The Missionary Review of the World — October 1894
PRESENT-DAY FLASHLIGHTS UPON ISLAM
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVII. No.10.-OldSeries.-OOTOBER.-VoL. VII. No. lO.-New Serie8.
PRESENT-vAY FLASHLIGHTS UPON ISLAM.
BY JAMES S. DENNIS, D. D.
Islam is one of the surprises of history. Its origin and development are full of dramatic incident, rapid movement, and amazing achievement. It has puzzled the philosophical historian, and now presents an almost insoluble problem to the missionary. It i5 full of fascination to the student of religions, and is one of the most serious 'lnd impressive providential facts which the Church of Ohrist must face in her modern missionary campaign.
Missions to Moslems have not received the attention they demand. It is high time that they should be written in large characters upon the programme of world-wide missions. It is not to the credit of Ohristianity with its superb resources and its wealth of Divine promises, that its plans, even at the present hour, for the conversion of Islam are so meagre and inadequate, and its grasp of the problem so feeble and ineffective.
The genesis and growth of Mohammedanism are among the deep things of Providence. Next to Judaism, although in entirely another sense and along different lines, it may be regarded as a religion with a purpose, and it presents several features of special interest to both the historian and student of missions. Among them may be mentioned its peculiar mission as a religious phenomenon, its vigorous movement and aggressive policy, its easy domination of corrupt and enervated forms of Ohristianity, its unyielding attitude toward Ohristian missionary effort, its prolonged and inflexible intolerance of all apostasy from its ranks, it5 marvellous adaptation of itself to the religious instincts and the human weaknesses of Orientals. It is still, even at the present day, a Goliath among religions, a " fighter on the path of God," and although its military power and political supremacy have been so seriously restricted, it is still a dauntless an. tagonist in the field of religious conflict. It is to meet its David in Ohristianity; its mighty weapons will yield, as of old, to the smooth stones from the brook. It is ft. singular combination of strength and weakness, and is a manifest compromise in the realm of religious doctrine and practical ethics. .As against polytheism and idolatry it is a saving force in the world, and brings men back to essential truth, although the Koranic Deity resembles rather some mutilated fragment of a splendid classical statue dug out of the debris of an ancient ruin, than the living God of Christian revelation. It is coldly grand, and within certain lines it is artistically beautiful, but so sadly mutilated that it is only a suggestion of the perfection and grace of the living original. The God of Christian revelation comes into touch with humanity and makes Himself a part of the spiritual life of the believer in a sense which is utterly foreign to the Moslem ideal.
When we have given to Islam the credit of this one great central truth, and its correlative teachings of Divine sovereignty and control, we have practically exhausted all that can be said in its favor as a religious force in the world. Its terrible weaknesses and failures appear in the realm of practical religion and ethics. Its views of personal righteousness are the very acme of Phariseeism, and its vain attempt to adjust the ethics of social and domestic life show plainly that it moves in an earthly atmosphere and is colored by the local sentiment and coarse morality of heathen Arabia. It should be noted, however, in fairness that the watchword of Mohammed in his ethical code was restraint rather than license. He sought to reform by limiting existing evils. His policy was to temporize along lines of expediency, rather than to establish an ideal moral code. The suppression of individual liberty in Islam, its monumental intolerance, its alliance with military power, its undistinguishable combination of State and Church, all mark it as of the earth, earthy. It is cast in entirely another mould from Christianity. .As a religion it is like the loose, flowing garment of the typical Oriental-it is slipped on over human nature as it is, and while it gives a certain dignity to the appearance, at the same time it serves a useful purpose in covering up much that is better hid from the light of truth and the sensibilities of moral refinement.
Islam is a religion which has seized upon the great fundamental truth of all religions, the existence of one God, and has adjusted this truth to the human consciousness of the average Oriental with the least possible friction with human nature, and the least possible disturbance of the desires and passions of fallen humanity. It commends itself to the darkened reason and the unregenerate nature of man with great skill, and has succeeded in commanding an adamantine faith and devotion on the part of its followers, while holding its own with the prestige given by undoubted historical facts and by the overshadowing power of military supremacy in the regions where it has prevailed.
It captured the Eastern world in an age of spiritual weakness, formality, and religious degeneracy. It has seemed in time past, and still seems to the great mass of its followers, to be a substantially authenticated religion. It is regarded by them as the latest and fullest phase of that continuity of religious life which they recognize as having existed from the daYi! of the Patriarchs to the advent of Mohammed. They admire its sweet reasonableness and comfortable adaptation to humanity as it is. They rejoice in its freedom from the so-called asceticism of Christianity and its perplexing mysteries, and it seems to them an ideal religious system which joins hands with the ordinary, commonplace humanity of the East, and with an air of assurance says to the average man: "Come, let us walk on naturally together, and all will be well ; the end is Paradise. " It is a religion which has its flag flying before the eyes of an enormous constituency in the Orient, its drums and bugles sounding in their ears, its armies marshalled for active service, and its officials in the seats of power. It seems also to have a decided advantage in the field of _ apologetics, as it presents to reverent and unquestioning minds what is regarded as the absolutely infallible revelation from Heaven, in a form supposed to be free from all error. It reaches the climax of adaptation and simplicity in both creed and practice. It requires faith in a few simple and devout doctrines, and although its practice has some severe features, notably the annual fast of Ramadan, yet it is all readily accepted by the average devotee as just what is proper for man to do and suitable for God to require.
The secret of the success of Islam may be stated in a few propositions without undertaking here to enlarge upon them.'" We mean its success not as a saving religion, but in winning and holding its devotees in the very presence of Christianity.
First, in its origin and also in its subsequent history, Mohammedanism represents the spirit of reform working under the inspiration of a great truth. The doctrine of the spirituality and unity of God was brought by Mohammed into vivid contrast with the idolatry of heathen Arabia and apostate Christianity in the seventh centnry, to the credit of Islam so far as idolatry was concerned.
Second, it was established and propagated by two of the most energetic and commanding forces of human history-the influence of moral conviction and the power of the sword.
Third, Islam had never known or seen Christianity except in its cor- " rupt and semi-idolatrous forms. This was a manifest advantage to Islam, as the Christianity against which it protested was the same degenerate form from which the spirit of the Protestant Reformation revolted in the sixteenth century.
Fourth, Islam had all the advantage which there is in the magnetic power of personal leadership. The personality of Mohammed has been a marvellous factor in the ascendency of the religion he founded.
Fifth, Islam proposes easy terms of salvation and easy dealings with • Consult an article by the same author on " Islam and Christian Mission-" in this Review for August, 1889. sin, and is full of large license and attractive promise to the lower sensu- ous nature.
Sixth, Islam comes into conflict with the doctrinal teachings of Chris- tianity just at those points where reason has its best vantage-ground in opposition to faith. The doctrines which Islam most strenuously opposes and repudiates in Christianity are confessedly the most profound mysteries of the faith. They are the great problems over which Christianity herself has ever pondered with amazement and awe, and with reference to which there has been the keenest discussion and the largest reserve even within the ranks of professed believers. The Incarnation, the Divinity of Christ, the Trinity, are all stumbling-blocks to the Moslem, and are looked upon rather in the light of incredible enigmas than sober truths. The doctrine of the Cross, and, in fact, the whole conception of atonement, is to his mind a needless vagary. Divine mercy, in his view, is sufficiently ample .to act freely and promptly in the case of all Moslems without the mysterious mediation of a vicarious sacrifice. That the Incarnate Christ should die upon the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of men is to his mind an absurdity which borders upvn blasphemy. It is in vain to attempt to solve these mysteries by a refined theory of Christ's exalted personality with its two natures in one person. It is to his mind simply unfathomable, and he dismisses the whole subject of Christ's unique position and work as taught in the Bible, with a feeling of impatience, as only one of many Christian superstitions.
The Moslem objects also to Christian morality, and regards it as an impracticabJe ideal, which he never found worthily exemplified in all the Christianity he ever knew anything about. Unfortunately the ethical standards and the constant practice of a large part of the Christian laity and the Christian priesthood of all ranks in the Orient is a sad confirmation of his theory that Christianity is a shabby piece of hypocrisy, impossible in doctrine, and in practice a shallow sham. It should not be forgotten in this connection that this protest of Islam has been against Mariol. atry and the travesties of apostate Christianity rather than the doctrines of the pure Gospel.
As we measure the resources and the natural advantages of Mohammedanism in its appeal to the average consciousness of the unregenerate, untaught humanity of the Orient, so susceptible to spectacular impressions, are we not prepared to recognize that Christianity has in Islam no ordinary foe to contend with ~ It is one of Satan's masterpieces as a weapon of opposition to the Gospel. In its historic genesis it reveals the strategic genius and the masterful resources of Satan, and it stands to-day in human history as one of the most successful campaigns of the Arch Enemy against the religion of Jesus Christ. It holds in itf;J grasp .at the present time over 200,000,000 of our human race, and its strongholds throughout the world are to a large extent practically inaccessible to the Christian missionary.
There are sevei"al features in the status of Islam at the present day which are worthy of consideration in any practical survey of this subject. We have at the present hour a rather absurd and sensational attempt at an Islamic propaganda here in America. The Moslem call to prayer has been heard for several Sabbaths in Union Square. It was, however, at an uncanonical hour, and apparently is to be repeated only at weekly intervals upon the Christian Sabbath. The Union Square missionary appears to be a rival of Mohammed Webb, and both are probably engaged in a stroke of business in the hope that spectacular accompaniments, with the aid of newspaper notoriety, will secure some kind of a material dividend to the supporters of this religious syndicate. It is not unlikely that some converts to Mohammedanism may be won here in America. If Theosophy' can find adherents in England and America, if Esoteric Buddhism has its followers in Western lands, if the oldest errors of the East can thns pose as the newest fads of the West, why is it not possible that a smoothtongued and magnetic leader shall some day sound the Mohammedan call to prayer from an American mosque Y Another fact of present-day interest is a reactionary rationalistic movement on the part of some prominent Moslems in India, under the leadership of Justice Ameer Ali, of Calcntta, who was recently invited to participate in the Parliament of Religions, which has been named in our public journals" The New Islam." It is an attempt to rid the Mohammedan religion of some of its grosser features, and deliver it from that bondage of traditionalism which makes it impossible for Islam in its crude and semi-barbaric phases to assimilate the spirit of modern civilization, and keep step in the march of modern progress. It indicates that intelligent Moslems realize that if Islam is to enter the ranks of civilization, it must be radicaUy reformed, and much of its immemorial barbarism must be eliminated and consigned to oblivion. A revolt against traditionalism in theory and practice is not altogether new in Mohammedan history, but never before has there been such a hopeful outlook for rationalistic criticism as at the present time. The new movement in the modern atmosphere of this nineteenth century promises to be far more effective than in the old days of the Mutazilah, those representatives of primitive rationalism in the second century of the Moslem era, who strove to break the iron restrictions of Mohammedan orthodoxy. It is evident to the intelligent and discriminating leaders of this new movement that Islam has entirely overreached itself by the inexorable rigidity of its traditionalism, leaving no opening for readjustment or reform in precept 01' practice, so that even at the present hour the successor of the Khalif is bound to respect the decisions of the Sheikh-ul-Islam and his corps of ulema. The Sheikh-ul-Islam, and in a secondary sense every Kadi 01' Mufti, is to.day practically the final court of appeal, aud the authoritative interpreter of inflexible law. He officially interprets and applies that worse than medireval shariat of the Moslems to existing conditions. A more helpless slavery to an effete and puerile system of petty precepts can hardly be conceived. If the leaders of the New Islam movement can rid their religion of its gross superstitions and ethical monstrosities, and bring it more into sympathy with the Christian code, the movement will so far benefit the world, and at least help on the interests of morality and civilization. At the same time it will give to Moslems themselves a chance to keep step in the march of modern progress.
A prominent contention of the New Islam leaders, in which they are followed iu a bungling way by Mohammed Webb, is that polygamy and slavery and other uncivilized concomitants of Islam are not necessary features of the Moslem faith. It is true that the Koran does not require polygamy and the system of domestic slav~ry with which concubinage is invariably associated, but it is also true beyond a shadow of doubt that these things are sanctioned by the Koran as entirely legitimate characteristics of its religious system, and also that they have been historically identified with the Moslem religion from its inception. Of course a Moslem can be a monogamist if he chooses, and many exercise this preference, but he is at perfect liberty to have four wives and as many female slaves as he desires, in entire harmony with the teachings of his religion.
Another important present-day feature of this subject which should be noted is a brightening missionary outlook among Mohammedans. It is, of course, exceedingly difficult to do mission work among them. Much preparatory work is necessary. The Gospel must work as leaven among them. Providence must co-operate in breaking the civil and military power of Mohammedan rulers, and a remarkable and thorongh work of grace must be done in the individual heart. The Moslem as such is a religious ironclad, and no impression can be made, but the still small voice of the Spirit and the irresistible grace of the Gospel have wr.ought niarvels in the case of many individual converts. This coming of the kingdom without observation seems to be the divinely wise and providentially chosen method at the present stage of the conflict. It would be a grave mistake, at least in the Turkish Empire, to push an aggressive evangelistic policy among Moslems at the present time. God is moving npon many hearts, and there is much secret discipleship which stays itself upon the Divine promises and waits for the day of hope and freedom. We must have great faith and limitless patience in our efforts to convert Moslems. Christianity has fairly entered upon a long struggle with Islam. It will be the greatest siege in the missionary campaign of modern times, and the Church of Christ must be prepared for a long trial of patience and liberali'ty. We must be prepared for the taunt that missions among Moslems are a failure, and that Islam is more than a match for Christianity. We must expect to hear that Islam as a religion is, after all, good enough for the Orient, and that the attempt to dislodge it by the Gospel of Christ is a vain ana needless exhibition of theological bigotry. We must expect to hear exaggerated reports of its spread, and extravagant estimates of its adaptation to the religious consciousness of Orientals, .but we must bide God's time and go forward in the accomplishment of this mighty task.
There are indications that the Gospel leaven is working, and that Providence is co operating. Conversions are taking place in increasing numbers in the Turkish Empire, especially in Egypt, in Persia, in India, and the Dutch East Indies. An entrance also has been made into some of the hitherto inaccessible fields, notably by the North African Mission in Morocco, and by the Keith-Falconer and Arabian Missions in Arabia. Messrs. Cantine and Zwemer, of the Arabian Mission, are typical men, who have raised the standard of personal missionary consecration, and are devoting themselves to the one purpose of reaching hitherto inapproachable recesses of Islam. The Free Church of Scotland has assumed the mission at Aden, and will give to it its efficient and generous support. The names of Keith-Falconer and Bishop French are already written in self-sacrificing devotion upon the opening pages of this new chapter of Christian missions in Arabia. In Turkey and Persia a profession of Christianity is apt to be followed with relentless and barbarous persecution. The story of Mirza Ibrahim, in Persia, who has suffered martyrdom within a few months, is well known, and a recent letter to me from one of the Persian missionaries reports that another convert has had his property confiscated and his ears cut off.
In India, however, there is more freedom. Dr; Imad-ud-din, of India, one of the native preachers in the employ of the Church Missionary Society, and himself a convert from Mohammedanism, has recently published in the Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer an interesting resume of the success of Christian missions among Moslems in India. Nine out of the seventeen native ministers who at the present time are engaged under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society in the diocese of the Punjab are converts from Islam. In addition there are twenty Mohammedan converts employed as catechists. In an appendix to the article he gives the names of a long roll of prominent Moslem converts now living in North India, mentioning in all one hundred and seventeen names. It is manifest that many of them are men of distinction in the native society of India.
The Church Missionary Society reports over a thousand converts among Moslems on its roll, and the Rhenish Missionary Society, according to Dr. Schreiber, Director of the Rhenish Mission House at Barmen, two thousand, while in the island of Java the converts are numbered by the thousands.
There are also some providential signs in the realm of literature. The translation of the Word of God into the Arabic, the sacred language of Islam, is a fact of vast significance and promise. Books are beginning to appear in Arabic and in other languages, which are especially adapted to instruct the Moslem mind. The" Mizan-ul-Haq," "The Apology of AI-Kindy," and a remarkable book called, " AI-Bakurat es Shahiyet" (or " Sweet First.fruits") are all to be found in English and Arabic, and are full of useful matter for Moslem inquirers. The latter is a sort of Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress" prepared especially for Moslem readers. It is an Oriental romance suggested by the Arabic translation of " The Schonberg Cotta Family," and written by a native Oriental with a powerful and winsome apologetic purpose. The same author has ready in manuscript another volume entitled, "The Enlightener," which is said to be a work of great power, in vindication of the claims of Christianity as against those of Islam. Two of the above-mentioned books are published both in English and Arabic by the Religious Tract Society in London. In the languages of India there are works of the same character, especially those prepared by Dr. Imad-ud-din.
Another aspect of this matter, however, which mnst not be passed over, is the present growth of Islam in various parts of the world, and the inaccessibility of a vast proportifln of its followers by any effective missionary agency. It is difficult to obtain reliable statistics, but there is no doubt that Islam has had large accessions within the past twenty-five years in the Eastern and Western Soudan, although this has not been the result so much of a spiritual missionary campaign as of political scheming and military activity. Another fact of startling interest is that in the recent census of 1891 the number of Moslems reported in India is 57,321,164, which is an increase of 7,199,569 over the census of 1881. This is at the rate of over 700,000 a year. No doubt a large percentage of this increase is natural, bnt there must have been also considerable accessions to the Mohammedan ranks from the Hindus, or low-caste populations of India.
The ItS yet inaccessible strongholds of Mohammedanism may be indicated by a line which begins in Morocco and extends through the entire breadth of the Soudan in a belt sufficiently broad to include the Soudan on the south and the African States of Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli on the north. It then crosses the Red Sea into Arabia, and extends northward through the desert haunts of the Bedonin, and cnrves around to the eastward through the Russian contingent of Islam, and moves southward through Western and Central Persia, east of the Persian Gulf, until it reaches Baluchistan, where it again turns sharply to the north and runs through Afghanistan and Bokhara into Turkestan and thence into China, where it divides into a northern and southern fork, and reaches finally the eastern coast of China. In these inaccessible fields there is to-day a population of not less than 100,000,000 practically beyond the range of Christian missions. It is estimated that there are 30,000,000 in China alone. Their accessibility would be at least a matter of grave experiment, involving long patience and large sacrifice.
We must not, however, look upon missions to Moslems as hopeless. Providence seems already to have put Islam under mighty restraints, and He is steadily preparing the way for enlarged missionary effort. There is at the present hour no more impressive call for sacrifice aud no more
pAPACY IN EUROPE
inspmng incitement to heroism in the whole range of Christian missions than the inaccessible fields of Islam. Christianity has no more perplexing and formidable duty at the present day than confronts her in missions to Moslems. The Church must not be content simply to drift into this business of reaching the Mohammedan world. She must arouse herself to careful study of the problem, and dedicate herself to a zealous effort to break the fatal spell of lethargy and indifference which seems to make her so faint-hearted and callous in the face of this great and bitter cry of neglected Islam.
This is in a peculiar sense the era of prayer on the part of Christianity for the providential opening of the Mohammedan world to Christian missionary effort. As the Christian Church has unlocked vast regions of the earth hitherto inaccessible, by the golden key of prayer, let her solemnly purpose to accomplish the same result in those vast regions of the Moslem world that are still practically untouched. That God has opened the way within the past half century for such magnificent advances into regions beset with almost equal difficulties and dangers is a grand encouragement to plead with Him to make bare His arm and smite the barriers which at present render our accelils to Islam so difficult.
PAPACY IN EUROPE.
BY REV. R. SAILLIENS, PARIS, FRANCE.
It cannot be denied that there is, at the present time, a revival of Roman Catholicism in this Old World of ours. In Great Britain every one knows that the Romish clergy have of late assumed a boldness, a spirit of propagandism, which becomes a danger to the country. Convents and monasteries are being established on all sides; there are forty of them in the county of Sussex alone. Churches and cathedrals are being erected, and" conversions" are taking place. In the Anglican Church there is an alarming progress toward the Popish rites and superstitions, thousands of churches having adopted during the past few years the use of candles, early celebration of the mass, incense, confession, etc. The Romish clergy in one diocese alone (that of Salford) boast of 900 " conversions" during the past year. Who could have expected such things in the land of Cromwell and the Covenanters ~ In France the death-fight between the republic and the Church, which found its expression seventeen years ago in Gambctta's celebrated utterance : "Le clericalisme, voila l'ennemi /" (" Clericalism is the foe") has come to a sort of truce. The people are not, to any considerable extent, more religious than they used to be ; fashion, pleasure, and immorality hold the sway in Paris and our large cities more than ever. But there is, at the same time, a curious sense of respect perceptible even in the most worldly newspapers, for the things which pertain to religion, and especially to the Romish religion j the Pope and the priests are not derided and abused as they were a few years ago j the Pope's encyclical letters and speeches are carefully reported and commented upon. Following the lead of the late Cardinal Lavigerie, the bishops have become reconciled to the republican form of government, and the Pope has encouraged them in this new departure. The great reform which the Liberals under Napoleon III. were clamoring for, and which the early republican governments held out as imminent-the separation of Church and State-has been shelved by all parties except by the socialists, who as yet do not count. The Boulangist agitation revealed the fact that the masses of the people crave for a strong government which must of necessity lean upon the Church j and though Boulanger is dead, Boulangism is still alive-i.e., the reactionary tendency which must end in clerical rule.
In Germany, statistics show that the Roman Catholic population increases in the Protestant parts of the country. The culturkampf (war against Rome) has been abandoned long ago, while it was bu't recently that the young Protestant Emperor was seen at the Vatican paying his respects to Leo XIII.
Even in the Slavonic countries, submitted to the Greek Church, Rome is making some progress. For the first time an ambassador of the Vatican is accredited to the court of the Czar, who persecutes the Stundists to death. And a party for reunion to Roma is said to exist in the " orthodox" Church.
What are the causes of this recrudescence of Romanism g In Protestant countries we are afraid the main cause is the weakness and loss of power of the Evangelical churches. As they have grown rich and prosperous, the Protestants have forsaken, to a great extent, that puritanic spirit which was the strength of the Reformation. From their primitive simplicity of worship they have come down to elaborate services, beautiful and luxurious buildings which are imitations of Roman Catholic medireval architecture, and thus have led their sons and daughters to the very threshold of Rome, with which Protestants will never be able to compete, try as they may, for finery, music, and display. Moreover, it is sadly evident that, in Great Britain especially, the work of the Reformation did not go deep enough, and that many Romish errors-such as baptismal regeneration and apostolic succession-were left in the Prayer-book as seeds for future apostasy. Where;ver a notion of a visible universal church is 'entertained, logic must lead to the Roman Catholic position. But we believe that the main cause of this reaction toward Rome in Protestant lands lies in the fact that THE BIBLE does not hold in those countries the, same place that it did three centuries ago. Then people turned away from the infallibility of a man to the infallible Book j but now the Book is no more deemed infallible j the "higher" criticism has submitted it to an ordeal as severe as that of the Inquisition in times past. The Inquisition burned the Bible, but the higher critics are tearing it to pieces. And yet there is a craving in the human soul; and especially in the soul which has come into contact with the Gospel, for a moral cer- tainty, for a Divine, infallible authority. We know a case of a distin- guished woman, the wife of a French pastor, whose faith was shattered by what she overheard of her husband's conversations with his colleagues on the Bible and its so· called inaccuracies. Intensely religious, the poor . woman, thus deprived of her faith in the Bible, found at last what she thought to be a blessed certitude in the fold of Rome, and for ten years before her hnsband's death she was a Romanist without anyone knowing it but her husband and her confessor! Lately, however, she returned to the pure Gospel, confessing on her dying bed that Rome had not given her the promised peace, and she died trusting in Christ as her Saviour.
In France the reasons for this revival of Catholicism are many. The first is, the shallowness and powerlessness of what is caI1ed " free thought," with which, at oue time, our leading politicians had foolishly hoped to replace the old superstitions. People will rather eat decayed food than nothing. "Free thought," materialism, positivism, agnosticism, or what. ever name modern infidelity assumes, is nothing. It gives no hope for the future, no strength for the present. Under the secular influence of the schools a new generation has grown, utterly ignorant of God, and tre- mendously materialistic. Learning has not been the panacea which it had been hoped it would be. Crime, drunkenness, lawlessness, have increased in proportion with the number of schools. There have been more divorces in France during the past five years than in England in thirty years. Illegal unions are numerous, infanticide common, and there is a decrease in the population of about twenty thousand souls every year.
No wonder that those who think and who retain some love for virtue are afraid of such a state of things, and, for want of a better one, appeal to the Roman Catholic religion as the only power which can stay this tide of immorality, of which she has been the main factor.
Another cause of the Roman Catholic reaction in France is the marvel- lous skill of the present Pope in adapting himself to modern phraseology and aspirations. History shows us that " Rome never changes," and yet, serpent like, it has a wonderful ability to change its appearance, to in- sinuate itself in the confidence and love of the peoples by a seeming con- cession on almost every point of importance to them. The republican form of government, for instance, seems to have rooted itself in the French soil, and to have become a permanent institution in this conntry ; the Pope has issued commands to the French bishops that henceforth they should accept the established government, and not identify themselves, as they had done before, with the dead-and-gone monarchies. What is called the " ques- tion sociale"-i.e., the questions of capital and labor, of rich and poor-is agitating the minds of our people, as everywhere. The Pope has carefully prepared" an encyclical letter on the question full of liberal sentiments and Evangelical utterances; and a host of Roman Catholic lecturers and journalists, priests and laymen-foremost among whom are l'abM Garnier and Count de Nun-have gone to work among the masses with the aim of forming a Socialist-Catholic party. Thus we may foresee the most stupendous combination that could ever have been dreamed, and which, if really consummated, will be full of danger to the future of the worl<.-the marriage of red democracy with papacy, the beast whose deadly wounds have been healed, at least in appearance, and which seems as strong as it ever has been.
As I am writing these lines, our daily papers are publishing an encyclical letter of the Pope-his swan's song, as some say-which exhibits that wonderful craftiness of which I have just spoken. It is an appeal for reunion, specially directed to the Greek and Angli~an churches. "Speaking to those nations which have for the last three centuries been separated from the Church, the Pope shows that there is no certain rnle of faith and authority left to them. A large number among them have overthrown the very foundations of Christianity by denying the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of the Scriptures."
Is it not the wonder of wonders that the man who incarnates that awful system by which the Bible has been burned, and its disciples, even to this day, persecuted to death; that system which has established tradition above the Bible, has contradicted every Bible doctrine and tried to sileuce every Bible preacher, should now dare to stand before the world as the advocate of the Bible against-the Protestants! And yet, it is, alas! but too true that Protestantism to a large extent is no more the religion of the Bible. This accounts for the boldness of Rome, and for her success.* We, the French Evangelical Christians, can never be deceived by this pretended " angel of light." We know that Rome is the responsible instigator of those very evils against which our deluded people are trying to find a remedy in her. We know that immorality, infidelity, lawlessness, are the offspring 'of Roman Catholicism. Idolatry and atheism are not so far apart as it seems, and the same people may pass with astonishing swiftness from the one to the other.
I shall give, on this point, the testimony of a priest. A little time ago I visited the great shrine of the Virgin at Lourdes, a little town in the Pyrenees, where the" Mother of God" is said to have * While, in bis encyclicallettere, the Pope extols the Bible, he has forbidden the circulation of & tr&uslation of the Gospels made by & stanch Roman C&thollc, Henri Lasserre. and approved by a number of blshope. At first the circulation was permitted, and more than 100.000 copies were pold (the Gospel. alone) at the high price offour francs per copy (eighty cents). The Church took alarm at this evident thirst for the Word on the part of the people, and a papal order was issued forbid· ding the book. Henri Lasseno at once submitted, and Is now in Rome trying to reTel'lle the papal will, but without success.
As a matter of filet, there is not, in papal countries, a Bible or a New Testament to be bought in booksellers' sbops, or from colporteurs, except the Protestant versions. And yet in England and in America, wbere it would be impopslble to take the Bible away from the people, Rome trios to pasl hereelf off as the defender of the Bible 1 appeared to a young shepherdess. A beautiful cathedral, which has cost one. million dollars and more, has been erected near the spot; the grotto from which the miraculous water springs has been decked with marble, and every sign of lavish and idolatrous devotion may be seen there. On the day I was present, over twelve thousand pilgrims had come, by a hundred trains, from all parts of France, some having travelled five or six hundred miles. At the railway station young men belonging to the patrician families-young dukes, counts, and barons of the purest blood-were in attendance with sedan-chairs and portative beds, to take the sick and lame from the trains and carry them to the shrine, .thus gaining for themselves indulgences. I shall never forget the sight of this motley crowd surrounding the beds of the sick, and many among themselves bearing marks of leprosy or some other foul disease-men, women, children, twelve thousand of them, hugely pressed in front of the cave, lifting up their arms to the gilded statue, crying, shouting, singing, led by the priests! I shall never forget these women kissing the ground, raising up with dust on their lips, then kneeling down to kiss the ground again; others stooping on the fountain to drink a little water. I saw a poor paralytic carried by four stout priests into a little recess in the rock, and there plunged bodily in the cold water, while he wail shouting to the Virgiu with an earnestness, an eagernes!'l, which reminded one of Baal's prophets. . .• My eye8 were moist with tear~ as I beheld this host of my countrymen thus deluded; meanwhile I vainly waited for a word on the part of those bishops and priests-a single word-about Christ and the forgiveness of sins through Him. As I was thus looking on with evident emotion a young priest whom I had met in a hotel before came up to me.
" You seem to be moved," said he, "by this wonderful sight." " Yes, I am," I answered. "But what moves me is to think that there is so much faith wasted here. To think that twelve thousand people may have found time and money to come so far to seek temporal blessings which they will not receive, while they might in their own homes have received from God Himself, through Jesus Christ, eternal life! Do you, sir," said I earnestly to my friend-" do you really believe in this ~" The young priest looked at me gravely, and was silent for a while. Then he said : " No, I do not believe that the Virgin appeared here, nor that the faith of these poor people will be rewarded. I deplore this superstition as you do; and there are others among us who deplore it also. I believe," he said, growing bold, "that this place ig the greatest school of infidelity we have in France. People come here on the promptings of their ignorant parish priest, full of expectations. They have, in some cases, borrowed money for the journey. They have laid all their stakes on this card. They pray, they sing, they drink the water, they dip themselves into it, . . . but they are not healed. Then they lose faith, not only in Lourdes, but in religion altogether, and they return home, saying, 'There is no God.' So, while these people pray that they may be healed, 1 pray that they may not become atheists."
Thus spoke my friend, the young priest. Then I said to him: " Why, then, do you remain in a church which holds such things ~" "Well," he said, rather embarrassed, "we are not bound to believe or to teach that the Virgin has appeared here. The bishop of this diocese has made an inquiry which he has found satisfactory, and so the pilgrimage has been permitted j but as long as the Holy See has not pronounced, we mayor may not agree with the bishop in this case. It is not a matter of faith." "And how can I respect a church which is thus double-sided ~ -a church which gives the enlightened freedom to reject the superstitions which she lays upon the poor people, and manages thus to keep in her fold, in apparent unity, men like Montalembert, Father Gratry, and othersspiritual, true Christian men, who would have scorned to believe in such childish things-and Bernadette Soubirous, the shepherdess to whom the Virgin appeared f' " Well, the poor people cannot understand the sublime doctriue of the Gospel without some materialization of it !" " Is that so ~ Did ever Jesus Christ stoop to forge false miracles to satisfy the common people f' My friend did not answer, but before I left him I tried to show him the beauty of the Gospel simplicity and artlessuess. We parted, both deeply moved j and I dare to hope that a good work was begun in his soul. In these times of infidelity, the temptation for Evangelical Christians who do not sufficiently know Rome is to accept a kind of compromise with her j to look upon her as one of the forms of true religion j one of the things which, on the whole, make for purity and godliness. This temptation is a most dangerous one. Weare fully aware that there are Roman Catholic dignitaries who evince a great love for souls and for God j we do not judge them; we hope they are sincere; we leave them to God and their own consciences. But, as a system, popery is the masterpiece of hell. It is a wonderful adaptation of paganism to Christianity; sensual in her worship, loose in her ethics, crafty and grasping in her politicssuch is the Church of Rome. Her teudency everywhere has been to degrade and pollute mankind. Like the magician Circe, who changed Ulysses' companions into swine, Rome changes the noble aspirations of the human souls into selfish, base, and corrupted desires. She wrecks the virtue of young men and young womeu who come to her for protection; desecrates the home, enslaves the mind, darkens the soul. Do not judge Rome ou that which she allows you to see of her in Protestant, enlightened countries; go to Portugal, go to Spain, to Italy, to Corsica, wherever she is uncontrolled by a dissenting religion. Yes, Rome is "the harlot which causes the nations to sin, the mother of the abominations of the earth."
THE HOMES OF CAREY
But how shall we oppose her growing yower 1 I am fully convinced by my experience as a missionary for twenty years among my own people, that it will not be by clumsy imitations of her gorgeous display, but rather by a return to the primitive simplicity of worship manifested in the Upper Room. To worship God in spirit and in truth, and not in beautiful temples, the cost of which would support two or three missionaries for a whole lifetime j to invite, and not to exclude, the poor, the sinner, the outcasts, who now find it so difficult, even if they would, to sit in our refined places of worship-such seems to me the imperative duty put upon us if we do not wish to see the masses go to Rome, which to them appears so much more democratic than ourselves. I have also a deep conviction that it is only through the Bible-as the Reformers did-that we shall withstand popery. Anything, however pious in tone, that helps to destroy the people's faith in the Bible as an infallible Book, works on behalf of .Rome. I have no time to dilate on this point, but I beg the readers to reflect on it. It is to me the vital question, and I do not see any other alternative but this: the Bible or the Pope. Finally, let us preach Christ, His free forgiveness, His atoning blood. Ethical, political, or social preaching-" sermons for the times," as they are sometimes termed-will not prevent the drift of the masses toward the old system. But the upholding of the Crucified-I have seen it, thank God, hundreds of times-will always prove the power of Go'd unto salvation. Rome has many weapons-money, genius, traditions, beauty of forms. It appeals to the lower nature of man, dispenses with the necessity of a second birth, renders sin easy. It deifies mankind, as all heathen religions do. It must, therefore, have a great measure of success, as it corresponds so marvellously to man's natural cowardice and depravation. But if we are faithful to the Bible and to the Orucified, we need not fear defeat j all true Nathanaels, all the sincere and noble hearts w,ho are seeking a real Saviour, will come out of Rome to meet us. The true sheep know the Shepherd's voice, and, hearing it, follow it.
THE HOMES OF CAREY.-I.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
How much greater is man himself than all the institutions and localities with which he is connected! They can confer on him no real dignity; it iE he who imparts to them character and celebrity, and makes them historic.
P AULERSPURY was Carey's birthplace, a viIlage on the south side of that old Roman road known as Watling Street, and some three miles from tlie market town of Towcester, Northampton County, England. There in a cottage, now no longer standing, on August 17th, 1761, ,William, the first of five children, was born to the weaver, Edmund Carey. When about six years old, the boy found his father elevated to the rank of village schoolmaster and parish clerk; and, as the master's home and schoolhouse stood end to end, with a small playground in front and an orchard garden alongside, the lad found a place for the practical study of botany, and learned to collect lind tend a variety of choice flowers. From his father, who was a great reader, he inherited a love of book knowledge and a plodding perseverance as well as an unusual memory. What he learned he retained, and what he undertook he accomplished. In after years, disclaiming all genius, he affirmed for himself a humbler secret of success, which no one will deny him: "I CAN PLOD."
At Paulerspury Carey learned his first life-lessons, and they were important. He found that books had power, to supply lack of knowledge and introduce the humblest reader to the acquaintance of the good and great. What a democratic equality all of us may thus enjoy in coming into unre- 1>tricted freedom of companionship with the leaders of human thought! Carey learned again that nature is a volume of God, ever open to the seeing eye and illustrated by a Divine artist. He learned to study this book, which unfolds its secrets to the poorest and most ignorant. His flower garden was one of his wholesome studies. He kept his inquisitive eye on bush and hedge, and in his own room gathered specimens of plauts and birds and insects, that he might watch them and learn their nature and habits. Yet a third lesson he learned in his boyhood's home was the power of simple industry to master difficulties and to help over hard places.
William Carey began, at fourteen, to earn his living; at first as a field laborer, but afterward, as exposure to the sun proved too irritating to his sensitive skin, he became a shoemaker's apprentice, in his seventeenth year, at HACKLETON. T4,ere he served under Clarke Nichols and afterward T. Old, reminding us of Coleridge's famous saying about the great men who have come from the shoemaker's bench. It was while here that the lad, who had before perused John Bunyan's pages, now first saw in a New Testament commentary the mystic Greek letters, and from a poor but educated weaver of Paulerspury got his first lesson in deciphering these hieroglyphs. Here was a second forecast of his future career. During his apprenticeship to Mr. Old, who, whatever his other defects, was a perfect hater of all lies, William, who confesses to being awfully addicted to this vice, was not only guilty of deception, but of dishonesty, and one of his lies and thefts being discovered, he was smitten with shame and conviction of sin, and led to seek Divine forgiveness.
At this time young Carey was, of course, a Churchman, as his bringing up had inclined him, and had a contempt for all Dissenters; but the solicitude shown for his soul by a fellow-apprentice, who belonged to a dissenting family, gradually removed his prejudice and disposed him to welcome light from any source, even Nonconformists. His awakened conscience sought, but found not, rest in formalism, and at last he was brought to the only true fountain of cleansing or of satisfac;tion'.A To the preaching and
CAREY'S SHOE SHOP AT
THE HOUSE WHERE CAREY LIVED.
THE HOlllES OF CAREY
occasional converse of Thomas Scott, the commentator, htl owed much of the best impulses of his spiritual life, and at a small church gathered about this time in Hackleton he not only attended, but occasionally spoke. " Help to Zion's Travellers," by the elder Robert Hall, now fell into his haDds, and he read it with rapture, for it was the means of removing out of his way many stumbling-blocks.
Before he was twenty Carey married Dorothy Placket, and, she being the sister of the widow of his late employer, after Mr. Old's death Carey carried on the business; Mrs. Carey proved a source of anxiety and even of hindrance. She was not sympathetic, and was prone to mental ailments j but her husband bore his trials with characteristic forbearance and tenderness. The signboard used by Carey is yet to be seen in the Baptist College in Regent's Park, London.
We cannot follow step by step the history of this great missionary leader. We have now to do principally with his homes, and we next find him at PIDDINGTON, near Hackleton, where beside his "cobbling" he opened an evening school to eke out a living. lIe had at cost of much self-denial attended the meetings of the Association at Olney, where he heard Andrew Fuller preach, and from that time Carey himself bQgan to preach with more regularity. Being asked to speak at Barton Chapel, he complied, because, as he humorously said afterward, he was too bashful to say" No." And thus began a ministry which reached with somewhat interrupted service over three and a half years. Once a month he spoke also at Paulerspury, to the delight of his mother, who declared that he would yet be a great preacher.
By Mr. Sutcliff's advice Mr. Carey united with the church at Olney, and was by them set apart to the ministry. From the church records it appears that on June 14th, 1785, he was admitted a member, and August lOth he was sent forth as a regular preacher. He was then twenty-four years old.
In August, two years later, Carey was at his next" home," MOULTON. Here again he sought to add to his slender support by teaching, as his whole stipend was but £15 per anuum j but Moulton could not support three schools, and as there were two already, he had to fall back on his trade as a shoemaker. He got work from a Northampton contractor, and once a fortnight trudged to and fro, get.ting raw material and then carrying back the bag of boots.
While at Moulton the grand idea of world-wide missions was taking hold of Carey and engrossing him. Cook's voyages had supplied fuel, and tlae Word and Spirit of God, the fire, and now his soul was aflame. As yet missionary labors were scattered, sporadic, exceptional. A society was wanted to originate and plan definite missions for regions beyond even British colonies. Jonathan Edwards, a little before the middle of the century, had issued his" Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People, in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth," and this pamphlet came into Carey's hands. Here was another instance of "apostolic succession." John Eliot's work among the Indians had aroused David Brainerd; Brainerd had kindled Edwards, and now Carey in turn was set afire.
Andrew Fuller's pamphlet, "The Gospel Worthy of all Acceptation," added fuel to the flame. Carey argued, after reading it, that if it be the duty of all men to believe, it must be the duty of all Christians to make known the Gospel. And, whether he was teaching in his school or working on his bench, he was musing over a world's awful destitution and the Gospel's power to meet it; and so musing, the fire burned more and more. Vent it must have! No flame can be pent up and live. Fuller went into Carey's shop and found, hanging against the wall, a large map made of sheets of paper pasted together, OD which his pen had drawn an outline of the world, and filled in the outline with statistics as to population, religion, etc.-a kind of spiritual geography!
Carey had a very humble estimate of himself, and so had others, of him; but in God's eyes how differently this plain, preaching shoemaker Df Moulton was judged! That sign, now to be seen in Regent's Park, * S£ca~~ND LSHOES)~OU~HT 6 A )Tn) 1"1 should read, FEET SHOD HERE WITH THE ALACRITY OF GOSPEL HERALDS! FOR INFORMATION AS TO A WORLD'S NEED, INQUIRE WITHIN.
While Carey's home was at Moulton he met Fuller at Association meetings, and their lifelong friendship began. At these periodic gatherings he used every chance of private or public appeal to urge immediate action as to the great missionary question. He found that his fire met ice, but he kept up the contact, believing that by and by the ice would melt.
It must have beeu toward the close of 1786 that Mr. Carey, while attending the ministers' meeting at Northampton, after public service * The latter half of the inRcription on this original signboard is no longer visible. was ended, was accosted by Mr. John Ryland, Sr., who prop~sed that he and another of the younger ministers present should each suggest a ques- tion for general discussion. The question proposed by Carey was the problem that was continually the subject of his study: "Is not the com- mand given to the apostles, to teach all nations, obligatory on all succeed- ing ministers to the end of the world, seeing that the accompanying prom- ise was of equal extent~" Mr. Ryland impulsively replied, that certainly nothing could be done before another Pentecost, when an effusion of miraculous gifts, including the gift of tongues, would give effect to' the commission of Christ as at first j and he pronounced Carey a most miser- able enthusiast for asking such a question. This is the true version which Mr. Morris, the minister at Clipstone, gives of that often-repeated but somewhat sensational story, which represents Ryland as saying, " Sit down, young man! When God wants to convert the heathen, He will do it without your help or mine !"
Carey's first venture in openly giving utterance to his great conviction thus met such a rebuff that his modesty caused him no little abashment, if not abasement ; but even mortification could not keep him from meditation. And, though Ryland had jeered at him as an enthusiast, Fuller syme pathized with him and encouraged his convictions.
Moulton is the home most associated, perhaps, with Carey's education and preparation for his lifework.
And now LEICESTER comes to the front. In 1789 he was invited to the pastorate of Harvey Lane Chapel, the same where Robert Hall preached. The call was accepted, and he shortly afterward assumed this, his last pastorate in England, living in an humble cottage right opposite the chapel, where visitors may now see the residence which he rented, substantially as when he abode there. It has two stories and an attic, and but one living room on each story; a very humble dwelling, indicative of the poverty. that again made necessary school teaching to help fill the half-empty larder.
If Moulton had been Carey's school for personal training, Leicester was the home where the missionary idea of organization began to crystallize into form. In 1791 the Association met at Clipstone, and there Mr. Sutcliff spoke on " Jealousy for the Lord of Hosts," and Mr. Fuller on " The Pernicious Influence of Delay in Religious Matters." Carey, who never saw an opportunity that he did not embrace, urged that jealousy for the Lord should make longer delay impossible in evangelizing the heathen j and so close was his application of the solemn truths they had heard to the great commission entrusted to the Church, that the society afterward formed at Kettering would then and there have been organized had not Sutcliff himself counselled further" delay" for the purpose of more prayerful consideration. Carey had, however, made so deep an impression that he was urged to publish whatever he had thus far put in written form upon the subject. There was a general feeling that he had a message and a mission from God. And so came the year 1792, and another meeting of the Association at Nottingham. Carey was one of the preachers, and he· chose that cvermemorable text, I8a. 54 : 2, 3. His two main heads became the I);otto, not only of the society subsequently formed, but of the missions of the new century : EXPECT ATTEMPT Into this sermon he threw all the mighty energy of his aroused being. All the faith nourished for years by communion with God, all the facts slowly gathered and arll6nged, all the fire and fervor that the kindling of holy zeal had created, found expression in that sermon. And so it was promptly resolved that at the next meeting, to be held in Kettering, in autumn, a plan should be formulated for a society to propagate the Gospel among the heathen. On October 2d, 1792, the meeting was held in Mrs. Beeby Wallis's back parlor, after the public service of the day in Andrew Fuller's chapel j and so the great ship was launched.
As this article is mainly concerned with the homes of Carey, we do not tarry·over details as to the various steps taken to get this new-launched enterprise completely fitted for its venture upon an unknown sea. Suffice to say that on November 9th, 1793, Carey, with his wife and his col- league, John trhomas, landed in Calcutta after a voyage of nearly five months.
Calcutta was not to be Carey's home. It was too costly a place of abode, and the pioneer band of missionaries removed to Bandel, near Hooghly j but even here, among Europeans who found this a convenient resort from Calcutta, Carey could not work out his grand conception of a missionary's life. ITe felt that to fulfil his mission he must become as a companion and equal of the people to whom he was sent. Nuddea was visited with the expectation of building a native hut and living like the common folk j but a short time sufficed to return these pioneers to Cal- cutta, where Carey found himself a stranger without friends or means to feed his family, and his wife and two children ill of dysentery. In fact, he had but one Friend left, but He, all-sufficient j and he did not shrink or turn back. • While in Calcutta he heard of some jungle lanu in the Soonderbuns, which could be had gratis for three years, and of a bungalow at Dehatta which could be put at his disposal till he could build a dwelling. He started for Dehatta and actually cleared the land and built a hut j but God had other plans, and a strange providential offer came from Mr.
George Udny at MaIda, two hundred miles away, who was adding new factories to his indigo plant, and needed two new managers. Carey, in June, 1794, became superintendent at MUDNABATTY, on a salary of 2400 rupees yearly. At once he sent word to Secretary Fuller that no more supplies would be needed from home, and the "indigo manufacturer"
OLD CHAPEL AT
(NOW USED AS A DWELLING.) WIDOW WALLIS'S HOUSE AT KETTERING.
(WHERE TIlE BAPTIST 3HS8IONAUY SOCIETY WAS FORlIED.)
THE HOMES OF CAREY
started anew on his mission, studying Bengali, beginning a school, using every opportunity of speaking to the natives, and meanwhile going for- ward with his first translation of the Scriptures. While at Mudnabatty his little boy Peter died, and it was all he could do to get the body bUl:ied without doing it himself, so foolish yet so formidable are the caste laws of India. At Mudnabatty he continued till 1799. Then Mr. Udny's financial embarrassment caused him to open at Kidderpore a factory for himself.
But SERAMPORE was the next home which God meant for William Carey, and there the great missionary enterprise was to find its true and permanent field.
To outsiders it may seem that Carey's time at Mudnabatty was lost. He did not so regard it. He wrote to Fuller that he could see God's hand in it all,. preparing him to carryon a self-supporting mission. At Mudnabatty he learned all the methods of agriculture available in the country, came to understand native notions and customs and trickeries, and studied the most economical methods of housekeeping. He proposed . a sort of Moravian community of goods and household life. Seven or eight families could, if such method were pursued, live at a cost scarcely larger than that of one. He asked for more missionaries to be sent pre- pared to live on this plan, having a number of little straw tenements arranged in a line or square, and all held in common, with stewards elected tD manage the community and with fixed rules for guidance. This plan was the basis of the mission at Serampore. While at Kidderpore Carey had been joined by Mr. Fountaiu, his first recruit.
Serampore, fifteen miles from Calcutta, was a Danish settlement, where, in 1755, a few Danes had bought a plot of land and built a factory. It was at the close of the eighteenth century commercially very prosperous. When by Andrew Fuller's energy four new missionaries were sent out- Messrs. Grant, Brunsden, Marshman, and Ward-the hostility of the East India Company drove them to seek refuge under the Danish flag, and they met at the hands of Colonel Bie, who had been religiously taught by the devoted Schwartz, a most cordial welcome. A curious blunder at first threatened them with expulsion, for a newspaper announced their arrival as that of "four Papist" (instead of Baptist) "missionaries." Lord Wellesley, governor-general, had no inclination to harbor French spies, who were inclined to take advantage of foreign territory to carryon their designs, but a little investigation satisfied him that he was mistaken, and the brethren remained unmolested.
It was on January lOth, 1800, that Serampore became Carey's home -his wife being out of health, and four children now being dependent upon him. A good-sized house in the middle of the town was bought at a very reasonable cost (less than $4000). It had two rooms on each side of a large portico, and three others connected with the property, one serving as a printing-office, where the prells which Carey happily obtained be-
THE BffiLE WORK OF THE WORLD
came the creator of Bibles for India. Here, with Marshman and Ward, the" consecrated cobbler" was to spend many years of active'service, laying strong foundations for the future of missions to the Hindus.
(To be continued.) THE BIBLE WORK OF THE WORLD.
BY REV. B. PICK, PH.D., D.D." ALLEGHENY, PA.
Nineteen centuries ago the world had only one translation of the Bible -the Septuagint-the Bible of the Hellenistic Jews, the Bible of the apostles and first Christians. This translation was the first missionary to make the Gentile world acquainted with monotheism, and prepared the way for the introduction of Christianity. The influence of this version was felt so much amQng the Jews in the early Christian times that the rabbis regarded the day on which this translation was made as a great calamity, equal to that of the worship of the golden calf. To supersede the Septuagint, men like Aquila, Symmachns, and Theodotion undertook new versions into Greek. The object failed, and only fragments of these translations are now extant, while the Septuagint is studied, and scholars are at work to bring out such a recension which will give us the best possible text that can now be attained.
In the course of time other translations were prepared, and when the Reformation was ushered in, the Europeau nations had the Bible in English, Anglo-Saxon, Old Erse, Flemish, German, Bohemian, Provincial, Gothic, Latin, Greek, Slavonic; in Asia the Bible was read in Hebrew, Aramaic, Samaritan, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Persian; and in Africa the great deeds of God were read in Koptic (in its three dialects) and Ethiopic. The Reformation, which encouraged the reading and study of the Bible, also promoted the )Vork of translation, and at the beginning of this century the European nations read the Bible in Welsh, Gaelic, Erf'e, Manx, French, Basque, Spanish, Portuguese, Old Norse or Icelandic, Norwego-Danish, Swedish, Lapp, Dutch, Finn, Russ, Rouman, Lifu, Polish, Wendish (in two dialects), OsmanH-Turki, Magyar, Italian, Romansh, Lett, Karniola (or Sloven), Ehst (Reval dialect), Nogai (Krim dialect). Asia had .received the Bible in Sinhali, Malay, Tamil, Formosa, and America in New England. Altogether, the Bible existed, at the beginning of this century, in 54 larguages, 01', rather, 51 languages and 3 dialects, representing Europe, with 36 ; Asia, with 11 ; Africa, with 2, and America, with 1 language; and when this century closes the Bible will be read in about eight times as many languages on the globe of the earthi.e., in about 400 languages. Large as this number may seem, and beautiful as such a collectiou of Bible versions may appear, yet it would only represent a fraction of what has really to be done. It is certain that there are more than :WOO languages in the world. No finality has been attained, or is likely in this generation to be attained, as the face of the earth has not yet been fully explored. Many of these languages are not likely to attain the honor of being entrusted with the oracles of God ; they will perish before their turn comes. The field is large. The population of the earth, roughly estimated, is about 1,403,000,OOo-viz., Europe, with 312,500,000 ; Asia, with 800,000,000; Africa, with 200,000,000 ; America, with 86,000,000 ; and Oceania, with 4,500,000. To supply all with the Word of God cannot be the work of one century or of two. And since we cannot foresee the future, we must be thankful for what has been done in the past and what is done at present.
The first in the field to promote Bible work was the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698. It was followed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, organized in 1701. In Germany the Canstein Bible Institute was founded at Halle in 1710 ; and when the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized in 1804, eight societies already existed which distributed Bibles. 'With the organization of the British Bible Society a new era in Bible work commenced. It became the feeder and promoter of many kindred societies, and the work of translating the Bible into many languages was promoted as never before. About 80 Bible societies were organized after the formation of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and it may be said that nearly 100 societies are now supplying I;he world with the Word of God. Some of these societies have only a local importance; others, as the British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society (founded in 1816), the National Bible Society of Scotland (founded in 1861), have a cosmopolitan character, having their agencies in many countries. Thus the British has its agencies in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Turkey and Greece, Morocco, North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, Burmah, Malaysia, China, Manchuria, Corea, Japan, South America, West IIidies, with about 700 colporteurs at work, who go about from hamlet to hamlet, from village to village, and from city to city selling and distributing the Bible.
The American Bible Society'S foreign agencies are in the Levant, La Plata, Japan, China, Brazil, 'Mexico, Persia, Cuba, Venezuela, Siam, and Central America, which, besides the agents, employed in the year 1893 331 persons in distributing the Scriptures in foreign lands. The foreign circulation amounted iu 1893 to 482,893 Scriptures, either as a whole or in portions.
The National Bible Society of Scotland has foreign agencies in tHrica, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Dutch Guiana, France, Germany, HoIland, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey; it employed during the year 1893 over 400 colportenrs, who circulated 512,219 Scriptures. The lion's share, of course, belongs to the British and Foreign Bible Society, with its circulation of over 1,000,000 Scriptures in foreign lands. Besides these societies there are a number of others which promote the translation of the Bible into foreign tongues. Such are the Bible Translation Society (Baptist), the Netherlands Bible Society, the Russian, Basle, Bremen, Coire, Danish, Norwegian, Prussian, and Barma Bible societies; the Baptist Missionary, Moravian Missionary, Church Mission- ary, London Missionary, American Baptist Missionary societies; the American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Presbyterian Mis- sionary Society, the Melanesian, Universities, Free Church of Scotland, Canada Presbyterian missions, Wesleyan Missionary Society, and United Methodist Society. All these societies have more or less promoted the dissemination of the Scriptures in foreign countries.
In general it may be said that the circulation of the Scriptures is done by colporteurs; and in countries where a colp'>rteur can address a woman without hesitation the work is not so difficult. But not so with the women in the East. Their circumstanoes are 80 peculiar that special measures had to be adopted as would make a genuine circulation of the Scriptures among them eventually possible. The zenana must be entered by female Bible circulators. Some general knowledge of the Bible and an interest in its message must be produced by reading it to female listeners. They must be persuaded to learn to read it for themselves, and so be led to buy copies of their own. To achieve this, so-called" Bible women" MVe- of late years been employed i.n the East for that special purpose ; and the effort has proved successful, and at present about 400 such, female helpers are employed in the field, doing a great work, especially in India, also in Syria and Palestine, Egypt, China, Mauritius, and Seychelles.
Another feature of modern Bible work is the care of the blind, who are found in large numbers, especially in the East. To provide them with the Word of God the Scripture is printed in raised characters, either ac- cording to the method of Moon or of Braille. Wherein the difference of the two methods consists I am not aware ; but the fact remains that the Bible as a whole or in part has thus far been prepared for the blind in Amoy, Arabic, modern Armenian, English, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Russ, Spanish, Swedish, and Welsh.
In reviewing the work of the Bible in the differ,ent countries, it must be said that, as regards Europe l)j;tle of translation work is left to be done. As regards Asia, much remains to 'be done. In India there is still a har- . vest to be got in from the province of Assam, the regions bchind Kashmir and Afghanistan, the province of Barma, the Central Provinces, and the Andaman Islands. Many are yet the isles which still wait for the law of the Lord in their vernacular. The same may be said of Africa. Great is the number of African languages, which no man knoweth, but which will be revealed in after ages. In North America little remains for the future, as the English is destined to be the educational language of the natives, which will gradually though surely lead to the extinction of the native ·vernaculars. In Central and South America much is yet to be done. The question is merely whether the Spanish and Portuguese or the native languages are to be the vehicle of instruction. In Oceania the work of Polynesia and ~:Iikronesia seems to be nearly done; but there yet remains much to be done. Australia is not yet represented on the list of Bible societies.
It would be tiresome to give a list of all trauslations now extant. In a great many cases only a book or a few books of the Bible have thus far been translated. Yea,"some of the languages into which translations were made at an early period are now obsolete, and the translation remains only as a witness of self-denying diligence. This was especially the case with some Asiatic languages; and it is worthy of consideration that a very fine linguist speaks of conquering, permanent, isolated, moribund, dead languages, and of such as have uncertain future. lfe only regards the following as conquering: (1) Arabic; (2) Bengali; (3) Dutch; (4) English j (5) French; (6) German; (7) Hindi; (8) Malay; (9) Mandarin; (10) Persian; (11) Portuguese; (12) Russ.'; (13) Spanish; (14) Swahili; (15) Hausa; (16) Italian; (17) Yariba; (18) Zulu.
As this is a matter which the future can only decide, we will not dwell on it any further, but give an alphabetical list of those languages into which the Bible as a whole, or the New Testament (with or without the Psalms) have been translated, together with the locality where the version is circulated or for whom it is designed.
A. BIBLES.
1. Acra or Ga, eastern part of Gold 17. Croat, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Coast. Montenegro, Croatia, etc. 2. Amharic, Abyssinia. 3. Amoy, Amoy and Island of For- 18. Dakota, for Dakota Indians. 19. Danish, Denmark, etc. mosa. 20. Dutch, Holland and Dutch Colo- 4. Aneityum, Aneityum, New Heb- rIdes. nies, and S. African republics. 5. Arabic, W. Africa. 21. Dyak, Borneo. 6. Armenian: 22. Efik, W. Africa. I. Ancient, S. Russia, Asia. '33. English, Brit. Empire, etc. II. Modern " " 24. Eskimo, Labrador. III. Ararat, Russian Provo of Cau- 25. Esth-Reval, N. part of Esthonla. casus. 26. Fiji, Fi~i Islands. 7. Armeno-Turki, for Armenians using 27. Finn, Finland. the Turkish language with Ar- 28. Flemish, Belgium. menian character. 29. French, France, Colonies, Canada, 8. Assami, Assam, Cent. Brit. India. 9. Batta-toba, for Battas of N. Suma- Switzerland, Belgium, etc. tra. 30. Ffth-Chow, Provo of Fuhkien. 10. Bengali, Provo of Bengal. 31. Gaelic, Highlands of Scotland. 11. Bohemian, for Czechs of Bohemia, 32. German, Germany, Austria, etc. and Slovaks of Hungary. 33. German-Hebrew, for German Jews. 12. Bulgarian, Bulgaria, Rumelia, and 34. Greek, Ancient, for Greek churches. Macedonia. 35. " Modern, for Greeks. 18. Burmese, Burma. 36. Gujarathi, Surat and Provo of Guja- 14. Canarese, throughout the Mysore, Provo of Canara. rat. 15. Chinese, China. 37. Hawaiian, Sandwich Islands. 16. Chuana, Bechuana and Matabele 38. Hindi, Hindustan. tribes of S. Africa. 39. Hindustani or Urdu, for the MolGa. Cree (Eastern), Cree Indians, Hud- son's Bay territory. hammedans of India. 40. Hungarian, Magyars of Hungary and Transylvania. 41. Icelandic or Norae, Iceland. 42. Irish or Erse, Ireland. 43. Italian, Italy. II. Oberland, the Grisons, Switzer- 44. Japanese. Japan. 45. Javanese. Java. land.
46. Kafir or Xosa, Kafir Land. 69. Rouman, Roumania, Transylvania. 47. Khasi, Kha&ia Hills, Cent. Brit. 70. Russ, Russia. India. 48. Lapp, Russian and Swedish Lap- 71. Samoa, Navigator's Islands.
land 72. Sanskrit, for Brahmans.
49. Latin, for students. 73. Servian, Austria, Servia. 50. Lett, Livonia and Courland, N. 74. Sinhali, Ceylon. Russia. 51. Lifu, LO,falty Islands. 75. /Slavonic, N. Russia, Europe. 52. Lithuanian, Provo of Li~hnania, N. 76. Spanish, Spain and Colonies, S. Russia. 53. Malagasi, Madagascar. America. 54. Malay, Malay Peninsula, Island of 77. Sllto, Basuto Land, Cape Colony. Sumatra, Java. 55. Malayalam,Travancore and Malabar. 78. Swahili, E. Africa. 56. Manx, Isle of Man. 57. Maori, New Zealand, Polynesia. 79. Swedish, Sweden. 58. Marathi, Bombay Presidency. 59. Massachusett, for Massachusetts 80. Swedish-Lapp, Sweden.
Indians. 81. Syriac, for Syrian Church in Travan- 60. Mongol (literarl), Mongolia. core and parts of Syria. 61. Mpongwe, regIOn of the Gaboon 82. Syriac, Modern, for Nestorians in River. Persia and Turkey. 62. Norwegian, Norway. 63. Otshi or Ashanti, Gold Coast. 83. Tahiti, Tahiti, Society Islands. 64. Persian, Persia, India, etc. 84. Tamil, S. Brit. India. 65. Polish, Poland, Austria, Germany. 66. Portuguese, Portugal and Colonies, 85. Telugll," "
Brazil. 86. Tonga, Friendly Islands. 67. Rarotonga, Hervey or Cook's 87. Trans-Caucasia-Turki, Trans-Cau- Islands. 68. Romansch: casillo and N. W. Persia.
I. Lower Engadine, Engadine, 88. Turkish, Turkey_ Switzerland. 89. Turko-Greek, for Greek Christians using the Turkish in Greek characters.
90. Uriya, Provo of Orissa, Cent. Brit.
India.
91. Welsh, Wales.
92. Wendish, Upper, Saxon Lusatia.
93. " Lower, Prussian Lusatia.
94. Yoruba, Yoruba Land.
95. Zulu, Kalir Land.
Some of these Bibles are also printed in the Roman character besides the vernacular, and are extant in different recensions, each of which has its own merits. Most prominent in that respect is the Chinese version, which is extant in five different recensions. Efforts are, however, now made to produce one version which is to take the place of the now existing ones.
n. NEW TESTAMENTS.
* (Where a follows the name, it means that the Psalms are alw pl1olished.) 1. Albanian Gheg*, N. Albania. 12. Canton, Canton and neighborhood. 2. " Tosk, S. Albania. 13. Carshun, Mesopotamia, Aleppo, 3. Aniwa, Aniwa, New Hebrides. 4. Bandalkhandi, a district between etc. 14. Catalan, Provo of Catalonia. the Provo of Bandalkhand and 15. Cherokee, for Cherokee Indians. the sources of the Nerbudda 16. Chipewyan, for Indians in S. River. 5. Basque (French), Departments of States of the U. S. the Pyrenees and Navarre. 17. Corea, Corea. 6. Batta-Mandailing, for Battas of S. Sumatra. 18. Creolese, Danish W. r. Islands. 7. Bhatniri; Bhatnir, W. of Delhi. ' 8. Bikaniri, Bikanir, N. of Marwar. 19. Dakhani, for Mohammedans in 9. Breton,* Provo of Brittany. Madras Prov. 10. Bruj, Provo of Muttra. 11. Canoj, in the Doab of the Ganges 20. Dogri, in N. districts of Lahore. and Jumna. * 21. Ebon, Marshall Islands, Micronesia.
22. Esth (Dorpatl, S. part of Estho- nia.
23. Ethiopic,* for the Church in A.bys- sinia. 24. Ewe,* W. part of Gold Ooast. 58. Nama,* Great Namaqua Land. 25. Fanti, Fanti, in the neigkborhood 59. Negro English, Surinam, Dutch of Cape Ooast Castle, W. Af- rica. Guiana. 60. Nepal, kingdom of Nepali. 26. Galla, Galla country, E. Africa. 61. N$'anga, around Lake Nyassa. 27. Ganda, U·Ganda, N. of Victoria 02. Nmgpo, Ningpo and neighbor.
Nyanza. hood. 28. Georgian,* Georgia, Oent. and W. 63. Niue, Savage Island. Oaucasus. 64. Nogai, for Tartars in Ciscaucasia.
29. Greenland, Greenland. 65. Nyanja, E. Equatorial Africa. 30. Gurhwali, Provo of Gurhwal, W. 66. Oojein, Prov. of Malwah, Oent.
of Kumaon. India. ~ 31. Hakka,* Provo of Kwantung. 67. Pali, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, etc.
32. HaIauti, Provo W. of Bandalk- 68. Palpa, below the Himalayas. 69. Pangasinan, Luzon, Philippine hand. 33. Hausa, Hausa tribe, Africa. Islands. 34. Hebrew, for Jews. 70. Panjab, N. portion of the Panjab. 71. Parsi.Gujarati, for Parsis in Bom- 35. Herero,* Damara Land, W. Africa.
36. Hungarian-Wend,* for Wends in bay Provo Hungary and Oarniola. 72. Pashtu, Afghanistan. 37. Iaian,* Uvea, Loyalty Islands. 73. Pedi, N. Transvaal, S. Africa. 74. Pegu, Provo of Pegu, Indo·China. 38. Igara, W. Equatorial Afric". 39. Indo-Portuguese, for Portuguese 75. Piedmontese, Piedmont. 76. Ponape, Mikronesia. settlers in Oeylon and Indian 77. Popo,* Dahomi, between the Volta seas. 40. Jatki, Panjab. and Lagos. 78. Romansch (Upper Engadine), En- 41. Judreo-German, for Jews in Po- land, Galicia, S. Russia. gadine, Switzerland.
42. Judreo·Spanish, Spanish Jews in 79. Rotuma, Rotuma, Melanesia.
Turkey. 80. Ruthen, Little Uussia. 81. Samogit, in government of Kovno. 43. Kashmiri, N. Bdt. India. 44. Kazak.Turki, for Tartars in vicin- 82. Sanguir,* Sanguir Islands. ity of Orenburg. . 83. Santali,* a tribe in N. W. Bengal. 45. Kirghiz.Turki Siberia and Turkes· 84. Shan, Indo Ohina.
tan. 85. Shanghai, Cent. Ohina. 46. Kongo, W. Equatorial Africa. 86. Siamese, Siam.
47. Konkani, the Konkan. 87. Sindhi, Provo of Sindh.
48. Kumaoni, Dist. of Kumaon, W. 88. Slovak, Austria- Hungary. 89. Sundanese, W. part of Java. of Palpa. 90. Susu, W. Equatorial Africa.
49. Malay (Low), Batavia, etc. 50. Manchu, Manchuria, N. Ohina. 91. Su·Chau, Oent. Ohina. 51. Manipuri, Mauipur, S. of Assam. 92. Taleing, Burma.
52. Mare,* Loyalty Islands. 93. Tauna. Tauna, New Hebrides. 94. Tchermiss, N. Russia, Europe. 53. Marwari, Marwar, N. of Mewar. 54. Mongol (Kalmuk), for Kalmuks 95. Temne, W. Equatorial Africa.
on the Don and Volga, inUus· 96. 'l'ibetan, Tibet.
sia, etc. 97. Tonga, S. E. Africa.
55. Mordwin (Ersa), for a tribe on the 98. Tukudh, Tukudh Indians, Youcon banks of the Oka and Volga, River.
Russia. 99. Tulu, a tribe W. of the Mysore. 100. Uvea Island,* Melanesia. 56. Mota, Banks' Islands, MelanesilJ" 57. Muskokee, for Creek Indians. 101. Yao, E. Equatorial Africa.
What has been remarked above concerning the Bibles concerns also the New Testament. Besides editions containing only the translation in the vernacular, so-called diglott editions have been published from time to time, and their usefulness is acknowledged more and more. Such diglott editions of the Bible in part or as a whole exist in : Aimara-Spanish. Arabic-Hausa. Bulgar.Hebrew. Amharic-Ethiopic. Arabic·Ooptic. " Syriac. " Slavonic. Armenian, Ancient, Mod· Bullom.English. " English. French. ern. Oanarese·English.
" Ethiopic. Bengal·English. Ohinese·Japan Breton -French. Coptic· Arabic.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION
Dutch-English. German ·Italian. Marathi.Gujarati andUrdu English. Arabic. Gitano-Guarani. Norwego -Danish-English. " Bengali. Greek-English. Bullom. " Norse- " French. Lapp. " Canarese. German. Dutch. Noue-Lapp-Norwego-Da- Latin. nish. French. Tosk. German. Polish·Hebrew. Gujarati-English. Russ-Hebrew. " Greek. .. Marathi and Sans- " Slavonic. Gujarathi. Hebrew. krit. Russ·Lapp·Swedish. Gujarati-Marathiand Urdu Sanskrit-Bengali. Italian. Guarani-Gitano. " English. Japanese. Hebrew English. " Guj Irati. Malayalam. " Marathi. " German. Malayalam. J udeo-8panish. Marathi. Norwego· Danish. Russ. Telugu. " Osmanli-Turki. Bulgar. Spanish. " UIiya. French. SIavonic·Bulgar. Swedish. Osmanli-Turki. "I Russ.
Tamil. Magyar. Spanish·Aimara. Telugu. Italian. " English. Urdu. Polish. Welsh. Judeo-Hebrew. Italian.English. Latin. Ethiopic-Amharic. .. ~'rench. Flemish -French. Swedish·English. German. " Swedish-Lapp. French-Arabic. Hebrew. .. Russ-Lapp.
Breton. Latin. Swedish-Lapp·Swedish. English. Maltese. Flemish. Syriac-Arahic. Osmanli-Turki. Tamil-English. German. Japan-Chinese. 'l'elugu -English.
Greek. " English. .. Sanskrit. Hebrew. Latin·Italian. Tosk·Greek. Maltese. .. Greek. Turkish(Osmanli)-English.
Osmanli-Turki. " Osmanli·Turki. " French. Piedmont. Romaic. " Spanish. Hehrew. Magyar-Hebrew. Italian. Vaudois. Malayalam. English. Urdu-English.
German-English. " Sanskrit. " Marathi and Gujara- " French. Greek. Maltese-French. thi. Marathi·English. [krit. Welsh-English. " Hebrew. " Gujirati and Sans- As far as our rapid survey is concerned our task is done, but not that of Bible societies. What remains to be done? Much every way. Iu some parts of the globe only one portion of the Bible has been translated, and this one portion mean~ that in course of time the whole book ought to be translated. Earlier translations, prepared with a deficient knowledge of language, need revision. In a word, much has already been accom- plished j still more is to be done, for dies diem docet.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION.-I.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.
Nations and races, as well as individuals, are called of God, ordained and set apart to a specific work for the furtherance of His kingdom upon . earth. Endowed with especial fitness for the appointed task, they are also providentially trained, and in due time are inducted into their high office, their Divine calling. This accepted and fulfilled, they beoome notable instruments in the accomplishment of His beneficent and sublime designs in behalf of a lost race. With this fact in mind, of which history affords so many striking illustrations, mention is often made of three peoples in particular of the ancient world, which with gifts and tasks exceedingly unlike, yet played each its essential part, and all wrought wondrously together, both to prepare redemption for the world and the world for re- demption. Thus among other things was supplied by the Jew, through the Scriptures, the knowledge of the true God and of that righteousness which is acceptable w'th Him. The Greek contributed a magnificent lan- guage and a civilization in which the Gospel could find expression. And the Roman, with his world-wide empire, made communication easy, brought peace everywhere from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, and a great advance toward the unity of mankind. But not nearly so much attention has been directed to a fourth people, which may not unfitly be esteemed the modern successor or representative of the entire three together, and in the universal diffusion of Christianity to be dving single-handed what was parcelled out among them all. Here, however, is a story which, embracing the call, the preparation, the entrance on the work, the achievements made to date, and the outlook for the future, certainly takes high rank among the wonderful works of God. It sweeps across two thousand years and encompasses the globe, touching every land and nation.
But on the very threshold a definition is in order, and an explanation. The term Anglo-Saxon is employed in its broadest signification, and so embraces" the English race; all persons in Great Britain and the United States and in their dependencies, who belong actually or nominally, nearly or remotely, to the Teutonic stock of England j all English-speaking or English-appearing people." And, further, in aU that follows there is disposition not the least to boast or to praise. The theme irs far too lofty, too sacred, and too solemn for that. Besides, human wisdom and design have played but an insignificant part, while human folly and iniquity often appear. There was. a marvellous providence at work from first to last. The purpose and the might in origin were Divine. As often as anyway the end was achieved by overruling the schemes of men, making their wrath and transgression to praise God, so that all the glory and the honor belong to Him alone, while to the Anglo-Saxon belong always humility, and often sorrow and shame.
Going no further back than their home in Britain, it is important to take note of the physical environments within which the people under view were planted, and by which for centuries they were wrought upon and profoundly affected in character. And first they were islanders, therefore sufficiently sundered from the adjacent continent to maintain an independent career, though also near enough to receive and give continually. How different would have been the history of the world, of Christianity as well, had no subsidence of the coast of Western Europe occurred! Then this island home was thrust out far into the deep, looking toward the New World to be discovered in due time, and where the race was to find its roomiest dwelling-place and its most characteristic development. The soil was fertile, and mineral wealth was sufficiently abundant, while the climate, healthful and invigorating, was favorable for the production of a race able grandly to endure and achieve.
Ve notice next some of the excellent ingrained and ineradicable quali- ties of the original stock, and the clements added later to ennoble and re- fine it. Three tribes from lower Germany were united in the Conquest, all sturdy, fierce, passionate, impetuous, warlike, given to gross sins of the flesh,' and yet liberty-loving and with a strong touch of the worthy and lofty. Scarcely had Britain, after centuries of battle and slaughter, been conquered, when in long and dreadful succession other bands of semi- pirates poured in, the Danes of kindred blood, to gain extensive posses· sions, then to settle down as neighbors and friends, and finally to coalesce. Then later still the Normans entered the island, reduced to subjection Saxons and Danes alike, and ruled with a rod of iron; but with Villiam came also a higher civilization, more of culture and refinement, a vastly improved civil and judicial system. Again conquerors and conquered were of not distant kin, and in the end dwelling side by side the foes became fellow-citizens, their blood flowed together, and to the Saxon phlegm was joined the Norman fire. In later centnries were introduced yet other ele- ments, like Scotch and Irish, Fleming and Huguenot, while into the Greater Britain of the New World have flocked by the million the representatives of well-nigh every nation nnder heaven, but all only to be absorbed and assimilated, and so to become an integral part of the Anglo-Saxon racc.
A few words about the language, which is destined to playa most important part in the diffusion of the Gospel into all lands. Of course English speech was profoundly affected by all the political changes to which allusion has been made. The vocabulary has been enriched from a great variety of sources. " By mixture with the Celtic and Latin of the Anglo- Saxon period, and later with the kindred Scandina.vian and with the old French of the Norman and other dialects, especially with the Norman French as developed in England, and with later French, and finally in consequence of the spread of English exploration, commerce, conquest, and colonization, with nearly all the great languages of the globe, English has become the most composite language spoken by man. " And yet through all the additions and transformations the origmal Anglo-Saxon qualities have held their own. The structure, the bone and sinew, have continued to the present hour. "The vocabulary of common life is still about three fourths Anglo-Saxon; but the vocabulary of literature contains a majority of words of foreign origin, chiefly Latin or Greek, coming in great part through the Romance tongues, and of these chiefly through French." The English tongue, which is already employed by more millions than that of any other European people, and is almost certain to be an instrumentality for the universal spread of Christian civilization, is already cosmopolitan in its contents, and thus during many centuries has been fitting for its sublime service to humanity.
In full keeping with all the rest for importance has been the civil and political history of the race. The Anglo-Saxon is emphatically the apostle of free institutions, of government which is at once constitntional, repre- sentative, and popular. Tacitus tells how ardently the Teutons of his time loved liberty, and our forefathers carried with them across the Channel this noble passion which they have never lost. In one degree or another among them the rights and privileges of free men have always been recognized, or, except at intervals, English rule has been of the people, by the people, and for the people, and, on the whole, with a steady enlargement of the political sphere of the individual. The tendency has been irresistible toward democracy and nniversal suffrage. The despotism of kingcraft and privilege had a long lease of life, but in spite of such usurpation and tyranny-yes, often by means of them, the masses have been able to rise to dominion; and through such impressive steps as Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the Reform Bill, habeas corpus, and trial by jury. Little by little the functions of the executive; the legislature, and the judiciary were separated, the law-making body was divided into the lower and the upper houses, with the real power passing more and more into the hands of the popular branch. The highest development was not reached until the great American Republic came into being, with its carefully adjusted federal and state authority, and the sphere of both fixed by a written constitution. It is only th'3 Anglo-Saxon who loves liberty better than life, is not afraid of freedom for the masses, undertakes to fit for its exercise by bestowing the priceless gift, and wherever he goes up and down the earth carries with him the germs of popular institutions which are sure speedily to spring into life. Second only in value to the religious mission of this race, so highly honored by the Divine call, is the political benefit destined to be conferred by it upon the whole human family.
Another, and in many respects the most important, portion of the providential preparation for their world-mission is found in connection with the religious history of the English people. A moral earnestness, a deep seriousness, may be traced back to the beginning. ",Voden and Thor were loved and served with all their might until conviction changed, and then allegiance was as hearty to the new Master. The mission of Augustine and his troop of monks to England in .A.D. 596 was a most momentous one, is worthy to be compared with the crossing of Paul into Europe, for it meant, as no other event, a pure Gospel first lived worthily at home, and then carried to every continent and island under heaven. '1'0 be sure the papacy gained control and bore sway for a thousand years, but submission was never quite as thorough and abject as upon the Continent. Rebellions poliUcal and moral broke out from time to time. Wickliffe struck a blow which was never forgotten; and when the set time was come for reformation the course of progress was strange in the extreme. The people de- 752 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S REDEMPTION. [October sired no change, and as for King Henry, he sought only to add the Pope's prerogatives to his own. But he allowed the English Bible to appear. Under his successor the Reformation received divers marks of royal favor and gained a firm footing upon British soil. When Mary would expel heresy with the fagot not many were frightened, but multitudes were filled with horror, and the hundreds who fled only employed themselves abroad in drinking deep of the forbidden waters with Calvin and Zwingle, and returned after her death tenfold greater heretics than before. The popular tide had now fairly set toward the new faith, and under Elizabeth's regime of repression and regulation first the stiff-necKed Puritans began to appear, and then out from them came the Separatists, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and what not, to the wildest of sectaries. It was worse than nothing that for two generations the Stuarts, the Lauds, and the Jeffreys strenuously endeavored with imprisonment and death to suppress dissent. The Anglo-Saxon was at length thoroughly aroused. The sacred right to think and conclude began to assert itself with a determination which nothing on earth could break, while the English Bible, pored over diligently and passionately loved, had quickened the English conscience into an unquenchable life j and when the Revolution of 1688 was complete, England was found wholly and intensely Protestant, and though Episcopacy was made the official religion of the realm, a large place was given to nonconformity in which to Jive and make itself felt.
But this was not all, it was scarcely the half of what was now gained for reformed Christianity. During those years of strife when king and prelate would lord it over God's heritage, the Pilgrims had fled their country, and in New England had planted a new Church and a new State, where democracy and Protestantism could cut loose from the entanglements of the Old World, and could unfold unhindered according to their nature under the tuition of the Divine Spirit. Here the Church was no longer to be fettered and degraded by the domination of the State. Civil law should no longer meddle with matters of conscience, of religious faith and affection. The Church should no longer be allowed to lean on the civil arm for support. The work of the Gospel both at home and abroad must depend upon the voluntary gifts of those who love truth and righteousness. It is just here that the United States have made the most valuable contribution to religion.
So much for the more than a thousand years of preparation, of training the Anglo-Saxon for the accomplishment of his world-mission. Until within a century and a half the theatre of his activity was a narrow and humble one, was confined wholly to the little home island and a slight fringe of settlements stretching from Plymouth to Savannah. As yet no hint had been given concerning the astounding and unparalleled expansion just about to begin; for after this race had been fitted in character, in qualities spiritual, intellectual, political, and social, it was needful next thlt immediate contact with all the world should be secured, in order that the redemptive forces no1" resident in the English people might he applied in every land from the equator to the poles. Their eyes were thus to be made actually to see the lamentable case of humanity perishing without the Gospel, and thus their hcarts bc made to feel, and also by various intimate relations established, the conviction be kindled that ~erily they ought to carry salvation. And the instrumentalities providentially employed to secure this universal presence and touch were these three-commcrce, colonization, and conquest, and the last two following upon the first. This part also of the Divine plan was concealed for generations. Through a long period Spain and Portugal were the trading nations of Europe, while the Dutch were the next to set forth far over seas in search of wealth and dominion. After these French enterprise began to push vigorously toward the East and toward the New World, and seemed as good as certain to possess permancntly great trans-oceanic empires, while meantime Britain sat supine, made fcw ventures in remote regions, and ambition was confined to affairs at home and among her neighbors; and this in spite of the fact that, being islanders, the vocation of Englishmen was by nature fixed as maritime, and of the furthlilr fact that in the race was no lack of daring and readiness to endure.
The terrible approach of tlie S;panish Armada supplied the needed impulse.' In that day the nation came suddenly to itself, and then came into being both the British navy and the commercial marine. Drake and Hawkins were rough pioneers of what a host of sailors and sea-dogs. Within a dozen years the East India Oompany was chartered, which at once opened trade with Southern Asia, and before the end of the next decade English settlers were found upon James River and Mal'lsachusetts Bay. In due season at the west North America became Anglo-Saxon, and upon the opposite side of the globe an empire extending from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and including one fifth of the earth's population, passed into Anglo-Saxon hands. The middle years of the eighteenth century (1757-59) must be regarded as among the most momentous in human history, since they saw the expulsion of Catholic France both from the New World and from the Indian peninsula, and lifted to the pre-eminent place of political power the nation destined with its colonies to be beyond all odds the foremost representative of Protestantism, as well as the world's supreme evangelizing force. Before the close of that century Captain Cook had completed his discoveries in the South Seas, which added Australasia to the British domain. Before the Napoleonic wars were over the golden opportunity was given to pluck from ,the hands of her' enemies such prizes as Malta, the Mauritius, Ceylon, Cape Colony, Guiana, divers islands in the West Indies, etc. ; and since then such havc been the ceasetess vigor of diplomacy and arms, that the bulk of Africa has fallen to the share of the British lion; which means law and order, safety for life and property, all the appliances of civilization, the easy entrance and speedy diffusion of the glad tidings. A word more before proceeding to rehearse in outline what the Anglo- Saxon has achieved in the way of founding and fostering missions in all lands, and that with reference to the most striking providence whereby this continent was possessed, peopled, filled with choicest Christian institutions, and thus a new centre was established from whence the Word of Life should be carried north, south, east, west, everywhere. When Canada and the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley were wrested from France, the entire region lying beyond that river and the Gulf coast were ruled by another power that was Latin and Catholic. But when the fulness of time had arrived "it happened" that the omnivorous Corsican held Louisiana in his clutches, though no sooner was it his than he would fain sell it to the highest bidder; and though nobody wanted that vast wilderness, and it was counted worse than worthless, the purchase was made for the Union, thus doubling the national area and turning all eyes toward the West. I need not narrate how within half a century Florida became Anglo-Saxon, and Texas, and Northern Mexico to the far Pacific, with Oregon as well, with Alaska following a little later, while the discovery just in the very nick of time of gold and silver in boundless store attracted settlers by the million. In connection with the peopling of this continent, and so the establishment here of the largest and choicest portion of Greater Britain, two phenomena are especially noteworthy, for they can scarcely be paralleled in the annals of the race. These boundless spaces were practically empty, waiting to be occupied. Only a half million or so of aborigines to be displaced, no hordes of alien race, as in India, already in possession, and hence the inhabitants of kindred stoek could be easily united and homogeneous, all essentially Anglo-Saxon in character and ruling ideas. Australia, and on a much smaller seale New Zealand and Tasmania, are the only analogies possible here. And the second unmatched marvel relates to the wholesale immigration from abroad, the flocking hither of myriads to fill the social and political vacuum, so that as never before and never again a nation was born in a day! It was also a part of the same wondrous Divine ordering that for nearly two centuries the bulk of these millions came hither for conscience' sake, while almost all are either Teutons or Scandinavians, and hence quasi cousins to the Anglo-Saxon majority.
Arabia, notwithstanding its sacred associations, has been sadly neglected by the modern missionary churches. Organized missionary work was begun near Aden by Ion Keith Falconer, of the Free Church of Scotland, in ] 885. The American mission was organized four years later. Its headquarters are at Busrah, and it has three ordained missionaries, with three native helpers. Altogether, among the eleven million of Arabians, there are only seven missionaries and four native helpers. These Arabians are rightly called the Anglo-Saxons of the Orient, and in themselves, quite aside from the history of their country, are well worth winning.
A VOICE FROM
A VOICE FROM RUSSIA.
BY A RUSSIAN CHRISTIA.N.
I wish to draw a simple sketch of facts of which I have been eye-witness for years, and which may be helpful to those Christian workers on whose heart the Holy Ghost lays the desire to pray for this country or to come over and to live and work here for Christ.
Peter" the Great," correctly characterized as " the Imperial Nihilist, " threw his whole energy into breaking down the old order of things, and of putting instead of it the shell or outward form of European customs and institutions, without the spirit that had been animating these forms. Thus his work was merely a denial of old traditions, for which he substituted only a new form without the backbone of solid Christian principle. The Russians lost even the amount of truth that they had been taught. The Empress, Catherine the Great, who was prominent soon after Peter I., was anything but a standard-bearer of morality. She continued the same course in her reign, and being a friend to Voltaire, she gave the taste of his writings to the nobility and to the intelligent classes, who up to the present reign considered it fashionable to talk with derision on religious subjects, and to look upon Renan and Strauss as leaders of the real " progress."
Now, thank God, the ice is broken. A moral springtide has risen upon our poor country. On the one hand, through Lord Radstock's work in St. Petersburg j on the other hand, through some of the German colonists, faithful to their God in South Russia, the pure Gospel begins to flow into Russia. Imprisonments, banishments, threatenings are all in vain. They are only an instrument in God's hands to make the fire spread more. Thank God for that fire! You who are the bearers of His holy, unquenchable fire, come over and help us.
I do not mean that the Russians were mere pagans before the appearing of these preachers from· the West, but we had not heard the pure, unadulterated Gospel until these sel'vants of God were sent to us. OUf Gospel has been merely, " Do, and thou shalt live," the teaching of the old law. We did not hear the mighty Word of Christ spoken with authority in His name by His servants, " In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Our faith was like the hell of Dante, only paved with good intentions. We had no power to carry out the works of faith. There we sat on the same spot. We could not walk by faith. We, like the Galatians, had relapsed under the ceremonial law. I remember when I first heard Lord Radstock preach on Titus 3, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." The man spoke not only as recording a fact of the apostolic times, but spoke of this truth as of a matter of personal experience, as of a thing true and practicable in our days. He spoke of something he had himself experienced, and he could not speak without convincing others. He was the bearer of a message. I listened eagerly. That was something quite new to us. We had never before heard the simple, but thrilling note of free grace. We were taught the Ten Commandments; we were taught that God is pleased with good works. But where were we to get power to do them ~ There I heard for the first time that Christ saves those who are not able to do good works to please God, because they are sinners. " Ah I" thought I, "that is something for me, because I am a sinner." Those men of my generation who were not altogether careless of religion used to say, " The Gospel is a beautiful book, but if we try to live according to its teaching we shall find it too difficult. " Yes, the works of the law are difficult. We must have Christ. But show me the Russian priest who says that we need Christ and the Holy Ghost apart from any outward sacraments or rites or human traditions. Show me the man dressed up in the robe of a Russian priest who preaches" Christ and Him crucified." I had thought that the Holy Spirit was living in the holy men of old, but that now He could scarcely be met, at least not as before. I met a priest who had been invited to address a small company of young men in St. Petersburg, and who said he had not the presumption to say that the Holy Ghost could speak through him. This, of course, he thought of as a suitable condition of humbleness. It is a very poor and backslidden condition of a church indeed when its ministers, under a cloak of humility, call it presumption to think that they can have the Holy Ghost.
, Our present emperor, on ascending the throne, granted some rights to the dissenters. He granted the right of public worship to those of the dissenters who had been deprived up to that date of that legal right. What follows is a rumor which reached my ears. All Russia knew about this law when it was proclaimed, and the elders or ministers of dillerent dissenting bodies rushed to St. Petersburg, and were allowed to have an audience with the emperor to express their gratitude. When His Majesty saw them he is said to have asked, "But where are the deputies of the Stundists~" It was answered that they had not come. The emperor's question reached the ears of two of the elders of those South Russian dissenters. They arrived about a fortnight later, but were not admitted to the emperor. When some of the Stundist Christians were tried by the tribunal, they referred to the above law, to maintain their rights for public worship; but the magistrates answered them, "This law is given for the loaskolnics, but you are sectarians." Rasleolnic is derived from the Russian word rasleol, just as sectarian is derived from the Latin word secta. Now raskol is the Russian word for sect. It is true that the Russians designate generally under the Russian term the older sects, and call those of a more modern origin by the Latin word sectarians. Is the above definition of the Russian magistrates based on justice?
Some persecuted Stundists were banished to Siberia as murderers. Some who are more faithful to God and more zealous in the work are sent by " administrative order," that means deported by order of the administration without any previous trial. This proceeding is very remarkable, and difficult to reconcile with the clause of the Russian law which says, in St. Paul's words, "Ye must needs be in subjection to the authorities, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience' sake" (Rom. 13 : 5). Russia is proud of her emancipation of the serfs, of her universities, of her tribunals with the jury. I wish my dear countrymen could see that this method of deporting men without the least trial is not ouly not in accordance with Christian culture of the nineteenth century, but was even blamed by the pagan Romans who had crucified our Lord. "It is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man before that the accused have the accusers face to face, and have had opportunity to make his defence concerning the matter laid against him" (Acts 25 : 16). A government that has made the teaching of Paul on " subjection for conscience' sake" the foundation of its law, and that acknowledges the Gospel as the supreme law, is bound to give room to the conscience of its subjects, if that government means what it says.
I am convinced we have now in Russia many honest elements in those who are not afraid to go forward for truth's sake, only they must first know the truth. I believe we are on the eve of a glorious day that wiII dawn upon Russia. We want only a united effort from those who know the truth and who are perhaps called to say that which wiII not be heard if we say it. We have had many teachers from the West since Peter the Great, but they have so much confused us by their doctrines that we have come to mistrust them. Now we want more of those who think and who live according to our old nook-that Book which each Russian has been taught to kiss with reverence in the churches, but which most of them think to be unrealizable, a mere beautiful dream, because they do not see living before them those who have tried and proved its truth and who live it out.
The Greek Church shares the errors of Rome in regard to the so-called sacrifice of the mass, the absolution, as a prerogative of the priest, the invocation and intercession of the Holy Virgin and the saints, and, although she condemns the purgatory, she practically teaches that there is a temporary place 01' condition of torment, to which the souls of the deceased are confined until the sacrifice of the mass releases them to a better condition ; but no one can tell how many times this sacrifice must be performed to give the departed soul the benefit of the perfect forgiveness of sins and perfect peace with God.
Although the Greek Church is not teaching that images are to be worshipped like heathen idols, yet practically they occupy that place for the bulk of the people. A few days ago I visited a woman in a village hut, and asked her if she did not feel rather lonely and dull to live thus alone. She answered me, "Yes, I am indeed alone in my hut-alone with the gods!" This she said, showing the corner where the images hang. Is not this gross idolatry, although it may put on the cloak of Christianity ~ Theoretically no Russian priest calls these pictures, gods, but practically by laying this stumbling-block before the illiterate people they foster in them idolatry. There is in the prayer-book of the Greek Church what is called the prayer to the Lord's cross, and of which each living Christian should be ashamed. It begins by the words of the sixty- eighth psalm: "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered," bllt then it goes on and says: "0 most honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord, help me with the Holy Lady, the Virgin Mother of God, and with all the saints forever! Amen. " You may come across a printed sheet with ten images of saints printed on it; it is called " Index of the several graces of healing given from God to different saints, and of the days of their commemoration. ' , You read : " For the opening of blind eyes pray to the Most Holy Mother of God of Kazan. July 8th.
" For ,the healing of ophthalmic disease, to the holy martyr Mina the Egyptiau. November 11th.
"For the deliverance of those who died without repentance, to St. Palsius the Great. June 19th.
" For healing fl'om toothache, to the holy martyr Antipas. " For learning to paint holy images, to the Apostle John the Divine. September 26th." Beside a list of different diseases you find to what saints you ought to pray in case of drought, sterility, fire, lightning or shipwreck, to prevent sudden death, to enlighten the mind of students, to keep the evil spirits away from men and cattle, to heal from drunkenness, to find lost articles, to escape from fleshly lusts, and to be kept from an evil charm. One of the clergy who occupies an influential position said in refer- ence to this" Index" : "It is a shame to our Church that such things are allowed to be printed and circulated within her borders. " The Greek Church forbids the clergy to marry a second wife after the death of the first, supposing that this precept was prescribed by St. Paul, when he said that an elder must be " the husband of one wife;" whereas Paul referred in these words to instances, occurring in the early Church, of men who had many wives in their heathen condition and who were brought into the Church. Therefore many Russian priests who are wid- owers, although being forbidden to live in honest marriage, are not for- bidden to live in open licentiousness. If they had the honesty and moral . courage to call their concubine by the name of wife, they would immedi- ately be dismissed from the holy orders and deprived of their livelihood j and this comedy is so common in Rnssia, that the conscience of the public opinion has been lulled to sleep, and does not see the revolting infamy of " forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." I know of still more revolting deeds of Russian priests in the same direction, but they are too scandalous to be related, and I hope that soon our merciful Lord will purge His temple from all these offences.
To be impartial, we must give justice to the merits of the Greek Church. She has never forbidden the laymen to read the Bible. On the contrary, many of its members are helping the spreading of God's Word. She has not taught that the clergy are the only channels for spreading the truth, but that the whole body of Christians is the bearer of the true doctrine.
I firmly believe that there are God-fearing souls in the Greek Church, and the only thing they need is to be brought in living contact with the living Word. We all need to come forward, confessing Christ, and if need be to come forth unto Him " without the camp" of the religious world, bearing His reproach. We want the uniformity of the "dead bones" on the fields of dead Christianity to give way to the diversity of gifts and operations of these living members that are" risen together with Christ," and are indwelt by His Spirit, that are not uniformal in their operations, but that are all " one in Christ Jesus."
Russia is bred on officialism and red-tapeism. I remember an instance of a Russian Christian who went to the late Count D. Tolstol, then Minister of the Interior. This Christian went to the minister as interpreter of a Christian of a foreign nation, who was obliged to ask for permission to open a refuge for fallen girls who desired to reform their lives. The minister being struck by the unity of purpose that the interpreter showed with the foreigner, asked the former to what faith he belonged. " I am a Christian," answered the interpreter. Then the count objected: "There is no such faith!" and when the interpreter insisted upon his being a Christian, and quoted what he had been taught at school from the catechism of the Russian Church-" There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism"-Count D. Tolstol said: "Surely that must be some new.religion, because we have no such faith. We have Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Armeno-Gregorians, but we have no confession of that name."
This ntterance of the late Connt Tolstol is nnhappily a stereotype of what his generation in Russia think of the" undivided Christian faith." If we who love the Lord know a little of what" a Christian" means, it is our duty to show it to our generation.
In Russia the great bulk of the work of Bible distribution is done by the British and Foreign Bible Society. The American Society cooperates with the Russian Bible Society, which circulates about 100,000 copies of the Bible annually. The work among the Jews is more restricted recently than it was a few years ago. Rev. Dr. Ellis, of Warsaw, is the only foreign missionary recognized by the goverument. Joseph Rabinowitch, a native Russian Jew, is doing a good work in Southwestern Russia.
FAMILY LIFE IN INDIA. [October •
FAMILY LIFE IN INDIA.
[ A correspondent, unknown to the Editor personally, sends an article on "Family Life in India," from which extracts are admitted to these pages. This picture seems to us, however, very highly colored, and we look for a rejoinder from some one who has seen Hindu life, and who can present the other aspect. We wish impartiality in the treatment of all these themes.-EDIToR. ] Falsehood of conception and definition is the lot of the family system in India. The foreigner, unacquainted with the inner life of the Hindu family, and looking upon it from the view-point of mistaken assumption, imagines that the natives of India must pass a very uncomfortable life. That which is imagined is that which is put upon the canvas with prejudice and pride as the background. Looking at the picture, we are disgusted, and it is with feelings of disgust that we think upon the matter. Regarding the women as ill treated and practically imprisoned, it is this one incompatible idea that throws the shade upon the picture and destroys the blending of the lights and colors.
Agreeable disappointment is found out when in Bombay, Baroda, or Central India, the traveller discovers genuine home life. It is just beyond the threshold within. The visitor may not see it, may not have privilege or permission, but it is there, and another sense than that of sight may have to avail to grasp it. It has manifestation as hospitality to kindred. In India, if one acquires a living, not only his parents, brothers, and sister!! have the right of support, but more distant relatives have also a similar right. The right freely claimed, the household is most frequently made up of different degrees of relationship.
The Hindu's rellgion enjoins this, custom supports it, and ancestry has given it effect by unbroken practice. It is not regarded that necessity compels the arrangement j but at the same time necessity obliges that the family system be as harmonious as human nature will allow. At the head is, not the husband and father, as the picture attempts to show, but the wife and mother, to whom are subordinate all within the house. Her principal duty is in directing the administration of the entire in-door work. She alone is responsible if a guest or relative is not well received, or if a beggar is turned away unprovisioned. To her the home is an institution which it is hers to support without and within.
Within, the mistress of the home must look to the comfort, peace, and health of all. The other members regard her with respect, and this respect is variously shown. When she is by, her husband's elder brother may not address him, but a younger brother is given the privilege. If the husband's father or uncle are in the household they may not speak with her j and she, on her part, cannot remove her veil before them. The same rule is also observed with regard to all those standing in a superior degree of relationship to the husband. Such customs may differ in degree in different provinces, but there is one general tendency.
A family is sure to grow rapidly. Sisters married to fortuneless per- sons, or widowed, seek the newly made home. In such cases they are only required to take a share in the management of domestic affairs.
These affairs are altogether different from anything that we are accustomed to. The different apartments are quite unlike our own. Cnlinary utensils are not such as we have, and are differently used. The Hindus regard the kitchen as a sacred place, and no one can enter there wearing shoes or with unclean clothes. It is from the kitchen that the head of the house- hold rules. It is both her throne and a shrine.
Of course there are no servants in respectable families, as it is in con- sonance with religious doctrine that food prepared by persons of other castes cannot be eaten j although if prepared by a Brahmin cook, peop:e of other castes may partake. The idea is that food prepared by one's own family is conducive to both physical health and mental purity. Indeed, according to Hindu philosophy, the magnetism or aura existing in a person is imparted by the touch j and contaminating communication or beatific force is given through prepared eatables. For like reason Hindus never shake hands j and there is a fastidious observation of the noli me tangere law in relations domestic, business, and religious. The women, even in the wealthiest families, consider it a pride to perform kitchen duties. The sum aud circumstance is founded on the fact that the pride is a religious virtue. Nothing is dearer to Hindu women than religion j and they neither cook nor eat unless they have performed their religious ceremonies, to which they are obliged to devote several hours daily. Not strangely the time spent at the hearth with the kettles and pans comes to be religious as well as the time of ceremonials. It is in the highest sense unjust to speak of the wife and mother as" head of the family," as properly she is the sacred spouse, the " devi," or goddess of the family. She, in turn, considers her husband as her lord, to serve with devotion both during his life and after his death, thus achieving her own spiritual salvation. According to the Hindu proverb, she is called" half the body of the home," and further, Manu says: "A house is not a home, but a wife is a home." In point, no religious ceremony is considered as perfect unless the wife is there to take her part in it as a worshipper and participant.
Divorce is altogether unknown to the Hindus, and Hindu law cannot by any possibility sanction it. Marriage, once solemnized, can never be dissolved. If a woman proves false to her wedding vows, as is almost never the case, she is sent home to her parents or relatives, to their disgrace, and s ever after held a prisoner and considered as dead. Not only will no respectable Hindu appear in a court of justice to prosecute or witness against his wife, but as well he declines to look on her if she is under accusation. ~ The younger women, the daughters and sisters, are more or less prone to leave the cooking and house care to their elders, and to confine themselves to knitting, needlework, and the less onerous duties. It may pe that some dissent arises among the women, and in that case the mistre~s of the home acts as both judge and arbitrator. If, however, she is complainant, the mistress of a kindred household is called in to decide the matter. The dissonance never reaches the master's ear unless it is very serious, and rarely can it be so regarded.
'INTERNATIONAl, DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND OONDUOTED BY REV. J. T. GRAOEY, D.D.
The Hindu Musical System. lish tunes, were provided for them. These continued in general use through BY REV. EDWARD WEBB, LINCOLN UNI all our India missions for nearly half a VERSITY, LINCOLN, PA. century.
This paper will merely glance at some It is easy to see that these foreign features which distinguish the Hindu forllls would have no attraction and system of music from our own. would prove to be utterly impracticable In compiling and editing a book of for a people who justly boasted in a lyrics for Christian worship in 1853, it prosody of far greater elaboration than became necessary for me to study the our own, and in a musical science hoary principles of their musical science. with antiquity, having remained essen- My way was immediately blocked by tially unchanged for more than thirty the discovery that there were no treatises centuries, and in common daily use on that subject in the Tamil, the ver- among all the nationalities of India, and nacular of that part of India. I found to which even the most illiterate are a brief one in the Canarese language, paS!!ionately attached.
and there were others in Sanscrit, of The philosophical works of the Hin- which I could make little use tilll had dus-all, as they claim, divinrIy in- spent valuable time on those languages. spired-classify the arts and sciences I was further hindered by the jealousy under sixty-four heads. Five of these of the native musicians whom I em- treat of music. One-the twenty-second ployed. AU I got through them was -regulates the modulation of sonnds.
by strategy; for they used every arti- The other four give rules for instru- fice to keep tho arcana of their science mental music. One is on the lute, an- shut up from my approach. other on the flute-i.e., the wind and More than one hundred years ago Sir the stringed. The third and fourth William Jones, in Bengal, encountered treat of the tambourine and cymbals, the same difficulties. His articles on which mark time and measure in the the" Musical Modes of the Hindus" tune. Music and tune are designated were prepared by the aid of Pundits, by the word raka, signifying love, emo- omployes of the court in which he was tion, passion-for they regard this art presiding judge. With every profes- as the God-given organ to express and sion of frankness these men either mis- impress emotion.
informed him, or concealed the clews The octave, or diatonic scale, is, of to some of the fundamental facts. necessity, perhaps, the bllsis of their These articles have been freely used in musical system, as of our own: Like ail encyclopredic notices of this subject. ours, it has eight notes, the first ani! the They develop many valuable facts, but eighth being in unision, with a ratio of one to two. It has also seven divisi~ns contain not a few errors.
Roman Catholic missionaries have al- or steps, five of which may be termed ways encouraged the use of native tunes major and two minor, corresponding to and metres in the public and social wor- the number of our tones ancl semitones.
ship of their converts; but Protestant But here the correspondence ends; for misRionaries, fearins their influence from in their fractional proportions and association with idol-worship in the mathematical ratios the several tones temples and elsewhere, long opposed and semitones differ radically through· their use. Psalms and hymns in Eng- out from the European gamut. Each lish metres, translated and set to Eng- of these seven notes has its name. The first is called Sakshma; the second, intervals. 4. Because of the skilful ap- Rishaba, and so on. Each is also desig- plication of the variations developed in nated by a single syllable, as with us. the descending scales.
The syllable used for this purpose by The pitch or key of a tune, as well as them is the first of its name; thus, Sa, the intensity. and the timbre or qualit,y for Sakshma ; Ri, for Rishaba, and the of the tone, with the time and rhythm rest Sa, Ri, Ga, Ma, Pa, Tha, Ni, tak- of the movement, are 011 us connected Ing the place of our Do, Re, Mi, etc., with the scale in the construction of the and they answer the purpose in practice' tune; but by the Hindus these are all quite as well. Two of the tones-the treated with great elaboration as sup- first and fifth, Sa and Ga-are called plementary sciences, quite distinct from Pirakirnthi, unchanged because they the music, or Taka, under the general admit of no modification by division. term of Thala. A marvellous ingenuity The others-that is, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, or Ri, and infinite detail appear in the con- Ga, Ma, Tha, Ni-are variously subdi- struction of this Thala. They appear vided. The fourth, or Ma, is divided in the class·books used in the training but once. The other four have each of the dancing girls in their temples.
two divisions. There are, therefore, On one occasion, when visiting the great found in the Hindu scale seven princi- temple of Ramisseram, I examined pal and nine subordinate notes, sixteen these books with some care. I found in all. As the priucipal, so also the them full of mathematical tables for the subordinate notes have each its distinc- fractional division of the time of their tive name, and with these names their movements. This practice of theirs musical experts are perfectly familiar. with these tables extends through a But they all acknowledge that in actual period of eight or ten years of daily ex- practice one subdivision only is admissi- ercises. I was present on one occasion ble; so that four of the nine are simply when a class of these girls were being theoretical. The American Encyclopa!- drilled. They carried on simultaneous· dia says, "The Hindu gamut is divided ly five distinct rhythmical movements into twenty-two fractional tones;" but -one with the right hand; another, this is an error. Theoretically they have quite diverse, with the left; a third and sixteen; practically but twelve, as in fourth with each foot, and still another our chromatic scale. with graceful movements of the head; Many of their tunes find their most th(j class all the while advancing and distinctive characteristic and attractive receding with instrumental and vocal expression in the construction of the de- accompaniment. This was an exhibi- scending scale, which often differs from tion of consummate skill under the rnles the ascending both in the order and use of their Thala.
of the tones and of the subtones, as well I have spoken of the scales and their as in their mathematical ratio, somewhat subdivisions. also of their rules for time, as in our minor mode. measme, and rhythm. I must now re- Hindu musicians claim that though fer to the tunes constructed out of these their system knows nothing of the intri- scales. They are thirty-two in number, cate harmonies so highly admired by all enumerated and described in their Europeans, its attractions and excellen- Shastras. These thirty-two tunes are cies are far superior to ours both for ex- regarded and treated as classical genera, presRion and impression: 1. Because of on the basis of which a multitude of the scientific and artistic construction of variations have been and may still be their scales. 2. Because of the charm- constructed or composed, each com- ing effects and expressions developed in position being closely related to its their system of intervals. 3. Because theme, as a species to its genus. Several af the scientific combination and succes- of these original Vedic tunes are adapted sion which their system accords to these to the several forms of classic verse. There is one w< "he Venpa, regarded as refer with infinite satisfaction to its the best or sacerdotal verse ; another for amazing chronology as contrasted with the heroic or historic form, called Aka- that of our Bible-to their Brahmavetpa; another for Kalippa, the mer- Katpa, for instance, or the life of Brahcantile; the fourth is for Vanjippa, the ma, which consists of one hundred days, agricultural. Sevcral are called" tunes each day numbering 4,320,000,000 years, of place," supposed to express or awa- setting this over against our paltry six ken emotions suggested by localities, as thousand years. They contrast our maritime, mountainous, or rural. Others music with theirs in a similar way. are appropriated to the seasons, especially to spring and autumn. Others The question is often asked, " How are again to the different parts of the day- such delicate and intricate modes and morning, noon, or evening. They grave- melodies preserved, and how have they ly object to the singing or playing of a been transmitted unchanged, as they morning tune in the evening hour, when, claim, from generation to generation for as they say, the physical and mental more than thirty centuries?" "How tone is relaxed, demanding soothing and have their identity and individuality rest, which the intervals of the cvening been protected with no musical staff or minor modes suggest and promote. other device by which to make and keep Other adaptations and modes or ar- a record of the tones and intervals that rangements of the scales are set to popu- distinguish them one from another?" lar songs or lyrics, chiefly in religious To this they reply: 1. These modes worship. These last they call in Tamil, and tunes were originally communicat- Patha Keerttinai, or lyrics. Several of ed to men by Brahma himself, who has the original thirty-two tunes or arrange- carefully guarded them ashe has guardments of the scale are intended for use ed all such gifts. 2. They are all conon special occasions: one to express structed in accordance with natural joy, another sorrow; for weddings or laws and principles that admit of no for funerals; for felicitation or con- change or variation. 3. By Divine didolence ; for festivities and for martial rection they were from the first permainspiration. nently recorded on the lute or guitar- for this instrument was invented, as Their skilful musicians are very quick they claim, under the direction of Brahto detect, not dissonance or imperfllct ma himself by his own son, Naled. In vocalization only; but they will often the twenty-third of the sixty-four inseverely criticise the occurrence or ad- spired treatises on the arts and sciences mission of intervals that are foreign to this instrument is minutely described, the mode or tune announced. After hear- with its seven strings Rnd its keyboard ing three or four intervals they recognize for frets; and very specific rules are the tune, for their scientific classifica- given for its use. 4. Although they tion of tunes is largely determined by have no device like the European staff the intervals and their order. For this on which to record the thirty-two tunes reason they scorn our European as bar- or scales, the notes, subnotes, and conse· barous and unclassical. They despise quently the interM18 of each scale or it; for they regard it as indicating gross tune, both in ascending and descending, ignorance of the science. I have heard are each prescribed and announced by them say that while in many of the arts name in the Shastras; while the selecand sciences and in the amenities of 80- tion from the three key-tones and the ciallife we greatly excel, in the practice seven Thalas or modes of time, positive of music-and they often say in 1'eligion and relative, with all variations of feet, too-we are inferior, shallow, and fl! in measure, and rhythm, is left to the the rear. For with their religious sys- judgment, the taste and art of the musitem, as with their music, they are in- cian and the poet. tensely conceited. I have heard them By all these means the preservation and transmission of the tunes of their elabo· served as curates to 96 baptized Chris- rate musical system have been perfectly tians. In this work it disposed of an secured, as they claim, through all past income of 69,360 marks. This separa· ages, and are safe for all cOP.ling time. tion, with the design of forming a smaller missionary society, was from the very beginning not approved of by Germany's Part in Missions to the the larger missionary circles, and ac- Heathen, cording to the latest news, the very ex- BY DR. D. WANGEMAN, BERLIN, GER- istence of this mission is menaced.
MANY,. Another separation of former friends (OrmJ,inuedfrom page 689,)1 of the Barmen Mission, caused in the Another living centre of missionary year 1882 by Pastor Doll, at Neukirch· work was formed by the communities en, whose maxim was not to beg or ask of the Wupperthal, far renowned for for alms for the mission, but to build it their sincere piety, where in 1829 the upon the sending of free gifts, to found Barmen Rhenish Mission Society was a new missionary society called that of founded. It stood on the ground of Neukirchen. This society, which was the Berlin Union, and has the greatest founded on the basis of books contain· extension of all German missionary so- ing the confession of the Reformed cieties. It sent its first missionaries in Church, had in the year 1891 an income the year 1829 to the south of Africa, of 32,468 marks, and had begun its and then extended its work in 1844 to work first in Java, then in the East Borneo, in 1846 to China, in 1862 to African territory under German protec.
Sumatra, in 1868 to Nias. Its greatest tion in the country of Witu. It is true success was Sumatra, where the num- that later the piece of land. in which all ber of the baptized amounted in a abort a beginning he established three sta- time to many thollsands, and under the tions, had at the time of the division of direction of well·organized congrega· the sphere of interests fallen to the tional rules took an independent part in share of England, so that those of Neu- missionary work. The society drew a kirchen ventilated the idea also to be· great part of its income from the help gin a missionary work in real German of a mission trade company, and as this Africa. Until the year 1891 the society failed in 1881, a deficit of more than had founded seven principal stations, 200,000 marks was discovered, whereby in which 696 baptized Christians were the Elociety was driven to the resolution provided for by 10 missionaries; their to give over the greatest part of its 3 schools were visited by 120 pupils.
Chinese field of action to the two soci- In the Kingdom of Saxony a separate eties of Basel and Berlin I. Since then Lutheran missionary society was cre· the state of its finances has improved, ated in the year 1836 in opposition to and its work is crowned with the most the Union represented in Prussia, and brilliant success. It counted in the year this mission was joined in the course 1801 on 65 chief stations, which were of time by all those countries of North served by 88 missionaries, 43,912 bap- Germany which had kept intact the tized Christians, and in their 183 schools Union, such as Hanover, Saxony, Meck- 7006 pupils, and had a yearly income lenburg, Bavaria, and farther on the of 422,579 marks. Baltic.provinces of Russia, Sweden, and In the year 1877 a branch separated Norway. Its first central point was itself from the mission of Barmen and Dresden, but in 1846 it removed to formed the Bracklum Mission, which Leipzig, in order to profit by the uni· had suffered a division in the year 1893. versity of that town for the improve- This mission gave occupation, in 1891, ment of its missionaries, to whom it- in the East Indies, in six principal sta- wished to give at the same time a thor· tions, to 11 European missionaries, who ough medical education. It chose the Danish missionary territory of Franke- Pastor Harms and his congregation bar as its field of work, and remained formed the first stem of the missionary in its possession even after Frankebar society. The pastor, whose work as a had, in 1845, been relinquished by Den· curate, with its most astonishing success, mark to the crown of England. Later had already favorably attracted the at- (1870) it had added Rangoon (Burma) to tention of the Christian circles of Ger- tbis field of work. It has sent many many, now surprised the Christian an able man to the heathens, and has world with quite a new programme.
at times worked with great success. It The slow development which the evan- provided by 29 European missionaries gelical mission had taken until then- for 29 principal stations, with 14,084 such was his opinion-had been due to baptized Christians (1891), and in 185 the false method of missionary proceed- schools 4819 cbildren, having an annual ings. He was going to introduce a bet- income of 333,319 marks. ter method. The missionaries ought to As a branch of this society the Lu- be sent forth, together with colonists, a theran Missionary Company of Neudet- greater number at a time to one place, telsau, which has become renowned by where they ought to gather a congrega- the work of Lohe, separated itself in tion, and after seeing that this com- 1886. It has gathered in Queensland munity had properly taken root, they and in New Guinea in 5 principal sta- ought to leave their work to others, and tions 8 European missionaries, and in remove three o~ four miles farther on 3 schools 55 pupils, and it disposed of to found a new station, and so on, until an income of 24,358 marks. they had drawn a net of stations over a The latest branch of the Leipzig so- whole land and c!lnverted it to Chris- ciety is to be found in the Bavarian tianism. The missionary brothers Evangelical Lutheran Missionary So- should also not have separate house· ciety of German East Africa, which holds, but take their meals together in owed its origin to the colonial endeav- a convention. The teaching brothers ors of Germany. Its proceedings were should have at their side a larger num- so hasty, that the 3 principal stations, ber of trading brothers. These new founded in a great hurry, in which it ideas were hailed in the Christian cir- had gathered up to 1891 12 baptized cles of the whole of Germany with the Christians, fell into the territory under greatest enthusiasm, as if now the stone English protection. It disposed of an of sages had been found for missionary annual income of 29,000 marks, but work. Hermannsburg was considered after a few years it came to understand by many as the mission Ka7'Efox?jv ; but the precipitation of this step, and n'l.S scarcely ten years had elapsed before lately joined the old maternal society all these ideas proved as chimeras, and of Leipzig. by and by the practice of the former Finally, we have to mention a most missionary societies was taken up again.
strikingly interesting missionary ap- The trading brothers, sent forth in great pearance, wbich for a number of years numbers, had to be got rid of, partly found many admirers, the mission so- through considerable sacrifices. Never- ciety of Hermannsburg. one of the tbeless this mission lingered for some larger villages in the Lunebmger Heide, time upon the summit of its glory, un- where the pious Pastor Harms, a man til a new principle, that of separatistic of fervent faith, was seized by so ardent Lutheranism, sprang up in its very cen- a missionary zeal, which he knew how tre. This principle has already given to communicate to his congregation, birth to the most deplorable divisions, that many of tbe peasants cut down so that mission work suffered by it in their old, highly prized oaks in Older to the widest circles. This society has be- build a ship, destined only for mission- gun its labor in South Africa in three ary purposes. districts; Natal, Zululand, and Bechu. ana. It has in later times extended to And even now a steady growth is to India (Telugu), New Holland, and New be noticed; for instance, the number Zealand. It disposed in the year 1891 of the chief stations amounted in 1875 of 277,769 marks, and had gathered in to 290, 1883 to 342, 1888 to 380, 1891 to 1891 in 59 stations 18,231 baptized Chris- 426; that of the heathen Christians in tians, who were provided for by 59 1875 to 128,000, 1883 to 193,975, 1888 European missionaries. In 78 schools to 214,628, 1891 to 257,234; that of the 4819 children were instructed. European missionaries in 1875 to 500, 1883 to 517, 1888 to 549, 1891 to 624, ; If at the end we cast a retrospective that of the schools in 1875 to 500, 1883 glance upon these communications, we to 790, 1888 to 877, 1891 to 1128; that are struck in the first place by the great of the pupils amounted in 1875 to 27,- number of the partly very small mis- 500, 1883 to 90,643; 1888 to 42,369, sionary societies into which the work has 1891 to 53,104. The whole expenses been split, by which the endeavors of amounted in 1875 to 2,140,000, 1883 to the greater societies have often been 2,707,218, 1888 to 3,552,608, 1891 to hindered; but that is the German way. 3,552,633 marks, numbers which can- We also see a considerable damage arise not measure themselves with the greater from the enormously increasing endeav- success of the English and American ors of the inner mission, the interests of sister societies, and shall not in the least which are less remote and therefore 1ind an excuse in the words, " Sho hatb more intelligible to the Christian cir- done what she could," but which never· cles, which for the greater part are but theless may serve as a proof that in Gersuperficially touched by Christian reo many also missionary work is being ligion, so that we must look upon the done. Tbis work has for more than missionary work of Germany as having fifteen years been promoted in a most reached its climax. The original depth eminent measure upon intellectual of Christian ideas, which stopped at the ground also. The Provincial Missionone point of view, that one ought to ary Conferences, of which we possess of prove one's thankfulness for having ex- Saxony, one in Brandenburg, one in perienced in his own soul the redemp- Silesia, one in Pomerania, and one in tion gained by Christ, by winning souls the Fovince of Posen, as the author of for Him from among the heathen which we name the celebrated Dr. Warthrough an entire immolation of self, is neck in Rothenschirmbach, annually more and more stepping into the back- aesemble the clergymen and distinground and a lJroadly expanding work guished laymen of their province for a is taking its place. provincial conference, at which all the practical and scientific questions of mis· It is true that until now the numbers sion work are thoroughly discussed and have considerably increased, and the spoken about, independently of the innumber .of 257,234 souls won from terests of the separate missionary sociamong the heathen, of 426 chief sta- eties. Moreover, at Bremen, in that tions, which are occupied by 624 Euro- town which once bore the name of an pean missionaries and 119 ordained and lwspitium eccleffiaJ, an assembly of repre- 3185 not ordained national helpers, the sentative8 of all German misffionarysocinumber of 1128 schools with 53,104 pu- eties gathers every third year in order pils and 1501 teachers cannot be looked to consider the most important practiupon as wholly insignificant. Espe- cal and theoretical questions of the dicially as we consider that these num- rection of missionary work. Finally, bers have been won only by the love of a lasting committee of directors of the Christ without any commercial, politi- larger missionary societies has assemcal, or colonial help Whatever, for the bled since 1891 for the purpose of repgreatest part out of the contributions resenting the interests of mission work of very poor members. on greater fields of action against the killed and seventeen wounded by fall- State and the Church. ing bricks and tile.
So the cause of holy missions is pros· When I reached home I found mv pering well in Germany. May the Lord wife and children safe and unharmed. bless our feeble efforts as He has hither- although the house had been torn lind to done I wrecked in a fearful manner.
Earthquakes in Japan. The brick chimneys had been cracked to the foundations, their tops had been BY REV. W. S. WORDEN, M.D., NAGOYA, broken just above the roof, the chimney- top on the north side of the house JAPAN. had been carried en mas88 twenty feet and had fallen into a Japanese house Japan is a land of earthquakes. on the north side, while the chimney- There are nearly two a day on the top on the south side took a leap of average, and in ever.racurring cycles nineteen feet to the south, carrying of time these small shakes mass their away the cornice of our house. I did forces together and produce effects on not observe that any other chimney in the solid earth like the effect of a storm the whole earthquake region fell as did upon the sea, causing the ground to the chimneys of onr house. When the move like waves, throwing down cities earth was shaking and roaring like and towns as though they were the rumbling thunder a rainbow appeared playhouses of children, destroying the in the sky-God's promise of love and most solid mason-work of man, and care for His affiicted children. twisting the heaviest steel and iron trusses as though they were wire. No one remained in the houses that were left standing for many days, but Such an earthquake occurred Octobar lived in temporary huts erected in the 28th, 1891, in Aichi and Gifu provinces, streets and yards. During a period of in which ten thousand people wllre two months we lived in a little hut killed, fifteen thousand wounded, and 13 X 20 made of half-inch boards tied one hundred thousand houses were to posts driven into the ground, and thrown down and destroyed. in that time we felt several thousand earth-waves. The provinces of Aichi and Gifu are in the central part of Japan, almost The work of rescue and relief was midway between the open ports of begun immediately. The Christian mis- Yokohama and Kobe. The physical sionaries formed an association called features are a large alluvial plain extend- the Nagoya Earthquake Relief Assoing from the sea to the palooozoic hills ciation, which built hospitals, furnished of Gifu. In these hills a few miles from physicians and surgeons, medicines, the city of Gifu the earthquake had its food, clothing, and shelter to the earthcentre or origin. quake sufferers. Hundreds of houses were built, costing from $3 to $5 each, There are between two and three and hundreds of looms were donated. millions of people in Mchi and Gifn Thoul5ands of garments and blanket.s provinces, with a population of eight were given to the needy, and self-helphundred to the squale mile on the ing institutions were started and carried plain. The earthquake began about on by this association. These self-help 6.45 A.M. institutions gave work to hundreds of men, women and children who were There seemed to be two distinct destitute and without means of support. movements of the earth-one from east A lantern factory was established in to west, and one from north to south; Ogaki which gave employment to a hunthe resultant of these was a spiral or dred or more boys and girls, who were corkscrew motion. !Iolso taught in a school in connection I was attending a union prayer·meeting at the time of the earthquake, and of thirty who were present four were with the factory. The self-help society prompted largely by a keen sense of of Gifu employed several hundreds of their importance to the work and a high people in making embroidered silk ideal of what the ministry ought to be.
handkerchiefs. An orphanage was es- The writer himself has sometimes in- tablished in Nagoya, and also a home dulged such thoughts; but recently he for old people, and the benevolent has been taught a lesson along this line work of the Nagoya Methodist Episco- which may be of some value to others pal Church was greatly enlarged to as well, and which the reader will par- , meet the necessities of the sufferers. don his relating as personal experience.
The earthquake, followed as it was When I came to Hinghua, Foochow by the efforts to relieve the sufferers on Province, China, three years ago, there the part of the foreign missionaries and was a young man in charge of the Bing- native Christians, did much to open up hai circuit, of whom Dr. Sites said lie this part of Japan to Christian work. thought the presiding elder had appoint- Before the earthquake it was impossible ed him because he had failed to make a to do any Christian work in some parts living qs a doctor. I watched him, ex- of the earthquake region ; but after the horted him. and in many ways sought earthquake and the exhibition of Chris- to help him make a success; but at the tian philanthropy by the missionaries end of two years I could not see any we were welcomed, and little ehurehes signs of progress either in him or his were planted in these same bigoted Bud- work. I was thoroughly discouraged dhist strongholds. The effeet upon the about him.
offieials, from whom many letters of But in November, 1892, just before thanks were reeeived for help given to Conference, Bishop Mallalieu spent the sufferers, was excellent, and has re- Sunday here. The preachers and many sulted in bringing about a kinder and others were present. It was a great more friendly state of feeling. day in Zion. The bishop preached Christ. the Mighty to save. There The Problem of Missions. were many seekers for pardon. In the afternoon, after a remarkable baptismal BY REV. WILLIAM N. BREWSTER, RING- service, at which over seventy persons WRA, CillNA. were baptized, we had a pentecostal The most important problem of mis- meeting in the parsonage for the preach- sions is the raising up of a native minis- ers and theological students only_ The try. Solve that and there remains little bishop was so exhausted by the heavy more for the foreign missionary to do labors of the day that he remained seat- in the line of evangelistic work except ed while he talked to these earnest men superintendence. The right kind of about the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
native pastors can evangelize their Then followed two seasons of prayer, own people more successfully than for- when the presence of the Spirit was so eign missionaries. This is no disCIedit manifest it seemed as though we were to the missionary. It is a wise provi- talking with God face to face. This dence that it is so. It makes possible young preacher has been a new man the evangelization of the heathen races, ever since_ Immediately after confer- which would be impossible if it depend- ence he began to go among the opium- ed upon the importation of foreigners, smokers and bad men generally and tell both on account of the scarcity of work- them of the love of Christ and His ers and the disproportionate expense. power to break their chains of habit. A It is not uncommon in missionary cir- number soon believed. These spread the cles to hear a good deal of talk in dis- work into a large and important seaport paragement of the quality of the native town near by, and in six months from workers as a class. This is not gener- conference time there was a regular con- ally in an uncharitable spirit. It is gregation of sixty or seventy of all ages and of both sexes gathering for worship abundant fruits of his labors had been and instruction, where formerly there gathered into the Church militant, Ta had not been one. This was the work, Ling was received into the Church tri- under God, of the man who for two umphant.
years had seemed to me among the least I cannot forbear one more illustration: promising and least useful of all our In the spring of 1891 I found a young preachers. man teaching school whom I learned In that pentecostal meeting was an- had been in the theological school at other young man who was chapel- Foochow. We were much in need of keeper of the church in the city when pastors. I asked the presiding elder if We came to Hinghua in the fall of we could not make use of this young 1890; and often it seemed to me he did man. The elder, who is a keen judge that very indifferently well. He had of men, smiled and said, .. He is just been to the theological school in Foo- like Ta Ling." That settled it, and I chow, but had not done well; he had said no more. However, last year I been admitted into the conference on was prevailed upon to appoint him to trial, but had been discontinued because another place, where he would have of failure in his studies. Surely here some preaching to do, as well as teach- was a case where further trial would be ing a small school. Later there was a waste of money and time; yet we con- promising opening at another point on tinued him in a subordinate position for the same circuit, and this brother, Deng two years, hoping for fruit, but had Hong, was sent there.
finally decided that further trial would At about that time we held a ten- be useless. days' home camp-meeting for all the But he had been in the presence of district workers in Hinghua City. This the cherubim, .. his lips had belln young man, with many others, received touched with a live coal from off the an anointing from on high. Three altar" in that pentecostal meeting, months later, at the quarterly meeting though we knew it not. After confer- on that circuit, we baptized fifty-four ence we were in great need of a man adults from his place, and this young for a new place. The preacher in man reported having preached in the charge of that circuit, who was a friend church sixty times!
of this young man, Ta Ling, asked that Is it necessary to explain the lesson?
he be sent there as junior preacher. If our native helpers, as a class, are of After much hesitation I consented, little use, let us obey the apostle's comchiefly because Ta Ling's wife was a mand, ,. Examine yourselves." There capable woman and was wanted there to teach a girls' school. is a great deal of philosophy and Gospel in the advice of the wise old circuit rider Soon the word came that the little to the young junior preacher: "When room was crowded. I granted a little anything goes wrong, blame yourself." missionary money to rent a larger place, and before long this' too was filled to Then let us go to praying for them overflowing. By the third quarter we and with them until the fire comes down baptized a class of twenty seven of the from heaven. most promising young Christians I have ever seen baptizeu. in one body in China. Now, these three are but examples of at least twenty-five preachers in Hing· But Ta Ling was ripening for a higher hua. They are gathering converts by service. Consumption was eating away hundreds. This 'year is opening with his life. Yet he toiled on. He might by far the best prospects of any year have gone to his home to rest and, since we began. And the news comes perhaps, prolonged his days a little, but that the missionary society: has been he would not. He stayed among his compelled to cut down 11 per cent bepeople to the last; and soon after the cause of the financial 'stringency. Last year we had but $500, at present ex- change, from the society for all these men and their families, or about $20 each. The money raised by the native Church and a few special donations from friends enabled us to close the year without running behind. But we ries are poor material for learning the cannot do it this year. We must have vernacular, because they are full of lithelp even to hold what we have. Then eral translations of foreign idioms, which r what shall we say to the twenty new only the initiated adherents of the mis· plalJ68 pleading fCl1' paSWI'8 These peo- sions understand. ple offer houses for worship and to One of the best ways of acquiring the subscribe to the support of the pastor. genuine vernacular is to collect and as- A number of our most substantial and similate specimens of the native tradiearnest laymen, for many years local tionalliterature, such as myths, fables, preachers, have recently offered to take stories, proverbs, riddles, and songs. work, in most cases at financial loss to Conversational language will never give themsel ves, so impressed are they with the poetical expressions and the words these importunate calls from new places expressin~ higher concepts which can for pastors. be found In such specimens of primitive Is not this the voice of God ? literature. If God's hand thus opens the hearts These co Folk-Tales of Angola" make of the heathen and of these lay-preach- it easy for the English student to learn ers but one generation removed from Ki-mbundu, and for the native Angolan heathenism here in' China, are not His to learn English. It also enables the .. everlasting arms" long enough to general reader to get some idea of the reach across the wide Pacific and touch African process of thinking, provided he and open the hearts and purses of His be not too fastidious to accustom his faithful stewards in Christian America? mind to the strange sound of the literal For every $30 I can support, with the translation. additional aid received from the native Aside from the utilitarian and scien- Church, a native pastor for one year. tific study of language, this collection In most cases it will be used to open a of folk-tales is valuable in itself as ennew place; and the probability is that abling us to realize what the African, before the end of the year at least as unaided by the European, has produced, many people will be brought to Christ and how he looks at the world around as there shall be dollars donated. and at the world within him. The stu- dent of folk-lore also needs to be shown .. Folk-Tales in Angola," by lIeli in what way this book contributes to Chatelain, has already been mentioned the comparative study of folk·lore. by us, but it deserves more extended Many will be surprised to notice resemnotice. It may not at first flush be ap- blances in expressions, ideas, and cusparent why this should have our special toms with those of the Old Testament, attention. The reason is the same that especially in patriarchal times. induced Mr. Chatelain to produce this The book will be a revelation to the book. Those who are acquainted with thoulilands of Angolans who can read, the author know, without having to be even more than to the white people of told, that he had a missionary object in that coast, for this is the first time Anview. Science alone, or the praise of golan folk-tales appear in print. The the few specialists who are in position folk-tales of the interior will be new to to appreciate his work from a scientific the coast people, while those of the coast standpoint, would not have afforded will be a surprise to the people of the sufficient inspiration to cause him to interior. It will also familIarize the naendure the exposure and hardship or to tives from all parts of the Ki-mbundu make the financial outlay, as well as to field with forms and words of the two overcome the other obstacles incident to principal districts and promote their the collection and subsequent publica- ultimate fusion. tion of this volume. This book will thus be of value to the One of the greatest difficulties which missionary and trader in Angola, to the the missionary in Africa has to contend native Angolan, to the linguist, to the with, and one which has discouraged ethnolo~ist and student of folk-lore, to and brought home more than one other- the AfrIcan student in general, and to wise promisin~ worker, is that of ac- the general reader. quiring the natIve languages and of ex- The smaller map, that of the district pressing in them moral and religious of Loanda, is original. It gives places ideas. Grammars, especially grammars which are not to be found on previous without practical exercises, as, unfortu- maps, and it gives all names as pro· nately, most grammars of African lan- nounced by the natives, and not as torguages are, and vocabularies and dic- tured by filtration through the careless tionaries are no adequate equipment for habits of mispronouncing and misspellthe study of a language. There must iug these names by Portuguese and be readers also. The Bible translations English. Boston and New York: and school-books composed by missiona. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, $3.
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Russia,* Turkish Empire,t North Afrioa, Persia,t Mohammedanism,§ Greek Oh11z0h.I MOROCCO AND MISSIONARY 'VORK. rope, reared the silkworm. and attained great skill in the art of siik-weaving. BY;REV. N. H. PATRICK, MOROCCO. They were industrious, enterprising, Morocco is only four days' journey brave, and powerful. All Christendom from London, and Bome thirty miles envied their learning and feared their from Gibraltar, but the change is mar- power. vellous, for on landing in Africa one soon discovers that he has left the light But in 1492 they were expelled from of Christianity and entered into the Spain, and since then fanaticism, tyrandarkness of Mohammedanism. ny, and sloth have wrought an awful change, and it is hard to imagine a The inhabitants of Morocco from the darker spot than the Morocco of to-day. earliest times were the Berbers, who, being subdued by the Arabs in the sev- Its popUlation is between five and enth century, forsook Christianity and eight millions. It is governed by a SuI· accepted the religion of their conquer- tan, but, while retaining a nominal inors. dependence, has no political power. The late Sultan said that" his country In the year 713 Arabs and Berbers was like the virtue of a fair woman, crossed to Spain, where they estab· which is only saved by the multitude lished a magnificent kingdom with a of her lover~." The country is divided regular government. They were called into thirty-three districts, each of which by the people of the country" Moros" is under the superintendence of a kaid. or Moors. Their principal city, Cor- Many of the hill tribes do not acknowldova, stood on the banks .of the Guadal- edge the authority of the Sultan. qUlVlr. It was twenty-four miles in length and six in breadth, and was Generally speaking, the climate of studded with beautiful public build- Morocco is healthy, but in some parts ings and gardens. It had a population malaria fever is prevalent, and Euroof from 700,000 to 800,000. Granada peans suffer rather heavily from tynearly equalled it in prosperity, and phoid, this being caused by bad sanitasurpassed it in beauty. tion.
In nearly all their towns theIe were Few of the men and none of the public libraries and colleges. Students women. can read or write. They do flocked to their schools from all parts not possess many books, and have no of Europe. Their professors were un- public libraries. The art of printing is equalled in their knowledge of medi- unknown, and is, I believe, prohibited cine and surgery, botany and chemis· by law. try, astronomy and agriculture. The country that might be so fertile What their architecture was like can and fruitful is almost uncultivated. still be seen in the grand mosque of One journeys over vast and well-wa- Cordova with its thousand pillars of tered but barren plains. 'rhe people marble, and in the glorious palace of are afraid to put their money into the the Alhambra in Granada. land. If they sow, they" sow in tears;" for those in authority may 'rhey made vast tracts of country fer- seize their harvest, or the I:lultan, who tile by irrigation, they planted the is continually moving about the counsugar-cane, introduced cotton to Eu- try with his army of from 20.000 to 40,000 nndisciplined and starving mell, • See pp. 11 (January), 201 (March), 755, 778 may come theiL' way and "eat up" (present i ••ue). their crops.
t See pp_140(February), 290 (April), 38J(May), There are neither roads nor railroads, 444 (June), 784 (pre.ent issue).
:I: See pp. 3Ii2 (May), 451 (June), 5211 (July). § See p. 721 (pre.ent i",ue). UBee pp. 447 (June), 597, 621 (August).
1894·1
and no wheeled vehicles in the country. Slavery still exists in this land. Ne- All animals are brutally ill-treated. groes are brought from the Soudan to There have been bridges, but they have the borders of Morocco, where they are fallen in and are unrepaired. There bought by Moors, who resell them in are mines and quarries, but they are the different towns, and from time to un worked. Travelling is dangerous. time they can be seen chained together Murders are of daily occurrence. Tri- in the slave-markets or hawked through bal wars are unending. the streets and handed over to the high- The poverty one meets with is dis· es. bidder. The female slaves realize tressing. Wheaten bread is a luxury higher prices than the male.
seldom tasted by the country people, Woman in Morocco is man's slave or and tens of thousands almost live on plaything. The idea that she was cre- the roots of the fan.palm or of the man- ated by God to be the helpmeet and the ioc. The laboring man earns from 5 to equal of man is unthought of. They 10 cents a day. have no conception of a pure family Beggars swarm in the towns-beg- life. Most of the Moors declare that a gars whose eyes have been gouged out; woman has no soul, and she is excluded beggars who have had a hand chopped from the mosques. When a female off for maybe haVing committed some child is born into a family there Is no petty theft ; beggars awfully deformed feasting. The girls are married while or covered with sores, and occasionally still children, and one sees mothers of beggars that are lepers. thirteen or fourteen years of age. The Their "medicine-men" have no fire of jealousy is lighted in the wom· knowledge of medicine or surgery, and an's heart by the bringing home of a are a curse to the people. All pain and second wife, and murder by poison is sickness is looked upon as a judgment often the result. A country Moor once from God, and the most highly-valued said, in the hearing of the writer, " I medicines are charms and amulets. have four wives and four huts, a hut Small pieces of cane or scraps of paper for each wife ; and only in this way with verses from the Koran written can I keep them from quarrelling and upon them are carried on the person. mischief." A wife can be divorced at This charm will cure small-pox, and the will of her husband by the payment that amulet will preserve from accident, of a sum of money amounting to about etc. But oftentimes these native doctors 2; cents.
increase rather than diminish suffering. The prlsous are always full and al- One, to our knowledge, bored a hole ways foul, and are very hotbeds of into the sole of the foot of a patient to fever, etc.
let out a fever, and we also remember The prisoners are not all ,criminals, a bright-eyed Moorish lassie, Fatima for lunatics, when dangerous, are con· by name, who, when suffering from fined in the common jail; and there fever, was visited by one of these are thousands of innocent men in the " doctors," and he said to her parents, prisons, for justice can be bought or " If you would cure your little one of Bold, and the highest bidder generally her fever you must frighten her, so to- wins his case. The kaids and bashaa night when she is asleep you must run exert their authority to fill their pock- to her side shouting, • Fatima, there is ets. Extortion robs the defenceless_ a snake in your bed I ,.. They fol- Might is right, and the many are at the lowed his instructions. Little Fatima mercy of the few. The people 'are sprang from her bed, and as she was afraid to become rich, for the wealthy running shrieking from the hut, caught are always in danger of imprisonment her foot against the threshold, and fall- with all its horrors. Neither food nor ing heavily broke her arm and dislo- water is provided for the prisoners, and cated her shoulder. if there is no heart to pity and no band
'l"74 FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
to help they may die of hunger or go missionaries to them 1" Their religion mad from thirst. Some of the punish- fails to reveal God to man or to bring ments inflicted on prisoners are horrible man to God. It fails to show man that beyond all description. Sometimes the he is the sinner and that Jesus is the palm of t.be hand is cut open, lime is Saviour. It leads its followers into the put into the wound, a stone is placed dark and leaves them there.
in the palm, the fingers are closed, and Missionary work was commenced in the fist is then bound tightly with a Morocco by the North Africa Mission,* thong of new leather. The leather an interdenominational society, in 1883, shrinks and in time the hand falls off. but the agents of the British and For- Ignorance slays her thousands and eign Bible Society had been selling the tyranny her tens of thousands. Scriptures among the people before Spiritually the peopre are in the dens- this time. There are now about twenty- est darkness. They have no knowl- six workers in Morocco connected with edge of the sinfulness of sin, for Mo- the North Africa Mission, and forty-five hammedanism tells nothing of God's scattered over Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, detestation of sin; nothing of the Di- Egypt, and North Arabia.
vine sacrifice for sin; nothing of the The Southern Morocco Missiont was need for man to hate and abandon sin ; originated in 1888. It commenced with nothing of a future without sin. No two workers, and now numbers about matter how wicked the life if the an- eighteen.
nual fast of Rhamadan is kept, or if Medical mission work has been found once in life the pilgrimage to Mecca is most helpful in gathering together the made, in person or by proxy, or even people to hear the Gospel. Dispensary If before death confession is made that work is carried on in most of the towns, .. there is no God but God, and Mo- and the North Africa Mission has a hammed is His prophet;" by these hospital in Tangiers.
means they believe the penalties of sin The following are a few of the ad- are evaded and their future will be vantages of the medical work: spent with the elect of God. (a) The people come to us. There While believing that Jesus Christ was is no need to spend one's energy in a prophet, they deny His divinity and going out and compelling them to come His death on the cross. in. When the doors are opened, in they The faithful Moslem bows five times come in large numbers, friends often each day in prayer, yet knows nothing accompanying the sick. A Gospel ser- of the true spirit of prayer, for his vice is held, and then, while the paprayers consist in telling the ninety- tients go in one by ~ne to see the doc- nine beads of his rosary, and with each tor, other workers read the Scriptures, bead naming one of, what he supposes etc., with the waiting ones. The doc- to be, the ninety. nine names of God, tor invites any desirable patients to re- and in all those names there is not one main in the hospital.
that tells of God" our Father." "God (b) The hospital patients see the daily is great," they cry, but never, "God life of the missionaries. They hear the is Love." Gospel preached, and they see it lived.
There are thousands of saints in the They know that all is done in the name country-some saints by birth, others of the Lord Jesus.
saints by merit. They are, generally (c) Many remain in the hospital for speaking, the biggest of scoundrels, a long time. On entering they are often and earn their livelihood by trading on very fanatical and refuse to hear the the superstition of the people. * Honorary Secretary, E. H. Glenny, Esq., 21. We have blushed with shame to hear Linton Road. Barking. professing Christians say, "The Moors t Honorary Director John Anderaon, Elq•• have a religion of their own; why send 1 Blythswood Square, Glasgow. Gospel message, but gradually become During the evening an e'angelistic sermore friendly and listen to the story of "ice is held. Jesus and His love several times daily. A. Moorish girls' school is a fresh ef- (11) Sometimes we are able to minister fort. It is conducted by a lady misto the dying in their last moments, sionary, and is attended by about thirty and to point them from Mecca to Cal- girls, who are making encouraging progress in reading, etc. vary. (e) Many of the patients come from A. boys' school was commenced sev- eral months ago in Fez, and a good very long distances. They have come start was made,. but the authorities from the Sahara, from the Soudan, from promptly imprisoned the pupils and the A.tlas Mountains. from far and near, their fathers, and in this way stopped taking long and dangerous journeys the work. and incurring weeks of travel to obtain medicine; and when restored to health The people are visited in their homes they return to their homes, telling, as by lady workers. they go, of the skill and lovingkindness of the doctor and his fellow-workers, The work is still in its infancy. Many often bearing with them the Word of initial difficulties have been overcome, God into regions where no European but at present there are very few concan enter. Thus the way is prepared verts. We believe that many are kept for the going forward of God's messen· from confessing their faith in Christ by °gers. Some five years ago, when trav- fear, for the public profession of Chriselling in the country with a doctor, we tianity by a Moor would probably lead encamped near a market which few to a speedy death by poison or flog- Europeans had ever visited, and we ging. In 1891 some correspondence were probably the first that had done passed between Lord Salisbury and the so without a guard of soldiers. Early Sultan of Morocco, in consequence of in the morning we sauntered into the two Moorish women having been immarket, taking with us a box of medi- prisoned for visiting the house of some cines and a small tent. On seeing us lady missionaries, and in one of the letsome of the women picked up stones ters from the Sultan the following pasand shouted, "The Nazarenes have sage occurs: " When the Oolema and come. God has cursed the market; chief men of the city heard of this [the the market is cursed of God." Some Moorish women visiting the mission hands were raised in the air and in the house], they rose and assembled and act of hurling stones at us, when a fulgurated and thundered. • . , and young Moor rushed out of the crowd, he [the Sultan] issued an order that the threw his arms round the neck of the Moorish women who should mix with doctor, kissed him in Eastern fashion, them should be allowed three days for and shouted, "It is the doctor from repentance, and if they did not repent Tangier. " He was a former patient, be killed." and told the crowd how these Nazarenes had helped him, and assisted us From 4000 to 5000 Spanish colonists to put up the tent, and during the day live in Tangier, and the writer with fifty people received medicine, and the others has devoted himself to labor Gospel was preached to from two to among them. Persecution has been three thousand souls. rife, but a small band of converts has been gathered together, and the outlook Refuge work is another successful is " as bright as the promises of God." means of " getting hold" of the people. The millions of Morocco are still afar A. suitable room is obtained, the floor off from God, but we believe that He is covered with matting. It is opened will bring out this people from the each evening, and all the men that wish long night of ignorance and despotism to sleep there can do so free of cost. unto Him who is the "Light of the World." Sta.tistioal Notes. For a thousand years the faith of the World-wide missions relate mainly to Koran has been steadily advancing these three classes of the unevangelized : southward. and sways the masses in the Chinese, the Hindus, and the Mo- some measure as far as to the Congo h"mmedans; for, taken together, they and Zambesi. The great Moslem" uni- constitute the bulk of non-Christian versity" is located at Cairo, with its human kind, and almost half of the en- 10,000 "students," gathered from re- tire race_ As to Islam, it is well-nigh motest points, and hundreds of " teach- impossible to realize the vastness of the ers."
area it covers. From the Atlantic at Several provinces in western and Gibraltar and thCeapperoVpheredt eexotnentdhseawcreosst~ southern China are largely peopled by the domain of Mohammedans, as well as some of the the whole enormous breadth of the East- great cities on the coast. Peking con- ern Hemisphere, 140° of longitude, 9000 tains mosques not a few. Not long miles (about three times the distance since a widespread rebellion broke out from New York to San Francisco), to among this class of the Emperor's sub- the Moluccas and tho Philippines; and jects, which was only suppressed after from the Great Wall and the Black Sea years of war and great bloodshed. The , on the north, across 70° otfo l at ht iet uCd ea~a nodf " Statesman's Year Book" and other more than 5000 miles, conservative statistical works find 30 – Good Hope. The Crescent is supreme 000,000 Moslems in China. '
over all Western Asia, rules about one The religion of Arabia has brought hall the population of Africa and one into captivity the bulk of the Malay fourth of India, and, according to some race, which so largely inhabits south- authorities, every tenth Chinese is a eastern Asia, and hence is uppermost in Moslem' The following table will Java, Sumatra, and throughout the show how widely distributed is this iDs uletscshoafnbdiS~optarnyisahndEafsatnIantdicieiss~ There among mighty host : them in thIS region, and of late con- India'" ………………… 57,000,000 verts by the thousand have been made Turkey in Asia ……….•.• 22,000.000 Malaysia ……………… 20,000,000 by the German miseionaries. China, …. '" ….,. . … . . . … 15,000,000 Islam as a political power is fast wan- Persia….. …. …… …. … 8,000,000 Russian Asia ……. " … '" 7,000 000 ing toward impotence, if not annihila- A.fghanistan., …..•••.•.• ' . 4,000:000 tion. Only four considerable govern- ments are left to fight the hattles of the panr o~ pMh eotr-oTcucrok- ewyi,t hPaernsiaag, gArefggahtaenpisotpaun: latl0n of only ab~ut. 40,000,000, and Total Asia………… .. 133,000,000 each one of them IS In leading-strings The SOlldan……………. 50,000,000 to one or more European nations. Near- Northern Africa. ……….. , 15,000,000 Iilcattering….. , .. ……… 5,000,000 ly one half of the Moslems are subject to Christian rulers: 63,000 000 to Great Total Africa ……….. .. 70,000,000 Britain, 15,000,000 to the Netherlands 9,000,000 to Russia, 4,000,000 to France'
Russia………………. . 2,600,000 4,000,000 to Spain, etc. In this impor: European Turkey……… . 2,200,000 Bulga.ria …………….. .. tant palticular, within this century the Other States …. " ……… 670,000 530,000 way has been wondrously prepared for a grand assault upon Islam from every Total Enrope ….. " … .. 6,000,000 quarter. And in this generation, through the translation of the Scriptures into Total Mohammedans..•.. 209,000,000 Arabic, an unmatched and irresistible As to Africa, only estimates of popu· weapon has been fashioned. This is the spoken language of nearly 75 000 – lation are possible. If we ftiagkuere16f0~r00t0h 000, lind being the language of the 000 as the most probable – e Koran, is sacred to every Moslem_ inhabitants of this continent, with some Whoever reads the Koran can now read good authorities we may put the Mos- the Bible in the same tongue. There- fore, lems at one third of that number or ",Onward, Christian soldlell, ",:lIarching as to 'IfIIr.", " more than one half," with Dr. Cu' st.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. '17'7
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The J'span-Corean·Chinese war is a What the issue may be God only fore- conflict, the philosophy of which is not sees. Japan is the weaker numerically, I¥! simple as that of many conflicts; having scarce more than one tenth the and, in view of possibly wider compli- population of China; but Japan is the cations, it may be well to fix in mind a greater master of the art of modern war· few facts. fare, and has both a better-disciplined and equipped army and navy. Whether In Corea there has been for some time other nations, like Russia, and possibly a revolution, or, at least, reaction, even England and America, may not be against corruption and oppression in drawn into the whirlpool of war is a connection with public administration, question now awakening DO little interand Japanese merchants have been est. Meanwhile the United States, Britamong those who have suffered from ain, Germany, and Italy seem united in such maladministration. A certain par- preserving forcibly the neutrality of the ty, known as "rebels," while not as- treaty ports of China; and thus far the sailing the king, charges government missionaries are unmolested. officials with making the civil examination grounds a market-place, and gov- Rev. F. Ohlinger says: "The politiernment an article of merchandise, rais- cal complications in Corea threaten to ing money by selling office, and then bring the 'Eastern Question' to the using the proceeds of such barter for the front. Russia wants Wonsan or Lazaenriching of base men. reff almost as badly as she wants Con· stantinople. " One of these "rebels" escaped to Japan, but was lured into China, and According to the (Jhristia·n Work, a there, by order of the Corean king, Chinaman, who wished to be baptized, slain, and this caused an outbreak. when asked where he had heard the C.lfea has of late years been seeking to Gospel, said that he had never heard it, become independent of China's control, but that he had seen it. A poor man in and has had a certain recognition, as in- Ningpo, who had been an opium-smoker dependent, from Western nations. Nine and a man of violent temper, had be· years ago the premiers of China and come a Christian, and his whole life had .Tapan agreed on a treaty whereby each been changed. He had given up his country was not to bring military force opium and had become loving and amia· into Corea without first conferring with ble. "So," said his neighbor, " I have the other; and both countries were to seen the Gospel, and I want to be a unite in any measures tending to reform Christian too." and protectiou in Corean affairs. The King of Corea has sent annual tribute Mr. W. D. Powell, evangelist, Toluto the Chinese emperor, whose repre- ca, writes: "There are 11,000,000 peosentative at the capital has hitherto ple in this republic; 10,000,000 of that wielded a commanding influence. number never saw a copy of the Bible. The majority of Mexican people are so Japan has made no protest or opposi- ignorant as to be little more than chiltion openly; but a few months since dren. Since I wrote to you last, one of Japan sent a military force there to our candidates for baptism has been protect Japanese interests, without any killed, and another stabbed seven times conference with China. China pro- and left for dead. But the work goes posed that both governments withdraw forward. I beg for thousands of tracts troops, but Japan rejected the proposal, in Spanish-sholt,.direct, simple GORpel and offered to join China in interfering tracts." to reform Corean matters. China in turn rejected Japan's proposition and so began the acts of hostility. An exchange says: "M. Tsakni, a possessions, gave up work, and looked Russian writer, has published an inter- upon their insane leader as the Saviour esting work entitled' Queer Religious of the world, in which there should Sects of Russia.' from which it appears soon be new regulations; no one should that tbere are not less tban 15,000,000 die, and no one should have need to followers of insane and cranky notions work or to care for the future, for God in the empire of the Czar. These com- would care for them all. Most of them munities of devout and deluded beings suffered from hallucinations of the are constantly being enlarged, in spite sense of smell, perceiving extremely of all efforts made to the contrary by agreeable odors, which they described tbe government. as pertaining to God and heaven. Many had a feeling of remarkable bodily light- " One of these sects is known as the ness, as if floating in the air, and many • Runaways.' As soon as they embrace otbers were taken with convulsions, the new faith they fly from their vil- manifestly hysterical. The congregalages and towns, destroy their identity tions were always noisy and exalted, as much as possible, and henceforth live some falling to the earth, others jumpas savages. 'The Christs ' are another ing, striking themselves on the breast curious sect. They worship each other. and shouting inarticulately. Some The chief ceremonies are a crazy species would imitate conversation; but it of dancing, yelling as loudly as possi- consisted of incomprehensible, senseless ble, and pounding stones with sticks. sounds, which tbey believed to be a language spoken somewhere. :i}Iost of "The 'Skoptsys' believe in self- them were emaciated and anmIDic. The mutilation, but will not submit to am- epidemic was finally overcome by the putation, even though it would save authorities; those who were most inlife. Like the 'Christs,' they dance sane being shut up in asylums, while and yell for hours without intermission. the hysterical were !ent to hospitals and convents. " Still another of these deluded sects is the 'Dumb Boys.' Why they are There is a Bible and tract barrow called dumb boys no one seems to scheme in North China. An ordinary know; but it is a curious fact that the Chinese barrow, designed as a Bible sect is composed of both sexes, old men carriage, is supplied with Bibles and being in the majority. It is claimed that some of these aged patriarchs have not spoken in fifty years, although per- fectl'" able to do 80 did tbey so desire. " rhe ' Suicides' are a sect led by M.
Souckeliffe, who preaches self-destruction as an absolute necessity to salvation. He is very eloquent, and it is said that he leaves a church with a dozen suicides' remains strewn about the floor. Then the leader must be unsaved, as he does not commit suicide."
religious tracts, with attendant for one year, at a cost of about $50. Donations A Russian journal describes a pel.ml- are urgently needed to extend this iar religious movement in the winter of work, and would be so applied if sent 1891-92 in the provinco of Kiev. The to the editor of this REVIEW or to Rev.
originator was a Russian, given to drink F. Brown, Tientsin, China.
until the age of forty vears, when he This is a new departure in aggressive reformed and joined the Stundists, fol- methods of mission work in China. The lowing zealously the religious rites of usual method has been for the native the sect, and often going into a condi- assistant to attend the markets and tion of ecstasy. A few years later he fairs, spread out' his square of calico, began to suffer from hallucinations, and cover it with a supply of Bibles and among others perceiving extremely tracts. The curiosity has worn off, pleasant perfumes, which he declared however, and some plan of distribution to be the smell of the Holy Ghost. more attractive to the Eastern man and Then he conceived that he was pos- better calculated to arrest his attention sessed of the Holy Ghost, and that he is demanded. To meet this want the was Jesus Christ. He obtained numer- "Bible wheelbarrow" was designed in ous peasant followers, who sold their 1890, and has since beeD. ou. its trial in the Shantung province ; it has been a golia, Manchuria and Ceylon they most great success, and has proved itself abound. In some it is the state reworthy of expansion and development. ligion, controlling the whole popula- The rare supplies of religious tracts tion, as in the tirst three mentioned. In some It is the faith of a large portion, stored in the central stations demand a as in the last three. But in China it is more aggressive policy in distribution, followed in connection with Confucianso that they may speedily get into the ism and Taoism, and in Japan with Con- fucianism and Shintoism; hence the hands of the people. These and other difficulty of estimating the Buddhists in reasons have prompted Mr. Brown in these two lands. Confucianism is the making this new departure, and with the state religion of China, and Shintoism of Japan. To make up 500,000,000 Budcordial support of friends he feels sure dhists we must estimate China's popu- lation at 400,000,000 and count them all of success. as Buddhists I At least 80,OOO,000,in China alone are Confucianists. Advantages of the&heme.-1. Bibles and tracts are carried by his men. 2. Dr. Williams, in " The Middle King- The barrow makes a respectable Bible dom," ii., page 259, says, "No one and tract stall at fairs and in the mar- there is called Buddhist except the ket·place. 3. The teacher carries his priests and nuns." Dr. Edkins adds bed and belongings for one month's ab- that, strictly speaking, this name apsence from his home. 4. He carries a plies only to those who have shaven bench, which makes a platform for heads, priests and nuns. In Japan the preaching and teaching purposes. 5. birth of every child is kept with Shinto- The barrow passes through towns and ist rites; and at every death Buddhist villages which are apt to be neglected c.eremonies are observed. In both lands in regular work. 6. It combines man- all three religions are tolerated, and adual and Christian work. 7. As the herents of either may worship accordtract societies do not employ colpor- ing to the rites of the others. teurs, it is a system of tract colportage. 8. It is a cheap mode of doing a most It would be liberal to estimate Chieffective kind of mission work in China. nese Buddhists at 30,000,000. If we 9. The barrow is an object lesson before count half the Japanese as such it adds the eyes of the people. "Jesus doc- 20,000,000. If we reckon the whole trine books," .. I am the Way, the population of other countries as Bud- Truth," etc., .. God so loved the dhists, we may get in all 36,500,000 world," etc., "Come unto Me," etc.• more, making a total of only 86,500,- are all read as the teacher passes from 000 I Professor Monier Williams, of place to place. Oxford, the greatest authority in Great Britain, thinks 100,000,000 a large esti- The Number of Buddhists in the World. mate for this total.
Dr. A. P. Happer, in reply to the In Daniel's "Lehrbuch de Geograstatement that ,. Buddha has more fol- phie" (1891) adherents of Christianity are reckoned at 452,000,000; Zocklcr's lowers than any man that ever lived .. Handbook" for the same year, at 447,- beside him, his adherents being estimat- 000,000 (Roman Catholics, 210,000,000 ; Greek Orthodox, 87,000,000; Protesed at 500,000,000," or one third of the tants, 150,000,000). Daniel's book esrace, has publiilhed a number of arti- timates Mohammedans at 120,000,000; others, guessing at largc numbers in cles strongly demonstrating that this is Africa, where no census has been taken, a false statement. would reckon them at 180,000,000. In either case Buddhists fall from 4O,OOO,~ He says in substance that Hassel, in the Penny Cyclopredia, estimates Bud- dhists at 315,000,000 ; Johnstone, in his Physical Atlas, at 245,000,000 ; Perkins, in Johnson's American Atlas, at 320,- 000,000; Professor Newman, at 367,- 000,000 (" Ten Great Religions," page 146); Edwin Arnold, at 470,000,000. From such diversity it is plain the data are not reliable.
in Siam, Burma, Tibet, China, Mon- 000 to 100,000,000 below the'disciples of nine, and another candidate of eighty- Islam; from 100,000,000 to 120,000,000 eight years. At one station "a man below Brahmans (200,000,000); from brought his father, aged seventy-five, 150,000,000 to 170,000,000 below Con- on a wheelbarrow, a distance of five fucianists (250,000,000), and there are miles to apply for baptism. When the from four to jive times as many Christian old man came before the session he said, adherents as Buddhists I Here are four in suhstance : 'My memory has so failed religions, any of which far outnumbers and I am so stupid and ignorant that I Buddhism. cannot answer any questions; all I know is that I am a helpless sinner, and When travelling in Italy some years that I love Jesus and trust Him for salago we felt great interest in the enter- vation. ' The son promised to daily read prise of the Secolo of Milan in circulat- and explain the Bible and do all he ing an illustrated Roman Catholic ver- could to help his father live near to sion of the Bible, in Italian, in numbers jesus." at a halfpenny each, making ten francs for the completed book. Mr. Alexander Dr. Duff once told an Edinburgh Robertson says that the first edition audience that if the ladies of that city (50,000 copies) of this Bible is exhaust- would give him the coat of that portior. ed, and as the demand for it still con- of their silk dre88e8 whiclt 8Wept the streeta tinues, a second edition is being issued. as they walked, he would support all This Bible hilS been sold in cities, his mission schools in India. towns, lind villages; not only among the laity, but even among the clergy. The Mohammedan Mission, aiming to III the arsenal of Venice, during the secure proselytes in this country, seems midday I'est, the Secolo Bible is often to J,lave come to a speedy and disastrous read with the daily newspaper with end I Few false systems have long suc- • which it is sold. One workman reads ceeded in supporting missionaries, and while the others sit round and listen. contributions have decreased rapidly_ When the text and notes do not seem to It is announced that" the Moslem misagree they are quick to notice it, and sionary, Mohammed Alexander Russell one instantly cries out, " Ah, therc the Webb, has been obliged, temporarily text and notes are at fisticuffs," and at least, to abandon the missiollary form their own opinion on the passage. headquarters and publication office in New York, and retire to a $1000 farm History has its Poetic Revenges. which his wife had bought In New Jer- sey." His clerk intimates that Webb In July, 1893, at DiIlon's Bay, Erro- himself is a pretender, and not an honmanga, !VIarie Tangkou, the 'eldest son est follower of Islam. of the murderer of John WillialUS, was baptized in the presence of seven hun- As to the" black death" now regnant dred people, and took his place at the in China, it may not be amiss to note communion-table. At the erection of that, like the cholera, it is an annual the monument where the apostle of the visitor, only this year more violent and South Seas fell in 1839, at Erromanga, virulent. Notwithstanding all the unthe murderer's sons took part in the sanitary smells that make the " Chinese commemoration. Two, if not three of quarter" everywltere so unsavory and them, are now professing Christians, unwholesome, the Chinese have two cusand one of them is a preacher. toms: they seldom drink unboiled water –even the poorest coolie making use of Rev. Hunter Corbett, of Chefoo, a weak solution of tea-and nearly writes of baptizing a man whose age everywhere in China the bucket system 'Was seventy-three, a widow of seventy- conveys excrements to the tlelds .and renders them harmless. "These two take place crowds assembled to witness customs are all that counteract the the sight, but neither of the cars could spread of the disease. The authorities be moved. The people tugged and are helpless. 'l'he only remedy adopt- strained, but all to no purpose. Hence ed by the government at Canton has the dense crowds had to return home baen to suddenly declare the beginning disappointed. This being Saturday, atof a new year. It is thought that the tempts were renewed on the following wicked spirits, which are responsible Monday, and in the one case they were for the disease, will not be allowed to able to drag the car a few yards, more continue their work. Thus we have the by the help of screw-jacks and pulleys rare spectacle that, While whole hou8e- than by the muscular strength of the holds have died out and there are want- faithful; but in the other case they ing hands to remove the dead, the au- completely failed. The pulling of the thorities order preparations for New former very nearly ended in a sad catas- Year festivities, to cheat the gods out trophe. When the car moved, the Euof their prey." ropean magistrate slipped and fell under the car, and was grazed by the wheels We rejoice in the prospect of a new as they passed. It was a marvellously rru3dical missionary college in New York narrow escape. The people tried a third City, to be controlled by the Interna- day to move the other car, and on this tional Medical Missionary Society. This occasion the Brahmans were out on the society has for years, under great diffi- roads using persuasion, and, if that culties, assisted students, chiefly those failed, resorting to threats and even who took their lectures in other col- force to compel the people to take hold leges. The expense of this method was of the ropes. It was a very amusing too great, and it was very hard often sight to witness all this, and to see the for students to accomplish their pur- men quietly slipping away from the pose. A special institution, with full ropes as fast as the Brahmans could courses of lectures, ought long since to send them there. And hence, when the have been started, and steps have been signal for pulling was given, it is easy taken to erect a building at a cost of to imagine what was the result. Of about $250,000, which will accommo- course it ended, all it deserved, in total date about a hundred and fifty students, failure. Hence one car was absolutely and where the best of medical instruc- not moved an inch, though attempts tion may be had at a very moderate cost, were made on three separate days to with .special reference to the needs of pull it; and the other car was drawn the foreign mission field. The medical just across the road, where, notwithdirector will. be Dr. George D. Dow- standing all the efforts made to draw it kontt, and there is a board of managers back again to its former position on the of eighteen members, of the Evangelical last day of the festival, it had to redenominations, Baptist, Congregational, main." Dutch Reformed, Episcopalian, Methodist, and Presbyterian. About $100,- Who shall say there is no power in a 000, it is said, are already promised. misplaced phrase! We read the fol- The Rev. T. E. Edwards writes of the last Juggernath festival: lowing in one of our most carefully .. There wa.'l a most marked diminu- edited religious journals: tion in the numbers which attended the mela. And this year will ever be memo- "In this number will be found a ralJl,e as that in whieh compl,ete failure attended the puUing of the cars. Oli the graphic description of the terrible plague day fixed for the outward pulling to now raging in Canton, of the unfound- ed accusations made by the heathen Chinese against the foreigners as the authors of the fearful scourge, and of the indignities to which two lady physi- cians of the Presbyterian Board of For- eign Missions have been subjected, by Rev. B. C. Henry, D.O."
The "graphic description," but not the" indignities," was by Dr. Henry, as need not be stated; but the para- graph might mislead those who do not know what a grand man Dr. Henry is! Rev. Henry S. Butler, of Blairstown, not advocating crime. Persons sen- N. J., .. stimulated by the letter of Dr. tenced to terms of upward of a year's imprisonment may be sentenced, at the Seymour in the August number," en- discretion of the court, to compulsory residence for life in a penal colony, such closes $5 for the fund used to send the as Cayenne. The courts will be em- powered, in any anarchist case, to pro- REVIEW gratituously or at reduced rates hibit newspapers from publishing the whole or part of the trial, under penalty to those whom it may help. Mr. But- of six days' to a month's imprisonment, and a fine of from 1000 to 10,000 ler has our thanks; and we feel per- francs."
Imaded that few true-hearted men or In the United States a bill quickly followed the Carnot assassination, prowomen can read that mighty appeal posing, in the House of Representa- tives, to make a capital oll'ence of all without asimilarresponse. "A Friend" attempts of anarchists to take the life of any official of the republic or the setlikewise sends another donation, of the ting oil' of any explosive in a building owned by the United States, with a same amount. view tl) maiming or killing.
The assassination of the President of Such measures show that the general feeling is growing that anarchy must the French republic, and the discovery be suppressed; and it is none too soon. Anarchist literature is itself dynamite; of a plot to destroy some of the most so are anarchist speeches inciting to vio- lence. Russia suggests international marked men in Europe, have aroused compacts for the surrender of dyna- mite workers and political assassins. not only lITance, but all the continental One of the best remedies suggested is dezwrtation-to simply place all such nations, .to resist the alarming encroach- disturbers of society on some island from which there is no escape, and leave ments of anarchism. The bill which by them to work out their schemes among a community of like-minded fellows I a large majority swept both houses of What a Utopian or Arcadian settlement the French Assembly Is a bold meas- that would be Meanwhile some one has been curious ure, which the socialistic wing rank as to seek out the source of this modern a return to barbarism, as a blow at the theory of society. Anarchism is traced to the Russian Bakounin, whose prinfreedom of the press, and at liberty gen- ciples were, in brief, "Do wl.at you wish," and" EVe1'ything is everybody's." erally. Negatively he was a Nihilist: "Down with all authority and all frontiers; The Paris correspondent of the Lon- away with the State, capital and capi- don Daily N6W8 says of the new law: talists " Elisee Reclus, in 1876, gave these no- " It is so drastic that a I?rivate letter merely reflecting anarchistic views, tions a systematic form-a body of docopened at the post-office, is enough to trine and a programme. Krapotkin, send the writer to prison for Ii period in 1878, edited the first anarchist jourof three months or more. Offences nal. Riot and revolution were the earlier under the bill will no longer be under method; but assassination was tried the cognizance of a jury, because with upon Alfonso XI!., of Spain, in 1880, this body there is always the risk of ac- and, later, bombs began to be prequittal, but will be brought before the Correctional Tribunal. Persons convicted will serve their terms of imprisonment in solitary confinement, without, however, having the privilege of reduced time, which is given to ordinary prisoners electing to go to a cellular prison.
" Section 2 of the bUl enacts that any person who, without becoming amenable to existin~ legislation against conspiracy, rebelhon, etc., has committed an act of anarchistic propaganda shall be liable to a sentence of imprisonment for from three months to two years, and a fine of from 100 to 2000 francs. The term • anarchistic propaganda' is construed to mean either the advocacy or the approbation after the fact of murder, pil1a~e, arson, or theft, whethel uttered pubhcly or in private. This includes private correspondence and the distribution of anarchist literature, even when ferred. In 1891 there were bomb ex- telligent, enlightened, liberal, and tolerplosions at Charleroi and Nantes; in 1892 there were many such explosions ant than has ever been known in an Asiin Paris, and Ravachol was guillotined. atic State. Maha-Mong-Kut was himself In 1893 Pallas was shot at Barcelona for exploding a bomb. Soon. after, Vail- educated in part by a missionary of the lant threw a bomb in the Chamber of Deputies at Paris. During the prescnt American Board, and imbibed toward year an attempt has been made to kill the Prefect of Barcelona. Henry used missionaries a most catholic spirit. a bomb in a Paris restaurant, Lega has tried to shoot Premier Crispi, and Santo which he transmitted to his successor. has succeeded in killing the President of the French republic. Rev. George W. Knox, D.D., writes: " On pages 695 and 696 of the current The anarchists in Russia, under the volume of the REVIEW, I find the followname of Nihilists, in 1881 achieved no- ing: 'Though Japan was opened 'to the toriety by killing the Czar, Alexander entrane,c of Occidentals as far back as II., by means of a bomb, but since that 1854, Protestant Christianity made its time have failed in their plots. advent only twenty-one years ago.' Japan was so opened in 1859-that is, At the late Christian Endeavor Con- in that year were 'Occidentals' first vention, at Cleveland, 0., the "roll of permitted to reside there, excepting a honor" contained the names of 5552 so- few diplomatic agents; and in the same cieties that have given not less than $10 year-that is, thlrt.r-five years a&,o-three each to their denominational boards for missionary societies had theIr reprethe caUS3 of missions. The amount sentatives in the field. Slips like this represented was $138,205.93 ; the total are unavoidable; but as the REVIEW amount contributed to missions this is an authority, they should be correctyear by the societies of this country and ed. For once, at least, missionary so- Canada not less than $225,000 ! cieties were not behind time."
The Cross-Bearers' Missionary Read- In editing such a REVIEW, it is found ing Circle has selected as the course of reading and study for 1894-95: I. almost impossible to prevent such con- Biographical-" Life of Robert Morrison," by William J. Townsend, 75 flicting statements from appearing. On cents; and" Life of Judson," by Rev. Edward Judson, D.D., $1.50. II. Patri- page 684, second column, Dr. De Forest otic – "Our Country" (revised), by Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., 60 cents. says, "Christian missionaries have now III. Evangelical '-" Foreign Missions after a Century," by Rev. James S. been working here for a full generation" Dennis, D.D., $1.50. IV. Periodical- -i.e., between thirty and forty years. THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE And reference has frequently been made WORLD, furnished to C. M. R. C. members at $1.90. in these pages to the pioneer work done Chulalangkorn, the King of Siam, has close upon the very opening of Japan been reported dead. If this report had been founded in fact, allAsia would suffer to Occidental commerce, now about loss. From the accession of his father, Maha-Mong- Kut, a policy was inaugurat- forty years ago. Among the pioneers ed in the Siamese Government more in' is the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. In the thirty-fifth annual report of the Foreign Commit- tee of her Board of Missions (1870), this Church claims to be the first Protestant body that entered on the work there, noting the fact of having had a bishop in charge of that work for four or five years, and mentioning his efforts through the United States Government to secure the repeal of the edict against Christian- ity. The statement criticised and correct- ed is probably owing to the fact that it was in 1872-73 that the first Ohristian church was organized. While we find it hard to keep out such errors, we are always cordially glad to correct them when pointed out.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign hood share alike in the advantages of Periodicals. culture. Boeks and newspapers are read in the remotest mountain villages. BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, European dress is adopted, English fabrics are worn, the English language MASS. is making rapid headway. American sewing-machines and American musical TURKEY. instruments bring help and harmony into many a household. The social and -The :recent destruction of Marsovan moral condition is undergoing change College by Turkish fanatics, imposing for the better; the family is feeling the on the Ottoman Government the amends blessed inlluence. What is the connec- of rebuilding it, gives special interest to tion of Evangelism with all this? That the catalogue of the college for 1892-93. ~f the source with the river.
"This is situated at Marso van, near " The college has 39 graduates, 1 post- the Black Sea, three hundred and sixty graduate student, 7 seniors, 8 juniors, 14 miles east of Constantinople, just within sophomores, 11 freshmen, 77 prepara- the bow of the historic river Halys. tory students. There are 92 Armenians, The field naturally dependent on this 20 Greeks, 2 Germans, 3 Osmanlis institution for higher education is about (Turks). equal in area to Great Britain and Ire- land, or nearly double the size of New " If the East once overcame the West England. There is in this great field by the Gospel, and everywhere planted ever-increasing stir in regard to the im- the cross, the West shall, in its turn, portance of education. The opportunity welcome the East, and the Lord shall, here afforded for giving character to the even in the places where the candlestick people and institutions of coming time has been overthrown, rear it up again. is very attractive. Many of these peo- In the choir of the Hagia Sophia at ple belong to the same grand division Constantinople, the most ancient and of the human raco in which we of the celebrated church of the Orient, there West are included, and all have their is a great mosaic of Christ surrounded part and place in the history yet to be by His apostles. The Turks have white- made. Nothing better can be done for washed it over, but here and there the them and for the future than to give whitewash is scaling off, and when the them Christian education nOtD. Let it spring sun shines in the form of Christ be here stated emphatically, however, and of His apostles can be discerned that this is no charity in the ordinary through the concealing film. So shall sense. Students are required to pay it be when the mighty spring shall their own expenses. dawn; then shall the Lord be King eter- nally. " A movement' forward into light,' such as the last half century has wit- No peace can be uutil His love prevails, , nessed in the East, is one the story of Till the whole round of earth His great redemp- which is soul-stirring, especially when we discover in it the same fundamental tion halls. cause whioh enters into all that is grand in the development of our age-the Gos- To work to this end is honor and joy. pel. Sixty years ago Evangelism came Therefore forget not Jerusalem, neither unobtrusively to Constantinople; to- her of old in adoring thankfulness, nor day a system of common schools, high her of our day in compassiona.te love, schools, and colleges covers the empire. nor her that shall be in holy longing. In these, rising manhood and woman- Amen. "-Nachrichten aus dem Morge1/r lande.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
-Prayer at the dedication of the best answer to this question is found in Evangelical Church in Bethlehem. the twenty or twenty-five Jewish colo- This church is under the especial nies now existing in Palestine. There patronage of the Empress Augusta Vic- are cities. villages, hamlets, farms which toria: were not in being ten years ago, and " Lord, our God, we thank Thee that which to-day belong wholly to Jews.
Thou hast given us to build this house, If they are not yet good husbandmen, wherein Thy holy Word shall be pro- they are in the way to become so.
claimed and Thy name be praised. We " The most of these colonies are won- most heartily entreat Thee, let the work derfully prosperous. The Jews bring of Thy holy baptism be powerfully thousands of acres under cultivation.
wrought at this baptismal font. Let They have planted the vine and trees of Thy saving Word resound from this every kind. A friend of the Rev. Mr.
pulpit. Cover this altar with the bene- Schol, who visited these colonies, was ficent gifts of Thy table. Maintain Thy utterly astonished at that which he saw.
Word and Sacrament in uncorrupted The whole country seemed like a beau- purity within this place. Enlighten and tiful garden. The plains were covered sanctify through the same all the peo- with harvests and the vines cultivated ple whom, now or in time to come, to perfection. When we remember Thou mayest gather for Thyself, to be- that, in place of these rich crops, noth- come a temple of the Holy Ghost. Re- ing was to be seen ten years ago but an member in Thy compassion the congre- arid desert, we see what a transforma- gation for which this house is built. tion has already been effected, and all Build it into a spiritual house, into a that may yet come to pass in the time dwelling of Thy Holy Spirit. – Send ordained of God.
evermore faithful pastors and teachers "The Jews are everywhere immense- to this place. Stir up the hearts of the ly rich. [Is this true of the bulk of congregation, that they may ever follow them?] They are spoiling the Egyp- joyfully into Thy sanctuary the sum- tians-that is to say, the Russians; they mons of these bells. Graciously accept gather the wealth of Germany, of Aus- the prayers which here ascend to Thee. tria, of England, of America, and of Hallow the marriages which are blessed elsewhere. Now they are called to be- here. Forgive all the penitents who come the great missionaries of the make confession here their sins, and world. Then all that which they have through these holy services bring them gathered will fiow into the coffers of into such a frame and temper that at the Lord. See how the work of the last, when their pilgrimage draws to an Lord languishes in our days, simply for end, they may depart hence in joyful want of money and men. Now, when comfort, may enter into their Father's the Jews spoil the Egyptians, we are to house on high-a house not made with consider that the work of God cannot hands, therein, with all angels and elect suffer thereby. Onlysee: last year there souls, to offer adoring worship, saying, were spent in England $450,000,000 in 'Glory be unto God in the highest 1 drink, $80,000,000 in tobacco, something Amen.' .. like $400,000,000 in objects of luxury, such as jewels-that is to say, $400,– – " Though the Jews are returning by 000,000 foolishly squandered. Thus, thousandstoPalestine, yet there is a point ahout $1,130,000,000 have been spent in which, to human apprehension, seems an the most Christian of countries in vain impossibility: the Jews are not accus- or absurd things. And how much has tomed to cultivate the soil. They have been given in the same time for foreign hardly been allowed to hold an inch of missions? About $5,000,OOO! Let the ground for eighteen centuries. How Jews gather wealth! The times draw 'can they become husbandmen? TJ1e", near when, having become believers,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
they will reverse the above proportions, of such men is the worse, that they are and will spend their treasures and them- veIY jealous in maintaining their claim selves for the service of their Master. to the name of Christians, and are very Then the work ot the Lord will no boastful of England's eminence as longer languish. These will be a na- a Christian nation, not unfrequently tion of missionaries laboring for the also taking part in Christian ceremo- evangelization of the world. Oh, let nies.
us pray that the time may soon come Should God give England another when all Israel shall be saved 1"- such admonition as in 1857, it will L'.Eclaireur. doubtless be a yet more terrible one.
Mr. Schad calls attention to the fact INDIA.. that there is an European heathenism in India. There are white men who -" In a meeting at Madras of the help to maintain idol worship and even .
Hindu Reform Union, for the improve- take part in it. "He that is not with ment of public morals, a.resolution was Me is against Me."
lately passed to endeavor to bring it about that 1W Hindu living in open con- -" Officially, as we think most right- cubinage shall be entrusted with re- ly, no officer of Government can directly sponsible offices. When we consider work for the conversion of the Indian how little Hinduism concerns itself with people to the faith of Christ. But in morals, especially of the men, this reso- 18.66 Sir Henry Sumner Maine could lution, spontaneous with the natives say in the Viceroy's Council, Calcutta, themselves, appears significant and 'We will not force any man to be a hopeful. This Union publishes a peri- Christian; we will not even tempt any odical, the indian Social Rejurmt'Jl', man to be a Christian; but if he chooses which energetically strives against the to become a Christian we sball protect ethical defects of Hindu society. The him."-Rev. P. IRELAND JONES, in natives also publish in Madras an Eng- C. M. Intelligenc.(Yl'.
lish periodical, the Eastern Star, which never wearies of attacking the unchas- -" The long hopeless degradation of tity which is publicly tolerated by the the pariahs, or outcasts, who in Madras State, as well as drunkenness and the Presidency amount to five millions- opium trade."-ibid. thirteen per cent of the populatlon- appears to have reached its term, so far -Mr. SCHAD, of the Danish Mission as Government action can relieve it.
in South India, writing in the Missions- This intervention has been procured by Blad, remarks that once, he is told, there the efforts of the missionaries and other were a great many English officials in friends of the pariahs, aided at last by India who were actively Christian, and a considerable number even of the Brah- warm friends of missions. Now, how- mins. The terms of the law, promul- ever, he remarks, they are hard to find. gated in 1892, are as follows : Doubtless the large growth of atheism "1. Any untilled and untaxed lJIDd at home, under its new name of agnos- having no owner may be assigned to ticism, has much to do with this. These pariahs for cultivation.
men, Mr. Schad observes, are often not "2. The magistrates shall require the merely indifferent to missions, but ac- landlords to cede to the pariahs, gratu- tively hostile-indeed, sometimes vul- itously, or at the cost of the Govern- garly scoffing. He has been asked by ment, aUlanda which they cannot culti- one of these gentlemen how many pence vate themselves.
he gave his catechists for every Hindu "8. All pledging of pariah children convert they brought in. The infiuence for debt is henceforth forbidden. The
EXTRAOTS AND TBANSLATIONI!I
, missionaries are invited to denounce all eager to apply Christian ethics to legis- breaches of this law that become known lation. "
to them. -" One of the most remarkable and .. 4. The term pariah is henceforth striking features of religious life in this old city of Poona is the weekly union forbidden as an actionable insult. They prayer.meeting. It is about half a cenare hereafter to be called pantYamen, tury sJnce it was established, but it • the fifth '-i.e., not belonging to one shows no signs of decay. The Free of the four fundamental castes. Church missionaries, who were the pioneers in mission work here, com- " 5. Pandjamen schools are to be set menced the meeting; and after some up, with special inspectors. These shall years it gradually assumed its present be, so far as possible, under missionary character, which is most thoroughly control. cosmopolitan and interdenominational. The Free Church missionaries are still " These external reliefs being afford- responsible for the arrangements, and ed, it is now for Christians, especially the meetings are held in the neat little the Lutheran Leipsic brethren, to go on church of that denomination on Thurswith the spiritual work among these day evenings, at six o'clock. The meetdeeply degraded people, out of whom ings are conducted in turn by missionacountless ages of oppression seem to ries, chaplains, and laymen of the various have almost crushed the desire of rising out of the mire."-Rewe de8 Mis8ion8 ConttJmporainu.
churches, a short address being given, -The Har'll68t Field, speaking of the and much of the hour spent in prayer Rev. Dr. Miller, says: "This veteran and praise. One evening in July the missionary must have been peculiarly meeting was conducted by Rev. D. O.
gratified by receiving from his church Fox, of the American Methodist Epis- an invitation that unmistakably shows copal Mission. There were about sev- the high esteem entertained for him by enty persons present, including mis- the Free Church of Scotland. We learn sionaries of the Church Missionary from the Ohri8tian College Magazine that Society, Wesleyan, Methodist Episco- he has been invited to fill the chair of pal, Free Church, Established Church, Evangelistic Theology in connection Irish Presbyterian, Canadian Presbyte- with the Church colleges in Scotland. rian, Congregational, and open Plym- When we remember the efforts that outh Brethren churches, Young Men's have been made by a section of the Christian Association and zenana mis- press, both in this country and in Eng- sionaries, three colonels, one captain, land, to discredit Dr. Miller, we are de- one lieutenant, a number of soldiers, a lighted that his church has thus seen fit city magistrate, the head of the archreo- to honor him. We hope, however, that logical department" military chaplains, no appointment at home will perma- native pastors and teachers and Chris- nently separate him from the great tians, and a band of orphan girls.
work in which he is engaged. We There were English, Irish, Scotch, know of no missionary who exerts so Canadians and Yankees, Eurasians, wide and so beneficial an influence in Hindus, Parsees, Australians, and a South India as Dr. Miller, and his de- Somali from Africa.
parture would be a very serious loss to .. Such a union, in face of the power- the missionary forces of the land. An- ful Brahmin element here, cannot be other high honor has been conferred on without a marked influence. In the na- him in this country. He has been tive church no less cordial is the feeling elected by the Senate of the Madras of union among the various members of University to represent it in the Madras the Indian Christian churches."-RoB- Legislative Council. This appointment ERT M'CANN (Y. M. C. A.), in tke Help- should especially gratify those who are '/Met (F. C. S.).
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
English Notell. pitiless persecution of the apostate priesthood.
BY JAMES DOUGLAS.
) Baptist MiBBi01Ulll"y Society: Per8ecu- Newll from Oalcutta.-An interesting sign of the times is the fact that the otifonRoimne,Itianlay.l-eTtthereofRseovm. eJalmenegsthW, haall~ Arjya Literary Society in Calcutta are now engaged translating the Bible into set forth the persecution to which Bap- classical Bengali. They have asked and tist brethren in Central Italy have been obtained the assistance of representative subjected. Grave fears were enter- men of the Christian communities lest tained lest, through false witness and anything should appear in the translathe intimidation of priests, justice would tion which should make it anti-Ohrishave miscarried. The greatest praise, tian in tone. The whole of Matthew's however, is due to the presiding judge gospel is now in manuscript. The Rev. for the heroism which he personally dis- Herbert Anderson, who furnishes this played in the conduct of the trial. One intelligence, says: "It seems to me of the witnesses who, through fear, had marvellous that this small band of contradicred her first depositions, con- broad-minded, educated, non-Christian fessed, after a night of weeping in jail, Bengali gentlemen of this city should that she had been seized by some of the realize the benefit and have the desire of accused, and, with a knjfe at her throat, giving the Bible to their fellow-counobliged to promise not to confirm her trymen in the way they propose." first testimony. At the trial a wheel- May we not mfer "that Christ is conbarrow was produced in which stones quering and will conquer" ? of twelve or fifteen pounds' weight were taken to the scene of action. The p.resbyterian Ohurch of England.- trial was noteworthy alike for the im- The same missionary number which potent rage of the persecutors and the publishes valuable notes from the Rev calm and effective testimony of the per- William Thone, M.A., contains the sad secuted. The latter breathed the spirit intelligence of his death. He had just of Christ and converted the court-house been over a large part of the Formosan into a gospel hall. A deacon stated that field. His faithfulness and affection in before he heard the Gospel in Tivoli he dealing with the native churches were was without any knowledge of God's beyond all praise. Of him Dr. Max- Word; that the Protestants taught him well writes: "Dear Thone was so unito read, led him to the Saviour, and versally esteemed and beloved by his that when he was able to build himself brother missionaries and by the people a house he consecrated the best room in alike that no single loss to the mission it to the preaching of the Gospel, hop- could, humanly speaking, be heavier ing others might receive what had so than this." The late Mr. Thone thus benefit.ed his own soul. It was grand sums up his final missionary tour: "On to see how a few simple, persecuted be- the whole, I have been much cheered lievers rose above their old discouraged selves when they spoke of Christ and bbyutmmyuvchisitlsesstosooubryCthheinevsiesitcshupracihdets~ held the court breathless. Now that the work of Christ in the Marsica has aboriginal churches."
Siang-see, Ohina.-A church has been passed through this fiery trial, and the built in this fishing village of 10,000 inwhole province has been filled with habitants. It is set on a hill, and is rumors of grace and reform, the time visible from afar both on land and sea. seems come to sow the seed, to preach The people have subscribed $400 to the the Word, and to expect among these, cost of erection.
, the loftiest regions of the Apennines, a Ohin-Ohew.-The girls' and women's succession of churches like that of St. schools flourish under the able care of Benedetto, which has so nobly met the Miss Graham and Miss Ramsey. "It'
ENGLISH NOTES. '789
is very encouraging," says Miss Gra· the missionary was wen received, both ham, "to see how many more women by the people and their chiefs. there are coming to church in these country places, compared with only a Wesleyan Mi8sionary Society.-The short time back. When I first visited mission on the Gold Coast dis~ict of Eng·chhun, for instance, four years West Africa is being energetically superago,there was nota single woman com- vised by the Rev. Dennis and Mrs. ing ; last Sunday there were eighteen, Kemp. Mr. Kemp is conspicuous in aU interested and willing to listen. In his care for the young, and, aided by Chin·Chew we have sometimes nearly his excellent wife, has set on foot a two hundred women, counting our girls' greatly needed home and training insti· school." tution for girls, toward the cost of which he has secured help from colonial funds Lorulon Mi8lfionaru Society. -The Rev. and a grant from the Missionary Com· Bowen Rees, writing from Matabele- mittee. The building, which is also to land, tells of mission house wrecked and serve the purpose of a European sanita· aU clothing and household effects looted rium, is now in course of erection at through the war. A hearty welcome Aburi, and a teacher is to be sent out was, however, accorded to himself and by the Woman's Auxiliary-a lady who Mr. Elliott on their return. The be- has volunteered for the work and who havior of the natives to the missionaries will accompany Mrs. Kemp when she was the reverse of what it used to be. goes next month to rejoin her husband. ec Ail your words," they said, .. have come true. When the war was on we The Bahamas.-The chairman of this were scattered among the mountains district, the Rev. George Lester, during and the forests. In the dead of night, the short time he has served on the miswhen we were encircled by our enemies sion field, has done much to consolidate and death facing us everywhere, then the work in his scattered diocese. With the words of Mr. Elliott and yourself characterietic energy he has visited the came home to us. Before we only out-islands of the colony, and, bent heard, but now we have seen, and all upon the extension of Methodism, has your words are true." The missiona· organized the GuIt of Mexico Mission, ries are resolved to build the new churcb and proceeded through Cuba upon a this winter and to repair the mission· tour of observation. A short but ap· house, thc graveyard, and the dam. preciative article on his labors appears ec We ought," says Mr. Rees, "to start in Work and Worker8, a magazine ably new stations all over the country. There are thousands and thousands who edited by the Rev. F. W. Macdonald, have never heard the Gospel of peace. The country is open, and there is noth· and enriched by first·class illustrations. ing to fear. May God send us soon young men burning' with the love of Southern India.-In an able article on Christ-young men who will not be "High Caste, Low Caste, and No blinded with gold·dust, lands, and Caste," the Rev. W. A. Jackson Picken fame!" draws attention to the fact that evan- gelistic work among the low castes is Urungu, CentraZ Africa.-Dr. Mather by no means so easy and so universally has completed a tour in the hill country successful as many critics of missions of Urungu and along the lake shore be- seem to suppose. In addition to the tween Liendwe and Niamkorlo. By abominable vice rampant among them. this means four thousand people have " the bulk of the people are absolutely had the Gospel presented to them. The innocent of any desire for elevation of journey occupied nineteen days, and any kind." Still they are willing- to listen. Mr. Picken reports good work done among the coolies employed at the Maharaja's cott011 mill, and also in various parts of the gold field. Among
GENERAL lIIISBIONARY INTEJ.LIGENCE
the house servants of BOuthern India, from Massachusetts to the Baptist Mis- too, who are almost all of them pariahs, sionary Union ' ere bestowed by the an extensive work is being carried on ; Clarendon Street Church, Boston, Dr.
particulars of conversion in various in· Gordon, pastor. Ah, that these saints stances being given. might provoke their derelict brethren to THE KINGDOM. good works I -Dr. Park4urst put it well when he -An estimate regarded as reliable places the aggregate wealth of leading said: "I have got past calling my countries at the following figures; United States, $60,475,000,000; Great church my field. It isn't my:field, it's Britain, $43,600,000,000; France, $40,- my force."
-According to the Record, the United 300,000,000; Germany, $31,600,000,000 ; Presbyterians of Scotland have received Russia, $2f,715,000,000; Austria, $18,- a call from heaven to be in earnest in 065,000,000; Italy, $11,755,000,000. N.
spreading the glad tidings; for it speaks other nation is credited' with more than of "the summons addressed to our $10,000,000,000. The next in rank to Church by the blessing which is expand- Italy is Spain, with $7,965,000,000, while ing our foreign mission work," and reo Greece, the last and lowest in this classi· joices to know of some who give good fication, is given but $1,055,000,000.
heed to the same. -Like an arrow straight to the mark -" A penny a week and a shilling a must this plain and pithy petition of the quarter" from every member, was John South Sea convert have ascended to the Wesley's heaven.taught method. But throne: "Grant, 0 Lord, that the good centuries before him Paul had hit upon words that we have heard may not be the same general scheme. All at it and like our fine Sunday garments, which always at it will work wonders here we soon take of! and put by in a box and everywhere. The colored congrega- till the next Sunday comes. But let tion that passed three resolutions-first, this truth be like the tattooing on our pledging all present to give something; bodies, ineffaceable till death."
second, pledging themselves to give -Foreign missions! Why, if there cheerfully; and third, to give as they were nothing in foreign missions but were able-hit upon a simple and sure the zenana work, it would be worth to methQd for meeting the financial needs the future of the Eastern millions many of the Church of Christ. fold what it costs. If these missionary -" In the good time coming," says women did nothin~ but break the fet- the Sidney P?'eshyterian, "congrega- ters off the wrists of their Eastern sis- tional altruism will be the rule. A ters, it would be a work worth dying Christian congregation will think itself for.-The Interior.
unworthy of the Christian name if it -Miss Kate Marsden is preparing a does not love its neighbor as itself, and chart, designed to show at one view the so fulfil the law of Christ. It will not real prevalence and spread of leprosy in consider its duty done until it pays as various countries. From the minimum much for the salvation of its neighbor figures already supplied by Governas for its own salvation. The rule will ment medical returns and other reliable be: one minister, one missionary." sources, she reckons that there -are -An Alaskan woman brought to the 1,300,000 lepers In the world. Possi- mission ten blankets, valued at $2.50 bly the larger estimate of 3,000,000 will each, as a thank-offering for the conver- be found more correct. China alone is sion of her husband. said to have more than 600,000, Japan -The statement seems incredible, and 200,000, and India at least 100,000.
yet it comes from the highest authority, -Rev. H. P. Beach would have that nearly one fourth of all the gifts would·be missionaries attain to " knowledge of things about the house, such as and takes Mozoomdar severely to task plastering walls, making a door, mix- for his reckless words concerning native ing and using paint, baking bread, Christians. That notable had written: etc. ; the knowledge of foods, garden- .. What reforms do they-the converts ing, making cisterns, and so on; the -orIginate? What labors do they knowledge of carpentering, hair-cut- carryon? What advance do they ting, and undertaking-the last being make in the confidence of the great frequently called into requisition; also Hindu society? What _contributions a knowledge of book·keeping, printing, do they offer to the great world of and book-binding." And Miss Leim- Christian thought? They live and die bach, of Persia, adds:" You can't more as figures and ciphers in a statis- know too much about making bread tical table than as living souls clothed and butter, washing and ironing. feed- in flesh and blood." And the bishop ing cattle, horses, chickens and turkeys, makes reply: "I am sure Mr. Mozoom- . too, if you ever want them; salting dar would never have penned these meats, putting up fruit, cleaning, paper- words if he had even once been brought ing, painting, and everything you can into contact with any considerable num- possibly think of. How thankful I ber of our Indian Christians. I am per- have been that I know about a good sonally acquainted with a thousand many of these things." men, anyone of whom could set him a -Surely, this is not the romance worthy example in working for reform, which some of the sentimental connect in elevating their fellow-men, in winwith missions: "The Livingstones rose ning the confidence,of both Hindus and with the sun in the Bummer, had family Mobammedans, and in rooting out a prayer, breakfast, and school. Then SCOle of evils which have long afilicted he began his sowing. ploughing, or Hindu society. I have seen twenty smith's work. • My better half is em- Christian young women in a body atployed all the morning in culinary or tending lectures in the Agra Medical other work, and feeling pretty well College. All of these were the daughtired by dinner-time, we take about two ters of village converts, and their preshours' rest then; but more frequently, ence in such an institution means that without the respite I try to secure for a revolution is going on among the myself, she goes off to hold infant masses of the people–the te~ming mill· school, and this, I am happy to say, is ions whose condition men of Mr. Movery popular with the youngsters.' zoomdar's class rarely study or in any She sometimes had 80 or 100 present. way consider. I have seen long pro- Her husband says: • It was a fine sight cessions of Christians pledged to total to see her day by day walking to the abstinence parading the streets and town, no matter how broiling hot the other public places in the interest of sun, to impart instruction to the heath- the great temperance reform. I have en Bakwains_' Her name was known seen hundreds and thousands of Hinall through that country and 1800 miles dus, whose confidence had been secured beyond. Livingstone continued his by these devoted Christians, looking on manual labors till five. Then he went with friendly interest, and sometimes into the town to give lessons and talk even joining in the demonstrations. I to anyone who wished to speak to have been a witness during the past him. After the cows were milked they third of a century to what I can regard had a meeting, followed by a prayer- only as a revolution in the feelings of meeting in Sechele's house. The mis- millions of Hindus in Northern India sionary got home utterly worn out toward Christian converts. Thousands about half-past eight." and tens of thousands of these Chris- tians are bearing noble witness against -And now comes Bishop Thoburn chUd-marriage, polygamy, _extortion, drunkenness, and immorality of every advance of this dread disease In her kind. To call such men 'ciphers' is own body. She ministers to the alBictso cruelly unjust that I am sure Mr. ed in a hospital located at Chandak Mnoomdar must have penned the Heights, in a mountain region, where words iu absolute iguorance of the suitable buildings have been constructcharacter of the men and women whom ed for the accommodation of several he misrepresents." scores. The British Government has recently made a grant of 48 acres of WOMAN'S WORK. land.
-The Union Signal makes these -Miss S. L. Dodson, Protestant Episstatements: "In this country 2500 copal missionary in China, pleads imwomen are practising medicine, 275 portunately for a training school for preaching the Gospel, more than 6000 native women, and gives cogent reamanaging post.offices, and over 3,000,- sons. She says: "The American 000 earning independent incomes. Since Church Mission has now been estab- 1880 the Patent Office has granted over lished in China forty-nine years. We 2500 patents to women, and in New have flourishing schools, good hospitals, York City 27,000 women support their 23 native clergymen, 5 of them priests; husbands. " but very few good Bible-women. Why -A few weeks since Bishop Newman is this? If we wish to have good and dedicated in Rome an institute for girls, successful Bible-women, let us work a building large, substantial, and five for a home. It is my idea that we es- stories high. This is the first property tablish an institution something after owned in Italy by the Methodist Wom- the plan of Kaiserwerth, calling in the an's Foreign Missionary Society. best of the widows, teachers of day- -The Heathen Woman's Friend grace- schools and Bible-women, who are willfully heads a column of items relating ing to give their lives to the work. By to the work of various societies with the a home or mother-house, I mean the phrase, " Family News," and the verse: centre of all our woman's work, where From whom every family in heaven and the women shall be trained, and which on earth is named. they may look upon as their home when they become old and unfit for -The Christian world must not for- work. The Chinese women are so get Clara Barton and her Red Cross So- afraid of having no one to provide for ciety. What she did during the civil them in their old age, that they must war, in caring for the sick, and wound- economize and save and worry until ed and dying. was enough to immortal- they can think of nothing else; thus ize any name. Again, in Europe she theIr very souls become small and dead. displayed the same noble qualities. Take this burden off ~hom, and I be- And now, with less than $35,000, it is lieve they will be as self-sacrificing and said that she and her helpers have actu- noble as Western women." ally cared for 30,000 people who were left homeless by the dreadful cyclone YOUNG PEOPLE. which swept the coast of South Caro- lina in August, 1893. -At the Cleveland Endeavor Con- -When we pray let us not forget the vention was read a letter from the first Methodist missionary, Miss Mary Reed, society formed in China. The address who, bearing the spots of leprosy, with and salutation were as follows: "The true Christian heroism and unselfish- enclosed epistle we trouble you to take ness, lives in seclusion among the lepers to the great beautiful country (U. S.) of North India, striving to free their Christian Endeavor societies. All the souls trom that deeper leprosy-sin- brothers and sisters great persons to and bravely, calmly watching the slow open. The Foochow Church of the Redeemer Christian F.ndeavor Society en- terest by this personal relation. If your trust. To all the brothers and sisters in society Is not a member of one of these Christian Endeavor-peace." groups, ought you not, for the best In- terests of your members, to enroll 1" -During the months to come the Christian Endeavor Missionary Exten- -According to the report of the strite sion course is to be pushed as never be- Superintendent of Junior Work, Indiana fore by S. L. Mershon, of Chicago, who has 367 Junior societies, with a total is put in charge. A supply of capital membership of 13,780. They have given lecturers will be secured, and almost $456 to home missions and $309 to forany considerable community can have eign missions. their services at a cost not at all burdensome. -During the past year the Throop Avenue Presbyterian Society, Brook- -The Ohri8tian Union Herald round- lyn, N. Y., has held 10 missionary ly declares (and let all Endeavorers and meetings. It has given $4 toward es- Leaguers take note): "One third of tablishing a Christian Endeavor Society every Young People's Christian Union at Beebe, Ark. ; $37.50 to foreign misshould be old people. One third of the sions; $25 toward Dr. Thwing's salary mid-week prayer-meeting should be in Alaska; $50 to tLe boys' farm school young people. Keep old and young at Asheville, N. C_ Its first appropriaclose together." tion for missionary funds this year is $100 toward Professor Jeffrey's salary -This good suggestion is borrowed at the Asheville school. Last year, the from the Nashville Ohri8tian Ad'OO/Jate: 1I.rst of the existence of this missionary " Much is said as to the relative merits committee, there were 108 subscribers to of the Christian Endeavor and Epworth the fund, who gave about $200. The League movements. Their merits must envelope system is used. be determined by their results, and it so happens that a splendid opportunity for AMERICA. testing their value as missionary agencies is now set before them. A race United States.-Three large fortunes worth that of a thousand Vigilant8 and have recently been bequeathed to bene- Britannia8 is about to be sailed, and ficent uses or distributed among various millions will look on with interest. We charitable objects, with the names and care nothing for victory for its own amounts, as follows: Mrs. Clara B. sake, but it is worth knowing whether Ashmead, Germantown, Pa., $61,000; we are all working on the best lines or John Crerar, Chicago, TIl., $800,000 (not not. " including several millions for a public library); and Mrs. Mary Stuart, New -The Presbyterian Foreign Mission York City, $3,851,000. Board makes these statements and puts these pertinent queries: "The young -The American Female Guardian people's societies are asked this year to Society and Home for the Friendless, in give $100,000. In 1890-91 you gave New York, is one of the oldest of the $5910; in 1891-92, $13,353; in 1892- child-saving institutions. Forty years 93, $24,568 ; in 1893-94, $29,200. Why ago it organized a day school for street not $100,000 for 1894-95? If each children. This proved so successful Presbyterian Endeavorer adopted the that more were established, till now the two·cents·a-week plan you would raise society has 12. To these schools, which over $300,000 this year for foreign mis- are in the tenement-house districts of sions_ Eleven hundred societies are the east and west sides of the city, the now supporting missionaries by a co- poorest of the city's poor, mostly foroperative plan, are hearing regularly eigners or the children of foreignersfrom their missionaries, and deepening Hebrews, Hungarians, Poles, Germans, and strengthening their missionary in- Italians, etc.-go. They numbered 5684 and were of 15 nationalities last year. a well-established Slavic department in The school-teachers made in the year Oberlin Seminary and a Bible readers' 6600 visits in the homes of the children, school at Cleveland, and -reaching not and 12,600 garments were distributed, only Bohemians, but also Poles, Slovaks, besides shoes, quilts, coal and food Lithuanians, and Magyars. tickets, and, through the generosity of the Tribune coal and food fund, 500 of -After nearly a half century of wait- the families were supplied with gro- ing and most persistent effort, Utah ceries or with coal. seems at length in a fair way to become a sovereign State in the Union. Though -There are about 60,000 Italians in the risks attendiIlg this venture are not New York City. The number of Catho- small, and various phases of fanaticism lics among them is to the number of are likely to revive and take a new lease Protestants as 100 is to 1. The Catho- of life, with no inconsiderable mischief lics have 5 distinctively Italian churches as the result, yet, on the whole, it is in the city: St. Anthony of Padua, probable that nothing better could be whose parish numbers 7500 and where done in the miserable matter. Polyg- 1100 infants are annually baptized; amy and theocracy are not dead by any St. Joachim, which .claims 10,000 in its means, but are doomed, and ere long parish; the Church 'of the Most Pre- will be actually found in a1·ticulo mor- cious Blood, whose parish numbers tis. 20,000; the Church of Our Lady of Loretto, numbering 10,000, IUld in Har- -The Hawaiian republic was pro- lem the Mount Carmel Church, with a claimed on July, 4th, under the presi- parish numbering 1100. Earnest mis- dency of Sanford B. Dole; no opposi- sionary work is carried on among these tion to the new government has since Italians. The Protestant Episcopal made its appearance. President Cleve- Church has an Italian church, San Sal- land has given it formal recognition, vatore, which numbers between 300 and hence large measures of blessing and 400 members. The Methodists seem to be in store for this island group. have 2 missions, the Baptists 1. and the City Mission Society, whose work -According to the Oatholic Herald is mainly supported by the Presbyte- there are about 152,000 colored Catholics rian Church, has a flourishing mission in the United States. at Five Points, from which 43 converts joined the church last year. -Though no Protestant mortal know- eth just how much it means, and time -During the year 1893–94 appropria- only can tell, yet it is to be counted a tions were made from the John F. Slater significant event when Mgr. Satolli, the Fund for the education of freedmen to Catholic delegate apostolic, has declared the amount of $40,000, divided, in sums himself so plainly and emphatically varying from $1000 to $5000, among 16 upon the liquor traffic. Some of the institutions in the South. For the com- bishops are certain to transform his ing school year the board has appropri- words into deeds, and not all saloon- ated $45,000, if needed. keepers will be able from henceforth to maintain their standing as " good Cath- -For ten years the Congregational- olics." The world moves when this ists have been pushing mission work great Church can turn aside a bit from among the Slavic population of this things theological and ecclesiastical and country, and the work has spread into trouble itself with the morals of its ad- 10 States, with 32 stations and out-sta- herents. tions, in which 36 missionaries are at work, with 10 churches and branch Canada.-In the Canadian Colleges' churches and 554 members, 16 Sunday- Mission 14 institutions are associated, schools with a membersWp of over 2900 ; and over $2000 were expended last y€ar.
-Bishop Bompas. of Athabasca, speaking of his diocese, sayS: "The income the baron receives from the colo- chief characteristic of an Arctic life con- nists will be expended, for the present sists not 80 much in what is present as at least, in taking up new lands.
in features that are conspicuous by their -When in Peru, his Romanist eneabsence. No cities, towns, or villages, mies, by eight months' imprisonment in streets, roads. or lanes; no markets, Oasa Mata dungeon, thought to' crush farms, or bazaars; no flocks. or herds, Mr. Penzotti and his work; instead of or carriages; no money, whether coin this they made him a hero whose name or notes; no railways. mails, or tele- is familiar throughout Christendom, graphs ; no government, or soldiers. or while they covered themsel ves with police; no prisons or taxes; no lawyers shame and contempt. Within a few or doctors." The bishop thinks that in weeks the foundation stone of a Penthe stern magnificence of Arctic nature, zotti memorial church has been laid in varied by a few weeks of summer love- the city of Callao to commemorate his liness, one is brought so near to the faithful testimony and his heroic ser- Creator as to compensate for the lack of vice in diffusing abroad the Word of many things. God.
-Bishop Reeve writes from his dio- EUROPE. cese, Mackenzie's River, whose northern border is formed by the Frozen Great Br~taiD.-Said the Bishop of Ocean, concerning the ordination of London on a recent occasion: .. The Jolin Ttssiettla (which, being interpret- work of converting the world to the Gosed, means Not-Afraid-of-Mosquitoes), pel of Christ has been in a certain sense " the first native to enter orders within put into the hands of the English people the Arctic Circle." An Indian woman and of the Church of England in a manof ninety ycars has been baptized. ner which we cannot say it has been put into the hands of any other church or na- South America.-Thc Argentine Re- tion. It has pleased God that the Eng- public has made rapid strides in educa- lish race should be scattered nearly over tion during the last thirty years. Her the whole world. There is no other na- system of public schools is modelled on tion with the same enormous colonial that of the United States. There are empire; no other nation the language of 3056 of these, or one for every 1000 in- which is spoken in so great a variety habitants. Besides normal and agricul- of places; no other nation whose com· tural schools there are 20 national col- merce penetrates so widely and deeply leges and 2 universities. into the interior of countries unknown -All lovers of their kind should before. England is placed in the most watch the colossal experiment of Baron advantageous position for preaching the Hirsch in colonizing the suffering Jews Gospel to the world at large, because of Russia in Argentina. Along the we have more contact with the world banks of the La Plata his agents have than any other people. Weare marked purchased a district comprising 56'7 out, in God's providence, by the gift of square miles; the colonists now on the opportunities not given to any others_ spot number over 6000, and the cost It is our plain duty, in answer to the thus far has been over $2,000,000. Each call thus made upon us, to do our share family is provided with a house, a farm in the fullest measure for the converof 190 acres, 2 ploughs, 2 harrows, 8 Ilion of the whole human race. Moreto 12 @xen and cows, and food supplies over, the time has come for using our until a crop is raised. This provision advantages to the fullest extent. God is in the nature of a loan, which must be has stirred up the minds of our people repaid when the colonist is able. Some to take this matter in hand."
of the colonists have been sent back to -Seventeen missionaries, represent- Russia as being worthless. Whatever ing the Church of England, the London, the Wesleyan, and other societies, and received subscriptions enough to keep each of at least twenty·five years' stand· afloat our mission ship for some time to ing in China, have presented a memorial come. 1 have addressed three or four to the Royal Commission on Opium. meetings every Sabbath and one or two They claim to be expressing the opinion almost every week day since I came of nearly every Protestant missionary home, and the money returns have been in China, and of the whole native Chris· most encouraging. Mrs. Paton is oft to tian community, numbering several tens consult with and help our son Fred, of thousands, when they assert that who is now a missionary on Maticula." opium is exerting a distinctly deteriorat· ing effect upon the Chinese' people; The Continent.-Church and State that the drug imported from India is are still united in Italy, and the clergy neither required nqr generally used for are paid from the public treasury. The medicinal purposes, and that the con· "CuItus Fund" o( the Government science of the whole Chinese people is during the last year had a capital of diatinctly opposed to the opium habit. nearly 215,000,000 lire ($43,000,000). Bishops, priests, and other ecclesiastics -It is twenty·two years since the receive their salaries from this fund. foundation of the East London Institute The State still supports 23,255 monks was laid. In all 1235 persoils have been and nuns at an annual expense of about admitted, and of these 846 have been 7,000,000 lire. Originally the number trained for work at home and abroad. was 50,639. Since 1866 the State has Up to the close of the last session, 761 given over to that purpose 226 cloisters workers have left for various parts of and monasteries, the inmates of which the world. Of these 151 have gone to have died, or these buildings have been countries in Asia, 163 to different parts sold. There are still 619 nun cloisters. of Africa, 23 to Jamaica and Central America, 24 to South America, and 17 to – Let us ponder once more these as- Australia and New Zealand. Of the tonishing figures relating to the mission whole, some 87 have fallen asleep, 32 work of the Moravian Church. Its 400 of them in Africa. Of 56 students duro missionaries occupy 150 centres. More ing the last session, 11 are leaving at than 30 went out last year. Thechurch once for the Congo, and 19 for other at home, with a membership of barely parts of the mission field. 30,000, and with limited resources, has one in every 60 of its members in the -Evidently the Church Missionary foreign field, and its converts number Society is blessed with friends who are more than 3 times its own membership. possessed not only of wealth, but of warm hearts as well. For, concerning -Where so much must needs be said the support of its agents in the field, it with severity against the settled relig. is able to say: "The lists give 52 who ious policy of Russia, it is exceedingly draw no allowances, 17 who draw only pleasant for once to be able to employ a portion of what is usual, and 36 whose words of commendation. It seems that allowances, although drawn, are cov- the Czar is not afraid of the Bible in ered by special contributions ; making the vernacular, and a colporteur in no less than 105 (besides 12 wives) who Eastern Siberia has this to say: "I do not come on the general funds of the carried no letters of introduction with society. " me, deeming the mission with which I was entrusted a sufficient passport, and -Blessings attend Dr. Paton, who 80 it proved to be I It was most pleas· wrote just before the date: "I sail ing to notice the kindness shown me on August 10th for Australia and the by all with whom I came in contact, as islands. and have engaged 2 promising soon as I made myself known to be an missionaries for the New Hebrides, as emissary of the British and Foreign well as others to follow later. I have Bible Society, and much of the success which has attended our work there iI!I writes:" I have been doing work un.
due to the ready sympathy"nd assist· intermittently during February, March, ance of the high officials both in Church April, and May. Travelled over 800 and State. Of their kindness and hos· miles by horse, visited 116 places, bap- pitality, perhaps the bei!lt evidence that tized 173 persons, and confirmed 65. I can be given iI!I, that whsn I went there shall relish a few days in Guntur now."
I knew no one, while now I am pleas. In this mil!lsion are found 4 American antly acquainted with not a few fam· . missionaries and their wives, with 4 Hies in the three towns where I resided, single women and 186 Indian workers, and looking back upon my sojourn not including school·teachers; 13,889 among them, I can truly say that no members, 5980 of whom are communi· one need wish for or expect to find a cants; 8257 pupils in 199 Sunday· heartier weltlome anywhere than I reo schools, 3027 inquirers, and 1644 pa· ceived." tients treated in the medical department, -The Rhenish Missionary Society, of which is conducted by the women."
Barmen, has work in South Africa, the -This perplexity comes to a herald Dutch East Indies, New Guinea, and of the cross: " Another source of trouble China, and reports 53.816 native Chris- to me has been marriages. I never could tians, 16,741 communicants, and 9450 see why I was responsible for their out- pupils in the schools. The .European fit simply because I performed the cere- agents (male) number 96, of whom 87 mony. One young man connected with are ordained; the paid natives number our mission asked me to perform the 267, of whom 16 are ordained, and the marriage ceremony for him. I told him unpaid 569. Last year 4204 from the to bring a written permission from the heathen were baptized, and 676 were bride's parents. He came back to me confirmed. the next day and said, " They will not ASIA. allow you to perform the ceremony be- cause you do not make a proper ' bando- Indla.-Rev. G. H. Brock, of the bast '-i.e., spend thirty rupees on them." Baptist Telugu Mission, writes: " Dr. He went to another minister of our mis- Clough, in turning over to my charge sion who collected thirty rupees for this part of his field, said he was giving them and married them.
me the apple of his eye. Truly it is a -A native paper tells the story of a great charge-125 workers, almost 100 milkman who at a fair made 50 rupees schools, about 5000 Christians, and hun- by selling milk which was largely wadreds clamoring for baptism. A break ter. Grateful for his prospeIity, he among the Sudras seems to be at hand. made an otrering at the shrine, and set On every hand the Christians are plead· about washing away his sins by bathing ing for schools and teachers and preach. in the river, though it does not appear ers, and they ought to have them and at that he reckoned the adulteration of once. For these great numbers I have milk among them. He laid aside his garno church building, and they are the ment in Which were the fifty rupees, poorest of the poor, so they cannot build and proceeded to his bath, when a a $3000 or $2000 church. I have only monkey seized the garment and climbed a tent in which to hold my Sunday- to the topmost branch of a tree overschool of 175, not counting the adults hanging the water. To the horror of who come to church service after Sun· the bather, he saw the beast take out day-school. Last Sunday it was 102· the silver pieces and drop them one by in the shade, and you may imagine what one into the swift.flowing stream. it would be in a close tent." fhere was nothing to be done but to -L. L. Uhl, of the Guntur Mission, bear his loss; but mindful of how the American Lutheran General Synod, money was obtained, the man piously exclaimed to the river: "Mother Gunga during the past three years 25,000 perhas claimed her own. " sons have been brought directly to a knowledge of Christ by means of the -And yet another has reached this medical work in Lakawn. conclusion: "To an Englishman it may seem almost incredible, but noth- Cbina.-While in the great and fer· ing is more patent than the fact that, so tile river valleys humanity is fearfully far as the bulk of India's people is con· and wonderfully massed, it must not be cerned, they are absolutely innocent of inferred that the same condition prevails any desire for elevation of any kind. everywhere. " Even if the population We have a striking illustration of this amounts to 400,OOO,000-and some auin the most repulsive place of this cir· thorities give it as nearer 300,000,000cuit, a village in the midst of the Ban· it means only ~ome 90 persons for eacIi galore tanneries. For some years past of the 4,400,000 square miles which con· we have labored there among people stitute the Chinese Empire. In other whose moral depravity finds its only words, the density of the population of fitting illustration in the indescribable China is to the density of the popUlation filthiness of everything about them. of England as one is to six; and comes Studying these p!,ople carefully, we are a long way after Scotland, and is not .forced to conclude that most of them over·much in advance of Norway.'" have sunk so low and become so wedded to their vicious customs as to be almost -According to the New York Tribdevoid of desire for improvement or une, China is this year to have an excapacity for better things. The old hibition of her art and industry on a people, and some who could scarcely scale which might be called a world's be described as old, seem to be • past fair if it were not that it is entirely of feeling ;' we turn from them with a domestic institution and confined to her sense of relief to those who are young own productions and people. It is held enough to be susceptible of impres. in honor of the Queen Dowager, who sion." attains this year her sixtieth birthday, and will exceed in cost and splendor -The Gospel is the power of God any display of like kind ever known in unto salvation in .. Farther India." For the Middle Kingdom, or perhaps any- Robert Irwin writes from Lampoon: where in the world. It is computed ., The first church of Cheung Mai closes that the expenditure will reach $200,- the year with the largest number of ac· 000,000. Apart from the central dis· cessions in its history-1M have been play at Pekin, celebrations will be held received on examination, 6 by letter, 78 in all the towns and cities of the empire. children baptized, and 65 dismissed to and the renown of the imperial woman other churches. This is the mother who has really directed Chinese affairs church of the Laos Land. The 2 for a score of years will be signalized in churches of Lakawn and Lampoon, every form which the ingenuity and and the 6 under the care of Cheung loyalty of that ingenious and loyal peo· Mai station, have all been organized pIe can devise. with members dismissed from it. It has now a total adult membership of -It is announced in the Ohineae Be· 7111. The year has been one of rich ccrder that work is going on rapidly at spiritual blessings to the Maa Dawk the Shanghai Presbyterian mission press Dang church also, for 41 adults have with the presentation copy of the New been received on confession of faith, 12 Testament in Chinese for the empress by letter, and 38 children baptized. dowager on her sixtieth birthday. The There are now 223 adult members on book is to be printed from the largest the roll. size movable type, on foreign paper, with border of gold. The size of page , -Dr. W. A. Briggs estimates that will be 9t X 13 inches, and the utmost care is taken to make the work beauti- church has been organized in Kioto, ful and suitable. with a membership of about 90. The Presbytery has 12 ordained (native) min· -Three members of the ruling family isters, of whom 4, are installed pastors. of China are said to be elders in the. There are also some 25 evangelists, lay Presbyterian Church at Pekin, while and licensed. others are prominent workers in other Christian societies. -It has beensaid that If the Japanese beat the world in little things. Recent- -Books are a power in China; and ly, in delivering somemaiI, the postman a single mission press-that of the Pres- made a Inistake of two sen, which I disbyterian Mission at Shanghai-printed covered after his departure. Next last year 42,418,457 pages. Of this morning he called to collect it. I have number, 27,879,600 were pages of Scrip- recerltly paid a bill of house tax on the ture. The total number of books and mission property here in Nagoya, which tracts issued during the year was is worth $7600. and I have a bill of tax 995,496. on this property which amounted to one sen and eight rin, or On6 and eight tenthB -The value of medical missionary of a cent." work in hospitals is shown at Canton last year. Of the 25 additions to the -Among the serious damage to prop- Second Presbyterian Church of that erty caused by the severe June earthcity, 11 had been previously treated in quake In Tokyo is that which befell the the hospital as patients. cathedrsl and divinity school of the American Episcopalians, and whic~ the -Four years ago a generaloonference bishop estimates at $10,000. of Protestant missionaries in China made an appeal for 1000 additional missiona- AFRICA. ries within five years. Now it is announced that upward of 500 mis- -Among certain African nations the sionaries have gone out to that empire, umbrella is a symbol of royalty. Britand another appeal has been made for ish soldiers carry off the klng's umthe completion of the 1000 asked for. brella after every little war. The mon- arch usually sends to London for a new -A recent number of the North Ohina, one. A house there is now making an Herald gives this concerning the gov- Immense umbrella for a despot not far emorof Chin-Kiang: "Thisgentleman from the territories of the late King was formerly an attacM of the Chinese Coffee. It is the largest in the world. Legation in Washington, and afterward The stick is 15 feet long, the ribs are of was Minister to Spain. He is acquaint- brass, and when they are extended ed with English, French, and Spanish, cover a space sufficient for 12 persons. and is a man of liberal ideas. Recently The premier or other favored member he made a visit to the Methodist girls' of the government is selected for the school in Chin-Kiang, and, on leaving, honor of carrying this enormous spread expressed his appreciation of the work of gingham over the potentate and his done by handing to each of the princi- family. pals a check for $50." -The American United Presbyterian Japan.-Three missions-the North, Mission in Egypt is doing such efficient South, and Cumberland Presbyterlan- work that a traveller, after passing up are working in the territory embraced and down the Nile, said that one can by the Naniwa Presbytery of the Church scarcely enter a town or village withof Christ in Japan. The Presbytery has out finding a well-constructed schoolupon its rolls 15 regularly organized and house where the Arabs are taught, and 14 provisional churches. The member- they are proud to say that their educaship shows a net increase of 148. The number now enrolled is 2357. One new tion began In the American mission ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
schools. -The Methodist Time8 is jubHant over the news from Australia to the effect -In all from the beginning, by the that the General Australian Conference, Church Missionary Society alone, about representing all the We81eyan confer· 70 Africans on the West Coast have been ences in Australia, after a debate which ordained.
-The courSe pursued by Mgr. Hirth lasted for nearly three days, finally de- in connection with the distribution of cided, by an Immense and overwhelm· the Scriptures in Uganda is followed ing majority, in favor of the' organic by an urgent appeal from Mgr. Le Roy union of all the Methodist churches in for the same method of procedure in the Australia. The moment the vote was French Congo. The influence of the announced the conference, under an Book a8 an instrument of propaganda irresistible impulse, sang the doxology.
is increasingly admitted by Romish -Are we awake, or do we dream? workers. Mgr. Le Roy advocates the A college in the New Hebrides 1 Yes, immediate creation of a society standing and particularly for the education of in the same relation to the Church of native teachers and pastors. The mis· Rome as that assumed by the Bible and sion synod at its recent meeting in tract societies toward the Protestant Aneityum determined to establish an communions. institution for that purpose. They ap- -Another training institution after pQinted Mr. Annand principal, with the pattern of Lovedale is to be estab- power to select a site and to employ an lished in connection with the United assistant, who is to be paId by funds Presbyterian missions of Scotland in raised by the synod.
Old Calabar, on the western coast of -Lanien, a Marshall Island preacher, Africa. The combination of religious, was kept in prison last year for three intellectual, and industrial education months at Jaluij because he had persistseems to be of special practicaladvan- ed in Christian work at Mejuro against tage in Africa. the wish of the German commissioner.
-The journal of the Evangelical So- He was released when the Morning Star cietyof Paris for July contains a long was at Jaluij, and when he was asked account of M. MabiIle, of Morija, whose by Mrs. Pease if he were lonely while death is spoken of by the Ohri8tian&- in prison, he looked down at the Bible pr688 of Lovedale as " a terrible loss to which he held in his hand and quickly South Africa, not to speak of Basuto- replied: "Oh, 't was a good time to land." "We venture to say," says the teach me many things 1" Subsequently &pr688, " that as a spiritual force there he asked if any embargo was to be was no superior soul south of the Zam- placed on his preaching the Gospel, besi. Absolute simplicity and absolute "because," said he, "that is the one solidity of character, French fineness of thing I want to do. I cannot live any nature and long experience, burning other way. If they are going to pro- zeal for souls and restrained sobriety of hibit that, tell them they had better statement, perfect knowledge of the take a rope and hang me at once."
Basuto character and language, were -Said Dr. Parkhurst in a sermon on among the elements that gave M. Ma- Acts 1 : 8: "The uttermost part of the bille his position of influence and emi- earth" : "The point antipodal to Jerunence." He had endured thirty-four salem is 155· west longitude. March years of service. 31st, 1819, Christ's witnesses aboard the -The waters of Lake Nyassa are Thadem sighted the Hawaiian snow- soon to be ploughed by 10 steamers, capped peak <,>f Mauna Loa. The mis- some engaged in traffic, but mainly en· sionary craft ran into port at 1550 west gaged in the service of the King, carry· longitude, and the' uttermost part' was ing g.Jad tidings to the benighted. ' reached. H ,.