The Missionary Review of the World — January 1904
OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF THE WORLD FOR
This table includes only Missions to non-Christian and non-Protestant peoples, and so omits work done in non-Catholic Europe, while covering that in behalf of Indians, Chinese, and Japanese in the United States. Tbe figures are derived almost wholly from annual reports, and relate in the main to 1903, tho sometimes the year includes a part of 1902. Thp. aim lIas been to leave the fewest possible blanks, and hence where the la'est official figures were not at hand, conservative estimates have been made, based upon former reports.-REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
~~ ., ., .. .. . ~g .. ., .s .";"is" ~ ….l>.'"<, .., . I :; ,::: ] o~ ..8 :! al~ '»8" III '-~"E"E",~O6al .'!": .eO) Ill,"" Oil 0:: 1 I'J Countries in which Missions ~ os :Ii! §!l a ~ are Sustained N.lIla 41" SOO1£TIBS .0<..>,. .. -e .s~ :l .!: ~ ~~ ~~ illS Oil .~f, o""".'.0~~ ~ ~ Z :B=0 8 """-O<"""J 8 0,"" o·~ 'Qll '0 :iii …asl ~ 0 0 ".,.r!..l 1<.1<. IllS. .Q Oil ~-"''.~Q" ~~ 0 II: .~…. :-M<a::::; r1J r1J "0 " 0"0''0' 0 $740,777 ~ 722,':'58 — 218,513 – — — — — — — — —– 66,263 South Afti~a. Tu~key, India, China, Japan, 23,245 Mit·ronesla. MeXICO, Spain, Austria. A.merican Board…………………………. 1810 1176,439 169 22 170 183 544 27.5 956 1,500 1,394 59,585 5,902 158,806 1,368 Saptist Missionary Union ………………… 1814 127,857 1,406 37,844 Burrna. India, China, Japan, Africa, France. Southem Baptist Convention …………….. 1845 114,062 181 23 116 185 505 289 8,306 3,811 1,665 113,418 7,553 25,000 lipain. Philippines. Free Baptist…………………………….. 1833 62 15,376 54 2 16 67 139 G7 192 331 3BB 8,880 1.790 2,000 100 1,350 China, Japan, Africa, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Cu ba. 783 8 0 8 2 18 6 66 84 14 904 107 3,860 India (Southern Bengal), Africa.
ChrisUan (DisciplE's) …………………….. , 1875 182,142 25.567 83 4 87 19 9J 47 290 882 92 3,289 581 10,000 89 2,199 India~s~hina, Japan, Turkey, Africa, Phllip- pin 4 5 Japan (Tokyo, etc.). American Christian Convention…………… 118S6 10,386 °@ 0 8 15 7 12 27 35 420 43 1,500 1 Chrlstian and Missionary Alliance………… 1897 211,316 1,748 70 50 70 80 270 ° 151' 426 100 2,800 772 3,500 80 2,200 Africa, India, China, Japan, South America, Protestant Episcopal. ……………………. 1835 489,119 22,527 58 16 39 84 142 75 526 668 240 5,8,9 467 20,000 188 ca, etc 4,622 Afri China, Japan, Haiti, Mexico, Alaska.
Soclety of Friends……………………….. 1871 68,927 6,013 24 30 23 31 108 8 193 301 71 2,120 885 5,112 87 1,716 Mexico, Alaska, Jamaica, China, Japan.
Lutheran, General Council……………….. 1869 26,287 2,190 7 0 8 5 15 3 254 269 22B 3,860 890 . 9,285 180 5,216 India (Madras), Porto Rico• Lutheran, General Synod………………… 1837 61,278 1,300 12 ° 11 9 82 0 506 588 629 8,586 900 85,525 ;US 6,886 India (Madras), West Africa. Scandinavian Alliance……………………. 1891 29,7(i() 570 62 1,500 4 150 Japan, China, India, Africa. lIethodist Episcopal. …..•…•……………. 1819 1,314,000 5,000 45 ° 68 0 108 0 55 168 98 4,847 250,000 839,728 84,480 1,198 35,000 1,181 39.666 China Korea, Japan, India, Africa, Bulgaria, ethodist Episcopal, South………………. 1846 16,289 257 34 243 233 767 510 8,608 4,376 904 12,906 25 MeXlCO, South America. Philippines.
26,452 80 5 79 8 172 95 246 318 312 2,212 China,Korea, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba.
lIethodist Protestant…………………….. 1888 16,045 662 6 1 7 ° 14 6 15 29 85 469 107 1,0()0 2 885 Japan (Yokohama). Presbyterian ……………………………. 1837 1,064,119 46,540 5,227 27,370 India, China, Japan, Korea, Africa, Syria, Presbyterian, South……………………… 1861 19,690 262 12 268 164 706 192 1,988 2,694 1,529 5,270 125,000 764 Cumberland Presbyterian ……………….•. 1820 168,425 890 Siam, Persia, Spanish America, Philippine,. 29,079 10,727 60 15 56 82 165 15 132 297 246 850 85 12,000 25 1,260 China •. Korea, Japan, Africa, Italy, Mexico, 1,427 9 2 7 7 25 7 28 58 14 1,500 4 Brazll, Cuba. 250 China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Indians.
Reformed Presbyterian (General Synod) …… 1836 29,555 31iO 8 1 9 10 29 1 41 70 16 316 2.~ 1,000 18 611 India (Northwest Provinces).
United Presbyterian…………….. ……… 1859 193,000 87,318 88 10 40 49 137 46 798 935 403 16,293 1,G97 88,810 312 21,694 Egypt, India (Northwest Provinces).
Reformed (Dutch) ……………………….. 1832 158,895 16100 32 5 29 29 95 33 589 634 270 4,717 304 15,000 307 7,089 Indl'B, China, Japan, Arabia.
Reformed (German)……………………… 1878 66,305 2,000 11 2 13 6 36 10 55 91 64 2,100 350 3,000 4. 361 Japan (Tokyo, Sendal, etc.), China.
German Evangelical Synod……………….. 1883 20,915 1,200 9 0 5 1 15 0 108 123 48 2,263 124 4,999 80 1,877 India (Central Provinces).
United Brethren in Christ ………………. 1858 34,393 2,750 16 0 16 0 32 9 105 137 76 2.700 400 6,000 16 700 West Africa, China.
Woman's Union Missionary Society………. 1861 50,000 2,000 0 ° 0 58 58 ° 200 25B 16 600 ° 400 22 4,700 India, China, Japan. Canada Baptist.•…•….••……………….. 1873 66,103 1,804 Indl'B (Telugus), Bolivia. 1,683 24 1 21 20 66 9 317 :183 70 5,291 673 6,532 107 Canada Methodist……………………….. 1873 139,347 8,916 56 ° 54 ° 110 36' 86 197 245 8,814 792 25,000 49 1,450 Japan (Tokyol, China, Indians. 858 Canada Presbyterian…………………….. 1844 186,809 10,276 49 18 64 45 1–.::. 176 10 177 2,OM 114 4,102 221 6,000 92 6,517 China, India, New Hebrides, West Indies. 212 887 21,484 Formosa. Othe~American Societies….•……………. 1,492 1,149 …… – – – – Totals for AmerIca……………………. 358,700 47,500 418 – -13-2 – -28-7 282 – -2-4,84-3 1,350 – – -69',-000- 615 – -1-675-0 —- ~,964,976 $611,245 1,999 485 1,7GB 5,740 1,741 15,842 9,598 432,765 37,487 1,000,426 7,136 267,007 Baptist Society (England) ……………….. 1792 480,045 35,590 141 5 te9 66 815 29 1,105 1,420 1,046 58,910 3,290 150,000 780 19,086 India, China, Palestine, Africa, West Indies.
London Society (L. M. S.)…………………. 1795 853,2.~5 100,655 172 88 170 65 445 94.3 6,462 6,907 945 69,607 4,891 11l6,026 1,940 92,686 China, India, Africa, Madagascar, Polynesia.
Church SOCiety (C. M. S.)…………………. 1799 1,751,450 154,325 418 152 883 877 1,330 379 8,076 9,406 5SO 81,652 9,687 299.553 2,37R 121,541 Persla, .Chlna, Japan, India, Africa, North 68,800 6,520 230,000 870 AmerIca. etc. Propagation Society (S. P. G.) …………….. 1'001 760,000 28,640 356 0 820 80 676 192 3,140 3,816 3,700 4,322 12,000 146 817 88,000 IndiIt, China, Japan, Malaysia, Africa, West Universities' Mission ..•……•…….•…….. 1859 147,410 4,445 27 21 0 48 100 17 224 324 75 Indles, etc.
5,079 Africa (Lake Nyasa and Zanzibar).
Society of Friends….•……•..•…..•.•.•••.. 1867 92,455 12,000 0 35 29 30 94 0 Il78 1,072 249 2,932 170 27,685 255 16,677 Palestine, India, China, Japan, Natal, Mad· Wesleyan Society………………………… 1816 560,450 agascar. Primatlve Methodist…………………….. 1870 24,270 47,945 227 190 180 0 552 43 1,136 1,683 403 64,614 2,072 175,000 950 42,289 India, China, Africa (West and South), West 6,500 q 4 12 0 27 3 7 84 41 1,466 55 8,500 22 Indies, Italy, Spain.
275 West, South, and Central Africa.
Presbyterian Church of England….•.•……. 1847 132,390 12,r.oo 25 18 28 29 100 33 670 770 261 7,844 591 20,000 112 2,064 India, China, Malaysia, Formosa, Syria.
Presbyterian Church of Ireland..•••..•……. 1840 99,875 8,900 32 24 29 29 114 5 419 582 116 2,796 140 5,000 185 1,870 China, India (Gujeratl, Syria.
Welsh Calvinistic………………………… 1841 48,810 2,820 18 2 14 7 41 10 101 142 41-1 5,104 674 20,340 879 7,698 N.E. India, France (Brittany).
China Inland Mission ………. , …………… 1865 358,830 2,000 50 250 186 248 734 18 741 1,475 509 7,774 1,0'26 12,000 90 1,082 China (Sixteen Provinces).
Established Church of Scotland…………… 1829 267,495 14,200 28 22 36 62 145 10 642 787 217 8,789 774 11,988 225 11,595 India, East Africa, Palestine.
United Free Church……………………… 1843 541,545 ~,235 146 57 118 89 410 65 2,115 2,524 827 39,644 2,813 75,000 915 57,680 India, Africa, Arabia, Palestine. New Heb- rides, China, Japan, West Indillll. …… —– – – – – – – – – – – – Other British Societies•…………….•.•…. 53.480 366 120 176 290 952 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 885,062 16 1,201 2,153 875 6,500 852 15,260 – – – – 15,000 – .21-0 Total British Societies………………… $6,957,842 S882,235 2,017 988 1,74U 1,340 6,035 1,763 27,017 33,051 9,255 420,754 34,322 1,158,087 9,527 4-'12,832 Paris Society……………………………. 1~ 282,058 46,000 74 35 64 33 208 48 1,095 1,303 259 29,126 2,500 120,000 690 42,300 Africa (South, East and West), Tahiti, Mad· 8wiss Romande….•….•…………………. 1875 43,250 1.193 143 a lI:ascar. Basel Society… , ………………………… 1815 313,325 2,300 18 5 15 15 58 ° 68 116 58 24,372 2,500 ,59 2,102 1,870 EastAfrica. 51,410 182 76 148 16 422 88 1,265 1,687 566 60,000 .Q35 21,880 South India, China, West Africa Berlin Society …………………………… 1824 15:~,387 5,000 95 15 89 18 217 4 924 1,141 331 21,978 575 48,240 331 8,301 AfrI' ca (East and South), China.
Breklum (SChleswig-Holsteinl…•…………. 1877 39,o.'l3 250 14 °8 3 25 ° 84 107 78 748 220 8,741 39 1,088 Indla (Telugus). Gossner's Society…. ,………………….. lS'16 68,451 19,547 830 5,793 Indla (Ganges, Chota Nagpore). 8,220 48 I> 25 1 69 24 1,145 1,214 250 83,287 210 HermanDsburg Socie~y…… . .. .. .. .. . . . .. . … 1854 112,003 13,877 59 0 55 1 115 ° 223 343 168 24,000 663 51,000 124 7,418 India, South Africa, Persia. Leipsic Society………………………….. 1836 183,671 9,280 866 9,844 South India, Burma, British and German lIoravIIlDChurcla………………………… 1732 224,763 8,750 61 5 42 7 115 30 -650 965 284 32,687 1,198 21,815 218 North Oenua.a Society…………………… 1836 1,986 148 E a.t Africa. 48,434 190,162 168 32 183 11 394 23 47 441 839 98,599 230 24,189 South Africa, Australia, South America, 13,000 18 2 12 10 42 '3 98 140 68 4,500 62 WestIndies. Eskimo. 2,024 West Africa (Slave Coast).
RheniM &ciety (Barna~………………… 1829' 181,527 28,477 140 11 117 17 285 27 1,562 1,817 291 40,288 4,278 91,124 388 17,926 Afllica. Borneo, Sumatra, New Gum.,a, China. 180,840 5.000 15.000 …… Other GermaD Secieties.. _…….. _……….. 48 – – 107 340 -6 258 -59-8 -11-5 – – 7,100 472,306 52 – – -85-0. S319,146 – – – – 72 –1-3 – – – – – – – 920 18.000 25,000 — 125,000 TGtai German Societles.. _.__ ………….. $1,400,434 8,500 8Q2 154 7"~7 191 2,024 155 6,461 8,483 2,485 181,881 11,300 2,189 99,313 128,450 …… NetheriaDda Societies… _…………….. _…. 483,740 58 12 25 3 98 8 205 306 160 4,920 81 445 11,700 …… Scandinavian Societies……………………. 159 84 125 77 895 98 2,096 2,491 1,136 55,285 4,730 872 84,670 Australasian Methodist Society…••…..•…. 1855 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —– – – – – – – Totals for Asia, Africa, the Islands, etc…. .-…-.. 121,985 45,000 – -26 11 18 10 65 84 4,132 4,197 1,554 40,525 1,570 1:11,526 1,601 81,414 FljI, Samoa, New Britain, New Guinea. $;'35.650 939 391 5,820 685,220 1,764 68,400 $76,000 620 126 188 158 15,557 4,28-3 62,681 6,759 2,300 – -2.47,-84-0 8,824,065 24,283 989,506 13,282 4,337 71,458 4,046,503 1l'T2,t81 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – — – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —– TOTALS FOR CHRiSTENDOM…………… 4,259 '— 4,610 3,318 .. • $17,114,383 $1,955,426 5,863 1.800 78,554 27,800 1.414.176 96,860 – – – – 4. – – – – – – – – – – 25,583 Totals for 1902· …….. · ……………….. . $16,310,424 12,837,675 4,6971t.m 409 12,879 84,740 24:070 ~5,544 9~,607 ,- Missionary Review of the World Old Series i J ANUARY lj VOL. NXewVISIe. riesNo.1 VOL. XXVII. No.1 f SOME GRAVE MISSIONARY PROBLEMS BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF One chapter in the Second Book of the Kings * contains a brief epitome of the greatest reformation recorded in Hebrew history. Josiah found at least ten forms of idolatry and iniquity polluting the Temple and people: Worship of Baal and Astarte; Asherah, or Phallic, abominations; Sodomites; Tophet, or Moloch; Chemosh of Moab; Milcom of Ammon; Bethel with Calf Worship, and the consulting of Familiar spirib, and the offering of incense in high places. He destroyed all existing relics of idolatry, defiled idol altars and sites, and degraded priests of Jehovah who had corrupted His worship.
Turn, now, to confront the evils of our own day which call for a new reformation, and the problems which demand practical solution. First looking at the Orient, we find three generic forms of false faith: 1. ANCESTRAL-Worship of deceased ancestors, including all human heroes lifted to Divine honors.
2. ASTRAL-Sun, moon, stars, including the natural forces of the universe, and the material creation.
3. ANIMAL-Various forms of animal life, originally probably used as symbols of Divine creative power, etc., like the Egyptian Apis.
Under these three forms all false faiths may be arranged, as, for example: Under Ancestral, Confucianism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism; under Astral, Parseeism, etc.; under Animal, Brahmanism, Fetishism, etc.
For convenience in stndying the great missionary problems, we may divide the world field into two parts-the Orient and the Occident; the one representing the territory where the dominant false faiths prevail, and the latter the territory of at least a nominal Christianity, whence must come the missionary forces for the great campaign of the Kingdom of Christ.
In Oriental lands we find several gigantic obstacles to the spread of the Gospel, and, while various systems of heathen religion have certain features in common, like polytheism and idolatry, each has some one or more conspicuous characteristics which differentiate it from the others. For instance, Fetishism, the lOWEst form of idolatry, is one of the grossest forms of the worships of nature, as Parseeism, or • u. Kings, xxiii : 1-24. fire-worship, is the most refined. Brahmanism is specially marked by its iron system of caste, and Buddhism by its essential deification of man, in Buddha. Mohammedanism is comparatively a pure system of belief, but corrupted by sensuality, and moder~ Judaism is a pure religion perverted into denial of the Messiahship of the very Christ which it fore- told. Confucianism is a lofty ethical system tainted with the worship of ancestors. Thus, every system has one or more distinguishing features which render it specially difficult to meet and overcome by the modern missionary forces.
In the Occident, even among the nominal people of God, more or less exact counterparts to these errors are found, constituting the main hindrances to missions at home, if indeed they are not more formidable than those encountered abroad. For example: The virtual worship of nature in scientific materialism and naturalism.
The Oaste Spirit, in race prejudice,clasR antagonism, and social hatred.
The Rejection of Ohrist's Deity ir. Unitarianism and philosophic skepticism. .
The Oounterpart of Oonfucianism in dependence on ethical systems, tradition, etc.
Modern idolatry, as it appears in Christian lands, may be classified, therefore, substantially under three main heads: 1. Worship of matter-materialism.
2. Worship of Mammon-wealth and worldly enterprise. S. Worship of wan-self-interest and self-indulgence.
In Christendom there is the Self Life as a principle and motive, with this world as its field of ·operation, and present time as its period of opportunity; while, pel' contra, God commends unselfish love as the principle motive of mission&, with the whole race of man as its field of operation, and with all eternity as its harvest hope and reward. It is a remarkable fact, which should be emphasized as most sig- nificant, that, when we turn to these Occidental lands and study the hindrances which, among so-called Christian peoples, impede or pre- vent the missionary conquest, we thus find every obstacle, confronted abroad, to have its almost exact counterpart at home. The wor- ship of nature corresponds to materialism, sometimes gross, sometimes refined, as in scientific skepticism; the caste system is reflected in race prejudice and class antagonism; the deification of Buddha, in hero worship; the sensuality of Mohammedanism corresponds to the awful corruption of sensual vice; Judaism, with its rejection of the Messiah, to the Christless creeds of a nominal Ohristianity. Ancestral worship has its counterpart in blind reverence for tradition; and idolatry generally, in the worship of Mammon. It is as though Christendom had imported the idols, superstitions, and debasing practises of heathendom, modified them, and called them by other names, still giving them'a shrine and throne in the temple of God, as the Jews did with the strange deities of the heathen. It is another example of the repetitions of history. There is nothing new unger the sun. The
SOME GltAVE MISSIONARY PROBLEMS
human nature which is in the heathen and pagan reappears in the Ohristian, and, so far as unsanctified, brings forth similar if not' essen· tially identical fruit.
Some heathen obstacles are peculiarly formidable. Mohammedan- ism, called also Islam, Resignation, is theoretically entire submission to the will and word of God; practically it is fatalism, not faith. It has two fundamental cre<1al statements: "There is no God but God, and Mohammed is God's apostle." God has no offspring-"begetteth not, nor is begotten." Jesus Ohrist is a great prophet, and will come again to establish Islam everywhere. Angels are mediators between God and man. There are four archangels: Gabriel, Angel of Reve- lations, the Holy Spirit; Michael, Guardian of the Jews; Azrael or Raphael, Angel of Death; Uriel, the Trumpeter of Resurrection.
The duties are four: prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage.
Prayer, five times in every twenty-four hours; almsgiving, legal and voluntary; fasting, during the whole month of Ramadan, from sunrise to sunset (they may eat from sunset to sunrise), and pilgrimage to Mecca. .
Oaste is a term applied chiefly to class divisions in India-" a system of cellular structure, where the cells do not penetrate or communicate." It makes subdivision of labor so rigid that to go outside of the limits of one's employment is a forfeiture of social rank. In some cases even the touch of a lower caste defiles, and some sorts of food are defiled when the shadow of an inferior caste passes or falls over them. In India t~e principal castes are four-priestly, military. mercantile, and servile, with numerous subdivisions; and so stringent are the caste rules that Dr. Judson declared that to get a convert to accept Ohrist and come out for Him was like pulling the eye-tooth of a live tiger!
Some Obstacles at Home (1) 'fhe calc~tlating or mathematical spirit, that coolly calculates whether or not missions pay financially. It puts in one scale the money annually spent and in the other scale the number of converts annually gathered, and weighs one over against the other. Such a method applied to a work commanded by God is itself close akin to blasphemy. Money it is possible to weigh, but who can weigh a soul? On the triple doorways of the Oathedral of Milan are graven three inscriptions. On one side, with all the emblems of plenty and pleasure: " All that pleases us is but for a moment!' Opposite, with all the symbols of pain and anguish: " All that affiicts us is but for a moment." In the middle, over the fadeless crown: "That only is important which is eternal." All temporal good, however desirable, is still temporal. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up, while he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
The story of inissions is a sufficient answer to such financial
arguments. Take one example-Livingstone's body-guard, Susi and Chuma. When they found him dead on his knees in that grass hut at Ilala, they took out his heart and buried it under the moula tree, as the inalienable property of Africa; then rudely embalming the body, wrapped it in bark and canvas and lashed it to a pole, and undertook that greatest funeral march on record, running all manner of risks for forty weeks by day and night. They had to pass through hostile tribes nearly every fifty miles, involving new risk. That journey of fifteen hundred miles demauded all the patience of indomitable love and the sagacity of the most competent generalship. Yet, depending on God, the deed was done, and so the remains of the great missionary general, statesman, and explorer were laid to rest in England's grand Abbey. Do missions pay? That. black man, Susi) whose hand was upon the pall, was fully the equal in nobility of any of the noblemen that helped bear that sacred load; yet Susi was the fruit of missions; and had all the life-blood and treasure spent on African soil wrought no oth~r result than to give such a hero birth, it would be a full compensation.
(2) The Gaste Spirit. This as really exists in such countries as Great Britain and the United States of America, as in India; it may not be as rigid, but in some cases it is as unquestionable and insurmountable. The cellular structure of society is such that cells do not interpenetrate.
Two great facts which are both obvious and conspicuous are sufficient to prove this. The intense race prejudice and hatred which exists toward the colored inhabitants of our country and toward the Chinese emigrants on the one hand, and class separation and antagonism as between poor and rich, capitalists and laborers, everywhere exemplified in society-these are sufficient illustrations both to vindicate and illustrate the affirmation that the spirit of caste is by no means confined to the East Indies or Isles of the Sea. We have our "tabu" system as certainly as the Cannibal Islands of the Pacific. One of the most startling proofs of the malignity of this spirit is found in the amazing growth of lynching and similar acts of violence, especially among the people of the South, in this great republic.
In a letter to The Springfield Hepttblican the eminent Harvard psychologist, Prof. William James, described the lynching spirit as a profound social disease that is so rapidly spreading that "we shall have negro burning in a very fflW years on Cambridge Common and in the Boston Public Garden." Professor James' letter was hardly published before the report of the lynching in Danville, Ill., afforded a lurid verification of his prophecy in a Northern town-the home of the man who has been selected by the Republicans as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a town that has hitherto been regarded as a center of light and leading for the eastern part of Central Illinois.
SOME GRAVE MISSIONARY
No doubt at the bottom of this lynching there is much latent race hatred, as most of the victims were blacks. But in connection . with this is undoubtedly a still more dangerous defiance and contempt of law. The old triangular contest is upon us: infidelity and irreligion at the opposite angles of the base, and the common apex in which each naturally culminates-disregard of both human and Divine law. The evil is deep-rooted, and the appetite for cruelty in connection with these acts of violence grows, like the tiger's taste of blood, into a maddening fury.
Mary Cowden Clarke, in her book, "The Iron Cousin," represents her heroine as retiring from Christian work among the the slums because she" can not stand the poor smell." Mrs. Rhea, formerly of Persia, has graphically told how, when she first went into those Persian huts and sat down on the earth floor among those filthy and ragged women, she was thankful for the almost naked condition of the children, because the less clothing the less room for vermin to hide. . . . She tells how she went home, threw herself down on the floor of her room, and said: " 0 my God, I never can work among these women without a new baptism of love for them." Thousands of people are kept from Christian work at home by the repulsion which they feel toward the ignorant and degraded, the poor and the unclean. More than this, in at least two cities where the writer has lived he has known Christian people of intelligence and culture who have been so influenced by what may be called ideas of aristocratic locality that they would not pass the line of certain streets, even to engage in Christian work or attend a missionary meeting. Vain is it for us to remonstrate against the caste spirit abroad while such narrowness and meanness exists at home, often under the guise of piety. If we are going to carryon world-wide missions we must learn more sympathy with the immaculate Christ, who was the most "pedect gentleman" who ever trod the earth, and in comparison with whose refinement and delicacy our finest tastes are coarse; yet who, nevertheless, passed his human life in the closest contact with the poorest and lowest and filthiest classes of Palestine, yet who never once betrayed any repulsion, save from hypocrites and formalists.
(3) I. et us look a moment at the Oarnal Sp£r£t, which means the spirit of self-indulgence in all its breadth and length. This may be illustrated in two ways. First, by the comparative cost of missions and of other expenditures, even in Christian communities. Taking $1,000 as the basis of the estimate, it is reckoned that we spend annually on schools, $30; on footwear, $60; on cotton goods, $65; on woolen goods, $75; on meat, $100; on breadstuffs, $150; kid gloves and feathers, $20; on tobacco, $200; on drink, $300. To state it differently, out of every $1,000, we spend for food, $218; clothing, $250; ostrich plumes, $2; education, $30; tobacco and rum,
$500; missions, $2. Our gifts to missions are, therefore, but $2 out of $l,OOO-as much as the ladies give for ostrich plumes! If this does not reveal appalling extravagance on the one hand, it certainly does show appalling parsimony on the other. And, if expenditure for God's work is to be estimated by comparative ontlay, this is a reproach and a shame. It may be said that this is an estimate of money as expended not by Christians, but by society at large in Christian lands. Yet no disciple of Christ can prayerfully consider this tabulated statement· without being impressed that even devout believers can not exculpate themselves from responsibility for such conditions of things. If they do not in this case always lead the way, they are too prompt to follow where others lead.
Another illustration of the carnal spirit is suggested in the following relic of one of the most godly men and ministers of the Scotch Church. Dr. Andrew Bonar once made a quaint analysis of the zeal of the preacher. He reckoned that out of one hundred ounces, personal ambition had twenty-three; love of praise, nineteen; denominational pride, fifteen; pride of talent, fourteen; love of authority, twelve; bigotry, ten; while love of God might claim four, and love to man as man, three.
The late Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, was studying the subject of comparative expenditure, even in the churches. He made careful investigation as to the conditions of churches within, say, a radius of twenty miles from the Clarendon Street Church in Boston, and he found that the amount of money annually expended for organs,' choirs, and other musical performances averaged ten times as much as the whole sum given in these churches to missions-and published his own statement to that effect ! We have personally known facts in our own observation that fully sustain this' statement of Dl'. Gordon's.
(4) The Secular Spirit. By this we mean the constant tendency and temptation to magnify what is temporal and visible over that which is etel'llal and invisible. This seems to be the special form of temptation against which we are warned as that which comes through the world. The flesh seems to represent innate depravity and carnality. The devil seems to stand for lies and wiles, or denial of truth und a delusive and subtle evasion of duty, but the world represents the temporal and visible order, good and desirable, but oftentimes an obstacle and hindrance to the clear vision of things spiritual and Divine.
Nothing is, perhaps, more fatal to a true missionary spirit than the Becular spirit. For example, the spirit of what we call modern enterprise has never yet found its way into missions, certainly not since apostolic times. There have been what we might call spurts and starts in this direction, but no steady, faithful, onward, and upward movement. For example, it is now more than fifty years ago since
Dr. Angus, of London, made the proposition in his famous missionary sermon, that the Ohristian Ohurch should put men enough in the field, and set apart money enough for the work, to evangelize the world in the course of the half century then remaining. He demonstrated mathematically that the Ohurch was strong enough numerically to supply the men and women by giving one out of a hundred to the direct work, and financially abundantly able to supply all the money by giving one out of every hundred dollars of income. His proposi- tion was not only never seriously followed, but it was laughed at as an impossible scheme. Yet it is perfectly obvious that there was nothing in it either unreasonable or impossible.
In the time of Esther, when Ahasuerus wished to reach the utter- most part of his empire in the shortest possible time, in order to save the Jews, the queen's people, from destruction, he had a proclamation translated into every language of his empire, and the swiftest posts carried it to its bounds within nine months, and yet he had none of the facilities of the printing-press, steam transportation, or electric telegraph; and his empire was probably fifteen hundred miles in one direction by three thousand in the other. There were three such proclamations successively sent forth by him in his empire, and this fact seems to be recorded that a lesson might be put permanently before the Ohristian Ohurch as to the possibility of the" evangeliza- tion of the world in a single generation."
(5) The Scientific Spirit. We do not mean that there is anything necessarily antagonistic between science and Ohristianity; of course not. True science is as truly Divine truth as revelation, but scientific theories and facts are different things, and scientific inferences are sometimes strangely delusive and misleading. For example, there is a tendency in our day to carry Herbert Spencer's philosophy of evolution into Ohristianity and even Ohristian work. The basis of evolution is, of course, development and survival of the fittest, and the effect of this, when carried into Ohristianity, is to make the Bible nothing but a book which marks a peculiar stage in the evolution of revealed truth; to make Ohrist only a personal factor, representing also a stage in the evolution of manhood toward perfection; and to make all heathen religions steps and stages in a final evolution of a perfect religious system. With this philosophy permeating Ohristian missions, the heart of Ohristian endeavor is paralyzed. We may let the heathen alone, Why not? They will come out all right in the end, and it is not probable that we can do much even to hasten this slow process which, like other evolutions, takes ages to accomplish.
The beginning of a new year is a good time to take our bearings, and to look seriously at the whole question of our attitude toward a dying world, and at the hindrances in the way of our performance of duty.
There are certain grand incentives and inspirations to missions which must be steadily and prayerfully cultivated.
First: Christ's command and promise. It is a question, at bottom, of submission to Divine authority, or, as the Duke of Wellington said, of « obedience to marching orders."
Second: There must be love for man as man. We must remember Robert McAll's two sentences with which he began and upon which he built up his great mission in France-" God loves you" and " I love you." Nothing can take the place of a passionate devotion to Christ on the one hand and to human souls on the other.
Third: The principle of self-sacrifice, which is born of love and which is identical with it, must become the law of our life. We must have the spirit of John Maynard, the martyr pilot on the Great Lakes of the North. Standing at his wheel on the burning steamer, seeking to beach the boat in time to save the passengers' lives, removing his right hand from the wheel when burned to a crisp, he placed his left hand on the wheel to be burned, and sacrificed his own life cheerfully that he might save the lives of others. We need the spirit of « Ohinese" Gordon, whose principles of life began and ended in utter absorption to the will of God and utter oblivion of self.
Fourth: We need a revival of stewardship. We must learn anew that holy lesson that all things helong to God, and, hence, that man owns nothing. What he has is simply committed to him in trust, to be rendered back to the original Owner. We have long since outgrown this apostolic principle. Men consider that what they have is their own; that it was got by their own industry and sagacity and economy and frugality, and they deny the claims of God upon their property; and this is true even of many devout disciphis.
Last of all, we need the revival of spiritual sensibility. Our faculties must be exercised to discern invisible things, and we must come anew under the powers of the world to come-Ohrist as Leader; the Holy Spirit as Administrator; eternal realities as the hope and inspiration of the Ohurch of God.
When such conditions as these are fulfilled, we- can understand such words as those of Rev. Hunter Oorbett: "I may have' buried my life' in Ohina, but this I know: that at this moment there are at least two thousand converts there who are daily praying to God for me." Dr. H. H. Jessup, of Syria, when offel'ed a missonary secretaryship in New York City, which would have multiplied his salary fourfold and lifted him to leadership in his own land, sent a letter of declination which was itself a grand missionary document. He said, in SUbstance, that his American friends, in asking him to forsake his Syrian work and converts, were suggesting a self-denial for which grace had not yet made him equal. Such identity with the work makes even self-sacrifice a joy.
o
THE ltEDEMPTION OF THE CiTY
THE REDEMPTION OF THE CITY CHURCH FEDERATION AND EVANGELISTIC WORK IN CITIES BY REV. WALTER LAIDLAW, PH.D. Secretary of the Federation of Churches and Christian Organizations in New York City The Bible, opening with a tale of the ruined association of two people, closes with a vision of the rapturous association of a count- less throng. The wretched pair, departing with a curse from Eden's closed gates, give place to the ecstatic myriads of the Holy City, within whose ever-open gates there is no more curse.
The country, tho glorious with the fresh, creative touch of God upon it, was the scene of man's seduction by the serpent, Satan; the city, though first men:tioned as built by Cain, the murderer, and though we read that God interfered with the building or one whose selfish people were harmonious only in speech (Gen. ii: 6, 7), becomes at last the seat of the throne of God and of the Lamb, while the nations, severed by speech and sick from sin, are healed by the leaves of its Tree of Life, and walk together in its light and glory.
The city is thus represented, in the general outline of the Bible, as capable of being transfigured. There is in the program of redemption not only a provision for the fellowship of men with God the Father, but for the fellowship of His children with one another. The cell which shelters an individual ascetic is not the richest place for the revelation of God, but the city, where souls' echoes flow to other souls.
God enriches the individual not only by what He directly gives to him, but by what He gives to him through others. Not the isolation of country life but the association of city life is the final prophecy of the Bible. The pessimism of the "fear-full" is discredited. They see only evil in the modern trend of population to the cities. God's enmity to cities includee only those built for selfish purposes, and whose plans include a tower of escape from the fate and the need of the rest of men. God's glory may flood every avenue and alley of the cities that will cooperate with Him for the good of all humanity.
The general optimism of the Bible concerning urban life receives especial support from the history and teaching of Jesus. He spent the greater part of His life and ministry in Galilee, which in His time was an urban rather than a rural community.* The Gospels themselves bear witness to the multiplicity of the towns of Galilee, and to the influence of its urban make-up upon the plans of the Mas- ter. He sent seventy forerunners, in groups of two, into every city * Josephus may exaggerate when he says that there were two hundred and fifty towns above 15,000 in population, but archeology is justifying the claim that from a mountain height" the land must have looked like one continuous town." The ruins of three hundred and sixty-five towns have been marked in northern Galilee alone. There can be little doubt the Galilee of the days of Jesus was densely populated-as much so as almost any part of the world in our own urban age. w. L.
and place whither He himself was about to come. He calls cities as well as souls to repentance, Chorazin and Bethsaida, as well as Matthew and the Magdalene. He wept over the sorrow of the home of Bethany, but He wept also over the shame of Jerusalem. He bade HIS disciples wait for the coming of the Spirit not on the Mount where He was transfigured, but in the city where He had been crucified. 'rhe devil had tempted Him in the wilderness; the Spirit would come to them in the city. Soon every city, even to the capital of the empire, received the Messianic message needed to complete its life-wisdom for Ephesus and Athens, righteousness for Rome, sanctification for Corinth, redemption for Jerusalem. Paul's letters to Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossre, and Thesalonica, especially those last written, are letters to the chnrches, 101' the Christianization of those cities; and the heathen of early Christianity are the heath-men, the countrymen, untouched by the apostles in their sanguine march to _the strategic centers to claim the associated life of humanity for Christ.
The foregoing'has minute relations to the question of church fed- eration for evangelistic work in cities of to-day. Church Federation is necessary: (1) To revive that purpose and expectation of the Ohristian conquest of cities which characterized early Ohristianity.
(2) To compact the churches into the Ohurch, and to acquaint them with the nature of the campaign.
(3) To assist them in conducting the campaign. (4) To conserve the results of foreign missionary campaigns elsewhere. (5) To restore to the Evangel of the Church its original inclusiveness, and to dower her with purpose and power to fulfil the Messianic prophe- cies of the relationship of Ohrist to cities.
The illustration of these claims will be drawn from the experiences of New York's Federation of Churches.
The Restoration of the Conquest Spirit of Early Christianity The expectation of conquest gave substantiality to things not yet seen when John was a prisoner on Patmos, and when his great vision helped to cheer the persecuted Christians to stand firm to the end. The pathetic voice of an illextir.guishable hope sounds out from Paul's prison cell in Rome when he says: "All the saints salute you, especially they that are of Cresar's household" (Phil. iv: 22). In his bonds he rejoices that the Christ has claimed the homage of some who live at the court of the empire which sentenced Him to death. His name, Jesus (Savior), is yet to be above every name-even that of Cresar or Czar. He shall yet triumph. Rome, supreme among the cities, shall yet enthrone Him.
The Curia on the Tiber is not, indeed, an embodiment of the lowly Nazarene; but neither is it Anti-Christ, as last-century Christians
THE REDEMPTION OF THE CITY
were wont to maintain. Nor is it as difficult to believe that Christ shall yet control the cities of the Christian world-London, New York, Chicago, San Franciscoas-it was unlikely that Paul's dauntless hope should be realized. The house where the Crnsars glutonized, as well as the prison where Paul. suffered, have had to be recovered by the archrnologist's spade; but the Fisherman's Ring, or its equivalent, has outlasted Crnsar's crown. Conquering and to conquer, the Christ, whose personal triumph only gives value to Rome, to Geneva, to Canterbury, and to Heidelberg, with all their varying views and ways, survives the disappearance of the Roman empire even as He survived its cross. Paul's hope has been justified, for he walked by" faith and n.ot by sight. If our hope is any less than his it is because we walk by doubt and not by faith. A subtle agnosticism which resolves Christ's resurrection into a subjective vision, or explains Christianity's history by hypnotism, has been stimulated by the march of worldly knowledge and the dwarfing of the earth in space since Paul's day.
But those who accept the historicity of the resurrection and the ver- dict of the jury of twelve aposUes, who were transformed from Jews into cosmopolitans and who sealed their verdict with their life-blood, need have no fears from science or from sociology. They can say, with Pressel: "
"0 earth, thou grain of sand upon the shore of the universe, thou Bethlehem amid the princely cities of the heavens, thou art, and thou shalt remain, the chief among ten thousand suns and worlds, the chosen one of God. On thee the Son of God has a great work to complete. Thou didst once drink in His life-blood, but Thou shalt yet give Him the crown that is His due."
rrhe conquest spirit of early Christianity, in other words, must possess everyone who believes Ohristianity's own account of its origin. This must mean, in turn, the conquest of cities, as Rome, slipping from the Crnsars, has held to the name of Christ. He who directed His disciples to attack and attach the cities does not despair of redeeming New York or London. He incites the true successors of His apostles to capture for Him even the most powerful cities, as He incited Paul to capture Rome. Not many wise or mighty had confessed His leadership in old Corinth, but those who do homage to the Christ to-day are among the wisest and mightiest of the world. The Christian conquest of cities will appear possi"ble to all who have not lost Paul's faith or who have not closed their eyes to the results of H. If our age is as urban in its trend as was Galilee in the days of Jesus, the Master-the" same yesterday, to-day, and forever" in purpose and power-bids His disciples not to sU13cumb to the difficulties, but to meet them, and give to Him, even in this, the preeminence. If modern Christianity will devote itself, faiLh-filled and faithfully, to this task, the Master may speak again the words which He spoke on the
Ttiill MiSSIONAiW REVIEW OF' Ttiill WORLD
return of the Seventy: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."
This, again, must mean church federation. Paul's letters to the churches were letters to the Ohurch, and the consciousness of conquest can not come to Methodism, as such, or to Presbyterianism as such, or to Episcopalianism as such; but it is held by Methodism or any other "ism" that is not self-idolatrous only as it devotes itself to the upbuiIding of the Kingdom of God. One of the noblest expressions concerning federation as yet formulated by a religious communion in this country is the following: We desire to renew the expression of onr profonnd interest in the current movements toward the federation of churches and Christi,an workers. We firmly believe that the vast and perplexing problems confronting the Christian Church in the cities can be met triumphantly only when the Christians of the various denominations give a practical evidence of the essential oneness of the Church of Christ by unselfish cooperation in federative efforts to reach the unchurched multitudes in the congested centers of our population.* To stimulate the expectation of conquest in every city of the land, its churches should be federated into the Ohurch. Without such federation the" isms" are in danger of being more interested in their own surviving and thriving than in the conquest of the city for Ohrist. In other words, without federation the churches are not the Ohnrch as they were in early Ohristianity.
New York needs, at this very hour, an expression of invincible hope and desire for a city whose builder and maker is God. Such expression it might have in a federation of all its churches, which would work back into the faith of all its Ohristians, and forward again, from them and by them, into a Ohristian Oitizens' Union.
II. Compacting the Churches into the Church There are some cities whose federations are little more than a rallying-point for the hope that maketh a Ohristian worker not ashamed, the hope of the final Ohristianizing of his city and his kind. Evangelical alliances and ministerial associations which attempt no active federative work, but which at least help to bring the Ohurch to the conciousness of the churches, are of this nature. But when attempt is made to compact the churches for active work federation is more dynamic and more like early Christianity. It is a great mistake to think that early Ohristianity was absolutely homogeneous in belief and methods of work. Peter was a conservative, and had followers who adhered to Hebrew ritual; Paul was a radical, esteeming it almost a sin to adhere to old forms. J ames, brother of the Lord, differed from *.This resolution was adopted by the National City Evangelization Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Pittsburg some years ago, and it not only asserts that the problems incident to the Christian conquest of cities can be solved, but that church federation is the method to solve them.
THE REDEMPTION OF THE CITY
CHART SHOWING PROPORTIONS OF Prote.~t.. Romaa Catholics aDd Helwc1q ill GreaterNewY~1I: PROTESTANTS ROMAN IRONX CATHOLICS Heb.,lopuct. R.C. lSPUct. Prot• .ss~r ct.
'BROOKLYN .Heb.lo.8puct.. R. C. ]4.:a per ct. PTot..s~ pcr ct QU£ENS W Heb.
R. C. Jl2o•.•6ppeel'rc(tt.. ~ P~t. 57 per ct.
RICHMOND a> Htho optret.
R. C. P.9 per ct.
Prot. sL' per cto, CBART OF PROTESTANTISM C .reIu.how com,.ratiyc pofM!.1aI,OQ of BorHtJi. of He_ York.. Di… i,iooa Ie Greater N", Ycwk, altowiq. UI lilt Dad… .,w.ce. lbe ,"porno. 01 tile OIIt-ol~vrU PTot- I ho. relahft proportl..- HeI…". . lMaded l, Ro.a. Catholics ~ow Hit- ntaats to tbe """ote.. aDd, as """ed. tlte pro- .,.-. at ncbf'). aDd Protettuts Ito til. ,.,.n. . . plUIe …~Prot~stulCOGUrlllAi…. 1""HetKt. .) I.a~'IaIioa~OIICb&.
CHARTS PREPARED FOR TH E FEDERATION OF CH UR CH ES both, and idelltified religion with social service to such an extent that Luther repudiated his writings. John, who had leaned upon the Master's bosom, was a mystic, at once conservative and radical-a doer and a dreamer. There was unity between these men, but there was not uniformity. Their unity lay in their common, intense devotion to bring the world to Ohrist and Ohrist to the world, but there was no uniformity. There was federation rather than organic union even in
the apostolic band, or, rather, there was organic union with admitted diversity, It is a long way from the homogeneous communions of to-day to a . widely inclusive organic unity with admitted di- versity, tho there are those who are working fo r this ideal. Bu t the com pacting of the churches into the Ohurch ill any city is a much shorter step, inasmuch as it involves, not the chang- ST. CORNELIUS CHAPEL ing of the customs of a whole communion, but ThIs was formerly the home of Faith Presbyter ian Church only the quickening of (419 West Forty-sixth St reet), but was bought by the the Ohristian conscious- Episcopalians. 8 8 a resul t of the recomm endation oJ the ness and the engaging of Federation, because of the number of that communion In the dIstrIct the Ohristian consecration of the chnrches of a single city. If there is any message in the Book of Revelation, for instance, to the churches of New York, to what churches does it come? To the Methodist alone, or to the Methodist and Presbyterian? Nay, surely to all the churches; that is to say, to the Ohurch of New York. A proper honor to the Bible will, therefore, tend b "the compacting of the churches into the Ohurch if they have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. If that message ' addresses t hem to redeeming the city, a federation ll111,st be effected which will ac- quaint them with the nature of the campaign.
Lutheranism, for exam- "pIe, may know how many of its own churches survive ,and thrive; it may know C~URCH OF THE ARCHANGEL how many new churches they Tbls Protestant Episcopal Church had been abandoned , ought to have and where but in a fe w months became self-supportin g, as a result of the Federation's canvass of the district they could be placed advan- tageously ; but if the city is to be saved, the Ohurch must know where the churches ought to be placed, or to be specially supported, or to be reduced, that nothing be wasted.
Some such work as this has beEm done by the New York Federa- tion in jts seven years of history. It hilS gathered lists of the churches
THE REDEMPTION OF THE CITY
NATIONALITIES IN MANHATTAN BOROUGH. NEW YORK The population of Manhattan includes foreign born (789,342), native colored (34,497). native whites of foreign parentage (713,947), and native whites of native parentage (312,307). in separate tables. The foreign born are divided into two section", non-English speaking and English speaking, and peoples of cognate languages are placed contiguously.
FOREIGN BORN ESTIMATED ENROLLED IN ESTIMATED OUT AFFILIATIONS CHURCHES OF CHURCH NON-ENGLISH rI ~ – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 165,548 Germany.. 24,832 107,607 32,109 55,073 60,683 Austria.. . . . 15,170 3.035 33,750 52,534 6,262 3,035 10 . 11 42,478 21 Luxembourg .. 11 28,007 Hungary.. 5,603 2,800 19,604 4,000 1,400 1,603 1,400 13,448 Bohemia .. 5,378 6,726 1,344 3,000 1,085 2,378 5,641 128,136 Russia .. 10,250 115,323 l r 1,575 l 19,930 Poland .. 875 8,671'1 2,296 16,535 1,421 r 2,563 4,600 *938 1,099 921 1,883 Finland . 1,883 t 962 *198' 95,~33 Italy. . . 92,096 2,878 959 90,650 1,446 10 270 France. . 6,674 3.076 1,90'03 3,081 51750 } 10,000 1,179 *1,368 280 700 Belgium. . 350 302 829 1,509 Holland .. 378 280 J 4,914 Switzerland. 1,230 829 3,684 3,684 9,453 Roumania . 9,453 (; 860 Spain. . . . . 97 Portugal.. . . 818 6 36 1 570 South America . 97 ) 10,000 *6,786 558 Central America. 570 179 Mexico .. 54 1,443 Cuba . . . _. __ 54 154044/ 35 J 35 1,081 d62 362 1,452 French Canadian 1,089 363 2,000 409 *911 363 1,999 Norway. 80 1,919 80 1,510 10,936 Sweden . . 318 10,607 11 10,909 318 302 1,790 Denmark.. 162 1,610 18 224 162 1,386 865 865 Wales. 865 1,350 110 *360 1,100 Greece .. 110 990 1,070 962 1,070 Turkey.. 108 4.500 4,500 China . 4,500 195 34 161 ~~~ f~Ei~~: 131 131 251 Africa . . . . 251 ni 251 737 Asia, unspecified. . . 589 73 589 75 168 Europe, unspecified. 84 84 84 223 Atlantic islands. . . 23 177 2.3 23 177 51 Pacific islands. 26 25 26 25 175 Unspecified. 87 88 87 88 101 – -203-Bo-rn at Sea. – – 1 -102- -101 – – – – – – – – – 102 – – – — — — 569,988 Total Non-English. . 160,751 169,298 239,939 158,000 77,439 2,751 91,81,9 ENGLISH-SPEAKING ———–1—————– 2'J: Iues~~!li~~e.s : 65 2,1~ iai 644 1,540 32,446 England. . . 4,841 25,982 1,623 9,139 Scotland.. . 914 7,767 458. 166,066 Ireland . . . . 150,954 14,944 168 9,258 Canada (Eng.). . . . ' 2,314 6,944 . . . . 713,947 Whites, For. Parentage 285,579 304,368 124,000 312,307 Whites, Nat. Parentage 62,462 234,230 15,615 ———1– ————— 1,243,424 Total English. 507,129 594,300 141,995 370,930 415,292 136,199 179,008 34,497 Colored Native 698 33,799 3,000 33,625 *2,302 174 1,850,093 TOTAL POPULATION. . 668,578 799,581 381,934 531,930 527,000 136,648 272.581 789,342 TOTAL FOREIGN BORN. ~19,839 227,184 242,319 * ;Excess of estimated affiliation c4limed to he enrolled.
of every Ohristian name in each of the seventy-seven subdivisions of the city. It knows the districts which are abundantly or superabun- dantly supplied with churches; it knows, too, the districts where dense populations have been passed by. By house-to-house religious cen- suses it has discovered to some churches, ministering to special classes or nationalities, that their days of service are over, and that other districts of the city could be better served by them, while, on the other hand, it has brought new churches into other districts adapted to the nationalities and classes within them.
One of the most recent studies of this Federation has oeen a com- putation of the religious adherences of all the nationalities of New York. From the studies made we can measurably teIl what percentage of a group of Russians in New York are Jews, how many Roman . Catholics, and how many Protestants or Greek Catholics. By tabulating the membership of all the churches of the city, and subtracting the population represented thereby from the number of each nationality, an estimate can be made of the number in each nationality who are churchless. Thus guidance can be given as to the forwarding or abandoning of special churches.
The figures for the Manhattan section of Greater New York show, for instance, that no more churches are needed for Welsh, for the membership claimed by the Welsh churches equals the entire Welsh population of Manhattan. On the other hand, the parallel figures for other boroughs show a considerable Welsh population in Brooklyn, and as there are only two Welsh churches in New York, and these both in Manhattan, within two blocks of one another, it is certainly true that the Welsh church properties of the city are not being used to the best ad vantage, either of the Kingdom of God or of Welshdom.
In every large city, and especially in such heterogeneous cities as New York, the Church needs to study population, environment, institutions, etc., to plan her campaigns. Jesus knew that His disciples would enconnter at a certain street a man bearing a pitcher of water on his shoulder; He directed Paul to the very street and dwelling where he would be shown what he should do. But the servants of Jesus in New York can not know all the facts of the city's composition without investigation, and if they desire to Christianize New York they must equip themselves with a larger and larger measure of the knowledge of .Jesus in order that His love may be a larger blessing.
III. Assistance in Conducting the Campaign When fishermen go after fish, they mayor may not be certain that fish are in the waters where they cast their hook or drag their net. A large part of the charm of fishing lies in this uncertainty. The fisher of men, on the other hand, if he be sympathetic with the desire of the Christ to draw all men unto Him, must know where men are. He
THE REDEMPTION OE' THE CITY
has no time for mere outings, tho in a city like New York the results of many of his" pastorial visits n might be classified under that head.
Since ninety-five out of every one hundred families in New York lease their dwellings, and so are constantly on the move, it is an advantage for a clergyman to know where men live to whom he can minister, and this the New York Federation can tell him. Bya cooperative district system each church annually visits, say in the autumn, every family within certain blocks. It notes especially the newly arrived families.
When the district has all been visited it sends the directory of the families to the Federation's office, and the Federation reports the families according to their creed. Adjacent churches do the same thing, and so a bridge of approach is built to every family threshold.
More important still, the out-of-church population, without special creed, are given into the charge of churches supervising the blocks in which they live.
The churches, unfeder- ated, concern themselves only with those families which they can attach to their tenets, while the churches federated on a cooperative district plan WEST INDIAN NEGROES PLAYING CRICKET IN NEW YORK seek to draw all men unto Christ. The cooperative A building formerly used as a home for .discharged COlldistrict plan ii a con- victs is now rented by the Third Moravian Church for these negroes, and bas 187 communicant members fession of their common Leader. Isolated church activity brings so me families to Christ; federation brings Christ to all families. In three assembly districts of New York this kind of work has been suc- cessfully done for several years, and similar organizations are to be effected this autumn in many others.
IV. Consenl'~tion of the Results of Missionary Work It took many years to arouse the churches of the last century to acknowledge the imperativeness of the Great Commission in its ethnic aspects-preaching the Gospel to foreign nations. It may take as many years to educate the churches to acknowledge its imperativeness in its domestic aspect-teaching the nations not only to believe the things Jesus revealed, but also to observe the things that He commanded. One thing is certain: if there is anything in foreign missions beyond a mere "witness" to Christ, church federation is necessary to conserve the results of fidelity to the ethnic aspects of the Great Commission.
The Moravians, for example, early instituted missions in the West Indies. Economic causes are to-day producing a large emigration from those islands, and many Moravian blacks are now New York citizens. The Federation of Ohurches encountered some of them in a house-to-house canvass of 1897, and when the First Moravian Ohurch of New York, desiring to provide a religious home for the blacks who were crowding out the whites, asked the Federation's advice in locating it, the answer was at once ready. The West Indian negro, unlike the American negro, is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist, but a Moravian, and whenever the Federation in future discovers a churchless West Indian negro family it knows the church whose net is adapted to hold him. In other words, the results of foreign missionary effort elsewhere are being conserved. The Federation has just been asked to advise concerning a similar Moravian work in Boston.
v. Purpo,e and Power to Fulfil the Messianic Prophecie, The early Ohristians preached repentance for social sins as well as for personal sins. Take infanticide, for instance. Gibbon tells us that it was "the prevailing vice of antiquity." What removed it? Gibbon, skeptical as he was, was obliged to confess that it was mainly due to the protests of the apostles and their successors, and their revelations of the value of human life. But it took over three hundred years, after the birth of Jesus, to make infanticide a crime in Rome. Are there social elements in the teaching and activities of Jesus which the Ohurch of to-day is neglecting? Jesus says that it is not the will of the Heavenly Father that one little child should perish. The parable of the Ninety and Nine in Matthew is a parable on child-saving. Who framed and toiled for the Ohild Labor laws enacted at Albany last winter? The churches? To a certain extent; for the Federation of Ohurches spoke in favor of those laws on behalf of the two hundred and seven churches in its membership. But where were the other one thousand churches of the city, and their moral and material power i' Far less potent certainly than the settlements, which many call irreligious, but which, for this at least, are certain to receive the blessing of Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done it unto Me."
To catalog all the social elements of the Gospel to which the churches are giving inadequate attention would require an article by itself, but meantime it may be pointed out that some churches are so far estranged from the inclusiveness of the early Evangel that they twist the very words of Jesus to excuse their neglect. A prominent Presbyterian minister of this city, in a sermon two years ago, said that Jesus does not mean the physically hungry, naked, sick, etc., but the spiritually hungry, naked, sick, etc. (Matthew xxiii). A Baptist divine of eminence more recently said that Jesus gave attention in
THE REDEMPTION OF THE CITY
His miracles to physical wants mainly in the early part of His minis- try, but that He virtually abandoned this at the end. His intention was to inject the inference that the Ohristian who gives atten~ion purely to the spiritual needs of men is nearer to the Master. In some such fashion the Rheims (Roman Catholic) Bib 1e renders "Give us this day our daily bread," "Give us this dllY our supersubstan- tial bread," adding a foot- note to say that the bread Jesus refers to is the sacra- mental bread. And is this orthodoxy? The day will come when such teaching will again be regarded as heretical- when men's or- thodoxy, in other words, will not only be judged by their A HARTLEY HOUSE KINDERGARTEN conception of the person of Jesus, but also by their con- Tbis settlement was located by tbe Federation at 413 West Forty-sixtb Street, in tbe densest district on Man- hattan's West side. It is denser than any part of London secration to His purposes.
Federation is necessary to the coming of that time. The religious communions of the world stand naturally for their peculiar tenets.
But Federation elevates before them the ideal of the Kingdom of God, to whose extension and perferring their tenets and their activities are to minister. The Kingdom of God is not indeed meat and drink, but neither is it also only" joy in the Holy Ghost." It is also" righteous- ness," something that Christians could promote if they were but more closely united, and "peace," something which has been so little in the ideals of the denominations that Christ speaks concerning it to the modern world, in the main, through the Society of Friends. To bring righteousness and peace to kiss each other in the State is the mission of a Ohurch which follows the inclusiveness of the early Evangel.
The indifference of the Church to physical wants has wrought injury to her success in her spiritual mission. Mr. Jacob A. Riis, the "most useful citizen" of New York, in President Roosevelt's estimate, says in "The Battle with the Slum": The Church, which once stood by indifferent or uncomprehending, is hastening to enter the life of the people. I have told how, in the memory of men yet living, one church, moving up-town away from the crowd, left its old Mulberry Street home to be converted into tenements that justly earned the name of "dens of death" in the Health Department's records, while another became the foulest lodging.house in an unclean city; and of how it was a church corporation that owned the worst underground dive down-town in those bad old days, and turned a deaf ear to all remonstrances. The Church was" angling for souls." But souls in this world live in bodies endowed with reason. The results of that kind of fishing
were empty pews and cold hearts and the conscience-stricken cry that went up, "What shall we do to lay hold of this great multitude that has slipped from us?"
The years have passed and brought the answer. To-day we see churches of every denomination uniting in a systematic canvass of the city to get at the facts of the people's life, of which they had ceased to be a part, pleading for parks, playgrounds, kindergartens, libraries, clubs, and better homes. There is a new and hearty sOlind to the word " brother" that is full of hope.
The wider and wiser Evangel was well expressed by Rev. G.
Campbell Morgan in the Homiletic Review of December, 1899, when he said: The sorrows of the city are most keenly felt in the heart of God. He has abandoned no part of what He Himself created. All the physical disability has His sympathy: the dwellings of the poor, the drainage of the city, the workshops of our men and women.
The Church of Christ exists to reveal God and to act in concert with Him. God is working for the city's regeneration. How is the city to know that it is not Godforsl1ken.? Through the Church…. We must know our city, pray for it, vote for it, and preach to it. Jonah was angry because God would forgive Nineveh. Jesus wept over the sins of the city. I am in sympathy with Jesus rather than with Jonah. Christian am I if I am Christlike; Christlike am I if, like Christ, I weep over the city and give myself for it even unto death.
When Christ reaches and touches our cities, as He desires and designs to do, all who live in them shall flourish "like grass of the earth." '1'he Federation of Churches and Christian Organizations in New York City rejoices, therefore, over the improvement which it has brought to the pbysical welfare of its people.
THE PRESENT OUTLOOK IN CHINA BY HENRY B. FERGUSON, TS'ING KIANG FU, KIANG SU Missionary of the China Inland MiSSion, 1895- China's greatest need, for the life that now is as well as for that which is to come, is the full Gospel, the full revelation of Himself which God has graciously set before us in Jesus Christ; for not only is there " none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved ," but also only the full light of the Sun of Righteousnes, a true and full knowledge of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, can dispel the dense darkness of superstition which invests the whole land of China, burying out of sight even the law of cause and eifect, crushing out the intellectual life of the people, loading them with burdens grievous to be borne, binding them to the past, and making progress difficult almost to the point of impossibility. What the friends of China wish t() see is a nation enlightened andiree, ieMing a.nd Joving God, and, while living for God and the life to come, enjoying all the good that enlightenment brings within the reach of man in this. While as heralds of the Gospel our greatest desire is for the salvation of souls, we can not but be moved with compassion at the sight of the present
THE PRESENT OUTLOOK IN CHINA
distress and be concerned· for its alleviation. Do the signs of the present time indicate that this need will soon be met and this desire fulfilled, or do they lead us to look for further delay? Will China go straight forward to her goal, or will she continue to wander indefinitely in the wilderness? What are the signs, and whither do they point?
Looking out upon China as it is, we see the great mass of the people now, as always, engaged in a hard struggle for a mere existencea struggle which, in most cases, absorbs all their energy and all their thought. "What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" After all these things do the heathen seek, and these pressing present necessities overshadow in their minds the affairs of the nation and the infinitely weightier matters of the life to come. Now, as always, they are exposed to calamities which sweep multitudes of them into untimely graves-flood, famine, pestilence, disorder. They are, however, a people of very great capabilities, tremendous endurance, and tremendous patience; wonderful power of recuperation, and of making the best of untoward circumstances; splendid working power, both physical and mental, and, withal, remarkable for court~sy. Yet through lack of enlightened direction they have not realized their capabilities, neither are they now doing so. This physical and mental stamina is their greatest national asset.
Government and Gods Discredited We see also the government weak, discredited, and bewildered. Scorning to receive enlightenment from abroad, it has striven to maintain the traditions of the past, and every effort has ended in total collapse, making its weakness and insufficiency more apparent to the nation and to the world. Its military power and prestige have been shattered, and parts of the national inheritance have passed into the hands of strangers. The army is great only on paper, its administration is thoroughly corrupt, and it has very little either of courage or patriotism. It is of little use either for aggressive warfare, for defense, or for the maintenance of order at home, and is often itself an element of public danger and public dread. So great is the distraction of the government that Manchuria, the ancestral home of the dynasty, containing the ancestral tombs, is being allowed to Blip from its grasp without an effort to retain it and with scarcely a protest. The empress dowager and her advisers were so ignorant and superstitious as to believe in the Boxers, and, confident in their invulnerability, they defied the world. The collapse of the Boxer hope only added to their bewilderment. But tho the government is discredited, there is no present alternative.. Its overthrow would mean anarchy and foreign interference. What the people most desire is peace, in order that they may devote themselves to their struggle for existence without distraction. So the government is tolerated and even maintained, and it
TaE M18810NARY REVIEW OF TaE WORLD
clings to power, concerned far more for its own continuance than for the country's good.
Also the gods of China are discredited. The Boxer movement was an appeal to the gods, particularly to the spirits of departed generations, reverenced in ancestral worship. The movement was idolatrous throughout; its votaries looked to the spirits whom they worshiped to make them invulnerable. Its defeat may have far-reaching effects, altho the Chinese mind but slowly r!3sponds to the stern logic of facts.
China is, moreover, a nation drugged. l'he use of opium has spread to all parts with the most direful results. It is undermining and threatening to destroy that physical and mental stamina which is the greatest asset of the nation. It intensifies the struggle for existence by undermining the working power of millions of workers, transforming productive laborers into indolent, self-indulgent parasites, much more inclined to encroach upon the labor of others than to labor for the benefit of others. Through this habit, multitudes of bread-winners gradually cease to be bread-winners, shirk responsibility, become burdens to the families to which they belong, often abandoning wife and children to shift for themselves, or, in the extreme-of poverty to which the vice brings them, evell selling them to procure the means to assuage the insatiable craving which relentlessly drags them down to ruin. This also diverts much land from the production of foodstuffs, in a country much affiicted by famine, to the production of poison. It is doing more than any other one cause to weaken and destroy the nation. The present helpless condition of China and indifference to her fate are, without doubt, largely due to the effect of the drug through the great multitude of officials, high and low, civil and military, as well as common people, addicted to its use. One effect of opium is to take the reliability out of a man, making him like a wooden pillar which has been infested by white ants: it retains its form, and may retain an appearance of strength, but no dependence can be placed upon it. As the malarial germs in the blood, through unfitting many corpuscles for the 'duty they have to perform in the body, make the body weak ahd unable to bear its burdens, notwithstanding the greater number left unimpared, so the opium in the uation, by destroying or curtailing the usefulness of a multitude of individuals, makes the whole body weak and unable to perform the functions of a nation. There are no signs of this evil abating.
The form of national pride prevailing in China, especially in government and official circles, has proved a most serious and everpresent obstacle to China's betterment. She has been the proudest of the nations, accustomed to look upon herself as the height of perfection in government, in doctrine and morality, in literature and culture, in customs and manners. So far from having anything to learn from foreign nations, she considers herself fit to teach the world the princi-
THE PRESENT OUTLOOK IN CHINA
pIes of right and decorous conduct. U nUke Japan, scarcely less proud, she has never humbled herself to take the learner's place. Though compelled outwardly to lower her lofty pretensions toward other nations, in her heart she retains them still. Her unreasoning pride has led her to the fatal mistake of closing doors and windows against the entrance of light, while making no effective effort to prevent the diffusion of moral pestilence. But God, in his all-wise providence, has brought Ohina down into the valley of humiliation; she is descending deeper; humiliations are being heaped upou her. Yet she is still un humbled, so may have to dwell long in the valley, until she learns the lesson of her experience, and comes up out of it, perhaps by the way of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, a regenerated nation.
The Ohinese nation, in its attitude toward progress, may very fitly be symbolized by a locomotive with its boilers fiiled with tepid water. There is great latent power if only heat can be applied; the locomotive, symbolizing the nation, and the water the mind of the nation, thought, which is a movement of mind as heat is a movement of the particles of matter, is the heat required. The Ohinese as we find them are not progressive becaMe not a thinking people. But through contact with the West, especially with the heralds of the Gospel, thought-heat is being communicated to the cold, inert mass, and a pressure is being created which tends to movement. As the application of heat continues the pressure increases; and there is a possibility that it may become strong enough to move the engine, causing it to go forward. But that is not the desire of those who have their hands on the throttle-the rulers of Ohina; they wish to keep it standing still. As they are powerless to prevent the application of heat and its gradual dissemination throughout the mass, they endeavor to prevent its effect by refusing to open the throttle and by steadily holding down the safety-valve, to prevent any expression of the gathering pressure within. (To this end the government has recently evinced a very strong desire to get its hands on certain native newspaper editors.) What will be the result? Will the restraining force be thrown off, or will the engine go to pieces, or will it be taken control of by outsiders? The Ohinese mind is a slow conductor of thought-heat, yet this heat is slowly permeating the mass and opening the eyes :of the people to the possibility of better things, and creating desires therefor.
The Real Remedy While the nation pursues its chosen course, and difficulties and dangers thicken about her, a sovereign remedy is being applied. That remedy is the truth-primarily, the truth of God as revealed through Jesus Christ, and, secondarily, that emancipation of mind which knowledge of God accomplishes, leading to the recognition of God's ways in the world of men and matter. It is through poverty of truth that Ohina is weak and distressed. Ohina is now in contact
with the nations of the West, who are, in a sense, the repositaries of the truth that China needs. But that contact has not been an unmixed blessing; for while she has been exerting herself to make it ineffective, her efforts have been more successful against good than against evil. While she has received and applied but little of profitable knowledge, the opium habit, undcr foreign pressure, has spread to every corner of the empire, and tens of thousands of her sons have been corrupted and tens of thousands of her daughters sacrificed in palaces of sin and dens of iniquity that flourish under foreign license in Shanghai. It is not truth alone that Western nations bring. To depraved minds our boasted liberty is an opportunity to plunge headlong into sin. When will China have her" senses exercised to discern both good and evil?" And when will she" know to refuse the evil and choose the good?" But the truth is God's remedy for a sinful world. In His hand it is a force that never ceases to operate. Though refused and thwarted a thousand times, it still persists. "The eternal years of God are hers," and the truth of God in Christ shall conquer even in China. Already it has penetrated far. Those who have received Christ are a goodly company, though .few compared with the great mass of the population. But they do not represent the whole result of missionary effort. The seed of truth has been very widely sown where 'no fruit is yet apparent. The esential truths of the Gospel have been planted in minds hostile or indifferent, where curiosity, or a desire (they know not for what) has led the individual to listen to the preacher or read the printed page. '{'he Spirit of God watches over the buried seed. He will cause the living truth to triumph in the coming conflict, when China is aroused, over the dead traditions of the past. Very wide doors of opportunity now stand open before the Lord's servants, and the cry for more laborers to enter these doors continually reaches our ears. The present is a critical time, fraught with tremendous possibilities. Who will go?
What answer must we give to the question as to the present outlook in China? The prospect is bright only to the eye of faith which looks beyond the present. The present" vision is to them that hate her and the interpretation thereof to her enemies." China is still in the wilderness, wounded, helpless, bewildered, drugged, surrounded by enemies and doubtful friends, and failing to recognize her true friends. She needs help from beyond herself, help which is available in God, but she does not yet recognize her need. In the truth of God we have the assurance of the final triumph of righteousness. Whatever vicissitudes the nation may still be called upon to pass through, the hand of God will not be withdrawn. He turns not aside from his purpose of grace. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and China shall not be lacking among the number.
THE PROTESTANT LITERARY MOVEMENT IN CHINA
THE PROTESTANT LITERARY MOVEMENT IN CHINA BY REV. J. T. GRAOEY, D.D.
A movement has already begun to take shape for the observance, three years hence, of the one hundredth anniversary of the inception of Protestant missionary work for the Ohinese, dating the centennial observance from the arrival of Robert Morrison in Ohina, 1807. This work was of necessity for many years largely preparatory, aud, for that matter, the whole century has been one of preparation. The foundation work was chiefly of a literary character, and the scholastic work occupied its representatives for the first half of the century, and for the first third of the period was operated from a base outside of the territory-the whole archipelago of southeastern Asia.
In dating the centennial anniversary from Morrison, in 1807, there is no design to underestimate the beginning of Joshua Marshman in 1804, three years earlier. It is difficult for a man to acquire two repu- tations, and Marshman has been so long classed as· one of the great triumvirate-a Oarey, Marshman, and Ward "-and thus with the great worthies of India missionary beginnings, that the tendency has been to obscure the colossal work he did looking to the evangelization of Ohina. If that were accorded its proper weight, the centennial might easily have been observed in 1904. Fortunately the proposal is to begin now, and continue for the next three years, the preliminaries required for a becoming centenary celebration. The appeal has been issued for activity in a a Three Years' Enterprise" before the Morrison date, that all Ohristendom shall join in thanksgiving, confession, and prayer for reinforcement all along the line till it doubles its present numbers, and secures a great increase of the Ohinese Ohristian com- munity.
The First Sixty Years In reviewing the century of laying foundations, it is well to emphasize the first sixty years of Protestant missionary literary work.
In pursuing this investigation, one is struck with the widely separated beginnings, which seem now a special coordination of an overruling power.
Joshua Marshman began the study of the Chinese language under the tuition of Mr. Johannes Lassar, an Armenian born at Macao, who had been engaged by Rev. D. Brown, Provost of Fort William Oollege, Oalcutta, to commence a translation of the Scriptures into the Ohinese language. Marshman gave himself to this work with great persever- ance, till he had" succeeded in producing the first complete transla- tion of the entire Scriptures in Ohinese," published at Serampore, India, 1822. As early as 1809 he published his bulky quarto of seven hundred and twenty-five pages of translation from the original text of
the works of Confucius. This same year he issued a dissertation on the characters and sounds of the Chinese language; also elements of the Chinese language, a grammar growing out of the" Dissertation" known as the" Clavis Sinica."
The interlacing of the providences which connect remotest parts of the earth in the accomplishment of the work of God finds a striking illustration in the fact that an Englishman and an Armem'an from Macao should cooperate in India to translate the Scriptures into Chinese; and that Morrison, the accredited.founder of Protestant missions in Ohina, grandson of a Scotch farmer, should commence the study of Chinese in London, tutored by young Sam-tak, a Ohinese who just happened to be in England, and that he commenced this study only one year later than Marshman did in Calcutta. Each of these men translated the Scriptures into Ohinese, Marshman completing his work, published in India, in 1822; and one year later Morrison his translation, in twenty-one bulky volumes, published at Malacca. Marshman was born four years before Morrison, and survived him by ten years; yet Morrison died in the Danish Hong, at Oanton, and Marshman was buried in the Danish settlement at Serampore, where thirty-eight years before he had begun his missionary work. Marshman wrought alone. Morrison had Milne as coworker on the Bible translation. The same year that Marshman issued, at Serampore, his complete Scriptures in Ohinese, Morrison published his monumental" Dictionary of the Chinese Language," in six quarto volumes, at Macao, the one being aided indirectly by the East India Company, the other in its official employ as translator. Morrison's Dictionary of the Ohinese Language was pronounced by Professor Julien, of Paris, "without dispute the best Chinese Dictionary composed in the English language." It cost the East India Company, who published it, $75,000. Morrison was the author of ten other publications, large and small, in Ohinese, and of fifteen separate other works in English, besides those already mentioned_ William Milne came next, the author of twenty-one publications in Chinese and three in English; following him came Walter Henry Medhurst, who was the chief in the production of another edition of the Bible. The enormous amount of literature furnished by these earlier missionaries laid the foundation of Chinese missions. They were, for the most part, shut up to this avenue of reaching the people, . and a prodigious part of it was done outside of Ohina-in Macao, Malacca, Batavia, Singapore. There lie before the writer now the titles of nearly a thousand pUblications in Chinese, and as many more in English, with Malay and other publications, all of which were issued within the first sixty years from the arrival of Marshman and Morrison in their separate strategic points of labor for the conversion of the Chinese.
It may interest some of the women working in foreign missions, and others of the home workers, to know that at the inception of the work in China, Mrs. Medhurst translated "Lloyd's Scripture Catechism" into the Malay language, which was lithographed at Batavia in 1832 and printed in Roman characters the next year, in order that "an extensive population of professing Christians in the Moluccas might be furnished with a system of doctrine and preeept drawn entirely from Scripture, which may prove widely and lastingly beneficial." * The Roman Catholic missionaries have wrought greatly in their literary productions in China, but Protestant missionaries never have been indifferent to the power of the press. Of course, the modern titles are not countable, but the earlier missionaries as well, were keenly alive to this avenue of reaching nationals who pride themselves on being a preeminently literary people. In the memorials of Protestant missionaries to the Chinese, published in Shanghai, is a list of literary publications by missionaries in English, German, Dutch, Chinese, Mongolian, Malay, Japanese, and Siamese, prior to 1867.t Of those fonowing Marshman, Morrison, Milne, and Medhurst Giitzlaff is credited with sixty-one Chinese titles, two Japanese, one Siamese, five Dutch, seven German, and nine English; Dr. Legge with eighteen Chinese and two English, and Dr. Hobson with the same number; Dr. Muirhead with thirty Chinese and three English; Dr. McCartee with thirty-four Ohinese; Dr. Edkins with fourteen Chinese, seven English, and one Mongolian.
Since 1867 Of the intervening years there is no space now to write. Within the past twenty years the literary glacier of China has exhibited some indications that it may move with a rush. Twenty-six years ago the "School and Text-book Committee" was raised by the Shanghai Conferenee. It was supported seven years later by "The Chinese Book • Miss Aldersey is credited as the first unmarried woman to do missionary work for China, but Mrs. Medhurst's sister, Miss Sophia Martin, lived with the Medhurst's in Batavia, and left for Singapore in 1829. She assisted in conducting a Chinese school, and was the author of a little work in Chinese called "Three Character Classics for the Instruction of Females." She afterward married a Dr. Little in Singapore. Miss Aldersey did not go to the East till 183,', in company with Dr. and Mrs. Medhurst.
t These embrace twenty-eight translations of the Scriptures or portions of the Script~res; thirty commentaries on portions of the Bible; two hundred and thirty-two theological works; twelve works of sacred biography; thirty-seven catechisms; seventeen prayer-books; eighteen hymn-books; eleven educational and linguistic works; eighteen histories; three works on government; fourteen geographies; eight mathematical works; six astronomical works; thirteen medical works; two botanical works; four works on physics; twelve almanacs; twelve serials, and thirteen miscellaneous works-giving a total of four hundred and ninety, on a wide variety of subjects, from the little child's primer to such profound and noble works as Dr. Martin's translation of Wheaton's International Law, Dr. Hobson's medical and physiological works, Mr. Wylie's translations of Euclid's Geometry and Herschell's Astronomy, and Mr. Edkin's translation of Whewell's Mechanics.
and Tract Society." In 1892 this was followed by the "Uhl'istian Literature Society for Ohina."
The Fourteenth Report of "The Society for the Diffusion of Ohristian and General Knowledge among the Ohinese "-a title cumbrous enough to have strangled it-shows that the aim of this society is the circulation of Ohristian literature. The dissemination of this will, perhaps, solve the problem of future Ohinese government, the future history of Ohina being in a sense the future history of the world. The society hopes to influence the Ohinese government to see that Ohristians propose nothing but what every patriot in Ohina must recognize to be working for the welfare of the people and their government. They hope also to bring them to see that the granting of free religious liberty in the public schools and government positions will make for advanced civilization.
This forward literary movement has been a great factor in the modern reform movement in Ohina. The chief of the reformers and the prince imperial himself were identified with it, and it became the target of the empress dowager. All this only points to the influence and power of the literary form of evangelization in an empire every official of which is admitted only through the door of literary examinations.
This "forward movement" groups itself around a few names preeminently, among which are Rev. Timothy Richard,* secretary of the Diffusion Society; Dr. Griffith John (Richard's fellow Welshman), and Dr. Young J. Allen, of the Southern Methodist Ohurch, America.
Dr. Richard is still on the staff of the English Baptist Missionary Society and is supported by them, but assigned to this literary work as secretary of the Diffusion Society. In this great national move-' ment he is ably supported by his fellow officers, of whom are: Sir Robert Hart, Bishops Moule and Moore, Dr. YOl1ng J. Allen, Dr. Griffith John, Dr. Ashmore, and Dr. J. Edkins. That this movement has grell.tly impressed leading Ohinese mandarins and merchants is manifest in many quarters. A Ohinese official, at the last anniversary * Timothy Riehard-or Li Timotai, as the Chinese call him-was born on hia father's farm in 1845, but prepared for a professional career. He became a pupil of Rev. George H. Rouse, who has been missionary in India for thirty years, and is now putting through the press in Calcutta the revised Bengali Bible. Richard determined to be a missionary, and went to China, landing at Chefu 1869. He settled at Tsing Chou Fu, the only European among its SO,OOO inhabitants. In the Shansi famine, which is supposed to have carried off twenty million people, he gained great influence with leading men of the empire by his efforts to relieve the suffering. In the eighties Chang Chih-tung sent to ask him to accept a position for developing the iron and coal resources of the province. In the winter of 1895-6 he was invited to hecome permanent adviser of the Chinese government. He was sumrilOned by imperil,l decree to the consultations of atate to consider the problems relating to the peaceful prosecution of missionary work in China. He is President of the Sh&nsi University, and was asked to organize the University of Tai Yuan Fu. At the close of the Chino-Japanese war Dr. lllchard was chosen to draw up a statement of the Christian religion, with the memorial to the thrcne, which was signed by leading missionaries of all denominations in China. Since the BO:l!:er troubles no less than three governors of provinces have applied to Dr. Richard to aid in settling their diftlculties of iIldeuulity, lUll! also for modern books.
GREATEST LITERARY ENTERPRISE OF CHRISTIAN ERA
of the society, bore strong testimony to the influence of this literature in enlightening the Ohinese and raising their esteem for foreigners, and to cultivate friendly relations with them.
China's Protestant Centennial In connection with what has been written about this Protestant literature during the past hundred years, we take from Gracey's "Ohina" (levised 1903) the following condensed statement. about the proposeu observation of the centennial year-1907: A mass-meeting held in Kuling, China, August 7, 1003, had for its central thought a three years' enterprise, looking to the celebration by some fitting movement of Chinese Protestant centenary year, 1907.
From this meeting went out an appeal to all Protestant Christendom throughout the world to join them in thanksgiving, confession, and prayer; the special object of prayer being that they may get reinforcement all along the line. The proposition is to secure in the next three years: A large increase of members. More Chinese workers. Double the present missionary force.
A movement was inaugurated at Shanghai, July 1,1003, looking to a proper memorial of the Protestant martyrs of all China. The form of memorial suggested is a great connexional building at Shanghai. This will commemorate the martyrs and perpetuate their testimony. It will be a perpetual witness to the world that China has a martyr church. The essential unity of the Christian Church will manifest itself in this united effort as a concrete example of how to honor the dead and bless the living. The committee having it in charge are composed of leading ministers and laymen;such as Rt. Rev. Bishop Graves, Canton; Bishop David H. Moore, Shanghai; Drs. Griffith John, Timothy Richard, Young J. Allen, A. P. Parker, and others.
THE GREATEST LITERARY ENTERPRISE OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA THE WORK OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY BY F. KLICKMANN, LONDON, ENGLAND One of the most important religious events for the coming year is the centenary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. This Society originated in the desire to supply Wales with the Scriptures in the language of the people, there being a positive famine of Bibles in the principality at the beginning of the last century. Rev. ::I'homas Oharles, of Bala, appealed to the Religious Tract Society of London for a grant of Scriptures in the Welsh language. He showed the need and the eagerness of his people by telling of a little Welsh girl, who had come to him from a distance of between twenty and thirty miles, over the wild mountains, to purchase a Bible. In consequence of this appeal a thought suggested itself to Rev. Joseph Hughes, Secretary of
the Tract Society, that" if such a society were likely to prove useful to Wales, why not to the other countries of Europe-to the whole world ?"
This thought was destined to result in what has been called the greatest literary enterprise of the nineteen Christian countries. The idea appealed to the little gathering of the Tract Society with singular force, and Mr. Hughes was appointed to embody their views in a paper entitled," The Excellence of the Holy Scriptures: An Argument for Their More General Dispersion at Home and Abroad." It had for its motto these words: "Let us be the first institution that ever emanated from one of the nations of Europe for the express purpose of doing good to all the rest." On March 7, 1804, as the outcome of much careful deliberation, the British and Foreign Bible Society was born. Its purpose was the spreading of the Gospel of Peace, yet it sprang into existence in one of the darkest and most tumultous periods in modern history. In the autumn of 1803 Napoleon had formed an immense camp at Boulogne, and prepared to invade England at the head of the army with which he had conquered Italy. The Battle of Trafalgar had not yet been fought, and Waterloo was still further in the future. Judging by external circumstances, it would be difficult to name a year in the last century when the national outlook was less propitious to the launching of such an undertaking.
'rhe men who founded the Bible Soeiety understood little enough of the strange new movements stirring round about them, but they brooded over the miseries and evils of mankind, believing profoundly that for these ills there was no remedy except the Gospel of incarnate and atoning Love. By a splendid act of faith they formed a society for the purpose of giving that Gospel to every human creature in his own mother tongue.
The financial support which enabled the Society so quickly to take shape came from that group of "holy and humble men of heart," sometimes designated" The Clapham Worthies," who, by their pure lives and untiring devotion to God's service, shine out as beacons in the dim light of the struggling century. Granville Sharp, Charles Grant, William Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, William Alers Hankey, and Joseph Reyner, men of great and diversified attainments, were united in this movement for the wider circulation of the Scriptures.
At that time the evangelical revival, tho deep and genuine, had kindled only a fraction even of religious England. But this spiritual minority displayed an astonishing ardor and self-sacrifice for the salvation of mankind. The Baptist Missionary Society was nine years old. Both the Church Missionary Society and the Religious Tract Society were five years old. Some of the stanchest adherents of these earlier organizations gave their hearty encouragement to the new venture.
GREATEST LITERARY ENTERPRISE OF CHRISTIAN ERA
From the first the object of the Bible Society has been to issue the Bible as cheaply as possible to all tongues and all peoples, without note or comment. In consequence, it has proved the broad platform on which Ohristians of the most diverse views meet and work in unison; and it is the chief religious institution that is able to associate and unify all Ohristian commu- nions.* It endeavors simply to obey the Master's command and give the Gospel to all nations.
The Society has been singularly fortunate in its presidents. The first was Lord Teignmouth, who THE LATE EARL OE SHAFTSBURY had been Governor-General of India from 1792 to 1798, and who Third President of the British and Foreign BIble for thirty years devoted the best of Society (1851-1885) his energies to the cause. Lord Bexley followed Lord Teignmouth, and during his !Jeventeen years of office the Society accomplished its splendid scheme of giving a copy of the New Testament and of the Psalms to every emancipated negro in the English West Indies who coUld read. This links, in a striking manner, the liberty of person and the liberty of conscience for which such men as Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce prayed and strove and prevailed in the early days of the Society. The Earl of Shaftesbury became president in 1851, and he writes.of it as follows in his private journal: I should have been grieved had * The founders recognized that the management must commend itself equally to all denominations; therefore, three secretaries were appointed to represent respecti,ely the Established Church, the Nonconforming Churches, and the Reformed Churches of the Continent. It was also resolved that the committee should consist of thirty-six laymen, fifteen of wEnhgomlanmd,uasnt dbfeifmteeenmbmeerms boefrstboAr Church of other Christian communions, the remaining six to be foreigners resident in London. The same representative character has been faithfully adhered to through the hundred years of the Society's exiotence, and to-day a balance of denominational interests is THE MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON maintained both in the committees and in tbe official staff. President of the British and Foreign Bible Society
circumstances prevented my elevation to this high post. It is the headship of the greatest and noblest of societies, and I am not indifferent either to the honor or the utility of the position.
He was president for thirty-four years, and the Society owes mnch to his wise administration. The Earl of Harrowby became president in 1886. As a cabinet minister, versed in public affairs he brought ripened experience to bear on this work, and gave the Society fourteen years' devoted service. The va- cancy by his death, in 1900, was filled by the Marquis of North ampton, who has already proved himself a worthy successor to these men of illustrious name amI deed.
Translation and Revision The work of the Bible Society is connected, first, with the translation and revision of the Scriptures into the various lan- gnages of mankind; and, second,.
with the printing and circulation of these books. The first volume issued by the Bible Society was St. John's Gospel, for the Indians on the Mohawk River. One of the earliest entries in the So- " HEADQUABTERSOF THE BRITtSH AND FOREIGN BIBLE ciety's books is the following: "To the Mohawk nation 2,000 SOCIETY, 146 QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E. c. .
copies of the Gospel of St. John (bound in calf), £204 98 ·6d."
Since that small edition was sent forth to convey the glad tidings to afar-off people in their own tongue, oyer one-hundred and eighty million copies of the Scriptures have been distributed by the Society.
The following facts, will convey some idea of the immensity of the work accomplished during the hundred years of the Society'S work.
At the beginning of the last century the Bible was current in about forty different languages; to-day some parts of the Bible has been issued in over four hundred, including every great vernacular of the world. And toward this result the British and Foreign Bible Society has contributed more than all other agencies put together. Its list of versions now includes the names of three hundred and seventy distinct forms of speech. Eight new names-Fioti, Kikuyu, Shambala, Karanga, Nogogu, Laevo, Baffin's Land Eskimo, and Madurese-have been added during the past year.
GREATEST LITERARY ENTERPRISE OF CHRISTIAN ERA
The work of translation and revision is usually supervised and financed by the Bible Society, generally through committees organized in the country where the language is spoken, and composed of representative missionaries and native assistants. Such work is usually laborious and often expensive. For example, the actual revision of the text of the recently completed Malagasi Bible (apart from printing) cost considerably over $15,000. But this sinks into insignificance when compared with the expense of translation work at the first. The Society's grants to Dr. Morrison and his assistants, for producing the first Chinese Bible, amonnted to $50,000; while to William Carey SELLING BIBLES F OR COWRl& SHELLS IN UGANDA and his associates, in the various Serampore versions, the grants of money and material exceeded $150,000. In contrast to this, the revision of the Lifu Bible (for the Loyalty Islands), altho it took three years to accomplish, and involved fifty-two thousand three hundred and ten corrections, entailed no more expense for the six natives who assisted the revisers than an annual grant from the Society of six suits of clothes.
One who is accustomed to find the English language sufficient for all his needs in the world's great centers, seldom realizes how limited is its scope. Scores of tribes in Africa, for instance, speak languages, the very names of which are scarcely known to us. The Lolo language is spoken by ten millions of people on the equatorial tributaries of the Kongo, and Galla is the language of a fierce tribe of about six lDillions. There are also vast tracts of country where different languages or dialects are met every ten or fifteen miles. A hundred years
THE FIRST BIBLE CART IN MAXCHURIA ago the Scriptures had been printed in but three African languages: Coptic, Ethiopic, and Arabic; to-day the British and Foreign Bible Society publishes the Bible, complete or in portions, in eighty of the languages indigenous to Africa, apart from those needed by the European or Asistics who had taken up their abode in the Continent.
Tht: diversity of tongues to be found in one country is often a matter of surprise. Last year the Society's agents sold the Scriptures in fifty-three languages in the Russian Empire, in twenty-eight languages in Burma, in over thirty in South Malaysia, in fifty-three in the Egyptian Agency, while in Capetown the Biblewoman alone sold copies in fourteen different languages.
One of the Society's ideals has been not only to produce the Bible in every tongue, but to secure one accepted version in each language that shall be as correct as careful scholars can make it. 'I'here is a constant demand for revisions of versionEl already made, so that the great task of translating and revising the Scriptures never ceases. Of the Bible Society it may truly be said that the sun never sets on its labors. At the present time about a thousand representative missionaries and native assistants are at work in different countries under the Society's auspices and mainly at its expense.
Important and engrossing as is the work of preparing the Bible in all languages, the Society is content with nothing short of actually placing these same Scriptures in the hands of the people for whose supreme need they have been provided. The distribution is accomplished by
GREATEST LITERARY ENTERPRISE OF CHRISTIAN ERA
the Society's agents and sub-agents stationed at depots in the princi- pal capitals of the world. Over eight hundred and fifty colporteurs were employed by the Society last year to carry the Scriptures even to the very outposts of civilization. No country seems too distant and no journey too hazardous for these men.
Many modes of conveyance are necessary to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Society's su b-agen t traverses the desolate plains of Mongolia with a small caravan of camels, visiting the nomad tribes in their tents. In this benighted region, where no other Christian organ- ization is at work, he re- cently made a tom of about two:thousand miles, taking with him all the prOVIsIOns he needed, utensils for cooking, half- barrels for carrying water in the desert, leather for men din g the camels'
shoes, etc., since nothing can be bought in Mon- golia but mutton. The Mongols have no money, so that he had to trade the Bibles for sour milk, rotten cheese, pieces of silk, or fuel. Another COLPORTEUR ROHRSETZER I" lmLlVIA colporteur has recently completed a fourteen months'tour in the equally neglected country of Bolivia. Only last year two of the Society's colporteurs suffered mar- tyrdom rather than deny their faith. One, a converted Moor, was murdered by fanatical Moslems in Morocco; the other, an aged Chinese, who had been for many years in the Society's employ, was brutally massacred by Boxers in Szechuan.
Among the convicts and emigrants in Siberia the colporteurs labor indefatigably. We also find them scattering the seed among the opium dens in the East, the lumber camps in the far West, the negroes on the slave coast, and the miners of Klondike-in fact, wherever humanity stands in need of the One Changeless Hope.
On account of the large proportion of women in Eastern lands
who are doomed to spend their lives in the unnatural seclusion of the zenana, the Society supports over six hundred and fifty native Chris- tian Biblewomen, who not only read the Scriptures to their neglected sisters, but who patiently teach any who may be will- ing to learn to read for themselves. These devoted women work under the su- pervision of the missionaries in connection with nearly fifty different missionary or- ganizations. The Society also contributes to the sup- port of European Bible- womeu in Canada, Brazil, North Africa, the Cape, France, England, and else- where.
The British and Foreign Bible Society has been called the handmaid of missions.
From the first it has been linkcd with all the great mis ==-==-=""====_ sionary societies in the closest and most cordial .A COLPORTEUR IN MADRID relations. The bishop of Liverpool has said: "If, owing to some great disaster, the British and Foreign Bible Society were blotted out of existance, it is no ex- aggeration to say that the missionary work of English Christianity would be utterly paralyzed, if not destroyed." The aim of the Society has ever been to provide all missionaries with the Book which is the fundamental basis of their work.
As a rule, Scriptures for the foreign field are granted on "mission- ary terms "-that is to say, the Bible Society sends out the books that are needed, free of cost and carriage paid, to the missionaries at their different stations; in return, the missionaries remit to the Bible House any proceeds arising from the copies which they sell, after deducting the expenses of circulation. .At ber;t, only a small fraction of what the Bible Society expends on the preparation and delivery of these missionary versions can ever come back to it as the result of such sales, while the missionaries obtain all the Scriptures they require without any cost whatever to their own societies.
Another interesting section of the Society's work is the providing of Scriptures in Moon and Braille types for the blind-not only in Europe but also in India and the East, where there are a far larger
GREATillST LiTEaARY ENTE.kPRISE OF Ciil!.IST1AM ERA 3~
proportion of these unfortunates than in our own country. Her late Majesty Queen Victory took much interest in this work, as is evidenced by the following letter addressed to one of the staff: Her Majesty is gratified to find how much is being done for the education of the blind in India, and also to know that these useful efforts were initiated chiefly by you. The Queen congratulates you on the admirable results of your labors, and trusts that you may be blessed with health and strength to continue them.
The Bible Society often acts as the pioneer, or, "the ploughshare" of missions, sending its colporteurs into new countries, and opening up the ground by means of a dispersion of the Gospel, so that when the missionary arrives he sometimes finds the people prepared beforehand and waiting for his teaching. Moreover, the Society can often work in countries that are closed to ordinary missionary enterprise. For instance, in the empire of Russia, Church and State alike give the Society's representatives encouragement and assistance, granting them free rail and steamer passes and free carriage of the Bibles. In the Sudan, also, since the defeat of the Mahdi by the British, it has been deemed inadvisable, for political reasons, to permit missionary work among the Moslem population, but the Bible Society has been allowed to establish a depot at Omdurman, in the market-place, just .opposite the door of the new mosque. There for more than three years it has been selling the Scriptures in a dozen different languages, while native Ohristian colporteurs are also at work on the Blue and White Nile. The SOCiety's work, which was inaugurated at Khartum in 1866, is thus restored once more. The experiences of the Arab colporteurs are of absorbing interest. One recently penetrated the Eastern Sudan as far as South Galabat on the Abyssinian frontier. He writes: There I found some Abyssinians who had A BLIND BIBLE·READER IN ALLAHABAD apostatized under the der- vishes, and offered them a New Testament in their own tongue. They took it, and then burst into tears. "Wherefore do you weep?" I asked. "Will Christ receive us now?" they cried. " Yes," said I, "at any time He will receive you."
Thereupon I read to them from St. Matthew. Then they were glad, and bought three Testaments, two Falash Gospels, and nine Amharic Gospels.
Abyssinia is another country that is closed to the missionary but not to the Scriptures. The Emperor Menelek has not only accepted copies of the freshly revised Ethiopic New Testament, but requested that a consignment might be sent him, adding, "and I will see that they are distributed and a good price paid for them."
Even the mysterious city of Lhassa comes within the scope of the Society's opera- tions, for altho the highlands of Tibet have been sealed for centuries against Europeans, the New Testament has been translated into Tibetan, while at Ghoom, on the slopes of the Himalayas, 'ribetan Ohris- tians are at work printing the books for the Society. These are bought by traders, who carry them back to the impen- etrable fastnesses of that great unknown land.
THE: BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETylS COLPOR- Nor does the Society lose TEURS WHO ARE DOING PIONEER WORK oN THE NILE sigh t of the claims of the The pillar commemorate. the Battle of Omdurman English people. Generous grants of Scriptures are made to public and philanthropic institutions at home, schools of all de- nominations, orphanages, hospitals, asylu ms, theological training col- leges, barracks, prisons, etc. On this department of its work the Society spends $50,000 annually. Large consignments are also fre- quently sent out for special objects. For instance, in times of war the Society spares no pains to put the Word of God into the hands of those who, at any moment, may be summoned to eternity. And in this no distinction is made between friend and foe.
In the Russo-Turkish struggle of 1877, 478,000 copies, together with the expenses of transit and colportage at the seat of hostilities, involved an outlay of $120,000; while during the late war in South Africa over 133,000 Bibles, Testaments, and Gospels were distributed in 1900 and 1901 to belligerents on both sides, prisoners and families
GREATEST LITERARY EN',-'ERPRJSE OP CHRISTIAN ERA
in the concentration camps, without counting the supplies provided for the contingents from the antipodes and Canada.
One great factor in the Society's success has been its policy of decentralization. Whereas most large organizations seek to focus themselves at one point, its aim has been to spread self-governing auxiliaries all over the world. In England these auxiliaries and branches number about 5,800, and 2,000 more lie overseas. In Australia, Canada, and New Zealand the Society's powerful auxiliaries not only defray their own expenses, and themselves undertake the printing and passing through the press of certain versions) such as those for the New Hebrides and New Guinea, but they also remit substantial contributions annually to the parent Society.
The American Bible Societies The example of the British and Foreign Bible Society first took root in the United States in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Bible Society was established on December 12, 1808, and the London committee at once voted a donation of $1,000, and as the supply of Scriptures required in Welsh, Gaelic, French, and German could not be obtained in the States, consignments were sent out from England at cost price. Six years later the number of Bible Societies and kindred associations in the States had increased to sixty-nine. In May, 1816, a convention of delegates from the different societies in the Union was summoned by the Hon. Elias Boudinot, LL.D., President of the New Jersey Society. Thirty-one organizations were represented by sixty delegates, including Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Reformed Dutch, Congregationalists, and Friends. But among them
all there was not a dissentient voice; and so great was the Ohristian harmony and love, that some of those least affected could not help crying out: "This is none other than the work of God!" Thus in its appointed season the American Bible Society was established, and Dr. Boudinot, tho prevented by ill health from being present, was elected president-the man who, three-~nd-thirty years before, as President of the Oongress of the United States, had signed the treaty of peace which established the independence of the American people. The tidings of these events were received with great joy and thankfulness by the British and Foreign Bible Society, who testified to their good wishes by a donation of $1,500 and a duplicate set of stereotype plates for the French Bible.
Despite the vast amount of work already accomplished, the needs of the nations are still unsupplied. The committee ofthe British and Foreign Bible Society therefore call upon all branches of Ohrist's Ohurch to make its centenary the occasion of reconsecration in the work, which in the providence of God has been so manifestly committed to its charge.
The Anniversary Celebrations It h~s been decided to celebrate the centenary not only by great public meetings, but also by the observance of March 6, 1904~the last day of the Society's century-as Universal Bible Sunday. The several convocations, unions, and conferences of the churches in England have with unanimity and cordiality recommenhed the adoption of Bible Sunday in their respective churches as a day of thanksgiving for the possession of God's Word, and by emphasizing in sermon and addresses the duty of its wider dissemination among all peoples. The observance of Bible Sunday will not be limited to the British Isles. On the Oontinent of Europe, in Africa, in the East, in British North America, the United States, Central America, Brazil and the Argentine, Australia and New Zealand, Protestant churches have promised to cooperate in this universal celebration. And in order that the Society may be enabled to respond to the many imperious claims that are pressing upon it from every side, it is proposed to raise a special centenary fund of 250,000 guineas ($1,312,500), which is to be devoted to the enlargement of the Society's work in all departments. All who have received help and comfort from the Word of God are asked to give, as a thank-offering, whatever sum they can afford to aid in sending to the millions of people who sit in the Shadow of Death this Book whose leaves are for the healing of nations.
'1'1Ill: RELIGIOUS AW AKEN1NG IN JAPAN
THE RELIGIOUS AWAKENING IN JAPAN BY KlICHI KANEKO New York Correspondent of Yorozu, Japan A year or two ago there were some discussions among the more intellectual classes in Japan on the subject of the religion of the new age. What is the future of the existing religions? What will become of Ohristianity? What can Buddhism or Confucianism do for the coming generation? Is there anything to be preserved in Shintoism? Such were the subjects of discussions, treated rather in an academic way by professors of various universities, 8cholars of high standing, and prominent writers. As the result, there were many pUblications on similar subjects, two of which are noted as representing strongly the two opposing sides. One is from the pen of Dr. Tetsujiro Inoue, head of the schools of philoso· phy in the Imperial University. Dr, Inoue's point of view was that of an ethical teacher, that the religion of the future must be based on ethical principles. Humanity is the only consideration in determining it, and this opinion was advocated by many other scholars as well as average public men. The other side was represented by Dr. Sensei Murakami, a Buddhist scholar of high reputation, who once held a chair on Buddhism in the Imperial University of Tokyo. '1'ho he had published no book on the subject, he wrote many articles, in which he insisted that the new religion can not be founded on ethical truth only. To be a· religion, he asserts, there must be some sentiment in it-that is, it must have some object to be worshiped, it requires authority.
Thns the discussions ended as such; yet the tendency to seek after the new light did not stop, for the degeneration of national morality appeared to be the most serious defect of the country. Mammonism was worshiped by the great majority, including prominent politicians, educators, and even among the clerical circles of different sects, many of whom have changed their sacred career for the profession of money making. It was thought at one time that if this tendency continues for a while there will be no one in the ministry. Many Japanese Ohristian ministers who have had some English training went to the government schools to teach English instead of preaching the Gospel of Ohrist, because hig~er salaries could be obtained; other prominent preachers lLbandoned their ministerial services and went into banking business, where they have been treated with great hostility on account of their familiarity with Western manners and methods.
These and other tendencies have compelled the nation to think about the future of the national morality. A voice from the midst of the darkness was heard, crying: "Rise up to save the corrupted nation! Lift up your hands to fight with the degenerate influences of the times I" Such voices were heard here and there and everywhere, and
TttE lInSSIONARY REVIEW OF THllJ W01tLl>
simultaneously a party named" Risodan "-01', " The Ideal" Societywas organized by the effort of editorial writers of the Yorozu, assisted by men of all ranks and professions. This organization secured imme- diately hundreds of thousands of members throughout the country. Its aim is to elevate the moral tone of the members in general and to apply the principles to their every-day life, regardless of their religious beliefs. It is decidedly an ethical and practical effort. Many local branches were formed all over the country, the main branch being located in 'rokyo, which sends lecturers wherever required. This is, no doubt, one of the most remarkable features of the religious awakening in Japan. '['he society has had, and still exercises, great influence over the younger generation. On the other hand, Christianity and Buddhism began to be studied with great enthusiasm by the students in all schools. When Christianity was first introduced it was studied with some enthusiasm, as now, but the motives were entirely different. Some, in former days, studied it merely for curiosity's sake, while others thought it a good chance to study English and to obtain Western knowledge (as Mr. Ransome boldly stated in his most admirable book, " Japan in Transition "), but very few had faith to follow the teachings of Christ.
This is not, however, a matter of surprise, for the time when Ohristianity was first introduced was one of transition and conflict. Everything was upset, and one could have hardly a chance to think of the deep question of life. Men simply wanted to know something about new things-the new civilization, of which they were absolutely ignorant. '1'0 knoUJ was everything then, and to think was entirely unnecessary; they were busy acquiring and adopting new things. In this way the Japanese introduced many systems from the West, paying slight attention to the fact that there were many vicions elements in the systems. The time has come when Japanese ought to think of what they have done in the past forty years. Now they find their statesmen corrupted, their educationalists depraved, and their family life destroyed; in short, they have become conscious of their condition. Japan really needs to be evangelized. The religious development must always come foom its inner side, just as men can not be forced to believe this or that creed unless his mental condition is ready to accept it. So with regard to a nation and to a country. Japan needs the new light, the new life, that will save her by reconstruction from the very foundation. She needs the same light which shines over the Western nations in this great century. The awakening of religious spirit in Japan to-day is the very consequence of her having walked down slowly the path of natural evolution. May Japan prepare herself for her future great spiritual awaking as she did in political and material things in contrast to her sister countries in the Far East!
THE RELIG10US CONDITION OF' ITAL~
THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ITALY BY THE REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, D.D., VENICE It is extremely difficult for people in England and America to form any accurate conception as to the religious condition of Italy, and as to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church upon that condition. Even those who come over and travel in Italy imagine that it is a real Roman Catholic country; that its inhabitants are sincere, if not bigoted, believers in their Church; that they attend church. They think that the priests are well-educated men; that they have a powerful influence over the people, and guide and direct them; that the people reverence them arid obey them; and that they l'lok up to the Pope as a being apart, representing the Savior on earth, and entitled to be revered almost in a spirit of worship.
Now, what do they find? If they study the conditions at all they find that Italy is a Roman Catholic country only in name; they see that its churches are almost empty of worshipers and filled with sightseers; they find that the priests outside of Rome are comparatively few in number, and are men of the lowest appearance-even outwardly dirty and repulsive; they find that the Italians they meet in their hotels, and whom they employ as guides, coachmen, gondoliers, speak in the most contemptuons manner of them; they find an entire lack of reverence for the Roman Catholic Church and all its doings; and they find that even the Pope is not particularly esteemed.
Let me state the cause or causes of this attitude of the Italians toward their Church and priests. Then we shall see whether or not they are justified in assuming it.
One cause is political. Italians see that the Church is the enemy of their country. Before 1870 it did all in its power to prevent the formation of the union. Again and again the pope brought in foreign soldiers to fight against the Italians. Then, since the union of Italy, the Church· has never ceased to make war upon it. The pope claims the temporal power. He never speaks of King Victor Emmanuel as the King of Italy, but as the King of Sardinia. Pope Pio IX. spoke of him as the wolf of Savoy. So did the organs of Leo XIII. The Vatican is a great center of conspiracy. By the papal guarantees it can not be entered by the Italian police, and, therefore, it is the headquarters of a political agitation hostile to Italy that has its ramifications in every quarter of the country, and in foreign countries, too. It fomeuts disloyalty. It subsidizes newspapers at home and abroad that will speak evil of Italy'S king and government. It employs the priests to agitate against useful legislation. It is now fighting the new proposals regarding the regulation· of marriages. The riots in Sicily, at Cararra and elsewhere, were all indirectly the work of the Vatican. Because, then, the papal Church is the enemy of the
country, therefore the Italians assume an attitude of hostility toward it.
A second cause is ethical. The Italians feel that the influence of the Ohurch is on the side of immorality. Wherever it exercises power it brings about a low moral tone of life. They look upon it as an assurance society which guarantees salvation in another world, no matter how men may live in this. It is looked upon as an arrangement between man and man for immunity in evil. A paper published in Rome which I saw had a picture of a priest sit.ting at his writingtable with a" Tariff for Sin" card before him, making out accounts. Before him stood a gentleman who confessed to have done certain evil things, and the priest was making out the bill. Each sin was expiated at so many masses, and each mass cost so many francs, and the total masses were twenty, and the price of each 2 francs 50 centimes. Thus the man had to pay 50 francs to clear his conscience, in order that he might begin again his evil courses. In this way the papal Ohurch is regarded as inciting to and encouraging evil, while seeming to prevent it. So, also, its system of indulgences is regarded as having the same object and tendency. An indulgence is defined to be "the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin which the Ohurch grants for some good work," which good work generally is giving money in one form or other to the Church. Thus people are encouraged in evil doing; thus Italians regard it as not only not a Ohristian Ohurch, but as the antithesis of Ohristianity. Wherever Christianity goes people are made better. Life is exalted. Materially, intellectually, morally, and spiritually there is advancement; but wherever the Roman Oatholic Ohurch goes, life is degraded-poverty, ignorance, and immorality abound. Italian thinkers are accustomed to contrast Roman Catholicism and Ohristianity, and to hope for the coming of a day when Ohristianity will destroy it. Oharles Dickens once said in regard to the Protestant and Roman Oatholic cantons of Switzerland, that in the former you found" neatness, cheerfulness, industry, education, continued aspiration after better things," while in the latter you found" dirt, disease, ignorance, squalor, and misery."
Another cause of the hostility of the Italians to their Ohurch is that it is simply a shop. They call it the pope's shop, in which everything can be got for money, and nothing without it. "Give! give! give!" is the cry. When the pope had power in Italy every one had to pay heavily to keep up the Ohurch. No will was valid in which there was not a legacy left to it. No one ill could see a doctor till he had first called a priest. In Italy, at the present time, as I have shown, sins are all expiable by fines for masses. The worship of the Madonna is only a. source of gain. There is a Madonna in every village, and there are madonnas for "all the ills that flesh is heir to," and these madonnas can only be approached for the securing of their
THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ITALY
help by money gifts. Saints' days are priests'" market-days." Saints' relics are shown and sold for gain. ~eligious services for the dead and the living are all sold ~Jr so mnch. A funeral may cost ten francs, or it may cost twenty, or, as it dId in the case of a friend of my own, a thousand. The Roman Catholic Church fleeces its sheep. it does not feed them. Italians know that. They were poor when the Church had power, now they are becoming rich, as a nation and as individuals, because they have cast off the burdens of the Church. This explains also thcir hostility to it.
Now in Italy there has been a change of pope, and some people have hopes that there may be also a change of policy. 'I.'his, hO'Neve':, is impossible, for the pope is only the nominal ruler of the Church; the real ruler is the general of the Jesuits, who is called the Black Pope. He it is who really directs the policy of the Church. Guiseppe Sarto, the new pope, is a contrast to Leo XIII, his predecessor. Leo XIII. was of good family, was educated, had traveled much, had held high diplomatic posts, had seen and spoken to princes and kings. Pope Pio X. is of peasant family; his father was the messenger of the municipality of Riese at a wage of eighteen cents a day, his mother was a tailoress, and his family now keeps the village inn and a shop. He is uneducated, altho he was a good student, because he only attended Roman Catholic schools; he has no university education; he has never traveled, and knows nothing of etiquette in good society. At the same time, he is a better man than Leo XIII. Leo XIII. was a miser; thousands of pounds sterling of gold Were found in his bedroom; he never was known to give a penny in charity; he was a cold, unloved, and unlovable man. Pio X. is kind, generous, warm-hearted, obliging, self-denying, and is liked by all. But all the more his influence is to be dreaded, because he will be nsed by the Jesuits as a means of disarming Protestants against the papacy. They are already saying that he is a "religious" pope, and that, therefore, the Church will now be less political and more religious; bu t in fact it will be nothing of the kind. It will always be the enemy of Italy, of liberty, of education, of a free constitution, of human rights everywhere. Papal power rests on human fear, superstition, ignorance, and sin, and these it must encourage. Where truth goes, and liberty, and learning, and the Bible, and Protestant Christianity, it dis- It.ppears.
Americans should therefore be on their guard when they visit Italy agaiRst papal intrigues. When in Rome they ought not to go to see the pope, nor ought they to attend his services in St. Peter's. Great mischief is caused by their doing so. Their recognition of the pope is an insult to King Victor Emanual; it is a betrayal of Italy that is giving them hospitality. The liberty they enjoy in Italy they owe to the Italian government. If the Papal Church had its will,
their liberty, as Protestants, would be cut down. Lastly, their going to see the pope and their recognition of the Church is chronicled not only in Italian but in American newspapers, and thus American Roman Catholics are encouraged, and American Protestants are perplexed. So and so, who in his native American town is a good Protestant, a Sunday-school superintendent, a helper of good works, an influence in politics, went, when in Rome, to see the pope, and he attended the services in St. Peter's. "Surely," they say, "it can not be such a bad Church after all, since he did that." Or they say: "What is the good of fighting against clericalism here at home when Protestant champions encourage it abroad?" Those thus weakly, perhaps from a false sense of liberality, yielding to the fascinations and attractions of the Papal Church when in Rome, damage themselves, damage Italy, and damage their own country and countrymen.
MISSIONARIES GETTING TOGETHER IN HUNAN *.
BY REV. GEORGE L. GELWICKS, SIANGTAN, HUNAN, CHINA Missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America The years have passed into centuries since Xavier, standing before China, cried: "Oh, rock, when wilt thou open to my Master?" It is but little over five years since the "closed" province of Hunan was opened in answer to prayer and persistant knocking and a Protestant missionary ventured to reside there. Less than three years after the first herald of the Cross began to live within the walls of the capital city, whose proud boast was that no "foreign devil" should ever enter its gates, the first conference of Christian missionaries met in Changsha (that capital), June 19-21,1903. We went about the Father's business with perfect security and freedom ata time when crowds of visitors were attending one of the chief celebrations. The streets were thronged with the gorgeous processions of the great idol, and we were forcibly reminded of what God hath wrought.
This large, newly opened field appealed to many mission societies, so that an unusually large number began work within its bounds. This led to the conviction among many missionaries that a conference should be held to consider economy and cooperation in mission work in Hunan. The call thus stated its purpose: In certain older mission fields the attainment of results sought by this conference has been impossible, because the work has become so fixed that any change involved considerable sacrifice. It is, therefore, deemed wise to afford the Hunan missionaries an early opportunity for consultation and cooperation.
• Tho this conference was held six months ago, its importance and the example it sets )Dakes it worthy of particular attention.-EDITORS.
MISSIONARIES GETTING TOGETHER IN HUNAN
Twelve mission societies have resident missionaries in the province: 1. Ohristian and Missionary Alliance. 2. Ohina Inland Mission. 3. Oumberland Presbyterian Mission. 4. London Missionary Society. 5. Mission of the Presbyterian Ohurch in United States of America. 6. Mission of the Reformed Ohurch in United States. 7. Mission of United Evangelical Ohurch. 8. Mission of the Methodfst Protestant Ohurch. 9. Wesleyan Missionary Society. 10. Finland Missionary Society. 11. Norwegian Missionary Society. 12. Ohurch Missionary Society.
Ten of these missions were represented at the conference by thirty- two foreign missionaries. '1'he plans of another society to be repre- sented were unavoidably frustrated, it being in full accord with the conference. The American Church Mission, which has only Chinese workers in the province, expressed regret at its inability to send a delegate. The missionaries present represented Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. The spirit of love and oneness that characterized the entire conference bore testimony to the presence and sanction of the Spirit of God. On Sabbath afternoon, in a memorial service, the delegates all united in the observance of the Lord's Supper.
The work and results of the conference, perhaps, can best be stated briefly by reviewing the subjects considered and the resolutions adopted. 'fhe paper on "Affiliation or union of Ohinese 'Churches with respect to name, government, and statement of belief," led to the following resolutions: Reoolved, That the members of the conference pledge themselves to do all that they ca;n to further the outward expression of the real inward unity that exists between the churches represented here. We advise that the Ohinese terms for names held in common be, as far as possible, unified, and that matters in which we differ be emphasized as little as possible; and, Resolved, That the conference recommend the following nomenclature: For Ohristianity, Ohi Tu Ohias (religion of Ohrist); for Protestantism,Fu Yin Ohias (religion of the Gospel); for street chapels, Fu Yin Tang (Gospel hall); for churches where Ohristians worship, Li Pai Tang (worship hall).
The discussion of the subject or " A permanent organization representing Hunan missionaries to deal with questions of comity and general mission interests" resulted in the resolution that the secretary of the conference be empowered to request each mission working in Hunan to appoint a member upon a committee to prepare a plan for a permanent advisory committee, representing all the missions in the province.
After consideration of "Converts and the civil power," the resolution was adopted "that this conrerence of missionaries at present
working in Hunan wishes to record its opinion that the Church of Christ in China should seek in every way to avoid all intermeddling in Chinese litigation of any kind whatsoever."
As a result of the paper on "Mission interrelations regarding enquiries, members, and native workers," this resolution was adopted: Resolved, That inasmuch as the Chinese are entitled to freedom of choice, previous attendance at other services should be no bar to membership in the churches of any mission. But no baptized or communicant member or Chinese worker of any mission '3hould be received or be employed by any other mission without consultation with the first mission. Further, we suggest that when any unbaptized person transfers his attendance to a different mission, the missionaries to whom he comes inquire as to his antecedents. And it is considered a brotherly act for the missionaries from whom he goes to volunteer such information even if not asked.
After the paper upon "Division of territory for the. purpose of making each mission society responsible for a given section," members of the various missions laid before the conference their present plans for the occupation of territory. Tho no formal action was taken, strong emphasis was laid upon the facts that the true principle of divisiou is not a seeking to exclude others from a field, but a seeking to lay responsibility for a definite region upon a particular mission, and that our duty is to cooperate in evangelizing Hunan as speedily and thoroughly as possible, and to avoid the overlapping of forces in certain districts to the neglect of others. Already, as a result of this discussion, two missions have practically decided to yield two cities in favor of other societies and occupy more needy centers. And the other societies expect to adjust their work in accord with these principles.
As a consequence of the discussion of " Cooperation in educational, literary, and medical work," a resolution was adopted, extending an invitation to the Yale University Mission to establish an educational center in Changsha, and recommending the missions working in Hunan to entrust the higher education in the province in sciences, arts, and medicine to this mission, and to confirm their primary education, as far as possible, to the plan of higher education that may be adopted by the Yale Mission. This action was taken in answer to a request from the Yale Mission regarding the advisability of its locating in Hunan. A resolution was also adopted providing" that the committee prepare a plan for a permanent advisory committee be instructed to recommend at the same time a union hymn-book and union Lord's Prayer."
Will not all Christians in the home lands cooperate in all that helps to realize the Master's prayw "that they all may be one; as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in ..'i! Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me."
THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS MONEY
THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS MONEY * BY REV. G. CAMPBELL MORGAN This title is capable of two interpretations-a false and a true. Everything depends upon the significance of the personal pronoun. In the highest sense of the words the Christian has no money. Himself being now utterly devoted to his Lord, all the power by which he gets money is Divine, and all the money he obtains in the exercise of that power belongs to his Master. If the pronoun indicate absolute possession, the idea is a false one. If it indicate the possession and responsibility. of stewardship, the thought is perfectly correct. That there is a vast amount of carelessness among Christian people on this subject of their relation to money can not be denied. This arises largely from a failure to recognize certain important principles. To understand these wiU be to correct much that is wrong. They may briefly be stated: 1. The Christian belongs to God-spirit, soul, and body-in all powers and possibilities.
2. All that the Christian has is to be used with a single eye to the glory of God in the accomplishment of His purposes.
These things being granted, the method of getting will be safeguarded. No person devoted to Christ will be able to follow any ca11ing, or take up any business which is harmful to himself, or to others, merely for the sake of obtaining money. The method being thus conditioned within the sphere of loyalty to the will of God, the use of money will also be so conditioned. It is at this point that so many mistakes are made. Very much money that is properly obtained is improperly spent. The purpose of spending is too often that of ministering first to the desires of the selflife, then occasionally-and, alas! too often, meanly-gifts are made to God. This is wholly wrong. Another method, far better, is that of devoting a percentage-say, one-tenth-to the work of God, and then using what remains for the necessities of life. That is, however, far from being the highest ideal for tho Ohristian in dealing with his money. The giving of the tenth under present conditions of life does not work out righteously. A person with an income of a pound a week, out of which two shillings are devoted to the work of God, is giving with a generosity that far exceeds two hundred pounds a year out of an income of two thousand pounds, or ten thousand pounds out of an income of one hundred thousand pounds. And yet the man who would give ten thousand pounds out of an income of one hundred thousand pounds would be looked upon as a princely donor, while he who gave his two shillings out of a pound would be considered as one of " those who are not able largely to help the cause."
Applying the principles before laid down, how should a Christian deal with his money? Of whatever incOIne he obtains, he ShOlild say, H This belongs to the Master. I am to discover by honest calculation how much I need for the proper maintenance of my life and home, that both may continue to glorify God. All the rest is to be devoted as He shall direct for the extension of His kingdom among men."
Thus, upon receipt of income, the following items should be carefully and prayerfully considered: 1. Necessary for food to the glory of God.
* From the Illustrated Missionary News.
2. Necessary for clothing to the glory of God. 3. Necessary for shelter to the glory of God. 4. Necessary for mental culture to the glory of God. 5. Necessary for recreation to the glory of God. 6. Necessary for ministering to poorer members of my household to the glory of God. 7. All that remains for God's work. Such a distribution of income would make a great difference in eating and dressing, in home, in mental culture, in recreative indulgence, in sympathetic ministry; and the church would no longer have to beg for assistance for its missionary enterprises from those who are living in rebellion against the Kingship of Christ. Spasmodic giving would be impossible, and the high and glorious ideal of partnership with God would become an every day reality. This method, moreover, would maintain the ideal of stewardship, and would demand a periodic readjustment of expenditure, according to the rise or fall in income. Here, as everywhere, no outside interference must be permitted, but there must be a constant and unceasing submission to the direction of the King. This will be carried out or not, according to the power which rules by love in the heart. If the love of the Lord be dominant, the delight of devotion will be permanent. If the love of money hold sway, theshameiul meanness of giving will continue.
TEN YEARS' PROGRESS OF WOMEN IN INDIA * • BY MISS AUSTICE ABBOTT, BOMBAY, INDIA Member of the American Board, 188B– Our days fly as a weaver's shuttle. Ten years! What are they in the long web that has been spun in the loom of the ages? The dark, heavy web that has been turned out for thousand of years in conservative India -so dark the colors, with but a glint of gold here and th£l'e, and a gay, tiny spot at long, irregular intervals that we must bdieve that the prince of the power of darkness has stood at the head o~ the loom-the shuttle weaving forever and forever its woof of misery, ignorance, and shame, into the warp of superstition and wrong. How could the pattern change, darkness guiding the dark threads through the dark ages? Yet the pattern has changed. Fifty years ago new shimmering lines began to appear in the fabric, the lighter shades have increased, the designs are purer and more effective. The Designer has not changed. The Divine Designer of the ages remains unchanged, but the hand at the loom has changed. Some one is carrying out the God-given patterns in a truer fashion. It is the beginning of a new fabric-dainty, strong. light, and serviceable; the fabric of women that the Indian looms ttlrn out.
The past ten years have seen the greater change. That the condition of women has improved in some places is universally conceded. It will be profitable to know in what parts of India the change has been more rapid; in what direction improvement has been made, and the trend of these improvements.
Improvements are under the heads of: 1. Marriage. 2. Education. 3. Industries. 4. Christian work.
• Condensed from a paper read before the Bombay rdissionary Conferen~.
TEN YEARS' PROGRESS OF WOMEN IN INDIA
1. We take Marriage first, because marriage makes the woman of India. Her birth is an incident; the life she lives is merely an outcome of her marriage; the wedding is the pivotal point.
Twelve years ago the infant of ten years might enter the marital relation! In 1892, after great seethings in the vernacular press and boil- ings in the political pot, the age of consent was raised to twelve years!
Two years more of child-life, two years more for physical development; how meager it is! And yet it was a change for the better.
The agitation of 1892 has, however, done more than this. Individ- uals and communities plead for fourteen years as the limit of the age of consent, but government headed the majority, which was mostly the mass of the ignorant conservative. The leaven of progress began to work, however, and is still quietly pervading thought and action in this direc- tion. In the north some castes have not given their girls in marriage until fourteen, and in the south the Mysore State has led in this respect.
Other states have already made or are considering the making of fourteen years the limit. There is agitation everywhere in the social congress, in states, communities, and individuals; and the leaven will work, we hope, until the whole is leavened, and the brides of India are women instead of babes.
Progress can be reported also in widow remarriage. Individual cases are increasing. In the Bombay Remarriage Hall weddings have occurred between high caste Hindu widows and widowers. In Ahmedabad also there have been remarriages. From 1860-1891 there had been sixty-six of these in the Bombay, Bengal, and Madras presidencies-in 1891, dur- ing the year, eleven remarriages; during the decade, 1891 to 1901, there were seventy-two remarriages. The agitation goes on feebly, but noble spirits are not deterred. .
According to general opinion, the educated young men are not averse to marrying a young widow, but are prevented by the censure and threats of the women of their families. The women are ignorant, and stand in the way, a,lso, of raising the age limit of marriage. They are ignorant because they are married too early to have an education. The late Jus- tice Telang put it well when he said: "We seem to live in a vicious circle -we can not raise the age of marriage for girls among any large portions of the community without a widespread of female education; and, on the other hand, any considerable spread of education was hardly possible until the age of marriage was raised." There has been no great change in the last ten years, since the people are not ready to step out of this vicious circle. In large cities, however, there is a growing indifference to the e~tering wedge. A year or two added to child-freedom might create indignation and opposition, but months more or less are winked at. A remarried widow is looked at askance, but only for a while.
We believe that the telling influence upon child marriage will be more and more the adult marriage of Christian girls. As the famine and plague have greatly swelled this number of Christian girls during the last seven years, we believe that physical and mental improvement among the Christian women will appear to be so great that the Hindu can not but follow their example. There is no greater influence even now at work than the Christian home-the wife and mother a partner in the home, and not merely one of the servants or playthings of the mother- in-law.
2. What has been done, then, in Education the last ten years? Among •
Hindus very little has been accomplished in general education. A year or two more of schooling is something, even tho not yet generally adopted, but it has not made itself felt in any appreciable way-no change to speak of in the Mohammedan community; among the Parsis, the percentage of literates has somewhat increased. The widows' homes and the orphanages for girls, however, which have brought thousands of women and girls under Christian influence, to say nothing of the natural growth of the Christian community, have raised the number of female literates.
The number matriculated or in college courses has but slightly increased, as far as we can judge from statistics returned. The number of women who are properly called educated women have increased 100 per cent., and yet the aggregate seems inflnitesimally small in comparison with the Christian female population. The number of women in the professions increased in the Bombay Presidency 100 per cent. Of these 65 per cent. are in the Christian community. The increase under other religions is mostly in that of the Parsis, while there ani some notable instances among the Hindus. Of women holding responsible positions, the increase is not only in numbers but in quality; for instance, the appointment of lady educational inspectors in Madras and in Bombay.
The increase in Hindu female education can only be spasmodic and individual until early marriage is a thing of the past. While we maybe thankful that education is on the increase, yet this ability to read and write is not in itself an unmixed good; complaints have already been heard that many of our boarding-schools educate the girls beyond their station. They have just enough knowledge to despise work, and few, comparatively, can be used as teachers. It is for this reason that we see, with great hope, the tendency to teach women industries. . Ten years ago a Christian girl had, with but few exceptions, only three avocations before her: that of a wife, a teacher, and a Biblewoman. Now, for a bright educated girl there is open for her, besides the professions of nurse and doctor, lawyer, author, editor of magazines, inspector of schools, etc. Ability and perserverance seem to be the only limit for woman's honorable professional career.
3. Industries. For the thousands of girls who would have made third-rate teachers and Biblewomen there is something better adapted to their capabilities-work that will encourage self-respect, not self-conceit; activity, not indolence; prosperity, not poverty. Ten years ago industries for women were scarcely thought of. Lace-making ill the south was giving employment not only to widows but also to the wives of Christians. In the north needlework wAs taught in some zenanas and in one or two homes for widows. Plain sewing and crocheting was taught in many schools and to a few Christian women-not so much asa means of support as a means of furnishing spending-money. Gold thread embroidery in the Madras district was an industry also ten years ago. The great army of women and children whom the famine brought to the missionary door has necessitated a serious consideration of the question of their support. And while necessarily dependent at the first on outside help, the obvious thing to be done was to provide for their self-support. With this aim in view many industries have sprung up: Rugweaving, embroideries in silk and linen, drawn thread work and lacemaking, weaving sarees, field-work and gardening, plain sewing, basket-
TEN YEARS' PROGRESS OF WOMEN IN INDIA 53-
weaving and chair-making, chick-making, embroidery of shoes, rope- making, and bead-work.
Most of these are employments indigenous to the country, but taken from the men who had nearly the exclusive right and transferred to the women. In most cases the outcome will be natural and stable, and the income better assured if men and women fit their work into each other's hands and not each woman work independently for herself. Progress in this direction has not meant merely that so many thousand women and girls are learning things they did not know before, nor even that they are relieving their parents or husbands or the mission of the burden of their support by the annas of their daily wage. These industries keep them from the gossip of the street or the veranda of the chaw!. It enhances their self-respect, in that they find themselves capable of doing things, and in being able to bear their own burdens and help bear those of others. Last but not lea;;t, this independence has often saved a widow from selling her soul and body for a piece of bread.
We consider the general opening of industries to women as one of the greatest signs of progress in the decade. It is still but an opening, a start; but it is in the right direction.
4. Our next inquiry would be whether there had been tangible prog- ress in the line of what is ca,lled mission work, teachers, Biblewomen, nurses and assistants in hospitals? No general statistics are available; of those received from different parts of India, the rate of increase has been over 200 per cent. While the rate shows progress, still the most hopeful thing about it is that the quality has greatly improved. In 1891 the report was that many of the Biblewomen were untrained, now they are mostly trained; the grade of the teachers is higher in nearly every report, while trained nurses and assistants doing Christian work in hospitals are almost the product of the last decade. Bible schools, trainingschools, and medical schools have more than quadrupled in the last ten years, which shows that while the increase in numbers is very hopeful, the efficiency is greater in proportion. The same state of things is true in regard to female education among all religions in India. The aggregate increase is encouraging, but the increase of those in professional avocations, and especially of those in places of responsihilityand power, gives great hopes for the future of women in India.
After all, it is the spiritual progress of the women in which we are the most -interested. Has it kept pace with the physical and mental progress, or has the growth in these directions had a retrograde influence on the spiritual? This last we can not believe, altho some missionaries have expressed this fear for their own women. It is life that gives growth; what is the new life that has quickened India? It can be no other than the eternal life, which is the Son of God. If this Power is working through head and hand, it can sureJ..y be doing no less through the Spirit, which is of its own substance. There may be less of Bible language freely used, but we believe there is a greater abundance of the fruit 'of the Spirit, a steadier flow of spiritual life in the heart and the home of the women, and a greater dignity of character horn from the love of the truth that is in Christ Jesus.
ATTEMPTS TO ENTER HAUSALAND* BY THE REV. A. E. RICHARDSON, B.D.
While the civilized world still shudders over the horrors and atroci- ties which yet abound on Africa's coasts, calling forth in our hearts eager ambition to adequately" take up the white man's burden "-while the man-of-the-world's complacency over the heathen's" primitive sim- plicity" and "childlike innocence" is rudely shaken by names such as Benin, Ashanti, and Aro, which bear, burnt into them, the memory of hitherto unheard-of abominations-the kingdom of Satan is being attacked at another almost impregnable quarter.
What pen can fully depict the great land of the Hausas-a land so unlike anything met with before? Looked at upon a map there is nothing to indicate a state of affairs differing much from that of surrounding lands. The mighty rivers, the Niger and the Binue, sweep down-the one from the northwest, the other from the northeast-and meet at Lokoja, three hundred and fifty miles above the sea, forming a majestic stream, even here five miles across. Embraced, as it were, by these giant arms, the Hausa country lies, bounded on the north by the Sahara Desert.
Well-watered, undulating, thickly populated, richly fertile, it affords It unique and heretofore unoccupied field for missionary enterprise; for the Hausas are the most remarkable people in the whole of that vast continent. As individuals they are fine, strong, healthy men, full of resource and of great ability-capable of enduring hardship and privation. Instead of a scattered, meager, heathen race dwelling in forest haunts and mountain caves, they form a mighty Mohammedan nation, comprising 15,000,000 people, living in vast walled cities, some of which contain 200,000 inhabitants, And they are as remarkable as they are numerous. Their cities are very bee-hives of industry, their land well cultivated. The noise of the looms, where their far-famed cloth is woven; the roar of the blast-furnaces, where their iron is smelted from the native ore; the countless little lakes of indigo, where their cloth is steeping; the fertile fields; the fine herds of milk-white cattle-all alike witness to the flourishing condition of the country.
The streets and market·places are thronged by well-dressed, stately people, who are courtesy itself, and move to and fro as tho they owned the very world itself. Nor do they lack culture. The babel of their schools is heard on every hanil, for these marvelous.folk possess a literature of their own. The boys are taught to read and write, to shoot and sew. There they dwell, the red turretted walls of their cities towering up toward the fieckless blue sky, their merry laugh and cheerful song ringing out in street and mart, in field and plain-a clever, intelligent, witty race, dwelling in the garden of the world.
But having said this, we have said all that can be said in praise of this people. " Are they not' happy enough as they are' ?" " Ought we to disturb so fair a picture by carrying religious controversy and strife into their midst?" "Is it right to make good Mohammedans into bad Ohristians ? " Oh, the utter folly and blindness of such delusive queries! Good Mohammedans? The mention of only two of the curses of humanity which Mohammedanism not only tolerates but teaches-slavery and polygamy-ought surely to draw down condemnation upon that lifeless, * Condensed from The Spirit of Missions.
ATTEMPTS TO ENTER HAUSALAND
paralyzing creed. The demoralizing, degrading effect of slavery upon master as well as man can only be felt by one who has dwelt in a slaveraiding country. There are probably 10,000,000 slaves in Rausaland, and who can estimate the suffering that this implies?
The people are so perverted that nothing appeals to their hearts and consciences. Tell them of the crucifixion of Ohrist (as the writer once did at the dose of a sermon to 200 men) and a roar of appreciative laughter greets the description of the pains of the cross. Torture? I dare not recount the barbarous methods of killing victims in which the Hausas delight. There is dire oppression, and there is utter lack of redress. Their consciences are seared-nay, almost utterly destroyed. Instead of seeking good, evil is delighted in. Yet you would call them "religious"; bnt what an awful travesty of the word! If you secure the candid opinion of any thoughtful Hausa, he will tell you that the nation is corrupt, from the lowest slave to tbe bigbest Mobammedan priest. "Our hearts are as black as our skins" is the frank and frequent confession.
If ever a nation needed the cleansing Blood of Ohrist-if ever a nation needed tbe power of the Holy Spirit-vf a truth the Hausa nation does. "We have those ten commandments which adorn you,r religion." said a Hausa priest to me; •• but there is this difference. You Ohristians have some power which enables you to keep those commandments. We Moslems have no power to resist breaking them."
As long ago as 1857 Samuel Orowther endeavored to r3ach Sokoto, .he religious center of Hausaland. He was wrecked five hundred miles up the Niger-a fitting type of the failure which almost every succeeding attempt to reach the country has met with. Of these many efforts space will not allow a recital. Early in 1900, however, five of us, under the leadership of Bishop Tugwell, were enabled to penetrate into the very heart of the Hausa states. The journey was one of extreme interest, and fraught with most important consequences; for failure probably meant many years' delay, wbile success would act as a spur to missionaryeffort throughout the wbole of tropical Africa. No one can gauge the far-reaching issues of a flourishing mission among Africa's premier race.
We reached the great city of Kano-a city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, who confidently declared that at a week's notice they could put 10,000 mounted warriors in the field. The king, fearful that the advent of the ,. praying men "-as we were named-would abolish that most awful of all trades-the slave traffic-refused to allow us to remain within his territory. "Seven days is given you by the king in which to leave his city" was the message delivered to us, after a very stormy interview.
So our six hundred miles march was futile, our hopes were vain, our efforts t4rown away? No; that can never be. True it is we were compelled to retrace our steps and reluctantly leave that field ripe unto harvest. A brief stay was made at Gierko, tbirty-four miles south of Zaria. One of our party died there, and another was invalided home. After eight months' residence in that small town of five hundred people an event took place which completely checked further work for the time being. One night a cry rang out on the still air-"Wuta! Wuta! Wuta!" Bishop Tugwell sprang to his tent door. He took in the whole situation at a glance. The midnight sky was lighted up by the glare from the burning mission house. "Fire! Fire! "-the alarm rang out again, calling to action the stupefied sleepers.
Burnt out of the mission house, our hope of remaining at Gierka was shattered. A retreat was necessary, and Hausaland was again without a messenger of Christ. In February, 1902, however, Dr. Walter Miller, one of the bishop's former party, again obtained permission to reenter the country. Accompanied by the Rev. G. P. Bargery, he journeyed up to Zaria and secured the necessary sanction from the king to resettle at Gierka. There he is to-day, fighting that superhuman enemy, Mohammedanism. In December, 1902, the British sent an expedition against the King of Kana, and captured the city. How this will affect the mission we can not yet tell. But one thing is certain: There is need for earnest, continuous, believing prayer on behalf of these Christless millions, and on behalf of the pioneer missionaries holding the fort against insuperable odds-nay, not insuperable, for .. If God be for us, who can be against us?" Men are also needed. There is not an angel in heaven who would not gladly sweep down from realms of glory to, preach the good tidings to the Hausas. That which is forbidden to them is allowed to us. ~hall we refuse to come to the help of our God?
SOME SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN CHINA * BY REV. A. J. BOWEN, NANKING, CHINA Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, 1897- Since the utter failure of the Chinese to overthrow foreign influence by obliterating the foreigner in 1900, the people seem to have lost faith not only in the government's power to crush out foreign influence and to check the spread of Christianity in their country, but in their own ability to resist it. The result is that they believe Christianity will ultimately prevail, because back of and supporting it are all the forces of the modern world. The Chinese consider Christianity as the religion of the foreigner, and they feel quite certain that the foreigner is invincible. Believing that the Church represents the national and political strength of foreign powers, the people seek to join the Church in order to avail themselves of its prestige and power in their country. Thus in all sections numbers of people seek admission into our fold. This does not indicate greater spirituality on their part, but it does signify that the people believe there is irresistible power in the Church. To the Chinese it is quite strange that the missionaries do not open wide the Church doors and take them in. So again they are caused to realize the Church's power, inasmuch as it is independent of thenl, and they find themselves unable to use it for their own selfish purposes, T!I-ey are checked, and the shock causes them to reflect, and ask what this peculiar doctrine is and what these missionaries and their Churches really mean. There is thus afforded an opportunity to present the spiritual and moral side of our holy religion. So the people are becoming indoctrinated with the truths of Christianity before they enter into the fellowship of the Church. One of the sublimist spectacles of history is that of the unity among all Protestant missionaries in their desire and purpose to prevent the Christian faith from becoming parltlyzed by the mighty tide of worldliness and sin tha' would otherwise flood its bounds and destroy its spiritual influence upon the people.
Another change taking place is, the Chinese themselves are recogni:z;- • Condensed from The Review oj Missions.
SOME SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN CHINA
ing the difference between the methods of Protestants and of Roman Catholics. The Catholic Church has never scrupled to take under its care the characters who have sought its folds through selfish motives. The magistrates in all provinces have had great trouble with Roman Catholic Christians. The contrast between the opposing methods of Protestants and Catholics is so marked that the Chinese quite clearly and justly separate the two. The Chinese authorities, together with the more intelligent people, are quite well aware of the fact that the two branches of Christianity do not represent the same thing.
Again, great progress is being made iIi educational affairs. During the last year the people have come to realize as never before the imperative need of knowledge which they do not possess. They are conscious that the present situation demands modern thoughts and modern things. It is not a spiritual thirst that moves them, but a feeling that they are now face to face with a superior force, if not a superior race or races, and that their very maintenance as a nation depends upon a complete change in the prevailing regime; hence the great cry that is heard on all sides for foreign or modern education. The more intelligent students in schools and colleges condemn the ancient system of education as a thing of the past and tota,lly insufficient to meet the present needs of theircountry. Our mission schools are overflowing with students, while the governors and magistrates take pleasure in urging on this work of education among their people. Two years ago it seemed that all efforts were about to fail through the destruction of school buildings and the slaughter of their occupants. In place of the former have risen, and are still rising, larger and more beautiful structures; while ten times the present number of modern teachers could find employment in this country.
The people seem to have but little confidence in one another, but they are willing to risk the promise of the missionary to almost any extent. We seem to have completely won the confidence of the Chinese merchant and banker in our financial ability and integrity. They appear willing to risk both their money and their children in our hands.
In political affairs much has been already accomplished, and there is a steady movement that is driving this nation along the line of political reform. The alliance between England and Japan brings to China and to all of us a feeling of security from foreign aggression that is truly encouraging. England's treaty with China will tend greatly to help relieve many of the hard and oppressive poliCies of this government.
In conclusion, let me refer to another encouraging feature of Protestant missions here-viz., the organic union of the various branches of the Protestant Church. The Presbyterian bodies have already agreed upon a basis of union, so that, if they are not forestalled in their efforts by the Church at home, there will be in the future but one Presbyterian Church in China. The Baptist divisions are earnestly seeking a similar basis of union. The Methodists are uniting their interests and moving along the same line. In fact, this spirit prevails and must eventually triumph in this country; the necessity of the situation demands it. Not only is this true among the different branches of the denominations, but there is also a spirit of fraternity and adjustment among all Protestants that causes them ~o rejoice in each other's welfare. It is the wish and prayer among all Protestants that this spirit of Christian union and church fellowship shall continue to move and inspire until the highest hopes be realized.
"
EDITORIALS The Condition of Home Churches come a working power upon the mass of Christians, the Church and Christians generally are agreed her missions face a difficulty. that home churches are far from Thirdly: Americans have become taking the interest in the spread of great travelers; as such their exthe Gospel that J e~us Christ would amination of missionary activity is have them. Few real sacrifices are superficial or wanting altogether; made for the Master's work, and and on returning home they hide their ignorance of what might have comparatively little attention is been seen by cool assumption that given to the subject by a vast the missions either do not exist or are practically doing nothing. The majority of those whose first aim blasting influence of these traveled in life should be to "seek first the people uron the missionary cause Kingdom of God and His righteous- at home is much greater than many think. ness." It is sometimes especially Lastly: Anti-missionary spirit helpful to know the impression has been fostered by the seeming made upon one who has been away ingratitude of alien peoples respon- sible for maSl;lacres of missionaries from the home land for a number sent to do them good; moreover, of years and returns to visit the the growing belief in evolution carries in the mind of many an churches. Dr. J. P. Jones, of India, argument against missions to nona man of clear judgment, high Christian peoples. These say, ideals, and practical service, recent- "Why do you not let peoples with ethnic religions gradnally evolve ly returned to America on furlough, their own religious destiny rather and traveled 20,000 miles, speaking than thrust upon them a foreign faith and introduce a revolution of in nearly 200 churches. He calls religious life and conceptions attention to the following facts and among them ?" Doubtless a great deal of the comimpressions which deserve prayer- mercialism of the age has entered ful consideration: into the Church of America, and First is the appalling fact that so this spirit is impatient with the few of the members of the churches remote and not very articulate aphave any knowledge of, or take the slightest interest in, foreign mis- peals of the missionary in foreign sions. That there is not more giving lands. Much of the trouble lies in commensurate with income is not due necessarily to penuriousness. the ignorance of the church-mem- The financial support and substan- bers. The apathy and indifference tial benevolence of Christian people has largely passed out of the chan- can in part be traced to the indifnels of direct churchly activity. ferent-and sometimes worse-ad- Ecclesiasticism, with its direct calls and claims, is held relatively much vocacy by missionaries of their in less esteem than formerly. cause among the churches.
Second: The old doctrines upon On the other hand, there is a which the missionary movement of vastly better attitude of the clergy acenturyago was constructed have toward foreign missionaries than been either swept away or have lost their emphasis. The missions of there was formerly. This is due to-day are not based upon our be- largely to the changed attitude of lief in the hopeless depravity and lost condition of the heathen so the theological seminaries. much as by loyalty to the last The educational aspects of the commission of our Lord and by a conviction that Christianity is renaissance in interest in missionessentially missionary in its charac- ary enterprise are most encouragter. The old motive having ceased to grip the Church of to-day and ing, such as the preparation of the new motive not yet having be- manuals and text-books for study; the annual conferences of officers of va,rious denominational societies; the Student Volunteer movement and the Y. P. S. C. E. movement, which have enlisted intelligent and consecrated youth as never before.
EDITORtALS
The Anti-Sl(oon Movement We have seldom seen any scheme The cause of temperance is in- separably connected with missions for the reprebsion or suppression of both at home and abroad; hence strong drink marked by more signs we call attention to a movement in this direction which has spead of a great uprising. It has long rapidly in America and Great Britain. One of the most remarka- been a mystery to the best men of ble manifestoes ever issued has re- the community that there should cently been published in Great Britain, signed by over 200 prom- be such general apathy with regard inent men from all classes of so- to the ravages of strong drink. It ciety. The signatories include 18 is said that African slavery has bishops of the Established Church and 1 Roman Catholic archbishop, caused the death of a sufficient as well as leading men of various professions, heads of universities, number of victims, directly and inprominent politicians, statesmen, journalists, and editors. Such a directly, to make a double row of body of signers naturally calls attention to the contents of the mani- human bodies around the earth at festo, which is an attempt to start a new temperance reform, and the the equator. Yet even this is small program is definite and positive. For example, it is emphatically in comparison with disaster caused stated that" the present expenditure on alcohol can not be main- by drink. This is well known to tained except at a cost to the community, which imperils the prog- the community, and yet both ress and well-being of the nation." Then, for correction of this obvious Church and State seem hitherto evil, suggestions follow as to radi- to have been absolutely unable to cal measures. First, a great reduction in the number of saloons; cope with this tremendous and and in order to prevent needless injury to those who would thus bJ growing evil, which Jills prisons driven out of the business in which they have previously engaged, it is and hospitals, asylums and insane proposed that the money paid for licenses shall be diverted from other retreats, not to say drunkards' purposes of the treasury, and use it to compensate saloon-keepers de- graves and accursed homes, with prived of licellses. At the same the trophies of its satanic tl'iumph. time it is proposed to fix a date We pray God for the success of any after which withdrawal of licenses shall be without compensation, measures looking to the correction Another measure proposed is to grant to all communities local or amelioration of this awful curse. option, so that the liquor trade may, in any local section, be entire- The Need of a Native Ministry ly suppressed or conducted by municipal authorities, so as to pre- Rt. Rev. James T. Holly, Bishop clude private or public gain. of Haiti, West Indies, writes as follows on this important subject as related especially to his own field of labor: . Neglect to raise up a well-pre- pared native clergy as soon as possible, to whom the propagation of the missionary work should be entirely confided among their own race, I think, is the real cause of the superficial results obtained by European missionaries among those people of a different branch of the human family.
Old Africans, seeing the ruling clergy all white men, say openly that the religion of which those missionaries are the ministers is the "white man'B religion," and that their African traditions, com- ing down from their forefathers" are those of the "black man's re- ligion." They insinuate those ideas into their children. Hence, Ro- manism here, kept up as it has been by white priests from France, has
not been able to root out those going missionaries, but to all work- African superstitions which the ers for God, as worthy of a modern natives practise, along with the Solomon. We could wish to lay Romish religion, as their real relig- stress on Dr. Jessup's warnings ion, and regard Romanism as a about common sense and care for mere French embellishment that bodily health. In God's eyes, piety they observe to be thought Chris- often runs into fanaticism and folly. tian and civilized! It is not a "zeal," according to knowledge, that leads anyone, Racial self-respect demands that through absorption in "the Lord's ministers should be of the same work," to treat plain laws of health race as those to whom they minis- with indifference. .MI'. Stanley ter. In the work which I and my thinks most fatal diseases among colleagues are doing here, we have missionaries and travelers in Africa succeeded, under God, in converting have been due to ignorance or wil- a voodo priest, whom we have em- ful violation of such laws-eating ployed to convert others as lay food, wearing clothing; or persist- missionaries, and we count over 20 ing in habits unsafe in that climate. of them solidly converted to Chris- They walk miles in the hot sun, or tianity; 25 of their mystic temples build dwellings in deadly districts, have been destroyed by the hands and wonder that the fatal fever of these converts, and their gris- cuts them down. Faith trustfully gris burnt up. So far as I can find says, ".My times are in Thy hand," out, no other denomination here but it is presumption that exposes has done as much to make inroads a life to needless peril. Our Lord's upon the African superstitions, first temptation was to distrust His . and we could have, under God's Father's providence, but the second blessing, done vastly more of this snare was to presume upon miracl- kind of work if we had not been lous power in an act of virtual sui- confined to an annual pittance of cide. He who promises to keep about $7,000. what is committed unto Him, for- bids us to" tempt" Him by putting The central fact of the incarna- Him to unwarranted tests. It is tion justifies this idea of a homo- the devil who says, "Cast thyself geneous racial ministry of the Gos- down." pel. Our Lord took not upon Him the nature of angels to convert Mrs. Charles Spurgeon and Her Book men, but our human nature. The Fund apostles ordained ministers among their converts everywhere, and left The messenger of death has been them charged to carryon the work very busy of late, and some who of the Gospel among their con- have been called home have been geners. A great mis.take in this re- among the conspicuous leaders of spect has so far been made in our the Church militant. modern missionary operations, and this mistake is responsible for what Mrs. Charles H. Spurgeon's work is to be deplored in the faulty re- was for God and men. .Mrs. Spur- ligion of onr converts, not only in geon was taken away in compara- the West Indies, but everywhere tively the prime of life, and her else where the Gospel has thus been friends had hoped that many years persistently kept up among unde- might be added to her period of veloped races by a ministry of a service. Since her husband's de- different branch of the human race parture in 1892 she has suffered among them. much from ill health, and has been more secluded and sad. .Mrs. Spur- Dr. Jessup's Advice We commend the" words of theV wise" in the November issue, by Dr. Jessup, * not only to all ont- *There are such demands tor a reprint of Dr. Jessup's admirable paper that a reprint is issued for wider circulation. Copies may be had at 5 cents each-2 cent. by the half hundred, with corresponding reduction when a still larger number is ordered at once. Application may be made to the Editors. or to Funk & Wagnalls, 30 Lafayette Place, New York.
EDITORIALS
geon's life, we hope, may be writ- the translation of his sermons into ten for the sake of the many les- foreign tongues, called the "Fund sons of great value which it would for General Use in the Name of the suggest to the living. What is Lord"; so, likewise, a "Pastors' known as her peculiar work is, Aid Fund." Mrs. Spurgeon's motto perhaps, the most conspicuous and was: "Just do a thing, don't talk the most extensive. She conceived about it." the idea of collecting and redistrib- uting useful volumes, booklets, and India's Missionaries tracts among needy ministers, mis- sionaries, and theological students. We have received a quiet rejoin- She carried on this work for many der from George H. Hamlen, mis- years over increasing territory sionary of the Free Baptist Confer- and enlarging usefulness. ence, with regard to the statements in the September (1003) REVIEW, The so-called "Book Fund" of page 698, which he thinks calcu- Mrs. Spurgeon originated in 1875 in lated to injure the work in India. a very simple way. After reading They are quoted from James Mon- the proofs of her husband's first ro, Esq., but, he says, "are likely series of "Lectures" to his stu- to mislead, and need qualification." dents, he asked her how she liked Some missionaries may be carried it, and she said, "I would like to away by Higher Criticism, but he . place it in the hands of every min- thinks very few. "As a whole, ister in England" "Then," said Indian missionaries exalt the Bible, he, "why don't you do it? How and wisely use it fully as much as much will you give?" She had a the ministers at home; and they little sum laid aside which she de- know it far better and practise it cided to use for this purpose, and much more perfectly than the mawhich paid for one hundred copies. jority of Christians in the home This led to the organizing of a defi- land." nite work. She made known the need and her purpose to supply it, He refers also to the statement and the public response was such on page 712, as to "What India that the next winter she made ex- Need!! "-namely, to see a Christian tensive grants of "The Treasury of life-where it is stated" that there David" and of her husband's ser- is not so much difficulty in the acmons. Within a year she had re- ceptance of Christianity, but that ceived about $2,500-enough for India is in need of seeing a multiover three thousand books. Corre- tude of Christian lives in her spondence disclosed the need, espe- midst." cially of country pastors with very small incomes, which she had never Mr. Hamlen rejoins that "no previously conceived, and this led more Christian Iives can be found to the enlargement of effort. In than in the ranks of the missionten years over twelve thousand aries and among native disciples, ministers from all Christian bodies and that the native Hindus would hftd been helped with useful books, not recognize Jes!ls Christ Himself covering a much wider range than as an embodiment of holy living if her husband's publications. In he were again incarnate among 1886 Mr. Spurgeon declared that them. It may be true that the mis· his wife's strength was no longer sionaries need more Christlikeness, able to cope with the growth of but Hindus need the open eye and this work unaided. Around the the !lnprejudiced mind." main fund there grew up one for Donations Acknowledged No. 286. Industrial Evang. Mission … $25.00 No. 2$7. Plindjta Ramabai ….. ,. , … , 5,00
BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY THE NEW ERA IN THE PHILIPPINES. By Ar- Dr. Brown's style is clear, candid. thur J. Brown, D.D. Illustrated. 12rno, and convincing. His narrative is 314 pp. $1.25, net. Fleming H. Revell brightly told and full of interesting Co. 1903. incidents; his facts are important, and. we believe, trustworthy; his Dr. Brown, the able secretary of suggestions and conclusions are such as to command respectful conthe Presbyter~an Board of Foreign sideration. We heartily recom- mend Dr. Brown's book, not only Missions, who has recently returned as instructive, but as entertaining, and of permanent as well as present from a tour of the Asiatic missions, value. It is essential to all who would understand the religious has given us far and away the best conditions and need for Protestant mission work in the Philippines. book yet published on the Philip- * pine Islands from a Christian and TO-DAY IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE. By William missionary point of view. He right- Eleroy Curtis. Illustrated. 8vo, 524 pp. $2.00, net. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1903. ly considers the advent of Ameri- This book is made up of letters can rule in those' islands as the to the Chicago Record-Herald writ- ten during a tour to the Holy Land dawn of a new era, with great op- in the spring of 1001. The writer went through the land from Beirut portunities for progress, but still to Jaffa and Jerusalem, and gath- ered an amount of information uncertain in its outcome. He wise- which is remarkable. He says in the Preface that he dictated on an ly says: "It is not a time for nation- average 2,500 words a day to his son while on the journey. .al glorification or for appeals to He devotes 28 pages to the" Protgreed or passion, but for thought- estant Mission Work in Syria," and speaks with admiration of the ful, solemn consideration of our Christian missionary institutions in Beirut and vicinity. It is reduty. The real issues of freshing to hear from an old news- paper correspondent such glorious the new era in the Philippine Is- language with regard to the Mission Press, the Syrian Protestant Collands are not so much political and lege, and the medical work of Dr. Mary Pierson Eddy. He says: commercial as moral. It is a grave If any gentleman in the United errol' to imagine that they can be States h'ts a few thousand dollars he would like to invest in a noble settled right without the active and and useful enterprise that will pay him bigger dividends than the prayerful cooperation of the Chris- Standard Oil Company, he may ap- ply to the president of the board tian churches of the United States." of trustees, Morris K. Jesup, of New York. for a block of stock in This quotation gives the spirit the Syrian Protestant College.
and purpose of the book, but it Yet on page 53 Mr. Curtis uses scarcely shows its wide scope.
After giving a brief sketch of the early history of t·he Philippines and the story of how the United States took possession, Dr. Brown de- scribes his own tour of the islands and the many interesting things he saw there. In separate chapters he discusses also the Labor Problem, the Chinese Problem, the Character of the Roman Catholic Church and its Relations to Filipinos and Amer- icans, Protestant Missions, Educa- tion, the Real Philippine Ques- tion, etc. In describing the Roman Church Dr. Brown frankly ac- knowledges the good they have done, but as frankly states their evil influence and failure to really Christianize their converts.
1904J BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
. an expression which is liable to He speaks of the Maronites as re- mislead the reader. In speaking of the non-sectarian character of the jecting the dogma of the "resur- college, he says that, while the students are required to attend rection of the body." This is chapel daily, public worship, and Sunday-school on the Sabbath, and incorrect. The Maronites claim to Bible study as a part of the curri- culum, "no evangelical work is at- accept all the creeds of the Roman tempted." He probably means proselyting work. The whole Church. spirit and work of the college is evangelical and largely evangelis- On page 95 is a curious errol', in tic. The professors and teachers believe in preaching the Gospel, which the Moslem population of living the Gospel, and leading their pupils to a saving knowledge of Damascus is put at one-third. It Jesus Christ. Yet there are no special favors granted to one pro- should be four-fifths. . fessing Protestantism. All are free to accept or reject the Ohristian The author accepts Mount Tabor faith, and the result is that the majority of the graduates are as being, without controversy, the men evangelical in sentiment and belief. Mount of the Transfiguration, al MI'. Ourtis is wide of the mark in tho Mount Hermon was probably his statement in regard to Moslem the place. On page 379 Mr. Ourtis converts in Syria. There have been many, but most of them have ventures thf: statement that the been obliged to leave the country. I have, however, the names of at Moslems of Silwan carry water in least a dozen now living in Syria known as Ohristians, and of not a pig skins! An ordinary Moslem few others who are Ohristians in secret. Owing to the espionage of would prefer death to touching a the government, it is extremely difficult for a Mohammedan to pig skin! profess Christianity. But the book is worth reading, There are a few other errors in the book which would have and above the average. The au· been avoided by greater care on the part of the author and proof-reader. thor's good humor, kindly charity For example, besides misspelled words, the writer speaks (page 38) toward all, quick discernment of of the possibility of "seeing Mount Hermon, 30 miles away," from shams, his honest and cordial ap- Beirut, whereas the range of Lebanon hides it completely from view. preciation of the good being done He probably meant Jebel Sannin. by Ohristian missions, and his He errs in making the number of Mohammedans in the world 300,- habit of close observation have 000,000 01' 400,000,000. There are not over 200,000,000. made his work one of the best books of the pilgrim literature on the Holy Land. Those who have been there will be glad to revisit the Land with such a keen and genial guide, and those who have not been there will be impatient to go. J.
PIONEER MISSIONARIES OF' THE CHURCH By Rev. C. C. Creegan, D D. Illustrated. 12mo, 313 pp. $1.25 American Tract So· ciety, New York. 1903.
These sketches of prominent pioneer missionaries are scarcely more than appetizers. The char- acter and main events in the lives of 26 men are outlined in 300 pages. They are really too brief, for there is scarcely enough to give any adequate idea of the im- portance of the work of these men, much less to show their char- acter and the influences which molded them. Dr. Oreegan has, however, shown much discrimina-
tion in selecting the main point in years since the first edition was each career, and has succeeded in including a number of interesting prepared many changes have taken incidents which mark the lives of these great men. Most of the mate- place. The facts and figures have rial in the volume is not new, but it furnishes a source from which been brought more nearly down to much information can be gathered by those disinclined or unable to date, and a chapter on "One Hunread more extended biographies. "Ve hope they will serve as an in- dred Years Ago and Now" has troduction to lives that have already furnished inspiration to been added. There are still some multitudes at home and abroad. corrections that need to be made- Among the heroes whose lifestory is sketched are Reginald e.g., "until within a decade Korea Heber, the missionary bishop and hymn-writer, who studied Latin at continued to be a hermit nation" six and wrote poetry at seven. Robert Morrison, the first Protes- (page 426), and a few similar tant missionary to China, as a lad was pronounced a dunce, but could changes that have been overlooked, repeat Psalm cxix without an error when he, was twelve.. He became a but as a whole the revision has renowned Chinese scholar and translator, and labored amid in- been carefully made. The book is numerable obstacles, having gained only one convert after seven years valuable alike for reading, study, oflabor. We read also of John Eliot and David Brainard, apostles to and reference. The Index might the American Indians, one dying at eigthy-sixand the other at twenty- have been enlarged to advantage. nine, but both accomplishing a great work. There are also Luther * Halsey Gulick, missionary to many lands; Martyn, Duff, Scudder, PROGRAMS FOR MISSIONARY CIRCLES. Arranged Miller, Murdoch, Clough, and by the Ladies' F. M. S. of the First Pres· Schwartz, of India; Hamlin, Bliss, byterian Church. Augusta, Ga. No. XI. Wheeler, and Riggs, of Turkey; 1904. Verbeck, Brown, and Davis, of Japan; Parker, Gilmour, Taylor, These programs are designed for Williams, of China, etc. If one the use of any society, and contain could master even the facts here Parliamentary rules (not, however, briefly set forth they would furnish all in parliamentary praseology), him with a great amount of mis- suggestions to leaders, a missionary sionary information and inspira- creed, constitution, etc. The protion to courage, energy, faith, gram proper takes up varIOus monthly foreign missionary topics, patience, and spiritual living. * with suggestions as to hymns, Scripture passages, order of service, A HUNDRED YEARS OF MISSIONS. By Dr. D. sub-topics, and references to the L. Leonard. Revised edition. 12mo, subject of the month. 448 pp. $1.20. Funk & Wagnalls. 1903. NEW BOOKS We welcome a new edition of Dr. Leonard's book. In the ten CHINA'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. By Luella Miner. Illustrated. 12mo, 512 pp. $1.50, net. 'l'he Pilgrim Press, Boston, and the West· minster Press, Philadelphia. 1903.
TRE WOMEN OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. By R. L. McNabb. 12mo. 75c., net. Jennings & Pye, Cincinnati; Eaton & Mains, New York. 1903.
TUFTS AND TAILS. By Archdeacon Moule. Illustrated. 12mo, 72 pp. 18. Church Mi.sionary Society. 1903.
EVOLUTION OF My MISSION V,EWS. By Rev. T. P. Crawford. 12mo, 160 pp. 75c. J. A. Scarboro, Fulton, Ky. 1903.
INDIA, PAST AND PRESENT. By C. H. Forbes· Lindsay. 2 vols. 8vo. $4.00, net. Henry T. Coates, Philadelphia. 1903.
HIGHER HINDUISM IN RELATION TO CHRIS- TIANITY. By T. E. Slater. 8vo. 68. Elliot Stock, London. 1903. ISABELLA THOBURN. By Bishop J. M. Tho· burn. 12mo, 873 pp. $1.2.'i. Jennings & Pye, Cincinnati. 1903. THE NEW ERA IN THE PHILIPPINES. By Ar· thur J. Brown, D.D. Illustrated. 8vo. $1.25. Revell. 1903. ADAORA. The Romance of a West African Girl. By nlary E. Bird. Illustrated. 12mo. 50 cents. Revell. 1903. CHILD LIFE IN MANY LANDS. Edited b~' H. Clay Trumbull. 12mQ. $1.00. Revell. 1903.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE AMERICA or English Canadian, While if we add 71,831 Germans and 59,415 Swedes, President Our Chief Execu- not to speak of Finns, Norwegians, and others of high grade, we find Roosevelt on tive has recently that not far from one-half are of a character that easily accepts Home Missions made this declara- American ideas. In the remainder, however, there are certain elements tion: of anxiety. Thus there are 387,570 Irish, 299,712 French – Canadians It is such missionary work that (thrifty, indeed, and by no means prevents the pioneers from sinking dangerous, yet not entirelysympaperilously near the level of savagery thetic with our ideas); 61,297 Italagainst which they contend. With- ians, 16,701 Portuguese, 42,916 Rusout it, the conquest of this con- sians, 35,739 Poles, and so on. tinent would have had little but an animal side. Because of it, Baptist Home The Baptists of the deep beneath and through the na- Missions United States are tional character, there runs that making proclamapower of firm adherence to a lofty ideal upon which the safety of the tion of the Gospel in nearly two Nation will ultimately depend. dozen tongues-that is, to so many nationalities. The IIlen and the Commenting upon these words, money expended are divided as follows: The Outlook adds: Americans ……………….. $177,185 No armies ever achieved so thorough or so speedy a triumph as the Swedes. . . .. .. .. . . .. .. . . . . . . .. . 20,260 American pioneers dId. And among the pioneers none were more cour- Germans….. . . . . … . .. . . . . . . . 17,lO6 ageous, none were more steadfast, and none more in earnest, or, on Mexicans…………. …….. 11.3.34 the whole, more successful in atattaining their purposes, than the Porto Ricans ………… , …. 9,908 men who went not for the sake of extracting wealth from the soil, Cubans.. . ……………….. , 8,082 hut for the sake of establishing righteousne$S in the new communities.
New England Dr. E. M. Bliss, French.. . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. …. 6,014 as a New England field Negroes ……. '" . " ……… 6,287 Indians…………………… 6,078 Mission Field secretary of the Norwegians……….. …….. 5.090 Arne ric a n Tract Danes.. .. .. . . ….. ………… 5,841 Society, says that New England Chinese.. .. . .. .. . .. … …….. 4,707 has become in a large degree mis- Italians. ………………….. 4,115 Jews…. ….. ……………… 1,033 sionary ground. Somewhat more Poles … , .. . .. .. . .. . . .. . .. .. .. . 871 than half the entire population of Japanese ……. , .. . . .. .. ….. . 683 the six New England States is of Bohemians…………… '" . 440 other tha,n native New England Hungarians.. .. .. .. .. . . .. .. .. . . 390 Portuguese. .. . . .. .. .. .. . . . .. .. 346 stock. In the cities the proportion Russians.. .. . .. . .. . .. .. .. . .. .. . 300 is fairly startling. In Boston the Finns……………… …….. 273 percentage of foreign parentage is Total for Home Missions, … , ….. $227,152 over 70; in Cambridge. 69; Fall River, 86; Holyoke and Lawrence, Where the Many things are 83; Hartford, 62; New Britain, 74; Monnon Mischief said and penned New Haven, 63; Providence, 70; Centers about Mormon- Woonsocket, 83. It does not, in- ism which have deed, follow that all may fairly be but slight relation to the weighty called alien, as out of the total for- facts in the case. But every word eign-born considerably more than in the emphatic allegation which one-fourth are English and Scotch, follows is based upon the bed-rock,
of truth. Professor Richard T. public. All enlightened public Ely says: sentiment may modify and cause The Mormon organization is the to be concealed the grosser prac- most nearly perfect piece of social mechanism with which I have ever tises of Mormonism, Congress and in any way come in contact, ex- cepting alone the German army. the law may lop off polygamy, but It moves with the impact of trained regulars and with the zeal of fiery only Christian mission schools and fanatics. It moves to Western coasts, to Eastern capitals. Its Christian academies, and a Chris- hypocrisies blindfold a nation, while it chases, paralyzes, and tian college, baptized with the Holy strangles. With what easy indifference we regard its advance! If Spirit, can destroy Mormonism and we were told that there were two thousand men going through the change its deluded followers into country, every Clne of them infected with smallpox, the nation would happy Christians, and prosperous, flee or would grapple with the dan- ger. But to be told that there are law-abiding citizens. * two thousand men abroad trying with the deftest tact to infect a na- SHELDON JACKSON. tion with a religious system that is blasphemous, and with practise'> American Board The financial histhat are subversive of social moral- Receipts for tory of the Ameriity and destructive of the national Fifty Years can Board is an conscience, is to awaken a mild pro- interesting study. test here and there, or even to call forth as an apology: "Are not With marked regularity dark days Mormons industrious? Look at have appeared when the Board has theirschools, their irrigating ditch- suffered from the general financial es, their commercial prosperityl" conditions which prevailed ill the We go to sleep while their system country. Afterward the receipts spreads and its apostles hasten to- have risen to a higher plane not to ward their avowed goal-the con- go back again. It has not been untrol of the western states and terri- usual for men to predict the limit tories, the ultimate holding of the of receipts for foreign missions; national balance of power." in fact, this occurred as far back as 1837, and has been prophesied The Impor- After personal con- many times since. The average contributions by decades for the last tance of nection with the ninety years, in round numbers is as follows: $16,000; $66,000; $168,000; Winning Utah work of establish- $255,000; $298,000; $451,000; $462,- 000; $645,000; and the last decade, for Christ ing Christian instL including the financial embarrass- ment of 1893-1895, $701,000. For tutions west of the the past few years the question of whether there &hould be a debt has Mississippi River from 1858 to the depended upon the receipts from ]egacies.-Congregational WQ1·k. present, and during those 45 years Do Foreign The report of the dealing with Mexicans, Indians, Missions Pay? A. B. C. F. M. shows Mormons, Eskimos, and whites, of that it has in for- eign mission lands 535 native many nationalities extending over churches under the care of 275 na- tive pastors and 519 native assistan area from Mexico on the south ants (unordained). The additions to these 535 churches were 5,902 to Alaska on the north, and from new members, an average of more than 110 to each church. Can we the Mississippi River to the Pacific find 500 churches in any denomioa,· Ocean, the matured judgment of of my life and experience is to the effect that relatively Utah is the most important, needy, and urgent mission field in the United States -the storm-center of home mis- liiions, the plague-spot of the re-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
tion in this country which report will seem to many entirely wild and impracticable, but I do not use more than 100 accessions during these figures lightly. I have be- come somewhat familiar with the the year? condition of things in the mission- The Episcopal This body of Chris- ary field, and I feel quite sure Church and tians now contains if the above large reinforcement should be sent abroad, it would not the Negroes 85 negro clergy- at all suffice to meet the present men-that is about demand.
1 in 58 of the whole number, min- The Lutheran The Lutheran Church in C h u r c h Almanac istering to 15,000 communicants. America for 190!, authorized by the G e n era I In all, 146 colored men have been Council of the Evangelical Lutheradmitted to holy orders in the an Church in the United States, presents the following summary: Church, 2 of whom are the present Synods in the United States•. ,.". 66 bishops of Cape Palmas, in Liberia, Ministers, ….. , .. ". , ……… ,. . . 7,290 and of Haiti. Congregations. .. . .. . . . … ……. 12,221 Methodist The Christian Ad- Recruits for vocate of Novem- Communicants" …. " ….. ,….. 1,689,385 Foreign Fields ber 11th reproduces Sunday-schools……….. " . .. . .. . 6,072 the faces of 60 mis- Officers and teachers……… , , , . . 58,894 sionaries recently gone, or soon to Scholars……… ". … .. . … ….. 541,659 go, to the foreign field. They are Contributions for missions, etc., ,$1,684,005.56 about equally divided between the The following is the growth for sexes. Of this number, 16 are the past year: destined to India, 11 to China, and Ministers … , ……… , , . , .. , , 135 the others to Burma, Korea, Mexi- Congregations.. . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . .. 245 co, South America, etc. Members. , ………………………. , 97,896 Bishop Thobum This is what this The Almanac gIves also a table of Lutherans (by countries) in all on What Ought eminent authority lands. The following are the to- tals: to be Done says with exclusive Pastors …… , … , …… " ……… , 35,868 reference to his own Churches … , ……… , … " ' .. , …. , 56,170 ~fember3 .. , .. , , ……. , . , .. , ……. , 6(J.16(J,8f?1 Church, the Methodist: E. L. TUCKER. * If asked for an estimate of the men needed, I should say that we The Industrial A United States should enlist at least 250 mission- Evangelistic council of this misaries within the next twelve Mission. India sion Was recently months. Do not be startled in that formed to forward this number seems large. If you had the view which I possess of the and control the interest of the actual extent and imperative de- work. There is already a council mands of the work, you would in Great Britain. The members of wonder at my use of so small a the American council are: Mr. number as ~50. The painful fact is Frank H. Marston, president; Rev. that we' have become accustomed Dr. Le Lacheur, vice-president; to figures which are altogether out Rev. C. C. Cook, 150 Nassau Street, of proportion to the vastness of the New York, secretary; Hugh R. work which we have in hand. We Monro, Esq., 156 Fifth Avenue, should send 75 new missionaries to trea~urer; Rev. W. J. Mosier and southern Asia, 75 mOI'e to eastern D. L. Pierson. Mrs. J. C. Lawson Asia, 50 to Spanish America, and is this year acting as field secretary 50 to Africa. I say nothing of the in America, Mr. Lawson having women, in addition to the heroic wives who would go out with these returned to India to take <;:harge of men. Our woman's society should send a force of at least half as many more-that is, 125 unmarried lady missionaries. Of course, a statement of t,his kind will occasion more surprise than approval. It
the work there. One hundred and great Pernambuco family, without distinction of class or sex. Recife, fifty famine boys are now being FREI CELESTINO. taught trades at the same time September 20, 1903.
that they are learning Christian This proposed Bible-burning was truth. They are thus being de- telegraphed to the daily papers in veloped into industrious self· Rio de Janeiro, and the authorities supporting Christians. * were appealed to to put a stop to Anti-Protestant The American Bible it. Several excellent articles by League. Brazil Society has recently competent and liberal-minded men received from Bra- have appeared in the papers, strong- zil the following information in re- ly denouncing such proceedings.
gard to a proposed Bible-burning The utterances on the subject which is announced in A Provincia, which have made the profoundest one of the daily papers of Pernam- impression of all were in a speech buco, Brazil. From this we trans- made before the House of Federal late a, few extracts: Representatives bya member from Occurring on the 27th of the the State of Rio Grande do SuI. present month the first anniversary of the Providential inaugura- He aJ;gues that the existence and tion of the League against Protestantism in the Penna Church of this work of the league against Protcapital, and desiring to celebrate it with the greatest pomp and re- estantism, and especially the Bibleligious devotion, the Central Directory and its respective council burning, is a violation of the Brain extraordinary session have resolved to observe the following pro- zilian Constitution, which guarangram (here is given the order of the celebration of the mass by tees perfect religious liberty and the bishop the diocease, etc.). protection alike to men of all There will be on a table under the majestic dome of the same ~eeds. * church a considera,ble number of false Bibles, books, tracts, and EUROPE papers rotten with the grossest errors and revolting Protestant The London This organization, heresies, that were voluntarily delivered to those reverend Capuchin Missionary which dates from missionaries by many Catholics, to whom the ministers and pastors of Society 1795, has now 275 this new sect sold them fraudulently, or offered them gratis, as European missionthe true ""Vord of God!-and which are already destined to the flames. aries laboring in foreign lands.
It is respectfully requested of There are 106 in India, 72 in China, Catholics who may have in their possession such little books and 31 in Madagascar, 31 in South cards, that they send and deliver them at once to the said mission- Africa, and 35 in Polynesia and the aries in order to give them tlreir proper doom, seeing that they can West Indies. The official summary not continue to possess them without incurring the canonical penal- which has recently been issued ties thundered by the Holy Mother Church. shows that in addition there are There are invited to attend this 943 ordained native ministers, 3,672 religious festa, besides the illustrious members of the council, all native preachers, 1,579 teachers, the distinguished members of the league and all true Catholics of the and 268 Biblewomen. The church- members number 69,607, and there are 196,026 native adherents. Over £29,000 was raised in the past year at the mission stations, the Bum including medical mission receipts and school fees.
A Nob.b1e Some months since Bequest to I' u mol's weI' e Missions abroad, which now are found to have been founded on fact, to the effect that a Welehman, Mr. Robert
1903J GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLtGENClll
Davies, had bestowed upon the $10,000 represent their contribu- Welsh Oalvinistic Ohurch no less a tions. Bum than £135,000 ($675,000). The inoney consists of debenture stocks A Queer A Saturday "mid- in two of the great English rail- ways. These stocks were originally Midnight night" service, of the value of £118,000, but they are now quoted in the market for Service from 11.30 P.M. to £17,000 more. There are 12 trus- tees, all of them being deacons of 1.30 A.M., is the the Oalvinistic Methodist body, and, in pursuance of the terms of latest departure of a mission at- the document, resident within a radius of thirty miles of Bangor. tached to Holy Trinity Ohurch, Another stipulation is that the money is to be exclusively confined Oloundesley Square, Islington. It to the Khassia mission, to which Mr. Davies has already devoted is held in the church mission hall, several thousands. His present benefaction is reported to yield an and a hearty invitation is extended income of £5,020 annually. to "the homeless, destitute, de- A Worthy Its name tell s Mission in a where its field of spairing, and sorrowful." Describ- Barren Field operation is found. ing one of these interesting seances, The North Africa Mission has 6 male and 20 female the Daily Chronicle says: missionaries in Morocco; 5 male and 13 female missionaries in On entering the hall each visitor Algeria; 5 male and 20 female mis- is handed a cup of coffee and some sionaries in the Regency of Tunis; cake, and while attention is being 2 male and 4 female missionaries in paid to this a party of lady vocalthe Dependency of Tripoli; 5 male ists sing some of Moody and Sanand 6 female missionaries in Egypt key's well-known hymns. There -altogether, 23 male and 63 female was a large gathering after 12 missionaries. This includes wives o'clock. For the most part the auof missionaries. dience was made up of men of the humbler class. If their walk was The Friends A company 0 f unsteady they were assisted to of Armenia Ohristians in Eng- seats by the stewards, and quickly waited upon with refreshment. land. organized in 1896 under the name of the United Free About 600hristian "Friends of Armenia," in a multitude of ways have rendered valu- Church Jewish agents are directly able assistance to the orphans in Turkey. The money collected has Mission employed by this been distributed quite largely through our missionaries, or by Ohurch in the work those with whom our missionaries have been in happy fellowship. of the Jewish Mission, of whom 7 Since their work began, in 1897, they have forwarded over $220,000 are ordained. During the last year to the distressed districts. and during the last quarter not far from 1,296 boys and girls (in the propor- tion of about 1 to 2) were enrolled as pupils in the schools, besides 236 boys and young men in evening classes, or 1,532 in all (which im- plies a daily attendance of proba- bly 1,000 young people), who re- ceive, along with the elements of a sound general education, a knowl- edge of the facts on which the Ohristian faith is based. In some 60,000 cases opportunity was given to the medical missionaries and their assistants to apply the heal- ing art and to minister the Word of Life under favorable conditions.
Hundreds of Jewish men and women attended the places of pub- lic worship and evangelistic meet- ings. M.
The Jews in The work among called simply because they are in Kishinef the Jews in Kishi- danger. .. Absolute security," for nef, Russia, which that matter, can not be guaranteed to anybody anywhere. We mishas been carried on by Probst Fal- sionaries are fully persuaded that tin uninterruptedly since 1859, has we are just now at the post of ceased to exist, because Probst duty, and therefore the safest place Faltin has removed to Riga to en- for us-if safety be an important joy a well-deserved rest in his old consideration-is this particular age. Many Jews have been led to spot. It is possible, of course, that Christ through the instrumentality we may be massacred-very much of this devoted servant of the against our personal desire-but Master, among whom are found we indulge a strong hope that for a the well-known Jewish missiona- while, at least, we may comfort ries Gurland, Friedman, and Rosen- and strengthen the hearts of many strau.ch (the able writer of tracts native friends who are in a measure for Jews), Pastor Ao R. Kuldell, of depending on us. Besides, t.he Allegheny, Pa., and the faithful two boarding-schools for girls Pastor E. E. Gruenstein, of Monti- which are reopened-one here and cello, Iowa. Thus Kishinef, in- one in Kortcha-and the prospect famously known through its mas- of participating in relief work for sacre of Jews in 1903, is left without more than 50,000 starving, naked, a missionary worker among its homeless refugees, forbids the 40,000 Jews-at least, at present! thought of flight. We would However, we understand that rather perish in Macedonia, if it be Peter Rabinowitz, the son of the the Lord's will, than to prolong our unforgotten Joseph Rabinowitz, days outside somewhere and be was in England a short time ago to ashamed of ourselves. interview friends of the Jewish work with regard to its future. M. An Appeal Mis sEll e n M.
A Heroic As a fine illustra- for the Stone, who was re- Facing of tion of the splendid Deadly Peril stuff of which mis- Macedonians leased from the bri- sionaries are com- gands of Macedonia monly made, it is worth while to note carefully the following inci- by American Christians, has writdent. Late last September Mr. Leishman, American Minister at ten to The Christian Herald, ap- Constantinople, sent a letter to the American Board calling attention pealing for help for the Macedonian to Macadonian conditions, and suggesting that it would be wise for refugees who have been driven the missionaries to withdraw from that region until quiet was restored, from their homes by the "Unbecause safety could not be aS8ured to American citizens in that part speakable Turk." She forward" an of the country. A copy of this letter was sent to the missionaries at appeal from the Bulgarian Evan- Monastir, and Rev. Lewis Bond, a missionary, replied as follows: gelical Society, which is, in part, as While appreciating the interest follows: thus manifested by our Minister, we sincerely hope the mission- The present assassination of aries at this station may not be re- thousands of Christians, and the destruction of hundreds of villages with their Christian church build- ings, is a triumph of Mohammedan fanaticism over the Christianity and Christian civilization of the twentieth century. Will God's people all over the Christian world remain silent and irresponsive to the bitter croies of the dying ones in Macedonia?
Dearly beloved in Christ, through the native Bulgarian Evang~lical Society, which for twenty-eight years has been a power for good among the European provinces of Turkey, the Protestant churches in Bulgaria pray you most earnestly to take such timely measures as
1904J GENERAL MIsstoNARY INTELLIGENCE
shall put a stop to the horrible He visited Tripoli, and there saw atrocities and the rapid extermina- Dr. Harris, one of the missionaries tion of the Ohristian population in Macedonia. of the Presbyterian Ohurch, who ASIA had charge of a large hospital in Light on Dufferin Oollege, which good work was being done, Lebanon Schwifat, Mount as well as outside its walls. He L e b a 11 0 n , was founded by Miss Louisa Proctor continues: and Mr. Tanius Said (a native gen- In the ancient city of Hums I saw tleman) for the education of the the sick flock to Dr. Harris as of old they flocked to Christ. He had youth of Syria, in memory of the with him only a pocket-case of medicine and a few instruments. benefits derived from the wise and The receiving-room was our little statesmanlike conduct of the late church, the operating-table a board laid across a couple of benches. But Lord Duiferin, by which the dis- amid those primitive conditions, the missionary gave such relief to trict of Lebanon enjoys greater scores of sufferers that their grati- tude knew no bounds, and men who freedom than any other portion of would have stoned a preacher reverently listened to the doctor .the Sultan's dominions in having a while he talked to them of Ohrist. The work of Dr. Mary Eddy among Ohristian governor. The school women and children is also reprewas opened in 1895 with 20 boys; sentative. Tho hithert'? nominally a member of the Beirut station, now aver 100 are educated within she has itinerated throughout the entire mission field, and even beits walls. Among the pupils are yond it. With her Biblewomen Mohammedans, Druses, Greek and her camping outfit, she jour- neys on horseback to some outlying Ohristians, Maronites, and Prot- village and pitches her tent. A surprising number of the sick and estants. Side by side they study injured speedily appear. It is pa- God's Holy Book. The fame of thetic to see the trustful confidence of that diseased and crippled the education given has spread throng, some of whom are plainly throughout Syria, Palestine, and beyond all help that man can give.
Egypt, so that last year there were Bibles not The Persian gov- over 150 applications for admission. Allowed to ernment has re- A.t the present time, 45 who have Enter Persia cently prohibited been trained in the schools are the introduction of teaching for other missions in Bibles into Persi~. A number of Egypt. Palestine, and Syria, giving cases of Scripture are lying in the satisfaction to their employers. custom-house at Bushire, which Medical Dr. A. J. Brown, in the officials will not release. They MiJSions the course of a tour also stopped a number of Persian in Syria through Asia, was prayer-books sent out by the deeply impressed Ohurch Missionary Society, but with the value of medical missions. they were afterward released.
He says: Even the Turks are better than Healing the sick is an important that, for they permit Bibles to pass phase of mission work in Syria. The antipathy of Moslem and the custom-house-provided they Oatholic to the Protestant preacher does not bind them to the fact that have been properly "expurgated." the medical missionary can cleanse their ulcers and set their broken The Koran enjoins the reading legs. Thus as the educational work opens up wide avenues of influence of the Bible, altho Mohammed was among the children, so medical work opens up equally wide avenues uneasy when he found that one of of influence among the sick and injured. his chief disciples was devoted to it,
"laying to him: "It may be dan- A Hindu The great com- Thanksgiving munity connected gerous." The subterfuge of the with the American modern Mohammedans is that Board Mission in Ahmednagar ob- served June 20th and 21st as days Christians and Jews have corrupted of thaksgiving for God's care dur- ing the recent epidemic of plague, the Scriptures, altho the Koran from which at least 3,500 deaths occurred among the popula tions of makes no such charge. the City. There were but 11 deaths among the Christians of the Ameri- The Persians, altho accounted can mission and the same number from among the handful of Chrisheretics at Mecca, being Shiites in- tian] in the Salvation Army. If the Indian Christian community had stead of Sunnites, are in some re- lost their share of the 3,500 who died, 210 Christians would have been the spects more intolerant than the number instead of 11. "They were about nineteen times as immune as Sunnites. For instance, the Sun- the other communities." If we in- clude those from the Salvation nites adllJit Christians into their Army, the Christian community lost 22, or "ten times as immune mosques, but Mr. Benjamin, for- as the rest of the community." Certainly there was sufficient merly our minister to Persia, says ground for the thanksgiving meet- ings. The reasons are easily disthat there, if a Christian should covered, Among the Christians cases were promptly reported, and make his way into a Shiite mosque, they maintain better sanitary con- ditions. no rank and no considerations of policy would save him from death. t Industrial Rev. James Smith, Training for 0 f Ahmednagar, India's Orphans thus answers the question why he believes in industrial training for orphan children in India: 1. Because for nine years I have tried it and found that in general my most intelligent and resource- ful pupils are those who have had a simple course in lllanual training, in addition to their other work.
2. Because it fits boys and girls for life. Books for the The n u mer 0 n s 3. Because it saves many" block- Blind friends of the late heads," turning them into men of Miss Annie Sharp ability, much to the surprise of some of their teachers. will be interested to learn that her 4. Because it seems to develop lamented death has caused no in- faithfulness and truthfulness better terregnum in the management of than arithmetic and spelling and the North India Missionary Insti- other forms of mere book-work (in which crl',mming and whispering tute for the Blind. She had worked make der,eption and superficiality for many years at Amritsar with so easy) her sister and Miss Hewlett. The 5. Be~ause it makes boys more latter lady was with Miss Sharp self-re.iant and manly.
6. Because it developes original- when she died, and without delay ity. There is no class where there has taken control of the work, and is so much independent and original is now resident at Raipur. One of thinking done as in the class in the latest efforts of the departed mantlal training.
7. Lastly, because working men worker was to draft a letter to The and working boys must have an Christian, giving details of prog- education suited to their future. ress in the adaptation of the Braille· They must be fitted for earning bread. If we simply give them type for the blind. At the close of book-learning they will despise the letter she says: manual labor and be unfitted for such occupation. .. I can not sufficiently thank my
1904J GENERAL MISSIONARY
faithful band of Braille writers and Self-support The Church Mis- other helpers, and I would ask in India sionary Soc i e t y them and others to note these four probably to a larger facts: (1) On our shelves to-day are some 70 English books, also the extent than other missions, is de- whole Urdu Bible, almost tripli- veloping self-support on sound, ago cated, and many copies of the Gos- gresRive lines. The Madras Dio- pels and Psalms; also a few good cesan Record informs us that all the Urdu story books. (2) At Rajpur C. M. S. congregations in Madras we shall number (excluding EUrop- and its neighborhood are finaneans) over 70 souls. About 5 of cially independent of any foreign these will be sighted boys and aid. The affairs of the church are women helpers; the rest are, for all managed by a council consisting practical purposes, blind, and 7 of wholly of Indian clergy and laity, them mentally defective. (3} We and the bishop's testimony that have sent out 9 workers-2 Bible this state of things has grown up women, 2 preachers, and 5 teachers on very sound and solid lines, will of the blind. (4) There is not one very much encourage these Indian pupil (except the sick ones) who pastors and people to renewed efdoes not work according to his or forts for their own spiritual growth, her ability.-The Christian. and for the extension of the King- dom of God. The C. M. S. has Giving by A few years ago I paid much attention to native church organization, and it is a Hindu Christians investigated care- great encouragement to have so fully the economic clear and valuable a testimony given by the bishop of the diocese conditions of the most prosperous to that system as it is at work in the Telugu mission. and largest village congregation of Trouble in For some time past the Madura mission. I discovered that 5 rUI}ees (that is, $1.00) was Tibet we have received the average monthly -income of from India disquieteach family of that congregation. ing letters as to the relations of the And that meant only 33 cents a Indian government with Tibet. month for the support of each There are constant rumors of immember of a family! We have pending military operations, an congregations whose income is less army of Nepalese being stationed than this. And yet the Christians on the frontier. Some years ago a of that mission contributed over 2 rupees (75 cents) per church mem- commercial treaty was arranged her as their offering for 1900. For with Tibet, Sikkim being taken un- all the Protestant missions of South der British protection, and a line of India the average offering per boundary was fixed upon. Herein church member during 1900 was 1 lies the source of the present rupee and 9 annas (52 cents). For trouble, it being alleged that the South India this represented an ag- Tibetans have not fulfilled their gregate sum of 248,852 rupees ($83,· part, but have repeatedly displaced GOO), or about seven and onp-half the masonry pillars erected on the per cent. of the total sum expended boundary. in the missions during that year. The Indian government, after An American can easily realize negotiating with China. appointed how much this offering is as an absolute gift; but he can not realize a commission to treat with Tibet, how much of self-denial it means and the members by appointment to that very poor people, nor how entered the Chumbi Valley some hrge an offering it is as related to the best offerings of our home churches to-day.
REV. J. P. JONES.
months ago, but have waited in tianity, shall in no case be inter- vain at Kamba .long for Ohinese and Tibetan officials with proper fered with, or molested in person credentials to meet them. or property on account of his teach- Preparations have, therefore, been made for a forward move- ing or his religious belief. No rement, a large supply of military stores having been collected in striction shall be placed on Chinese readiness. Whatever the true in- wardness of the situation may be, joining Christian churches. Conit is a call to the people of God to intercede at the throne of grace verts and non-converts, being that a peaceable way may be found out of the impasse, and that we Chinese subjects, shall alike conmay not become involved in another of our "little wars." We form to the laws of China, and remember, too, that brave and devoted missionary, Miss Annie R. shall pay due respect to those in Taylor, who is in that eountry alone, as the representative of the authority, living together in peace Tibetan Pioneer Mission. – The Christian. and amity; and the fact of be- An article appeared in this RE- ing converts shall not protect VIEW for April, 1903, giving an ac- them from the conseqmmces of any count of the missions to Tibet. " offense they may have committed Missions and In Article 13 of the the Treaty with English treaty with before or after their admission into China Ohina of September the Church, or exempt them from 5, 1902, Great Brit- paying ~he legal taxes levied on ain agreed to join in a commission to secure peaceable relationships Chinese subjects generally, except between converts and non-converts in China. In the American treaty, taxes levied and contributions for signed Oct. 8, the question has been dealt with more fully. This is of the support of religious customs such interest that we give it below in full. There is no doubt but and practises contrary to their that all Protestant missions will heartily approve of this article: faith in which they shall not be The principles of the Christian required to take part. religion, as professed by the Protestant and Catholic Churches, are Missionaries shall not interfere recognized as teaching men to do good and to do to others as they with the exercise by the native auwould have others do to them. thorities of their jurisdiction over Those who quietly profess and teach this religion shall not be har- Chinese subjects; nor shall the narassed or persecuted on account of their faith nor in any way dis- tive authorities make any distinccriminated against. Any person, whether citizen of the United tion between converts and non- States or Chinese convert, who, according to those tenets, peace- converts, but shall administer the ably teaches and practises his religion and the principles of Chris- laws without partiality, so that both classes can live together in peace. Missionary societies of the United States of Americl1, shall be permitted to rent and lease in per- petuity, as the property of the sl1,id societies, buildings or land in all parts of the empire for missionary purposes, and after the title-deeds have been found in order and duly stamped by the local authorities, to erect such suitable buildings as may be required for the carrying * on of their good work.
Missionaries In view of the un- and founded c h a r g e s Magistrates sometimes brought in China against Christian missions in China, without discrimination between Protestl1,nt and Roman principles of action, the following extracts from a recent Protestant manifesto deserve careful reading. The mani- festo has been sent, in Chinese, to all officil1,ls throughout the empire.
It reads: Chinese Christians, tho church- members, remain in every respect Chinese citizens, and are subject to
GENERA!. MISSIONARY ntTELLtGENCE
the properly constituted Chinese life. He replied: "I believe I ought to be helping to prepare authorities. The sacred Scriptures young men for the ministry, and ten times the salary you offer and the doctrines of the Church would not take me from my work."
teach obedience to all lawful au- A Martyrs' A committee has Memorial been formed in thority and exhort to good citizen- for China China to raise a ship; and these doctrines are fund of $250,000 to preached in all Protestant erect in Shanghai a Chinese "Exeter Hall" and Missionary churches. The relation of a mis- Union in memory of the foreign and native Christians who gave sionary to his converts is thus that their lives for Christ during the Boxer outbreak. Rev. D. Macof a teacher to his disciples, and he Gillivray, the secretary of the com- mittee, writes as follows: does not desire to arrogate to him- The movement is taking hold on self the position or power of a the China missionaries. Instead of some dead stone, we purpose magistrate. erecting a building which may be a great evangelistic center, a place Unfortunately, it sometimes hap- of unions, a house which will in many ways serve the cause for pens that unworthy men, by mak- which the martyrs died. Some would rather see the money exing insincere professions, enter the pended for living agents. But we be- lieve that living agents will be sent Ohurch and seek to use this connec- out in large numbers by the various boards. The missionary body could tion to interfere with the ordinary not as a united body administer any fund for the sending out of course of law in China. We all missionaries. During the century some 209 died (not counting natives) agree that such conduct is entirely from 18 different societies in Amer· ica and England and elsewhere. reprehensible, and we desire it to The whole idea in this movement is a fascinating one to us who are be known that we give no support situated at the door of China. The hand of God has been seen in its to this unwarrantable practise. progress, and we go forward in hope that He who began will finish. On this account we desire to state This movement is heartily enfor the information of all that: (a) dorsed by missionaries of all the societies in China, and a number The Protestant Church does not of contributions have already been received. The hall is to be built on wish to interfere in law cases. All a prominent site, and used for rr- ligious mass-meetings of natives or cases between Christians and non- foreigners. It is hoped that it may contain the offices of the Bible and Christians must be settled in the tract societies, a missionary library and museum, and many would like courts in the ordinary way. to see a missionary guest-bouse added. The chairman of the com- Officials are called upon to admin- ister fearlessly and impartially jus- tice to all within their jurisdiction.
(b) Native Christians are strictly forbidden to use tlIe ,name of the Church or its officers m the hope of strengthening their positions when they appear before magistrates.
The native pastors and preachers are appointed for teaching and ex- hortation, and are chosen because of their worthy character to carry on this work. To prevent abuses in the future, all officials are re- spectfully requested to report to the missionary every case in which letters or cards using the name of the Church or any of its officers are brought into court. Then proper inquiry will be made and the truth become clear. * Not a Divine grace bears " Rice Christian" the same fruit in all lands and among all peoples, crowding out selfishness, and installing self-sac- rificing love. So that we wonder not when we read that one of the Chinese teachers in Pekin Uni- versity, who was receiving a salary of $15 a month, was recently offered $100 a month to go into commercial
mittee is Bishop Graves, and the clap his hands and say" keep quiet treasurer E. S. Little, Esq.. of while J talk to you," and the elders Shanghai.. would call out, "Shut up!" Such were the circumstances under False Chapels In the course of an which the Gospel was first preached in Hunan 800 miles' trip in to Korean women. Hunan Province, Now last summer, ILbout half of it made on foot, Rev, W. H. Lingle dis- But how chlLnged now! Yester.. covered considerable spurious work day I, with Mr. Moffatt interpretdoing in the nlLme of Christianity. ing, preached in the great new Heathen men had set up chapels church to 600 women, besides 900 bearing the sign "Presbyterian men, all respectful and quiet, and Mission," and, in that name, would of the 600 women, 550 sat on the appeal to the courts with their raised seats just outside the platlawsuits. Mr. Lingle says that he form. Nothing I have ever seen in closed more chapels than he ever heathen lands impressed me more. opened in his life. The Chinese are Among this wonderful company keen enough to appropriate terms was a former sorceress, II> brave old of the Christian religion whenever woman of eighty-six years. Six there is gain to be squeezed out of unkept, dirty women si:s: years ago; them, and, for this reason, Prot- now 600 Christians. estant missionaries are careful to avoid interference with courts of The Forward 'J:'he latest report of justice even in behalf of Christians. -Woman's Work/or Woman. Movement in this movement re- Then and Now The" two pictures" Japan ceived by the Amer- in Korea given in the follow- ing lines were writ- ican BOlLrd in Bos- ten by Rev. D. C. Rankin, Decem- ton is, in brief, as follows: ber 15, 1902, during his visit to Pyenyang, and are nearly the last The results of the Forward Movewords he penned. ment are not by any means limited Then to the number already received In early summer of 1896 Messrs. Moffett and Lee first undertook to into the churches, altho that is a preach to Korean women. He had previously had only men in the most gratifying and encouraging first little building. The women had often stood outside and listened result. There are, in addition: 1. through the key hole. Mrs. Lee came in 1896. The" kitchen" room The new attention which Christiwas opened into the church by rcmoving the wall and hanging a cur- anity has awakened among all tain. Mrs. Lee came in with foul' or five women, who had been" keyhole classes. 2. The union of heart and listeners," and these sat very quietly beside her; but a number hand (all nations and denominaof others in dirty clothes would keep walking about and talking. tions) in prayer, and purpose, and As Mr. Moffet preached he would work. 3. The quickened life of the Church, so that it feels its respon- sihility to evangelize the empire as never before. 4. The workers have received a wider view and have a deeper realization of the immense work to be done in Japan.
5. A new consecration of pastors and Christians, a new sense of the power of the simple Gospel, and..o.
new assuranc)e of victory. 6. Many are led to examine Christianity.
and many thousands, especially of young men, are studying the Bible.
7. The value of thorough prepara- tion and method have been empba- sized. 8. An impulse toward self- support has been given. 9. It has given new courage and hope to the churches in the home lands with * reference to the work.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
A Union Japanese mission- pleasure which it afforded me to visit the admirably conducted es- Hymn-book aries have united tablishment of the American mis- in Japan in the production sionaries on the Sobat and that of of a union hymn- the Austrians on the White Nile- book which is about to issue from one Protestant, the other Roman the press of the Methodists. It was Catholic; but I make no distinction between the two. Both are adpromised for use October 1st. Con- mirably conducted. I entirely con- gregationalists, Methodists, Pres-· cur with Sir Reginald Wingate, byterians, Baptists, and Disciples and with, I believe, every respon- all took part in its compilation; sible authority in this country, in thinking that the time is still disand it expresses the common faith tant when mission work can be and common hope of the universal permitted among the Moslem popu- church. It will contain 450 hymns, lation of the Sudan. But such 125 of which appear also in the efforts as are now being made newly revised Episcopal Hymnal. among the pagan tribes in the southern provinces deserve. and Japanese In Yokohama is a shall certainly receive. any reason- Christian large ChI' i s t ian able amount of encouragement and assistance which can be afforded to Printers printing company them.
which has 220 per- It is less than two decades since sons in its employ, and all these are Khartum, the Sudanese capital, gathered every Monday morning was abandoned to savagery and for a religious service before be- Mahdist tyranny. It was recon- ginning the work of the week. The quered by Lord Kitchener in 1898.
manager is an elder in the Pres- According to Lord Cromer, we byterian church, and the com- suppose that the northern Sudan, pany has a large business, not strongly Mohammedan, has not only through Japan, but in Korea, yet recovered sufficiently from the China, and the Philippine Islands. ravages of war for the spiritual AFRICA onslaught of Christians. This is A Loud Call The missionaries not the case with the natives of the from Egypt in Egypt of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and others of the United Presbyterian Church of North America southern tribes who are not Moshave sent an appeal to their home church for 280 more missionaries. lems. It seems strange that this The church to which this appeal has been made has a threefold southern field has been occupied by record in foreign missions for the year: the largest foreign mission hut two agencies, one of which, we offerings, the largest missionary party sent out, and the largest in- are glad to remember, is American. gathering of souls in any single year of its history. -Outlook. * Great Britain The British policy The African A missionary write" and Missions of exclusion of as a Beggar that the native Af- in the Sudan Christian mission- rican is decidedly aries from the Su- fond of begging, and will beg at dan was recently defined by Lord every opportunity, and for every- Cromer, British agent for Egypt thing upon which his eyes may and the Sudan, as follows: rest, from a pin or nail to the very clothes you weal', and under any pretense whatever he will ask for a gift. If he points out the road to a village, it is: "Fundis. 'ngi tuse" (Missionary, give me a present). If he shows you a stream of water, or comes to your meeting, it is the Let me testify to the special same thing.
A certain traveler tells about a to teach his people, and he was native who was saved by a; mission- overcome with joy. Friends at ary from being killed. He came to the mission later, not to thank the home would be surprised to know missionary for saving his life, but· how much they deny themselves to ask for a piece of cloth because clothes and other things that they his life was saved. This would not may get books. Two of the por- ters who were with us on a recent be unusual for an African. 'Ve itineration, when they received have had natives to ask us for presents because we had done them some service. We suppose they their well-earned wage, returned thought that one good turn de- the whole of it to me, that they might buy a testament, prayerserves another. This shows their book, etc.; and this is no uncomsimpIe childlike mind. In order to have any peace along that line, one must let them know at once that mon case."
no presents will be given, except in exchange for presents. To ex- The Growth of Within the Uganda change presents is a sign of friend- Two Decades British Protector_ ship. ate a recent census Growth in the The statistics for shows 1,070 church buildings with Zulu Mission the last year of this a seating capacity of 126,850, and m iss ion of the an average Sabbath attendance of American Board make an excel- 52,471. It is only twenty years lent showing. The native force, since the first Ohristian baptism consisting of 531 preachers and took place in that country. Verily, teachers, draws no part of its sup- this is a wonder-land for the spread port from the Board. Of the 23 of the Gospel, and bids fair soon to churches in the mission 18 are en- outdo even Hawaii or Madagascar.
tirely self-supporting, and the other five are provided for from the home ISLANDS OF THE SEA missionary fund gathered by the A Wedding in A missionary's exnative Ohristians. The membership in these churches is 4,298, New Guinea perience at his first against 3,555 reported last year. Of the 67 day-schools in the mis- wedding in New sion, 18 are self-supporting, and the others are supported by private Guinea is described in an interestfunds or government grants. The total contributions from native ing way by the Rev. J. H. Oullen, sources to the work of the mission were $7,964, while the total appro- of Port Moresby: priations from the Board for the same purpose amounted to only It was Wednesday, and we had $4,300. our usual service at six o'clock. Service ended, Ruatoka sent the The Word The love for the non-church members outside, while in Uganda Bible is one of the he inquired of the church whether they thought Ikua Laka was a fit most marked traits woman to make a vrife for Deacon of the people of Uganda. A mis- Kevau. There was quite a chorus sionary writes: "A chief who has of assent. He ask ~d several other gone to build a church in a distant questions to the sa me end, and the part of the land, where one is much answers being s.ttisfactory, the needed, will receive no earthly re- public was readmitted and the servward for his. labor, but I promised ice proceeded. I had not been in him that when he had finished I ths country six weeks, but everywould give him a Bible, the better thing I had to say, Scripture, prayer, and all, was printed, and having got it up well the night be- fore, I managed finely. Kevan wore a black cloth waistcoat and trousers, and the bride a somewhat dirty red frock. They bot h stood stolidly at the table, answered the questions readily ap,d distiuc;;tly,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
and took the whole thing as the his subscription of 400 pfennigsmost ordinary business. sounding a large su)'}'l, but in reality Progress John G. Paton being, if anything, less than the in the writes as follows: others; and. to crown all, one man announced his offering as a "kini " New Hebrides "The converts at (guinea), his wife's itS 4 marks, and his child's as 12~ cents! For two the Illission stations hours at least we sat, busy record- in Malekula have built a Christian ing the names and itmounts prom- ised, and in some cases receiving village in which they live. All are the cash. At last we had to close, clothed. They begin and close owing to the lateness of the hour. But next morning still more promevery day with praise and prayer, ises were made, sO that before and are very happy with each other, our meetings closed we were as- giving a daily object lesson to the sured of the success of Kuresa's ap- peal; for more than £300 was promheathen of the joy and peace of ised or given. Christianity. To their village they welcome all new converts, teach MISCELLANEOUS them and help to protect them; and Lessons of Rev. Henry H. Jes- if they re"solve to live there, all Forty-eight sup, D.D., the vet- unite and assist in building a new Yean' eran missionary to house for them after a given plan El<perience Syria, gives the on straight streets running parallel following as the with each other, and with streets lessons that he has learned in his at right angles. All houses are missionary life. They are worth built on strong wood foundations, noting: wattled, plastered with lime, and My first lesson is one of grati- tude to God that I have been whitewashed. The cottages are enabled to live so long in such a neat, and Itre all kept clean~a great blessed work. The second is that, if I could live contrast to the heathen villages. my life over again, I would choose The village is on a healthy site, the missionary work above all bought for the purpose near the others. The third is one of sorrow and mission house, so that they may humiliation at my many mistakes have the help and advice of the and failures, and of strong desire missionary in all difficulties ~aised that I might try again with new by the heathen, and may also help purpose, new wisdom, and new con- the missionary in his work, and re- secration. The fourth is the inadequacy and ceive his constant teaching and worthlessness of the human elecare. ment in themissionitry work unless Samoans I tap pea r s that vitalized, inspired, and controlled Giving to the s e Ohristians by the Divine. The fifth is the vantage-ground Missions have a foreign mis- occupied by the new missionary of sion in Fiji, and to-day, over those who went out when recently an appeal was made fifty years ago_ in its behalf this is what occurred: The sixth is that the great con- vulsions, wars, and massacres which One after another of that great desolate mission fields such as the gathering rose up and made promises of money, ranging from $1 to Syrian massacres of 1860, and the $20, and,' in one case, $50, each fresh offer being received with Chinese Boxer outbreak of 1900, great cheers, the cheers being are the ploughshares upturning the changed to hughter when some would-be wit announced his gift as soil for the good seed, and prepar· 100 centIS, followed by another who ing the way for reconstruction, repromised its English equivalent of 48 pence; and not to be outdone, generation, and reformation. The seventh is that the Bible is th~ "G~rJ1lau" SamQan called out hound to supplant. the Koran, the Vedl,ts, and the books of Oonfucius.
The eighth i~ tlla.t the world
needs the Gospel and will not be at West Indian Conferences have felt rest until it has received Jesus constrained to ask the Yearly Con- Christ. ference to abrogate the constitu- The ninth is that the most pre- tions granted them in 1884, take cious service of the missionary is the oral preaching of the Gospel. * over again the work in the West Indies, and place the several dis- Self-support The Missionary tricts under the immediate charge of the Missionary Committee. It and Reco1'd, of the is painful to add that this involves Independence United FreeChurch, the liquidation of a debt which has run up to £62,000. The independof Slow Growth has these sane cau- ence of the native churches on the mission field is a most desirable tions: end, but it ought not to be formally determined until the life of the na- The development of independent tive churches is tested and proved native churches is one of the most equal to the task. difficult problems of foreign missions. The aim is clear enough- OBITUARY to establish in every separate field 'Colonel Henry H. Hadley, a self-supporting, self-governing, and self-extending church. The H. H. Hadley of New York, died difficulty does not lie only in bringing the native churches to the point at the Colorado of independence; it lies also in this, that when they seem to have at- Sanitarium December 2d of contained self-support, the result of granting independence has often sumption. He leaves a widow and proved disastrous. ThE; London Missionary Society found it so, a son, an Episcopalian clergymen years ago, in the South Sea Islands; the American Board has made a at,Richmond, Ind. Colonel Hadley similar experience; and now the Vesleyan Methodist Conference, was a native of Ohio, and durat its meeting at Camborne in July, ing the last fifteen years has been has had to confess to a similar result in the case of the West Indies. well known as a mission worker In 1884 the Yearly Conference constituted the mission districts in the and lecturer. He was educated in Vest Indies into two independent conferences-the Western, includ- the public schools, and in 1862 be- ing the Jamaica and Hayti dis- came a private in the Ninetieth tricts, and the Eastern, including the Antigua, St. Vincent, and Brit- Ohio volunteer infantry. He was mustered out as captain and brevet lieutenant-colonel in 1866, and in 1875 -he was graduated from the National Law University at Wash- ish Guiana districts. The West In- ington. He became a member of dies were the first mission field of the Wesleyans. The extension and the New York bar and also of the success of their missions there form one of the brighte::;t pages in the bar of the District of Columbia. history of the expansion of Christianity; and it seemed as if now In 1888 Colonel Hadley was conthat enterprise had reached its goal in the starting of the local churches verted and began mission work, un an independent career. But the step has proved premature. At He organized 60 rescue missions anl the moment it was taken these churches were not absolutely self- several total abstinence societies, supporting; it was affirmed, however, that self-government was the and raised over $250,000 for their one thing needed to make them so. Notwithstanding their independ- support. It is said that he adence, repeated grants have had to be made to them. And now, after dressed over 5,000 audiences on the nineteen years' experkmce, the subject of total abstinence and rescue work. His brother, S. H.
Hadley, is the Superintendent of the Water Street Mission, New York. Many friends rejoice in his life and mourn his loss. <-
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1891
A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIV. No. 4.-Old &ries.–APRIL. –VOL. IV. No. 4.-New Series.
A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
The Portuguese found their way to India before aLY other European nation, in ] 497. From the beginning they were zealous, after their fashion, in the spread of the Roman Catholic faith, but their zeal, being neutralized by great moral laxity, commercial greed, and political ambition, the" European idolaters," as they were called, made but few and mostly doubtful converts. But it was seen that India presented a' splendid field f~r the propagation of the faith, so Xavier was selected as " the apostle to the Indies. " He went with every human advantage. Ignatius Loyola sent, him forth with the inspiring words, " Go, my brother. Rejoice that you have not here a narrow Pale8tine or a province of Asia in prospect, but innumerable kingdoms; an entire world is reserved for your endeavors.' , The pope conferred on him the authority and dignity of Apostolic Nuncio throughout the East, and commended him to the respect and protection of all princes and governors. The King of Portugal sent him with every demonstration of interest and authOt'ity, and aided him all through his splendid but erratic career with whatever royal zeal and power could command.
Xavier landed at Goa in May, 1542. For three years he was ceaselessly active, passing from one part of Southern India to another; then, in 1545, he left for Malacca, and after visiting several other islands returned to India in January, 1548. Here he remained for fifteen months, busily occupied in the affairs of the college he had founded at Goa, visiting some of his former scenes of labor, and arranging for the prosecution of the mission, and then, in April, 1549, he sailed for Japan.
It is difficult to ascertain with any degree of precision the results of his " wild but splendid" career. Roman Catholic biographers and historians, having now Protestant eyes on them, are guarded in their statements, but in the past, when not so liable to criticism, gave almost as much rein to fancy as a Hindu panegyrist writing a Purana; By them Xavier is credited with all manner of gifts, natural, supernatural, and spiritual, and with an extraoldinary amount of success, his converts being said to amount to 500,000-" all fervent, and desiring nothing more than to become martyrs for their faith;" while, on the other hand, the Abbe Dubois affirms that Xavier left India in disgust, disheartened at the difficulty of making any real converts.
The latter opinion is the true one. He made many Christians, according to the Jesuit theory, though far fewer than is reported, but the vast majority were Christians only in name. Most were infants, baptized craftily and surreptitiously by the agents of Xavier.* A large number of adults submitted to baptism through fear and greed, and almost all the converts baptized had but a formal and most inadequate acquaintance with the doctrines and requirements of Christianity. That Xavier was himself dissatisfied and discouraged at the inadequate results is proved, first, by the fact that after so brief a span of labor he should have abandoned an enterprise 80 extensive, so splendid, and to which he had been specially appointed; and, secondly, on his owno testimony. In a letter to a missionary in Travancore he writes, in December, 1548 : "If you will, in imagination, search through India, you will find that few will reach heaven either of whites 01' blacks, except those who depart this life nnder fourteen years of age, with their baptismal innocence still upon them." In the following month he wrote to Loyola: "The natives, on account of the enormity of their wickedness, are as little as possible fitted to embrace the Christian religion. They so abhor it that they have no patience to listen to us. To ask them to become Christians is like asking them to submit to death. Hence, all our labor is at present to guard those who now are Christians. Hence, since there is not the least need of my labors in these parts, and as I have also learned of Japan, I have determined to start for that country as soon as possible."t In these letters Xavier obviously refers to the Roman Catholic missions generally, his own and those which had been conducted for the previous fifty years, at least, with the concurrence and aid of the Portuguese Government.
But the most condemnatory proofs of the want of success on the part of Xavier and all preceding missionaries, and of the genius of Jesuitism to adopt" ways that are dark and tricks that are vain," are seen in the methods adopted by the Jesuit missionaries in Madura, and persistently prose- * " When these children," says Father de Bourges, "are in danger of death, our practice is to baptize them without asking the permission of their parent_, which would certainly be refused. The catechists and the private Christians are well acquainted with the formula of baptism; and they confer it on these dying children, under the pretence of giving them medicines."-Lettl'es' Edijlantes, tome xiL, po 107.
t" The Missionary Life of Xavier," po 156, by the Rev. Henry Venn. Some Roman Catholic authorities state the number of converts, soon after .the death of Xavier, at 300,000 iu the western portion of India. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the native converts in the Madura district are reckoned by Father Martin to amouut to 150,000, and each missionary is said to have baptized at least 1000 each yearo Bnt the Abbe Dubois, who labored in India from 1790 to 1815, states the number of Roman Catholic Christians in all India, inclnding half·castes and Portnguese, at 635,000. Now, no one will claim that the Roman Catholic native Christians nnmber more than a million and a quarter; or for the whole Roman Catliolic popnlation more than a million and a halfo Where, then, are the boasted resuits of Roman Catholic missions, of which we hear eo often, and whose methods we are advised to follow l" cuted for one hundred and fifty years, which, as an instance of ,religious imposition, has been declared " to be without a paralleL"
The various steps by which this was done were kept secret, as Jesuit methods usually are, but of the fact there i" abundant evidence, as the following account will show.
Early in the seventeenth century, about fifty years after the departure of Xavier, Robert de Nobilibus, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine and grandnephew of Pope Marcellus II., and other Jesuit fathers in Madura, perceiving the strong prejudices of the Hindus against Europeans and the Christian religion, devised a plan, as subtle as it was criminal, whereby they hoped to overcome native prejudices by pretending that they were substantially one with the Brahmans themselves, and that Christianity and Brahmanism were essentially one, only that the former, being older and purer than the latter, should be accepted in its place. Studying the native language carefully; attaining a minute acquaintance with the usages and customs of the priesthood; preparing themselves, by a long course of austere training, for the part they were to act, and armed with writings made to resemble certain portions of the Vedas, and declared to be of equal authority, they entered Madura, not as Christian missionaries, but as Brahmans of a superior order, who had come to restore the most ancient form of the native religion. Their success, at first, was not great, but when charged in a large assembly, specially convened, with being an impostor, who sought to deceive the people, in order to introduce a new religion into the country, Malihilus produced his manuscripts, affirmed that the Romaca Brahmans were of much older date than those with whom he was contending, and in the presence of all declared and made oath that he was really descended from the god Brahma. On this, three Brahmans, impressed by his specious evidence and earnestness, advised that they should not persecute a man who declared that he was one of themselves, and gave such evidence of the truth of his assertions. Thus audacity and speciousness gained a certain amount of credence.
To sustain these pretensions spurious documents were produced,* and the fathers adopted names and usages which gave them a close resemblance to Suniassis, men devoted to the most ascetic forms of Hinduism, and greatly reverenced and feared by the more ignorant and superstitious of the people.
As Father Tachard wrote: "The missionaries have resolved to assume the dre!s and manner of living of Brahmanical Suniassis. This was a very difficult undertaking, and nothing less than apostolic zeal and love cOlild have enabled them to sllstain its hardships and austerities. For, besides * The most important of these was a work pnblished in Paris in 1778, nnder the title, .. L'Ezour Vedam, ou Ancien Commeutaire du Vedam, contenant I'exposition des opinions religieuse. et philosophiques des Indiens, Traduit du Sauscritam paiun Brami." An elaborate and scholarly analysis of this remarkable production is given in the fourteenth volume of the" Asiatic Researches" by Francis Ellis, Esq. He declares it to be "an instance of religious lmposition without a parallel." The author is unknown. abstinence from everything that has life-that is to say, flesh, fish, and eggs, the Suniassis must bathe every morning in a public tank in all weathers, and do the same before every meal. ,,* The Father did not think it expe- dient to add that Suniassis, among others t.hings, must wear an orangecolored dress j rub cow's dung on their foreheads and breasts j have a tiger's skin across the shoulders j have a club or staff on which are seven natural knots, and go daily through numerous .ceremonies, and that all these have a close association with heathenism. Thus armed and equipped did these "Brahmans from the north, " these "Roman Suniassis"
(" Lettres Edifiantes," tome x., pp. 15, 46), go forth to teach idolaters how to worship and serve the true God ! All the missionaries did not resort to these methods. They were adopted by a class, certainly with the assent of some others, for the purpose of winning over, if poss?ble, to the Catholic faith the social and intellectual leaders of the Hindus. It was seen that the Brahmans were excessively hard to wiu, and that between them and the lower castes and out-castes marked distinctions existed, but that if the former were gained over the conversion of the latter would be comparatively easy, if not inevitable. But this method involved the recognition of caste and of much beside utterly subversive of Christian doctrine, and even truth and honesty. "The catechist of a low caste," writes Father Maduit, "can never be employed to teach Hindus of a caste more elevated. The Brahmans and the Sudras have great contempt for the Pariahs. . • . We must, therefore, have Pariah catechists and Brahmanical catechists for the Brahmans, which causes us a great deal of difficulty." And then he illustrates the difficulty thus: A catechist came to beg him to baptize some Pariah catechumens and.to confess certain neophytes. But" the fear that the Brahmans and Surlras might come to learn the steps I had taken, and hence look upon me as infamous and unworthy ever after of holding any intercourse with them, hindered me from going." Subsequently he went, and writes: "I made these poor people go to a retired place about three leagues from hence, where I myself joined them in the night, and with the most careful precautiolls, and there I baptized them"!t Not only had the Pariahs separate catechists, but separate churches j nor ~<luld a Christiau Suniassi enter one of their dwellings to administer the 1allt rites of the Church, though he would do this if the dying were removed out of their own d welling-contamina.ted by low caste or no caRte-into the open air, or a proper caste church. The results of such a policy were such as might have been anticipated. As the Roman Brahmans had their poitas, cow * See "Lettres Edifiantes et Curienses," tome x., p. 324. Paris, 1780.
Also" Systema Brahmanican Fra Paolicio Bartolomeo," pp. 47, 56, 57. Romal, 1791. The leading features of Nobilibu8'8 or Nobilis's course are stated by the Jesuit Jouvincy in his history of the order, and in vindication of the policy pursued when it was subsequently called in question, the Secretary to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide wrote in 1676 to Pope InnQC('nt that Nobilis, although he called himself a Brahman, was not guilty of falsehood I t " Lettres Edi1lantes," tome x., pp. lJ43…!.:.5. dung ashes, and strict ritual, their converts, really few in number, ill- instructed and beguiled into Christianity, rather than intellectually ac- cepting it on conviction, retained with but slight modification the superstitious manners, customs, and beliefs of Hinduism, a residuum or virus of heathenism which has kept the Roman Catholic community of Southern India ignorant, poor, weak, uninfluential, up to the present time.
The boasted unity of the Church of Rome has always been more of an Rssumption than II reality, and these proceedings were too scandalous, es- pecially in the eyes of the Dominicans and Capuchins, to be alJowed un- challenged. An appeal was made to Rome, and Pope Paul V. appointed the Archbishop of Goa to investigate the charges. His report confirmed the charges, and condemned the policy of Nobilis and his party: To this the Jesuits replied with their usual speciousness that the rites and practices now challenged and condemned were merely civil .observances, having in them nothing of a religious nature; that they were neither opposed to the faith nor morality, but were absolutely essential to the spread of Christianity in India, and nothing more than prudent and innocent concessions to native distrust, superstition, and ignorance! On these conflicting reports a Papal declaration was issned, in 1623, condemning some of the practices, and counselling great care on all points in dispute, and to avoid scandal and. exposure, it was sent privately to the Jesuits only. The worthy fathers received it in silence and went on doing as before, so th'lt it was not until fifty-seven years afterward that the Capuchins so much as knew of the existence of such a document!
The Jesuits about ,this time were at the zenith of their power, and so for a long time were able to defy their enemies. And so, like other mortals, they abused their power and acted with more audacity and less caution, so that public attention was again called to their proceedings. So numerous and flagrant were their alleged compromises with Hindu rites and practices, that Pope Clement XI. was moved, in 1702, to send out C. T. Maillard de Toumon, a man of high rank and great repute, as Legate, with power to investigate the charges and report. The decree he issued condemned, among otlier things, the marriage of children six or seven years of age; the hanging of the talz about their necks–the usual Hindn symbol used in such cases; the abolition of certain nuptial ceremonies–" for they overflow with the pollutions of heathenism ;" the disuse of the twig of a certain tree which was emblematic of the Hindu Triad-Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; of the circlets used for averting misfortune; the use of seven vessels filled with growing rice, emblematic of the seven planetary gods. The Christians were condemned for taking a part in idolatrous festivals; bathing at set times, and in tlie manner of the heathen; passing themselves off as Suniassis; using the ashes of cow's dung, with marks on the forehead, chest, and elsewhere, practices common among the" most superstitious Hindus;" and among other things condemned was a feminine ceremonial the decree characterizes as " the festival of immodesty and wanton- ness. ,.
A great outcry was raised against the decree. Father Tachard sent to all the missionaries under his charge a set of inquiries in detail asking if the ceremonies thus condemned were necessary, or could be dispensed with. The answers declared it was necessary to continue the methods in use. And this was affirmed in the following solemn document: "I, John Venaut Bouchet, priest of the Society of Jesus, and Superior of the Carnatic Mission, do testify and swear on my faith as a priest th.at the observance of the rites, as set forth in the preceding answers, is of the greatest necessity to these missions, as well for their preservation as for the conversion of the heathens. Further, it appears to me that the introduction of any otller usage contrary to these would be attended with evident danger to the salvation of the souls of the neophytes. Thus I answer the Reverend Father Superior General, who orders me to send him my opinion as to these rites, and to confirm it by my oath, for assurance and faith of which I here sign my name." Signed, November 3d, 1704, in t.he Mission of the Carnatic, Jean Venaut Bouchet.
" Fathers Peter Manduit, Philip de la Fontaine, Peter de la Lane, and Gilbert Ie Petit took the same oath, and attested it by their signatures; and after like fashion, swore all the Portuguese Jesuits in Madura and Mysore" .<" Memoires Historiques," Luques, 1745, tome iii., pp. 8-10).
Thus the reverend fathers publicly, solemnly, and deliberately make oath that, in these missions, the religion of Christ must necessarily be joined to the idolatry of the heathen, and that the introduction of Christianity alone, and in its purity, would be fatal to the salvation of souls!
This document was carried to the Pope at Rome by Bouchet and Lainez, who did their utmost to have the report of Cardinal de Tournon set aside. In this they were unsuccessful, but with wonderful audacity, on their return to India they affirmed the opposite! Norbert states that on a day when a large congregation of French and native Christians were assembled at Pondicherry, Bouchet "came forward in his sacramental robes, and calling to witness the body and blood of J esns Christ, protested before God that of a truth he had obtained from the lips of the Pope himself that the decree of Cardinal de Tonrnon was in nowise binding, and that the missionaries might permit the practice of ceremonies which the Legate had condemned, because so doing they might the more easily convert the heathen to the faith. ,,* Lainez, now Bishop of St. Thomas, made to the Superior of the Capuchins a similar declaration. These statements were denied by the Pope in a brief addressed to !:.ainez himself, dated September 17, 1712 ; in a letter addressed to the Bishop of Claudiopolis, Cardinal Sacrissanti, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, encloses a copy of ,. .. Lettres Edifiantes," tome iii., p. 320. the original acts of the Congregation of the Holy Office. "They will show you," he writes, "that the report you have heardin your co'un- tries announcing the suspension or annulling Of the decrees of the Cardinal de Tournon, Visitor Apostolic of happy memory, is false and without the slightest foundation." * The fathers, though hard pressed, were not yet vanquished. They reo ported that the Pope had been misinformed as to facts on which his de- cision had been founded, and prepared a document which was signed by many of their converts and three eminent Hindu Pundits affirming that the rites in question were all mere civil observances. But the contrary was affirmed by other Brahmans, yet with little effect; for the wily Brother- hood held on their way. Again Clement XI., in 1714 and 1719; Benedict XIII., in 1727, issued briefs, insisting on obedience to the decree of De Tournon, to which no attention was paid. But· a yet more ~x traordinary instance of disregard of moral obligation followed. Pope Clement XII., in 1739, issued a brief insisting on instant and absolute submission. Every Jesuit bishop and missionary in India was required to subscribe on oath to a most binding document, part only of which can here be given: "I, – – , of tha Society of Jesus, . . . obeying the precept of . . . Pope Clement' XII., . . . issued in 1739, enjoining all the missionaries • • . to take an oath that they will faithfully observe the Apostolic determination concerning the Malabar rites, . . . promise that I will obey fully and faithfully, that I will observe it exactly, entirely, absolutely and inviolably, and that I will fulfil. it without any tergiversation; moreover, that I will instruct the Christians committed to my charge according to the tenor of the said brief, . . . and especially the catechumens, before they shall be baptized, and unless they promise that they will observe the said brief . • . that I will not baptize them; further, that I shall take care, with all possible zeal and diligence, that the ceremonies of the heathen be abolished. . . . Thus, touching the Holy Gospels, I promise now and swear.
• • . Signed with mine own hand, –." t This evidently was designed to be a net from whose meshes no fish should escape; nevertheless, though it was signed by every Jesuit father, the Madura Brotherhood went on their way, systematically doing what~ according to the common understanding of mankind, they had taken an oath not to do !
The fathers yet continuing their methods, another Pope, Benedict XIV., issued a brief, so precise that it was difficult for even Jesuit ingenuity to evade it, and to make it public, commanded that it should be read every Sunday in their congregation, and that all converts should be made to promise obedience to its requisitions. Thus for a century and a half was this deliberate and systematic lying and imposture persevered in, and even then was but reluctantly, sullenly, and partially abandoned, not because it * "MemoireB Historiques," par Ie R. P. Norbert, Lucca edition, tome L, pp. 319-61.
t The original of the brief at full length is found in " MemoireB HiBtoriques," tome ii., p. 465,.' was evil and unchristian, but under the extremest pressure. Jesuitism remained true to its principles of concealment, evasion, and double meaning, if an end is to be gained, and submitted, but did not recant.
And the evil wrought remained. As a Roman Ca~holic historian writes: " In order to take away every pretext for tergiversation, Benedict XIV. issued the bull Omnium Sollicitudium, in which he recited all that had passed on the matter, . . . and left nothing undone in order to put an end to the disputes in regard to the Malabar rites. N6,"ertheless, a leaven of discord always remained between the Jesuits and the other missionaries, aud the latter reproached the formerfor not observing the bull honestly."* What have been the issues of this most shameful and systematic deception, this doing of evil that good might come ~ Ignominious failure, since Christianity has been slandered, the success of missions been hin- dered, and native Christian life and character permanently degraded and weakened! The natives discovered that the Roman Suniassis were, after all, only Feringhees, Europeans in disguise. This enraged and disgusted them. It stopped conversions. It aspersed the Christian name, and men of Western race. It lowered the standard of native Christian life and character almost iJ.leradicably. About twenty-five years after the bull of Benedict was issued, Fra Bartolomeo describes the :Madura Christians as "living in the lowest state of degradation and ignorance." The Abbe Dubois, who was a Roman Catholic missionary in Southern India from 1790 to 1815, gives in his remarkable volume of " Letters on the State of Christianity in India," a most humiliating account of the weakness, ignorance, and superstition of the Roman Catholic converts. Hereis one of his statements: "During a period of twenty-five years tbat I have familiarly conversed with them, lived among them as their religious teacher and spiritual guide, I would hardly dare to affirm that I have anywhere met a sincere and undisguised Christian."
Nor has the evil leaven yet been purged away. In the Harvest Field of this year, p. 329, an experienced and intelligent Protestant missionary in Southern India, the Rev. S. V. Thomas, M.A., thus writes: "Their converts are now to be found in certain districts of South India, in Madura, Trichinopoly. Tangore, and other places. These Catholic Christians, as they call themselves, are living monuments to attest the Jesuit policy louder thatl Pascal's letters or European proverbs. They wear marks on their foreheads as their heathen neighbors do, go to Hindu temples on festival occasions, and bow down before the images of pagan gods, while perhaps they inwardly repeat Paters and Aves. Part of their marriage ceremony is performed in the Christian chapel, and the oouple is blessed by the Catholic priest. When this is done they go home, kindle a fire and walk round it, tie the wedding knot in the presence of Agni, and call upon that fire god to witness the solemn contract. Their church is divided into compart- * " A Continuation of the Church History of Bersult Bercsstei," by Comte de Robiano, tome 1., p. 197. ments, so that the high-class Christians may worship the image of Him who was the friend of outcasts, without being contaminated by the touch of the low-caste worshippers. Christians and the descendants of Christians for several generations, they are sunk in such gross ignorance that, like the good lady in the" Monastery," they are often puzzled to know why Eve forgot to ask the advice of St. Peter or St. Paul before eating the forbidden fruit. Three hundred years of Christianity has left them only where it found themthe slaves of Brahman superstition and of Brahman fraud. Their condition is worse than that of the Samaritans described in the Second Book of Kings, ' Who feared the Lord and worshipped their own strange gods.' "
Such is Jesuitism and its fruits. The leading statements in this paper rclative to the Madura Mission are taken from a remarkable article in the second volume of the. Oalcutta Review, called" The Jesuit Missions in India," by the Rev. Dr. Mackey. The following are the Roman Catholic authorities on which it is principally based: 1. "Lettres Edifiantes et curieuses, ecrites des Missions etrangers, par quelques Missionaires de la Compagnie de Jesus." The original consists of 25 volumes, printed in Paris. The first volume was published in 1717, the last in 1741. The letters they contain were written at various times between 1699 and 1740. 2. "Annales de la Propagation de la Foi." The publication of this was commenced at Lyons, in 1823. . 3. "Memoires Historiques presentes (en 1744) au Souverain Pontife, Benoit XIV. Par Ie R. P. Norbert. Besangon, 1747 j et Luques, 1745. Avec la permissiou des superieurs." Norbert went out as a missionary from Rome to Southern India in 1737. He subsequently held the office of " Procureur General en Cour de Rome des Missions aux lndes Orientales." His work is most condemnatory of the proceedings of the Jesuits, not only in India, but China, and gives ample documentary evidence in proof of his statements. Like the Papal Legate, Cardinal de Tournon, of whose mission he gives a full account, he suffered much from the implacable hostility of the Jesuits.
From the Congo Balolo Mission, Lolongo Station, Lulanga River, Upper Congo, F. Theodora McKittrick writes, correcting a statement in the June number of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD regarding the Mission at Lolongo : "Only one lady here has suffered from fever since our arrival fourteen months ago j three of us have enjoyed wonderfully good health. We are living in what appears to be a healthy neighborhood; the combined fevers of all three of us may perhaps have lasted twenty-four hours. "
MI~SIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED
MISSIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED.
BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Partially owing to adverse criticisms and partly to increased general intelligence in the Church concerning missionaries and their work in heathen lands, large sections of the Church in Great Britain and some in America, have been led to make a patient and thorough investigation into existing methods of missionary work and their results.
The Wesleyan Missionary Society was precipitated into an investigation of mission economics and mission resnlts in India, by the hasty and extremely indiscreet criticisms of a young missionary, only one year in the country, finding access to the home public through an influential journal, and fostered and fended by its popular and vigorous editor. The result was, the society was obliged to make investigations into the charges against it for allowing extravagant living of its missionaries, and for general expenditure to which results were not commensurate, whether judged of in themselves or by comparison with results achieved by others at less outlay. The ill-feeling and general critical attitude of parties, equally eager to ascertain what was right, but working from wholly divergent points, did not place the society in tile best attitude, to ascertain the calmest judgment, of those whose testimony was essential to a thorongh judicial investigation; but it did result in the severest testing of ,all evidence rendered in the case, and the discarding of everything that did not stand the fiery ordeal of a stiff controversy. We think very good results were obtained, but we cannot discern that anything was elicited under this burning.glass that might not have been better reached by other processes. Be that as it may, this was one of the forms in which answers" were wrought out to clitieism of a dam-· aging nature to missions in general and to those of this society in particular.
The London Missionary Society was favored with a more peaceful method of examining its work and of considering all suggestions that were made commonly public, by the agitation of the missionary critics. They appointed a special committee of investigation on all these subjects of metb(~ds, polio cies, and fields of labor. They secured able men to discuss these questions in formal memoranda. They also invited missionaries of recognized standing of the most prominent and widely separated fields, as China, India, and Madagascar, to lengthened interviews with the ::::pecial Committee.
The Free Church of Scotland sent an able delegation to India to examine all these questions of policy and methods on the field. The Church of Scotland Missionary Society instituted inquiries by correspondence with eminent laymen as well as missionaries, especially concerIling educational methods compared with evangelistic methods of work.
We caunot follow these various investigations in detail. They should convince the Church that missionary societies are careful to keep their whole work on the most approved plans, and are ready to make any advance movement that circumstances and experience demand and justify. We select from the topics specially considered a few, and give the result of the iuquiries, not, however, strictly confining ourselves to these official reports.
CELIBATE MISSIONARIES.
The London Society's committee represents the general concensus of opinion in the matter of sending out unmarried missionaries on the ground of economy and efficiency. The conclusion reached was that the system of celibate missionaries was bad. The results in the case of both native and Roman Catholic missions were unsatisfactory and often worse. China testimony was unqualificdly against celibate missionaries, as presenting insumountable obstacles to the work. In every field it was recognized that the Christian home and Christian family were absolutely necessary for exhibition of Christian life. The committee, therefore, made a minute in accordance with the testimony, and condemned the practice of sending celibate missionaries, exccpt in special cases and for a limited time.
LAY EVANGELISTIC MISSIONARIES.
The general drift of thought among those who have given largest attention to the subject in all fields and all societies is undoubtedly more and more favorable to the employment of If much larger number of Jay missionaries. The openings for their labor are increasing constantly along the avenues of commerce, colonization, and geographical extension; and coincident with this condition is a sort of general movement, which it is judged may be divi~ely originated, among great numbers of young men as well as young women, to engage in some form of work among heathen abroad, as mechanics, teachers, professional persons, engineers, clerks, and other secular offices.
The directors of the London Society have decided to accept offers of service from men who have not passed a course of theological collegiate training, and to send them out for a term of years as lay evangelists; the object being to open the door to foreign service, to men of good education and of proved experience as Christian workers, having missionary enthusiasm. They have to admit, besides, that the theological schools are not at present able to supply the increasing demand for workers. They, however, deem i~ desirable that the study of Christian missions, of the history of philosophy and comparison of religions, should form part of the course of preparatory study for all missionaries, especially for those appointed to India or China. The committee after thorough investigation approved of this action of the directors.
NATIVE AGENCY.
It is often urged that native agents should be relied on to meet the great demand, now unsupplied, for workers. But as yet it is plainly acknowledged that such agency is deficient in quality and quantity, and this, in fact, only points out the necessity as yet but partially cared for, of more institutions for the training of a native ministry, and more trained men to develop them j but as yet these trained men are not forthcoming, and the native ministry is not forthcoming as needed, hence the emergency must be met by accepting others whom God has raised up and thrust on the notice of the societies-laymen eager to be evangelists and teachers abroad.
EDUCATION.
The relation of Christian missions to education, and of educational work to results in conversions, was the gravest question that these societies were called upon to investigate. The Church of Scotland invited one hundred persons to give their opinions on the desirability of maintaining their col- leges in India. Of the eighty-five replies received, sixty-eight were favor- able to their continuance and sixteen unfavorable. Of the seventy Pres- byterians to whom the testimony was submitted, sixty voted favorably to the continuance of the schools. The symposium, composed of the sixty- 'eight opinions received in answer to tho crircular letter of inquiry, is in- structive reading, though mnch of it is quite too general and too long to admit of our making such extracts as would do justice to the authors.
Sir William Muir, formerly Secretary of the Government of India, said: " I have no hesitation whatever in saying that it would be a calamity for . India if missionary schools were withdrawn. Apart from immediate con- version to the faith, their influence on the mind of the people has been of. inestimable value. It was the t!cotch schools and colleges which first called forth the sympathies of Hindus toward Christianity. The country has by them been inoculated with Christian sentiment.
•, I take the Brahmo community as the exponent of this new phase of Indian life. The two sheets enclosed are random specimens of the hold which Christian truths and ideas have gotten of the minds even of those who ostensibly reject them. The Brahmo faith, no doubt, is but a poor travesty of Christianity j but it takes the life and teaching of our Saviour for its real basis, and through it vast numbers have access to the Bible and do study it. The process will go on if our missionary schools are maintained i and they are the only means at present available for leavening the minds of the young."
Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G. C. S. I., argues at length to show that the Educational Commission of 1881-83 felt itself obliged to recommend that the IJducation supported by the Indian Government should be religiously neutral, and though the foremost Hindus of the land deprecated that coarse, circumstances had justified the decision. He says: " If, therefore, the Scottish Missions were to withdraw from educational work in India, the state system of public instruction would be deprived of one of the most important class of institutions which have hitherto tem- pered the exclusively secular teaching of the Government schools. Further, as the native religious leaders have been encouraged to give spiritual in- struction in aided schools of their own, the Indian races would be left to the influence of a constantly increasing propaganda of Hinduism and Islam, while the Christian teaching hitherto given by t1>e Scottish Mission schools and colleges would be curtailed. " In short, just as Hinduism and Mohammedanism are entering more largely into the field of religious instruction in the schoob, Scottish mis- sionaries would be withdrawing from it. So far as regards the welfare of the people of India, therefore, I should deprecate any relaxation of the educlltional efforts of the Missions of the Scottish Church."
Sir Charles E. Bernard, Chief Commissioner of Burmah and Home Secretary of the Indian Government, at the close of .an able paper, says: " In so far as the existing educational system leads men to reject Hindu- ism, it prepares the way for Christianity. But if no effort is made to teach Christianity, and if Ohristian Rchools and colleges were closed, atheism would be unchecked until some extension of Brahmoism or some new sect like the Brahmos arose. If Protestant colleges and schools were abolished or greatly diminished Roman Catholics would probably extend their educa- tional work, and would occupy much of the .ground vacated by Protestant missions. "
Hon. George Edward Knox, formerly Sessions Judge, now Legal-Remem- brancer, Northwest Provinces, say~ : " I feel assured of this fact, that educational missions have, under God's blessing, conferred a boon upon India, and have been permitted by Him to be the means of bringing many souls to Christ. Of the extent of the boon, and of the number of souls, we shall not and cannot hope to have a com- plete record, at any rate until the day when we attain perfect knowledge. I have long entertained a belief that His Word is working secretly to an ex- tent which we cannot perceive, and that the day is not far off when the number of those who are added to the Church will be as unexpected as was the draught of fishes after our Lord's resurrection. May we be prepared to me~t it! The practice of employing heathen teachers should, I say unhesitatingly, be abandoned."
Sir William W. Hunter, an unquestioned authority on all things per- taining to India, as preface to a most interesting paper, says: "With reference to the welfare of the peoples of India, I should regard any withdrawal of the Scottish Missions from the work of education as disastrous. The weak point in our system of Indian public instruction is our inability to give any form of religious teaching in our state schools. We cannot teach Christianity, for the great proportion of the tax-payers are Hindus and Mohammedans. We cannot teach Hinduism or Islam, for we are a Christian Government. The result is an absence of religious teaching of ar:y sort, which the natives of India deeply deplore."
Rev. J. Murdoch, LL. D., of the Christian Vernacular Education Society, says: " It would be a great calamity if the higher education in India fell exclusively into the hands of Government, the Jesuits, and Hindus."
We cannot pursue this repertoire of very thoughtful expression of judgment and of most expert testimonv. It is fair to say, however, that the whole question is not covered in the above extracts.
SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES.
But the troublesome kernel of this whole question still remains. Are these schools giving Christian education and reaching definite results in conversion 1 One of the recognized difficulties is the scarcity of Christians competent to do the teaching, and 1ence the employment of non-Christian teachers. The London Society's Committe(; thus conclude on the whole subject: " Ad things stand at present, such a course of instruction as will pre- pare for University degrees and Government service, necessitates the em- ployment of non-Christian teachers. An adequate supply of Christian teachers is not forthcoming. Difference of language forbids the trans- ference of teachers from one part of India to another. The non-Christian teachers are, of course, confined to secular subjects, and work under the eye and control of the missionary. Still, it is evident that their presence and influence detract from the Christian character of the school ; and may even, in some cases, seriously hinder the work and influence of the mis- sionary. By some devoted friends of missions, in India and at home, this danger is deemed so serious that they are ready to abandon our edu- cational work sooner than tolerate the presence of non-Christian teachers in mission schools. The grave responsibility and inevitable results of fluch a course must be fairly faced. It would mean the reduction of our schools to the level of elementary vernacular schools-the surrender of our hold on the young mind of India, in this crisis of its intellectual and moral history, when the first stirrings of ~ national mind are beginning to be felt, and old faiths are tottering to their fall. It would mean the handing over of the cultured youth' of India, the hope of the future, either to schools from which religion is systematically excluded, where morality has therefore no firm footing, and where there may be Agnostic and Positivist teachers as bitterly hostile to Christianity as the heathen; or clse to Rome and the Jesuits, eagerly watching the opportunity to step in and fill our empty place. "
THE EXPLANATION.
A really much more penetrating view of the whole subject is found in the conclusions reached by the Free Church Delegation. vVe do not know how far this has been made public, nor how far we are at liberty to make public what was committed to us witb the implication that it was official matter, for exclusively official uses. But surely the following most impor- tant general points are of too great value, and quite too general to make our use of them obtrusive or too enterprising. They admit that the Mission Colleges do not now produce the number of converts they once did. In fact, they produce hardly any, and they are not to be looked for. This was not the case in the old days. Dr. Duff and his colleagues had a noble band of converts from the college in Cal- 'cutta. So was it in Bombay and Madras. Why should this have been, and yet not even be anticipated now 1 We wish we could give much space to the reasons so ably assigned. 1. In the earlier days of mission colleges and lligh schools there was no balf-way house between Hinduism and all its abominations, and Christianity. Educated young men had to remain Hin- dus and accept what they came to loathe, or become Christians. There is now no such limitation. Oriental scholars have recovered the earlier Hindu faith, which has fewer disgusting elements, and even some elements of morality. There has, besides, been a decided attempt to read the spirit of Christianity into Hinduism. All this makes new conditions ; the then and now are not alike.
2. There is also the position which the higher schools are obliged to take in the Government system of education. The colleges are affiliated to the universities, and must satisfy Government educational requirements. This results in a pressure on the missionary for an amount of teaching which precludes the quiet personal talks on religious matters, and the private companies gather.ed formerly for instruction in Christian truth. The school is in the toils of competitive work and its secular results are essential to its Government revenue, and the teaching force is, at the minimum to reach this secular standard alone. The preparation former1y wont.to be made for conversion in the class is well-nigh out of the question.
3. In the old days baptisms sometimes suddenly emptied the school for a time, but the support of the 8chool being drawn from the missionary treasury, it was financially unaffected; but now these colleges and high schools are dependent on Government because its grants are conditioned on the fees raised in the school, and Ii stampede from the school means a finan· cial collapse in that portion of mission work; aud neither the local mission nor the home treasury is prepared to meet such emergency.
Professor Miller, in the Contemporary Review, October, 1889, cautions the public what to expect of mission high schools. " Education," he says, " is not fitted to bring men of immature minds, whose characters are only in process of being formed, into the organized Christian Church upon any extensive scale. . . . But it is fitted to plant thoughts and awaken impulses which may make the work of the missionary tell more powerfully.
It is in rare cases more than preparatory." There is no doubt that the general opinion is that educational work absolutely mnst be supported by evangelistic work. But there is still another side to this entire question, which has not been touched in any of the quotations or references we have made. What about the schools, the higher schools, as essential to the existing native Christian community V They cannot be educated in Hindu or Moslem schools, and the Government schools are positively negative or worse in religion. What then V We will let R,lV E. W; Parker, D.D., and Rev. E. H. Badley, D.D., of North India, state this case. This is their utterance about the work in the North India Methodist Mission: " Our evangelistic work is bringing in converts at the rate of 6000 per year, with a rapidly increasing ratio, and our s«hools have had and are haying a very important share in this work. We never could have had this work without our schools, and we dare not continue it without them. If we go forward-and go forward we must-we must educate or we will have a heathen Christian Church. "
But the Free Church Commission boldly puts the question also of the relation of higher education to the higher class of the Indian population. It is, they say, the only way of reaching them. They deliberately assert that, " Unless the Christian Church is prepared to abandon its efforts to get a hearing for Christianity among caste Hindus, unless it is prepared to confine its missionary enterprise to the sixty or eighty II ilIions outside Hinduism proper, this higher education must be included among missionary agencies and given an important place."
The Rev. Archibald Turnbull, B.D., of the Church of Scotland Mission in Darjeeling, with its 1200 converts, remarks that the discipline exercised by the monthly Panchayat (church-court) would seriously decimate the home churches. Our Scottish brethren have a high standard, and apply it strenuously.
Our readers already know that another of the "Soudan Pioneer Band," Mr. Helmick, who received the best medical treatment, has, like others before him, fallen a prey to the African fever. His letters show that even his short career in Africa has left the seed of a blessing in that dark soil. Mr. Brooke was also very sick with typhoid, and had to go away for a rest. We fear that too much blame has needlessly attached to other members of the Soudan Pioneer Company, because they refused medical treatment. One of the principal physicians of New York City has recently stated to the editor that if he were going to explore Africa, he would rather trust to the vigor of his constitution, with care as to his habits, than to risk a greater injury to his system by the daily use of quinine. He says the quinine habit is sometimes as dangerous and enslaving as the opium habit.-EDIToR.] Mr. A. R. Miles, referring to Treasurer Dulles's note in November REVIEW, writes from Bogota, that while the silver law has caused exchange to depreciate, the loss this year will not fall on the Boards-at least not on the Presbyterian Board. The appropriations being made on a gold basis, the loss is borne by the stations in the countries where silver is the monetary basis. The salaries of the missionaries of the Presbyterian Board North are fixed on a gold basis, and do not fluctuate from year to year.
Reginald Radcliffe, Esq., writes from Liverpool urgently appealing for greatly increased prayer in behalf of world-wide missions. He says it is time to " call a halt!" that we may consider whether the greatest need of the mission work to-gay be not that believers unite with each other in believing appeals at the Throne of Grace. We believe Mr. Radcliffe is right, and have often urged this as the grand and imperative demand of our missionary work. The laborers, the money, the energy, the enterprise will all be abundant when we get on our faces in penitence, in faith, in obedience, independence; and when our confidence is only in God. Then every door now shut will open. and every door now open wilL.be entered, and every field be sown with the good seed of the kingdom.
LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER
LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER.
BY REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D.D.
In 1863, as the Rev. S. L. Binkley was preaching one day in the Mission Chapel at Ato, in the southern suburbs of the great city of Foochow, China, a mim about forty years of age, seeing the chapel doors open, strayed in out of curiosity, and took a seat with the congregation. He listened with great attention to the preaching; and, at the close of the service, when all the rest of the audience had gone out, he made his way up to the altar, and said to the missionary, "Did you say that Jesus (I never heard of Him bcfore : 1 don't know who He is); but did you say that He can save me from all my sins ?" "Yes," replied, Mr. Binkley, "that is"just what 1 said." " But, ,. the Chinaman responded, "you didn't know me when you said that; you didn't know that 1 have been a gambler and a sorcerer for many years; you didn't know that I have been a licentious man; you didn't know that I have been an opium-smoker for twenty years, and every " one knows that any man who has smoked opium for that length of time can never be cured of the habit. If you had known all this, you wouldn't have said t.hat Jeflus can save me from all my sins-would you 1" " Yes," r-eplied the missionary, " I would havc said just what I did; and I tell you now that Jesus can save you from all your sins."
The poor, sinful Chinaman was bewildered. It seemed to him impossible of belief. Yet there was a charm about the very idea of a Saviour, who could deliver him from all his sins. He went away in deep thought. The next day he sought Mr. Binldey at his residence, to talk with him about this wonderful Saviour j and day after day for many days he came, examining the proofs of Christianity, and bringing his objection~ to be solved by the missionary. But one day he came to the missionary's study with a radiant countenance, exclaiming as he entered: "I know it! I know it ! I know that J csus can save me from my sins; for He has done it !"
He had a gteat battle to overcome his habit of opium-smoking, but seeking help from his new.found Saviour, he soon conquered, and said, " I don't want to smoke opium any more; I don't want to do any of the evil things I have been doing; but I want to go and tell the people of Hok-chiang that Jesus can save them from their sins." When his friends heard of his purpose, they tried to dissuade him, saying, " Don't go down, there j the people are fighting there all the time j they will soon take your head off, and that will stop your 'Preaching. If you will preach the , foreign doctrine,' stay here at Foochow and preach it where you will be safe." But he replied, "No j I must go to flok-chiang. The people there need the Gospel, and they are my people. I came from there, and I must go and tell them about Jesus. "
There was no time for a college course or for theological training. He went out with the Word of God in his hand, and the experience of his Saviour'8 love in his heart. His lSimple message to the people everywhere was, "Jesus can save you from all your sins; I know it, for He has saved me from mine!" He suffered much persecution-stoned in one place, pelted with mud in another, beaten in another, he pressed on with ill.domitable energy, proclaiming everywhere his simple message of salvation. Many listened to his earnest words anrl became followers of Christ.
After a time he was caught by his enemies in the city of Hok-chiang, and brought before the district magistrate, with false charges against him, and false witn~sses to testify to them j and the too-willing heathen magistrate sentenced him to be beaten with two thousand stripes. This cruel sentence was executed with the bamboo upon the bare back of the victim. I well remember the day when he was brought to our Mission premises, apparently almost dead. I well remember the sorrowful countenance of our good Scotch physician, as he came out of the room, after examining his patient, and said, " I don't think we can save him. I never saw such terrible injuries from beating. The flesh on his back is like quivering jeUy. But we will do our best to save him." I remember how I thought over some of the comforting words of Jesus, as I made my way toward the room, that I might try to comfort my brother in his great distress; and I remember, too, the smile with which he greeted me, and how he, speaking first, before I had a chance to say anything, said: "Teacher, this poor body is in great pain just now; but my inside heart has great peace. Jesus is with me ; and I think perhaps He will take m!> to heaven, and I will be glad to go. " And then I could see the old fire flashing again in his eyes, as with effort he raised himself a little from his bed, and said, " But if I get up from this, you'll let me go back to Hok-chiang, won't you ~"
He was in a precarious condition for some time, but soon began to mend; and before the missionaries thought he ought to leave the premises, he was off again to Hok-chiang, preaching to the very men who had persecuted him, and with such effect that some of them were converted, and became members of our church in that city.
He continued to preach with much energy and success for a period of fourteen years. He was ordained by Bishop Kingsley, in 1869. Soon after he was appointed to Teng-tiong in 1876, finding himself very ill, he went to his native island of Lam-yit, hoping to improve in the sea breezes, and under the care of physicians there. But when, after some weeks, they told him that his case was hopeless, and that he could not live many weeks, hc said: "Then I must go back to my station. I only came here in hope of getting well, so as to do Jonger service; but if I cannot, then I want to go where my work is, and die at my post. " So, in his feebleness, he made his way back to Teng-tiong ; and when he could no longer stand to preach, he sat down, gathered the Christians close around him, and talked to them of the love of Jesus, and His power to save from sin.
On Saturday – evening, May 19th, 1877, he sang two verses of the " Saturday Evening Hymn," beginning, " To.night all worldly things we clear away; To.morrow, keep holy the Sabbath day."
Finding himself unable in his weakness to sing more, he slowly repeated the last lines : " Resting on Jesus, my heart has no fear ; I shall reach heaven, my evidence is clear."
Casting a look of tender affection upon his family and the Christian brethren who were present, he gave them his parting blessing, and in a few moments, peacefully breathed his life away, leaving hundreds of converts to Christ, and among them a score of native preachers, brought into the Church through his labors.
Mr. Binkley was obliged to return to the United States, by the illness of his wife, before he had been two years in China. I remember how the tears flowed down his face, as I stood with him on the deck of the steamer which was to bear him away, and he said, " I can't bear to go home, when I haven't yet been able to do anything for Jesus here." But in leading this one man to Christ, our dear brother was honored of God in doing a work which will go on in increasing power while the world lasts.
Our last reports show over seven hundred members, over five hundred probationers, and over fifteen hundred adherents in the Hok-chiang district. Does it not pay to preach the Gospel to the Chinese ~ [The above article has already been published in tract form j it has; however, awakened such deep interest that the editor has asked permission of- Dr. Bald win to reprint it in the pages of this REVIEW. Among all the narratives of the mighty power of God in the conversion of a human soul, we believe that not even the Acts I of the Apostles give a more convincing example. We commend the reading of this tract to those who have charge of missionary meetings and monthly concerts. It is of itself a sufficient vindication of missions. -EDITOR.] Word comes from Figueras, Spain, of thi opening of the new hall and schools, in October last. Over 1000 persons were present, and most decorons was the assembly. Copies of the New Testament and religions tracts were distributed as the crowd dispersed. About $3000 are needed to pay for the new accommodations. The Town Council of Figueras has actually granted £5 sterling to the Protestant hospital or dispensary in acknowledgment of charity exteuded to patients, and there was only one dissenting vote! Here is an act unparalleled in th~ religious history of Spain. The work seems reaching all classes of people. Children from high Catholics are being transferred from the convents to these Protestant schools. We regard this work of Signor Rodriguez as very remarkable and promising.
WHY MISSIONS ARE SO ,MODERN
WHY MISSIONS ARE SO MODERN.
BY REV. DELAVAN L. LEONARD, D.D.
How happened it that the work of evangelizing the world, after centuries of such vigorous prosecution, attended with such marvellous success, was afterward well nigh suspended, and for well nigh fifteen hundred years? This most serious question we answer correctly Dy alleging that Europe became semi-barbarized and half-heathen, that the Church became secularized and religion formal, that Gospel faith, and love, and zeal went into long and almost total eclipse.
But this only leads to another question equally pertinent, and corriing much nearer home: Why, when through the Reformation ensued an astonishing spiritual quickening, a widespread revival of New Testament fervor and force, was not the sublime task at once resumed and pushed as at the beginning? Or, how happened it that for nearly three hundred years longer next to nothing was even attempted, so that the nineteenth century ·of grace was well on its way before the ears of the Christian Church began to be opened to hear the agonizing wail of a dying world? To this latter question let us seek a reply more at length; and also together with it, to the further and pleasanter query, How came it about at length that His disciples began to reperuse their Lord's Great Commission, and, though slowly, began to obey his last command? It is my purpose to set briefly forth some of the principal and more patent causes which hindered the beginning of modern missions and postponed them to a day so painfully and so culpably late, and also other conspiring forces which in the fulness of time made a beginning easily possible, and communicated the heavenly impulse, and then carried the majestic movement onward from strength to strength, from grace to glory.
And, first of all, be it remembered that in God's strange providence Protestantism was compelled at once to engage in a most terrible life-anddeath struggle with Rome, one whose fury did not in the least abate for five or six generations, and which has continued to the present time. The new doctrine must establish a right to existence, must conquer standing ground for itself, define and then enlarge to the utmost its bounds in Christian countries. So that as yet there was neither much time nor energy left to expend upon the vast and even far more benighted regions beyond. In Babylon, out of which they in horror had lately fied, the reformers found a foe ever present. wily, unscrupulous, and most determined to crush them, and commonly with the ruthless civil power in close league and co-operation. The horrid enginery of the Inquisition was steadily at work, and the Jesuits were. plotting destruction night and day. All Germany was in perpetual chaos, social, political, and religious. Recall the unspeakable desolations attending the almost constant "religious" wars of those dark days; the hapless and most tragic lot of the W alUenses and Albigenses; how the Huguenots found no rest from persecution, and finally were slaughtered by the wholesale, imprisoned, impoverished, and driven from France. For the better part of a century little Holland bent the utmost of her almost miraculous energies to save herself from utter destruction by the diabolical schemes of Philip II. and his Duke of Alva. And as for England, in the persons first of the Lollards and later of the Puritans, those who would have none of Rome suffered manifold afflictions from Henry VIII., Bloody Mary, Elizabeth, and the four Stu'arts, for a hundred and fifty continuous years in all j nor was the fearful stress finally over until happy 1688. Therefore, it is not at all to be counted strange that the dreary and bloody sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed no evangelistic crusades to speak of aimed at remote Africa, Asia, America, and the islands of the sea.
But besides the theological and ecclesiastical strifes which began from the Reformation, esteemed one and all by the frenzied combatants " wars of the Lord," were almost as bitter, as exhausting, and even more interminable thau the clash of arms. And, indeed, the task was tremendous, full of difficulty, demanding the .utmost of wisdom and skill, to separate Bible truth from Romish error, with which for more than a millennium it had become worse and worse intermingled. The trouble extended to all matters of both belief and practice. The reformers of necessity resorted to the Scriptures anew and investigated for themselves. The human mind and conscience now jllilt set free from age-long and galling tyranny, of course were altogether unused to untrammelled exercise, and so not strangely they ran riot sometimes, and went to the other extreme of license, lawlessness, anarchy. Sects sprang up by the score, all manner of hobbies got upon their feet and performed their antics before high heaven. While some would bring the least change possible to religious beliefs and customs, others would reject to the utmost, and thus be as unlike as possible to the harlot of the Reven Hills! But the most temperate and conservative were compelled to fashion fresh creeds and church forms. And, should ecclesiastical rule be monarchic or aristocratic, as aforetime, or democratic rather ~ And the confession, should it be of the Augsburg pattern, or of the Helvetic, or the Gallic, or the Belgic ~ Which was verily nearest to God's Word, the Heidelberg, the Westminster, the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Savoy 1 The spirit of war filled the air, fighting was the chief business in all realms, and hence Luther was hot against Zwingli, and both against Calvin, and all three could by no means in the least tolerate the heresies of Servetus, Arminius, and the rest. In England for long it was not only Protestant always against Catholic, but also war to the knife between the Established Church and Presbyterians, and Puritans, and Independent~ and Baptists, and Quakers, etc. Nor, indeed, in the nature of things, could it be any light matter, a short and simple process, to escape altogether from the intellectual and moral night of the Dark Ages, to return fully to the , truth as it is in Jesus, or for Protestantism to come thoroughly to itself, to a knowledge of its sublime mission, and as well to fashion the needed instrumentalities for its accomplishment.
A further difficulty as good as insuperable was found in the fact that everywhertl Church and State, the spiritual therefore and the material, were closely united, and so long had the relation existed that now it seemed to most to be not only eminently proper, but also necessary. This was another portiQn of the evil inheritance received from Rome; but as a result religion had come to be largely a political affair, to be managed in cabinets by kings and statesmen and generals, by them to be fostered and guided, to be defended by the secular arm. Force was in common use to punish opinions and convictions which by theologians, or philosophers, or politicians were adjudged pestilential. And such a wretched caricature of the teachings and example of Christ as resulted was not at all fit to be carried to the ends of the earth. Better wait for generations until this unnatural and unchristian alliance is ended, and a sharp distinction is made between the things of Cresar and the things of God.
And then, in addition, as yet nothing of importance in any realm of activity was undertaken and prosecuted by the individual of his own motion, from an impulse abounding~ within, but every movement was by prescription, authority of pope or king, and under the lead of orders, and companies, and guilds. The day of voluntary associations was not yet, and far in the future. The benighted people were nobodies, but cattle to be driven or clay to be moulded, instruments to be played upon by the few enjoying the divine right to originate, and shape, and manage. As we shall see, what little was done to carry the Gospel abroad was devised wholly and engineered in every case by royalty and privileged corporations. As far lUI possible all this from the glorious days of the apostles and of their successors, when missionary effort was mainly individual, when the entire body of Christ was instinct and overflowing with celestial aggressive force. No world-wide progress could be made uutil such ignoble and enfeebling bonds were in some way broken, and if need be through violent civil .and ecclesiastical overturning, and the rude shock of war. The English revolution, with the sublime outburst of the Puritan spirit, must precede, and the American, yes, and also the French, with the terrible throes and destructions included 'of the Napoleonic campaigns, to end a great host of old abuses, to teach p·riests and nobles an unpalatable lesson in humility and modesty, to exalt the rights and privileges of the many. Above all, the religious world was waiting for the rise of a great people beyond the sea, untrammelled by tradition, God-fearing, intelligent, each one trained to think and act for himself, with democracy in the State reacting upon the Church, a people loving liberty of thought and conviction better than life. Then, at fellgth, the Gospel, free as at the first, left to itself to do its appointed work under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the guidance of the Word, an<l with reliance only upon spiritual forces, couId enlarge itself indefinitely on every side, and spread around the whole earth.
• There was yet another obstacle to the origin and growth of mIssiOns, well nigh prohibitory, and resident in the fact that for nearly a hundred years after the rise of the Reformation Protestant peoples possessed no point of contact with the heathen world. Hence the existence of any widely extended and deplorable moral darkness was a mere matter of hear- say and untested theory. All navigation to distant paris of the world, all commerce, all colonization were exclusively in the handt! of such z!lalous servitors of Rome as Portugal and Spain. Because Catholics saw with their own eyes they also felt, and sent out missionaries in abundance. It •was not until after the destruction of the Spanish Armada and the rapid decline of those powers behind the Pyrenees that Prot~stant England, Holland, and Denmark stepped forward to the first rank as rulers of the ocean. But a few years more elapsed before colonies were planted at Jamestown, at Plymouth, and on Manhattan Island, while factories were opened in South Africa, Asia, and the Indies, both East and West. And when thus finally the supreme naval and commercial hegemony passed into Protestant hands, it was the Lord's sure token that the pure Gospel was about to fly abroad.
Then, in due season, followed yet other and even more astounding victories for the rising faith of Luther, and these chiefly through British valor and aggressive enterprise. It was nothing less than one of the greatest epochs in human history, especially in relation to the career of all English-speaking people, and the publishing of the message of salvation to all mankind, when almost in the same year Clive conquered at Plassey and Wolfe at Quebec, and thus 200,000,000 Hindus were brought into closest intercourse with English Christians, and the French were driven from this continent to make room for the speedy rise of a " Greater Britain," which should fairly rival the mother country as an ardent evangelizer, and continually provoke her to Gospel good works.
One more step of a similar character remained to be taken, nor was it long delayed. Since the generation which followed Columbus. and Magellan, and the Cabots there had been a litrange and long-continued apathy with regard to carrying forward to completion the discovery of unknown regions. Little progress was made in that direction save by a few like Barentz, and Tasman, and Behring, until Captain Cook's three famous voyages (1769-79). In· particular he turned the attention of the civilized world to such continental land spaces as Australia and New Zealand and New Guinea, and brought to light in the vast and hitherto untraversed expanse of the Pacilic, the South Seas of a century since, islands innumerable, such as the Society, the Friendly, an<f the Sandwich groups. We can little understand. the great stir that was made, the boun·dless en- thusiasm that was kindled by his achievements. The deeds of our Living- stone and Stanley were received coldly by comparison; and the impulse . directly given to the cause of missions was immediate and very great. Two facts in evidence of this must suffice. It was the reading of Cook's narrative that first set Carey's soul on fire with holy zeal, and his original purpose was to proclaim Christ to the heathen in Tahiti. And, moreover, the London Missionary Society, at whose organization such a remarkable wave of religious zeal arose and spread all over Britain, was formed expressly to carry the cross to the South Seas, and in Tahiti its earliest representatives first touched land and opened their work.
A final step remainp,d in preparing the way for successful attempts to turn the heathen from their idols to worflhip the living God. A mighty and widespread outpouring of the Spirit of the Most High had long been the chief desideratum. From various causes in conjunction during the.' latter part of the seventeenth and extending far into the eighteenth, a sad and dark eclipse of faith had befallen the reformed churches throughout both Europe and America, a serious decline of vital piety, a lapse into frigid formalism and rank rationalism. The only zeal left was for an orthodoxy which was stone dead. After the Restoration in England had ensued a woful reaction, a descent into infidelity and immorality. "Never has there been a century in England so void of faith as that which began with Queen Anne and ended with George II., when the Puritans were buried and the Methodists wp,re not born." In 1732, when the Moravian Church came into being, cheering evidence began to appear that the Lord's grace and mercy were not clean gone forever from his apostate people. And a little later began to descend those refreshing showers of divine blessing through the fervid and tireless labors of the "'IVesleys, Whitp,field, and our own Edwards, whereby were supplied to hundreds and thousands a spirit truly apostolic, a zeal fiery and vehement, a faith hardy and venturesome, . like that which inspired the church in the pentecostal age. Without this almost unparalleled anointing from on high modern missions could never have begun to be, but now it was possible for the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
Closely akin to what has just been mentioned, and in great part as a result of the operation of the same spiritual forces, the heart of Christendom began to be strangely touched, and melted, and filled with compassion for the millions who were perishing-that is, the spirit of humanity, of philanthropy, of the Good Samaritan, which is inherent in the 'Gospel, was everywhere active in the early days, but had long since been almost quenched, was wondrously revived. Even Christian souls were in an unfeeling, an inhuman frame, reflecting thus the old pagan and barbarous times. Sorrow and woe found slight sympathy. When the general case was so forlorn little heed was given to the misery of others, especially if .of a different nation, out of sight, !It a distance. But a marked change in this regard was at the door. Howard had started upon his painful journeys to mitigate the grievous wrongs inflictcd upon prisoners; the voice of Wilberforce was lifted up in denunciation of the sin of African slavery, and Raikcs had opened his first ragged school. And all this was but the feeble beginning of an era of reforms which constitute one of the most striking characteristics of the passing century, as well as one of its best claims to be remembered with gratitude in centuries to come. And of this pity and compassion the heathen world presently began to receive at least a portion of its share. '
This brief glance at the Protestant Christian world, extending from near the beginning of the sixteenth century to near the end of the eighteenth, is sufficient abundantly to show that the long failure of the Lord's host to go up and possess the earth for Christ, though in no inconsiderable degree their sin and shame, and because of their indifference and unbelief, was also in yet greater part their misfortune, the result of their evil environments, for which they were not responsible, and which they were compelled to endure. Moreover, those tempestuous years were not by any means wholly wasted, but, on the contrary, were an all-important and indispensable period of extensive seed-sowing in preparation for the magnificent missionary harvest to follow. At length the time was fully ripe. Rome was now so badly battered that no longer need any live in mortal fear lest either by guile or by open assault she should recapture lost territory, and therefore Protestant Christianity could well afford to face some other way than toward the Tiber. Freedom, both ecclesiastical and civil, had extensively become the inheritance of the masses, and to them the printing press and the public school were fast bringing intelligence. There were no more lands to be discovered, and the steamship and the rail car were soon to make easily accessible the very ends of the earth. And, finally, in the nick of time a few, at least, in loving obedience to the command of their risen and ascended Lord, were ready to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
The news from the Micronesian missionaries, received January 6th, by way of Japan, Was brought there by the steamship Alliance, Commander H. C. Taylor. It is briefly summarized as follows: The shelling of Ouas Ponape and the burning of the mission premises by the Spaniards took place September 20th. The missionaries, Mr. Rand, Misi Fletcher, and'Miss Palmer, were then at Kiti, on the other side of the island. On October 16th, the United States man-of-war Alliance arrived at Kiti, and after some effort, Commander Taylor was permitted to take Mr. Rand, the ladies, and seventeen girls from their school to Kuraie. There are now, therefore, no American missionaries on Ponape. It was useless for them to remain, for the governor had strictly forbidden the holding of any meetings or the opening of schools. It is a sad day for Ponape ; and it is neither to the honor nor to the advantage of Spain, as it breaks stipulations with the United States.-Missionary Herald.
England, Germany, Italy, and Portugal have signed an agreement for the reCiprocal protection of missionaries of these four nationalities who settle in Africa, in regions accorded to their respective States by the recent treaties. For liberty to exercise their ministry the missionaries must have a passport from the government to which they belong. -Missionary Herald.
THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN
THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN.
BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY.
An impression prevails that many of the stories concerning the evils of child-marriage and enforced widowhood in India are somewhat exaggerated.
Upon opening a recent India paper, I read the following: "In one of the largest cities of Southern India a marriage was recently arranged between a young man of twenty-three years, suffering from white leprosy all over his body, and a bright young girl of only twelve. The girl was bargained for, and rupees five hundred were paid down in hard cash. She of course knew nothing of the arrangements made until told by her father, ~hen she quietly submitted to her fate with a resignation characteristic of a Hindu maid."
Turning over the page, another item fell under my notice : "On Sat- urday last a young girl-wife, aged eight years, was admitted into the hos- pital suffering from burns all over her body, caused by her husband having branded her with a hot iron because she was absent from the house rather longer than usual." Still another: "A marriage has been celebrated within the week in which the bridegroom (name given) is aged 35 years, to an infant nine months old!" A marriage was recently performed be- tween a Brahman and fourteen girls belonging to one family. The corre- spondent of a native paper says : " We learned that fourteen Misses Ban- nerji were to be given away; I went to the spot out of curiosity. I saw the bridegroom older than a grandfather, seated on a painted wooden scat, and fourteen girls, varying in age from three to twenty-six years, seated about him in the form of a crescent. The ladies were veiled, and faces east down, as if they were cursing their parents for shambling them in this fashion." This was not done a century ago. It was done in the latter half of this year of grace, 1890.
Instance after instance could be given, but these facts, a few of many occurring within the last few months of ] 890, will surely prove that the statements have not been exaggerated. Then another item attracts our attention: "The number of persons who died by violence or accident in the Bengal Province alone this past year was between thirty and forty thousand; more than ten per cent of these deaths were from suicide, and the greater number of suicides were among women. " Poor women, with life so intolerable it cannot be borne ! .
For several years past the London Times has most ably discussed these evils in its columns. At one time a series of articles appeared gi.ving most startling facts in regard to existing customs, and demanding a reform in the interests of humanity, and when it became known that these articles were written by a Hindu woman, who knew from bitter experience whereof she wrote, a most profound 8ensation was created.
In a recent issue of the paper a very able editorial appeared, headed, " The Fundamental Problem," in which it explains the origin of the social condition of caste women in India, and deals with the general subject of legisla- tion. This is followed by a letter from a Mr. Malabari of Bombay, an Indian reformer and a Parsee, who has for many years been indefatigable in his efforts in India to stir up the natives to' the physical, social, and moral evils of these customs. He has been recently in England, nsing vig- orously both pen and voice in the hope of arousing public opinion, where legislation onght to begin. He sayR: "The system of infant marriages in India has spread under the regis of British-made laws." He has writ- ten a pamphlet entitled, "An Appeal from the Daughters of India." He urges English women to use their influence, and the Government its authority, to help banish these terrible evils.
Rukhmabai, the young and accomplished Hindu lady, whose sentence of six months' imprisonment for refu'sing to marry the husband to whom she had been betrothed in infancy, awakened such sympathy a few years ago, comes out in a very excellent article on the subject ia the September num- ber of the New Review.
And now Punch takes up the subject, having for its text the following extracts from the T!mes editorial : " It is our national boast that odious and cruel institutions cannot long breathe the atmosphere in which the Queen rules. But in India we have long connived at cruelties-cruelties none the less odious because practised in the name of religion, and upon victims that mutely acquiesce in their fate-which need only to be understood to excite profound repugnance and compassion. The time has arrived for the rulers of India to ask them- selves whether they can any longer throw the shield of British law over the tortures perpetrated upon the Hindu child-wife and the Hindu child-widow."
Again: " Before the' silent millions' who make up the rank and file of Hindus, discard the cruelties of their marriage system, their opinions, preju- dices, and habit of thought must change. Nothing is more certain than that they will change slowly j but we hold to the belief that judicious leg- islation will hasten the process more powerfully than anything else."
A full-page cartoon is given to the subject under a legend, " The Shield and the Shadow": "At the feet and clasping the skirts of the armed Island Queen-the Shield, kneels in agony the child-wife or child-widow, behind whom, closely pursuing, is a dark menacing shadow, ' Caste,' " and in a dozen or more ringing stanzas Punch states some very plain truths, and closes with these lines: – " Poor child ! the dark shadow that closely pursues her Means menacing Terror, she sues for a shield, And how shall the strong lEgis-bearer refuse her? '.rhe bondage of caste to calm justice must yield.
" We dare not be deaf to the voice of the pleader For freedom and purity, nature and right, Let Wisdom, high-throned as controller and leader, Meet cruelty's steel with the shield of calm might!"
WOMAN'S WORK
Docs anything practical come out of this agitation? Yes, but it comes ·slowly. In England !J, very influential' committee has been formed including the names of three ex-viceroys of India, as well as several ex-governors and lieutenant-governors, who are familiar with the facts, and such a committee will have influence.
Then the Christian women of England are being stirred as never before, and as a result, a society has been formed called" The Indian Widows' Union." It is an organization of the Christian women of England for the purposeof improving the condition of Hindu and Mohammedan widows in India. The members are" widows only," but any Christian woman may become an " associate member." They pledge themselves to prayer that God will break the yoke and set the captive free. They raise money to be expended in training widows to useful industries, and they gather and diffuse information with regard to the condition of the widows. At the head of this institution is the Dowager Lady Dynevor, and a depot for the work done by the widows has beep. established at West Kensington.
The agitation in India by the native press, and by liberal and advanced natives on the platform, and this agitation in England should, and surely must lead the Government soon to act j but the evil lies too deep for the Government to remove. Nothing but the teachings of the Gospel of Christ will reach the root of the evil, or cure the disease.
WOMAN'S WORK.
The Woman's Board of Missions of Boston (Congregational) held its twenty-third annual meeting in Hartford, January 13th-15th.
Over two hundred delegates represented its constituency in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.
At the delegates' special meeting on Tuesday, the subject of first importance was the pressing, imperative need of money. This was ably emphasized in a paper on "Aggressive Work" at home, presented by Miss A. B. Child, Home Secretary.
It marshalled such an array of startling facts that it ought to take every woman's auxiliary by storm, and make "aggressive work" for the treasury of each a success, so that the advan,ce called for this year, $25,000, may be secured without fail. This leaflet, "Aggressive Work," is already in print for circulation.
This Board is invited to meet in Brooklyn, N. Y., III 1892.
One result of General Booth's scheme will be found, we hope, in renewed attention to the rescue work done by the clergy. Looking into an appeal sent out by the Rev. J. H. Scott, rector of Spital fields, we find that in this one parish "during the past year 230 cases [women and girls] have been dealt with, llO of whom were below the age of twenty years j 104 hav~ been sent to rescue homes, 13 returned to their parents, 21 sent to hospitals, 11 to service, and the remainder dealt with in a variety of ways." This is, of course, b,ut one side of the work carried on from year to year in such parishes fiS Spitalfields and WhitechapeI.
THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND
THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND.
BY FRANCIS EDWARD SMILEY, EVANGELIST.
The.!' Bitter Cry of Outcast London," ., In Darkest England," and other startling announcements of the social and spiritual destitution of our cousins across the sea have conveyed to those, unfamiliar with the numerous agencies struggling to deliver the" submerged tenth," the erroneous im- pression that the misery has resulted from the Laodicean apathy of the churches themselves. We hear so much about the lapsed classes and so little of the saved masses, that the pessimistic world regards England, and especially London, as synonymous with heathendom. So many clouds and so few sunbeams, so much darkness and so little light have furnished 'th~ material for the sketches of rhetorical writers, that one is not s~rprised to hear the question seriously asked, Has the Kingdom of Light in Chris· tian England been overshadowed and blotted out by the Kingdom of Dark~ ness ~ While it is our duty to penetrate the darkn~ss, we can do so more safely and speedily even with tapers to encourage us. Let us hold up a few lights, then, that light even "darkest England" for the encouragement of those at home and abroad who seek to penetrate the darkness and bring the perishing out from the regions of the shadow of death into the light and liberty of a Christian life.
In the city of London, where are to be fomid the darkest spots in darkest England, the herculean efforts of the churches to rescue the perishing are as astounding as the gigantic evils to be grappled with. There are literally hundreds of organizations employing thousands of missionaries, colporteurs, Bible women, nurses, Scripture readers, deaconesses, and teachers, who are striving night and day, on the streets and in the tenements, to raise from the mire the souls and bodies of the "submerged tenth." In no city in the world is there exhibited a more aggressive Christianity, or are more evangelistic agencies effectively organized, or more money spent for philanthropic purposes, than in so-called " heathen London."
If the malignant forces that seek to destroy the moral life of the world's metropolis are legion, so also are the benign influences that oppose with irrepressible energy every evil tendency that manifests itself. If the devil is active, so also is the church or the true diRciples in it.
Among the numerous agencies that hasten to answer the" bitter cry" is the London City Mission. "Lux in tenebris" should be its motto. This single society sends out daily five hundred agents, who occupy as many districts in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. Three hundred halls have been provided in these parishes, wherein the missionary gathers his motley congregation for religious services. The missionary is practically the pastor of the outcasts. He lives among them, is their counsellor and friend. The London Female Preventive and Reform Institute, with its mission- aries, matrons, and seven homes adapted for the classification of all ages and conditions of unfortunates, may be taken as an example of the twenty- five societies engaged in similar work. The girls are induced to forsake the streets for a comfortable home, where Christian influences, motherly sympathy, food, shelter, and employment are furnished as stepping-stones to a virtuous life.
The St. Giles' Christian Mission for men and the Elizabeth Fry Refuge for women are prominent among the numerous agencies laboring among discharged prisoners. Their agents are at the prison gates every morning to invite the discharged men and women to partake of a warm breakfast, and to offer them a friendly shelter and secure for them situations, away from the evil influence of former companions.
Such institutions as the MiJdmay Mission and the Bible and Domestic Mission send out daily hundreds of deaconnesses, nurses and Bible women, who, with food and medicines for soul and body, labor among the inmates of hospitals and asylums, among the toilers in factories and dwellers in the tenements. They visit among the poorest of the poor, nursing the sick, relieving distress, teaching the helpless mothers by simple economic and , sanitary rules the valuable lessons of health and thrift, and proclaiming by precept and example the joyful messages of Christ.
It is idle to attempt in this article even the enumeration of the numerous enterprises sustained by the Christian people for the evangelization of this great metropolis. There are at least one thousand agencies, recorded in the Oharities' R~gi8ter and .Digest, at work relieving distress, both physical and spiritual.
There are two thousand places of worship with all the evangelistic agen- cies for aggressive work. There are, moreover, a number of churches ex- clusively for foreigners.
In addition to their usual services, many of thc London churches carry on mission enterprises among the poor. They send out evangelistic bands to conduct meetings in the open air and call the attention of the thoughtless pedestrian to eternal things. They support colporteurs, Scripture readers, and missionaries, who devote their entire time, visiting among the people of the parish.
To reach those who will not attend the churches, special religious ser- vices are held in concert halls, theatres, and other popular resorts through- out the city, where attractive music, .spirited singing, and brief Gospel addresses interest, instruct, and influence many to a better life. There are special agencies that look after the spiritual welfare of the soldiers j others that care for the sailors. The policemen, firemen, and post-office em- ployes have their special services. There are missionaries that visit the cab-stands, market-places, and railroad stations. There are missions to the Jews, Catholics, and foreigners, w.hile the thousands of toilers along the riV<lr are not neglected. The ~riminal is met as he ('ornes from the prison gate in the early morning j the prostitute is accosted as she plies her trade in the streets at midnight, and urged to forsake her life of sin j and the homeless urchin is aroused from his hard couch, with literally a stone for his pillow, on the bridges and in the parks, and provided with comfortable bed and board, and brought under the influences of a Christian home.
The messsge of salvation is proclaimed through tens of thousands of Bibles, tons of tracts, and numerous volumes of Christian literature, which are scattered broadcast through the agencies of the religious publication societies.
Nor does this charity remain at home. Evangelists are sent out to neigh- boring towns and cities; mission boats cruise about the coasts, visiting the coastguards and lightships in their isolation j hospital ships are dispatched to the fishing fleets in the North Sea, to administer both temporal and spiritual nourishment to the toilers of the deep. Nor does this expensive service diminish the magnificent sum annually contributed to send the Gospel to heathen lands.
In addition to these united efforts there are many individuals engaged in evangelistic work. England's Christian queen becomes an evangelist to the families of the poor crofters in their Highland cabins, and other mem- -bers of the royal family count it a privilege to visit the poor and dis- tressed in hospitals and asylums. Members of the nobility lay aside the cares of State to preach the Gospel to the outcasts. The Christian banker, merchant, and editor supplements his daily labor by mission work after business hours. He erects a building or rents a hall wherein to gather the lost sheep. while he himself. often becomes the pastor of the flock. Sons and daughters of the aristocracy, students of the universities, repre- sentatives of learned professions, have given up their homes to live among the people, and have consecrated their time, talents, and means for thtl, " help of the Lord against the mighty."
Back of all this personal and combined effort for extending the king- dom of Christ, are the sympathy and encouragement of the English Govern- ment, whose sovereign bears the title, "Defender of the Faith." Every- whtlre one sees amid the surrounding wickedness traces of the nation's trust in Almighty God, and professions of Christianity. It is inscribed upon her chief commercial establishment in the humble declaration, "The earth is the Lord's and th~ fulness thereof." Upon her public buildings, her monuments and fountains scriptural quotations are carved in stone.
These evangelistic agencies, stationed like a mighty army throughout the metropolis-contesting every foot of territory against the encroachments of the kingdom of darkness, and winning glorious conquests for the King- dom of Light-have weakened the power of the destroyer and defended London from his complete mastery.
. There have been marked improvements during the last thirty years in the moral and social condition of the people. London is wicked, but Lon- don is growing better. Official statistics testify to a healthier atmosphere, and the Christian visitors notice It decided improvement. The prisons have fewer occupants, the poorhouses fewer boarders, and the public houses fewer customer!!, than three decades ago. The wage-workers live better and dress more neatly. They have discarded corduroy for tweeds, and fustian for more substantial cloth. The wife and mother keeps herself and children more tidy, and her home more inviting. A few pictures or chromos, in rough frame8 or no frames at all, adorn the walls; a flower-pot or box, witb a bright geranium or an aspiring fern, decorates the windows. The people show more respect for the clergy, and welcome the Christian visitor to their humble homes. The minister is invited to the workingmen's crubs, and his address is cordially received.. The deepening interest in spiritual things is manifest in the increased attendance at the churches and other places where religious services are held.
Through open-air preaching, colportage work, and mission services, the people have been brought more into contact with the Gospel. and through the visits and instruction of devoted missionaries, the poor fI~cognize the church as their friend.
We do not mean to imply that this improvement is noticeable uniformly among all the lower classes. It is noted principally among the working people, who a few decades ago were very indifferent to the claims of religion. • Such is the testimony of many of the clergymen laboring in the East End.
All the Christian world is anxiously watching the contest that is being waged in London between sin and righteousness, between the followers of Christ and the followers of Belial. This anxiety arises from the intimate relationship existing between this noble city and the cities of other lands.
The throb of London life is felt throughout the world. If her moral pulse is weak, the effect is visible on people that live afar. Moreover, every city must witness the same struggle within its walls as is now being waged in the British metropolis. It is only a question of time when the fair cities of our own land will house a population as !arge as London. Places that are designated upon our maps to-day as villages will, in a few years, be metamorphosed into citics with teeming populations. The Rame enemies mllst be faced ; the same evils must be resisted that threaten our most sacred institutions. The same social problems will arise. The" bitter cry" will be heard. A" way out" of the darkness will have to be devised. Tbose of us who are laboring in the cities are already in the midst of these burning questions.
We will do well, therefore to turn to the mother country, which has given us so much instruction in art, science, literature, and law, and learn from its Christian activity the methods adopted and the success attained in evangelistic work among the millions dwelling in "the greatest city of ancient or modern times." vye will thereby be better able to grapple with these same evils before they reach the same threatening proportions, and thereby stay the destructive onslaught of the enemy by weakening and scattering his gathering forces. And while we face the" dark forest," let us generously acknowledge the work of the pioneers, who have blazed the trees for our guidance in leading its helpless inhabitants out from their bondage into the light of the glorious liberty of Christ.
Harriett Warner Ellis, No. 64 Mildmay Park, London, North, writlll, with regard to women's work for women: "As one of the oldest survivors of the littld company called together in 1834 by the saintly Abeel, Baptist Noel, and others, and having continued to be a member of that first committee up to the present day, you will, I feel sure, pardon my intrusion. When the first twenty ladies were selected from members of all Christian denominations holding the great vital truths of Christianity, it was suggested by Dr. Abeel, or one of his eo-workers, that four young ladies, who were themselves Christians, should be added to the number, to learn about the work, and so be trained to take the place of others when removed by death or other causes. I was the youngest of those so chosen, not being nineteen. My dear father, John Sherman Elliott, was an active member of the Britil:!h and Foreign Bible Society and other similar work, and missionaries of all names were frequent visitors at our house. The first ladies sent out found, as a missionary's wife wrote, ' our efforts as yet are all among the very dregs; in time all may get access to the higher or more respectable native females.' Miss Wakefield was the first lady sent out to India by the new society. Miss Thornton went, in response to an earnest request from Mr. and Mrs. Medhurst, to Batavia.
" On the 29th of March, 1836, Miss Wakefield wrote: 'All attempts to get at femaleI'! of the higher classes appear to be utterly useless.' In that year, Lady Bryant, who had just returned from India, and who joined the committee, wrote: 'By cautious and persevering efforts it may be done,' and in June, 1837, four native gentlemen in Calcutta gave Miss Wakefield permission quietly to visit their wives to teach them Bengali, from Christian school books, and needlework. But nothing was to be said on the subject in public, and the word Zenana was not to be used, as it might stop the work altogether. In March, 1838, Miss Holliday, afterward Mrs. Leider, obtained the same permission from Mahomet Ali in Cairo.
"Prior to this a ladies' association had been formed in Calcutta to maintain the Central School, established by Mrs. Wilcox, and it had a branch in London. That branch had become extinct before the Female Education Society was formed. While rejoicing that now there are twenty-two ladies' societies, we ask for help, not only as being the first in the field, but because it comprises in its sphere China, Japan, Persia, the Straits, the Levant, and West and South Africa. We have no expense of offices, but still meet at each 'other's houses."
THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KRASI TRADITIONS
THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KHASI TRADITIONS.
BY REV. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, ASSAM, INDIA.
First of all God created the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. He created also the beasts of the field.
Heaven and earth were connected by a very high mountain, which is called" Heaven's Navel."
The beasts of the field, at the beginning, could talk like men, and the tiger was their king. They had a market also of their own, which is called the Lurilura-market. As far as I can gather, the word Lurilura carries the idea of "confusion" or " hurriedness."
After that God made man out of red earth, and He put him out in the sun that he might become hard.
The tiger saw this" son of humanity" and said to himself, "This one will be the king j" and being filled with the spirit of rivalry, he asked his subjects, the beasts of the field, "Who among you will go and tread under foot that son of humanity ~" No one responded. After that a creature which goes under the name of "Horse-divine" came forward and offered his services, saying, " I will go and tread him under foot." He went and bruised in pieces the son of humanity.
This" Horse-divine" was a red creature, and the descriptions of him remind me of the pictnres I have seen of the " Welsh red-dragon."
Early the following morning God came to see the" lion of humanity," but to his great sorrow he found out that he had been destroyed.
Now God called together all the beasts of the field and asked them who did it,but no one answered a word-there was a great silence !
At last the dog came forward and said that it had been done by the " Horse-divine."
God made man the second time in the same way as before, and commanded the dog to watcJ:!. him lest he should be trodden under foot and destroyed again by the enemy. The dog obeyed and watched. The "Horse·divine" made his appearance again, but the dog barked at him and threatened him, and being afraid of the dog, he went away.
After that God breathed spirit or soul into that " model of man," and it became a living creature and it spoke.
God said to man, " Come to me to-morrow morning." When the morning came, the tiger got to God's presence before man, and God gave him twelve bodily powers j and the tiger went his way. After that man came, and God gave him twelve inventive or mental powers.
Having received these mental powers, the son of humanity wended his way to the market of confusion, and to his great consternation he found the tiger waylaying him on the road that he might kill and eat him. Man went back and told God of it, and God presented him with a bow and arrow in addition to the twelve inventive powers.
Thus equipped, man went back and followed the path in the direction of the above market, and he found the tiger still waiting for him. He proceeded this time, and when the tiger came forward with an open mouth to eat him man drew the bow, and the arrow, to his great joy, went straight into the tiger's mouth, and he died.
God saw that man was very lonely in the world, being without a companion ; and He caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and when he awoke he found the woman standing by him.
God married them; and two genii, one representing" an oath" and the other" a curse," acted as witnesses, who also received power from God to destroy, or, as they express it, " to eat them," if either would be guilty of bigamy.
The Khasis were most strict on this question and other questions relating to the sexes previous to the coming of the English to the Hills. And it was an attempt among the Sepoys to violate their rules and customs in this respect that was at the root of the massacre which took place on the Hills in the year 1829, when two European officers and several Sepoys were killed.
The next thing in the tradition is the existence of sixteen families in the world; but a separation took place; nine houses or families ascended into heaven by that" H!)aven's Navel" referred to at the beginning, and seven families remained on earth. And for a long time there was a continual intercourse between the two parties, and God used to talk with men.
The Khasis very often call themselves" the children of the seven families," or" the children of the seven nests."
Now God commanded His servants to prepare a throne on earth, that He might- hold a durbar to judge and to administer justice. When the throne was ready, and before God made His appearance, man ascended the throne and sat on it, saying to hims~lf, " I also will judge together with God." God came and saw man sitting on the throne prepared for Himself, and He went away in great indignation.
The communication between heaven and earth was ended. God and man were separated. The pride of man's heart drove away the divine favor and fellowship- aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equalled the most High."
God determined to punish man for his pride in aspiring to equal his Creator and Judge, and He caused a great tree, which is called" The Tree of Shame," to grow in the middle of the earth, the branches of which filled the heavens, and the world became quite .dark; it kept away the rays of the sun, the light of the moon and stars, and the dew fell incessantly night and day.
The children of men were in a very great trouble indeed. With such darkness and dampness life became almost unbearable.
A great durbar was held to consider their trying situation, and the best way to get out of it; They could see no better way than by trying to cut down the tree. They all agreed to this, and went in a body with their billhooks and axes and worked hard all day. When the evening came they returned to their homes to rest for the night. The following morning they all went again to their work and found, to their great astonishment, that there were no marks whatever of their work the previous day. The tiger, their great rival and enemy, went there in the night and licked the cut they had made, hence the filling up. This aggravated their situation.
When thus overwhelmed in their calamities, God showed mercy to them by sending a .little bird whioh is called in Khasi I Phreid, something like the wren in size, to teach them wisdom. The little bird asked them, " What will you give me if I teach you wisdom g" The children of men said, ' , We shall give yon grain and Indian corn." The terms were accepted, and the little bird 8aid, "When you go home in the evening do not take your billhooks and axes with you, but leave them at the foot of the tree with their edges pointing outwards, and when the tiger comes in the night to lick the cut he will cut his own tongue." Man believed the little bird, and acted according to its instructions. The plan proved snccessful, and the" Tree of Shame" was felled at last, to the great joy of humanity. The branches thereof fell into the land of the foreigners (the Bengalese and the Assamese), and this accounts for their lands being plains; the enormous trunk remained where it fell, and this accounts for the land of the Khasis being hills !
The tradition we see does not improve as it goes on. It begins well, and in several point~ it agrees with Divine Revelation- (1) The order of creation, man being the last and the best-the" roof and crown" of the whole fabric of the world. (2) Man made of ., red-earth." (3) And God breathed ~pirit or sonl into that model of man, and it became a living creature, and it spoke. (4) A deep sleep falling npon the first man, and the woman standing by him when he awoke. (5) The fall of man, cllUsed by the enemy and the pride of his own heart. (6) The" sixteen families" and the" seven families" (see Gen. 10 : 2, 6, 22).
NOAH I JAPHETH. SREY. HAM. ' 13. Cush, 1. Gomer, 8. EIam, 14. Mizraim 2. Magog, 9. Asshur, 15. Phut, 10. Arpbaxad 16. Canaan. 3. Madai, 4. Javan, 11. Lud, 5. Tubal, 6. Meshech 12. Aram, 7. Tiras, The Khasis also have a tradition of a nniversal flood, and their religions ceremonies are full of the atoning and the mediatorial elements.
Mr. J. B. Braddon, an officer of the Indian Government, wrote: "It would be well if those persons who speak and write 80 earnestly respectin/!: mission work should spend some time among the Khasees, and look without prejudice at the work that is going on there. I feel very certain that they would no longet think that the missionaries labored in vain."
LETTERS FROM EUROPE
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.-I.
MISSION WORK IN THE SCOTCH ATHENS.
BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
Scotland is generally known as a religious country. One can readily understand this after walking the streets of Edinburgh on a Sabbath morning, and seeing the numerous and magnificent church edifices lifting their lofty spires on all sides, and the populace thronging the thoroughfares in every direction on tll e way to their places of worshi? Not a street car is to be seen on the Lord's day; and, as a natura] consequence, the vast majority of the people walk, if they go to church at all. Yet the congregations seem to gain rather than lose from this cause, for it may be doubted whether in any city in or out of Britain the average audiences exceed those of this modern Athens.
It would be strange, however, if, as in other cases, there should not be found a darker side to the religions life of the city. One needs only to take a stroll through the Lowgate or Canongate on a Saturday night to be convinced of the truth of that fact. It seems as though the higher the spiritual life of one factor of the citizens, the lower would be the degr~da tion of the other. But however that may be, there is at least plenty of opportunity for earnest missionary effort to be expended in behalf of the lower classes of Edinburgh.
In the former residences of the nobles in the High Street and Canongate, some of the lowest classes now have their dwelling places. It seems oddly out of place to see fine panelled ceilings and carved oak woodwork in the homes of the paupers, and it is a peculiar fact that the mansion once occupied by the Duke of Queensbury is now used as a House of Refuge for the Destitute. There three hundred paupers and inebriates find their homes; forty destitute men and women nightly find shelter, and hundreds of the poor buy there daily their twopenny dinner of soup and bread for a penny. Great improvements are being made in the homes of the poor. Dark and dirty closes and narrow winding stairs are being replaced by light and airy courts lined with glazed brick and stairways of iron, so that it is next to impossible for the dirt to find a sticking place. In the lodging houses, too, there is noticeable a vast improvement. Instead of the close, dingy, crowded" metropolitan lodging houses," fit only to breed and foster poverty and vice, " model lodging houses" have been erected that are provided with all necessary sanitary arrangements. Here, at the small price of from four to sixpence per night, so much better accommodations may be had than most of the, poor men enjoy in their own homes, that many leave their wives and families to take advantage of them. A reading-room, with newspapers and Sunday services, is connected with them, and a kitchen with a huge range, where each man may eook his own food. In the washhouse, with its drying room, reminding one of the fiery furnace, a man may wash, rinse, and dry his whole wardrobe in the space of fifteen minutes. Everything is clean, comfortable, and well ventilated. No profanity or vulgarity is allowed, and fines or expulsion are the penalty for every offence. S~arate lodging houses are provided for the women, and each has accommodations for some three hundred and eighty.
But while all this is being done for the moral aud physical improvement of these men and women, their spiritual natures are not neglected. There are missions of every description scattered throughout the city, some of them peculiar to Edinburgh, and all apparently accomplishing a noble work.
The Territorial 'Mission was instituted by Thomas Chalmers, and has continued in a flourishing condition ever since his time. After the disruption he first held his meetings in an old tan loft in the West Port, and in the surrounding district carried out his ideal plan of city evangelization. The church which was afterward erected for him there, and where he preached for several years, is now used as a mission hall in connection with the Chalmers' Territorial Church. In this old church meetings of various sorts; carried on by the members of the church, are held nightly. These meetings include temperance, evangelistic, song, children's, and other services. But the principal emphasis is put upon the" from·house-to-house" visitation, which is carried out most systematically and regularly. Over this mission department of the church work is a missionary, and under the missionary some seventy or eighty workers, each ten having its own superintendent. Each worker visits from five to six families on e,very Sabbath afternoon, so that all of the four or five hundred families in the district are visited at least once a week. Spiritual effects are those sought, and each worker endeavors to become intimately acquainted with the family history and cares of those with whom he comes in contact. Tracts of educational, temperance, and religious character are distributed regularly, and differ in character from Sunday to Sunday. The temporal wants of those who prove worthy are also looked after to some extent. The missionary and workers have lodging house and bakeshop tickets, marked with symbols to denote their worth, so that they cannot be exchanged for drink; these they distribute to the needy, and clothes and food and other assistance are often given when the nature of the case seems to warrant it. Many ladies of the church are interested in the work of reclaiming the fallen women, many of whom are from high familics of the city and neighborhood, and are weary of their wretched life and long for better, nobler things. If Christ is the one whom they seek, some home is usually speedily found for them, and their old life buried as much as possible in oblivion. If, on the other hand, respectability only is their aim, they must agree to spend eighteen months in a reformatory or "home," where they are clothed and fed 2nd are obliged to do a little work. After this a situation is usually obtained for· them, and they may begin life practically anew, apart from all their old surroundings and companions. Open-air services play an important part in the evangelisti,c wo!.k of the church, and every Sabbath f evening they are held in various parts of the city, by which means people are gathered and are led singing down the street to the door of the church, where an evangelistic service is held at eight o'clock. The singers remain without for a time, to endeavor to attract more wanderers, fer music seems to have especial powers over the Scotch nature, and then all are invited in, and the pure Gospel is preacbed to them there.
There are many difficulties and disappointments connected with the work, but one soul saved would put ten thousand misgivings and fears to flight. The scene of the work was, in the early part of the century, the scene of the ghastly tragedy of the" Burke and Hare murders," wheril unsuspecting strangers were decoyed into a so-called lodging house only to come out corpses, sold to the medical students. The body of Burke himself was afterward delivered as that of a criminal to undergo the same treatment that his victims had undergone before him. The most difficult people to) reach are those who have lived in t,hese low circumstances from their childhood. As a rule, they marry early and live a drunken, brawling life. It is those who have falien in some degree at least who appear most susceptible to earnest entreaty. Many are the dangers and inconveniences which the workers are obliged to undergo in carrying on their work, often being called upon to stand between the knives of knavish brawlers or remain up until daylight with those whom they are seeking to reclaim.
Newton's great law of motion seems to apply as truly to religion as to matter, and for every energetic evangelistic action there appears to be an equal reaction in the religious lives of the workers. Never was a church more thriving than the Territorial Church of the West Port. It is noticeable even in the very walk of the members up the church aisle j it is energetic, and not as if the congregation only came to the church to attend a funeral service.
Another excellent example of the Edinburgh mission work is that of the " close" missions. The Carrubber's Close Mission is the most interesting and influential. It was founded in 1858, and for over twenty years carried on its work in small, insufficient, and dingy quarters at the foot of one of the old closes in the High Street. Finally, through the energetic efforts of Mr. D. L. Moody, a fine seventy-five thousand dollar building was erected for their use, with all necessary class-rooms and an audience room with a seating capacity of about twelve hundred. Here meetings are held nightly in connection with the various departments of the work. There are over six hundred workers identified with this mission who, under superintendents, work in connection with one or more of the thirty-two sections. These sections carryon work very varied in character in co-operation with open· air meetings, temperance and evangelistic, together with societies foJ." women, girls, young men and boys, and special work among the J."ailroad men, coalmen, and policemen. During the last year there were 4500 meetings in connection with the Carrubber's Close, including prayer-meetings, open-air services, temperance meetings, Bible classes, and meetings for the young in country and city. There are ten open-air meetings in various parts of the city every Sabbath. A prominent feature of the work is the temperance movement, in conjunction with which a monthly periodical is published, the Gospel Temperance Appeal. Every Saturday evening a temperance meeting is held, at which everything is done to provide an attractive programme of temperance addresses and sacred music. Although m.'lny of the meetings are considerably disturbed by those under the influence of liquor, still often these very men are led to Christ and become earnest and enthusiastic workers. Pledges are to be had at the close of the meeting for those to sign who will, and always a number remain to take the pledge or, at least, be spoken to on the subject. The names of those who take the pledge are written down with the address, and thus they are put into communication with the workers, several of. whom follow up each one and endeavor to help them on in their new stand for the right.
The Girls' Sewing and Bible Class is also very helpful for reclaiming those who have fallen, and for saving many another from a downward course. At a meeting recently of the girls who had been reclaimed through the efforts of the lady in charge of this department, there were present over one hundred and sixty, all in good situations, and leading respectable lives. Need it be said that they have a great affection for their benefactress, and most of them for Christ as well ~ Many tracts are distributed throughout the streets also in connection with the mission work, and have the naHle of the mission upon them· as a guide to those seeking further light.
As an instance of how much influence thc mission exerts for good in the city, we need only cite a letter from the governor of the Edinburgh prison to the Superintendent of the Gospel Temperance Section. It reads : 30 Waterloo Place, Dec. 8, 1890.
DEAR MR. BARCLAY: Will you kindly do me the favor to express to the Directors of Carrubber's Close Mission my thanks for the interest manifested by themselves and their workers in the reformation of the criminal classes. I think you are aware that for many years I have given you the credit of keeping down the daily average number of criminals by about one hundred, and I do trust that you will not diminsh your exertions, as this is 8 very important time for action.
****** ** * Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend so many of your meetings as I could have wished, but when I have been present it has often been a matter of wonder to me, on seeing so many familiar faces, to imagine where they might have been and what trouble they might have got into had it not been for such meetings j although I am aware many of your people have dond much in the way of individual help. With many thanks, Yours very truly, J. E. CHRISTIE.
The Edinburgh City Mission, like those of like character in other cities, takes a large part in the evangelistic work of the city. Its efforts are confined to the poor of no one portion or district, and, unlike other forms of missionary societies here found, employs a number of salaried men to devote their whole time to the visitation and care of the lower classes. For this purpose the city is divided into nine sections of about four hundred families each, and over each section is a missionary who holds services in the mission hall of the district, and whose business it is to visit as often as possible the families in his section, and to care for the general spiritual welfare. There are besides five special departments of the·work for specified classes, having missionaries for each department; these include the cabmen, policemen, lodging houses, prisons, inebriates, and public houses and fallen women. In the division of the city care has been taken not to interfere with any well-organized work of a church or other mission, but there are many churches which work in connection with the city mis- sionaries, thus supplying a large body of workers to assist them in their vis- itation.
The City Mission is entirely undenominational, but is thoroughly evangelical, and in consequence its workers do not as frequently meet with a cold reception at the hands of the Roman Catholic portion of the city. The methods used are very similar to those of the other societies, first and foremost being that of personal contact with the men and women on the streets and in their homes, thus seeking to raise them morally and spiritually, and in raising the individuals from the degradation into which they have fallen to raise the whole community. As a rule, the city missionary is the only pastor and adviser that they have; but the men are well chosen, and keep their hands to the plough faithfully, endeavoring, by becoming all things to all men, to try if by any means they may save some. The results are tangible and encouraging, though the work is one fraught with trials and discouragements.
A fourth form of mission work, and one peculiar to Edinburgh, is that of the" Students' Settlements." These are conducted by the students of the university or theological colleges, and are found to be of the greatest benefit both to the students and to those among whom they labor. The Ponton Street Mission, in connection with the university, originated about four years ago, largely through the efforts of Professor Henry Drummond. Its object is .nominally secular, but much religious work is done by the students who are engaged in the work. A large hall has been erected in one of the poorest districts of the city, and here the students live and endeavor by personal contact, especially with the young men, to raise them intellectually, morally, and spiritually. Classes in wood-carving, drawing, history, and other departments are conducted during the week and, together with the reading·room, furnish an opportunity for the personal contact sought. Sabbath-school and Bible classes, with an occasional evangelistic address, and now and then a meeting for social intercourse, also form an important part of the scheme by which the work is carried on. About five or six students usually live in thE' mission and devote much time to the work, often at great inconvenience to themselves.
The other settlement is in connection with the Free Church College Missionary Society, and has only recently been organized. Its object is solely religious, and avowedly so; other benefits are expected to follow the spiritual uplifting of the community. The" settlers," six in num- – ber, comc into contact with the men, chiefly in the Young Men's Club, where they have an opportunity to converse with them as they at the same ·time endeavor to entertain them at games of dominoes, check- ers, and in other ways. The men's club forms' the chief feature of the work. There is a fee of one shilling a year to entitle one to membership, and the men make their own rules, elect their own officers, and have entire charge of it, subject to the approval of the" settlers. ,. Of their own free will they prohibit gambling and profanity, and are, as a rule, orderly and appreciative. The club is intended to take the place of the public house in the leisure hours of the men, and to afford an opportunity for the students to come into direct contact with the individuals whom they seek to benefit. Other departments of the work are the Sabbath-school,- chil- dren's church, Band of Hope, library, savings bank, Boy's Brigade, Bible classes, prayer and temperance meetings, and meetings for women, chiefly under the charge of ladies from St. Andrew's Church, which works in connection with the students.
The subscribers to each of the various departments of mission work form the society from which managcrs, directors, and the variolls officers are elected, and who guarantee the financial support of the mission.
There are many other, and private, missionary enterprises carried on by individuals and churches, besides many charitable societies for the relief of the poor and distressed. • Few cities of the size seem to be so thoroughly and energetically cared for as this home of Knox and Chalmers, and the results of the labor ex- pended may be seen as much in the spiritual life of the churches as in bet- tered condition of the poorer classes. But there is no l.ack of room for workers, and in spite of all that has been done or is being done, the con- dition of the poor in many districts seems as wretched as can well be im- agined. The workers, however, continue faithful, taking to themselves the consolation and promise given in the word.s. " Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. "
. EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, January 17, 1891.
Few things impress one more in all Scotland than the old gate in Dundee, where the martyr, George Wishart, preached to the plaguestricken people gathered outside the gate, while the inhabitants of the city were gathered just inside. What a type of the true missionary, standing between a living church and a dying world, and preadhing the gospel of spiritual healing!
THE TELUGU MISSION
THE TELUGU MISSION.
BY C. B. WARD.
This Telugu Mission was born in a prayer-meeting, February 22d, 1879, in Goolburga, Ii railway station about three hundred miles from Bombay, in the dominion of H. H., the Nizam. Two persons were present, a padri and an engineer: the padri, a member of South India Conference, pastor at Ballory, and thc engineer a district officer in the Public Works Depart- ment of the Nizam's Government.
This event took place at the close of the great famine of 1876-71'1, in which five millions perished.
The Bombay Guardian, editor, George Bowen, missionary, first announced the" new arrival" in its last issue of February, 1879, and commended the" little one" to the confidence of the good. March 12th, 1879, we took over from a famine poorhouse, kept up a yenr on private charity, five boys and girls. Here began the actual work.
In the order of Providence, Rev. T. S. Burnell, over thirty years an A. B. C. F. M. missionary at Melun, Madura district, South India, had the honor of taking the firiit financial share in the new concern. His] 0 rnpees were received by us March 20th, almost one month from the prayer-meeting. March 29th on this Rs. 10 we took 14 more waifs from an overcrowded famine camp at Adoni. These, with 2 more taken at Goolburga by Mr. Davis, gave us 21 in all-Telugu; Canerese, and Mohammedan, both sexes.
. The Bombay Guardian of April 5th published progress, and declared rising faith and intensifying purposes.
April 1st the padri got married, and received for the orphan work Rs. 50 from an unknown friend, who continued to do the same thing monthly for a long time. We have since learned he was the great-hearted Henry Conder, Esq., General Traffic Manager of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.
And so the work went on. At a later date we took up ;30 new ones, at a later, 50, and a later, 13, and the la"t large accession, September 30th, 52 boys and girls from Adoni. A few more scattering ones came in, till about October 1st we found we had actually collected over 180 orphans at Mr. Davis's place in Goolburga. Death did so quick work, however, that we never reached above 122 on hand at anyone time.
The Bombay Guardian, the India Methodist Watchman published our testimony and helped us much.
Thus began the work. God's Word supplied the base for the faith the Holy Spirit inspired in our hearts. We boldly avowed our purpose to trust God and never solicit, except in prayer. The Holy Ghost was chancellor of the exchequer, and in the first six months He called in from whom He would about Rs. 2000.. And in this time the bulk of the care of all these little ones feU upon Mr. Davis. He wrought not by proxy. His own hands fed, dressed, washed, assisted, and he spent hours a day trying to impress these precious souls for God; and surely we shall meet some of those little ones who passed away with Jesus' name upon their lips and His truth in their newly opened hearts.
I saw now the providence of God in the last ten years of my life-from the plough to four years of student life, one and a half years of work in Chicago among the street Arabs of Halsted Street, till William Taylor (now Bishop) found me in December, 1875, and sent me to India.
God's Holy Word, Finney's" Autobiography," and ~Hiller's " Life of Trust" were the pabulum our souls thrived on in those days. How won- derfully the great God led us! Starting as we did without bank or missionary treasury, from the very beginning we b'"gan to cast about us for a productive footing somewhere. We dreamed and prayed over factories, farms, industries, etc. But the Lord had us in hand, and first gave "r the orphans some public road-making on which they realized something like Rs. 100 in a short time. e had no idea of greasing our wheelsforever with charity, but rather designed to repay to the Lord the charity money lent us, and send workers to the " regions beyond" and support them there.
We cannot follow in detail the wonderful history of these ten eventful years. But what have we now ~ 1. C. B. and E. M. Ward and their children, Wesley Asbury, William Taylor, George Fletcher, Susanna Ruth, and Nellie Marion, in all 7 souls.
2. Eurasian orphans, boys, 8, and girls, 5. 3. Native families, 19, blessed with 24 living little ones. Unmarried boys, 4 j girls, 2. One widow with her son-in all, 67 souls. Grand total of 90 -adults 50 and children 40. So we cannot, as of old, say" orphan children," for we are become a colony of families. 4. Of the whole number, 40 are full members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and another dozen we rank probationers. In most of these honesty, diligence, observance of the Lord'tI day, prayer, testimony, and general upright character give us much ground for believing a work of grace is wrought. We have no tobacco, or liquor, or jewelry Christians in our" little church in the wilderness." 5. When we gathered up famine waifs we found them from five to twelve years of age. All our native people except one, my assistant, Nunsoya Naidu, have been a full ten years with us. Our Eurasian orphans have not been with us so long, but most of them during eight years. 6. For years stern necessity has made us two houses: one in Secunderabad, where Mrs. Ward, our children, and the unmarried girls stay with one or two pairs of the married ones as servants j and one in the district, wherever I may have work for all the field force of our colony, migrating as work leads us on railway construction and mining. The bulk of the family have been in camp with me for about four years now. We find much to encourage us in the Christian character of those we have spent ten years with, for Jesus' sake. They are our" seals." '1. The entire work which we have had upon our hands has cost about Rs. 10,000 per year (ovcr $3000). This includes not only our own mission work, but doing something to help other work. We have spent outside of our own work in this time several thousand rupees-contributions to other missions and support of other missionaries, distribution of religious literature, the publication of tracts, and our own India Watchman, etc.
Of this Rs. 100,000 passing through our hands in ten years more than half are our own earnings. Formerly contributions exceeded, but for four years our earnings have by far exceeded the gifts made to us. In the whole ten years our receipts from places outside of India fall below R8. 5000. Our contrihutions have always come unsolicited, except in prayer. Weare not concerned about money, and never beg. But we do believe and plead God's promises, as they are neither lies nor out of date.
8. Weare not in debt. In an honest and rather daring endeavor to realize the capital needed for a Chr~stian colony, on a large railway contract we lost Rs. 20,000. But God enabled us to make it up and pay the loan with liberal interest.
9. God started us in orphan work in 1879, and kept us closely to it and learning the language up to 1883. In these years God cheered us with the genuine conversion of half a hundred of our orphans.
Then came three years (1883-86) of very steady and vigorous evangelistic work, in which we were much blessed, but the only abidirtg, visible fmit was the conversion of two natives, who are both preachers now.
Insurmountable difficulties in the way of acquiring any land under the Mohammedan Government made dropping into the present" two house" arrangement a necessity-No. 1 at Secunderabad, No. 2 at Beersheba or Dothan, as good grazing leads us. Wonders hath God wrought for us during these years. We can only bless and praise Him.
10. We hope to publish soon a report for the ten years, in which we shall try to rccord something of the goodness of our prayer-hearing God.
11. In the years of our history God has been good, but it has been hard to understand all His ways. Three of his handmaidens, than whom we expect no more spiritual and successful workers in India-Cecilia O'Leary Moore, Hapley Freer, and Hester Ann Hillis-God took from us, each one suddenly. They did work that lasts, and now enjoy reward everlasting. One lady after leaving us became the wife of a Baptist missionary in Bengal. One from iII health was compelled to return to America. Our brethren, Ernsberger and Blewitt are now both honored members of India Methodist Conferences. The latter took away from us Ruth Freer, a good worker with us, a good wife with him. One young man apostatized fearfully. One found the work uncongenial. Miss Bell went to study inedicine in Hyderabad Medical College. One native preacher and wife, lent to us, stayed but a little time. One of our converts left us, and is now promoted to the post of head native preacher in Conference work.
12. Eight little ones hath God taken. Our firstborn first; after him seven other children in our native families. Six of our native orphans have died, ~ giving us their testimony to Jesus' saving power. They surely await us. Three Eurasian orphan boys have died, of whom we have hope, one a poor, ,suffering epileptic all his life. Several have fallen back into the world. Some Eurasian orphans, after two or three years with us, were taken by friends or relatives. A few have died, leaving us no certain word. Our total death-roll in ten years reaches a little over 20.
13. But the best of all is, God has at last answered our earnest prayer in giving us a large piece of land (over' 2000 acres) on an annual rental of Rs. 800. This is what we have besought of Him for years. Our utter extremity has become God's gracious opportunity. And now what! Our migrations may cease, our two homes become one, and our colony be the base of supply for dozens of workers. We may again get into shape for vigorous evangelizing. Our 20 families of native Christians have of their own efforts acquired cattle and caris, and cash to the amount of about Ra. 2000. They are not paupers, and are ready to go to work at once in our village. The rental we can as easily pay as the rent of Secunderabad house. And we believe God has arrangements on foot for the small capital required for the immediate restoration of the entire village, thereby making it worth at an early day several thousand rupees per annum.
We have no complaints, but we can clearly see it has taken ten years to f;ubdue the missionary aristocracy in us, and teach us truly humble, economic, and New Testament lines of life and labor. We have also learned that physical labor is conducive to health in the tropics by these years in India, and are just ready for many more, if it please God.
Trusting God, we have begun work upon our village, and with a home and a promise that" we shall be fed j" with a fine field of souls about us, with our years of experience among the people, and naturalized in India, we look forth after this ten years' journey-not forty, as the Israelites hadto a grand future in this goodly land God has glven us.
Bishop Thoburn recently recognized us fully as a part of the great Methodist Church, and henceforth our members shall have a place in Methodist totals, as they have not had for a few years lately, though we have prided ourselves upon the fact we belonged there. Our only contention has been to be le;ft alone as non-subsidy workers. This is now granted us, and God is with us.
The hard work is not done. Years yet must be spent teaching native Christians confidence in their own ability, and teaching them how better to utilize and develop the resources of the country, making foreign aid unnecessary either for their support or such work as they should do for tIle salvation of the heathen. We have some fine specimens of natives who, under God, will make good business men and women for Him, and some who will make good Christian workers and preachers.
We believe God is with us j we need no other aid to live upon or learn by. God has given us, as capital, strong bodies, common sense, rich soil, aU tributary to our faith. Our prayer has been for a piece of land, that
A. B. C. F. M•
with this productive base we might maintain a whole force of Gospel workers in the surrounding country, whose lifework, and exchequer and methods of filling it, might all be open to the gaze and study of the surrounding heathen. God has schooled us for ten years to ·fit us for the work before us, and now given u!' the land, and here we are a happy family, a monument of God's care in the midst of a heathen land, subjects of His continued love-a little church of Jesus Christ of His own planting. To God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be all the praise and glory, world wit-hou-t e-nd-I – – – – On January 20th last, a party of five sailed for Secunderabad, India, to join the self-supporting work of Rev. C. B. Ward. One of the party-' Rev. M. F. Smootz-who already spent several years iu this work. bas now married and gone back to the Deccan, India, for life. Rev. R. H. Madden, wife, and son, who accompanied him, have been doing successful mission work in New York City.
There sailed the same day for South America, Mr. T. W. La Fetra and an experienced teacher, Mrs. Anna Dodd. Mr. La Fetra has already spent seven years in mission work in Santiago as auxiliary and helper to his brother, Rev. I. H. La Fetra, in the large college in Santiago. He visited the United Stateil to purchase a complete outfit for printing-costing about $5000-a religious paper and books for educational work in South America.
A. B. C. F. M.
A despatch from Nagasaki, Japan, published recently in the daily press, stated that the United States steamer Alliance, in its visit to Ponape, found that the war between the natives and the Spaniards had been instigated by the American missionaries, who on that account were forced to retire from Ponape to Kusaie. "The story," says the Missionary Herald, "is so absurd as to be comical. The only Americans at the point of conflict on Ponape were two women, who at the time of the difficulty between the Spaniards and the natives sought to their utmost to preserve peace, but failed. And when the revolt occurred, these two women, aided by a native teacher, risked their lives to save from destruction two Spanish priests and some soldiers. And they succeeded in their efforts, only to be accused by the Spaniards of having incited the natives to their deeds of violence. "
The following item is found in the report of the Hiroshima circuit (Methodist), given by Rev. B. W. Waters in the Missionary Reporter: " Hiroshima has been well chosen as the centre for our work in that part of . Japan. But the city itself, a strong Buddhist centre, is not as open to Christianity as some of the smaller neighboring towns. Neither the city nor the country work ought to be neglected. But owing to school-work and passport regulations, it is difficult for one man to carryon both. We really need two additional men for Hiroshima and for the work that proper- ly can be connected with it. "
THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES
THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES.
BY A. J. GORDON, D. D., BOSTON, MASS.
The homely and the sublime were never more closely conjoined, we venture to say, than in the following from the history of Herrnhut : Zinzendorf sent one day for a Moravian brother and said to him : "Will you go to Greenland to.morrow as a missionary F' The man had had no previous intimation of his call, but after only a moment's hesitation he replied: "If the shoemaker can finish the boots which I have ordered of him by to-morrow, I will go."
Need we say that if such a spirit of prompt obedience were universal in the Church, there would be no highways unoccupied or byways untravel1ed in all the regions beyond now waiting for the Gospel. But we have not to tarry even for a day for our shoes to be done. What saith the Scripture, and how much it saith in a single comprehensive sentence ~ "Having '!lour feet shod with th,e preparation of the gospel of peace." The law said to Moses: " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Grace says: " Put on thy shoes upon thy feet, for the place where thou standest is missionary ground. " "All roads lead to Rome," says the proverb j but since the day of Pentecost all roads lead from Jerusalem j "that remission of sins should be preached among alnations, beginning at Jerusalem." Therefore Christ's witnesses were sandalled at the outset for their journey j and of this we desire briefly to speak.
The Gospel is its own preparation. For our shoes are not the preparation for, but the preparation of, the Gospel. The tendency is inveterate and constantly recurring to introduce some forerunner of grace into the missionary field in order to make ready for its coming. Even those who firmly believe that" Christ is become the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth," have not infrequently thought that they must take their starting-point from Sinai, again employing the law as a school, master to lead men to Christ. The story of Henry Richards's experience on the Congo-which has made such a profound impression of late wherever recited-has its chief interest in this idea. Brutal and bloody savages, among whom the murder of innocents was a sacred rite indispensable for the solemnizing of the funeral of their chiefs, and man·slaying a medical prescription to be adopted as a matter of course on the order of the witch. doctors, what impression could the Gospel of the grace of God make upon such sonls if immediately applied ~ No wonder that the thunders and lightnings of Sinai should be invoked as a necessary prelude to the sweet strains of redeeming love. "Grace, of course," said an old Scotch preacher, "but did you ever know a woman to sew without a needle? So I say unto you, thrust in the needle of the law till the sinner is pricked to the heart and cries out, and then you may draw as long a thread of Gospel consolation as you choose." But these degraded sons of the C;ongo did not wince in the least under the needle of the law. "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not steal"-instead of" kicking against these pricks," or being in the least wounded thereby, they were absolutely insensible to them. As for being sinners, when this charge was made against them they blandly conceded that while the missionary and his countrymen might be such, they certainly were not.
But now, after the seven years' fruitless ministry, comes the great change. In translating the Gospel of Luke, and reading therefrom the story of the sufferings and death of Christ, and pressing home upon the people the message, " And all this for you," tears began to fall, exclama- tions of astonishment began to be heard, and then conversions began to occur, till within a few weeks more than a thousand were added to the Lord of such as should be saved. As this story has been repeated of late before churches and theological students, the missionary has rarely been allowed to stop at the expiration of an hour; cries of " Go on !" break- ing out at every attempt to pause. "So astonishing; so well-nigh incredible !" people say.
And yet it is but the repetition of an old stQry, though on a larger scale. What student of missionary history does not know of the work of Hans Egede in Greenland, with its long, weary years of moral teaching, ending with the farewell sermon, " I said I have labored in vain and spent my strength for naught g" And then the translation from the gospels of the story of the Saviour's passion, by John Beck, the Moravian missionary, and the astonished exclamation of the listening savage, Karjamack, " How was that ~ Tell me that again, for I would be saved ;" and through this Word the savage changed into a Christian and a faithful preacher of the Gospel to his countrymen? So it was when Mr. Nott opened the third chapter of John to the hit~erto stolid and unconcerned South Sea Islanders. When reading the golden text of redemption, " God so loved the world," a man rose and demanded, "Is that true ~ Can that be so? God love the world when the world does not love Him ~ God so loved the world as to give His Son to die! Can that be true f' And as the verse was read once more he burst into tears, and the long-delayed blessing began.
It is a lesson which we have constantly to relearn, that" the preaching of the cross is the power of God." Not that evangelical Christians are likely to doubt the efficacy of such preaching tor accomplishing the one thing of bringing peace to distressed and penitent souls; but that it can also effect the opposite result of bringing contrition to hardened and indifferent souls, it is difficult to credit. Yet this is one of the paradoxes of Christianity, that the cross, which is the highest exhibition of divine compassion, should also serve as the most powerful instrument for human conviction. It has proved true a thousand times over that by His wounds we are wounded, as well as that " by His stripes we are healed." As the same sunlight can warm and comfort when falling gently on our persons, or scorch and blister when focussed by a burning glass, so the same love of God revealed on Calvary- can be Ilsed by the Spirit to bring the most tender consolation or the most poignant contrition. 'l'herefore, the Gospel in first, and its fulness, to the most degraded heathen!
Then let us refer to the sandals of education which have so often been bound upon the feet of the Christian herald.
One may well wonder why the temptation has been so constant for the missionary to turn schoolmaster. "No greater than for the pastor to turn pedagogue," it may be truly replied. Yes, and here is the most serious defect of our present-day Christianity, that it is leaning on crutches when it ought to walk by faith, undertaking to accomplish by culture what God has ordained to be effected" by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. " Art, architecture, music and ritual, how prominent the place which these are coming to occupy in our modern churches! Ask their promoters why 1heyattach snch importance to them, and they reply, " For their educational influence. " But we make bold to say that their tendency has generally been to educate away from Christ rather than toward Him, prepossessing men with forms, sensible impressions, and so disinclining them to the things of the Spirit 1 We have more faith a thousand times over in the regenerating power of the simple Gospel than in the educating power of all these elaborate accessories of Christian worship.
But we are speaking of education in the strict sense of the wordgrammar, arithmetic, and·· the arts, as introductory to the Gospel. Has 8uch a dispensation of teaching ever proved really helpful in preparing the heathen ,mind to receive the Word of life ? No more probably than a gymnasium in the basement of an American church, with its curriculum of dumb-bells and vaulting-bars, has conduced to a change of heart in the young men who have entered therein. The tendency is inevitable for these preparatives to become substitutes so prcoccupying the interest and attention with themselves as to render thc heart less accessible to the Gospel than before they came in. Education by all means! But in the school of grace the law seems to be not" know, in order that you may believe," but " believe, in order that you may know." Culture, when set forward as a forerunner of Christ, has constantly failed to become such, because it Ja~ks the humility to say: "He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose." It being true, according to our Lord's own words, that the Father hath" hid these things from the w'ise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes," it cannot be the missionary's business to make men wise lind prudent in order that they may receive the Gospel, but rather to tell the wise and prudent, that except they repent and become as little children, they shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.
A wide observer of missionary operations in Japan has recently expressed the opinion that the chief occasion of solicitude.for the country is found in the excess of education over evangelism, and that the wisest missionary policy would be a bold immediate movement among the lower classes, who are as yet untouched by Western 'culture. Let this call be heard, then, all over our country-not for more teachers merely, but for more evangelists.
Concerning industrial and mechanical forerunners of the Gospel we may speak with equal emphasis. So ingrained is the notion that what has been called" a propredeutic dispensation of civilization" must prepare the way for Christianity, that colonization has not infrequently been proposed as a John the Baptist to evangelization. Ninety years ago Wilberforce lent his influence to a great scheme for ameliorating the condition of Africa by this plan. Artisans with saw and hammer and anvil were despatched to- her western coast, with the understanding that after a considerable progress had been made in civilization, missionaries should follow up tho ~ssault with Bible and catechism. But the onterprise had not momentum enough to reach its destination, and proceeded no farther than Sierra Leone.
Even had it entered the field, its work would have been a gratuitous one.
For the trce does not bear the root, but the root the tree. As certainly as the planted acorn produces the oak, so surely will the incorruptible seed of the Word yield the fruits of righteousness and social order when believingly re~eived into the human heart.
David Brainerd gives a remarkable testimony to this fact, when sum- ming up the results of his labors among the American Indians at Cross- weekslllJg. Indeed, his witness supports all that we have been saying in this paper. Lest any should accuse his work of being the outcome of excitement and fear inspired by the preaching of the terrors of the law, or charge that his converts were only such as had been" frightened by a fearful noise of hell and damnation," he says: "God left no room for this objection in the present case, this work of grace having been begun and carried on" by almost one continued strain of -Gospel invitation to perish- ing sinners." Not the law of Sinai, but the cross of Calvary must have the credit for this remarkable work. Amid the multitude of inquirers and the urgency of the claims of perishing so~ls, he had little time, he tells us, to inculcate moral reforms or social llnd domestic improvements.
He could only sound out the message of salvation 1>y the blood of Christ, "and eternal life through faith in His name, and pass on. But note the result, as he records it : .
" When these truths were felt at heart, there was now no vice unreformed, no external duty neglected. Drunkenness," the darling vice, was broken off from, and scarce an instance of it known among my hearers for months together.
The,abusive practice of husbands and wives in putting away each other and tak- ing others in their stead was quickly reformed, so that there are three or foul' "
couples who have voluntarily dismissed those whom they had wrongfully taken, an(l now live together in love and peaco. The same mignt be said of all other"
vicious practices. The reformation was general; and all springing from the internal influence of divine truths upon their hearts, and not from any external restraints, or because they had heard the~e vices particularly exposed and repeat- edly spoken agaim.t. Some of them I never so much as mentioned-particularly that of the parting of men aud their wives-till some, having their conscience awakened by God's Word, came, and of their own accord, confessed themselves guilty in that respect.
" The happy effects of these peculiar doctrines of grace, upon which I have so much insisted, upon this people, plainly discover, even to demonstration, that instead of their opening a door to licentiousness-as many vainly imagine and slanderously insinuate-they have a directly contrary tendency; 80 that II close application, a Bense and feeling of them will have a most powerful influence toward the renovation and effectual reformation both of heart and life."
By as little pains as Brainerd labored to introduce" Christian Civilization," by so much are many modern missionaries anxious to exclnde if -from their fields. Its avant-coureurs in these days are the whiskey bottle and the powcer-flask. " If only we can keep out European and American civilization," says an earnest missionary in Africa, " there is hope for our work in the Dark Continent." On the whole, what a mockery there is in this much-vaunted word! And how little apprehension of the subject does an eminent writer on the evidences of Christianity exhibit in saying that" The wisest modern missionaries admit that they mnst civilize heathen nations in order to make Christian institutions permanent. " No! ~ot the sandals of law, of education, or of social science for the missionary of the Apostolic school j but" feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." The first take but tardy steps, and rarely those condescending steps that reach the sinner where he is j but the latter: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace j that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation. "
THE BURMAN BIDLE.-The first edition of Dr. Judson's translation of the Bible into the Burman language was in three large quarto volumes, twelve by nine inches. The second edition was printed from the same type but upon thinner paper, and was bound in one volume. It bears this imprimatur: "Maulmain: Printed at the American Baptist Mission Press for the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions; 1840. " Now after the space of fifty years a third edition is published by the American Baptist Missionary Union at its Mission Press in Rangoon, copies of which have just been received in America. It is a royal octavo, much smaller and more convenient than the earlier editions, having been newly set up and stereotyped, with many corrections noted by Dr. Judson himself inserted in the text by the careful hand of Dr. E. A. Stevens. This translation of the Bible into Burman was made amid great difficulties, Dr. Judson being obliged to make ~is own grammars and dictionaries as he went on, but it is remarkable as being one of the most accurate and idiomatic versions of the Bible in any language. It is an imperishable monument to the great ability of America's first missionary to the heathen, Adoniram Jlldio1on.-Baptist Missionary Magazine.
EXTRACTS ANlJ TRANSLATIONS FROM: FOltElGN PERIOlnCALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
llY REV. C. C. STARllUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The Church of Scotland, Home and Foreign Mission Record for January 1st, 1891, has the following statement: "A collection on behalf of the Committee of Correspondence with Foreign Churches is appointed to be made in all our churches and chapels on Sabbath, the 18th inst., provided always that wherever this day may be unsuitable the collection shall be made on another Sabbath.
" The great object of this committee is to foster friendly relations with the Reformed Churches of the Continent, ani to give aid to those who require it. We are especially brought into contact with the Reformed churches of France, Italy, Bohemia, Switzerland, and Belgium. With these churches the Church of Scotland in former days maintained constant correspondence, and it would be a loss both to them and to us should· such communications cease. Since the last appeal was made in 1888, deputies from the Church of Scotland have been present at one or two memorable meetings (If Continental churches. The celebration of the Bicentenary of the glorious return of the Waldenses took place in August and September, 1889, when the Rev. Dr. Mitchell, of South Leith, represented the Church of Scotland. At the jubilee of the formation of the Missionary Church of Belgium, which was celebrated in June, 1890, the Rev. Duncan Campbell, of Rosemount, Aberdeen, represented our Church, and received a cordial welcome. To enable the Church worthily to maintain these relations, and to bestow assistance in accordance with the needs of the struggling communions on the Continent, the present collection is made. "
-Says the Record: "A correspondent in Aberdeen reports a much appreciated visit of our Foreign Mission Convener to that city. Dr. M'Murtrie preached an impressive and an appropriate sermon to the students ill the university chapel 011 the 7th ult., and addressed a crowded congregation in Rosemount Church at night. On the Monday morning he addressed a full meeting of divinity professors and students, to whom he stated that the Mission cause was now attracting to its service a portion of the flower of our divinity halls, and that no less than twenty-four of our present missionaries (including missionaries' wives) in the foreign and Jewish mission fields came from Aberdeen and its neighborhood. At noon, on the same day, Dr. M'Murtrie addressed the South Church Ladies' Work Party ; in the afternoon he took part in the monthly meeting of the Ladies' Association Committee, and in the evening he addressed successively the Rosemount Young Men's Guild, and an Old Muchar congregational social meeting. Verily our Convener does not spare himself !"
-We give two of the collects of the Church of Scotland for the Week of Prayer. For Tuesday: " 'Ve beseech Thee, 0 Lord, on behalf of Thy Church Universal, in all lands and places, under whatever name or form, worshipping Thee in various tongues, and approaching Thy presence in the name of Jesus. We pray for union, for unity of spirit, for love; that Christian life and teaching may be increasingly subject to the Holy Ghost; that Christian people may witness unto Christ by living in godly love; that we no longer be opponents or rivals, but all one in Christ Jesus; and that for His sake, Amen." For Thursday: "For Thine ancient people, o God of Abraham, we earnestly pray that the veil may fall from their eyes, and that they may be turned tu the Lord; and for our Home Missions in the darkness still found in our land, we beseech Thee that the labor of Thy servants may be blessed in bringing many to the cross: through Jesus Christ, thy Son, Amen."
-In the Conferences Fraternelles, held in Paris, last October, various judgments were expressed of Roman Catholicism; but Pastor R. Hollard seemed to strike the centre when he gave as its damning sin, " It destroys the conscience." J esuitized Catholicism values blind obedience above everything else. It will be a sad thing for France to recur to this as her best conception of Christianity. But the leaders of intelligence seem to be awaiting the issue. Professor Atlier said: "The University is deliberating whither it shall go. It has made the round of all the systems, and now is eager to reach a goal. One of its professors said to me, ' My ffiend, count us as belonging to whosoever shall know how to conquer us.' "
Pastor Hollard thinks that Protestantism is not qualified to take the place of Catholicism in France until it understands better than now to respond, in evangelical simplicity, to those spiritual wants which Catholicismconsults the instinct of adoratiou and the craving for unity. Why should Pere Hyacinthe and the Protestants with the same aims be so little inclined to friendship ¥ The sentiment appeared to be very decided, that evangelizin~ work and charitable work ought to be carried on by distinct agencies. At Geneva, M. Ernest Favre attests, evangelization has been much more effective since this separation was made.
-The indian Standard, speaking of a recent Church Congress, allows that sanitation is important, but very reasonably insists thaI; the Kingdom of God and the Cross of Christ have not lost their prime importance. Speaking likewise of Brotherhoods (whose result!! in India do not thus far appear very marked), it wishes to know why the absence of God's unit of human society, the family, should be so highly esteemed. And asks why Archdeacon Farrar contends for vows where a celibate life appears a call of duty. Semi· monastic Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods, as Count Gasparin long ago pointed out, are apt to be of dubious results on Protestant soil. Every plant has its native and congenial habitat.
-The Rev. C. A. Schonberger, through the Jewish Herald, reports " that notwithstanding the sad fact that all open preaching to the Jews is prohibited in Vienna, yet they are constantly flocking, as inquirers, to the missionary's house, where Bible and other classes are regularly held. The Bible-class is largely attended, and this branch of the work is most encouraging. "
– " Regions Beyond," quotes Mr. Stanley's description of the proud Wahuma race, which he discovered, "being clearly of Indo-African origin, possessing exceedingly fino features, aquiline noses, slender necks, small heads, with a grand and proud carriage; an old, old race, possessing splendid traditions, and ruled by inflexible customs which would admit of no deviation." Stanley pronounces the features of the great KafEr race to be ., a subtle amalgamation of the Hindu and West African types." Although the foraying W ahuma have abundance of heathen vices, yet their higher type, mild and courteous manners, and salubrious country, render them hopeful for missions. To Stanley they brought up thoughts of "those blameless people with whom the gods deigned to banquet once a year upon the heights of Ethiopia. "
~ ".'. -The Universities' Mission in Central Africa, which now has 2000 adherents, is rejoicing in the ordination of its first native priest.
– " The Paris correspondent of Evangelical Ohristendom," says the Indian Standard, writes: 'There is a fearful increase of crime, conwadicting strikingly those who hoped that 'schooling' and 'good behavior would go together.' Increased schooling and increased crime proceed pari passu. Youthful literates, fifteen years ago, were 68 per cent, now 78 per cent. "The evident failure, in a moral point of view, of education without religion, is throwing weight into the Roman Catholic scale; children are crowding their private schools."
-Mrs. Dods, of the McAll Mission, says: "The old hall at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, where the dirtiest of people used to crowd in night after night-some said to get warmed-has disappeared; its successor- Boulevard Sebastopol.-has come and gone, and now in its place are not one, but two or three large halls in densely crowded streets-St. Denis, Temple, and Salle Rivoli-the last redeemed from its evil uses as a rendezvous of atheists, anarchists, and lovers of guilty pleasures j wafihed and purified materially and morally, and consecrated, with its 600 seats, to the service of the Lord."
-Charlie, a convert of the Universities' Mission, having fallen into the handt,; of the heathen Gwangwara, was asked by them, " Why do not these white men and you fear us, seeing that we can kill you all~" He answered: "Because you can only kill our bodies with your spears; it is our souls we care about, and you can't touch them, and so we don't fear you." I heard from others at the time that Charlie had made this answer, and that the Gwangwara were not only awed but actually made afraid by these words. Doubtless it was the first intimation they had ever received that there was anything about a man they could not kill. Yet they believed it when Charlie told them, and, cowards at bottom-like all bullies-they trembled at the news."
-It has been decided in India, says the Bombay Guardian of January lOth, that if a full. grown minor appears capable of caring for himself he may lawfully be baptized against the will of his guardian. But a violent persecution against the Wesleyan Mission at Banknra, Bengal, has been excited by such a case, resulting in the burning of a school.
-A Christian New Year's Mela (or fair) has been held on the banks of the Jnrnna (as lately recommended by the S. F. G.) attended by Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, meeting " in oneness of spirit, as sheep of one fold." It was held in the Presbyterian grounds.
– " Several thousand representatives of the eight chief Indian languages," says the Indian Witness, "lately met and transacted all their business in English. And no one seems astonished."
-The Ohinese Times, as quoted in the London and Ohina Telegraph, says, of Chinese appropriation of Western science, that it has as yet had very little effect on the national life. "Her dalliance with the skill and science of the Vest is rather a species of coquetry than honest wooino-. The truth is that powers less tangible and material, yet far more pote~t than railways, telegraphs, balloons, or phonographs, must be evoked before any deep or lasting impression upon this slnmbering mass of stagnant life can be expected. Spiritual forces cannot be conquered with material weapons."
tNTERNATtONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Religious Attitude of the Ohinese which he is entering, is somewhat like Mind. a scientific farmer who studies and BYREV.W. A. P. MARTIN, D.D., PRESIDENT OF analyzes the soil into which he intends to cast the precious seed. He may find THE IlIIPEBIAL TUNGWEN COLLEGE, that that soil was produced by the disin- PEKING, CHINA. tegration of many kinds of. rocks, some deposited from water, others thrown up Religion consists of two elements by the action of internal fires, others thought and feeling. Its thought i~ yet affected by atmospheric influences. directed toward the mysterious prob- We find, in a similar manner, the lems of existence. In this aspect mental soil of China composed of three every religion that emanates from hu- leading elements which have been comman thought is, to a certain extent, to mingled and brought into interaction be regarded as a philosophy, hence in such a way as to present to the superworthy of careful study, not as throwing ficial observer a homogeneous aspect. light which to us would be valuable on These are known as the three religions the question of human destiny, bdt as -Confucian,Tauist, and Buddhist. throwing light on human character on national character, and the relation's of Before attempting to point out their nations to each other. The religious interaction, which, after all, is the objecexperience of the Chinese people, the tive point, allow me briefly to sketch the elements forming their religious beliefs, leading characteristics of each, as they constitute the subject which I have to rise successively before our eyes. I discuss. No field could perhaps be of shall not be able to go into detail in greater interest, partly on account of the our allotted time, nor would it be demultitude of people who are affected by sirable, inasmuch as I have in mind the these views, partly on account of the distinct object of pointing out only a vast antiquity, presenting records reach- few salient features by which these reing back, without a break in the chain for ligions have acted upon each other. many thousands of years, and also because that great people have been seg- The Confucian system did not origregated by mountain chains and ocean inate with Confucius. He said: "I am breadths, from intercourse with the rest an editor, not an author." He took the of mankind, to a very large extent for records of remote antiquity and sifted the greater part of their national exist- them, in such wise, however, as to exert ence. In order that our lessons may be in a most effective manner the influence of value, it will be important that we of an editor, giving to the readers of all should take them out of the stream we succeeding ages only that which he may say, at a point prior to the in'flux wished to have produce its effect on the of the living waters of Christianity; national mind. We consequently date for Christianity has to some extent Confucianism from the beginning of his affected the modes of thought of that people beyond the pale of Christian com- twenty~ records, from the time of Yao and Shun munities which, for the last three hundred years, have been growing up in his favorite models of virtue, that land. But the systems of which I have to speak date back far beyond that tw~ two centuries before the Christian era time. The missionary, thoughtful, and accustomed to study the field upon Viewed as a religion, it' presents leading features: the first is the worship *Addrc•• before the American Society of Com- of Shang-ti; the second is the worship of the spirits of men under the title of anparative Religion. cestors. Shang-ti signifies the Supreme Ruler. Coming before us in some of the most ancient books extant in any language, that august being suggests at once the Jehovah of the Clll:istian Scrip- show, by the influence of other religions, tures-the Lord, the Most High, who more or less corrupting even the com- was worshipped not only by those who parative purity of the primitive ideas. are recognized in the canon of Scripture as' possessing the guidance of inspira- Confucius was himself strongly in- tion, but by such men as Melchizedek, clined to agnosticism. In his intimate the King of Salem, who was both king conversations with his disciples he re- and priest. We find the earliest sov. fuses to give them any positive state- ereigns of China combining this double ment in regard to the things beyond the function of king and priest, signalizing reach of hnman sight. He said: " We their accession, especially in the case of know not life. How can we know founders of dynasties, by going to death, or what lies beyond the grave? mountain tops, the highest points ap- We are unable properly to render service proaching to heaven, and there offering to onr living parents; how should we up burnt sacrifices to the king of know how to render fitting service to heaven, by whom kings reign and those who have passed into the other princes decree justice. If there were any world ?" Yet he enjoined service to doubt as to the lofty spiritual conc~p those who have passed into the other tion connected with this grand object world as the cardinal dnty in his reo of worship of the one alone to whom all ligious system, and it is that, more than kings and princes were recognized as anything else, which makes it a religion accountable, we may find it in a single potent and living to this day. The worpassage among many scores that I might ship of Shangti, the Supreme Ruler, cite to you if I only had time. The grand as it is, is nevertheless like a ray founder of the dynasty of Chow, eleven of the sun falling upon an iceberg, so hundred years before the Christian era, far as its influence on the publio mind is leading a small army to attack the in concerned. It is limited to the empowerful host which upheld the thron-e peror and to a few remarkable and au· of a tyrant. On the battle-field, before gust manifestations of public ritual, but the critical engagement, he addresses an you do not find it in the household. eloquent harangue to his soldiers, and You do not find it on the lips of the the most eloquent passage is that in people. You do not find that God in which he points upward and says: " The that form has taken up his abode with Most High God, the Supreme Ruler, is ' men. He is still far remote, on the sum· looking down upon you. Let not your mit of an icy Olympus, as it were, hearts waver." The worship of Skang- although to a certain extent dimly per. ti, the Most High (for that is almost a ceived by the mind of the Chinese naliteral translation of the name), contin- tion. ues to the present day, the sovereign now on the throne acting, as did his Tauism rose next. The founder of predecessors of four thouand years ago, Tauism preceded Confucius, but by a as high priest for the empire. On an kind of paradox his religion is of later altar within the walls of Peking he offers date. The founder of Tauism goes by up burnt sacrifices to the Supreme the name of Lautse, which signifies the Being. In the earliest days, however, .. old philosopher," probably because this worship was impure. We find no he was old when Confucius was young. point in Chinese history where it was They were contemporaries. The Tauist not mingled with the worship of sub- system is not found clearly developed in ordinate deities, nature.gods-gods of the only book which bas been transmit. the hills and rivers-and that intermix ted to us from the hand of Lautse, and ture not only continues to the present the authenticity of which has been to a day, but it has b!)en very largely in. large extent questioned. His followers, creased, as I shall have occasion to however, deduced from the obscure hints contained in that book two ideas, or rather one idea, which afterward sub. divided itself into two. The one idea genii. The term genii we usually em· was that by persistent effort we may ac- ploy as a translation for shensien or quire a mastery over matter in such a sien)in, both forms being used, which is way as to command all its potencies, and the word the Tauists apply to their employ them in accomplishing objects adepts, those who obtain the precious which would seem far beyond the reach gift, the elixir of immortality. This of human power, unless it were elevated view may be illustrated by the following by this process of discipline. The mat- lines from a Chinese poem : ter thus spoken of is subjectively that of our own bodies, the discipline of " A prince the &ought Immortal went to seek, which would result in a possible immor- And finding it he soared above the spheres; tality, and objectively the material objects surrounding us, but chiefly the In monntain caverns he had dwelt a weekelemental forms, the careful study of Of human time It was a thousand years." which would enable man finally to transmute the baser metals into gold, and to The Tauist system, deifying, as it were, accomplish many things which have the matter, being essentially materialistic, air of miracle. You perceive at once laid hold upon that august and sublime how naturally from this root conception conception of the ruler of the universe, springs the two fundamental ideas of and incorporated it into the material alchemy-the transmutation of metals world. Not only so, having arrived at into gold and the attainment of immor- , the idea of the five elements, it subditality. These came forward under the vided the idea of the supreme ruler, influence of perhaps the two leading de- and made five gods, each a god of a 'sires which characterize human exist- special element. Thus it corrupted the ence-the first to be rich, the second to idea of God, and it has been one of the live long, or to Iive forever, in order most fmitful sources of corruption in to enjoy wealth. This system has, how. the history of the Chinese mind, introever, a close relation to what preceded ducin" a multitude of favorite idols, it as a cause and explanation of the nature·gods of material origin, which power with which it took hold of the continue to be worshipped to the preshuman mind. I have just l18id that ent day. Confucius was something of an agnostic. He dealt largely in negations-refused The Buddhist system came in, as you to give any light beyond the grave, or are aware, early in the Christian era, the to hold out any hope of immortality, Emperor Ming Ti having sent a mission although that is to some extent implied to India to bring Buddhist priests and in the formal worship of ancestors. books from that country in the year 66 The longing of the human mind for a of the Christian era. The occasion for future life sought satisfaction in the the introduction of Buddhism was, on Tauist conception of a possible immor- the one hand, the eclipse of Confuciantality which was to be conquered by a ism, and, on the other, the religious long and laborious discipline, and which thought, or phases of thought, stimucould not be the heritage of the many, lated and introduced by Tauism. The but Which might become the possession defects of both were supposed to be of a very few. supplied by the stronger, more intel- lectual, and more spiritual creed of In- This system, at the same time, im. dia. The eclipse of Confucianism was parted a kind of life to all nature; every not caused by the ascendancy of a rival form of matter is instinct with an in- creed. It was caused by a political revextinguishable, divine essence, which is olution. The buililer of the great wall capable of assuming personality. In rose up in his might and conquered the this way it peopled the whole world with rival kings,-and resolved that he would a new Pantheon of gods, fairies, and extirpate the feudal system. He was made to believe that without extirpating the books of Confucius he never could eradicate that system, and that though he might overthrow one king after an- a very powerful attraction in contrast other, yet after he should pass away the to the meagre promises of Tauism and system would again spring from the the cold negations of Confucianism, pages of the Confucian books. He re- which preceded. This was connected solved to burn the books, and then, lest with the doctrine of the transmigration these books should be reproduced from of souls, which "Was common to almost the memory of able scholars, he put all Indian creeds. The Indian philosthem to death, and thus flattered him- ophy on that subject regarded transmiself that he had swept away Confucian- gration as something amounting to a ism from the face of the earth, and with physical necessity, that it is absolutely it the whole of the feudal system. It impossible for a man to extinguish his was during this eclipse of Confucianism, being-that he has, as it has been exwhich lasted for about two centuries, pressed, come into this world without that the Emperor Ming Ti sent his em- his own choice and will go into the next bassy to India. without his own choice, and thence go on in a succession of changes forever. The Chinese people, having got the This succession of changes is described, idea of immortality from Tauism, were under the figure of a wheel, the turn of at first fired with it, but disappointed destiny, or wheel of fate, which is repthat through that system there was no resented as revolving rapidly and drophope for any but a very few; they were ping out human souls to be born again fascinated with a report they had heard in the form of man or of some higher or of a blessed religion in India, which lower being, there being six categories offered salvation to all. Hence the em- in all, according to the Buddhist diviperor sept his embassy to India and in- sion. The religious view of the founder troduced this new religion, which had of the faith was pessimistic. To escape perhaps to some extent already found from this series of changes constitutes its way into China, and begun to exert happiness, and he devised a method for some influence, but which from that day that purpose. In the Northern School became a potent factor in the develop- of Buddhism, especially in its popular ment of the Chinese mind, and contin- phase, we seldom meet with this idea_ ues to the present day to be the leading We meet more frequently with the idea religious influence in that country. I that to rise in the scale of being is hapmay say, as an illustration of the posi- piness. Sakyamuni had in his system tion which Buddhism acquired and no heaven. The Northern Buddhism, holds in China, that I hold in my hand which has prevailed in China, has a a document never given to the world in heaven, borrowed, it may be, from the the English language, nor, perhaps, so Christian's Paradise. It has, presiding far as I know, in any other Western over that heaven, a goddess of mercy, language, showing that if in the year 66 borrowed, perhaps, from the Catholic an emperor was so impressed with conception of the mother of Jesus Christ. Buddhism as to send an embassy to the Many other ic!eas present a transforma- West to introduce it into China, four- tion-Iwill not say a travesty-of Christeen centuries later another emperor tianity. was so much influenced by it as to send an embassy to introduce the Buddhist Weare asked particularly the relation classics from Thibet. (The paper, which and the interaction of these three syswas an edict of the Emperor Yungloh, tems which we have thus briefly 1412, was here read.) Various doctrines sketched. You have noted that they are alluded to in that paper, only one rose one after the other, each of them or two of which I will touch upon. I introduced by a felt want, and that each have already referred to the full and 'was preceded by a yearning of the hnbounteous offer of salvation and immor- man soul for something better; consetality made by Buddhism as furnishing quently, in a religions point of view, each one may be considered as an ad. to the doctrine of immortality, in the vance upon that by which it was pre- duty of worshipping departed spirits. ceded. They were a long time antago- But this is faint, very faint, in compari. nistic, sometimes even inciting bloody son with the religious teaching of the persecutions, but in this day they have other two sects. Buddhism has been become comparatively quiescent, like especially potent in instilling ideas active chemicals, which, being brought which are so nearly akin to those prop· into juxtaposition, exert for a time their agated by Christianity as again to pre. various qualities, but which soon be. pare the way for the introduction of ancome quiescent and inert, until they are other system. Buddhism, no doubt, brought into contact with some more en· vastly enlarged the area of Chinese con. ergetic agent. We shall find that in ceptions, To borrow a mathematical Christianity. A remarkable illustration illustration, the religious ideas of the of the quiescence of these long, active, Chinese were limited, before the intro. and conflicting systems is found in the duction of Buddhism, to two dimenfact that there are in some parts of sions, something th!t may be described China little shrines or temples where as a "flat-land," with length and the three religions are seen represented breadth, but no height. Buddhism by their founders-Confucius, Buddha, gives it height, soaring up to the heav_ and Lautse-all sitting sid" by side and ens and developing the conqeption of a receiving at one and the same time the universe, the grandeur of which perhaps homage of worshippers who acknowl. nothing can exceed. Is it possible that edge all three. You might object that after this universe of three dimensions it would be a strange mind that would we shall have one of four dimensions? acknowledge and swallow all these Mathematicians tell us that with space creeds, yet there are many who assert of four dimensions it is possible to 'do that the three creeds are identical, if you many things which cannot be done could only get down to the bottom. In without it. There is, in my view, room fact, nothing is more contradictory. The for the fourth dimension, or, to drop the Confucian system is essentially ethical; figure, there is room for a fourth stage the Buddhist system is pure idealism, in the progression, one which Ohina is as pure as that of Berkeley or Hegel; waiting for-that is, the introduction the Tauist system is materialistic, be- of Christianity. Each of the previous ginning with gross materialism. How religions was ushered in by a felt want. is it possible that three systems so Christianity alone can supply the de· utterly divergent should ever be recon· fects of all the systems and present one ciled? The fact is, they are irreconcil· harmonious unity. If I were to express able. Each one presents some one thing in one word what Christianity is to con· which meets a human want, Qut recon· fer upon China, it would be this: Not ciliation there is none; peace, union, a God seated far away, upon some reo harmony, there cannot be, though 0. mote Olympus, as in the Confucian systruce, a permanent truce, seems at pres· tem ; not a God inherent in matter, as ent to exist between them. They are in the Tauist system; not a God, as in' no longer belligerent. The question the Buddhist system, who has risen from may be raised, What benefit has each the ranks of the disciples of virtue, a one of these conferred upon the Chinese mere deified man, but God, the Spirit people? Each one has enlarged and of the universe, in Christ Jesus, coming widened the speculative thought and reo into the human Boul, taking up his abode ligious conceptions of the peop] e. Con. there and working by his Holy Spirit a fucianism gave them, or, at least, pre· regenerating influence such as none of served for them, and preserves to the these creeds has ever possessed, and of present day, the grand idea of the Suo which they have presented only a faint preme Ruler, and it bears witness, too, and dim frophecy. This I believe to be the mission of Christianity, and I be- tombs. Here these mounds are, howlieve the Chinese, though it may be un- ever, the great hieroglyph of Americaconsciously, are waiting. for it and up in the mining regions of Michigan, reaching out after it. a thousand miles up the Missouri River, all over the Ohio and Mississippi basins In reply to a question as to what re- five hundred of them, if our memory ligion preceded Confucianism, Dr. Mar- serves us correctly, in one county of the tin said: State of Ohio alone; and all over the Southern tier of our States. How old "Confucius edited the canonical they are is an antiquarian's conun_ books 'of China, the earliest of which, drum. Trees have been found growing or rather the records contained in it, go .upon them with upward of four hunback twenty·two hundred. years before dred rings, recording their annual Christ. These two religious elements growth; and these, the" primeval forof the Confucian system, worship of est" of our forefathers, were a second Shangti (conjoined with that of the growth on the .. primeval forests" of hills and rivers) and that of deceased the civilized races, on whose graves ancestors, were in full flower at that they have grown, and who, some think, time. These mUl!lt have taken some retreated from the Ohio valley two time to attain the form in which they thousand years ago ! appeared. As to the idea of the Supreme Ruler, which, so far as it goes, But monuments they are of a people is very analogous to the Christian's idea of settled life, who had organized inof God, whether that is from a pa- dustries, habits of intelligent work-as triarchal tradition, as I am inclined to skill in masonry and pottery, and in think, I will not affirm." weaving and spinning cloth; and who could mine and move blocks of copper The Mound·Builders of America. ore weighing sixty tons.
We are paying large attention in these Who they were and whence they days to 'he antiquities of Oriental coun- came will be a scientist's riddle for tries. But the more one pursues the many a year to come. .Had half the atstudy of the antiquities of the pagan tention been bestowed on the dead lanpeoples of our own continent, the more guage of these sun·dried or burned interesting does it become. brick books which has been bestowed on the brick books of Babylon, and had The study of the mounds of North the arrow-headed alphabet of these our and South America is equal in interest own prehistoric peoples received the to those of Egypt or Assyria, and no one attention that has been given to Asc.an now say how important their study syrian research, it might not now be 1<0 may become. mortifying a failure to try to answer this question. They are the .. lost All the pre.historic mounds of North tribes of Israel," say some; Malays, and South America are of one type from say others, whose empire, maritime and Peru and Yucatan to Mexico and the commercial, and whose fleets of great Mississippi and Ohio valleys, in being ships reached all over the Pacific island a terraced elevation. Some, possibly, and to Peru; Phcenicians, cry others, once furnished the foundation of a the great colonizing navigators of anbuilding, as did those of Guatemala tiquity. Not so, say others still; they and Southern Mexico, where ruined are" Atlantics," from the lost" islands stone edifices still remain on the sum- of Atlantis," a portion of the American mits of similar earthworks. It is high- Continent now below the waters of the ly probable they were constructed for Atlantic Ocean, which once stretched in religioUI!I uses, some say, giving indica- neighboring groups from the West Intions of sun.worship and other sacred dies to the Allorefl. But, leaving all symbol, while othel"S think theIr} only these external theorizings out of view, arrested at the instigation of the eccle- we have two most adverse theories of siastical authorities on a charge of pub- scientists to amuse U8, if they do not licly performing religiolls services not satisfy us. sanctioned by the Rcman Catholic Church. On a hearing before the Crim- First, the civilized life of the ancient inal Court in November, it was proven Mexicans and Central Americans origi- that his religious services had been nally began and reached its climax in conducted privately within closed doors, South and Central America, and extend- and entirely within the' limitations of ed itself with gradually lessening com- the law, and he was acquitted; but in- pletcness over large portions of Ameri- asmuch as the parties urging the prose- ca, the civilization being less perfect as cution appealed the case to the Superior the colonies were remote. Second, the Court he was remanded to prison. The theory of the modern passionate evolu- Superior Court, after visiting the site of tionist, who would show that the begin- the chapel, affirmed the decision of the nings were everywhere, the gradual de- lower court and directed his release ; velopment reaching highest in Mexico, when his enemies again interposed, and Yucatan, and Peru. by appealing to the Supreme Court, suc- ceeded in having his imprisonment pro- These diyergent schools teach-the longed. Mr. Hicks, of the United States one that this is a great prehistoric race, Legation, telegraphed on the 16th of with arts of civilized life, reading, writ- January, that he bad watched the case ing, and aJ:chitectural decorations, and closely, and had had almost daily prom- skill not to be excelled by the best of ises of Mr. Penzotti's release, which tlie our constructors and decorators. These Foreign Office deemed certain; but al- ( find in the mounds of the United States though his imprisonment has con· evidence of a civilization such as the tinued for more than six months, a race of Indians known to history could decision dops not seem to haTe been never have produced. The other school rendered as yet. thinks there is nothing about these earthworks that may not be accounted Penzotti is an Italian subjeet. He has for after the most ordinary manner as been twenty-five years in South AIDer- belonging to the modern Indian. More ica. He was converted in Buenos Ayres entertaining literature is not easy to and became a colporteur of the Ameri- find, though it be only a babble of can Bible Society. He was some while books. ago placed in charge of Bible distribu- tion on the west coast of South Amer- -A brother kindly sends us a note ica. For threE years, amid a great deal stating that we inadvertently used the of persecution, he has been selling wrong title when we alluded to the Bibles in Peru. The priests had him "Church of England Missionary So- arrested and thrown into prison, where ciety," in Persia, in the February num- he has remained till now, among the low- ber. He says the missionaries whose in- est and vilest criminals in a dark filthy trusion in the Persian Presbyterian mis- cell. The charges cannot be sustained; sion field is complained of are an .. in- but, under Peruvian law, he must prove dependent mission under the special himself innocent. The Italian minister direction and patronage of the Arch- at Callao has sought his release as an Ital- bishop of Canterbury, and receive part ian flubject, and the American Bible So- of their funds from the Society for the ciety has appealed to Mr. Blaine for pro- Propagation of the Gospel." tection of certain property and other rIghts of Americans involved in the At the meeting of the American Bible case. But meanwhile Mr. Penzotti is Society in February, letters were pre- behind those barH, the representative and sented from the society's agent in Peru, champion of religious freedom. who has been in prison at Callao since the 25th of July last. Mr. Penzotti was
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
COMPARATIVE RELIGIONs.-The New which Dr. Martin himself was good York University has shown commend. enough to reyise and place at our dis- able appreciation of the thought.need posal. We present it now, with the im- of the age, in establishing a Lectureship pression that it is one of the very best on Comparative Religions, and is to be and most suggestive papers we have congratulated that it has secured Rev. published. We are also pleased to an- F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., as Lecturer. nounce that we hope to present, in an We understand that two courses of lec- .early issue hereafter, a paper from Dr.
tures are given. In the first, Dr. Ellin- Martin on "American Influence in wood considers Hinduism, Buddhism, China." G.
Mohammedanism, Zoroastrianism, and Confucianism, giving a large proportion A NEW MISSIONARY CYCLOPlIllDIA.-We of attention to Hinduism, as embracing soliciteil from Messrs. Funk & WagnaIIs all phases of the religion of the Hindus for temporary use, some advanced sheets from the first Aryan faith through Brah- of the new "Missionary Cyclopredia"
manism, Buddhism, Philosophic Ra-· they are about to issue. We were so tionalism of the schools, etc.-in a delighted with the excellence of the word, all that belongs to the> composite work, that we venture to violate a rule which may be called Hinduism. In of the house, admirahle though it be.
the second course he subsoils these It is, we believe, understood that their same fields with a more thorough study, own books are not to he presented in taking also the ancient religions of the this way in their periodicals. It is our world, studying them with a view to the pleasure to establish that rule by an ex- light which they throw on the question of ception. It is not too much to say that a primitive Monotheism, the testimony for more than a dozen years a missionary which they give by their traditions to the cyclopredia has been a desideratum.
general truths of Christianity. He con- We do not know of an edition of New- siders also Tauism and Shintooism, comb later than 1860. Aikman's Cyclo- and the religion of the Druses. He predia appe'ared in 1859, and reached a takes up particularly the relations of the second edition in 1861. Hassell's" From Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita to Pole to Pole" and Elliot Stock's Christianity. . He gives a full written "Handbook of Christian Missions"
lecture. He also furnishes lists of books were issued in 1872, as was also Boyce's to be read in connection with the lec- invaluable" Statistics of Protestant Mis- tures. His classes, as a rule, are enthu· sionary Societies, " which was published siastic in this study. Out of these only for private circulation, but worth courses of lectures has grown the organ- its weight in precious metal. Grunde- ization of "The American Society of man's "Allgemeiner Missions-Atlas,"
Comparative Religion," which though Vahl's" Missions-Atlas," and Werner's young is enterprising. On February 6th "Atlas der Evangelischen Missions,"
last it secured Rev. Dr. A. P. Martin, are of high value within their sphere, President of the Imperial University at but are not in English dress. There Peking, China, to deliver before it a lec- are smaller works, as Badley's" Indian ture on " The Religious Attitude of the Missionary Directory" and Dobbin's Chinese Mind." As the lecture was not " Foreign Missionary Manual," and the a written one we solicited the kind admirable "Missionary Year Book."
offices of the Corresponding Secretary But the great gap is unfilled. We of the Society, Rev. C R. Blauvelt, want a comprehensive, well-digested, Nyack, N. Y., in securing for publica- historical, geographical, and statistical tion in our columns a report of the lec- Bummary-a vast dictionary of mis- ture, and he 'furnished a full synopsiS, sions, And at great cost and pain!! that desidemtum is, we are confident, China is a greater scourge than war or now to be met. We base our judgment pestilence." These China Christians on some two hundred pages which we are taunted with having adopted the re- have examined and tested, by working ligion of "the foreign devils, who are with them for a month. Those who making China into a hell by their opi- know the nature of such a production um." Worse still, the poor, weak lit- will not expect a faultless volume. It tle Christian church in the Celestial Em- will not be free from some inaccuracies. pire is being well nigh decimated by Biographically, it will be like heaven: the use of the drug. G.
one will find persons there he did not expect to see, and miss persons whose -" Maokay of Uganda" has been is· sued by the Armstrongs. Alexander names he thought certainly would be Mackay was styled by the Pall Mall Ga- ·zette the ., St. Paul of Uganda." Stanthere. That is inevitable. But, after ley, Grant, Jephson, and scores of the great Afrioan "lights" have poured all such natural and necessary exception their vials of odors on Mackay's grave. We doubt if he is not to stand out the is taken, this promises to be a mission- foremost missionary layman of the cen· tury. This book is one to " read, mark, ary cycloprodia on a scale and of a char- learn, and inwardly digest." It is a religious tonic. acter such as we have not had. It will be hailed heartily and studied dili- gently. Missions represent more than anything but the Bible the nnity of Protestant Christendom. Manyare eager to get a glance at the whole field down to date. We believe from what we have seen of these sheets they are not to be disappoin ted. Our readers may observe that, for unity's sake and convenience of refer- The leading articles which we have ence, we have assigned to each month a general field, as follows : examined, snch as "Buddhism" and January: The general outlook of the "Bantu," must have been written by world field.
persons speoially competent to furnish February: China, Thibet, and Con- fucianism. them. We understand that.llpeoial care Maroh: Mexioo, Central America, has been exeroised in the assignment of West Indies, Cuba, and Evangelization of Cities. the several classes of work, by which the April; India, Ceylon, Java. Brahmanablest talent has been brought to bear ism.
upon the whole wvrk, which is editorially May: Burmah, Malaysia, Siam, Laos. Buddhism. in the oharge of Rev. E. M. Bliss. June: Africa. Freedmen in North The publioation of such a book or America.
books, for it is in two large volumes, July: Islands of Sea-Polynesia, Me- lanesia. Utah and Mormonism. North requires the investment of a large sum Amerioan Indians. Chinese and Japan- ese in Amerioa. of money, and deserves the encourage- August: Italy, France, Spain. Papal ment of the Christian publio, as furnish- Europe. Bulgaria.
ing a thesaurus of missionary informa- September: Japan, Korea. Medioal Missions. tion. Dr. Rufus Anderson's axiom Ootober: Scandinavia, Germany, ought not to be lost sight of-" The Switzerland, etc. Turkey, Persia, Arabia. Mohammedanism. Greek interest which truly Christian people Oh~roh, Nomu.al Christianity take in missions is equal to their correct knowledge of them." G.
-There is a traot entitled" Christian Woman of North China to the Christian Women of England upon the Opium In-· iquity." In' this these Chinese Christian women deolare to all Europe and to all nmnkind that" forei6n opium in November: South America. Y. M. Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia C. A. Home Missions. Papacy. to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews? These provinces as well as December: Syria and Jews. Green- Roumania, Montenegro, and Greece, land. Educational Missions. were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Pal- A remarkable movement, headed by estine as rightfully belong to the Jews? It is said that rains are increasing, and MT. W. E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Ill., there are many evidences that the land is recovering its ancient fertility. If is on foot to present an overture to the they could have autonomy in govern- ment, the Jews of the world would rally leading nations of the world, to buy Pal- to transport and establish their suffering brethren in their time-honored habita. estine and put it at the control of the tion. For over seventeen centuries they have patiently waited for such a Russian Jews, for occupation. The list privileged opportunity. They have not become agriculturists elsewhere, because of signatures to this document, already they believed they were mere sojourners in the various nations, and were yet to obtained, include editors, lawyers, mer- return to Palestine and till their own land. Whatever vested rights, by poschants, and men in every secular call- session, may have accrued to Turkey can be easily compensated, possibly by ing, as well as clergymen of every de. the Jews assuming an equitable portion of the national debt. nomination, inclusive even of Roman We believe that this is an appropriate Catholics. We have seen no document time for all nations, and especially the Christian nations of Europe, to show for twenty years that so impressed us kindness to Israel. A million of exiles, by their terrible sufferings, are piteously with its five hundred signatures. appealing to our sympathy, justice, and humanity. Let us now restore to them The following is the text of this me- the land of which they were so cruelly despoiled by our Roman ancestors. morial: . To this end we respectfully petition " What shall be done for "the Russian His Excellency Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, and the Jews? It is both unwise and useless Honorable James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, to use their good offices and into undertake to dictate to Russia con- fluences with the Governments of their Imperial Majestiescerning her internal affairs. The Jews Alexander III., Czar of Russia. have lived as foreigners in her domin- Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India. ions for centuries, and she fully be. William II., Emperor of Germany. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austrolieves that they are a burden upon her Hungary. Abdul Hamid II., Sultan of Turkey. resources and prejudicial to the welfare His Royal Majesty Humbert, King.of Italy. of her peasant population, and will not Her Royal Majesty Marie Christina, Queen Regent of Spain, and, with the allow them to remain. She is deter- mined that they must go. Hence, like the Sephardim of Spain, these Ashkena- zim must emigrate. But where shall 2,000,000 of such poor people go?
Europe is crowded and has no room for more peasant population. Shall they come to America? This will be a tre- mendous expense and require years.
Why not give Palestine back to them?
According to God's distribution of na- tions it is their home-an inalienable possession from which they were ex· pelled by force" Under their cultiva- tion it was a remarkably fruitful land, sustaining millions of Israelites, who in- dustriously tUled its hillsides and val- leys. They were agriculturists and pro.
ducers, as well as a nation of great com- mercial importance-the centre of civil- ization and religion.
Why shall not the powers which un- der the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Government of the Republic of France, and hopeful that our Government should and with the Governments of Belgium, initiate this friendly movement, to give Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, these wandering millions of Israel a set- Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, and Greece, tled and permanent home. to secure the holding, at an early date, of an International Conference to con- " The President listened attentively to sider the condition of the Israelites and Mr. Blackstone's remarks, and promised their claims to Palestine as their ancient to give the subject serious considerahome, and to promote, in all other just tion." and proper ways, the alleviation of their suffering condition." The editorial staff of this REVIEW is now unusually complete. It embraces, Several petitioners wish it stated that besides the editor-in-chief, Rev. Drs. the lews have not become agriCUlturists, Gracey and Gordon, leading Methodist because for centuries they were almost and Baptist divines, Rev. C. C. Staruniversally prohibited from owning or buck, an Episcopalian, Rev. D. L. Leontilling land in the countries of their dis- ard, a Congregationalist, besides a leadpersion. ing Presbyterian clergyman whose name does not appear. Neither effort nor ex- On March 5th, Mr. William E. Black- pense is spared by the publishers and stone, of Chicago, presented this remark- editorial staff to make this the leading able paper, with its signatures of the review of world-wide missions. Mr. most prominent men of the country, to Starbuck, who has charge of the foreign the President of the United States; and exchanges, is seeking to make his dethe following is the report of the inter- partment the American review of review, as found in the daily press: views.
"Mr. Blackstone explained to the The greatest embarrassment which President and Secretary Blaine that the attends our work is perhaps the lack of memorial was the result of a conference trustworthy statistics, or rather, conof Christians and Jews, recently held in sistent and uniform statistics. One of Chicago, and called especial attention to our correspondents complains of the the fact that it did not antagonize Rus- statement on page 232 March issue, of sia, but only sought, in a peaceful way, the work in Africa. He compares this to give the Jews control of their oIa with the figures of Mr. Liggins in his homes in Palestine. He pointed out ., Value and Success of Foreign Mismany evidences of the possibility of sions," page 31, who reports 175,000 great development of ihat country, both communicants and 300,000 baptized agriculturally and commercially, under members of churches, etc. Now we ask an energetic government, and said that our friend to bear in mind, first, that the railroad now building from Joppa Mr. Liggins's estimates, published in to Jerusalem, if extended to Damascus, 1888, were probably taken from reports Tadmore and down the Euphrates, can- made in 1887, and covering the year not fail to become an international high- from 1876-77. These estimates in the way. He said that the poverty of the REVIEW are from the most recent reports Turkish Government gives emphasis to available. But most of all must it be the proposed indemnity by funding a borne in mind that scarce any two portion of the Turkish national debt statisticians proceed on the same printhrough Jewish capitalists, and that only ciple of estimate. A Baptist connts only peaceable diplomatic negotiations are baptized adult believers; an Episcoasked for, to the end that all private palian or Catholic would reckon every ownership of land and property be care. baptized infant; and some high churchfully respected and protected. In clos- men have been Jmown to reckon all the ing, he said that, being on such friendly household of a baptized communicant. terms with Russia, and having no com· plications in the Orient, it is most fitting For years we have been seeking to get not detect the fact that on page 149, some uniform basis for such tables line 17, immorality would read better adopted, but in vain. If we could have for another" t". If any reader thinks uniform forms for such tables, no errors that proof.reading is a sinecure he or contradictions would seriously occur. should try it. For example, if we could have a column for baptized adults, one for baptized in- By some strange oversight in the brief fants. etc., one for adherents, etc., we article on "Missionary Training might prevent confusion. As it is now, Schools," page 300, Vol. III. of thid our only way is either to discard figures REVIEW, no mention is made of the Interentirely, or else publish such as we can national Medical Missionary Society and get, and ask our readers to take them Training Institute, at No. 118 East fortyfor what they are worth as approxi. fifth Street, New York. This institu· mates. We say this once for aU. tion was founded in 1881 and incor- porated in 1886, its objects being, "to Another esteemed correspondent heal the sick and preach the Gospel in thinks the word" boasts," on page 205, New York and other cities, and train March issue, a "venomous word to young men and women to go abroad as thrust at a bishop." The editor will medical missionaries." The medical only say no such indignity was intend· director and founder of the institute is ed. The word was used in a mild sense, Dr. George D. Dowkontt, a devoted misof a perfectly lawful exultation at a very sionary and able manager. creditable increase. This word has a legitimate use. Camp. Psalm xliv., 8. Seven dispensaries have been estab- lished-6 in New York and 1 in Brook. In his annual report of the Congrega. lyn, and upward of 25,000 cases of distional Union's work, Secretary Cobb ease have been treated. suggested, and Dr. Taylor advocated. for promoting the progress of mission. In 1889, 59 students, 12 of whom were ary enterprise: (1) a clear presentation, ladies, were received; and missionaries at least once a year, in every pulpit, of from this training I>chool are working in the work of the various departments India, China, and Africa. of Christian service in the light of the latest facts; (2) the adoption by every At the time of writing the artiC'le, we church of a plan by which offerings of had in mind general training schools, money shall be made, precisely the same and not medical. Hence the inadvert· as offerings of prayer and praise, to ence. carryon the work of the on.coming kingdom of God; (3) a greatly awakened A writer in the Christian suggests that apprehension of the fact that evangeliz. a good service could be rendered by ing work is rapidly growing, so that mllny Christians if they would write let· funds which sufficed twenty.five, or ters to missionaries in foreign lands. even ten, years ago can by no PORS;- There are many who can write a few bility do the work demanded to.day. simple sympathizing lines that would cheer lonely hearts, but perhaps could Our correction in the February num· not otherwise do much for the Master. ber, page 142, needS correcting. The There are also many earnest believers line misplaced on page 51 of the Janu· whose interests would be widened if ary number belongs on page 50. And they were to write to missionaries in in the February number, page 83, line different fields, for wherever their let- 12, Siberia, should, of course, read Libe· ters go their hearts would go thereafter. ria; and even Dr. Gracey's eagle eye did In most cases such letters will be an· swered, and thus new and holy bonds would bind together the hearts of the writer and the lonely workers in far· away fields.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
-Asia is the most populous of con- ism, in the strict SQnse of the word, they tinents. But its population is un- say is, what may be called a cellular sysequally distributed. Taking the whole tem of society, where the cells are built area of Europe, it has a denser popula- up separately, and kept from all possition proportionately than Asia has. It bility of coalescing by an elaborate sysaverages 90 to the square mile, while tem of boycotting in food and in mar- Asia averages only 46. riage. And this has given rise to a hab- it of thought which is the deadliest foe But four countries of Asia-India, to Christian aggressive work. The one Java, China, and Japan-with five- sin which the caste Hindu regards as sixths of the total area have double the unpardonable is to think and act for population of Europe. himself. Individual responsibility, one of the most important elements in Chris- INDIA- BRAHMANISM. tian morality, is the one great sin to the caste Hindu. The individual is noth- The population of India is roughly ing, the caste is everything. If the classified as : (1) Hindus, (2) Aboriginal caste Hindu is to accept a new faith, tribes, (3) Mohammedans, (4) Miscella- then the probability is that he will come neous sects-Buddhists or Jains, Parsis, to it by a movement of masses and not Sikhs. The first two are estimated of individuals_ at 206,000,000, the Mohammedans at ronndly 50,000,000, and the miscellane- This finds at this moment an emphatous at 6,000,000. In counting the Hin- ic illustration in North India, among dus and Aboriginal tIibes together, we the Methodist missions. A great movedo not mean to say that Gonds, Rhonds, ment among certain low-caste peoples Santals, and the Hill tribes are Hindus. has taken place by which the communi- Many of them are so counted, but per- ty, as such, is turning to Christianity; haps 20,000,000 of them, at a low esti- and 5000 were baptized last year, and mate, are not even Hinduized, and pos- perhaps as many more were ready to be sibly 50,000,000 of them must not be baptized, but the missionaries preferred counted as Hindus. they should wait for further inRtruction and testing; yet they will, notwithstand- Of the 186,OOO,000-if we reckon it so ing this repression, baptize at least 5000 high-of the Hindu community, a large more this year, and have at least 10,000 number are out.castes by the system, eagerly awaiting baptism. It is a moveor are very low·caste people. These, ment much like that in Ongole among strictly speaking, are religiously with- the Baptists, and in NellorEl also. out privileges and socially without standing, separated necessarily and In the Deccan, this Scotch delegation eternally from the body politic of the thinks, the family feeling is stronger four castes which constitute the Hindu than the caste feeling in the depressed community. classes, and they think that there, the aggression will be along the family line. Professor Lindsay and Rev. J. F. Dr. Sheshadri's success is based on the Daly, deputized last year to visit the family as an indirect agency in the prop. Free Church missions in India, report- agation of the Gospel. It is confessed ed that caste Hinduism includes all man- that the mission does not show the sa~ne ner of religions in our Western sense of proportion of results in conversion the word, varying from a refined theos- among the strictly caste Hindus, but it ophy down to what is little better than is certain that, through mission and govrude fetich worship, and has no com- ernment schools, and other contact with mon creed, although beneath all there Western civilization-in society, letters, lies. a curious pantheism which is the one common religious basis. Hinducommerce, and laws-caste Hinduism is community, . which challenges fresh being seriously undermined and greatly effort on the part of the Christian modified.* Church; for it shows that, after all the European scholarship has disclosed to advance of the Christian community in these Hindus their own original scrip. India, there were more heathen in India tures, now overlaid with the debris of at the end of the decade than at its be- Iustful and foolish idolatry and fetich- ginning. Itmustnot be a source of dis.
ism; anu. whole segments of this commu.i couragement, however, for the Christian nityare breaking from the strict social community in India was shown to have order and organizing at a sort of half.way increased at nearly double the ratio of house between Hinduism and Chris- the non-Christian population. Then we tianity, while individuals in large num- must not overlook t.he fact that Brah- bers have swung to a stage of infidelity manism has been deteriorating for a in all religion. India to·day is not thousand years. It has died at the top.
the India of even fifty years ago. The It has been struck in the head; as a re- British Government steadily urges a ligious sYRtem it has been brained. It European standard of morals on the has added nothing to its philosophy for community. The pressure brought to centuries, nor to its aggregate of re- bear on them just now on the family and ligious force. If because of its exten- marriage life is in illustration, by which sion among depressed masses it has the" age of consent" has been raised found geographical or communal ex- to ten years. Gross abuses forced the tension, it has yet seriously declined in government to this action; but what us its purity. If there are more Brahmans, feel more hopeful is that the public there is less Brahmanism. It has even sentiment of the native community has been compelled to take a back seat on been elevated so far as to fortify the gov- the school forms, while European schol- ernment in this action. This gives en- ars should teach it what its sacred books couragement to hope that the govern- say it is. It is a learner and not a ment may be induced to press the mar- teacher of its own literature.
riage laws of India in the near future A preacher of the Brahmo Somaj is yet nearer to a standard becoming a reported as saying in a sermon : Christian nation. But in considering the " Men's minds have become restless. contact of Christianity with Brahman- Their minds now are filled with doubts ism, high caste or low caste, it is always regarding those things which formerly well to bear in mind that it is an absolutely local religion. It is confined to commanded respect. . . . A great flood the soil; crossing certain geographical has come and swept over the face of the boundaries, a caste Hindu loses his caste. Caste HindJlism, therefore, can have coun'try, carrying away the roofs of the no geographical extension. It is also edifices of past creeds and customs. confined within blood boundaries. It Drowning men, in their despair, are catching at whatever they find nearest their hands. They are finding it diffi- cult to obtain peace of mind."
can only be propagated along race lines. The New Light, an organ of the Brahmo The only possible increase, therefore, of Somaj, has the following: the Brahman community is as the " Christ Jesus … is as much necessary birth.rate exceeds the death.rate. If in this age and in India as He was 1800 the census can be relied on, Hinduism years ago in Judrea. As sinful children (not Brahmanism) increased in the re- of men, we, the people of India, are as cent decade six per cent. This marks a much in need of the Living Son of the great aggregate increase if a heathen Living God as the people of Judrea were in days gone by."
• The part of this official report of the Free But let us not overestimate the utter- Church of Scotland delegates to India, which an~es of the more intelligent classes. we have followed, would make a very excellent Below them is still the vast horde who tract. eat. drink, and are given in marriage, The extensive influence of the San- caring only how to plough, and reap, and skrit language on the Javanese is in evi- trade, and keep from starvation, not able dence of long intercourse. Every to read, not caring what the brains of language of the Eastern Archipelago will India are occupied about at all. Only be found to have engrafted upon it a 11,000,000 out of a total of 250,000,000 quantity of Sanskrit proportionate to the can read. extent of its own cultivation. The Kavi, / Mission work was never more neces- a language of Java, is chiefly SanskTit. sary, never so vast, so intelligent, so co- One sixth of the Malay language is San- operative, so compacted, so jealous of the skrit. The Mohammedans came in 1478, efficiency of its own methods, so intro- and Arabs and MaJays drove out every spective as now. The ratio of conver- description of Hindus, even a sect of sions steadily advances as weil as the Sivaites, who attempted to propagate ratio of the Christian community rela- their peculiar worship. tive to other portions of the population. Bishop Thoburn is authority for the Islam, so modified as to form almost statement that the largest missionary a distinct religion known as Javanism, conference in the world meets monthly remains the religion of the Javanese in Calcutta. race, and is reported to have rapidly ex· tended. The Sundas, who occupy the The next Decennial Conference of the west end, are less civilized than the Jav. ruissionaries will be held in 1892, and anese, who occupy the rest of the island. we have no doubt the summary of re- Politically the country is divided into sults will be greatly uplifting. 24 governorships. It has the electrio telegraph and two railroads. JA.VA.. Missionary work on this island as Java is about equal in size to one a:c.d nearly records a failure as in any part one-third of Great Britain, and count- of the globe. The Christianity of the ing little Madura, in its bosom, with Netherlands has had this eighteen or less than one·fifteenth of the area of the twenty millions of people within touch whole Eastern Archipelago, it has more for two centuries and a half, and enrolls than half the population of the group; not perhaps more than 4000 Christians. and its population is rapidly increasing. The Netherlands Missionary Society has It is the third in size, but first in trade labored here. The Dutch Missionary of the group. It is the granary of the Society commenced work among the archipelago. It is the most noted, too, 4,000,000 of Sundanese in Western Java for its ruins. Brambaban abounds with in 1863. It has schools and perhaps stupendous relics of Indian origin, the nearly 1000 in its congregations. It hilS remains of an extensi ve and splendid translated the entire Scriptures into city, while prodigious monuments of an- Sundanese. The Dutch Reformed Mis- cient Hindus appear in every direction. sionary Society labors in Central Java. The finest Sii ecimens of Buddhist stat- It reports a remarkable movement in ues in the world are in Java. Boro the last two or three years among the Buddha is the most magnificent relic of populations ruled by Moslem Sultans, Buddhism remaining in any country. notwithstanding that no missionary can Three hundred Buddhist images are preach without a government license, here. Buddhism was the prevailing re- and that license restricts him to one po· lision of the ancient Javanese. Civili- litical division. Over one thousand zation spread from West to East in the souls were reported converted in one Indian Archipelago. district where permission to preach hIlS beE'n persistently refused, and no min. The Javanese trace their origin to In- ister allowed to administer the sacra· dia. Probably commercial intercourse ments. The Mennonite Society, or- existed between the Coromandel coast g,an"iz._ed–in. 1849, made Java its first neld and Java from time immemorial. but it reported not more than 133 adhe- tered the field in 1813, by the ap- rents in 1889. pointment of four missionaries. This Board has given great attention to the (lEYLON. establishment of a well-ordered educa- tional system. They have had encour- Ceylon, the natives say, is the" Seat aging results in the way of self-support. of Paradise." Its 3,000,000 of people They now enroll 1477 communicants, are crowded about 118 to a square mile. and number 3116 adherents and 328 na- It is about two_sevenths the size of Great tive workers. The contributions of the Britain. It is called the "adopted native church last year amounted to country of the persecuted Buddhists." $4878. Singhalese and Tamils are the two principal races of the island. These are The Wesleyan Missionary Society endifferent from each other not only in tered Ceylon in 1814. The story of Dr. language and religion, but in vigor, in- Coke dying on the way to found this telligence, and personal characteristics. mission is a familiar one. The Church of England Missionary Society entered The Tamil is industrious and enter- in 1818, and the S. P. G. in 1838. prising, while the Singhalese is just the opposite. The HindUIsm of the Tamils In a large public square in the northdiffers but little from Hinduism in South ern part of Calcutta missionaries preach India. They are mostly devil-worship- every Sunday afternoon to large and repers, and devil trees and temples are spectful audiences. Recently a man common. The Buddhist Singhalese, like appeared in the audience interrupting their Tamil neighbors, have retained the preacher. He was remonstrated many of the lower forms of superstition. with, but continued his impertinent questions. Suddenly a native police- Ceylon has been mission ground for man arrested him, though he called nearly four hundred years, and has been loudly on the Hindus to rescue him; made the victim of some of the most re- and he was taken to the police station markable experiments in Christianiza- where, before the magistrates, he con- Hon that the world can anywhere show. fessed that he was a paid agent of the Its missionary history may be divided Madras Hindu Propagation Society, sent into three epochs, corresponding to the to Calcutta to put a stop to street governments which held it : the Portu- preaching! This illustrates the tactics guese, the .f)utch, and the English. now being pursued in India. When the Portuguese held most of the island, the Roman Catholics, in the be- Dr. W. A. P. Martin, in the librum, ginning of the sixteenth century, sought contradicts the impression that China to introduce Christianity, but it was lit- will menace the world's peace. Chinese tle less than paganism itself. The traditions are opposed to war. Defence, Dutch, in 1556, made the great blunder not conquest, is the aim of her military of seeking to turn the natives from Ro- organization. Internal improvements manism to L)ltheranism, by offering are progressing. To meet the needs of government offices only to such as were commerce, the rich coal-fields of the baptized in the national church. They Empire are being developed. These banished the priests, Catholic rites were mines are connected with the sea by a forbidden on pain of death, and the railway. Soon other railroads will be people were commanded to become built. China, Dr. Martin says, will Protestants. The 30,000 Christians soon mine her own iron and produce which they soon reckoned were of little her own steel rails. She is mining for worth, and there is only a feeble rem-. silvel.' and gold, and is prospecting for nant of them to be found. petroleum.
The English Baptists came in 1812. They number now about 1000 communicants. The American Board en-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
-The North Afrjca Mission has in lem are in protracted unhappy friction.
all 58 missionaries engaged in its field Complaint is made by the Society that of operations, embracing Morocco, Al- the bishop'S late charge, instead of geria, Tunis, Tripoli, and North Arabia. being primarily addressed to his clergy, -·Last year the Foreign Mission Fund was evidently intended for English of the English ;Presbyterian Church High Church friends. More deplorclosed with a debt of £3100. able, it magnifies "points of external service and ceremony," to the exclu- Italy-Evangelical Alliance.- The sion of the truths of the Gospel of president of the Roman branch of the Christ. Other charges ar~ made which Alliance had the honor of a private audi- mark strained relations. As the Society ence with King Humbert, before whom provides a large proportion of the bish- were laid the arrangements for the ap- op's salary, some change is inevitable. proaching international conference at Bishop Blyth decla.res that he will not Florence. He expressed his cordial in- resign. terest in the meeting, and hoped that the Alliance would ~e warmly greeted Archdeacon Maples. – Rev. James by the Italians. The subjects for dis- Johnston has recently, in Manchester, cussion comprise" Religious Thought listened to this nobly devoted worker, in Italy," "Florence and the Reforma- identified with the Lake Nyassa branch tion," "The True Unity of the Chris- of the Universities' Mission, over which tian Church," "The Divine Authority Bishop Smythies presides. The archof Holy Scripture," "The Relation of deacon belongs to a family of eminent the Church to Modern Society," "In- solicitors in London, and was educated ternational Christian Co-operation," at the Charterhouse and University Col- "Christianity and Social Questions," lege, Oxford. Upon taking holy orders, and " Foreign Missions." in 1876, he left for East Central Africa, where he has bravely remained, an inde- India-Salvation Army.-By the fatigable missionary pioneer. He gives toilers continued advance is reported a cheery account of the conquests and throughout Ceylon and the Indian Em- prospects of the Universities' Mission. pire. In 1886 the Army had 15 corps, One of the chief trials which the Uniwith 39 European and 41 native officers, versities' missionaries have to face is the while in 1888 some 56 corps had been irritating effect produced on the nerves established, represented by 166 Euro- by the malarial climate, and the consepean and 102 native officers. The re- quent difficulty of dealing justly and turns for 1890 show 96 corps, 171 Euro- gently with the natives. ~'his may pean and 273 native officers. Out of a partially account for, though not excuse total of 4673 conversions there had been the cruelties practised by secular ex- 263 Europeans, 317 Roman Catholics, plorers in many parts of Africa.
592 native "Christians," and· 3501 East Africa.-A Berlin correspond- "raw heathens saved." In December ent of the London Times telegraphs that last 55 new officers embarked for India, the Central Board of the African Society where some of the Army's social work of German Catholics has granted 25,000 is being attempted. As regards the marks toward the fund for placing a.
position of the Salvation Army in the Wissmann steamer on Lake Victoria, United States, the figures are 86,662 on condition of the success of the enter- members, 40 church buildings, and 287 • prise being otherwise assured, and fur- halls, with sitting accommodation for ther sums, amounting to 75,000 marks, 102,261 persons. for the promotion of missionary enter- -The English Church Missionar,}" prise in various districts of German East Societs and the Bishop of Jerusa- Africa. Although Major VOIl Wissmann, on his return to Berlin, last summer, in and Christian manner," and continues, comparing the work of Catholic and " I shall never forget ODe time, when Protestant missionaries in East Africa, speaking on this subject with his late awarded to the former the palm of much Highness the Maharajah of i Travancore. greater success, his statements were His Highness said the day of rest was stoutly challenged and, in some cases, observed by his Government in the certainly disproved. jails, public offices, etc., but he asked, Would it not be a strange thing if he, English Wesleyan Missionary So· a Hindu prince, had to interfere to ciety.":-The discouraging statements make Christians keep the Sabbath? ' " made in the January issue of the REVIEW The missionary concludes by observing relative to English Wesleyan finances that the question is one which, so far may now be considerably modified. as the obse"ance of the day of rest is With the disappearance of the contro- concerned, "very closely affects Chrisversy on the Society's Indian policy, tian missions." which led to a serious decline in receipts in Great Britain, there is reported at Hindu Child Marriage-" Age of the opening of 1891 a "marked improve· Consent" Bill.-Moderate as the Inment." Fresh sympathy has been awa· dian Government measure is to raise kened. From Tonga good news still ar· the minimum age of a girl capable of conrives. With the return of religious sent,ing from ten to twelve years, it is liberty the native Wesleyan chapel is some advance toward the removal' of a regaining the ground which it lost by shameful abuse in relation to Hindu the recent persecution. child marriages. By the majority of representative subjects in India the bill India.-The eminent Baptist minis· will be deemed inadequate. It was ter, Rev. E. G. Grange, of Bristol, who only a few months ago two thousand has just returned from India, says that Indian women asked that the consenting the style of life in which missionaries age should be fourteen yearli. This live does strike a visitor as being luxu· memorial to the Viceroy was supported rious, but it is inevitable. His general by fifty.five ladies practising medicine impression is that the life is a trying in India. For this step in legislation one, and nothing save the love of God great praise is due to Mr. lblabari, or the love of money would keep a man whose efforts have been of the most in India. self·denying character. He thought that fourteen years might be adopted, Indian Factory Commission.- an opinion similarly held by the medi- Although this commission, at the con. cal profession, and likewise long recogelusion of its sittings in 1890, recom· nized by the Parsee and Brahman commended important amendments touch. munities. The Rajpoots have lately fol· ing the excessive working hours of lowed this examp1e. Fortunately, the women and children, there is a further l'rincipal Hindu reformers are press. call for humane -legislation in such na· ing amendments by which to strengthen tive States as Travancore, where the the rights of parents in withholding Factory Acts have no operation. A their daughters from cohabitation with friend of the writer, the Rev. J. Knowles the husbands they have married as mere (L. M. S.), Travancore, South India, re- children, till they have reached a proper marks that" professedly Christian men age. It is admitted that the Viceroy may and do work women and children has escaped being charged with violating from dawn to dark, with only a short outrageously social custom and ecclesipause of about twenty minutes in the astical tradition. The ultimate developmiddle of the day." Referring to the ment of this measure is scarcely less imneed of intervention, Mr. Knowles says, portant than the virtual abolition of " The only thing I am pleading for is the legal status of Indian slavery in 1843. that things shall be done in a humane Monthly Bulletin. year of 42,124. All the Methodist de- nominations in the United States nUll!- -The Christian Alliance has some ber 54,711 churches, 31,765 Dnnisters, suggestive words on taking secondary and 4,980,240 communicants. places in service for Christ. We must learn to help as well as lead, if we would -The Deaconess movement is spread- be used of God. It is a great thing to ing. In connection with the Baptist be wiIIing to be second, or third, or Forward Movement, a new Deaconesses' fourth, or hundredth, if need be. Paul Home was recently opened in London. went out second, but God soon reversed Ladies will be trained in nursing and the order, and so it reads now, " Paul other work among the poor, and will be and Barnabas," not" Barnabas and placed under the direction of such Saul." Andrew Milne was refused as churches as may desire t.heir aid. missionary, and then offered to go as a servant. Be blacked Robert Morrison's -The Rev. G. W. Morrison, of the shoes, and did a servant's work for a American U. P. India. mission, may be time, bnt became at length one of the compelled to return to this country this greatest missionaries of the world. spring to bring his motherless babe.
-There are in the United States, -The Rev. J. Kruidenier, of the Canada, England and Scotland, 34 American U. P. Egyptian Mission, who women's missionary societies, and they has been laid aside for :five months with have 1397 missionaries in the field. critical illness, has recovered, and has resumed his work at Assiout. -The work of telegraph building in South Africa has pushed far ahead of -The Rev. Dr. Lansing, of the railroad enterprise. A line now reaches American U. P. Egyptian Mission, is the new capital of King Khama, 1700 slowly recovering his health, and is bemiles in an air line northeast of Cape ginning to take some part in public ser- Town. Savage Africa will thus be vices. Be is at La Grange, Mo. joined with civilization by electric wires. Two hundred and sixty wagons, -Dr. Pentecost reports the outlook each drawn by from ten to twelve yoke for India most hopeful. The older misof oxen, have taken their way northward sionaries are .full of expectation. Imloaded with nothing but telegraph wires. portant conversions are occuring at all No recent enterprises of the sort surpass the stations. Be emphasizes the fact, in magnitude, or in the energy with however, that the mission field is sadly which they are being pressed forward, undermanned. Be appeals to all Christhese railroad and telegraph projects, tians in America for special prayer for now far advanced in South Africa. India, for the outpouring of the Spirit upon the workers and on the people. -It is said there are about thirty Be pleads also for increased gifts to the thousand children of school age in Chi- mission boards. "Let our men of cago who are not in school, and not at wealth double their SUbscriptions, work. This means that, in most cases, and let one hundred of our very best they are on the street. Verily, there is young men offer themselves. It is need of Gospel work very near home. absolutely of no use to send second- class men· to India. _ . .. Do not -The Methodist Year BooTe for 1891 believe the report of the unbelieving gives many interesting facts. The spies. God is able to give us the land." Methodist Episcopal Church in this Dr. Pentecost presided lately, at the country has a membership of 2,283,154, Town Hall of Calcutta, at the annnal a net gain of 46.691 over last year. The prize distribution of the boys' and the den()mination is serv~d by 14,792 min- girls' schools of that city, and Mrs. isters. It has 2,264,832 Sabbath·school Pentecost gave away the prizes. Dr. scholars, an increase over the previous Pentecost's work among the Englisheducated Bengalis is declared by the home with ruined habits. The Rev. Indian Witness to have been attended Eugene Dunlap, for many years con- with much blessing. One address, at nected with the American Presbyterian Duff College, made a profound impres- Mission at Siam, is making the arrange- sion. Young Bengalis present have ments, Up to the present time only since signed a solemn covenant to take four young men from Siam have been Christ as their Saviour, declaring they educated here. One. is now in the will make a public profession soon. Auburn Theological Seminary. " 'rhe feeling prevails among all classes who know the facts," says the Witness, -October 2d, 1792, the Baptist Mis- " that we are on the eve of a mighty sionary Society waa organized, the first work among this class, who have so long society in the world organized exclusivestood at the very threshold of a Chris· ly for sending the Gospel to the heath- tian life." It is a notable fact that thA en. The first offerings amounted to Englishman, the leading daily paper of about $66. Now there are 223 evangel- Calcutta, gave a sympathetic as w,ell as ical missionary societies, 5594 foreign elaborate account of Dr. Pentecost at missionaries (over 3000 of whom are orthe outset of his mission. It ascribes dained ministers), 33,543 native helpers, much of his success to his striking per- 681,503 native communicants, and in sonality and manner. 1890 the contributions reached $11,42::1,- 58.8. -From Tahiti and the adjacent islands a band of not less than 160 -There are several excellent training evangelists have gone forth, carrying the schools for nnrses in Japan. One of message of salvation to other benighted these is under the direction of a lajy tribes, and yet less than a century ago who left the superintendency of a Bosthe ancestors of these evangelists were ton hospital for her laborious post in lying in the grossest darkness and su- Kyoto. Another school in Tokyo is perstition. raising money for a building. Its man- agers consist of both American and Jap- -A Young Men's Christian Associa- anese ladies. tion has been established in Jerusalem, and modern methods of reaching the -Recent reports from the Presbytemasses are to be instituted in that his- rian mission in Shantung, China., are of toric city. a most encouraging character. The meeting of Presbytery at Wei Hien -The Rev. Dr. R. Hamill Nassau, a brought together about forty mission_ Presbyterian missionary on the Ogove aries full of enthusiasm, besides a goodly River, West Africa, is preparing to re- number of native preachers_ This Presturn to this country with his motherlells bytery has twenty organized churches on little daughter. Mrs. Nassau died in the its roll, with applications forfour or five wilds of Africa, with no white person new organizations. Four hundred and near except her husband. Dr. Nassau fifty-eight additions to t)le churches expects to reach Philadelphia about the were reported for last year. It is estifirst of May. mated that there are fifteen thousand in- quirers in the different districts. -Arrangements aTe making by the King of Siam to send six young men to -The Young Men's Christian Assothis country to be educated. They are ciation work in India is most encouragto enter Westminster College, at New ing. The number of members on the Wilmington, Pa., an excellent United roll of the Madras Association increased Presbyterian institution. The reason in three months from 85 to 165, 50 of given for bringing them here is that whom are active members. The influsimilar experiments in England have ence of the work is great, first in failed, the young men having returned strengthening and enconraging those I who are Christians, but who are exposed the Britons. They were too lazy and to many temptations, and then also in illiterate, he said, for any good. The reaching those who are not yet Chris- darkeys saw the point. It is a good tians. thing to look at the hole of the pit whence we were dug, especially when -British papers announce the death we are impatient enough to say that the at Newchang, China, of the Rev. J. H. lower races about us cannot be civilized. Fitz Simon8, missionary of the Irish Presbyterian Church. He had been -Leading Hebrews in San Francisco, only three weeks in his chosen field it is said, have dt!cided to raise a fund when called home. of a quarter million dollars for the re- lief of their persecuted brethren in Rus- -It is said that not more than one sia. The plan includes the purchase of eighth of the people of Japan live in a million acres in Mexico on the Pacific cities having more than 10,000 inhabi- coast, which will cost only one dollar tants ; the vast majority are farmers or an acre. This tract will be divided into fishermen. small farms, on which large numbers of these Hebrew exiles, who are mostly -The Evangel, the American Baptist farmers, will live. Colonists are to be mission steamer on the lower Congo, is sent out through the English Society of the first vessel to make the passage from Israelites. All the rabbis and rich the mouth of the river to Matedi in a Hebrews of San Francisco ar(}active supday. porters of the projE!ct.
-There are said to be 11 provinces in -The Shah of Persia, it is said, re- China, with 982 walled cities, in 913 of cently paid a personal visit to the Amerwhich there is no missionary. ican mission home and school in Te- heran. This is the first visit ever paid -The American Baptist Mission on by the Shah to a private foreign resithe Congo has founded a new station on dent, and it is not surprising that it the upper river at Irebo, 375 miles made quite a sensation. His Majesty above Stanley Pool and 750 from the was greatly pleased. sea. -From the report of the Japanese -Two new editions of the Burman Minister of Education it appears that Bible are being printed by the Baptist there are nearly three million pupils in Missionary Union, one in Rangoon and the public schools of the Empire of Jaanother, from reduced plates, in Boston. pan. The cause of education is rapidly advancing. -The American Baptist missionaries on the Upp!'r Congo have made discov- -The Rev. A. W. Thompson, the eries which show that Lakes Mantumba new Presbyterian missionary to Triniand Leopold are connected and form a dad, was recently designated at Dursecondary course for the waters of the ham, Nova Scotia.. Mr. Thompson Congo. The Upper Congo Valley is one leaves with the full confidence and the vast network of lakes and rivers. earnest good wishes of his church.
-There are three mission steamers on -The Rev. John M: Greene, D.D. the waters of the Upper Congo. They now for some years at the head of the convey preachers and teachers to the Presbyterian Missions in Mexico, was various stations on the great river and obliged, some six months since, to decarry supplies when needed. sist from his manifold labors and cares, and return home to recruit his health. -A missionary in South Afriea was We are gl ad to learn that he is now reading Cicero's Orations with his negro again in nearly fnll strength, and expects students. He came upon the passage to return to Mexico at once. where Cicero advised the general to make slaves of all the prisoners except -On November 29th last Dr. Henry ing the high passes of the Himalayas H. Jessup, so long of the Presbyterian and fording dangerous streams. They Syria Mission, had the pleasure of wel- have not seen a European for ten years. coming a son as a recruit to that mis- sion. The Rev. William Jessup and -The Presbyterian Mission in Chili wife arrived that day in Beirut. Mr. has five organized churches as well as Jessup left Syria when a little child in preaching halls in the principal towns 1864, and now returns for the first time. in the country, Evangelists make long Educated in Princeton, he was ordained tours, sowing the Bread of Life. There by the Presbytery of New Brunswick are two schools: an elementary one at last April, married to Miss Faith Jad- Valparaiso, attended by 200 scholars, win, October 15th, and sailed for Syria and a superior institution at Santiago early the following month. He is now with 80 scholars, some of whom have stationed at Zahleh, on the eastern side come from homes in Peru and Bolivia. of Lebanon. A young Spanish pastor, M. Francesco Diez, who studied at Lausanne, has re- -The Rev. Hunter Corbett writ~s to cently settled at Santiago in connection the Presbyterian Banner from China: with the mission. " During a journey of two months in the interior visiting churches, stations -McCormick Seminary has at present and schools, forty persons were redMved 40 young men who expect to enter the into the church on confession of faith, foreign field. They appeared before making ninety-two this year. Three Presbytery lately, and asked permission church.buildings were dedicated. Two to visit the churches to present the work of them are built of stone and the other so dear to their hearts. They hope by of brick. These buildings cost the these meetings to stimulate large lib- ChriRtians no small amount of self- erality, so that when the time comes denial." During this year about five the Board will be able to accept them. hundred members were added to the They received the hearty endorsement churches in the Presbytery and five of the Presbytery. men were ordained to the ministry. -As showing the vitality of the sim- -Cardinal Lavigerie proposes to re- ple old Gospel, a missionary from China claim large regions of the A.frican Sahara says: ., If there is anything which lays by monkish settlements. He is organ- hold of the poor people in that country izing a French Sahara Brotherhood, who it is the simple story of the crucifixion will live as engineering monks, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the after five years' trial devote themselves morality, or the miracles of the Gosfor life. They will be posted near old pel, or even the wonderful sayings or wells in the Sahara, and will reopen teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, those wells and start new ones and but the old story of the cross, of the plant fruit far~s to form a series of blood, of the sacrifice, of the satisfacoases in the desert. They will make it tion of Christ in dying for sinners on their special work to gather the scat- the tree, that is the power for good in tered nomads, suppress their slave trade, touching the heart and awakening the and convert them if possible. The conscience … system is to extend itself until vast tracts are fertilized, as was the case in -The anti-rum congress at Khartoum the time of ancient Carthage, seems to have been a vigorous one. It was held at the same time with the anti- -AMoravian missionary and his wife slavery congress in Brussels. Bishop have been laboring for thirty years at a Taylor's magazine says: "While the station in the mountains of Thibet, Christians in Brussels were resolving to with the nearest post-office fourteen • search all vessels and dhows suspected days distant and reached only by cross- of having slaves on board, and to con- fiscate the vessels and return the slaves,' the Arabs were adopting a resolution are also 27 80cieties on the continent of • to surround the entire coast of Africa Europe. As to results, it is said that with a cordon of armed dhows and con- within the past seventy-five years 100,- fiscate every European vessel contain- 000 Jews have been baptized, and that ing liquors, and sell .the crewS into sla- the number of Hebrew Christians with very.' " their children reaches a quarter million. Many of the converts are men of influ- -It is said that for what it costs to ence. fire one shot from one of our largest cannon, a missionary and his family can -The work among the Chinese in be supported over two years in Japan. America has a very important bearing Would we not better spike the cannon on the evangelization of China. The and send the Gospel abroad? number of Chinamen converted in thi's country who go back to extend Gospel -The Woman' B Executive Committee influences in their native land is surpris- of Home Missions of the Presbyterian ingly large. They are valued helpers in Church has for several years prosecuted the stations of both the Presbyterian educational and industrial work for Ind- and AmericllnBoardmissions, and some ian children and youth in schools in of the strongest churches have been New Mexico, Indian Territory, Arizona, founded by Chinamen who have been Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with converted while living in California. In gratifying results. There are now un- four or five cities natives who are either der the care of this band of Christian now residents of the United States, or women thirty-two schools, where chil- who have sojourned there, are provid- dren are thoroughly instructed in gos- ing the funds for evangelistic enter- pel truth, and through the influence of prises. There is said to be less opposi- which many savage homes have been tion to the Gospel in those sections from transformed. Chapels have also been which there has been emigration to built, and the precious seed of living America. These facts should urge us to truth scattered broadcast. greater activity in behalf of the Ori- entals now among us. -A Methodist medical missionary in India makes a strong plea for a prelim_ -Here is a pleasant item from Glas- inary service in the home field for those gow, Scotland': "Mr. Quarrier was vis- who go abroad, Such experience would ited the other day by friends from the not only be a test of their qualification, West Coast, who laid on his table £2000 but would also be educational, prepar- in bank-notes, saying they wished to ing them for wiser and more efficient build a house for the orphans in mem- service when they enter the foreign field. ory of a beloved husband and father. They were most anxious that no name, -Dr. Tucker, who succeeds the heroic not even initials, should be published. Bishop Hannington in Equatorial They refused to take a receipt, saying Africa, under the appointment of the to Mr. Quarrier, "You have got the Church Missionary Society, found his money, and that is enough." journey to his post at Uganda one of great peril. But for the opportune help -It is not pleasant to read in the of German soldiers the missionary would Christian World that ., Black Mass" was , have shared Bishop Hannington's sad celebrated in 250 Anglican churches on fate. All Souls' Day. Prayers for the dead were offered, and the altars were drapeu -It is usually supposed that mission in black. Straws show which way the work among the Jews does not yield wind blows, and when 250 of them blow sufficient results to encourage its con· in the same direction it is not difficult tinuance. But our friends in Europe to decide the tendency of the prevailing do not appear to share this feeling. breeze. Other indications of 8 Bomish Great Britain has 14 missionary soci- eties. which employ 312 agents. There tendency are furnished by English Epis. the Roman Catholic, and the Anglican copal clergymen in abundance. Church have missions in Alaska.
-The London City Mission has 300 -Yes, even our aborigines can be Gospel halls in which religious services touched and renewed by divine grace. are held during the week, in many cases To the wildest and worst of them, a livevery night in the year. ing Indian can be a good Indian. For Bishop Hare, who knows whereof he -The American Bible Society has reo writes, exclaims: "Nine Sioux Indians ceived from the National Bible Society nobly working in the sacred ministry! of Scotland a copy of the New Testa. About 40 Sioux Indians helping them as ment translated into Tannese by the licensed catechists. Forty branches of Rev. William Watt. the Woman's Auxiliary among the Sioux Indian women. Seventeen hundred -One consecrated man may set in Sioux Indian communicants! Sioux motion great influences for good. Sir Indians contributing nearly $3000 an- Keith Falconer founded a mission at nually for religious purposes! But Aden, in Arabia, and with his last what impression have all these solemn breath begged that it be not given up. but cheering facts made upon the pub. The Free Church of Scotland has ac. lie mind as compared with the wild cepted it as a legacy, and Professor Lan- antics of the heathen Sioux Indians, sing, of New Brunswick, is preparing which excited the attention and stirred some young men for the mission. Mean- the feelings of the country, and daily while a German, reading the life of occupIed column after column of the leith Falconer, was moved to give newspapers for weeks ?" himself as a missiopary, and proposes to enter upon the work of evangelizing -Woman's work for woman in forthe Bedaween Arabs who dwell around eign lands, which had its beginning Mt. Sinai. So the torch is passed from only about 20 years ago, has been atthe dying to the living, and new con- tended by a marvellous development. secrated men are never wanting to take In all 70 societies are in existence, supthe place of those who fall in the field. porting a force of 1468 missionaries, and gathering and expending last year the Organized Mi.~ona.ry W"ork and Statis- snug sum of $1,692,963. Of these so- tics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, cieties 34 are found in the United States, Bellevue, O. 10 in Canada, 24 in Great Britain, and one each on the Continent and in South -England has 8 Jewish missionaries; Africa. The American societies alone Scotland: has 5 ; Ireland 1 ; and these sustai~ 926 missionaries, and raised organizations in all employ 312 agents. $1,087,568 last year, or almost three- There are 27 societies upon the Conti. fifths ~f the entire amount. nent, and in the United States 7, with 34 in their employ. The total of organ_ -In connection with the Day of izations designed especially to carry the Prayer for Colleges, statistics appeared Gospel to the Jews is 48, and their mis- of an interesting and important charsionaries number 377. acter from 24 colleges having" substaJ;l. tial relations with the Presbyterian -According to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Church." These figures throw welthe Presbyterian Church now has 7 mis- come light upon one or two weighty sions and 4 churches, with from 70 to questions. Omitting the colleges for 80 communicants each in Alaska. The women only, and including only the church in Sitka has 360 communicants. students in institutions for men, or Besides the Presbyterian Church, the those where co-education exists, it ap- Moravian, the Protestant Episcopal, the pears that 82 per cent of the attendants Methodist Episcopal, Congregationalist are church members in the college classes proper, or 61 per cent if pre- the women 28. The visits made aggre_ paratory students are included. And of gated 22,766. They conducted 2946 the 1509 students, 361 are reported as church, cottage, and mission meetings, "meaning to be ministers." Making 549 children's meetings, 235 tent meetall due allowance for women found in ings, and taught 2163 Sunday-school the mixed colleges, the conclusion is that classes. The number of visits made to not less than one in three has the minis- saloons was 1932, and the number of try in view. inquirers professing conversion was 2729. It is evident from these figures -The educatiox{al work of the vari- that while a large proportion of time is ous societies is always to be borne in zealously devoted to Bible study and mind as only second in importance to attendance upon lectures, attention to the direct preaching of the Gospel in " applied Christianity" is by no means pagan lands. And the aggregate of neglected. In vocal classes 448 were schools of all grades, and of pupils as taught, while 74 received private inwell, is cheeringly large. Thus the strnction for the voice, and 91 received London society alone supports no less private instrumental lessons. than 1615, with 105,980 in attendance_ The Church Missionary Society has -No friend of missions can watch 1796 schools with 75,581 scholars, and that unparalleled movement known as the American Board 1025, with 47,319. the Partition of Africa, without wonder- The Methodist Church, North, is edu- ing what is to be the effect upon the cating 30,049 in foreign lands; the Pres- well-being of the 200,00,0,000 that inbyterian Board, North, 23,935, and the habit the vast spaces of the Dark Con- Baptist Missionary Union, 20,615. The tinent, or without hoping that it will be schools sU'ltained by the various Ameri- blessed in almost. every particular. can societies contain almost 175,000 Eight European nations ~re concerned pupils, and the 12,000 Protestant mis- in the colossal affair, if we count the sion schools are training to Christian Congo Free State with its 1,000,000 intelligence an aggregate of not much square miles, as Belgium'S share in the less than 600,000 children and youth. " deal." France easily leads in the ex- tent of her acquisitions, having her hand -The first annual report is out of upon Algeria, the Sahara country, and Mr. Moody's Bible Institute for Home other regions farther south, or a total and Foreign Missions (and Chicago of 2,300,000 square miles. Though, if Evangelization Society), and will be a to Great Britain's 1,910,000 in South surprise to many. Three departments and Central Africa we add her most exhave been in operation during the year, cellent prospects in Egypt and the Souone for men, one for women, and one dan, and the superior soil and climate for instruction in music; and the num- of her possessions, then her share is ber of persons enrolled in them is most valuable by far. Germany, just at 173, 80, and 578 respectively-in the present, is content with 1,035,00,0 square two first named 253, or a total of 831 miles, Portugal with 775,000" Italy with students. Upward of 20 denominations 360,,000, and great expectations as touchwere represented in the attendance, ing Tripoli, while Spain brings up the and more than 3.1> States of the Union. rear with the trifle of 210,000. Upon Sixteen came from England, 15 from the entire continent-some 50,0,0, by 50,00 Canada,· 9 from Sweden, 4 from Ire- miles in extent-are found some 12,00,0,- land, 4 from Germany, 3 from Norway, 000 square miles, of which only 2,500,- 2 from Turkey, and 1 each from Russia, 000 remai!l unassigned. It can scarcely Bohemia, and Finland. They came be but that roads, the locomotive, and from 51 secular occupations, and 41 stable government will Boon follow; and were ministers or evangelists. The so let the Lord's people make haste to average age of the men was 30, and of go up to possess the land for Him.