing we had the privilege of baptizing discouraging them or putting obstruc- 31 Kohls in the creek, about a quarter tIons in their way. An Indian evan-' of a mile from the village. There were gelist is not likely to resemble a Euro- 16 men and 15 women and girls. There pean evangelist in his methods of work were 9 men with their wives, and alto· any more than in personal appearance. gether the candidates represented 14 households. A preaching service, the -Indian Witnes8. Lord's Supper, and Sunday-school oc- -According to the last census, 76 cupied the afternoon. In surroundings languages are spoken in Bombay, and which would seem strange enough in each one represents a company of peo- America, we worshiped in spirit and in ple, or caste, with special dress, or un- truth, and God's presence was revealed.
dress, or color, or cap, or turban, A thatched hut with roof just high -Some of the missionaries of the enough to stand up under; walls made London Missionary Society attribute of reed and pl!8tered with mud, with much of the success attending the work holes here and there for doors and winof the Salvation Army in India to the dows; the floor (the earth) swept clean. fact that it does not administer either In this hut,34 by 17 feet, picture 100 baptism or the Lord's Supper. In that adults. and children of all ages, some country one may attend any meeting, in the costume in which they were and to any extent, but so long as he born, all sitting on mats on the ground. does not submit to baptism caste is not In the center is a rough pine box, in broken, and he does not encounter the which the missionary carries a part of persecution which befalls those who his camp outfit, and which is now make a formal profession of Chris- drafted into service as a table for the tianity. Lord's Supper. A clean white cloth hides part of its roughness. A cane , -Sir Alexander Miller, in his address stool serves the missionary as a seat." at the distribution of prizes in the Cal· cutta Boys' School, remarked that this China.-In 1894 there were in all school differed from all other schools 1977 missionaries in China-869 men, he had met with in Calcutta in the fact 562 married women, and 546 single that all the different races in the Em- women. Ten hundred and eighty of pire appeared to be represented among these were representatives of British the pupils. The student who carried Irish, and Canadian societies, 812 of off the largest number of prizes was a them of American societies, and 85 of Burmese, an unusual and unexpected Continental societies. The China Inoccurrence, considering the national land Mission leads all others with 593 reputation of the Burmese for disin- missionaries, followed by the Presbyteclination to sustained effort of any kind. teriani! with 180 ; the Methodist Church, This association of so many different North, with 140; the American Board races in the work and life of the school with 117, and the Church Missionary was a matter of much importance in Society of England with 110. the mind of government. Such inter- course leads to the successful welding -During 1895 the American Bible of the races of India into a homoge. Society sold and distributed in China neous community, an object which the Bibles and portions thereof to the ex- Indian Government had constantly in tent of 385,875 copies. -At a recent convention of Chinese literati of the kingdom. The very ap- ministers, a theme of discussion was, pointment of a commissioner of rail- " Shall our women unbind their feet 1" ways is itself among the marvelous re- The women on hearing of it said, sults of the war, since the very railroad "Why should they discuss it? They has been considered a wrong, a sacri- are our feet; cannot we do with them lege, and almost a direct insult to the as we please?" Are women's rights memory of the revered dead of China.
ideas about to enter the Celestial Em- Among the 14 matriculants are gradu- pire? ates from the 3 grades of government -Here is a striking prayer of one of civil service examinations, and from the Hunan Christians: "0 Lord, Thou that height or Chinese scholarship, knowest that Hunan means south of " The Forest of Pencils," which is an the lake, and Hupeh north of the lake; imperial academy whose scholars are the lake is Tung Ting. Thou know- examined in person by the reigning est, Lord, that there are more people Emperor.-Northwestern Christian A~ in these two provinces than there are vocate. fish in the lake; and Thou hast sent us AFRICA.
to be fishers of men. In many places The United Presbyterian has the in- the Gospel net has not been let down, telligence that Rev. Girgis Anshalian, a and there is no means of catching the member of the Presbytery of Egypt, fish, nor is there any fisherman. We and pastor of the congregation at Koos, pray Thee, Lord, to grant that in every has fallen a victim to the Turkish atroci- place there may be a Gospel net and ties in Armenia. He was a native of skilful fishermen. " that country, and in September last, -Our praise is never more hearty with his wife, returned to visit his than when we get gifts from Christian friends at Diabeker. At the time of Chinese in America to be used in evan- the outbreak they were both arrested, gelizing their fellows in China. Such and a ransom of £600 was demanded. a gift reached us to.day from a Chinese The ransom was paid, but instead of Sunday-school in Ohio. It is $50, and being released, the alternative of Maalong with it comes the message, " The homet or death was given. With a Chinamen wish me to tell you that they faith and heroism worthy of the name are very glad to send it, and hope it of Christ, he declared himself a disciwill do much good in their own land. " ple of Jesus, and was at once hacked to Their teacher also adde, "We have pieces by the Turks in the presence of been very glad this last fall to send home his wife. She and her brother were one of the Christian Chinamen. He shot, beaten with swords, stripped, and has been in the class for eleven years, left for dead. and for the past seven years has lived a consistent Christian life, we believe. -The conquest of Ashantee is com- He has gone home at his own expense. pleted, and the bloodiest kingdom in He hopes to keep a little store in his all Africa is to become an orderly Britown village, and thus support himself, ish colony. The military expedition his father and mother and his wife."- did its work quickly and well and China'8 MillionB. without fighting. King Prempeh seems to have recognized the futility of re- sistance, and on the arrival of the troops -Among the matriculants for the in Coomassie, his capital, abjectly sub- present term in that university are a mitted. He was, however, taken as a grandson of the private tutor of the last prisoner to Cape Coast Castle, with his Emperor of China, a nephew of the family, his counseilors, and two other private tutor of the present Emperor, a petty kings, to be kept as security for son of the imperial commissioner of the payment of an indemnity of 50,000- Chinese railways, and of 14 the proud Olillces of gold. With the return of the expedition, the country passes under -lonely, self-absorbed, irritable, and the rule of Mr. Maxwell, the British not to be relied upon. He hates wom- Resident, protected by a guard of black en, whom he regards as unnecessary troops, until such time as the British impedimenta in the campaign, and he Foreign Office shall definitely decide has no idea of friendship; he only rec.
upon a permanent form of administra· ognizes instruments to be used and ene- tion. mies to be dealt with. Success accen- -The Paris missionaries in the tuated his defeats to the point of dis· French Congo State have been cheered ease, and made him so irritable, so selfby the conversion of a chief and his absorbed, and so insolent that none but son, who enjoyed an immense reputa- parasites could live with him. JJ tion as fetish-men throughout a wide -Professor James Bryce has just re- district. If a sick man possessed by turned from South Africa, and in ad- an evil spirit had to be cured, or the dressing the Edinburgh Chamber of guilty person found out who had be- Commerce said that Mashonaland and witclled him to death, it was to Akele Matabeleland were both possessed of the people came. But one day his much wealth, but that railroads would heart opened to the preaching of the be needed to develop it. The most in- Gospel, and he decided to renounce his teresting part of his remarks relates to fetishes and the gain they brought him. the gold production of the Transvaal.
He gathered together all the people of He estimated the probable receipts from his village, and announced that he no that field at £700,000,000 ($3,500,000,000).
longer believed in spirits, but in the one -A recent visitor to Lovedale, with God. Then, collecting his fetishes and its 800 pupils, writes thus: "Perhaps all the instruments of his trade, he the most interesting was the Sunday threw them into the lake before the evening service, When there were gatheyes of all the people. There was a ered together for worship all the boardgreat sensation, and they expected to ers, numbering about 450, along with see these sacrilegious men fall dead; the Europeans. In the congregation but nothing happened, save that the many tribes were represented. The former fetish-men repaired to the mis- Kafirs formed the majority, but there sion settlement, and asked to be re- were also Basutos, whose home is 200 ceived as catechumens.-Journat de8 or 300 miles to the north ; Bechuanas, MiasionB EvangetiqUlJ8. who come from the northwest; and -Dr. Battersby says in Niger and distinctly marked oil' in appearance Yoruba Note8: "The question of mak- flOm the rest, the Gallas, whose native ing a real advance into the Soudan is land is in the north, near to Abyssinia. at present engaging the attention of Those last, of whom there are about 60, the Church Missionary Society Com- were rescued, along with 200 other mittee, and if only suitable volunteers children, from a slave dhow about will offer for this service, a forward 1890, and were sent to Lovedale to be movement might soon be made. cared for."
-In an English paper it is written -Mr. Pilkington, of Uganda, speakthus of Sir Cecil Rhodes: "He is a ing at a recent conference in Liverpool, strong man, of the kind that is never said that the Soudan and the Congo finished by a single stroke. And he is could be evangelized from Uganda. strong with the strength of a coarse, How was it to be done? By seeking ruthless, greedy egotism, the strokes and finding indications of God's plan, of whose piston-rod force the minds which they could surely now do from and the money of weaker men into its the experience they had had of mission reservoir. As he was at Oriel twenty work. It seemed that for every foryeaN ago, SO he is at Cape Town to-day eign missionary there should,be 100 na- tives employed, and thus, in a compar- atively short time, the whole of Africa might be evangelized.
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.